Kate Middleton marks last birthday as single woman

9 January 2011 - 13H38

Kate Middleton, pictured with her fiance Prince William in November, celebrated turning 29 on Sunday, her last birthday as a commoner before the couple marry in April

AFP - Princess-to-be Kate Middleton celebrated turning 29 on Sunday, her last birthday as a commoner before her wedding in April to Prince William, the second in line to the British throne.

Clarence House, the office of William and his father Prince Charles, refused to give any details of how Middleton would mark her big day, saying only that she was spending it "privately."

British media said that Kate -- who is five months older than her royal fiance -- was expected to enjoy low-key festivities with her family and friends as she prepares for her April 29 nuptials.

"She will probably want to keep a low profile because the rest of her life will be high profile," said Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, a publication focusing on the royal family.

"There are a lot of parties coming up so she might just want some really, really close friends and family with her -- or it could be just her and William."

Prince William, who met Kate while they were university students eight years ago, is serving as a Royal Air Force search and rescue helicopter pilot in Anglesey, Wales.

But the couple were seen in public on Saturday at the wedding of one of William's friends, with Kate sporting a tailored black velvet coat, a black dress with a plunging sheer neckline and a jaunty black beret.

William was an usher for the wedding in the northern village of Boroughbridge of Harry Aubrey-Fletcher, a schoolmate from the prince's time at the elite Eton College, and Louise Stourton.

Kate's appearance whipped up the usual frenzy in Britain's royalty obsessed newspapers, with the Mail on Sunday saying Middleton looked "thinner than usual" and adding: "Hope you won't wear black on April 29, Kate!"

The News of the World tabloid, Britain's biggest selling newspaper, focused instead on whether or not the country's future queen was wearing a bra.

William and Kate earlier this week released new details of the plans for their wedding at London's Westminster Abbey, including that they would be married by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

They will also make a procession in a horse-drawn carriage through some of the capital's most historic sites after they have tied the knot.

Saudi lists 47 wanted Qaeda suspects abroad

9 January 2011 - 14H12

Security personnel carry out a search for Al-Qaeda terror suspects in Riyadh in 2006. Saudi authorities announced Sunday a list of 47 people wanted for suspected links to Al-Qaeda who are all abroad

AFP - Saudi authorities announced Sunday a list of 47 people wanted for suspected links to Al-Qaeda who are all abroad, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

"Authorities have identified 47 wanted Saudis who are abroad and who adopt the deviant ideology," the ministry said, using the kingdom's term for the Al-Qaeda terror network.

Saudi militants linked to Al-Qaeda launched a wave of attacks against Westerners and government installations between 2003 and 2006 before coming under a severe crackdown by the authorities.

Many are believed to be active in neighbouring Yemen after the merger of the Saudi and Yemeni Al-Qaeda front groups in the two countries under the banner of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which is based in Yemen.

'Sensational' new claims over Nazi Eichmann

9 January 2011 - 14H23

FILES - Undated portrait of former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann. German intelligence knew Eichmann was hiding out in Argentina eight years before Israeli agents kidnapped him in 1960, the Bild daily cited newly released documents as saying.

AFP - German intelligence knew Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was hiding out in Argentina eight years before Israeli agents kidnapped him in 1960, the Bild daily cited newly released documents as saying.

"SS colonel Eichmann ... is living in Argentina under the false name of Clemens. The editor of the 'Der Weg' German newspaper in Argentina knows E.'s address," according to a 1952 document, Bild reported on Saturday.

It took another six years for Germany to inform the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States, according to CIA documents made public in 2006, the German newspaper said.

In 1960, Mossad agents kidnapped Eichmann, one of the main executors of Adolf Hitler's "final solution", in Buenos Aires. He was brought to Israel for trial, where he was convicted and hanged in 1962.

The release of the documents came after the newspaper successfully sued the German government in the country's highest court to force it to release them, Bild said.

The paper cited historian Bettina Stangneth, who is due to publish a book about Eichmann in April, as calling the find a "sensation."

The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants called claims that Eichmann's whereabouts were known "disturbing."

"Equally disturbing is the continued unwillingness of the BND to release the documents which could shed further light on this sad history and other questions related to the fate of Nazis after the War," a statement said.

"The question must be asked whether (German intelligence service) BND files will reveal assistance and aid given to these Nazis to escape and evade justice? History and memory demand the answer to this question."

Israel army to enlist more ultra-Orthodox

9 January 2011 - 15H18

An Israeli soldier of the Ultra Orthodox battalion ?Netzah Yehuda? listens to their rabb at the ancient hilltop fortress of Masada in Judean desert, 2007. Israel's cabinet on Sunday voted to double the number of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men called up for compulsory military service, a move described as revolutionary by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

AFP - Israel's cabinet on Sunday voted to double the number of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men called up for compulsory military service, a move described as revolutionary by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A statement from Netanyahu's office said that the decision would boost the number of ultra-Orthodox men joining the army from about 1,000 at present to 2,400 by 2015.

It said a further 2,400 would perform alternative forms of national service outside the military.

Such alternatives typically include working in hospitals, the police force, or as paramedics.

