Tropical storm Nate moved  quickly inland from the US Gulf Coast early today after making  landfall twice as a powerful hurricane, triggering widespread  flooding and power outages.
After leaving a trail of death and destruction in Central  America, the storm hit the southern United States -- the third  hurricane to hit the region in less than two months as part of  an especially active hurricane season.
More than 100,000 people were without power. Ahead of the  storm, officials urged residents to evacuate some vulnerable  areas before the storm first made landfall on the southeastern  tip of Louisiana last evening and later hit along the  Mississippi coast.
At 5:00 am local time, the storm had top winds of 113  kilometers per hour and was moving north-northeast at 23 miles  per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.
"Rapid weakening anticipated," the NHC said as the storm  moved further inland over Mississippi and Alabama. It was  expected to track further north through ...

Tropical storm Nate lashes US Gulf Coast

PTI Automatic

Turkish troops today  exchanged fire with Syria-based jihadists as Ankara massed  military vehicles on the frontier ahead of an expected  operation to oust Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate from  Idlib province.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday announced the  launch of an operation by pro-Ankara Syrian rebel forces,  backed by the Turkish army, to reimpose security in Idlib.
Most of the northwestern region is controlled by Hayat  Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria  affiliate, which ousted more moderate rebels in recent months.
Turkey has massed special forces and military hardware  including tanks on the border but the operation has yet to  begin in earnest, monitors and sources on the ground said.
But Turkish forces fired seven mortars over the border  with the aim of easing the passage of the pro-Ankara Syrian  forces, the Dogan news agency reported.
Turkish forces have also been seen removing parts of the  security wall Ankara has built on the ...

Turkey troops, Syria jihadists clash ahead of expected

Sri Lankan police have arrested two  men for allegedly helping international criminals who hacked  into computers at a Taiwan bank and stole millions of dollars,  an official said today.
The pair were arrested after they tried to withdraw large  sums of money that had been wired to their accounts with a Sri  Lankan bank branch in the capital Colombo, the official said.
The police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was  working closely with Taiwan counterparts to track down the  hackers, who are said to have breached the Taiwan bank's  computers last week.
"We are looking at some USD 1.3 million that had come  into three accounts in Sri Lanka," the official involved with  the investigation told AFP, asking not to be named.
"We have taken two people into custody and we are looking  for one more person."
Police in Sri Lanka did not disclose the name of the  affected bank in Taiwan or the sum said to have been stolen,  but a Sri Lankan media report said tens of millions of dollars  ..

Sri Lanka arrests two men over Taiwan bank hacking

A drone strike today killed five  suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the Yemeni province of Marib,  east of the capital Sanaa, security officials said.
One official said a US drone had probably carried out the  strike, which targeted a car in the province's Saoud district.
The United States considers the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in  the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group's most dangerous  branch.
AQAP has flourished in the chaos of the country's civil  war, which pits the Saudi-backed government of President  Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against the Huthi rebels.
A long-running drone war against AQAP has intensified  since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
An air raid he ordered that month killed a US Navy SEAL  and several Yemeni civilians in Baida province, just south of  Marib.
More than 8,000 people have been killed since a Saudi-led  coalition joined the Yemen war on Hadi's side in 2015.

Drone kills five Qaeda suspects in Yemen

Protesters flocked to Barcelona  today wrapped in Spanish flags to rally against plans by  separatist leaders to declare Catalonia independent following  a banned secession referendum.
Catalans calling themselves a "silent majority" opposed  to leaving Spain broke their silence after a week of mounting  anxiety over Spain's worst political crisis in a generation.
Hundreds of people gathered on the city's Urquinaona  square waving red and yellow flags and singing "Viva Espana".
"We have perhaps been silent too long," Alejandro Marcos,  44, told AFP.
"It seems that the one who yells the most wins the  argument. So we have to raise our voices and say loud and  clear that we do not want independence."
Some protesters called for the region's separatist  president Carles Puigdemont to go to jail for holding a vote  on independence in defiance of the Spanish government and  courts.
"The unity of Spain cannot be voted on or negotiated --  it must be defended," read one sign in the ...

Protesters rally against Catalan independence in Barcelona

Bangladesh were  hit by a pace barrage as they were pushed closer to an innings  defeat on the third day of the second Test against South  Africa at Mangaung Oval today.
Bangladesh, following on after trailing by 426 runs on  the first innings, were 92 for four at lunch, still 334 runs  short of making South Africa bat again.
Kagiso Rabada took the first two wickets and fellow fast  bowlers Duanne Olivier and Wayne Parnell took one apiece.
Rabada and Olivier sent down numerous short-pitched  deliveries and three batsmen were struck on their batting  helmets, including captain Mushfiqur Rahim, who had lengthy  treatment on the field after ducking into a bouncer from  Olivier with his score on 11 soon after the mid-morning drinks  break. He was hit on his helmet near the temple area.
Rahim was dazed and lay down next to the pitch while the  Bangladesh team physiotherapist and South African team doctor  attended to him. He carried on batting for another 50 minutes  until he was leg ...

