A car bomb explosion targeting shops selling alcohol in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk today killed three civilians and wounded nine, a security official said.
	He said the blast damaged the shops and sparked a fire in three vehicles.
	Kirkuk is the capital of the oil-rich province of the same name which is disputed by the federal government in Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
	The blast comes as Kurdish leaders prepare to hold an independence referendum on September 25 in the face of fierce opposition from Baghdad and the Kurds' international backers.
	The Kurdish Regional Government is embroiled in long- standing disputes with the federal government over oil exports, budget payments and control of ethnically divided areas.
	On Thursday, the Baghdad parliament fired the governor of Kirkuk province, Najm Eddine Karim, over his provincial council's decision to take part in the non-binding referendum.
	Kirkuk, which is home to diverse communities including Arabs and ...

Car bomb kills three in Iraq's Kirkuk

PTI Automatic

A car bomb explosion targeting a shop selling alcohol in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk today killed two civilians and wounded eight, a security official said.
	He said the blast damaged the shop and sparked a fire in three vehicles.
	Kirkuk is the capital of the oil-rich province of the same name which is disputed by the federal government in Baghdad and the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
	The blast comes as Kurdish leaders prepare to hold an independence referendum on September 25 in the face of fierce opposition from Baghdad and the Kurds' international backers.
	The Kurdish Regional Government is embroiled in long- standing disputes with the federal government over oil exports, budget payments and control of ethnically divided areas.
	On Thursday, the Baghdad parliament fired the governor of Kirkuk province, Najm Eddine Karim, over his provincial council's decision to take part in the non-binding referendum.
	Kirkuk, which is home to diverse communities including Arabs and ...

Car bomb kills two in Iraq's Kirkuk

A 17-year-old albino boy was killed and his brain removed for what is believed to be use in witchcraft in Mozambique, local news reports said.
	Albinos in Mozambique are often hunted for their body parts, which are used as charms and magical potions in the belief that they bring wealth and good luck.
	"The criminals took the bones out of the arms and legs, the hair and broke the head to remove the brain," a local official told Mozambican news agency AIM.
	The body was found after the boy was killed on Wednesday in the Benga area of Tete province, AIM said.
	Lurdes Ferreira, a police spokesman in the Tete province, said police are investigating the teenager's kidnap and murder.
	"We have launched a search and arrest operation for those responsible for the macabre crime," Ferreira said.
	The murder comes four months after a failed attempt by two parents to sell their albino child in Moatize.
	Tete, which borders Malawi, is believed to have a large market for albino organ ...

Brain harvested from murdered Mozambique albino boy

Iraqi forces today captured a desert outpost of the Islamic State group near the Syrian border in preparation for a drive up the Euphrates Valley towards the frontier, commanders said.
	The capture of Akashat, a former mining town in mainly Sunni Arab Anbar province, some 100 kilometres south of the jihadists' border bastion of Al-Qaim, came just hours after the forces assaulted it.
	Al-Qaim and the Euphrates towns of Rawa and Anna downstream form just one of two enclaves still held by IS in Iraq after a string of battlefield defeats this year.
	"The army, the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation force), tribal units and the police captured Akashat," the Joint Operations Command leading the fight against IS said in a statement.
	Earlier, JOC head General Abdelamir Yarallah said the operation "to liberate Akashat" was aimed at securing the border to its north.
	The Hashed al-Shaabi are a paramilitary force largely composed of Iran-trained Shiite militias but also including some ...

Iraq forces seize IS outpost ahead of Euphrates push

The Gulf desert emirate of Dubai today announced the award of a USD 3.8-billion contract for the final phase of a solar park aimed at generating 5,000 megawatts of electricity by 2030.
	The local government said the contract for the fourth and final phase went to Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Electric and ACWA Power of Saudi Arabia.
	The solar park named after Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum, went online in 2013 and the final phase is to be launched in stages from 2020, bringing the overall cost to USD 13.6 billion.
	Dubai, which has dwindling oil reserves unlike Abu Dhabi, a fellow member of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has set a target of 2050 to produce 75 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources.
	Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, is building four nuclear power plants, each with a 1,400-megawatt capacity, the first of which is scheduled to launch operations in 2018. The overall costs are put at more than USD 25 billion.
	The UAE has ...

