Three suspects have been named in  connection to a deadly blaze at an Indonesian fireworks  factory that killed 48 workers and was caused by sparks from  welding equipment, police said today.
The factory outside Jakarta had only been operating for  six weeks when the ferocious fire broke out on Thursday,  killing nearly half of the company's employees and injuring 45  others in one of Indonesia's worst industrial accidents in  recent memory.
Factory owner Indra Liyono was named a suspect by police  along with the company's operational director Andri Hartanto  and welding equipment operator Subarna Ega.
The trio could face a maximum of five years in prison and  a Rp 500 million (USD 37,000) fine for workplace negligence  resulting in death.
"The witnesses' testimonies and forensic test revealed  the cause of the fire was the welding equipment sparks which  spread to the fireworks material," Jakarta police spokesman  Argo Yuwono told a press conference.
Liyono and Hartanto have been ...

Indonesian factory owner named suspect over deadly fire

PTI Automatic

Two foreign journalists working for  Turkish state media have been detained for more than 24 hours  in Myanmar for flying a drone over a parliament building in  the capital, the government said today.
The incident comes during high tension between Myanmar  and Turkey, which has lambasted the Southeast Asian nation for  its treatment of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
Last month Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  accused Myanmar of incubating "Buddhist terror" and carrying  out a genocide against the Muslim group.
The reporters, Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and Mok Choy  Lin from Malaysia, were arrested yesterday in Myanmar's  capital Naypyidaw while they were on assignment for Turkish  state broadcaster TRT.
They are "under interrogation for flying a drone over the  Hluttaw (parliament) building", said a statement published by  Myanmar's Ministry of Information.
The pair was working with well-known Myanmar journalist  Aung Naing Soe, whose house in Yangon was searched by 

Myanmar detains Turkish journalists for flying drone over

Myanmar's government will harvest  rice from abandoned farmland in violence-scorched northern  Rakhine, state media said today, a move likely to raise  concerns about the prospect of return for more than half a  million Rohingya who have fled communal unrest in the area.
The border region has been emptied of most of its Muslim  residents since late August, when Myanmar's military launched  a crackdown on Rohingya rebels that the UN says likely amounts  to ethnic cleansing.
Hundreds of villages have been razed to the ground, with  more than 600,000 Rohingya -- a stateless group in mainly  Buddhist Myanmar -- fleeing across the border for sanctuary in  Bangladesh.
Under intense global pressure, Myanmar has agreed to  repatriate "scrutinised" refugees who can prove their  residence in Rakhine.
But details of the plan remain thin, seeding concern  about who will be allowed back, what they will return to and  how they will manage to live in a region where anti-Rohingya  hatred remains ...

Myanmar govt to harvest fields abandoned by Rohingya

Canadian special forces have  temporarily suspended military assistance to Iraqi troops due  to tensions between the Middle Eastern country's military and  Kurdish fighters, the defence ministry has said.
Cooperation will resume "once more clarity exists  regarding the inter-relationships of Iraqi security forces,  and the key priorities and tasks going forward," said Dan Le  Bouthillier, a spokesman for Canadian Defence Minister Harjit  Sajjan, yesterday.
Earlier yesterday, Iraqi forces paused operations against  the Kurds to allow for talks after the two sides -- both armed  and trained by the US -- exchanged heavy artillery fire in the  latest flare-up of a crisis sparked by a Kurdish independence  vote last month.
Canada, which is part of the international coalition  fighting the Islamic State group, said that although its  special forces were suspending their mission in training and  assisting Iraqi forces in the country's north, its work in  other areas continued.
That includes .

Canada pauses military assistance to Iraqi troops

New Zealand's new government has  moved swiftly to target pay equality in rugby union,  criticising the salary gap between top men and women players  in the country's most popular pastime.
Pay parity was a campaign policy of the Labour Party,  which formed a three-way coalition government just days ago,  and Sports Minister Grant Robertson said today he would take  up the matter with New Zealand Rugby (NZR).
Members of the Black Ferns, the New Zealand team which  won the Women's Rugby World Cup in August, are mainly amateur  with most players fitting their sport around full-time jobs.
The only contracted women in New Zealand are those who  play on the world sevens circuit.
The All Blacks, the reigning men's World Cup champions,  are all professional with a current payment pool of 191  million NZ dollars (USD 131 million) spread over three years.
Captain Kieran Read's salary is believed to be more than  1 million NZ dollars before endorsements and sponsorships.
"I will be looking ...