Bangladesh hit by pace barrage

A Filipino suspect in a thwarted  jihadist plot targeting New York's subway and Times Square  will face legal proceedings seeking his extradition to the  United States, the Philippine justice secretary said today.
Russell Salic and two others have been charged with  involvement in the plan to stage the attacks in the name of  the Islamic State group during the Muslim holy month of  Ramadan in 2016.
Salic was arrested in the Philippines in April 2017 and  Washington had requested his extradition, the US Department of  Justice said.
"It only means that we have to begin the extradition  proceedings being requested," Philippine Justice Secretary  Vitaliano Aguirre said in a statement without giving a  timeframe.
"We have a process to be followed and this has been done  many times in the past."
The Philippine military chief, General Eduardo Ano, said  today that Salic was in the custody of the country's National  Bureau of Investigation.
Salic, a 37-year-old Filipino doctor, transferred ...

Philippines to start extradition process for NY plotter:

Lewis Hamilton romped to victory at  the Japanese Grand Prix today to close in on a fourth world  title after Sebastian Vettel retired with engine failure on  lap four.
The Briton dominated from pole, steering his Mercedes to  a crushing eighth win of the year, stretching his Formula One  championship lead over Vettel to 59 points with just 100 left  to play for.
"Honestly I could only have dreamed of having this kind  of gap," said Hamilton after holding off a late charge from  Max Verstappen in Suzuka.
"The team has done a phenomenal job, they're just so  meticulous so a big thank you to the guys."
The Red Bulls of Verstappen -- who stunned Hamilton to  win in Malaysia last week -- and Daniel Ricciardo secured a  double podium for the second successive race.
Valtteri Bottas finished fourth in the second Mercedes  with Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari taking fifth and Esteban Ocon  sixth for Force India.
Hamilton celebrated a fourth victory in Japan and a 61st  career win with a 'Mobot' ...

Ruthless Hamilton roars to Japan win

Bangladesh police were today searching  for a man who defied a ban and married a Rohingya refugee,  hundreds of thousands of whom have fled across the border to  escape violence in Myanmar.
More than half a million Rohingya refugees have flocked  to Bangladesh since an army crackdown began on August 25 in  Myanmar's Rakhine state, a process the UN has described as  ethnic cleansing.
Shoaib Hossain Jewel, 25, and his 18-year-old Rohingya  bride Rafiza have been on the run since marrying last month,  said police in Jewel's home town of Singair.
"We heard he married a Rohingya woman. We went to his  home at Charigram village to look for him," Singair police  chief Khandaker Imam Hossain told AFP.
"But we did not find him there and his parents don't know  where he has gone," he said, adding they were investigating  the case.
In 2014 Dhaka banned marriages between Bangladeshis and  Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim refugees following claims that  members of the persecuted community were attempting 

Bangladesh police hunt man who married Rohingya refugee

A psychology student from Belarus,  Aleksandra Chichikova, was chosen Miss Wheelchair World in the  first-ever edition of the beauty pageant held in Warsaw  yesterday.
"Fight your anxiety and your fears," the 23-year-old  Chichikova said at a gala evening, after the contestants had  presented themselves in national costumes and evening dresses  in elaborate choreographies.
Lebohang Monyatsi from South Africa was the runner-up  ahead of Poland's Adrianna Zawadzinska in the first contest of  its kind on a global scale, which brought together 24 young  women from 19 countries.
The goal of the contest was to "change the image of women  in wheelchairs so they would not be judged solely by this  attribute," contest co-founder and jury president Katarzyna  Wojtaszek-Ginalska told AFP.
The pageant organised by the Poland-based Only One  Foundation also seeks to show that a wheelchair is a luxury in  many parts of the world, she added.
The contestants were chosen either in national rounds or,  

Belarussian student becomes first-ever Miss Wheelchair World

A Filipino suspect in a thwarted  jihadist plot targeting New York's subway and Times Square  will be extradited to the United States, the Philippine  justice secretary said today.
Russell Salic and two others have been charged with  involvement in the plan to carry out the attacks in the name  of the Islamic State group during the Muslim holy month of  Ramadan in 2016.
Salic was arrested in the Philippines in April 2017 and  the US had requested his extradition, the US Department of  Justice said.
"It only means that we have to begin the extradition  proceedings being requested," Philippine Justice Secretary  Vitaliano Aguirre said in a statement without giving a  timeframe.
"We have a process to be followed and this has been done  many times in the past."
The Philippine military chief, General Eduardo Ano, said  on Sunday that Salic was in the custody of the country's  National Bureau of Investigation.
Salic, a 37-year-old Filipino doctor, transferred USD 423  in May 2016 to the ...