In many ultra-Orthodox families, men devote all of their time to studying scripture and raise typically large families with the help of grants from religious foundations and the state welfare system.

Sunday's statement said that 60 percent of the ultra-Orthodox are classified as living below the poverty line but that those who had served in the army bucked the trend, with 80 percent of them finding jobs.

"This is a revolution, a significant revolution," Netanyahu told reporters at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting.

"It will have very great consequences for the integration of the ultra-Orthodox into society and the economy."

Traditionally most of the community's young men and women were exempted from army service on the grounds of full-time religious study or because the military environment flouts religious prohibitions on contact between men and women.

Most other Israelis serve a mandatory three years in the case of men and a little less than two years for women, beginning at age 18.

Arab Israelis are not obliged to serve but may volunteer.

Protests as Bangladesh shares suffer record fall

9 January 2011 - 14H37

Bangladeshi police personnel stand beside a fire set by angry investors in front of the Dhaka Stock Exchange building in December, 2010. Hundreds of investors held demonstrations in cities across Bangladesh on Sunday after the country's main stock exchange plunged nearly eight percent in its steepest ever daily fall.

AFP - Hundreds of investors held demonstrations in cities across Bangladesh on Sunday after the country's main stock exchange plunged nearly eight percent in its steepest ever daily fall.

The benchmark Dhaka Stock Exchange general index (DGEN) lost 600 points or 7.76 percent to close at 7135.02 as panic gripped investors who have enjoyed massive gains over the last two years.

Local police chief Tofazzal Hossain said at least 300 investors chanted slogans near the stock exchange building in the capital Dhaka.

"We have had enough security including 50 policemen and Rapid Action Battalion forces. The protesters tried to gather but we prevented trouble," he told AFP.

Sunday's loss was the highest in the DSE's more than 50-year history, with dealers saying corrections are long overdue.

The previous biggest daily fall was 6.72 percent on December 19, when protests turned violent with investors throwing bricks at riot police.

The DGEN index rose by 80 percent in 2010 but has lost 20 percent in the last three weeks.

In the northwestern city of Rajshahi, more than 150 investors staged protests, city police chief Mohammad Obaidullah said.

Similar protests were held in the southwestern city of Khulna.

"We have long said the market went up too high. It was unsustainable," Reaz Islam, head of LR Global, a New York-based fund, told AFP. "Now that the market is on a slippery slope, it has created panic among investors."

Oosthuizen wins golf's Africa Open

9 January 2011 - 17H36

Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, pictured during the Dubai World Championship in November, holed a birdie putt on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off Sunday and added the Africa Open to his trophy collection.

AFP - British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen holed a birdie putt on the first hole of a sudden-death play-off Sunday and added the Africa Open to his trophy collection.

While Oosthuizen sank a nine-footer for a three after a tee shot that took a lucky bounce after appearing destined for rough at the par-four 18th, Spaniard Manuel Quiros and Englishman Chris Wood had to settle for pars.

Oosthuizen (70), Quiros (69) and Wood (68) completed their four rounds on 16-under 276 at East London Golf Club and the absence of wind from the final 18 holes made scoring conditions favourable.

Success was particularly sweet for world number 21 Oosthuizen, who has endured some bad luck since rocking the golf world last July with a seven-stroke British Open triumph at St Andrews.

After injuring his ankle while hunting, he finished last at the invitational Sun City Challenge last month and missed the Alfred Dunhill Championship cut a week later.

But a third-place finish at the pre-Christmas South African Open in Durban despite battling to drop birdie putts signalled that a recovery was imminent and he was a deserved and popular winner in this Eastern Cape city.

Germany, France 'push Portugal to seek bailout'

9 January 2011 - 17H28

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates (right) with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in October at a signing ceremony for renewable energy projects in Portugal. Germany and France want to press Portugal to seek a bailout in order to stop Spain and Belgium becoming the next euro crisis casualties, German weekly Spiegel reported Sunday.

AFP - Germany and France want to press Portugal to seek a bailout in order to stop Spain and Belgium becoming the next euro crisis casualties, German weekly Spiegel reported Sunday.

Paris and Berlin also want members of the 17-country eurozone to state that they are ready to do whatever it takes to save the currency union, including expanding a 750-billion-euro (970-billion-dollar) rescue fund, Spiegel said citing sources in Berlin.

German and French experts are worried by the high interest rates Portugal is being forced to pay in order to borrow money from investors concerned by Lisbon's public finances.

Interest rates on Portuguese debt rose sharply to record high levels on Friday -- as they did for Spain.

Spain is of much greater concern to Paris and Berlin, with its economy twice that of Portugal, Greece and Ireland combined, a banking sector struggling with bad debts and unemployment at almost 20 percent.

Investors are also becoming concerned by Belgium, which has been without a government for nearly seven months.

On Wednesday, the Portuguese government is hoping to raise up to 1.25 billion euros through a sale of three and nine-year bonds, followed by Spain the following day.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and French counterpart Christine Lagarde met in Strasbourg last week and both know that convincing Portugal to seek help will not be easy, Spiegel said.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates insists that that his government's austerity measures will bring Portugal's debts down.