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READ MORE Hundreds of protesters marched through Tehran and other cities in a fourth day of demonstrations as authorities cut access to social media. Mr Rouhani finally broke his silence on the protests that mark the biggest test for the regime since mass protests in 2009. They began as demonstrations against economic conditions in second city Mashhad on Thursday, but quickly turned against the Islamic regime as a whole with thousands marching in towns across Iran amid chants of “Death to the dictator”. “The people are absolutely free in expressing their criticisms and even protests,” Mr Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting, according to the state broadcaster. “But criticism is different to violence and destroying public property.” Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31,

READ MORE Malcolm Turnbull said accusations from Mr Keating that his commitment to an Australian republic had waned were “completely wrong”. Mr Keating has criticised prime ministers since John Howard for failing to use their leadership position to move the nation towards a republic. “A whole series of prime ministers have broken the nation’s heart on the republic,” Mr Keating said in an interview with The Australian newspaper. “I mean, how pathetic. No great state has ever had the monarch of another country as its head of state. Australia is a diminished country, diminished by its own hand, maintaining the monarchy and our reliance upon the sovereignty of Great Britain.” Mr Turnbull declared himself an Australian republican and Elizabethan after meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace last July. Mr Turnbull said during the Queen’s reign he would not be reviving his campaign for a republic, which he spearheaded during the failed 1999 referendum as co-founder of the Australi

READ MORE Ten Americans flying from a vacation hotspot on Costa Rica’s tropical Pacific coast died Sunday when the small plane they had just boarded crashed and burst into flames shortly after take-off, officials in the country said. A list of the passengers given by local media showed five shared the same last name, suggesting they were related. “The government of Costa Rica profoundly regrets the deaths of 10 US passengers and two Costa Rican pilots in the air accident,” which occurred in the country’s northwestern Guanacaste region, Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis said in a statement posted to social media. A US State Department official said: “We confirm the deaths of multiple US citizens in an airplane crash in Costa Rica.” The official said “we express condolences to all those affected by this tragedy,” as well as assistance to “affected US citizens, but that “out of respect for the families, we are not sharing additional information at this time.” Cause unknown Costa

READ MORE Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said water safety needs to be a priority to reduce the number of drowning deaths. Despite 11,000 water rescues performed by lifesavers in the last year, 300 people lost their lives including 18 in December alone. Speaking at the North Bondi Surf Club, Mr Turnbull reflected on his experience nearly drowning and how he was rescued by his father. “It is so enticing, particularly on a hot day,” he said. “It just look likes heaven out there. And it is. But it can very rapidly become a dangerous environment.” The extra $3 million comes on top of the $15 million spent by the federal government over the past five years to support lifesaving clubs. Funding will buy drones Part of the new funding will go towards the purchase of drones to assist in spotting swimmers in trouble. “It’s one very good way to find out what is going on out the back, past that break, whether there is somebody out there who is struggling,” Mr Turnbull said. He said the drones wo

READ MORE Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said water safety needs to be a priority to reduce the number of drowning deaths. Despite 11,000 water rescues performed by lifesavers in the last year, 300 people lost their lives including 18 in December alone. Speaking at the North Bondi Surf Club, Mr Turnbull reflected on his experience nearly drowning and how he was rescued by his father. “It is so enticing, particularly on a hot day,” he said. “It just look likes heaven out there. And it is. But it can very rapidly become a dangerous environment.” The extra $3 million comes on top of the $15 million spent by the federal government over the past five years to support lifesaving clubs. Funding will buy drones Part of the new funding will go towards the purchase of drones to assist in spotting swimmers in trouble. “It’s one very good way to find out what is going on out the back, past that break, whether there is somebody out there who is struggling,” Mr Turnbull said. He said the drones wo

READ MORE A gunman has opened fire on sheriff’s deputies at an apartment complex near Denver, killing one officer before the suspect was shot and killed, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said. Four other deputies and two civilians were shot and wounded by the suspect, identified as 37-year-old Matthew Riehl, who had had numerous run-ins with the law, according to Sheriff Tony Spurlock. It was not immediately clear why the incident had escalated, Spurlock said. “All of them were shot very, very quickly and they all went down almost within seconds of each other,” Spurlock told reporters at a news conference on Sunday, calling it an “ambush-type” attack. President Donald Trump said on Twitter: “My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @dcsheriff, and their families.” The deputies first responded to a “verbal disturbance” at the apartment complex in Highland Ranch, about 26 km south of Denver, at about 3am, (local time) the sheriff’s office said i

