French Muslim activists debate 'licences' for imams

France's leading Islamic body has called for imams to be licensed before being allowed to preach, a move that has prompted criticism from voices within the country's Muslim community.

An AFP news agency report on Tuesday said Anouar Kbibech, the president of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), had called for imams to be tested on their knowledge of Islam and French values before being allowed to preach.

Kbibech said the move would ensure religious leaders promoted a tolerant version of Islam during a meeting with the Bernard Cazeneuve, French interior minister, in Paris.

The proposal comes shortly after attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group on the French capital, which left 130 people dead.

All those identified as having taken part in the attack so far have either been French or Belgian nationals, a fact that increased scrutiny of Muslim communities in both countries.

Al Jazeera spoke to two prominent Muslim activists in France about whether the idea could deter French Muslims from joining ISIL and other armed groups intent on attacking the country.

Yasser Louati, spokesperson for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, told Al Jazeera he did not see how the move would tackle the appeal ISIL has to some French Muslim youth.

"I don't see any added value in this announcement, the people who did it [Paris attacks] were not religious and were not radicalised in mosques.

"We already have a curricula in place where imams get what's called an 'ijaza' (permit) so there is nothing new to add. Who will license this? It is not for the government to interfere in the religious affairs of Muslims," Louati said.

The CFCM, though not a state body, serves as the main respresentitive of the Muslim community to the government.

Felix Marquardt, a Parisian Muslim and co-founder of the Al Kawakibi Foundation, which works towards Islamic reformation, said the move was a "normal reaction" to the attacks but questioned its effectiveness.

"To think this is product of some kind of slow radicalisation in a mosque is wrong, it's simply not the case," Marquardt said, adding that did not mean the Muslim community could distance itself from the attackers.

"They are completely hostile to the idea on any kind of reform in Islam and we have a community that is lacking in courage to confront the problem ... . There is a problem and it comes from our incapacity as Muslims to see that there is a problem," he said.

Nevertheless, Marquardt said a number of factors contributed towards the appeal of groups like ISIL to French youth.

"If you're French Muslim, there's a big chance you're going to end up without a job, either selling drugs or up to no good, and you're going to be told all day that you're not French," he said.

"Then one day, you're going to go on the internet and meet Sheikh Google, and that's going to show you the way to ISIL propoganda and they're going to tell you that you're not with the French, you're with us. ...You're going to end up blowing yourself up without ever opening the Quran."

For Louati, continued lack of opportunity coupled with severe security measures threatens to stigmatise Muslim communities further.

"The police have carried out 1,200 raids after the attacks and most of these have led to nothing...Muslims are paying the price for a failed foreign police, failed domestic police and intelligence failures. We keep repeating the same mistakes," he said.

France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, made up mostly of Arabs and Berbers from its former colonies in North Africa and their descendants.

How Your Parents’ Appearance Affects Who You Marry

Men are more likely to date women with the same eye color as their mom. Women are more likely to date men with the same eye color as their father.

In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attraction:

The single best predictor for partners’ eye colour was the eye colour of the parent of the opposite sex. Thus, if a woman’s mother had blue eyes and if her father had brown eyes, she would be most likely to be partnered to a guy with brown eyes, just like her father. Likewise, if a man’s mum had blue eyes and his dad had brown eyes, then his partner was likely to have blue eyes, just like his mum.

Men are also more likely to date women with the same hair color as their mother.

Similarly, the mother’s hair colour was the single best predictor of a male partner’s hair colour.

Interestingly, women are more likely to be attracted to men who look like dad – only if they had a good relationship with their father.

The male face shapes to which a given woman was attracted bore a geometric similarity to the face shape of her father. What was really interesting was that this was found to be true only for daughters who had had a good relationship with their fathers during early childhood: when a woman got on well with her father, she was drawn to men who looked like him. The relationship quality depended on the leisure time the dad spent with his daughter, how actively involved he was in her upbringing, and the emotional investment she had received from him. The quality of contact was evidently more important than its quantity, since it did not seem to matter if dad was away from home for short or for long periods of time. Here, then, the imprinting of a daughter on her father’s face shape depends on a positive emotional bond between the two.

Looking at photos, research subjects were able to tell (at a rate above chance) who was married to whom by looking for a resemblance between the bride and the groom’s mother, or between the groom and bride’s father.

