Thousands of Islamist hardliners  marched in Bangladesh's port city of Chittagong today calling  for the government to arm Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing a  crackdown in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state.
More than half a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh  since attacks by militants belonging to the Muslim minority on  Myanmar police posts sparked brutal reprisals by security  forces.
The refugees accuse Myanmar's army -- flanked by mobs of  ethnic Rakhine -- of slaughtering them and burning their  villages in a campaign which the United Nations says amounts  to "ethnic cleansing".
Myanmar's military have blamed the unrest on the  Rohingya.
Up to 15,000 people joined the demonstrations in  Bangladesh's second largest city, police said, organised by  hardline Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam to protest against the  killings of the Rohingya.
"We demanded a halt to the genocide of the Rohingya,"  Hefazat spokesman Azizul Hoque Islamabad told AFP.
"We have also asked the government .

Bangladesh Islamists call to arm Rohingya

PTI Automatic

A Spanish government official today  offered the first apology to Catalans injured by police during  their outlawed independence vote as the sides showed tentative  signs of seeking an exit from the crisis.
In Spain's deepest political crisis in decades, Catalan  leaders had threatened to declare independence unilaterally  and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed to stop them, rejecting  calls for mediation.
The worsening standoff raised fears of further unrest in  the northeastern region, a tourist-friendly land of 7.5  million people that accounts for a fifth of Spain's economy.
But today saw the first signs the sides may be willing  to step back from the brink in a political conflict that  threatens to destabilise Europe.
After days of ill-tempered rhetoric, the central  government said it regretted last Sunday's injuries and  suggested Catalonia should hold a regional election to settle  the crisis.
Catalan government minister Santi Vila, a close of ally  of regional president ...

Spain apologises to injured Catalans

Moscow today slammed a Greek court's  ruling that a Russian national accused of helping criminals  launder billions of dollars using Bitcoin should be extradited  to the United States.
Alexander Vinnik, who headed BTC-e, an exchange he  operated for the cyber currency, was indicted by a US court  in July on 21 charges ranging from identity theft and  facilitating drug trafficking to money laundering.
Vinnik said he would appeal the extradition decision of  the Thessaloniki court on Wednesday.
"We consider that the verdict is unjust and violates the  norms of international law," the Russian foreign ministry said  in a statement.
"Greek authorities received a request from the Russian  attorney general that Vinnik be extradited to Russia" which  "should have priority, as Vinnik is a Russian citizen," the  ministry said.
"Such a ruling is all the more surprising considering the  context of friendly relations between Russia and Greece...we  hope the relevant Greek authorities will take ...

Extradition of Russian to US on Bitcoin charges 'unjust':

Russian-backed Syrian regime forces  today broke into the eastern town of Mayadeen, one of the  Islamic State group's last bastions in the country, a monitor  said.
"With support from Russian aviation, regime forces  entered Mayadeen and took control of several buildings in the  west of the town," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-  based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
IS jihadists have controlled Mayadeen in the eastern  province of Deir Ezzor since 2014.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been advancing  rapidly in a bid to expel the jihadists from the province.
Mayadeen sits on the western bank of the Euphrates River,  between provincial capital Deir Ezzor, where the jihadists  still hold several districts, and the border with Iraq.
IS remains in control of half of Deir Ezzor province,  despite regime advances and a separate offensive against the  jihadists by a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance.

Syria regime forces enter IS-held Mayadeen: monitor

Israel today decided to ease  restrictions on Palestinians entering during the Jewish Sukkot  holiday, which began on Wednesday, the army said.
On Tuesday, the army said crossings from the West Bank  and Gaza into Israel would be closed to Palestinians for 11  days until midnight on October 14.
But today they decided those with pre-existing work  permits would be allowed in "according to the needs of the  market", an army spokeswoman told AFP.
The decision applies to Palestinians working in  agriculture and hospitals, according to media reports.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians work inside Israel,  where they can find higher salaries.
Israel, which controls access to the Palestinian  territories, regularly closes them off during Jewish holidays,  citing security fears.
But the closure announced Tuesday was unusual in its  length.
Israeli media saw it as a reaction to a September 26  attack at the entrance of a West Bank settlement in which  three people were killed.
The Palestinian ..

