The US government has frozen arms sales to the bodyguards of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his aides attacked demonstrators in Washington last May, two senators said today.
	Senators Patrick Leahy and Chris Van Hollen said the move came after they proposed their own legislation to halt any sales to the Turkish Presidential Protection Directorate.
	The move would block a deal by New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer to sell USD 1.2 million worth of small arms to the bodyguard unit behind the May 16 assault on anti-Erdogan protesters during a presidential visit to Washington.
	"This sale to President Erdogan's personal security guards should never have been approved, given their history of excessive force," Leahy and Van Hollen said in a statement.
	"We should also stop selling weapons to units of the Turkish National Police that have been arbitrarily arresting and abusing Turkish citizens who peacefully criticise the government."
	Nineteen members of Erdogan's security detail ...

US halts arms sales to Erdogan bodyguards: Congress

PTI Automatic

A blackout at Panama's main international airport -- a major hub for Latin America -- caused more than 200 flights to be cancelled and many others delayed today, airport officials said.
	A malfunction in a circuit panel distributing power internally to the facility was to blame, according to the airport authority, which set up a "crisis room" to handle the disruption.
	Thousands of frustrated passengers faced lines and clogged halls as harried airport staff struggled before blanked-out check-in screens.
	Buses ferried some stranded passengers to Panama hotels to spend the night, but many more were left to sit on the floor with their bags next to them.
	According to the website FlightAware, which tracks cancellations by airport, around 20 per cent of flights departing from Panama's Tocumen International Airport were scrapped.
	The aeropuertos.Net flight information website said that more than 200 arriving or departing flights were cancelled.
	National carrier Copa Airlines was hardest .

Blackout hits flights in Panama, a major Latin America hub

The toll from Hurricane Irma in the US state of Florida stood at 50 dead today as officials tallied up the victims of the mega-storm, which ripped through
	The Florida Division of Emergency Management put the official toll at 34, but it excluded eight known deaths in the Keys and eight more in a nursing home in Hollywood, north of Miami.
	Those deaths put the toll state-wide to 50.
	Alberto Moscoso, spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the deaths in the Keys were not included because Monroe County, which includes the hard-hit island chain south of Miami, had yet to file its official count.
	The Monroe County Twitter account posted it had recorded eight deaths Wednesday -- although the Miami Herald reported nine.
	At least a quarter of houses in the Keys were destroyed, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) -- while 65 per cent of buildings suffered damage.
	Some 372,000 people were still without power in Florida today after 15 million ...

Irma toll up to 50 dead in Florida: officials

The powerful head of Poland's governing right-wing party denounced anti-Semitism and hailed Israel at a ceremony today honouring Poles who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
	Jaroslaw Kaczynski, widely regarded as Poland's de facto decision-maker, made the comment after the European Jewish Congress (EJC) voiced "grave concerns" over an increase in anti-Semitic acts under the government of Kaczynski's Law and Justice (PiS) party.
	Condemning anti-Semitism as being "very dangerous", Kaczynski called Israel "a great state".
	"We see the proof somewhere above us where there is a supreme force, a divine force, which decides everything and without it, Israel could not exist, it is a kind of miracle of our time," added Kaczynski, a devout Catholic.
	EJC President Moshe Kantor warned in late August that "there has been a distinct normalisation of anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia in Poland recently" and called on the PiS government to "stem this hate" and act forcefully against it.
	The ...

Poland's leader condemns anti-Semitism, praises Israel

The pharmaceutical giant Bayer announced today that it would end non-US sales of Essure, a sterilisation implant that in news reports has been linked to major side effects.
	"This decision is being taken for commercial reasons," the German group said.
	The withdrawal extended a decision taken in May to halt sales of the device in most countries where it was being marketed, it said.
	Essure, a non-hormonal coil implant used to sterilise women, has in some women caused chronic pain, perforation of the uterus and fallopian tubes and led to hysterectomies, news reports say.
	In its statement in French, Bayer insisted "this decision is not linked to any problem of safety or quality of the product... The safety and effectiveness of Essure is supported by more than 10 years of scientific research and real-life clinical settings."
	It added: "Bayer will continue to market the Essure medical device in the United States, where the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] recently assessed this device 

Bayer to end non-US sales of Essure, a contested sterilisation

Maria rose in power today to become an "extremely dangerous" Category Four hurricane as it barrelled toward the Caribbean island of Dominica, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
	"The eye and the intense inner core is expected to pass near Dominica in the next few hours," the Miami-based NHC said in its 2100 GMT (2:30 am IST) bulletin.
	Maria, coming two weeks after Hurricane Irma cut a path of destruction through the Caribbean, was 70 kilometres southeast of the French-speaking island of about 72,000 people, and 35 miles northeast of the French island of Martinique.
	Maria was packing winds of 130 miles per hour and was now "an extremely dangerous Category Four hurricane," the NHC said.
	"Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 24 to 36 hours, and Maria is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane during the next couple of days.