Of more importance, though, is the similarity between a young guy’s partner and his mother. This resemblance, too, is evident to the naked eye; again observers could spot the matches between the true spouse– mother pairs and could detect false pairings. Reciprocally, in a separate study it was found that a young woman’s father was facially similar to the man she chose as a long-term partner. These results show clearly that young adults form partnerships with individuals who resemble their opposite-sex parents. The guy marries a woman whose face looks like his mum’s, and the gal marries a man whose face looks like her dad’s.

'Excess' Winter Deaths Highest For 15 Years

That represented a rise of 151% on the previous winter and the biggest annual jump in more than 40 years, figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed.

Most of those who died in 2014/15 were aged 75 or over, with underlying respiratory illness accounting for more than a third of the deaths.

The term "excess" means the extra number of people who died over the winter period, defined as between December and March compared with those who died during the rest of the year.

As in other years, more women died during the period than men, with female deaths rising from 10,250 in 2013/14 to 25,500 in 2014/15 compared with a rise from 7,210 to 18,400 for men.

Part of this was put down to the fact that there are more older women than older men in the population. 

There was also a record high at 9,100 extra deaths from people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's.

The ONS said the rise might be "related to the greater vulnerability of people with these conditions to respiratory diseases, difficulties with self-care, and falls, all of which may be more important in winter months".

More people died over the period in the South West while the lowest figure was for Yorkshire and The Humber, and Wales.

Energy firms last year raised prices for gas and electricity despite a fall in wholesale prices.

Sophie Neuburg, Friends Of The Earth fuel poverty campaigner, said: "These are appalling figures that ministers cannot ignore.

"The Government's refusal to invest properly in home insulation shows a callous disregard for the thousands of people who die each year because they can't afford to heat their homes.

"A large-scale, publicly-funded energy efficiency programme is urgently needed to create jobs, cut emissions and save the lives of some of the UK's most vulnerable people."

Drones On Shark Patrol

A trial of the unmanned aerial vehicles in New South Wales follows a spate of attacks on humans by the marine predators this year, one of which was fatal.

The drones will feed live images back to an operator, including GPS coordinates, so people can be better warned.

The technology is already being used by lifeguards in California to monitor Great Whites in an attempt to keep beaches safe.

NSW is also to test out "smart" drum lines which after hooking a shark alert the authorities, who can then tag and release the animals.

Two "listening stations" located on the far north coast of the state will provide real-time tracking data of tagged sharks.

The state government said the drum lines are more humane than those used to capture sharks in Western Australia in 2014 after a string of fatalities, with the largest of the animals destroyed.

The controversial catch-and-kill policy was later abandoned after objections from the state's environmental agency and conservationists.

Niall Blair, a minister in the NSW government, said: "They're like a baited hook that has technology connected to it so when the bait is taken, a message is sent to our vessels and they'll attend those lines immediately.

"They will then tag and release the sharks that are caught on those. So they're very different to the traditional drum lines which could have sharks sitting on them for days before they're checked."

Under the Aus $16m (£7.7m) shark strategy, helicopter surveillance will also be increased over popular beaches.

NSW has ruled out culling sharks despite the spike in attacks this year.

A Japanese surfer died in February after his legs were bitten off by a shark and there have been 12 other serious attacks up and down the 1,200-mile coast.

There were only three attacks in the state in 2014.

Mr Blair said: "There is no easy way to reduce risks for swimmers and surfers.

"We are delivering on a commitment to test the best science available, including new technologies, as we try to find an effective long-term solution to keep our beaches safe."

Experts say attacks are increasing as water sports become more popular and bait fish move closer to shore, but fatalities remain rare.

A plane with Nigerians deported from the UK lands in Lagos

A plane carrying about 500 Nigerians deported from the UK has landed in Nigeria's main city of Lagos.

Most of the deportees say they are not happy to come back. 

One person told me that he was arrested by British police and was even not allowed to even take his belongings before being deported.

A few of them who say they don't have relatives here are stranded in the airport.

Recently, Nigeria expressed concern over UK's plan to deport 29,000 Nigerians, and has insisted that due process be followed before Nigerians are removed from the UK. 

The West African nation says Britain must ensure that those been deported are really Nigerians, medically fit to travel and have a role to play in the country - meaning they should be able to fit into Nigerian society.