Dubai awards contract for final phase of solar park

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today criticised the indictment in Washington of members of his security detail who were charged with assaulting protesters during an official White House visit in May.
	A total of 19 people including Turkish security officials have been identified from video footage of the May 16 clashes with Kurdish protesters following a meeting between Erdogan and President Donald Trump.
	Erdogan said in a televised address that the case was a "scandalous demonstration of how American justice works.

Turkey's Erdogan blasts scandalous US indictment of bodyguards

A bus crash today killed 12 people in Iran, all but one of them schoolgirls travelling to the southern city of Shiraz for a sporting and cultural event, state media reported.
	The bus overturned at around 4:00 am, the IRNA news agency cited Said Ejraie, the emergency services chief in Darab where the accident occurred, as saying.
	Besides the schoolgirls, the other person who died was the driver.
	Thirty other people were injured, and 13 of them were in serious condition, according to state television.
	Despite its roads being in good condition, Iran has a poor record on traffic safety, with accidents caused by reckless drivers killing thousands of people each year.

11 schoolgirls killed in Iran bus crash

Former champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal battled into the US Open last 32 while the women's draw lost the fifth seed from its top eight.
     Federer recorded his 80th career win in New York but he needed five sets for the second successive match before claiming a 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Mikhail Youzhny.
     It was his 17th win in 17th meetings with the grizzled Russian, who, at 35, is his junior by just one year.
     World number one Nadal, meanwhile, saw off Japan's world 121 Taro Daniel 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 after being blown off court in the first set.
     Federer, 36, and the five-time champion at the US Open, next faces another 35-year-old, Feliciano Lopez of Spain, for a place in the last 16. His record against Lopez is just as solid -- 12-0.
     "It was quite a lot of fun out there -- I feel quite warmed up by now," said Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Federer, who fired 63 winners and 68 unforced errors.
	Youzhny admitted he had cramped, ...

Federer, Nadal battle through, women's draw takes hit

Spanish football's golden boy Marco Asensio will carry the expectation of a nation as La Roja seek revenge against bete noire Italy at a packed Santiago Bernabeu with World Cup qualification on the line tomorrow.
     Yet, despite his tender age of 21, there is little evidence Real Madrid's rising star will be fazed by the burden placed upon him.
	Asensio looks set to make his first competitive start for Spain after a stellar opening to the season in which he has scored four goals in five games for Madrid, including two memorable wonder strikes against Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup.
	And he has a habit of making a quick impression having scored on his La Liga, Champions League, Copa del Rey, Spanish and UEFA Super Cup debuts for Real over the past year.
	"It is obvious, he has an innate talent, you can sense it," said Real and Spain captain Sergio Ramos after Asensio put Barcelona to the sword.
	"Hopefully he maintains that spark and eye for goal. Every time he plays he makes the 

Spain turn to Asensio to oust old foe Italy

Australia will expand the roll-out of cashless welfare cards after a pilot scheme showed a sharp drop in problem alcohol, drug and gambling abuse, the country's prime minister said today.
	The government introduced the debit card -- touted as a world-first -- last year to two remote communities blighted by high levels of welfare dependence coupled with significant social issues fuelled by drink and drugs.
	An independent study into its impact in East Kimberley and Ceduna -- both home to large Aboriginal populations -- showed a big drop in alcohol abuse and family violence.
	Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it would now be rolled out into a third site -- the Goldfields region in Western Australia.
	"This is an exercise in practical love, in compassion, in ensuring the taxpayers' dollars are not being spent on substance abuse and drugs leading to violence," he told reporters.
	"But above all, in ensuring that those families are spending their money where they should be spending it ..

Australia expands cashless welfare card to tackle alcohol

Kenya's Supreme Court will rule today on whether last month's presidential election, which the opposition claims was riddled with irregularities, will be annulled or upheld.
	Days of sporadic protests erupted after President Uhuru Kenyatta, 55, was declared the winner of the August 8 vote with 54 percent, leading to the deaths of at least 21 people.
	Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, 72, alleged fraud and took his complaints to the seven Supreme Court judges, and some Kenyans fear renewed protests if he loses his attempt to overturn the result.
	It is the third time in a row that Odinga has cried foul, after claiming he was cheated out of rightful victories in 2007 and 2013.
	The disputed 2007 election led to politically motivated ethnic violence in which over 1,100 people were killed. In 2013 Odinga took his grievances to court and lost.
	After hearing closing arguments Tuesday from lawyers for the National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition, the Independent Electoral and ...