Maria an 'extremely dangerous' Category Four hurricane: US

Most of the 3,000 additional US troops being deployed to Afghanistan under President Donald Trump's new strategy to shore up security are on their way to the war-torn country, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said today.
	Trump last month announced a new Afghanistan policy to knock back the Taliban, who are continuing to mount deadly attacks, control large areas of territory and are killing local Afghan forces in the thousands.
	Mattis told Pentagon reporters that he didn't want to give precise numbers but said he was sending "exactly over 3,000" troops to Afghanistan, where they will bolster the approximately 11,000 American forces already there.
	"Frankly I haven't signed the last of the orders right now as we look at specifics," he said.
	"Most of them are on their way or under orders now and I'd prefer not to give any more information that helps the enemy."
	US generals have for months been calling the situation in Afghanistan a "stalemate," despite years of support for Afghan ...

Most of 3,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan on their way:

Turkey launched a military drill with tanks close to the Iraqi border today, the army said, a week before Iraq's Kurdish region is set to hold an independence referendum.
	Despite opposition from Turkey, Iran and the United States, the Kurdistan Regional Government's leaders have said they will hold the non-binding independence vote on September 25.
	Ankara has previously warned against the poll, saying it could risk "civil war" and will "have a cost" if it goes ahead.
	Despite forging strong ties with the KRG in northern Iraq in recent years, Turkey fears the vote could stoke separatist aspirations among its own sizable Kurdish minority.
	Ankara's national security council will meet on September 22 to discuss the country's official position on the referendum, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said it was a "mistake".
	He was speaking before leaving for the United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi -- whose Baghdad ...

Turkish military starts drill near Iraqi border

A motorbike bomb killed a child and wounded seven people in the Kurdish-majority Syrian town of Qamishli today in an attack the security forces blamed on a pro-regime militia.
	The blast in the city near the Turkish border came four days ahead of the first local elections in Kurdish-controlled parts of Syria, opposed by Damascus and Ankara.
	"Pro-regime militias... Booby-trapped a motorbike and placed it on a popular street in Qamishli, and then detonated it remotely," said Ali al-Hassan, a spokesman for the Asayesh security force.
	The AFP correspondent saw people fleeing the site of the blast, which did not cause significant material damage.
	Syrian state television reported "four wounded in a motorbike bombing" in a busy Qamishli street.
	The election set for Friday, more than a year after the Kurdish proclamation of a "federal region", was bitterly opposed by the Syrian regime and especially neighbouring Turkey.
	The Kurds deny any attempt to partition Syria, a country already ...

Bomb kills child in Syrian Kurdish-majority Qamishli

Wall Street rose to fresh record closes today, boosted by gains in banking and financial stocks while investors eyed this week's meeting of the US central bank in Washington.
	The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3 per cent, to end the session at 22,331.35, while the S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent to 2,503.97, just a hair's breadth more than Friday's prior record finish.
	The tech-heavy Nasdaq also eked out a positive finish, adding 0.1 per cent to reach 6,454.64 points.

Dow, S&P 500 close at new records in New York

Bahrain today accused Qatar of seizing 15 boats from the kingdom with 20 fishermen on board, in the latest spat between the neighbours caught up in a diplomatic dispute.
	In a statement on its website, Bahrain's interior ministry said Qatar had seized three Bahraini boats with 16 aboard in the past two days.
	Coast Guard commander Ala Siyadi said in the statement that this took to 15 the overall number of boats seized and 20 the number of fishermen.
	The Bahraini authorities did not specify when the other four people were detained, but the ministry said some boats had been seized in 2009.
	Bahrain joined a Saudi-led bloc of nations in breaking diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of links to extremists and getting close to Iran.
	The gas-rich emirate flatly rejects the allegations and the diplomatic row, the worst seen in the Gulf for decades, shows no signs of abating.