Philippines to extradite NY plotter to US: minister

The top US envoy in Sudan said  today that conditions have to be "right" for holding talks  with Khartoum on removing it from Washington's blacklist of  state sponsors of "terrorism".
US charge d'affaires to Khartoum Steven Koutsis' remarks  came a day after Washington ended its 20-year-old trade  embargo on the east African country.
However, the US did not drop Sudan from the blacklist, a  consistent demand by Khartoum in return for cooperating with  US intelligence agencies in fighting "terrorism".
"This is something that both sides are keenly willing to  discuss, but we have to be certain that conditions are right  for discussions to remove (Sudan) from the list," Koutsis said  at a press conference at the US mission in Khartoum.
"The government of Sudan knows fully well what it needs  to do ... and we hope that those conditions will come soon,"  he said, without elaborating.
Later yesterday, Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim  Ghandour said Khartoum faces a "paradox".
"We are the ...

US says time not 'right' for talks on removing Sudan from

A note discovered in the hotel  room of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock featured hand-  written calculations on where he needed to aim to increase his  accuracy and number of kills, US network CBS has reported.
The piece of paper was found by police officers who  stormed Paddock's room after he launched his attack from the  32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel Sunday night - killing 58  people and injuring nearly 500.
In an interview set to air today, Officer David Newton of  the Las Vegas Police Department's K-9 unit, told CBS' "60  Minutes" he noticed Paddock's note "on the nightstand near his  shooting platform."
"I could see on it he had written the distance, the  elevation he was on, the drop of what his bullet was going to  be for the crowd. So he had had that written down and figured  out so he would know where to shoot to hit his targets from  there," he said.
Newton added that forcing entry into the room with an  explosive before finding Paddock's body and an arsenal of  ...

Las Vegas shooter's note contained calculations to maximise

More than 2,300 suspected  members of the jihadist group Boko Haram were expected to  appear in court in Nigeria from tomorrow in unprecedented mass  trials to be held behind closed doors.
The defendants have all been picked up and held in  detention since the start of the conflict eight years ago,  which has left at least 20,000 dead in the country's remote  northeast.
To date, just 13 people have been put on trial and only  nine convicted for their links to the Islamist insurgency,  according to official figures.
The most high-profile current case is that of Khalid Al-  Barnawi, a leader of the Boko Haram offshoot Ansaru, who is  charged with the abduction and murder of 10 foreign nationals.
Nigeria's justice ministry announced the start of the  trials at the end of last month, saying four judges had been  assigned and that defendants would have legal representation.
Some 1,670 detainees at a military base in Kainji, in the  central state of Niger, will be tried first followed by ...

Nigeria tries Boko Haram suspects behind closed doors

US President Donald Trump has  said he will not go ahead with his controversial pledge to  move the American embassy to Jerusalem until after pushing for  an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
"I wanna give that a shot before I even think about  moving the embassy to Jerusalem," Trump said on former  governor Mike Huckabee's TV show yesterday, referring to  efforts to forge a peace between the two sides that has eluded  career diplomats for decades.
"We're gonna make a decision in the not too distant  future," Trump said, but for now, the peace push comes first.
That push is one of the various portfolios Trump gave his  son-in-law Jared Kushner, a 36-year-old with no prior  government experience who became one of the most powerful men  in Washington by virtue of his family connection to the  president.
Foreign countries currently have their embassies in the  Israeli commercial capital Tel Aviv since they do not  recognise Israel's unilateral claim of control over all of  ...

Trump says will not move US embassy to Jerusalem for now

Two weeks after winning German  elections with a reduced majority, Chancellor Angela Merkel  takes a first step today on a rocky road towards forming a  government by trying to get her own conservative house in  order.
Her meeting from 1000 GMT with Bavarian sister party CSU  kicks off weeks of exploratory coalition talks involving four  parties, which will fight for ministerial posts and issues  from EU relations to climate policy.
The trickiest questions centre on refugees after Merkel  allowed in more than one million asylum seekers in the past  two years - the decision that drove the shock rise of the  far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
CSU leader Horst Seehofer, a harsh critic of Merkel's  open-door policy, has revived his calls to cap refugee numbers  at 200,000 a year - a demand Merkel has consistently rejected  as unconstitutional.
Seehofer is in no mood to budge after his party too took  a drubbing and lost many votes to the AfD, which ran on  populist slogans such as ..

