Islamic State threatens to invade Saudi Arabia

WASHINGTON: Islamic State militants have released a video saying that the group intends to invade Saudi Arabia while the kingdom's throne is changing hands.

According to Fox News, Saudi militants who have joined the IS group in Iraq and Syria issued the statement.

READ ALSO: IS threatens to behead Obama, 'transform US into Muslim province'

IS militants have also called upon the sympathizers in the country to attack from within.

Experts said that the terror threat shows the organization's desire to annex the wealthiest Middle East nation.

READ ALSO: Japan says hostage negotiations 'deadlocked'

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Ukraine, rebels gather for peace talks as fighting rages in east

MINSK/KIEV: A new round of peace talks were about to start on the Ukraine crisis on Saturday, even as fighting between Kiev government forces and pro-Russian separatists raged in the east, claiming civilian and military lives.

A Reuters reporter in the Belarussian capital saw the main participants in the so-called 'contact group' — including Ukrainian former president Leonid Kuchma, a Russian diplomat and rebel officials — arrive at Minsk airport and then drive off towards the city.

READ ALSO: Nearly 400 miners trapped in east Ukraine, Rebels says

The talks, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) whose official also arrived in Minsk, will be the first since September when a ceasefire was agreed.

Much-violated from the start, that truce collapsed completely as the rebels launched a new advance last week.

Heavy shelling continued in Ukraine's eastern regions as the separatists sought to tighten a circle around government forces clinging on to control of the strategic rail and road junction of Debaltseve.

A woman ties a Ukrainian national flag on a member of a special unit of the Ukrainian armed forces at a farewell ceremony, before the unit departs to take part in a military operation, in Kharkiv. (Reuters photo)

Regional police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin, in a Facebook post, said 12 civilians had been killed on Saturday by separatist artillery shelling of the town, which lies to the north-east of the big city of Donetsk.

Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said 15 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 30 wounded in clashes across the east.

"The toughest situation is in the Vuhlehirsk area where the terrorists are trying to seize the town and occupy positions to move forward and encircle Debaltseve," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a separate briefing.

Debaltseve is located on the main highway linking Donetsk and the other big rebel-controlled city of Luhansk and is also a vital rail link for goods traffic from Russia which Kiev accuses of arming the rebels.

The rebels were also continuing to threaten Mariupol, a town of half a million in the south-east of the country on the coast of Sea of Azov, Lysenko said.

READ ALSO: Ukraine rebels close in on Donetsk airport

The renewed violence followed intense fighting on Friday in which more than 20 civilians were killed in separate shelling attacks in Donetsk, Debaltseve and other areas.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in the Ukraine conflict which erupted last April following Russia's annexation of Crimea in response to the ousting of a Moscow-backed president in Kiev by street protests.

The West and Kiev's pro-Western government say Russian regular forces are fighting on behalf of the separatists and providing them with military equipment through the long joint border, parts of which are beyond Ukrainian control. Moscow denies this.

READ ALSO: EU expands Russia sanctions as new Ukraine talks loom

US and Western sanctions against Russia have led to the biggest crisis in Russia-West relations since the end of the Cold War more than 20 years ago.

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Africa agrees to send 7,500 troops to fight Boko Haram

ADDIS ABABA: African leaders have agreed to send 7,500 troops to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria, an African Union official said on Saturday.

The move came after the council urged heads of state to endorse the deployment of troops from five West African countries to fight the terror group, said the head of the African Union's peace and security council, Samil Chergui.

African leaders who are members of the 54-nation African Union are meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for a two-day summit that ends on Saturday.

UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon earlier said he support the AU's move to send a force to fight Boko Haram. Boko Haram is increasing its attacks as Nigeria prepares for Feb. 14 elections. Thousands have been killed in the 5-year insurgency.

African nations have opened up a new international front in the war on terror. On Thursday, neighboring Chad sent a warplane and troops that drove the extremists out of a northeastern Nigeria border town in the first such act by foreign troops on Nigerian soil.

Chad's victory, and the need for foreign troops, is an embarrassment to Nigeria's once-mighty military, brought low by corruption and politics. The foreign intervention comes just two weeks before hotly contested national elections in which President Goodluck Jonathan is seeking another term.

Chergui said Chad's operation against Boko Haram was a result of a bilateral arrangement between the Chad and Cameroon.

"It is conducted as part of a bilateral agreement and arrangement between the two countries. The AU, however, will launch the force in the future," he said.

Boko Haram attracted international outrage in April when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls at a boarding school in the remote town of Chibok. Dozens escaped on their own, but 219 remain missing.

Suicide bombings in recent months by young girls has raised fears that Boko Haram is using the kidnap victims in its conflict, which has displaced more than 1 million people and killed about 10,000 in the last year, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Death toll in bomb blast in southern Pakistan rises to 35

ISLAMABAD : A police official says the death toll from a blast at a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan has risen to 50.

Sain Rakhio Mirani, the deputy inspector general for Shikarpur district where the blast occurred, says the explosion went off as worshippers were gathering for midday prayers on Friday.

He says the bodies of 31 people were brought to Shikarpur hospital and another four people died on the way to a hospital in the nearby city of Sukkur.

Shikarpur is in Sindh province, roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the port city of Karachi.

Dr. Shaukat Ali Memon, who heads the hospital in Shikarpur where the dead and wounded were brought, gave the death toll to Pakistan's state television. He said that 50 people, many severely wounded, were also brought to the hospital. Patients have also been shifted to nearby hospitals in the cities of Larkana and Sukkur, he said.

In a sign of how serious the explosion was, Memon appealed to residents to donate blood for the wounded.

Pakistani television showed area residents and worshippers frantically ferrying the dead and wounded to the hospital.

Initial reports suggest that it was a bomb planted in the area, Sain Rakhio Mirani, the top police official in the district told Pakistan's Geo TV.

Shikarpur is in Sindh province, roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the port city of Karachi.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Sunni Muslim extremists have often targeted religious institutions of Shiites, whom they do not consider to be true Muslims.

While Karachi has been the site of repeated bombings blamed on militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, the northern part of Sindh province has generally been much more peaceful.

But recent years have seen a trend of extremist organizations increasingly active in the central and northern part of the province, according to a new report by the United States Institute of Peace.

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Death toll in bomb blast in southern Pakistan rises to 50

ISLAMABAD : A police official says the death toll from a blast at a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan has risen to 50.

Sain Rakhio Mirani, the deputy inspector general for Shikarpur district where the blast occurred, says the explosion went off as worshippers were gathering for midday prayers on Friday.

He says the bodies of 31 people were brought to Shikarpur hospital and another four people died on the way to a hospital in the nearby city of Sukkur.

Shikarpur is in Sindh province, roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the port city of Karachi.

Dr. Shaukat Ali Memon, who heads the hospital in Shikarpur where the dead and wounded were brought, gave the death toll to Pakistan's state television. He said that 50 people, many severely wounded, were also brought to the hospital. Patients have also been shifted to nearby hospitals in the cities of Larkana and Sukkur, he said.

In a sign of how serious the explosion was, Memon appealed to residents to donate blood for the wounded.

Pakistani television showed area residents and worshippers frantically ferrying the dead and wounded to the hospital.

Initial reports suggest that it was a bomb planted in the area, Sain Rakhio Mirani, the top police official in the district told Pakistan's Geo TV.

Shikarpur is in Sindh province, roughly 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the port city of Karachi.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Sunni Muslim extremists have often targeted religious institutions of Shiites, whom they do not consider to be true Muslims.

While Karachi has been the site of repeated bombings blamed on militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban, the northern part of Sindh province has generally been much more peaceful.

But recent years have seen a trend of extremist organizations increasingly active in the central and northern part of the province, according to a new report by the United States Institute of Peace.

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ISIS-linked group kills 30, mostly soldiers, in Egypt

CAIRO: Twenty-seven soldiers were among 30 people killed when militants struck multiple security posts in Egypt's North Sinai in a series of attacks, involving car bombs and mortar rounds, one of the deadliest assaults claimed by a group that recently pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Militants fired a barrage of rockets and set off a car bomb in a series of attacks on Thursday in restive north Sinai, killing at least 27 soldiers, three civilians and injuring 60 others, officials said.

Two children, one of them 6 months old, were among the dead.

The attacks targeted the headquarters of the North Sinai security directorate in the provincial capital of Al-Arish, a nearby army base, a hotel and several security checkpoints, state TV and the Ahram Arabic news website reported.

"Militants fired mortar rounds and used car bombs in the attacks," Egyptian TV reported.

"At least three missile shells and a car bomb were used in separate attacks," a source said.

In a separate attack, an officer was killed when a rocket struck an army checkpoint in the town of Rafah, on the border with the Gaza Strip.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi cut short his visit to Ethiopia, where he was attending a summit of the African Union, following news of the attack.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the Egyptian wing of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in the area, where the army is battling an Islamist insurgency that has raged since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The group in November last year pledged allegiance to the ISIS that has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.