Bahrain accuses Qatar of seizing 15 boats with 20 fishermen

Iraqi forces backed by paramilitary units were preparing today to attack the last stronghold of the Islamic State group in the western desert bordering Syria.
	Armoured vehicles advanced on a road across a rocky plain as troops on pick-up trucks armed with machineguns watched from behind dusty embankments, an AFP correspondent said.
	The vehicles were approaching Anna, one of three towns still in the jihadists' hands about 100 kilometres from the Syrian border, in the vast province of Anbar.
	After retaking Anna and then Rawa, the Iraqi forces will target Al-Qaim, the last of the towns before the border with the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor.
	The IS jihadists are also under pressure from Syrian government forces backed by Russian air power and an alliance of Arabs and Kurds supported by a US-led coalition.
	"The objective is to bring the entire province of Anbar back into the fold of the nation," Lieutenant General Rashid Flaih, head of Anbar's paramilitary units, told ...

Iraq moves to attack last IS bastion on Syria border

Spain today ordered North Korea's ambassador to leave the country by September 30 in protest over Pyongyang's nuclear tests, which it has criticised as "a serious threat to peace".
	"Today, the ambassador of North Korea DPRK in Spain has been declared persona non grata," the foreign ministry said on its English twitter account. The ministry added on its Spanish account that the ambassador has until the end of the month to leave the country.
	In late August, Spain had warned that Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes "create a serious threat to peace in the region and to global security," saying they "would have consequences on bilateral relations".
	The ambassador was also summoned to Madrid at the time and told to reduce the number of diplomatic staff, which include an ambassador and two diplomats, according to a foreign ministry spokeswoman.
	The North Korean embassy opened in 2014.
	North Korea -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) -- has repeatedly ...

Spain expels N Korea ambassador over nuclear tests

British Prime Minister Theresa May today urged Canada to use its new free trade agreement with Europe as a basis for a pact with Britain after it leaves the European Union.
	May was welcomed on her first official visit to Canada's parliament by a military guard before sitting down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
	"There is an awful lot for us to talk about in our bilateral relationship and how we can build on the relationship with CETA," May said.
	The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is to provisionally take effect on Thursday, removing 99 per cent of customs duties between the two sides.
	Britain is Canada's largest trading partner in Europe and can take advantage of CETA as long as it remains a part of the EU, but not after Brexit in 2019.
	A spokesman for Downing Street said earlier that Britain hopes to "use (CETA) as the basis of our own bilateral trading arrangement (with Canada) once we have left the EU."
	Trudeau said he looked forward to ...

May pushes Britain-Canada free trade in Trudeau talks

Works began today to boost security at the Eiffel Tower as an anti-terrorism measure, city hall said, with bulletproof glass walls set to go up around the world's most visited monument.
	The changes come after a string of jihadist attacks in the French capital over the past two years in which more than 200 people have died.
	A bulletproof glass wall will be installed around the monument's gardens under the 30-million-euro (USD 36-million), nine-month works, the city's tourism chief, Jean-Francois Martins, told AFP.
	Visited by six to seven million people each year, the landmark already has a permanent police patrol.
	But Paris councillors voted unanimously in March to boost its security due to the "particularly high terrorist threat".
	Last month a 19-year-old former psychiatric patient leapt over a security barrier at the tower wielding a knife, saying he wanted to attack a soldier.
	Some 7,000 troops have been deployed under an anti- terrorism operation known as Sentinelle, ...

Eiffel Tower starts work on anti-terror upgrade

Animals on both the large and small side of the spectrum face the most risk of extinction -- but for very different reasons, each with vast consequences for the planet, researchers said today.
	For big creatures -- including whale sharks, Atlantic sturgeon, Somali ostriches, Chinese giant salamanders and Komodo dragons -- people are the top threat to their survival, said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
	Large vertebrates -- or animals with a backbone -- are often fished, hunted, trapped, poached or killed as unintentional bycatch.
	"Many of the larger species are being killed and consumed by humans," said lead author William Ripple, a distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University.
	"About 90 per cent of all threatened species larger than 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) in size are being threatened by harvesting," he said.
	Meanwhile, threats to the smallest animals -- those weighing less than about three ounces (77 .