READ MORE A gunman has opened fire on sheriff’s deputies at an apartment complex near Denver, killing one officer before the suspect was shot and killed, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said. Four other deputies and two civilians were shot and wounded by the suspect, identified as 37-year-old Matthew Riehl, who had had numerous run-ins with the law, according to Sheriff Tony Spurlock. It was not immediately clear why the incident had escalated, Spurlock said. “All of them were shot very, very quickly and they all went down almost within seconds of each other,” Spurlock told reporters at a news conference on Sunday, calling it an “ambush-type” attack. President Donald Trump said on Twitter: “My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @dcsheriff, and their families.” The deputies first responded to a “verbal disturbance” at the apartment complex in Highland Ranch, about 26 km south of Denver, at about 3am, (local time) the sheriff’s office said i

READ MORE UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued a “red alert” for the world and called for unity among the global community to tackle overwhelming challenges in 2018. “On New Year’s Day 2018, I am not issuing an appeal. I am issuing an alert – a red alert for our world,” the secretary general said. “We can settle conflicts, overcome hatred and defend shared values. But we can only do that together,” Guterres asserted. Recalling that a year ago he had urged that 2017 be a year for peace, the UN chief noted that in fundamental ways, the world had gone in reverse. Perils, including deepening conflicts and new dangers had emerged, with global concerns over nuclear weapons reaching their highest level since the Cold War, Guterres added. At the same time, impacts of climate change worsened at an alarming rate, inequalities grew and there were horrific violations of human rights, Guterres warned. “Nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise.” Underscoring his belief that the world

READ MORE A small passenger plane crashed in Costa Rica on Sunday, killing all 12 people on board, most of whom were foreign tourists, a spokesman for the public security ministry said. The aircraft, a single-propellor Cessna 208 Caravan belonging to the Nature Air domestic airline, came down in a mountainous area near the Pacific coastal beach town of Punta Islita in the country’s Guanacaste peninsula, the spokesman, Carlos Hidalgo, said on his Facebook page. “It is a private plane with 10 foreign passengers and two local crew members,” a separate security ministry statement said. Mr Hidalgo published images of the crash site, showing flaming wreckage strewn across wooded terrain. All the bodies were burned, Mr Hidalgo told national television station Channel 7. “I have the deaths of the 12 occupants confirmed,” the head of Costa Rica’s civil aviation agency, Enio Cubillo, told La Nacion newspaper. The daily gave a list of passenger names, including five who shared the same last name

READ MORE Kim Jong-Un urged North Korea to mass-produce nuclear warheads and missiles in a defiant New Year message on Monday, suggesting he would continue to accelerate a rogue weapons programme that has sent international tensions soaring.   Pyongyang dramatically ramped up its efforts to become a nuclear power in 2017 despite a raft of international sanctions and increasing bellicose rhetoric from the United States. “We must mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missile and speed up their deployment,” Mr Kim said in his annual address to the nation, reiterating his claims North Korea had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear state. Mr Kim presided over multiple missile tests in 2017 and carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test – which it said was a hydrogen bomb – in September.  The North says its weapons programme is designed to be able to target the US mainland. US President Donald Trump has responded to each test with his own amplified declarations, threateni

READ MORE Detective Superintendent Mark Hutchings told media that the passengers on board the seaplane that crashed into Cowan Creek north of Sydney, killing six people, were visitors from overseas. The ages of the victims ranged from 11 to 58-years-old and New South Wales Police and confirmed the pilot was Australian but his relatives lived overseas. Experienced Australian pilot Gareth Morgan, 44, died when his aircraft crashed into Jerusalem Bay, along with Britons Richard Cousins, 58, Emma Bowden, 48, Heather Bowden, 11, Edward Cousins, 23, and William Cousins, 25. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has offered his condolences to the families of six people killed. “It is a tragic accident and … our hearts go out to the families of those whose lives were lost,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Bondi on Monday. “We don’t know yet what caused it, but it’s just a tragedy. We grieve for those who lost their lives.” Police dive crews are working to refloat the wreckage of the seaplane that cra