Israel to ease holiday restrictions for Palestinians

South Africa's  openers Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram hit centuries as  Bangladesh's bowlers were outclassed on day one of the second  and final Test at Mangaung Oval today.
The hosts were 256 for one at tea. Elgar made 113 and  Markram was unbeaten on 135.
Markram's maiden century came in his second Test, eight  days after he was run out for 97 in his debut innings during  the first Test in Potchefstroom.
For the second successive match, the South African  opening pair gave Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim cause to  regret his decision to bowl first. Their partnership of 243  exceeded the 196 they put on to set up South Africa's 333-run  win in the first Test.
Elgar followed up his 199 in Potchefstroom with his tenth  Test century. He made his runs off 152 balls, with 17 fours.  When he reached 16 he became the first batsman in the world to  score 1,000 Test runs in 2017.
Neither batsman gave a chance until Elgar, on 110, gloved  an attempted hook off Mustafizur Rahman and ...

Elgar, Markram centuries punish Bangladesh

Sri Lanka were off to a sound start as  they reached 96-1 at tea on the first day of the second and  final day-night Test against Pakistan here today.
Opener Dimuth Karunaratne was unbeaten on 52 and  Sadeerawickrama was eight not out after Sri Lankan skipper  Dinesh Chandimal won the toss and opted to bat on a flat Dubai  stadium pitch.
Karunaratne cracked three boundaries in paceman Mohammad  Amir's over and then hit leg-spinner Yasir Shah for another to  reach his sixth Test half century.
In all he has so far hit seven boundaries in the two-hour  first session.
Sri Lanka lead the series 1-0 after winning the first  Test by 21 runs in Abu Dhabi.
Karunaratne put on 63 for the first wicket with Kaushal  Silva who fell caught behind off Shah after scoring 27.
This is the sixth day-night Test with a pink ball since  the innovation was first seen in the Australia-New Zealand  Test at Adelaide in December 2015.

Sri Lanka firm at 96-1 in second Test

A raucous Ukrainian parliament today  extended by another year the self-rule of its two Russian-  backed insurgent regions of Lugansk and Donetsk under a set of  strict conditions.
The vote has been welcomed by Ukraine's Western partners  but bitterly opposed by hard-core nationalists who set off  flares outside the chamber during the first debate held  yesterday.
Deputies voted by a 229 to 57 margin to extend "local  self-government in individual districts of the Donetsk and  Lugansk regions" -- once all Russian troops and arms are  withdrawn from Ukraine's war-scarred east.
The measure is required because the initial three-year  period of partial autonomy set in a moribund 2014 peace deal  expires on October 18.
The legislation strikes at the core of an intractable  Ukrainian problem -- putting an end to one of Europe's  deadliest modern wars and reunifying the country while getting  Russia to admit it is behind fighting in which more than  10,000 have died.
The pro-EU leaders who ..

Ukraine parliament extends insurgents' self-rule by one year

Iranian Vice President Eshagh  Jahangiri today said that his brother, who heads several major  tourism projects, had been arrested.
Mehdi Jahangiri has interests in large-scale  developments, including a new tourism park outside Tehran, as  well as a branding deal with France's Novotel and Ibis hotel  chains signed in 2015.
"I do not have precise information on the reason and  manner of the arrest," Eshagh Jahangiri said on his Instagram  account.
"I hope my brother's arrest is not a political abuse and  that justice, the fight against corruption, and the rule of  law apply the same to everyone," he added.
Eshagh Jahangiri has served as a deputy to President  Hassan Rouhani since 2013, and ran as a candidate in May's  presidential election only to stand down in his favour.
Rouhani's brother, Hossein Fereydoun, was also arrested  in July, following long-running corruption allegations.
The conservative-dominated judiciary has clashed with  Rouhani's administration over its efforts to ...

Iran vice president's brother arrested

A man in his 20s has been arrested  at the airport in the Swedish city of Gothenburg for allegedly  trying to travel with explosive material, the police said  today.
The man was passing through security control on yesterday  morning at Landvetter Airport when the screening showed  "something explosive", police spokesman Peter Adlersson told  AFP.
Adlersson, who did not disclose what the suspect was  carrying, said he was "going to fly to another EU country".
Swedish daily Aftonbladet said the man was carrying  acetone peroxide (TATP), a component of bombs used in several  attacks across Europe, including Manchester, Brussels and  Paris.
Police are inspecting his belongings to determine if they  could have posed a threat, Adlersson said.
Authorities have not disclosed the suspect's identity but  the Swedish daily Goteborgs-Posten said he is a German  citizen.
He was arrested on suspicion of "attempted public  destruction", the public prosecutor's office said in a  statement today.