New Zealand government urges pay equality for rugby women

The 10-year-old daughter of  Vietnamese dissident blogger "Mother Mushroom" has written a  letter calling on the US First Lady to push for her mother's  release from prison ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to  the communist nation next month.
The girl's mother, whose real name is Nguyen Ngoc Nhu  Quynh, is among more than two dozen Vietnamese who have been  jailed as part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent over the  past year.
Analysts say the authoritarian regime has been emboldened  by the rise of Trump, who is seen as taking a softer approach  on human rights.
The handwritten letter by Nguyen Bao Nguyen, whose  nickname "Mushroom" is the root of her mother's pen name,  comes ahead of the American president's first official visit  to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)  summit in November.
"Please help my family re-unite because I know my mother  did nothing wrong," 10-year-old Nguyen Bao Nguyen wrote in the  note posted on her grandmother Nguyen Thi ...

Daughter of jailed Vietnamese blogger calls on Melania Trump

Tiger Woods pleaded guilty in a  Florida court to reckless driving, the state attorney said,  after police found the golf champion asleep in his Mercedes-  Benz beside the road last May.
Under the plea agreement reached in Palm Beach County,  north of Miami, Woods will not serve jail time unless he  commits major violations of his probation.
The deal requires Woods, winner of 14 major golf  championships, to spend one year on probation, pay a $250  fine, perform 50 hours' community service, and complete "DUI  (driving under the influence) school", among other conditions,  Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, told  AFP.
"He was calm" while entering the plea, Aronberg said.
Woods, 41, had five drugs in his system, including the  opioid painkiller hydrocodone, when he was arrested on May 29  in Jupiter, Florida, according to a toxicology report police  released at the time.
They arrested him on suspicion of driving under the  influence.
The toxicology report also ...

Tiger Woods pleads guilty to reckless driving

Typhoon Saola barrelled towards  Japan's southernmost Okinawa island chain today bringing heavy  rain as authorities issued a warning for strong winds and  landslides.
The storm came less than a week after Typhoon Lan left  five dead, one missing and scores injured.
Saola was moving 60 km southwest of Okinawa's capital  Naha at 11 am local time, packing gusts of up to 162 km per  hour, Japan's weather agency said.
The storm is set to pass through Okinawa and the small  subtropical island chain of Amami, which lies between Okinawa  and Kyushu, later this evening and then hit southern Kagoshima  prefecture tomorrow morning.
Public broadcaster NHK said some rivers in Okinawa are at  risk of flooding.
Large storms regularly strike Japan, with 22 people  killed when Typhoon Lionrock pounded the country last  September.
In August, Typhoon Noru killed two people and injured 51.

Typhoon Saola brings heavy rain in southern Japan

US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis  warned today that North Korea would face a "massive military  response" if Pyongyang ever used its nuclear weapons.
"Make no mistake -- any attack on the United States or  our allies will be defeated," he said at a press conference on  his trip to Seoul.
"Any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with  a massive military response, effective and overwhelming."
Tensions have been running high on the Korean peninsula,  with the North conducting its sixth nuclear test last month  and test-launching multiple missiles capable of reaching the  US mainland.
The North's ruler Kim Jong-Un and US President Donald  Trump have also traded verbal threats of war and personal  insults that have sparked global alarm.
Mattis maintained that diplomacy remained a "preferred  course of action" to solve the current crisis but stressed,  "our diplomats are most effective when backed by credible  military force".
He urged Pyongyang to "harbour no illusion", ...

NKorea nuclear weapon use would meet 'massive military

The United States has imposed  fresh import duties on Chinese aluminium, accusing exporters  of dumping their product on the US market at prices below  cost.
The move follows a Commerce Department decision in August  that also imposed import duties to counteract alleged unfair  Chinese subsidies in the aluminium foil industry.
President Donald Trump is due to visit China as part of  an 11-day trip to Asia beginning next week.
The Trump administration has aggressively pursued trade  remedies in commercial relations with Beijing -- investigating  Chinese trade practices on intellectual property and for  aluminium and steel on national security grounds.
Perceived Chinese misdeeds in commerce were a mainstay of  Trump's populist campaign for the White House but since taking  office he has refrained from labelling Beijing a currency  manipulator.
Annually, the US runs a steep trade deficit in goods with  China of about USD 350 billion.
In 2016, US imports of Chinese aluminium were ...