READ MORE US President Donald Trump has capped 2017 with a video self-tribute touching on what he sees as the high points of his achievements and rhetoric from his first year in office. In the video running three minutes, scenes of Mr Trump with military personnel, Border Patrol agents and other world leaders are set to a stirring soundtrack as he declares of his country: “We gave birth to the modern world and we will shape tomorrow’s world with the strength and skill of American hands.” Mr Trump cited his success in placing a new justice on the Supreme Court, his efforts to cut regulations and his big win on overhauling taxes, which he falsely described as the “largest tax cut in the history of our country”. Mr Trump offered the video with a New Year’s Eve message, saying: “What a year it’s been, and we’re just getting started. Together, we are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Happy New Year!!” The US president also tweeted a happy New Year to “friends, supporters, enemies, haters, and eve

READ MORE Countless revellers switched into party mode Sunday across Europe to ring in 2018 after Sydney and Hong Kong earlier welcomed New Year on the other side of the globe with dazzling firework displays. As clocks struck midnight across Europe, Paris were awash with people despite the winter cold. A storm warning and drizzle failed to dampen spirits on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, where thousands gathered for a light show and a fireworks display at the Arc de Triomphe. Nearly 2,000 security force members were deployed to protect the crowd – out of some 140,000 mobilised nationwide to guard against the jihadist threat which the authorities describe as “still high”. One reveller, who gave his name only as Stephane, insisted that a spate of recent attacks on France were “in the past.” “Life goes on and they (jihadists) are on the retreat,” he said. In Germany, revellers enjoyed an open party watching the fireworks from the Brandenburg Gate. In London, more than 100,000 ticket-

READ MORE A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriff’s deputies in Colorado, killing one and injuring four others and two civilians, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost immediately after entering a suburban Denver apartment and trying to talk with the suspect, who was holed up inside a bedroom. “I do know that all of them were shot very, very quickly. They all went down almost within seconds of each other, so it was more of an ambush-type of attack on our officers,” Sheriff Spurlock said. “He knew we were coming and we obviously let him know that we were there.” The wounded deputies tried to pull the fallen officer, identified as Zackari Parrish, out of the line of further gunfire but were unable to because of their own injuries and only managed to “crawl to safety,” Sheriff Spurlock said. The deputies responded to a call of shots fired at the Copper Canyon Apartment Homes in

READ MORE Pope Francis said 2017 had been marred by war, lies and injustice as he urged people to take responsibility for their actions in his end-of-year address. At his last public event of the year, an evening vespers service in St Peter’s Basilica, the pontiff said humanity had “wasted and wounded” the year “in many ways with works of death, with lies and injustices”. While war was the most obvious sign of “unrepentant and absurd pride”, many other transgressions had caused “human, social and environmental degradation”. “We must take responsibility for everything before God, our brothers and our creation,” Francis said. While the Pope did not mention any specific events from 2017, he had made his voice heard on many of the world’s biggest issues over the course of the year. In April, Francis condemned the “unacceptable massacre” of innocent civilians in a chemical weapons attack in Syria. Just a month ago, he visited Myanmar, where more than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya people have bee

READ MORE The potassium cyanide that Bosnian Croat war criminal Slobodan Praljak used to commit suicide in court could not have been detected before he drank it, the UN tribunal’s internal probe released on Sunday said. Praljak killed himself in front of UN judges in The Hague late last month, just seconds after they upheld his 20-year jail sentence for war crimes committed during Bosnia’s 1990s conflict. The 72-year-old was rushed to hospital, where he died the same day. “There are no measures that would have guaranteed detection of the poison at any stage,” Justice Hassan Jallow said in a statement. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) launched the inquiry earlier this month to shed light on how Praljak managed to bypass tight security to smuggle toxic liquid into the courtroom and commit suicide on November 29. Preliminary results released following an autopsy showed that the Bosnian Croat commander died from heart failure after swallowing potassium c

READ MORE In the mid-1990s, Australia’s domestic spy agency gave a secret handbook to the Keating Government on the threats and challenges Australia would face in the coming decade. The 34-page notebook, bound by red covers, was released by the National Archives of Australia on Monday, providing a fascinating insight into the often secret work of ASIO.  And while some threats outlined in the Security Intelligence Planning Document have since disappeared, others remain. Islamic extremism and white nationalists As the world moved out of the shadow of the Cold War, ASIO’s view of the world in 1994 shifted to Australia and its place in the region. “Progress has been made towards Middle East peace and the rehabilitation of Eastern Europe, thus reducing the risk from these areas,” the document noted.  But, just like today, the intelligence agency was worried by radical Islamic and nationalist extremism: “Islamic extremism, because of its transnational and often anti-Western nature, poses a