The attacks are the deadliest assaults on security forces in recent years. In October last year, militants killed at least 33 security personnel in the Sinai Province.

Meanwhile, a police officer was killed in a bomb blast targeting a police building in the Canal city of Suez.

The officer was on duty when the explosion occurred. The attack took place shortly after the serial attacks in North Sinai.

Last week, the curfew in parts of North Sinai was extended for another three months. The curfew was initially imposed on October 25 following the attack of soldiers.

Following the attack, the government decided to create a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip.

Egypt's Sinai has witnessed many violent attacks by militants since the January 2011 revolution that toppled ex-president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013. Over 500 security personnel have been killed since then.

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Police question 8-year-old who backed Charlie Hebdo attackers

PARIS: Police detained and questioned an 8-year-old boy from the south of France who claimed to support the men who attacked the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, drawing criticism on Thursday that France's measures to prevent people from defending terrorism have gone overboard.

Dozens of people have been arrested and accused of defending terrorism since the attacks, with some already drawing yearslong prison terms in special expedited court proceedings.

But the child from the southern city of Nice appears to be the youngest by far.

The boy declared "The French must be killed. I am with the terrorists. The Muslims did well, and the journalists got what they deserved," Fabienne Lewandowski, deputy director for public security in the Alpes-Maritimes region, told BFM television.

She said the child also refused to take part in the national minute of silence for the victims on January 9.

The storming of the newspaper offices left 12 people dead and launched three days of terror in the Paris region that killed a total of 20 people, including the gunmen. The school director brought a complaint against the child on Jan. 21 and he was questioned that day with his father and a lawyer present.

"The reason we questioned him was to determine what could have influenced, what could have driven this child to say something like this," Lewandowski said.

"It's a shame that it happened in a formal questioning, but given what he said it was necessary to go further than usual."

Sefen Guez Guez, a lawyer for the family, said the decision to question the child at a police station that day shows a "collective hysteria."

"An 8-year-old does not belong in a police station. This is disproportionate and completely unreal," he said.

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Israel buries soldiers, says Hezbollah doesn't want conflict

JERUSALEM: Israel was burying Thursday two soldiers killed in a Hezbollah missile strike that triggered Israeli fire on southern Lebanon, raising tensions between the bitter enemies to their highest in years.

But the Israeli-Lebanese border was calm, and Israeli officials played down the threat of a new war with the powerful Iran-backed Shiite group's militia.

In an unusual declaration, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said Hezbollah had passed on a message through the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon saying it did not want a further escalation.

"We have received a message... that, from their point of view, the incident is over," he told public radio.

Analysts say neither side seems keen for a repeat of the devastating Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006 and that any response is likely to be limited.

The two soldiers were killed when Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at a convoy in an Israeli-occupied area on the border with Lebanon.

Israeli forces responded to the attack -- which came in retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Golan Heights that killed senior Hezbollah members -- with artillery, tank and air fire on several villages in southern Lebanon.

There were no reports of Lebanese casualties, but a 36-year-old Spanish peacekeeper with UNIFIL was killed in the exchange of fire.

In Israel, farmers were tending apple orchards close to the border fence, an AFP photographer said. Schools had reopened, as had the Mount Hermon ski resort in the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights.

In the Lebanese border village of Majidiya, residents were collecting spent artillery shells from Wednesday's strikes, an AFP photographer said.

At the local UN base a blackened concrete tower could be seen with part of its wall blown out, and a Spanish flag was flying at half-mast.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem for the burial of one of the soldiers killed, 25-year-old Captain Yochai Kalangel.

Sobbing relatives greeted mourners, many wearing the purple beret of Kalangel's Givati (Highland) Brigade.

The other soldier, 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Dor Chaim Nini, was to be buried later in the town of Shtulim in south-central Israel.

Questions have been raised in Israel about why they were travelling in unarmoured vehicles in the volatile area.

Israel said it considered Wednesday's attack the "most severe" it had faced since 2006, when the war with Hezbollah killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the attack on Iran. "It is Iran that is responsible for yesterday's attack," he said at a memorial ceremony in southern Israel for late prime minister Ariel Sharon.

"This is the same Iran that is now trying to achieve an agreement, via the major powers, that would leave it with the ability to develop nuclear weapons, and we strongly oppose this agreement," he said.

Israel has threatened military action to stop arch-foe Iran obtaining atomic weapons. Tehran insists its programme is only for civilian purposes.

Netanyahu held talks with top security brass late Wednesday, warning afterwards: "Those behind today's attack will pay the full price."

Still, analysts said Israel, fresh from a summer war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and heading for a general election in March, was not eager for a full-scale conflict with Hezbollah.

"Hezbollah has 100,000 rockets, compared with the 10,000 of Hamas," said analyst Boaz Ganor of the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Centre.

"The human cost of such a war would be enormous, and no Israeli leader will be pro-active in this direction," he said.

As for Hezbollah, it is deeply involved in Syria's civil war, fighting with President Bashar al-Assad's forces against mostly Sunni rebels.

"The chances (of an escalation) are very slim, almost none, because none of the sides has an interest in moving to a big operation or a small war," Yaakov Amidror, a former major general and security advisor of Israel, told AFP.

"Hezbollah is very busy in Syria; the last thing that it needs is a second front," he said.

Tension in the area had been building before Wednesday's attack, especially after an Israeli air strike on the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general on January 18.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had earlier threatened to retaliate against Israel for its repeated strikes on targets in Syria and boasted that the Shiite militant movement was stronger than ever.

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Gas blast at Mexico City children's hospital, dozens injured

MEXICO CITY: Mexico City officials say a gas tank truck has exploded outside a maternity and children's hospital, collapsing part of it and injuring dozens of people.

Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera tells the Televisa network that at least 54 people are injured, 22 of them children. But he says there are no reports of deaths.

Thursday's explosion sent a column of smoke billowing over the area in western Mexico City.

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Massive destruction in Kobane after Kurds drive out IS

KOBANE: Rubble strewn streets, gutted buildings: the bloody battle for the Syrian border town of Kobane has wrought massive destruction, according to a team of journalists who arrived on the scene today.

Kurdish forces recaptured the town on the Turkish frontier from the Islamic State group on Monday in a symbolic blow for the jihadists who have seized swathes of territory in their brutal onslaught across Syria and Iraq.

After four months of fighting, the streets -- now patrolled by Kurdish militiamen with barely a civilian in sight -- were a mass of rubble and gutted buildings, the team of AFP journalists said.

Kurdish fighters armed with Kalashnikov rifles greeted the journalists with a hail of celebratory gunshots into the air and made the "V" for victory sign. Yesterday, Kurdish forces battled IS militants in villages around Kobane, but the largely deserted town was calm today.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) had announced the "liberation" of Kobane on Monday, depriving the IS group of a prize to add to its territory in Syria and Iraq.

The United States said yesterday that Kurdish fighters were in control of about 90 per cent of the town. Observers say IS lost nearly 1,200 fighters in the battle, of a total of 1,800 killed, despite outgunning YPG forces with sophisticated weaponry captured from Iraqi and Syrian military bases.

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Former Taliban commander is IS' Af-Pak chief

ISLAMABAD: Dreaded Islamic State militant group has appointed a breakaway Taliban commander as its chief in Khurasan, a historic name used by militants for an area covering Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.

In a video posted online, Islamic State (IS) commander Abu Muhammad Al-Adni confirmed the name of former Tehreek-e- Taliban Pakistan spokesperson Hafiz Saeed Khan as the Amir (chief) of the Khurasan, potentially extending the group's influence into South Asia and challenging al-Qaeda leadership.

Saeed, 42, appeared in a video ten days ago to announce his defection from Taliban. He belongs to Orakzai Agency and has served as head of the Taliban Orakzai tribal region.

Tehreek-e-Taliban is an umbrella movement linked to al-Qaeda headed by Egyptian militant Aiyman al-Zawahiri.

Several former al-Qaeda and TTP militants have abandoned their outfits to join the dreaded terrorist group IS.

Former TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid, Kurram Agency chief Daulat Khan, Khyber Agency chief Fateh Gul Zaman, Peshawar chief Mufti Hassan and Hangu chief Khalid Mansoor have also joined IS.

Pakistan last year saw a sustained campaign by the group but Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan denied the presence of the militant outfit in the country.

The announcement could threaten the supremacy of al-Qaeda in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan where its chief Zawahiri and Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar are believed to be hiding.

ISIS or IS is an al-Qaeda splinter group and it has seized hundreds of square miles in Iraq and Syria, declaring an Islamic Caliphate.

Al-Qaeda has distanced itself from the group, chiding it for its lack of teamwork in its aggressive, brutal expansion.

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Michelle Obama appears before Saudi king with head uncovered

RIYADH: For first lady Michelle Obama, just a few hours in Saudi Arabia were enough to illustrate the stark limitations under which Saudi women live.