Kenya on edge as Supreme Court prepares election ruling

Iraq's victory over the Islamic State group in Tal Afar was the latest in a string of gains against the jihadist group, but Iraqi forces still face massive challenges, experts say.
	In 2014, IS staged a rapid advance across northern Iraq, with police and military personnel abandoning their posts to the jihadists with barely a fight.
	That allowed IS to seize nearly a third of the country's territory including Mosul, which was fully recaptured by Iraqi forces in July, three years after IS declared its self-styled "caliphate" from a mosque in Iraq's second city.
	Today, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who took office three months after the 2014 military debacle, says the Iraqi state is back -- stronger and better organised.
	Under the Shiite premier's command and backed by a US-led multinational coalition, Iraqi forces have retaken Tikrit, Ramadi, Fallujah and, after a gruelling nine-month battle, Mosul.
	Today, Abadi announced the recapture of the town of Tal Afar and surrounding ...

Iraq faces vast challenges despite victories over IS: experts

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos today said security forces had killed the second-in- command of the Gulf Clan, the country's foremost drug gang.
	Writing on Twitter, Santos added authorities would elaborate on the circumstances of the killing of Roberto Vargas Gutierrez, alias "Gavilan," who had been sought for a 500 million pesos (USD 170,000) reward.
	The Gulf Clan, which accounts for some 70 percent of Colombia's cocaine production, was born from the remnants of an outlawed right-wing paramilitary group which fought rebels during the country's half-century civil conflict.
	The paramilitaries were officially disbanded in 2006, but authorities say their members are still making money from drugs and violence.
	Its leader, Dairo Antonio Usuga, alias Otoniel, is the most wanted man in the country. The US has placed a $5 million bounty on him.
	Colombia is the world's leading coca leaf grower and also the biggest source of cocaine, producing 866 tons in 2016, according to the UN.

Colombian security forces kill top drug trafficker: president

The US government will allow people barred from entering the country in the early days of President Donald Trump's travel ban to re-apply for visas following a legal settlement with campaigners have announced.
	Under the terms of the agreement, reached in a federal court in New York, the government must contact all individuals who had been turned away at borders as a result of the president's first executive order that came into force on January 27, and inform them they may seek re-entry.
	It does not guarantee applicants will receive new visas nor does it award them compensation, but obliges the government to act in "good faith" when processing their paperwork.
	The settlement brings an end to the case Darweesh v Trump, a nationwide class-action suit filed by two Iraqi men detained at New York's JFK airport because of the ban. They were represented by numerous rights groups including the powerful American Civil Liberties Union.
	It was the first legal challenge to the original ...

US govt settles first travel ban lawsuit with campaigners

Colombia's FARC former guerrilla force has rebaptised itself the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, as it transformed into a political party following its disarmament.
	In spite of earlier resistance from some members of the movement, the name retains the revolutionary spirit of the communist guerrilla group, which fought a bloody 52-year campaign against the state before signing a peace deal last year.
	"By a majority decision in our congress, the name of the new party has been fixed as the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force," the group's leader Rodrigo Londono wrote on Twitter yesterday.
	Delegates from the newly demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have spent the week gathered in a founding congress to choose their political representatives ahead of next year's general elections.
	The choice of name was the other key item on the agenda -- some FARC leaders wanted to keep the "revolutionary" element while others wanted to soften the group's image by ...

Colombia FARC rebels reborn as 'revolutionary force' party

The head of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, who has lived in hiding for the past decade, said Thursday he travelled to Damascus to seek the Syrian president's approval of a jihadist evacuation deal.
	"I personally went to Damascus" to see President Bashar al-Assad, Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of his supporters in a televised speech.
	Nasrallah, 57, has only made rare public appearances since the 2006 war against his arch-foe Israel. As a figure on Israel's most wanted list, he said in 2014 that he often changed his place of residence in the utmost secrecy.
	On Monday, hundreds of Islamic State group fighters and civilians were evacuated from the border region between Lebanon and Syria under a ceasefire deal and headed toward eastern Syria near the Iraqi border.
	The truce deal was negotiated between IS and Hezbollah, which has intervened in Syria's six-year war to prop up Assad's government.
	The agreement has been criticised inside Lebanon, as well by the US-led coalition ...