US puts anti-dumping duties on Chinese aluminium foil imports

Kenya found itself in a dangerous  limbo today after two days of violent protests sparked by a  deeply divisive presidential election that left eight people  dead and scores injured.
It is the country's worst crisis in a decade, raising  fears for the stability of east Africa's economic powerhouse  and one of its strongest democracies.
As Kenyans counted the cost of Thursday's chaotic and  bloody ballot -- its second election in three months --  supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga vowed to maintain  their boycott of efforts to reschedule a vote in areas where  they'd managed to block it.
Plans to restage elections in the protest-hit western  Nyanza region where opposition supporters managed to prevent  hundreds of local polling stations from opening, were  postponed yesterday after election chief Wafula Chebukati said  he feared for the safety of his staff.
In Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city where three people  had died and dozens were injured as protests raged on Thursday 

Kenya reels as post-election chaos worsens

Iceland votes in a second snap  election in just a year today as several scandals have caused  a distrust in the political elite despite a thriving economy  triggered by booming tourism.
Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson of the conservative  Independence Party called the vote last month after a junior  member of the three-party centre-right coalition quit the  government over a legal scandal involving his father.
Today's election is Iceland's fourth since 2008. Polls  published Friday by public broadcaster RUV and the daily  Morgunbladid show that the Independence Party could get 17  seats in the 63-seat parliament, the Althingi.
The main rival Left-Green Movement and its potential  partners -- the Social Democratic Alliance and the anti  establishment Pirate Party -- would together win 29 seats, too  short of a 32-seat outright majority.
But with help from a fourth party, they could dethrone  the centre-right and become Iceland's second left-leaning  government since its ...

Iceland holds second snap election in a year after series of

US President Donald Trump said he is  concerned about the "extraordinary" increase in drug crops in  Colombia, in a letter to his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel  Santos.
Trump asked Santos for help in cutting down production  and trafficking of drugs in Colombia to try to stop them  entering the United States, according to the letter dated  October 24.
The US president said he signed a declaration in  September "expressing concern about the extraordinary  expansion of coca cultivation and production of cocaine in  Colombia."
"I express these concerns because I promised the people  of the United States that we would prevent drugs from crossing  our borders and I need your help to diminish the production  and trafficking of drugs in Colombia," Trump wrote in a  Spanish-language version of the letter made available by  Santos.
The South American country is the world's leading coca  leaf producer and also the biggest source of cocaine,  producing 866 tons in 2016, according to the ...

Trump calls on Colombian leader for help in drugs war

A Bahraini policeman was killed and  eight others wounded in a "terrorist" bomb attack on the bus  in which they were travelling, the interior ministry said.
The eight wounded policemen sustained serious to medium  injuries and were admitted to hospital, the ministry said on  its Twitter account yesterday.
It said the attack was carried out by a "terrorist" group  which remotely detonated a home-made bomb.
The attack took place near the Shiite town of Jidhafs  outside the capital Manama.
Authorities opened an investigation into the attack and  police began a manhunt to find and arrest the assailants, the  ministry said.
Bahrain, a Shiite-majority kingdom ruled by a Sunni  dynasty, has seen sporadic violence since a crackdown in 2011  on a protest movement demanding a constitutional monarchy and  an elected prime minister.
Authorities have since tightened their grip on dissent,  jailing hundreds of protesters and stripping a string of  high-profile activists and clerics of ...

Bahraini policeman killed, 8 wounded in bomb attack

A second protester was killed in  Kenya today as anger raged a day after a divisive election  boycotted by the opposition, taking the death toll from two  days of protests to eight.
The latest victim was shot dead by police in the  Kawangware slum in Nairobi during clashes involving members of  three tribal groups, police and witnesses said.
"We have one fatality -- a person shot during the  skirmishes. The situation is still tense because the area is  dark after the power went off," a police officer at the scene  told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Nairobi Police Chief Japheth Koome confirmed the death  but gave no further details.
Josphat Ochwaya, a local resident who was there at the  time, told AFP it started when a group of youths "started  attacking people and questioning why people never voted" in  yesterday's presidential re-run which was widely boycotted by  supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga.
"That's when an all-out war broke out and youths armed  ...