Joining President Barack Obama for a condolence visit after the death of the King Abdullah, Mrs Obama stepped off of Air Force One wearing long pants and a long, brightly colored jacket, but no headscarf.

Under the kingdom's strict dress code for women, Saudi females are required to wear a headscarf and loose, black robes in public. Most women in Saudi Arabia cover their hair and face with a veil known as the niqab.

But covering one's head is not required for foreigners, and some Western women choose to forego the headscarf while in Saudi Arabia.

As a delegation of dozens of Saudi officials, all men, greeted the Obamas in Riyadh, some shook hands with Mrs Obama. Others avoided a handshake but acknowledged the first lady with a nod as they passed by.

Saudi Arabia imposes many restrictions on women on the strict interpretation of Islamic Shariah (shah-REE'-yuh) law known as Wahhabism. Genders are strictly segregated.

Women are banned from driving, although there have been campaigns in recent years to lift that ban.

Guardianship laws also require women to get permission from a male relative to travel, get married, enroll in higher education or undergo certain surgical procedures.

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Divers find more bodies, reach AirAsia fuselage

PANGKALAN BUN (Indonesia): Indonesian divers today finally reached the fuselage of an AirAsia plane that crashed last month, an official said, as four more bodies were recovered from the Java Sea.

Flight QZ8501 went down on December 28 in stormy weather with 162 people on board as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

READ ALSO: Divers find bodies belted in seats near AirAsia fuselage

"Divers have reached the fuselage this morning but they could not get in because there were so many cables and debris," SB Supriyadi, a rescue agency official coordinating the search told AFP.

He said bad weather later in the day hampered further efforts to check if there were bodies inside.

Rescuers have been trying in vain to reach the main body of the Airbus A320-200 since it was spotted on the seabed by a military vessel last week, but have been rebuffed by difficult conditions.

Officials hope the majority of the victims will be inside the fuselage, and plan a more thorough assessment of the wreckage to determine how to retrieve the bodies.

READ ALSO: AirAsia jet's alarms 'screaming' before crash: Investigator

The four bodies found today were located among debris near the wreckage.

A total of 63 bodies have been found so far, Supriyadi said.

Divers recovered six bodies yesterday, some still strapped into their seats, near the main section of the plane.

The jet's black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder — were recovered last week, and investigators are analysing them.

READ ALSO: Doomed AirAsia jet's climb echoes Air France 2009 disaster

Indonesian Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said this week that the plane climbed abnormally fast before stalling and plunging into the sea.

Just moments before the plane disappeared off the radar, the pilot had asked to climb to avoid a major storm but was not immediately granted permission due to heavy air traffic.

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Israel ready for Hezbollah retaliation: Minister

JERUSALEM: Defence minister Moshe Yaalon said on Friday that Israel was prepared for any retaliation by Hezbollah, after it carried out a deadly air strike in Syria against the Lebanese Shia militant group.

Yaalon toured Israel's northern frontiers with Syria and Lebanon alongside army chief of staff Benny Gantz, as the military beefed up its presence in the area.

"We need to be operational and ready to face any challenge," Yaalon said in a statement.

"Israel will hold responsible governments, regimes and organizations on the other side of our northern borders over any violation of Israel's sovereignty, or an attack on soldiers or civilians," he said.

Israel's air strike inside the Syrian-controlled sector of the Golan Heights on January 18 killed six members of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israel neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, but it has carried out several such strikes over the past two years, stressing its policy of preventing arms transfers to militant groups.

Hezbollah has responded in the past with explosive devices placed along the frontier.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is to give a speech next Friday reacting to the Israeli raid, in which a general of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was also killed.

Gantz said: "Forces are on alert and prepared to respond if needed" in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where the Jewish state shares a ceasefire line with Syria.

"The IDF (military) is prepared for any scenario, and will, on the one hand, exercise proper discretion, and on the other, operate with determination and the required intensity," he said.

Israel has deployed its Iron Dome missile defence system in the north, where local media say it is amassing tanks and infantry reinforcements.

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Paris gunman Coulibaly buried near capital

CRETEIL (France): One of the three jihadist gunmen who waged attacks in Paris this month was buried on day near the capital, police sources said, after his country of origin Mali refused to accept his body.

The sources, who wished to remain anonymous, said Amedy Coulibaly — who killed a policewoman and four Jews during the January 7-9 attacks — was buried in the Muslim section of the Thiais cemetery in the Paris region.

His family had asked for him to be buried in Mali, but that country's government refused.

The two other jihadists who attacked Paris — Cherif and Said Kouachi — were buried last week in the towns where they had lived, respectively Gennevilliers near Paris and Reims in the northeast.

Both were placed in unmarked graves to prevent them becoming "pilgrimage sites" for extremists.

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CNN anchor Jim Clancy quits after controversial Israel tweets

Jim Clancy quit his long-standing job on CNN after he appeared to suggest that the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks were provoked by what he perceives to be the magazine's pro-Israel stance.

He left the channel following 34 years in the role of international correspondent on Friday.

His departure came as he voiced his theory as to why the French satirical publication chose to print caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a series of tweets earlier this month

Clancy suggested that Charlie Hebdo aimed to poke fun not at the prophet, but those who "distort his word".

READ ALSO: Muslims establish 'no-go zones' outside civic control, Bobby Jindal says

When Clancy's followers challenged his opinion, pointing out that Charlie Hebdo is staunchly anti-religious, he responded with the following:

Hasbara is a Hebrew word which means "explaining" and is a term frequently used in debates about the Israel and Palestine conflicts by the State of Israel to justify their actions internationally. Those who criticize the Israeli government often use the word to highlight things they believe to be indicative of pro-Israeli propaganda.

Clancy has publicly condemned Israel's actions in Gaza, while Oren Kessler works for an influential Washington thinktank called the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, known for its support of Israel.

Beyond that, little explanation has been given as to exactly what Clancy meant by his tweets, but that hasn't stopped the US media from speculating over whether his pro-Palestine leanings led to his departure from the channel.

Clancy has remained silent over the issue, and deleted his entire Twitter account on Thursday, while CNN confirmed his resignation with the following statement: "We thank him for more than three decades of distinguished service, and wish him nothing but the best."

READ ALSO: David Cameron rebuts pope on speech offensive to religion

However, in a circulated internal email sent to colleagues on Friday, and published by TV Newser, Clancy appeared to be in good spirits.

"Through it all, CNN has been a family to my own family," he wrote. "That means something."

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Half of Britain does not believe in God

LONDON: Is there a God or is after life real?

Women are much more likely to believe so than men, researchers have found.

A new study of more than 9,000 British people in their 40s, published by UCL Institute of Education (IOE), shows that 60% of the women but only 35% of the men believe in life after death.

More than half (54%) of the men surveyed said they were atheists or agnostics, compared to only a third (34%) of the women.

There was also a gender split among atheists.

Men were much more likely to be definite that death is the end — 63% against 36% of women.

UCL scientists said "Next week another significant step on the road to gender equality will be taken with the consecration of the Rev Libby Lane as the first female bishop to be appointed by the Church of England. It is the huge disparity in the proportion of men and women who say they believe in God and life after death".

Almost half of those surveyed did not identify with any religion.

Most of the remainder said they had a Christian background. A small number of respondents described themselves as Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim or Sikh.

Professor David Voas, who analysed the survey responses, commented "Among believers, women are also much more likely to be definite than men, and among non-believers, men are much more likely to be definite than women".

For example, not only are men twice as likely as women to say that God does not exist, but male atheists are far more likely than female atheists to say that they definitely do not believe in live after death (63% versus 36%).

"Belief — or disbelief — in God and in life after death do not always go together," Professor Voas explained. "A quarter of those who said they were agnostic also said they believe in life after death. However, nearly a third of the people who said that they believe in God -- despite occasional doubts — do not believe in an after-life".

Professor Voas also points to the very high level of belief in both God and life after death among Muslims.

Almost nine in ten (88%) of the small number of Muslims in this survey — only 82 were interviewed — said they knew God really exists and had no doubts about it.

"A high proportion (71%) of those who described themselves as 'evangelical' — Baptists and certain other Christians were included in this category — also had no doubts about God's existence," he said. "However, only 33% of those who identified themselves as Roman Catholics had no doubts. And the figure for those affiliated with 'mainline' Christian denominations — Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Reformed Church — was even smaller. Only 16% of them said they had no doubts that God exists".

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'Just for animals' terminal at John F Kennedy Airport

NEW YORK: The world's first-ever terminal for animals is set to open at the John F Kennedy Airport here in 2016 and it will transport 70,000 animals a year once the $48 million facility becomes operational.

ARK Development, LLC, an affiliate of leading real estate company Racebrook Capital, has announced that it has signed a 30-year lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to develop, finance, construct, operate and manage the terminal at the John F Kennedy (JFK) Airport.