Hezbollah chief, who lives in hiding, says met Assad in

A US judge has agreed to extradite former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli to face corruption and other charges in his country.
	US District Court Judge Edwin Torres yesterday said Panama had demonstrated probable cause against Martinelli, who ruled from 2009 to 2014.
	Martinelli has lived in Miami since January 2015. He left Panama days before the Supreme Court there launched a corruption investigation against him.
	He was detained in Miami on June 12, accused of graft and spying on political foes at home. Panama filed an extradition request last year.
	Panama's Supreme Court alleged that Martinelli used public funds to illegally spy on telephone calls and emails of more than 150 prominent opponents.
	Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon, denies the accusations, saying they are politically motivated.
	 After the judge's ruling, a spokesman for the ex- president, Luis Eduardo Camacho, told Panamanian TV channel Telemetro that Martinelli would appeal.
	But his Miami lawyers did not .

US to extradite ex-Panama president accused of graft

US gasoline prices have jumped in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and local shortages could occur but the situation is likely to stabilize in the coming days.
	A gallon (3.8 liters) of gasoline rose 13.5 percent in New York today to close at USD 2.1399, leaving it up nearly 30 percent since Friday, the day Harvey made landfall in Texas.
	The US Gulf Cost is home to about a third of American refining capacity, much of which is now off line due to the storm and flooding.
	The Energy Department reported today morning that 10 refineries, representing 16.6 percent of total US capacity, remained shut. Six more were attempting to re-open but this could take "several days or weeks," while two others were partially operational.
	Together, the 18 refineries constitute 24.5 percent of US capacity.
	The largest refinery in the United States, the Port Arthur Refinery, operated by Motiva Enterprises in Port Arthur, Texas, has been idled.
	"Given the unprecedented flooding in the city of Port ...

Gasoline prices spike on shortage worries in Harvey's wake

Storm-battered Texans faced a worrying new threat today as potentially harmful smoke spewed from a swamped chemical plant near Houston, as Harvey's floodwaters began to recede in America's fourth-largest city.
	Almost a week after the Category Four hurricane smashed into the US Gulf Coast, officials and volunteers were still scrambling to reach victims of the unprecedented flooding which has left at least 33 people dead and caused tens of billions of dollars of damage.
	Vice President Mike Pence flew into Texas accompanied by top cabinet officials to assess damage from the devastating storm and meet with victims, with the situation still dire in towns east of Houston such as Beaumont and Port Arthur.
	As flooding began to ease in Houston itself, bringing some relief to its 2.3 million residents, a series of overnight explosions sent a plume of toxic smoke spewing from a flooded chemical plant in Crosby, a town of around 3,000 people some 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of the ...

Fears over Texas chemical plant, as Houston flood eases

Chile's finance and economy ministers resigned today, plunging President Michelle Bachelet's government into crisis just three months before presidential elections which a conservative rival is tipped to win.
	Rodrigo Valdes became the third finance minister to quit under Bachelet, after falling out with her over pensions reforms and a controversial mining project.
	Economy Minister Luis Felipe Cespedes and junior finance minister Alejandro Micco also announced their resignations.
	The resignations come 10 days after a committee of cabinet ministers rejected the USD 2.5 billion Dominga copper mining project, led by the private Chilean conglomerate Andes Iron, in the northern Coquimbo region.
	The controversial project split Bachelet's left-center governing coalition.
	Valdes was replaced by chief of staff Nicolas Eyzaguirre, himself a former finance minister, while Cespedes was replaced by Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the government bank BancoEstado.
	Valdes, a former International ...

Chile economy, finance ministers quit

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reassured unionized workers in Quebec today that a wave of asylum seekers and foreigners with temporary worker permits would not take jobs away from Canadians.
	Speaking to the United Food and Commercial Workers in Montreal, Trudeau outlined proposed changes to immigration rules that would provide temporary foreign workers a path to permanent residency.
	"We have put an end to the discriminatory rule that prevented people from working for more than four years in Canada," he said in a speech.
	"We want to create new ways of accessing permanent residence for people who are already working in Canada."
	Trudeau did not explicitly mention the more than 6,000 asylum seekers that jumped the border from the United States since July 1 and have asked for work permits while their refugee claims are assessed.
	But he reassured the crowd that Canadian companies can only hire a foreign worker "when it is not possible to find a Canadian" to do the job.
	The prime ...

AFP

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