Biggest and smallest creatures at top risk of extinction:

A British cyclist set a new world record today by travelling around the globe in 79 days -- beating the fictional exploits of Phileas Fogg by a day.
	Scottish adventurer Mark Beaumont rode into Paris 78 days, 14 hours and 14 minutes after he set off from the French capital, smashing the previous record of 123 days for a round-the-world bike trip.
	Arriving in evening rush hour traffic under light drizzle, the 34-year-old rode the last cobbled mile to the Arc de Triomphe with a 20-strong entourage on wheels, including a man in a top hat on a penny-farthing bicycle.
	Some 50 supporters were at the monument to greet him, including his tearful wife Nicci and his daughters Harriet, four, and Willa, one.
	"I doubt I'll ever do anything like it again," said Beaumont, describing the journey as "definitely the longest two-and-a-half months of my life".
	Bouncing his grinning one-year-old in his arms, Beaumont said the world record was "an absolute dream come true".
	A Guinness World Records ...

Around the world in 79 days: British cyclist smashes record

British Prime Minister Theresa May today said she still holds control of her government and is steering Brexit negotiations after divisions in her ruling party surfaced over Britain's split with Europe.
	"The UK government is driven from the front and we all have the same destination in our sights -- and that is getting a good deal for Brexit with the European Union," she said during a visit to Canada.
	Her remarks in Ottawa come after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson stirred up colleagues and put pressure on May by laying out his own vision for Brexit.
	The foreign secretary was accused of "backseat driving" by a fellow minister over his demand for a clean break with the EU.
	While his position drew praise from eurosceptic members of Britain's ruling Conservative party, others saw it as an attempt to force May's hand ahead of a speech in the Italian city of Florence on Friday, when she will give an update on her plans and the progress of negotiations with the EU.
	May said she is ...

Britain's May downplays notion of party divisions over Brexit

In setting out his own vision for Brexit, Boris Johnson has stirred up colleagues and increased the pressure on British Prime Minister Theresa May ahead of her big speech on Europe later this week.
	The British foreign secretary was accused of "backseat driving" by a fellow minister and rebuked by the statistics watchdog for his article outlining how "glorious" life will be outside the European Union.
	But his 4,000-word essay also drew praise from eurosceptic members of the ruling Conservative party for his demand for a clean break with the EU, in particular on the fraught issue of financial payments.
	Many people saw it as an attempt to force May's hand ahead of Friday's speech in the Italian city of Florence, when she will give an update on her plans and the progress of negotiations with the EU.
	"You could call it backseat driving," Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who campaigned to stay in the EU, told BBC television on Sunday.
	But May herself insisted that she was in control, telling 

Boris stirs up Brexit debate ahead of PM's big speech

If someone tells you they flushed more than a hundred grand down the toilet, chances are they're referring figuratively to a bad investment, or an outrageous extravagance.
	But in Switzerland, prosecutors have opened an investigation into why two people literally tried to cram about 100,000 euros (USd 120,000) in 500 euro notes down toilets in three Geneva restaurants and an office of banking giant UBS.
	The notes "had probably been cut with scissors", Geneva prosecution spokesman Vincent Derouand told AFP, confirming the May incident first reported by the Tribune de Geneve newspaper.
	Derouand said the investigation would first focus on whether the cash was connected to any illegal activity because destroying -- or attempting to flush -- bank notes is not a crime in Switzerland.
	Police were alerted to the case after the restaurants complained that their toilets had been clogged, the spokesman said.
	Later, "a lawyer representing the people who flushed the notes came by and ...

Clogged drain? Could mean toilet is flush with cash

Transgender troops can continue receiving transition-related medical treatment for now, the Pentagon said today, amid mounting challenges to President Donald Trump's effective ban on funding such procedures as well as enlisting new openly transgender personnel.
	Trump blindsided the Pentagon in July when he tweeted that transgender troops, who had been allowed to serve openly under rules implemented by Barack Obama's administration, would be barred from the military.
	The White House formalized the decree in an August 25 directive, but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has ordered the current Obama-era policy remain in effect until officials conduct a review of how a ban might be implemented.
	"First and foremost, we will continue to treat every service member with dignity and respect," Mattis said in the memo to service chiefs released today.
	He said troops with a gender dysphoria diagnosis can receive Pentagon-funded sex-change procedures until March 22, when no more reassignment ...

AFP

AFP

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