The 1,78,000-square-foot state-of-the-art animal handling and intelligent air cargo facility, aptly called 'The Ark', will be built at a cost of $48 million, a statement from ARK Development said.

"The ARK will be the world's only privately-owned animal handling cargo terminal and USDA-approved, full service 24-hour airport quarantine facility for the import and export of horses, pets, birds, and livestock," it said.

The terminal will be constructed at the current site of Cargo Building 78 at JFK, with 14.4 acres of surrounding ground area, which includes direct airside access to the taxiway and large aircraft ramp parking.

It will be divided into three complementary sections: the air cargo wing, a central administrative and business centre with 24-hour veterinary hospital, and the main animal handling facility with pet boarding, animal import and export centre, and livestock export handling system.

"We developed The Ark concept to address the unmet needs for the import and export of companion, sporting and agricultural animals," said The ARK at JFK Founder and Racebrook Chairman John J Cuticelli, Jr.

"The animal terminal will set new international airport standards for comprehensive veterinary, kennelling and quarantine services," he said.

The project will create more than 180 jobs and generate revenues for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey estimated at $108 million over the span of the project's 30-year lease.

The Ark will open in early 2016, media reports said.

The terminal is projected to transport about 70,000 animals a year, the New York Post reported.

The Ark will include a departure lounge with comfortable places to sit, eat and drink, individual climate-controlled bedrooms for horses and cattle, a vet, an aviary and a 'Paradise 4 Paws' for cats and dogs.

JFK is one of the busiest airports in the world, with some 50 million people a year landing and taking off from its runways.

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IS threatens to kill Japanese hostages, Tokyo vows not to give in

BEIRUT: The Islamic State group threatened to kill two Japanese hostages unless it receives a $200 million ransom within 72 hours, but Tokyo on Tuesday vowed it would not give in to "terrorism".

IS has murdered five western hostages since August last year, but it is the first time that the jihadist group — which has seized swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq — has threatened Japanese captives.

In footage posted on jihadist websites, a black-clad militant brandishing a knife addresses the camera in English, standing between two hostages wearing orange jumpsuits.

"You now have 72 hours to pressure your government into making a wise decision by paying the $200 million to save the lives of your citizens," he says.

The militant says that the ransom demand is to compensate for non-military aid that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to support countries affected by the campaign against IS during an ongoing Middle East tour that on Tuesday saw him in Jerusalem.

But the Japanese government said it would not bow to extremism.

"Our country's stance — contributing to the fight against terrorism without giving in — remains unchanged," chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in Tokyo.

An official in the foreign ministry's terrorism prevention division had said earlier that the government was investigating the threat and the authenticity of the video.

Since August, IS has murdered three Americans and two Britons, posting grisly video footage of their executions.

US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American aid worker Peter Kassig and British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines were all beheaded.

The militant who appeared in the video threatening the Japanese hostages spoke with a very similar southern English accent to the militant who appeared in the footage posted of the executions of the Britons and Americans.

Abe, who was due to give a Jerusalem new conference at 0800 GMT, pledged a total of $2.5 billion in humanitarian and development aid for the Middle East on the first leg of his tour in Cairo on Saturday.

He promised $200 million in non-military assistance for countries affected by the Islamic State (IS) group's bloody expansion in Iraq and Syria, which spurred an exodus of refugees to neighbouring countries.

The first hostage —Kenji Goto— is a freelance journalist who set up a video production company, named Independent Press in Tokyo in 1996, feeding video documentaries on the Middle East and other regions to Japanese television networks, including public broadcaster NHK.

The second hostage appeared in previous footage posted last August in which he identified himself as Haruna Yukawa and was shown being roughly interrogated by his captors.

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Chinese advisory body set to expel former senior aide to Hu Jintao

BEIJING: China's top parliamentary advisory body is set to expel a one-time senior aide to former president Hu Jintao, state media reported on Tuesday, after the ruling Communist Party announced he was being investigated for corruption.

Ling Jihua, who heads a party body charged with reaching out to non-Communists and holds a rank equivalent to a vice premier, is at the center of one of China's biggest corruption scandals since President Xi Jinping launched his sweeping battle against graft in 2013.

The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a largely ceremonial but high-profile advisory body, has proposed a draft to expel Ling, state news agency Xinhua said on its microblog. The draft will be submitted to the CPPCC's Standing Committee.

Xinhua gave no details of Ling's alleged crimes.

In December, the party's anti-corruption watchdog said that Ling was being investigated for "suspected serious discipline violations", the usual euphemism for graft. It gave no other details.

Ling was demoted in September 2012 after sources said his son was involved in a deadly crash involving a luxury sports car.

The car, a Ferrari according to some sources, crashed in Beijing in March 2012 in an embarrassment for the ruling Communist Party, which is sensitive to perceptions that children of top party officials live rich, privileged lifestyles completely out of touch with the masses, the sources said.

Ling was dropped from his post as head of the party's General Office of the Central Committee, a powerful post similar to cabinet secretary in Westminster-style governments.

He was then appointed as minister for the less influential United Front Work Department, which is in charge of co-opting non-Communists, religious groups and ethnic minorities.

It was not possible to reach him for comment and it is not clear if he has a lawyer.

China's campaign against official corruption has intensified since Xi took over as president, with several senior government figures and state company executives in detention.

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AirAsia Flight QZ8501 climbed fast then stalled: Indonesia

JAKARTA: An AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month with 162 people on board climbed at a faster than normal speed and then stalled, the Indonesian transport minister said on Tuesday.

Flight QZ8501 went down on December 28 in stormy weather, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

Indonesia's meteorological agency has said bad weather may have caused the crash, and investigators are analysing the data from the jet's black boxes before releasing a preliminary report.

Just moments before the plane disappeared off the radar, the pilot had asked to climb to avoid the storm. He was not immediately granted permission due to heavy air traffic.

READ ALSO: AirAsia crash probe focuses on human error, plane damage

"In the final minutes, the plane climbed at a speed which was beyond normal," transport minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters, citing radar data.

"The plane suddenly went up at a speed above the normal limit that it was able to climb to. Then it stalled."

Earlier at a parliamentary hearing, he said radar data showed the Airbus A320-200 appeared at one point to be climbing at a rate of 1,800 metres a minute before the crash. There were several other planes in the area at the time.

A piece of the wreckage of the crashed AirAsia jet.

"I think it is rare even for a fighter jet to be able to climb 6,000 feet per minute," he said. "For a commercial flight, climbing around 1,000 to 2,000 (feet) is maybe already considered extraordinary, because it is not meant to climb that fast."

His comments came after Indonesian investigators said they were focusing on the possibility of human error or problems with the plane having caused the crash, following an initial analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.

"We didn't hear any other person, no explosion," investigator Nurcahyo Utomo told reporters, explaining why terrorism had been ruled out.

READ ALSO: Divers find black box of crashed AirAsia jet

Investigators from the national transportation safety committee were now looking at the "possibility of plane damage and human factors", he said, without giving further details.

A grieving relative of a passenger who was killed in the AirAsia jet crash.

As well as the cockpit voice recorder, the committee is also examining a wealth of information in the flight data recorder, which monitors every major part of the plane. A preliminary report will be releasd on January 28.

There was a huge international hunt for the crashed plane, involving ships from several countries including the US and China. Indonesian search and rescue teams have so far recovered just 53 bodies from the sea.

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Pak occupies top slot in Google's list of most porn-searching countries

KARACHI: Pakistan tops the list of most porn-searching countries and leads the way in porn searches for animals like pigs, donkeys, dogs, cats and snakes, according to the data released by Google.

The data also showed that six of the top eight porn-searching countries were Muslim states with Egypt ranking second in the list followed by Iran, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey at numbers four, five, seven and eight, respectively, reported The Express Tribune.

The sale of pornographic material is prohibited in nearly every Arab country except Lebanon and Turkey, the report said.

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Air Force One: The flying White House

US president Barack Obama will be the chief guest for Republic Day celebrations. He will travel to India in his presidential plane, Air Force One. Here's what you need to know about the plane:

* The 'Air Force One' call sign was created after a 1953 incident during which a flight, carrying President Elsenhower, entered the same airspace as a commercial airline flight using the same call sign.

* The aircraft has fully equipped office areas with telecommunication system, including 87 telephones and 19 televisions.

* There are two identical Boeing 747-200Bs to act as decoys and a third chartered jumbo jet for office staff and security personnel.

* The aircraft is self-sufficient and all meals are prepared in two galleys.

The aircraft has:

* A Medical Office which includes a fold-out operating table emergency medical supplies, and a wellstocked pharmacy.

* A Communication centre, with 386km of wiring shielded from elctromagnetic interference caused by nuclear explosions.

* Every flight is staffed by a doctor and a nurse President's private office, or the 'Oval Office Aboard Air Force One' from where the President can address the nation The President's suite includes sleeping quarters, lavatory, shower, vanity and a double sink

* A conference room, originally designed as a situation room, with a plasma screen TV that can be used for teleconferencing

Defence system of the aircraft

Directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system directs an infrared beam onto the missile's IR seeker of an incoming missile. It then tries a variety of jamming algorithms, to disturb the set path of the missile.