Missing Russian jet pilot 'alive

The pilot is "alive and well" at a Russian air base in Syria, it says. 

His co-pilot and a marine involved in a rescue were killed.

Turkey said the jet had strayed into its airspace but Russian President Vladimir Putin says the plane was flying over Syrian territory.

It is not clear what has happened to the body of the other pilot, who was killed by gunfire as he parachuted from his burning plane.

Tensions have escalated between Russia and Turkey over the incident, but the US, the EU and the UN have all appealed for calm. 

President Putin has described the downing of the plane as a "stab in the back", and warned of serious consequences.

Turkey's President Recep Erdogan has defended the action, saying "everyone must respect the right of Turkey to protect its borders", but he stressed he did not want to escalate tensions further.

After Turkey became the first Nato member to shoot down a Russian plane in over half a century, the question now is how will Moscow respond? 

President Putin called Turkey an "accomplice of terrorists" and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled a planned trip to Ankara on Wednesday. 

But the UN and Nato have urged both sides to de-escalate the crisis. According to Ankara, the Russian Su-24 was warned 10 times about entering Turkish airspace, though Moscow says there was no such communication. 

But Turkey also said the violation lasted just 17 seconds. And given signs that a united front was beginning to form against Islamic State, there will be diplomatic pressure on both sides to focus instead on the common threat from the militants. 

The tough talk from Ankara and Moscow will no doubt continue - but whether there will be serious retaliation is less clear.

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Russian defence officials say the plane never entered Turkish territory, and that Turkish pilots made no attempt to communicate with the Russians before they fired.

Turkey says it warned them repeatedly before shooting the plane down. 

Turkey is a member of Nato and the alliance has backed Turkey's version of events. However, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said "diplomacy and de-escalation are important to resolve this situation".

Breaking off military contacts with Turkey, Russia has announced fighter jets will now escort its bombers during air strikes over Syria, and Moscow is sending out its most anti-aircraft missile system, the S-400.

Russia and Turkey have found themselves on opposing sides in Syria's conflict, with Russia supporting President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey is a staunch critic.

The two pilots came under ground fire after they parachuted from their burning plane, Russian defence official Lt-Gen Sergey Rudskoy said. 

There had been various reports about the fate of the surviving airman, but Mr Shoygu said Russian and Syrian special forces had managed to rescue him from rebel forces as part of a 12-hour operation.

"The operation ended successfully. The second pilot has been brought to our base. He is alive and well," he was quoted by Ria Novosti state news agency as saying.

Earlier, Lt-Gen Rudskoy also said a rescue team using two Mi-8 helicopters had come under fire and was forced to make an "emergency landing on neutral territory". 

"One naval infantryman serving under contract was killed," he said, adding that the rest of the team were safely evacuated to Russia's Humaymim air base near Latakia in Syria. 

Syrian rebels say they blew up the helicopter shortly after it landed with an anti-tank missile, releasing footage of the attack. 

Russians have been advised not to visit Turkey - a popular tourist destination for Russians - and one of Russia's largest tour operators, Natali Tours, has suspended package holidays there.

There have been loud calls in Russia for economic sanctions and for all flights to Turkey to be cancelled, the BBC's Moscow correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, reports.

'Miracle' Baby Appears In Church

A custodian of the church in the Richmond Hill area of Queens popped out for lunch and when he came back he heard a baby crying but could not see anyone around.

After following the wailing to the front of the church he was presented with a scene reminiscent of the nativity - a newborn boy swaddled in towels, lying in the manger.

New York law allows unwanted babies to be dropped off anonymously at a church, hospital, police or fire station without fear of arrest.

But the Abandoned Infant Protection Act provides that the child must be left with someone, or authorities have to be called.

Because that did not happen in this case, police launched a search to track down the boy's parents.

Detectives are scouring CCTV cameras and knocking on the doors of nearby homes to track down whoever left him at the church.

Surveillance video reportedly shows a woman walking inside the church with a baby in her arms before leaving alone.

The boy was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he weighed-in at 5lb 6oz (2.25kg).

Church pastor Christopher Heanue said: "Let us pray for this child, for his parents, and for whomever will receive him into their home.

"The beautiful thing is that this woman found in this church - which is supposed to be a home for those in need - this home for her child.

"A young couple in our parish would love to adopt this child and keep this gift in our community. It would make a great Christmas miracle."