Second protester shot dead in Kenya after fractious vote

A plaque briefly marked the  spot where Donald Trump was recorded bragging about groping  women on the now infamous "Access Hollywood" video that  threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign.
The satirical memorial plate was put up by pranksters in  the parking lot of NBC's studio in Burbank, California, at the  exact spot where Trump made the lewd comments to celebrity  interviewer Billy Bush.
"On this spot in September 2005 Donald J Trump bragged  about committing sexual assault," the plaque read.
"In November 2016, he was elected President of the United  States."
"Legends of Tomorrow" visual effects editor Seth Gottlieb  wrote on Facebook that the producers of his show were  responsible the stunt, which he said was "in dishonor of our  President."
Gottlieb's message, which includes a picture of the  plaque, was posted last week but only attracted significant  attention on Friday, when it was shared widely on social  media.
The show's executive producer, Phil Klemmer, said ..

Trump's lewd 'Access Hollywood' tape commemorated

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy  said today he had dissolved the Catalan parliament and called  regional elections on December 21 under sweeping powers  approved by the Senate to stop a secessionist movement in  Catalonia.
Rajoy said he had also formally removed Catalonia's  separatist leader Carles Puigdemont and his executive from  office as part of measures to "restore normality" after the  Catalan parliament voted to declare independence earlier  today.

Spain PM dissolves Catalan parliament, calls regional vote for

The alleged leader of a British  rightwing terror group appeared in court in London today  charged with giving the go-ahead for a machete attack against  a lawmaker.
Westminster Magistrates' Court heard charges that  Christopher Lythgoe, 31, granted permission for a fellow  member of banned group National Action to carry out the attack  on July 1.
An unnamed 22-year-old man also appeared, charged with  intending to commit acts of terrorism.
The man bought a "Gladius Machete" -- modelled on the  swords used by ancient Romans -- with the intention of killing  Rosie Cooper, MP for West Lancashire in northwest England.
Lythgoe, from nearby Cheshire, is charged with  encouraging the 22-year-old to commit murder.
The two men, along with four others, appeared in the dock  charged with being members of National Action, an organisation  which was outlawed last December, six months after the  assassination of lawmaker Jo Cox by a far-right sympathiser.
Cox, an MP from the main opposition Labour 

UK rightwing terror leader in court over MP murder plot

China urged the United States today  to prevent Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen from making a  stopover in American territory during her upcoming visit to  three Pacific allies.
The statement followed reports that Tsai will transit  through Hawaii and the US territory of Guam next week -- a  trip that comes at a delicate time with President Donald Trump  slated to visit Beijing in November.
"As for the Taiwan leader stopover in US territory, her  true motives for transiting by the US is self-evident,"  foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a regular  press briefing.
"We hope that the United States would abide strictly by  the 'one China' policy... deny her permission to stopover,  avoid sending the wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces  and take concrete actions to preserve the overall state of  US-China relations."
Starting tomorrow, Tsai will visit the Marshall Islands,  Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands, which are among just 20 of the  nations worldwide that ...

China warns US not to allow Taiwan stopover

Several Bahraini policemen were hurt  today in a "terrorist" attack on the bus in which they were  travelling, the interior ministry said.
"A terrorist act targeted a police bus on Khalifa bin  Salman highway" in the capital Manama, the ministry said on  its Twitter account.
"Several policemen injured. Relevant procedures are being  taken," the ministry said.
The statement provided no further details about the  number of policemen injured, the type of attack or who was  thought to have carried it out.

Several Bahraini policemen hurt in attack: ministry

The dissident publisher Gui  Minhai has finally spoken with his family after China said it  had released him from detention, friends said today, but it is  still unclear to what extent he is a free man.
Fears were raised for the 53-year-old Swedish citizen  when he failed to contact family members after Chinese  authorities said Tuesday that he had been released on October  17.
The Swedish foreign ministry announced on Tuesday that it  had been informed of his release but was still trying to  contact him.
Gui was one of five Hong Kong-based booksellers known for  salacious titles about the lives of China's political elite  who went missing in 2015 and resurfaced in detention on the  mainland.
Swedish journalist and author Jojje Olsson, who is  writing a book about Gui Minhai, told AFP that Gui had finally  contacted his daughter Angela Thursday in a 40-minute phone  call.
Olsson said Gui was in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo  and had been able to meet his mother and sisters, ...

AFP

AFP

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