Specifications of the aircraft:

Type: Boeing 747-200B

Crew: 26 (incl two pilots)

Capacity: 78 passengers

Length: 70.6m

Wingspan: 59.8m

Height: 19.3m

Max Weight: 3,75,000 kg

Cruise Speed: 925km/h

Ranger: 13,000km

Unit Cost: $325 million

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Third Pakistani this year beheaded in Saudi

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Monday beheaded a convicted Pakistani heroin smuggler, the third person from his country executed for the crime this year.

Yassir Arafat Munir Ahmed was executed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

"Investigations led to his confession and after a trial he was sentenced to death," the ministry said.

Ahmed is the 11th person, and the third Pakistani, to be executed in the kingdom this year under a strict version of Islamic sharia law.

The interior ministry has said it is battling narcotics because of the "great harm" they do to society.

In September, an independent expert working on behalf of the United Nations expressed concern about the judicial process and called for an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom had the third-highest number of recorded executions in 2013, behind Iran and Iraq, Amnesty International said in a report.

The Gulf has become an increasingly important market for illicit drugs in recent years, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says.

On Sunday, the interior ministry said Saudi and United Arab Emirates security agents had disrupted a heroin trafficking network.

Two truck drivers from Pakistan were arrested.

The Pakistani city of Karachi is a key transit point for heroin from Afghanistan.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi law.

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Suicide bomber kills four in northeast Nigeria: police, hospital

KANO (NIGERIA): A suicide bomber killed four people and wounded dozens Sunday in an attack at a bus station in Potiskum, northeastern Nigeria, police and hospital sources told AFP.

"We have evacuated four dead bodies and 48 injured persons from the scene of the suicide blast," a police officer said. The bomber "blew up his car at a bus station," said the officer, asking not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

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Chadian soldiers arrive in Cameroon to battle Boko Haram

YAOUNDE: A contingent of soldiers from Chad has arrived in northern Cameroon where it will deploy to the Nigerian border as part of efforts to contain the Boko Haram insurgency, a spokesman for Cameroon's defence ministry said on Sunday.

Boko Haram, which aims to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria, has stepped up attacks in the region as Africa's biggest economy prepares for a Feb. 14 presidential election.

The group has expanded its operational zone into northern Cameroon over the past year, prompting Yaounde to deploy thousands of additional forces, including elite troops, to its border with Nigeria.

A convoy of troops from Chad arrived in Maroua, the main town in Cameroon's Far-North Region, late on Saturday, Colonel Didier Badjeck said while declining to say how many soldiers had been dispatched by N'Djamena.

"In the coming days, they will be deployed to the war zone on the border with Nigeria so that they can join our defence forces to crush and prevent incursions of Boko Haram into Cameroonian territory," he said.

Cameroon's President Paul Biya, who recently appealed for international assistance against Boko Haram, announced earlier this week that he was expecting the arrival of a large Chadian force to support his country's efforts against the militants.

Chad has a reputation as one of the region's best militaries and helped French forces drive al Qaida-linked Islamists from northern Mali in 2013.

Despite the growing cross-border nature of the threat posed by Boko Haram, efforts to deploy a joint force from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon to take on the Islamist fighters have faltered.

Ghana's President John Mahama, who currently heads West African bloc ECOWAS, told Reuters on Friday that regional leaders will seek approval from the African Union next week to create a new force to fight Boko Hara

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Record 6 million turn out for pope's Manila Mass

MANILA: A record 6 million people poured into Manila's rain-soaked streets and its biggest park on Sunday as Pope Francis ended his Asian pilgrimage with an appeal for Filipinos to protect their young from sin and vice so they can instead become missionaries of the faith.

The crowd estimate included people who attended the pope's final Mass in Rizal Park and surrounding areas, and lined his motorcade route, said the chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Francis Tolentino.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said the Vatican had received the figure officially from local authorities and that it was a record, surpassing the 5 million who turned out for St John Paul II's final Mass in the same park in 1995.

READ ALSO: Listen to women, don't be macho — Pope to men

Francis dedicated the final homily of his weeklong Asia trip, which began in Sri Lanka, to children, given that the Mass fell on an important feast day honoring the infant Jesus. His focus was a reflection of the importance that the Vatican places on Asia as the future of the church since it's one of the few places where Catholic numbers are growing — and on the Philippines as the largest Catholic nation in the region.

"We need to see each child as a gift to be welcomed, cherished and protected," Francis said in his homily. "And we need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to a life on the streets."

Francis made a triumphant entry into Rizal Park, riding on a popemobile based on the design of a jeepney, the modified U.S. Army World War II jeep that is a common means of public transport here. He wore the same cheap, plastic yellow rain poncho handed out to the masses during his visit to the typhoon-hit eastern city of Tacloban a day earlier.

The crowd — a sea of humanity in colorful rain ponchos spread out across the 60 hectares (148 acres) of parkland and boulevards surrounding it — erupted in shrieks of joy when he drove by, a reflection of the incredible resonance Francis' message about caring for society's most marginal has had in a country where about a quarter of its 100 million people lives in poverty.

"It was a blessing that we saw him. Even if we were soaked by the rain, we feel fine," said Emmie Toreras, 38, who was wearing a garbage bag to guard against the rain. She said she had slept in the park since Friday to score a view of the pope.

"He loves the poor and people like us," said Toreras, whose husband, a rags vendor, stayed home to work.

Francis dedicated his four-day trip to the Philippines to the poor and marginal. He denounced the corruption that has robbed them of a dignified life, visited with street children and traveled to Tacloban to offer prayers for survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the deadly 2013 storm that devastated one of the Philippines' poorest regions.

Earlier Sunday, Francis drew a huge crowd to Manila's Catholic university, where he came close to tears himself hearing two rescued street children speak of their lives growing up poor and abandoned.

The pope ditched his prepared remarks and spoke off the cuff in his native Spanish to respond to 12-year-old Glyzelle Palomar, who wept as she asked Francis why children suffer so much. Palomar, a former street child rescued by a church-run foundation, told him of children who are abandoned or neglected by their parents and end up on the streets using drugs or in prostitution.

Youths cheer as Pope Francis arrives for a meeting with young people at Manila university. (Reuters photo)

"Why is God allowing something like this to happen, even to innocent children?" Palomar asked through tears. "And why are there so few who are helping us?"

A visibly moved Francis said he had no answer. "Only when we are able to cry are we able to come close to responding to your question," he said.

"Those on the margins cry. Those who have fallen by the wayside cry. Those who are discarded cry," the pope said. "But those who are living a life that is more or less without need, we don't know how to cry."

And he added: "There are some realities that you can only see through eyes that have been cleansed by tears."

A steady rain from the same tropical storm that forced Francis to cut short his visit to Tacloban on Saturday fell on the crowd, but it didn't seem to dampen spirits of Filipinos who streamed into the capital for his final day.

In his homily, Francis urged the crowd to protect their children from sin, alcohol and gambling, saying the devil "distracts us with the promise of ephemeral pleasures, superficial pastimes."

"Filipinos are called to be outstanding missionaries of the faith in Asia," he said.

Bracing for huge crowds, the government put out a public service announcement warning the elderly, pregnant women and children against coming to the event. They urged the crowd to carry their things in transparent plastic bags since they'd be easier to inspect. An appeal to use raincoats rather than umbrellas went unheeded.

Rommel Monton, a 28-year-old call center agent, said he was struck by Francis' willingness to practice what he preaches, particularly as it concerns the poor.

"He doesn't want to be treated as someone special. Look at his vehicles, they are not bullet-proof: He wanted them to be open so that he can feel he is close to the people," he said. "How will you be able to protect your followers if you are not with them, if you are afraid to show yourself, to stand behind them or stand before them?"

Francis sought to stand with one Filipino family struck by tragedy during his visit: He spent 20 minutes Sunday meeting with the father of Kristel Padasas, a volunteer with Catholic Relief Services, who died Saturday in Tacloban when scaffolding fell on her. Witnesses said a sudden gust of wind toppled the structure, which had served as a platform for a large loudspeaker during the Mass.

The father was overwhelmed by the loss but was "consoled thinking that she had helped prepare the meeting of the people with the pope," said Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.

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Tugboat sinking in China kills 22 including 8 foreigners

BEIJING: Twenty-two people including eight foreigners have been confirmed dead after a tugboat sank on a trial voyage on the Yangtze, China's longest river, state media reported Saturday.

The vessel was raised Saturday, 40 hours after it sank while undergoing testing with 25 people — including the eight foreigners — aboard in the eastern province of Jiangsu on Thursday afternoon, state news agency Xinhua said.

Three survivors were pulled out by rescuers, whose efforts were complicated by strong currents and icy temperatures.