Sweden arrests man carrying suspected explosives at airport

Dean Elgar  struck a fluent half-century as South Africa made another good  start on the first day of the second and final Test against  Bangladesh at Mangaung Oval today.
South Africa were 126 for no wicket at lunch with Elgar  on 72 not out and his opening partner Aiden Markram on 54.
It was a familiar tale for Bangladesh after their  captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, won the toss and chose to bowl, as  they had done in the first Test in Potchefstroom.
On that occasion Elgar and Markram put on 196 for the  first wicket, setting up a 333-run win for South Africa.
Bangladesh made three changes to their bowling line-up,  with Subashis Roy, Rubel Hossain and left-arm spinner Taijul  Islam coming into the side, with only Mustafizur Rahman of  their front-line bowlers retained.
As predicted there was more pace and bounce than in  Potchefstroom but although there was good carry for the fast  bowlers, it also encouraged stroke play from the batsmen.
Fifteen runs came off Roy's second over, the ...

Elgar fluent half century gives S.Africa strong start

The Nobel Peace Prize award to  nuclear disarmament group ICAN today is "a good omen" for the  eventual ratification of a treaty banning nuclear weapons, the  United Nations said.
"I think it is a good omen... for the treaty to be  further signed and above all ratified", UN spokeswoman  Alessandra Vellucci told reporters in Geneva, reacting to the  honour given to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear  Weapons.
The historic nuclear weapons ban treaty was signed by 122  countries in July.

ICAN Nobel win 'good omen' for nuclear ban treaty's

The world's nuclear powers must begin  "serious negotiations" aimed at disarmament, the Nobel  committee said today as it awarded its prestigious Peace Prize  to non-proliferation pressure group ICAN.
"This year's Peace Prize is also a call upon these states  to initiate serious negotiations with a view to the gradual,  balanced and carefully monitored elimination of the almost  15,000 nuclear weapons in the world," said Norway's Nobel  committee president Berit Reiss-Andersen.

Nuclear powers must start 'serious' disarmament talks: Nobel

Thousands of commuters were hit today  by train cancellations in northern and eastern Germany after a  powerful storm that killed seven motorists.
Storm Xavier slammed into the country late last  afternoon, uprooting trees and flinging signs and billboards  to the ground with winds that reached 130 kilometres per hour.
"Most of the train tracks in the north and east of  Germany are still unusable," said a spokesman for the rail  operator Deutsche Bahn.
Trains linking Hamburg, Hanover and Berlin have been  cancelled, as all three cities were severely hit by the storm.
Hundreds of passengers spent the night in the stations,  some finding a spot on trains turned into temporary  accommodations by Deutsche Bahn.
In the German capital, regional trains were running only  partial services as emergency crew were still struggling to  remove fallen trees from the tracks.
"The clearing work could last all day," said a spokesman  for Berlin's rail service.
The capital's firefighter service said ...

Severe train disruptions in Germany after deadly storm

The Japanese coastguard said today it  had discovered a dozen bodies inside a Chinese fishing boat  that capsized after a collision with a Hong Kong oil tanker  off Japan's western coast the previous day.
"Our divers found all the bodies of the missing 12 crew  members inside the ship," a coastguard official told AFP.
Yesterday's collision occurred 400 kilometres north of  the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East  Sea.
The Chinese vessel, the 290-ton "Lurong Yuanyu 378", had  16 crew members in total. Four have already been rescued.
The Hong Kong-flagged ship was identified as "Brightoil  Lucky", a 63,294-ton tanker carrying 21 crew members.
The tanker's crew were believed to be safe.
Japan had deployed three patrol boats to search for the  missing crew, after responding to a plea for help from their  Chinese counterparts.