Refugee issue looms as Merkel starts coalition talks

Alex Iwobi's goal saw Nigeria become  the first African team to qualify for next year's World Cup in  Russia, while Ghana were eliminated in the qualifiers.
A 73rd-minute strike by Arsenal forward Iwobi handed the  Super Eagles a 1-0 success over Zambia in Uyo, ensuring top  spot in Group B with a game to spare.
"It was my goal to qualify this team to an amazing  tournament like the World Cup," said Nigeria captain Mikel  Obi.
"I'm proud to captain this team of great players and  coaches.
"My wife is Russian and she and the kids will be in  Russia to cheer us at the World Cup."
Nigeria now have 13 points with second-placed Zambia on  seven. Cameroon are on six points after defeating Algeria 2-0.
Ghana, quarter-finalists at the 2010 World Cup in South  Africa, were eliminated after managing only a goalless draw in  Uganda when needing a win to keep their slim hopes alive.
It means Egypt can join Nigeria with victory at home to  winless Congo on Sunday.
Failure to do so would mean ...

Iwobi sends Nigeria to Russia, Ghana eliminated

Kendall Watson's header deep into  injury time gave Costa Rica a 1-1 draw with Honduras and a  berth in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Eddie Hernandez had headed Honduras ahead in the 66th  minute, and it appeared that Costa Rica would have to put  their Russia plans on hold.
But five minutes into stoppage time, Watson rose in the  center of the area to head in Bryan Ruiz's cross and spark  joyful celebrations at the National Stadium in San Jose, where  the match was postponed from Friday due to the effects of  Hurricane Nate.
Costa Rica had a golden chance to take the lead in the  60th minute. Honduran goalkeeper Donis Escober had pushed a  shot back into the middle of the area only for Marcos Urena to  fire over the empty net.
Six minutes later, Romell Quioto sprinted down the wing  and crossed into the box where Hernandez connected with a  thundering header to put the visitors in front.
Costa Rica, with 16 points, joined Mexico (21) in  advancing from the North and Central America ..

Costa Rica clinch World Cup berth with 1-1 draw against

Former world number one Tiger Woods  released a 24-second slow-motion video of himself hitting an  iron shot, another tease that he is returning to fitness.
The 41-year-old American, a 14-time major winner, tweeted  the video of himself yesterday with the tag line: "Smooth iron  shots."
It was an advancement from where Woods said he was two  weeks ago in a posting on his website, saying he was swatting  60-yard shots.
Woods has not played a competitive round since firing a  77 in the first round at Dubai in February. Woods withdrew  from the event the next day and underwent another back  operation in April, his fourth back surgery in all, that  sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
Woods served as an assistant captain for the triumphant  US squad at the Presidents Cup last week in suburban New York  and said he had "no idea what my future holds" regarding his  return to competition.
Doctors cleared him to begin swinging a cub again two  weeks ago, Woods said.
"I'm still ...

Tiger hitting 'smooth iron shots' in injury update

Blaise Matuidi's early goal saw off  Bulgaria 1-0 and kept France top of European World Cup  qualifying Group A, while the Netherlands' hopes are hanging  by a thread despite a 3-1 win in Belarus.
France took the lead in only the third minute as  midfielder Matuidi curled home a fantastic shot from a tight  angle into the far top corner.
Bulgaria more than held their own in Sofia, though, as  they looked to repeat the famous win over France that sent  them to the 1994 World Cup, and Hugo Lloris was forced into a  point-blank save to deny Georgi Kostadinov.
But Didier Deschamps's side closed out the vital win, and  three points at home to Belarus on Tuesday would book their  ticket to Russia.
"It was a difficult match with lots of mistakes,  commitment," said coach Deschamps.
"We're still first -- that's important -- we've got one  match left and (qualification) remains in our hands, so we  have to win on Tuesday."
The Dutch needed a victory in Barysaw to keep alive any  hopes of a ...

France on brink of World Cup, Dutch hopes all but over

The chairman of Brazil's  Olympic Committee, who helped organize the Rio 2016 Games,  submitted his resignation, saying he wanted to concentrate on  defending himself against corruption charges.
"To be able to fully exercise my right to defense, which  has up until now been violated, I resign with immediate effect  my duties as chairman of the Brazilian Olympic Committee,"  Carlos Nuzman said in a statement released Saturday but dated  Friday.
He also resigned as chairman of the Rio 2016 organizing  committee, which ran the first Olympics ever held in South  America.
The Games were generally lauded as a success at the time.  However, the aftermath has produced a flow of corruption  scandals alleging the embezzlement of millions of dollars.
Nuzman, 75, was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday as  part of a probe into allegations he helped buy votes from the  International Olympic Committee (IOC) to secure Rio's hosting  of the 2016 Games.
Brazilian officials said last month Nuzman ...

AFP

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