Images posted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, showed family members waiting in tears by the river.

The final body was retrieved on Saturday afternoon, maritime officials said. All those on board the 30-metre (100-foot) ship were male.

A Singapore foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday that the vessel was registered in the city-state and four of its nationals were on board.

The Japanese and Indian consulates in Shanghai each confirmed to AFP that one of their nationals had also been on board.

Xinhua cited local authorities as saying two others on board were from Malaysia and Indonesia.

"Water entered the boat cabin very quickly, in less than 20 seconds it was completely filled with water," survivor Wang Zhenkai told state television from his hospital bed.

Wang was accompanying a Japanese technician who was testing the engine of the ship, which reports said was made and outfitted in China.

He survived by clinging to a hydraulic pump and said he had grabbed the Japanese engineer, but their grasp was broken as the boat began to sink.

A photo carried by state media Friday showed only the bow and part of the hull of the metal ship floating above the waterline, with a salvage barge alongside.

The accident occurred on a stretch of the river that experiences extremely strong currents, between the cities of Jingjiang and Zhangjiagang, which is close to the Yangtze's mouth near the commercial hub Shanghai.

The provincial government said the boat was undergoing trials without properly completing the required procedures and without first reporting the condition of the ship, as required by regulations.

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Belgium deploys troops to guard key sites in wake of anti-terror sweep

BRUSSELS: Soldiers fanned out to guard possible terror targets across Belgium on Saturday, including some buildings within the Jewish quarter of the port city of Antwerp. It was the first time in 30 years that authorities used troops to reinforce police in Belgium's cities, and came a day after anti-terror raids netted dozens of suspects across Western Europe.

In an interview broadcast Saturday on Belgium's VRT network, Belgian defense minister Steven Vandeput said soldiers could be deployed to protect certain embassies and some buildings within Antwerp's Jewish quarter. Belgium has increased its terror warning to 3, the second-highest, following the anti-terror raids of Thursday which left two suspects dead.

In France, an official disclosed that Said Kouachi, one of the gunmen who attacked the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, had been quietly buried.

READ ALSO: Belgium foils Jihadi plot to kill cops

After an initial refusal, the mayor of Reims said he was forced to backtrack and allow the burial.

A Jewish man walks by a food store in Antwerp, Belgium. (AP photo)

Mayor Arnaud Robinet said the government had insisted he allow the elder Kouachi brother to be buried in Reims because according to French law residents of a town have the right to be buried there.

"He was buried last night, in the most discrete, anonymous way possible," Robinet said in an interview on French television channel BFM TV. Robinet said he didn't know where Kouachi was buried in the cemetery, which he didn't identify.

READ ALSO: Charlie Hebdo cofounder says murdered editor 'dragged' staff to death with provocative cartoons

Kouachi and his brother Cherif were killed by French counterterrorism police Jan. 9 after they killed 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Cherif Kouachi is to be buried in Gennevilliers, a suburb of Paris where he lived, the city said in a statement on Friday.

Authorities said a third gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, killed five people including four hostages at a kosher market in Paris before he was killed by police. There has been no word of plans for his burial.

A Belgian paratrooper patrols outside a Jewish school in Antwerp. (Reuters photo)

French, German, Belgian and Irish police had at least 30 suspects behind bars on Friday and in Brussels, authorities said a dozen searches led to the seizure of four Kalashnikov assault rifles, hand guns and explosives. Several police uniforms were also found, which Belgian authorities said suggested the plotters had intended to masquerade as police officers.

The seizures followed an anti-terrorism sweep on Thursday in and around Brussels and the eastern industrial city of Verviers in which two suspects were killed in a firefight and a third wounded. Authorities said the follow-up operation netted several returnees from Islamic holy war in Syria.

READ ALSO: French Muslim groups call for calm over new Charlie Hebdo cover

Authorities have said there was no apparent link between the foiled plots in Belgium and last week's terror attacks in Paris on the newspaper and a kosher supermarket.

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France defends 'freedom of expression' after protests

TULLE (France): French President Francois Hollande stressed Saturday that France had "principles, values, notably freedom of expression" after violent protests against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Niger and Pakistan.

Hollande recalled that "we have supported these countries in their fight against terrorism."

Earlier, thousands demonstrated across the world Friday and violent clashes erupted in Niger and Pakistan as Muslims vented fury over a new Prophet Muhammad cartoon published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Four people were killed and 45 injured in protests in Niger's second city of Zinder that turned violent with demonstrators ransacking three churches and torching the French cultural centre.

A doctor in the city's hospital told AFP that all of the dead and three of the injured had gunshot wounds.

"We've never seen that in living memory in Zinder," a local administration official said. "It's a black Friday."

There was also bloodshed in Karachi, Pakistan, where three people were injured when protesters clashed with police outside the French consulate, officials said. Among them was an AFP photographer, who was shot in the back.

Washington condemned the violence, stressing the "universal" right of the press to freely publish any kind of information.

"No act of legitimate journalism, however offensive some might find it, justifies an act of violence," said state department spokesman Jeffrey Rathke.

As protesters in Dakar and Mauritania torched French flags, Qatar and Bahrain warned that the new Prophet Muhammad cartoon published Wednesday by the French satirical weekly could fuel hatred.

The latest issue of Charlie Hebdo features a cartoon of Muhammad on its cover holding a "Je Suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) sign under the headline "All is forgiven".

Distributor MLP said the weekly had sold 1.9 million copies so far, with a total of five million to be printed, compared with its usual sales of around 60,000.

It was the first edition since brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi gunned down 12 people in an attack on the magazine's Paris offices on January 7 over such cartoons.

The image has angered many Muslims as depictions of Muhammad are widely considered forbidden in Islam.

On the Muslim weekly day of prayers, thousands flooded the streets of Bamako in response to calls by leading clerics and Mali's main Islamic body, chanting "Hands off my prophet" and "I am Muslim and I love my prophet".

In Jordan's Amman, around 2,500 protesters set off from Al-Husseini mosque under tight security, holding banners that read "insulting the prophet is global terrorism".

There were clashes between protesters and riot police in Algiers, where up to 3,000 marchers chanted "We are all Muhammad", though some shouted their support for the Islamist Kouachi brothers.

AFP photographer Asif Hassan, a policeman and a local TV cameraman were injured in Karachi when clashes broke out there between police and protesters.

A police official said the violence began when authorities prevented some 350 protesters from approaching the French consulate in the sprawling metropolis.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, protesters in Peshawar and Multan burnt French flags on the streets, while rallies were also held in Islamabad and Lahore.

In Dakar, the capital of Senegal, police fired tear gas grenades to disperse about 1,000 protesters who chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) and torched a French flag.

In Nouakchott in Mauritania, thousands marched chanting "We are here to defend the prophet". Some set fire to a French flag after security forces prevented them from reaching France's embassy, witnesses said.

Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz addressed the marchers, condemning the controversial cartoon as "an attack on our religion and on all religions".

Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated quietly in Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, some with banners reading "Islam is a religion of peace!"

While in Khartoum, hundreds poured out of the Grand Mosque and marched across the adjacent square, chanting "Expel the French ambassador. Victory to the Prophet of God!"

In Lebanon's flashpoint city of Tripoli, 70 people marched with banners bearing the name of the prophet and chanting.

Prayer leader Sheikh Muhammad Ibrahimi addressed hundreds of worshippers in Baddawi, on the outskirts of the city, saying: "May God punish this newspaper and those who back it".

Protests also erupted in areas of conflict-hit Syria held by rebels and jihadists with demonstrators demanding "respect for religions", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A protest in Tehran was cancelled, with no official reason given, as senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ali Movahedi Kermani told worshippers the cartoon's publication amounted to "savagery".

Muslim governments also joined the chorus of condemnation of the cartoon.

Qatar branded as "offensive" the drawing, which was reprinted by several European papers in a show of solidarity with the victims of last week's attack.

"These disgraceful actions are in the interest of nobody and will only fuel hatred and anger," the foreign ministry warned.

Bahrain's foreign ministry echoed that, saying publication of such cartoons "will create fertile ground for the spread of hatred and terrorism".

Charlie Hebdo's latest cartoon is "disgraceful" and no more than attempt to provoke Muslims and mock their beliefs, it said.

Qatar and Bahrain had sent representatives to a massive march in Paris last Sunday in support of free speech, alongside French President Francois Hollande and many other world leaders, including Muslims.

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Schools in Guinea closed amid Ebola to reopen Monday

ACCRA, Ghana: All schools in Guinea will reopen on Monday after being closed amid the deadly Ebola outbreak, Guinea's health minister said on Friday.

Health minister Remy Lamah told The Associated Press in Accra, Ghana during a summit by the Economic Community of West African States that the action is being taken "because the situation has improved." In Liberia, the schools are reopening "next month," said the Liberian embassy's charges d'affaires in Ghana, Musu Ruhle.