Dozen dead after Chinese boat, HK tanker collide

The lack of humanitarian access  granted by Myanmar's government to Rakhine state, where more  than half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled violence, is  "unacceptable", the UN said today.
"The access we have in northern Rakhine state is  unacceptable", the head of the United Nations humanitarian  office, Mark Lowcock, told reporters in Geneva.
A small UN team visited the crisis-wracked region in  majority Buddhist Myanmar in recent days and described  witnessing "unimaginable" suffering.
Myanmar has tightly controlled access to the state since  last month when attacks by Rohingya militants prompted an army  kickback that has sent 515,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.
Scores of Rohingya villages have been torched.
Lowcock said he believed a "a high level" UN team would  be able to visit the area "in the next few days".
He repeated the UN's call for the government to allow  "unhindered (and) unfettered" access.
"Half a million people do not pick up sticks and flee  their country on 

Lack of access to Myanmar's Rakhine state 'unacceptable': UN

With the nuclear threat at its most  acute in decades, the International Campaign to Abolish  Nuclear Weapons, which today won the Nobel Peace Prize, is  urgently pressing to consign the bomb to history.
The Geneva-based organisation, known by the acronym ICAN,  has for the past decade been sounding the alarm over the  massive dangers posed by nuclear weapons and campaigning for a  global ban.
It secured a significant victory in July this year when  the United Nations adopted a new treaty outlawing nuclear  weapons.
But with actual disarmament of the world's nuclear  arsenal likely still far off, ICAN is not resting on its  laurels.
"We're not done yet... The job isn't done until nuclear  weapons are gone," ICAN chief Beatrice Fihn told AFP this  week.
Pointing to the current nuclear standoff between  Washington and Pyongyang as "a wake-up call", she insisted on  the urgent need to disarm the world's 15,000 or so nuclear  weapons.
"Nuclear weapons have the risk of literally ending the 

ICAN: staunch campaigners for an end to nuclear weapons

Nuclear disarmament group ICAN won the  Nobel Peace Prize today for its decade-long campaign to rid  the world of the atomic bomb as nuclear-fuelled crises swirl  over North Korea and Iran.
"The organisation is receiving the award for its work to  draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences  of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking  efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such  weapons," said Norway's Nobel committee president Berit  Reiss-Andersen.

Anti-nuclear campaign ICAN wins Nobel Peace Prize

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel set the  pace Friday for the Japanese Grand Prix with a blistering  drive in the morning's free practice before rain caused havoc  in the afternoon.
Lewis Hamilton splashed gingerly to the fastest time  of a soaking second session after an absorbing morning run-out  in Suzuka.
Delayed by 50 minutes as rain lashed down, the  afternoon looked like being a complete washout as team  engineers amused themselves by floating paper boats along a  river of water gushing down the pit lane.
When the cars did finally creep out, puddles made the  going treacherous but Lewis steered his Mercedes to the  quickest time of one minute, 48.719 seconds.
Vettel topped the timesheets in a morning session  which was temporarily disrupted after Carlos Sainz smashed his  Toro Rosso into a wall.
Vettel's time of 1:29.166 was almost 20 seconds  quicker than Hamilton's wet run, the German edging out the  Formula One championship leader and Red Bull's Daniel  Ricciardo.
None of ...

Vettel fires Japanese Grand Prix warning before washout

Japanese coastguards said today they  had discovered five bodies inside a Chinese fishing boat that  capsized after a collision with a Hong Kong oil tanker off the  western coast of Japan the previous day.
"We found five bodies inside the ship... we're still  continuing our search-and-rescue operation for the remaining  seven," a Japanese coastguard official told AFP.
Yesterday's collision occurred 400 kilometres (250 miles)  north of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan, also known as  the East Sea.
The Chinese vessel, the 290-ton "Lurong Yuanyu 378", had  16 crew members in total. Four have already been rescued.
The Hong Kong-flagged ship was identified as "Brightoil  Lucky", a 63,294-ton tanker carrying 21 crew members.
The tanker's crew were believed to be safe.
Japan has deployed three patrol boats to search for the  missing crew, after responding to a plea for help from their  Chinese counterparts.

Five dead, seven missing after Chinese boat, HK tanker collide

Press Trust of India

Business magazine Forbes, famous for  its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest, is launching a  French edition to chart President Emmanuel Macron's progress  in turning his country into a "startup nation".
Forbes is a fortnightly magazine but the French-language  edition, which will hit newsstands today, will be published  only every three months.
The first issue will retrace the 100-year history of the  publication and look ahead to the next 100 through interviews  with business magnates including Microsoft founder Bill Gates,  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and French internet billionaire  Xavier Niel.
France has a reputation for being a place where it is  difficult to do business and for being sniffy towards the  self-made.
Forbes first stuck a toe in the market last year by  launching a French-language website.
"Many people say France is becoming the 'startup nation'  and the discourse is changing. We have a president who is  promoting entrepreneurship and free enterprise," ...

AFP

AFP

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