The developments mirror how Ebola is affecting the three hardest-hit nations. There have been gains against the virus, which is spread through contact with bodily fluids of a person showing symptoms, or of a corpse, in Guinea and Liberia, but the disease continues to spread in Sierra Leone.

Schools will remain closed in Sierra Leone, that country's health minister said.

"We are monitoring the situation and would take a decision after that," said Sierra Leone health minister Foday Sawi Lahai. "We have imported thermometers to be used for surveillance in the schools. Once that is done and the number of cases keep falling, we would consider (reopening schools)."

In the most recent 24-hour monitoring period, 16 new Ebola cases were discovered in Sierra Leone, according to government figures.

At the summit in Ghana, member states were asked to set up Rapid Response Teams at national, district and regional levels as part of the preparedness and containment mechanisms against Ebola, ECOWAS said. Also attending are the World Health Organization, the African Union, the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response as well as EU and US representatives, the statement said.

Ebola has claimed over 8,400 lives, WHO reported on Wednesday. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon previously said the epidemic could be over by mid-2015 but WHO is now declining to set a specific timeline.

WHO says there are now enough beds to isolate and treat Ebola patients, but not all are in the hotspots where the disease is spreading fastest. The UN estimates that the number of scientists needed to track the outbreak must be tripled.

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Armed man takes hostages in Paris suburb post office

PARIS: An armed man, who took an unidentified number of hostages at a post office northwest of Paris, has been arrested by police.

No casualties were reported in the incident and all the hostages have been freed, according to local police.

The man was equipped with a military weapon had taken an unconfirmed number of hostages at the post office in the town of Colombes, not far outside the capital, French media reported earlier.

"I cannot confirm or deny whether it is linked to terrorism," the official said declining to give further details.

BFM TV, citing an unidentified source, said the hostage taking was not related to last week's attacks in Paris.

French police arrested 12 people earlier on Friday suspected of helping militant Islamist gunmen in last week's killings in Paris. There have been numerous false alerts across the city since the attacks.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Paris post office gunman arrested, hostages freed: Police

PARIS: An armed man, who took an unidentified number of hostages at a post office northwest of Paris, has been arrested by police.

No casualties were reported in the incident and all the hostages have been freed, according to local police.

The man was equipped with a military weapon had taken an unconfirmed number of hostages at the post office in the town of Colombes, not far outside the capital, French media reported earlier.

"I cannot confirm or deny whether it is linked to terrorism," the official said declining to give further details.

BFM TV, citing an unidentified source, said the hostage taking was not related to last week's attacks in Paris.

French police arrested 12 people earlier on Friday suspected of helping militant Islamist gunmen in last week's killings in Paris. There have been numerous false alerts across the city since the attacks.

(With inputs from agencies)

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PLA says high-rise buildings of wealthy "compromised" its air bases

BEIJING: Even China's People's Liberation Army is now complaining about the tremendous power of the wealthy, who have "compromised" nearly half of its air bases by surrounding them with high-rise buildings. The PLA's Air Force said tall buildings have made takeoffs, communications and air maneuvers extremely risky.

The complaint is an indication of the tremendous influence wielded by China's wealthy who have managed to ignore the building rules set by both civilian and military authorities around PLA's facilities.

Complaining about the "skyscraper fever", Fu Jun, deputy commander of a division of the People's Liberation Army air force, said, "My pilots now have to take far more emergency maneuvers than before to avoid possible collisions".

More than half of China's military's air bases have been compromised by the emergence of high-rise structures, or by civilian activities as local governments are desperately pursuing rapid expansion, PLA told the State media.

"More than 1,000 high-rises exceed the approved height stated in the flight security perimeters for military air bases," Shan Shaoli, a staff officer at the HQ of the PLA general staff, said. "In the last 20 years, the growth of skyscrapers has led to the closure and relocation of about 20 airbases, and caused about 100 flying accidents."

Even the naval port in Dalian, the home of China's only aircraft carrier, was forced to spend $1.6 million to erect a wall 800 meters long and 22 m high to conceal its facilities and ships from the residents of a nearby array of European-style villas.

The Jianqiao Airport in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, where Fu's division is stationed, is surrounded by 20 skyscrapers that exceed the military's stipulated maximum height of 230 meters, according to the PLA air force.They include the 258-meter high Zhejiang Fortune Finance Center overshooting the allowable limit by 28 meters, which is equivalent to the height of a nine-story residential block.

"It's not uncommon for our aircraft to have to fly between two high-rise blocks to land. Moreover, in addition to these super-high buildings, balloons, model airplanes, and the fireworks used by people who live near the base also pose tremendous hazards to our planes," he added.

High rise buildings and populated areas also attract pigeons. "Many of our fighter jets are single-engine, so if they encounter pigeons or balloons during a flight, it's highly likely that airborne objects or debris will be sucked into the engine, which will then malfunction. That could result in an accident, or even greater tragedy."

"Sometimes a new, tall telecommunications signal transmitter tower will be erected near our airfield overnight," Fu told media briefing recently.

Citing the case of Russia, Fu said, "Encroaching on the airspace above a military airport is a felony in Russia. By contrast, China has not done very well in safeguarding military infrastructures". The PLA has started working with local authorities to demolish a number of illegally erected chimneys and transmitter towers.

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Pakistan bans Jamaat-ud-Dawa

ISLAMABAD: In a move that appears to be aimed at curbing militancy and extremism in the country, Pakistan has decided to ban 12 organizations, including Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), the frontrunner of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, a welfare wing of the JuD, and the Haqqani Network.

The decision came a day after the US State Department declared Mullah Fazlullah, the chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist'. Fazlullah, nicknamed Mullah Radio, had accepted responsibility for the last month attack on school in Peshawar, which left 142 children dead.

READ ALSO: Pakistan to ban JuD and Haqqani network?

The carnage at school prompted Pakistani leadership review its security policy besides swiftly taking stringent measures, including lifting of moratorium on death penalty and establishment of military courts, to counter the scourge of terrorism.

"It's our first step towards execution of the National Action Plan. The nation will see more positive steps towards dismantling militant groups. Both civilian and military leadership decided to ban the Haqqani Network and JuD," The Express Tribune quoted a senior intelligence official as saying.

While JuD continues to operate openly in Pakistan, and its leader, Hafiz Saeed, holds public rallies and often gives TV interviews, the Haqqani Network, a yesteryear friend of Pakistan's spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was using the tribal region of North Waziristan as its springboard.

The US State Department had last year named the JuD as a "foreign terrorist organisation", while India blames its leader Hafiz Saeed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

READ ALSO: India to seek clarification from UN on reference to Hafiz Saeed

Asif Khursheed, JuD Islamabad's spokesperson, revealed that last week the "home department sent us a letter informing us that the Jamaat is being kept on the watch-list with some two dozen other organisations".

"Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a purely welfare and charity organisation and has never been involved in bad motives. Even, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has justified our stance in the past," he told media.

According to Amir Rana, the executive director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, the banning of an organisation means freezing its assets, blocking its funding sources and proper monitoring of its activities. "In the next move, the offices, infrastructures and networks of the proscribed groups will be banned," he reportedly said.

Pakistan had banned 12 organisations days before US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Pakistan this week. With this latest addition of 12 more outfits, they the number of proscribed organizations in Pakistan has reached 72.

READ ALSO: Pakistan asks for US help, says won't start talks with India without Kashmir

Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, the organisation accused of conducting terrorist attacks in Pakistan and India is also among the newly banned groups. Its operational commander, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan in 2011.

The list also features Harkat-ul-Mujahidin, the group accused of operating in Kashmir, and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, a welfare wing of the JuD.

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Isis has fighters 'just waiting for order to attack the west', says teenage grammar school jihadist

A teenage former grammar schoolboy who went to Syria has warned that Isis has "many" extremists "just waiting for the order to do attacks on the west".

Shabazz Suleman, a former pupil of Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, disappeared in the summer of 2013 while carrying out voluntary work with a Turkish charity providing aid to Aleppo.

It has previously been claimed that the 19-year-old was included along with another British national in prisoner exchanges that saw Turkish diplomats released from Isis custody in September last year.

And speaking to The Times newspaper in the aftermath of last week's Charlie Hebdo shootings, Suleman claims he was given the choice to be part of the exchanges or deported back to Britain without being linked to Isis.

Praising the Paris murders, he said: "There's so many brothers just waiting for the order to do attacks on the West."

And describing how he was among 200 Isis captives eventually released by Turkey, he said: "Cops were friendly. Understood why we wanted to fight in Syria. They hated Assad, Israel etc. Their ideology was that of the Muslim brotherhood.

"It was good," he added. "Had pizza in prison. Dominoes lol. Was allowed net. We spoke to dawla (the so-called "caliphate") in prison. Watched Isis videos."

"After a month of waiting they told us buses are waiting outside for u (sic). MIT (Turkish intelligence agency) ran the exchange. Told us we are free. Exchanged at the border. We drove into dawla."

In a statement issued by RGS last year, the school said Suleman had been a "valued, hardworking" student earning "a solid set of A levels" before he disappeared.

Last year, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu did not provide an explanation for the release of his country's diplomats in September, but did confirm the operation had been led by MIT agents.

A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office told The Independent it was aware of a British national reported missing in Turkey in 2014, and that it was providing consular assistance to Suleman's family in Buckinghamshire.

"We continue to press the Turkish authorities for clarification, and are still seeking information from the Turkish Government," the spokesperson said. "The Foreign Secretary raised this with Turkey's Minister for Foreign Affairs in October, and we have continued to raise this with the Turkish Government on a regular basis at a senior level."

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Pakistan army chief embarks on three-day Britain visit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan army chief Gen Raheel Sharif on Wednesday left for a three-day visit to the UK to meet British military and political leaders and discuss regional security situation.

Gen Sharif is undertaking the visit after crucial talks with US secretary of state John Kerry in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa confirmed that Gen Sharif is paying a three day visit to Britain. "He will meet military and political leadership," he said.

Gen Sharif is expected to discuss regional security situation and Pakistan efforts to eliminate militancy.

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South Korea urges N Korea to respond to talks offer

SEOUL: South Korea on Wednesday urged North Korea once again to respond to its dialogue offer, media reported.

Unification ministry spokesperson Lim Byeong-cheol told a press briefing that the ministry has no plan to send an additional proposal to North Korea for inter-Korean talks and is awaiting the North'[s response, Xinhua reported.

The ministry made a dialogue overture to North Korea Dec 29 and said Seoul is open to all forms of dialogue to discuss all issues of mutual concern.

Lim urged Pyongyang once again to rapidly respond to Seoul's proposal for holding inter-Korean talks in January.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year's speech that there is no reason not to hold summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye if the right atmosphere is created.

In her New Year's press conference, Park said in response that she is game for dialogue with Kim if it promotes inter-Korean relations, but she added that North Korea should show sincerity toward resolving issues through dialogue.

South Korea has called for the holding of a reunion event of Korean families, separated during the 1950-53 Korean War around the time of the Lunar New Year holiday (Feb 19).

North Korea demanded that South Korea prevent civic groups from floating anti-North Korea leaflets across the border and also said it would temporarily suspend nuclear tests if the US halted joint annual military exercises with South Korea.

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Palestinian unity frays, hurting Gaza's rebuilding

GAZA: Escalating tension between Islamist group Hamas and its Western-backed rival Fatah has pushed their "unity" government to the brink of collapse, harming efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip and complicating Palestinian statehood ambitions.

Five months after a devastating war with Israel, Gaza's residents are still occasionally jolted by explosions. But the blasts now are more often the result of the internal conflict tearing at the fabric of Palestinian politics.

Hamas, which seized Gaza in a brief civil war in 2007, remains the dominant force in the territory - even after it agreed last June to a "reconciliation government" that would assert control and oversee post-war reconstruction.

That government's inability to fully carry out its work has stalled rebuilding in Gaza, where around 100,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in the war, and undermined a Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations.

In recent weeks the Hamas-Fatah stand-off has spiralled into violence, although it is not always clear who is behind it. On Friday, bombs exploded at a major Gaza bank used by the unity government to pay most of the 70,000 public sector workers hired before Hamas took over the narrow, coastal enclave.

At the weekend, pictures emerged of Fatah activists in Gaza who said they had been stripped, beaten and left in freezing temperatures by Hamas security men. Hamas, meanwhile, accuses Fatah of rounding up its party members in the West Bank, where the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) prevails.

"Whenever Hamas is with its back against the wall, it reacts with some fighting," said Mattia Toaldo, a Middle East expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, although he described that as a worst-case scenario that remained unlikely for now.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, who is based in the West Bank, says his technocrat government cannot begin to administer Gaza until Hamas fully relinquishes control, including over border crossings with Egypt and Israel.

But there is no sign of that happening.

For its part, Hamas accuses Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Fatah and controls the PA budget, of trying to throttle the group into submission, including by refusing to pay its 50,000 public-sector employees.

"Abbas must first show solidarity with his own people, whom he deprives of salaries and rebuilding," said Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official. The Islamist group has also lambasted Abbas for not visiting Gaza since the war with Israel.

Darkening outlook

The upshot is that the Palestinians are now as polarised as ever, with Hamas overseeing Gaza and its 1.8 million people, while Fatah is in charge in the West Bank, just 60 km (40 miles) to the northeast, where 2.8 million live.

Foreign governments that last October contributed $5.4 billion to a fund for the Palestinians, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others in Europe, have indicated that they cannot fully follow through on their commitments until the unity government is in charge as a single authority.

The risk for Hamas is that if it gives up power now it may not regain it - while it won the last Palestinian elections in 2006, there are no signs of a new vote being held.

For Fatah, if it does not exert itself via the Palestinian Authority, it cannot hope to be taken seriously by the rest of the world as it prepares to join the International Criminal Court and make another statehood attempt at the United Nations.

What is more, even if that bid makes progress, opinion polls show Hamas will win the next elections, whenever they are held, greatly complicating the statehood agenda.

Hamas is formally sworn to Israel's destruction and opposes the PA's independence strategy because it would not mean a state in all of historic Palestine and it believes critical issues, such as the right of return for refugees, are not included.

Hani al-Masri, an independent political analyst based in the West Bank, worries that if the Hamas-Fatah tensions are not reined in, the results could be devastating, especially for the people of Gaza, desperate to rebuild their lives after the war.

"It might lead to unrest and bring closer the moment of a potential explosion that neither Hamas nor anybody else could contain, and could even spread to the West Bank," he said.

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Two Ukraine soldiers killed in new upsurge in fighting

KIEV: Ukraine's military on Saturday reported the death of two soldiers in the past day of fighting with pro-Russian insurgents in the separatist east.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko added that 20 soldiers were wounded in clashes in the mostly Russian-speaking Lugansk region.

The toll brings to six the number of Ukrainian troops reported killed since Thursday evening — an escalation since the two warring sides agreed a new December 9 truce aimed at stemming fighting that has claimed some 4,700 lives.

The upsurge in violence comes ahead of talks that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hopes to stage next week with Russia's Vladimir Putin at a mini-summit in Kazakhstan that would also be attended by the leaders of Germany and France.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have indicated in the past few days that too little has been done to achieve a lasting ceasefire to make political dialogue worthwhile at this stage.

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23 Kurdish soldiers killed in IS attack

BAGHDAD: At least 23 Kurdish soldiers were killed and 12 injured during clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants in an Iraqi city, media reported.

The military forces of Iraqi Kurdistan were targeted in two different vehicle explosions in areas around the Sinjar Mountains southeast of the city of Nineveh in northern Iraq, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday.

In a separate development, the IS carried out the biggest attack yet on Kurdish positions near the strategic town of Gwer, about 60km from Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan autonomous province, said a Kurdish spokesperson.

Some of the IS fighters came to the town in the early hours of Saturday by boat over the Tigris river before taking control of large parts of the town. However, no casualty has been reported, the Kurdish spokesman added.

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UN to host new Libya peace talks in Geneva next week

TRIPOLI, Libya: The United Nations announced Saturday a new round of peace talks between Libya's warring factions in Geneva next week, as the European Union warned the country was at a "crucial juncture".

"This dialogue is an important opportunity for the Libyans to restore stability and prevent the country's slide towards deeper conflict and economic collapse that should not be missed," the UN mission in Libya said in a statement.

The announcement came after UN envoy Bernardino Leon met with rival camps and urged them to resume peace talks "before it is too late".

Leon has proposed a freeze in military operations for a few days "in order to create a conducive environment for the dialogue," according to the UN statement.

It said the talks were aimed at reaching an agreement on the formation of a unity government and to create "a stable environment" for the adoption of a new permanent constitution.

"Discussions will also seek to put in place the necessary security arrangements in order to bring an end to the armed hostilities raging in different parts of the country," it added.

It did not give a specific date for the talks. The announcement came after Leon on Thursday held talks for the first time with general Khalifa Haftar, who is spearheading a government-backed offensive to recapture the second city of Benghazi from mainly Islamist militia.

More than three years after dictator Moamer Kadhafi was toppled and killed in a Western-backed revolt, the North African nation is engulfed in chaos with rival governments and parliaments as well as powerful militias fighting for territory.

The European Union said the Geneva meeting "represents a last chance which must be seized".

"Libya is at a crucial juncture; the different actors should be in no doubt of the gravity of the situation that the country finds itself in. The opportunity to establish a ceasefire and find a political solution should not be wasted," said Federica Mogherini, the EU's top diplomat.

A new round of talks had been scheduled for December 9 but was repeatedly delayed as fighting intensified between the beleaguered internationally recognised government and Islamist-backed militias.

Difficulties finding a safe venue for the talks contributed to the delay, the UN said.

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