Just days before America votes for its next president, Donald Trump has drawn yet another unlikely international endorsement with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen joining a colourful coterie of foreign leaders backing the real estate mogul to win.
	Hun Sen, an authoritarian premier who leans heavily on bombast and brash statements, said today he "really wanted" Trump to clinch next week's US presidential poll, extolling the billionaire Republican's potential as a global peacemaker.
	"Frankly speaking, I really want Trump to win," Hun Sen said in a speech to hundreds of police cadets in the capital Phnom Penh.
	"If Trump wins, the world might change and the situation would become better because Trump is a businessman, and as businessman, Trump will not want war," he added.
	Hun Sen, whose 31-year rule over Cambodia has been marred by accusations of rampant rights abuses, added that a Trump presidency may help heal deeply strained ties between the United States and Russia.
	"But if Trump ...

Brash Cambodian PM backs Trump presidency

PTI Automatic

A court in Riyadh has sentenced a Saudi national to 15 years in prison for supporting executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, local media reported today.
	Nimr and three other members of the kingdom's minority Shiite community were among 47 people convicted of terrorism and executed on a single day in January.
	The executions provoked anger among Shiites and concern in the West, and raised tensions between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran.
	Nimr was a driving force behind protests among Shiites that began in 2011.
	Those protests later developed into a call for equality in the kingdom where Shiites, most of whom live in the kingdom's east, complain of marginalisation.
	Al-Riyadh newspaper did not name the convicted man, who it said took part "in rallies and marches" in the Shiite-dominated Gulf coast district of Qatif.
	He was also convicted of "chanting anti-state slogans and sympathising with the deceased Nimr", as well as helping to block roads and burn tyres, it ...

Saudi man gets 15 years for Shiite cleric support

Egypt floated the country's pound today as part of a raft of reforms, after a dollar crunch and exorbitant black market trade threatened to grind some imports to a halt.
	The government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is rolling out an austerity programme and seeking billions in support from abroad in order to meet conditions for a USD 12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
	Floating the pound had long been among a list of measures demanded by investors and international creditors.
	Today's decision by the Egyptian Central Bank came as a surprise, after officials had said they would only consider floating it once foreign reserves reached USD 25 billion, up from September's USD 19.6 billion.
	The bank said in a statement it had moved to a "liberalised exchange rate... To create an environment for a reliable and sustainable supply of foreign currency."
	Egypt has struggled to boost its foreign currency reserves in the political and economic turmoil following the January 

Egypt central bank floats pound

Two American soldiers were killed and two others wounded today during operations in Kunduz province, a Taliban hotbed in northern Afghanistan, US officials said.
	No insurgent group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings, which highlight growing insecurity after the Taliban sought to overrun Kunduz city for the second time last month.
	The soldiers came under fire as they were assisting Afghan troops to clear a Taliban position and disrupt the group's operations in Kunduz, US forces said in a brief statement.
	"On behalf of all of US Forces - Afghanistan, today's loss is heartbreaking and we offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of our service members who lost their lives today," said John Nicholson, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
	"Despite today's tragic event, we are steadfast in our commitment to help our Afghan partners defend their nation."
	The killings come just days before the US presidential election. Hillary Clinton or Donald ...

2 US soldiers killed during operation in Afghanistan's Kunduz

Scoreboard at lunch on the first day
of the first Test between Australia and South Africa at the WACA Ground today.
     South Africa first innings
	S. Cook c M. Marsh b Starc      0
	D. Elgar c Nevill b Hazlewood  12
	H. Amla c Smith b Hazlewood     0
	J.P. Duminy c Nevill b Siddle  11
	F. Du Plessis not out          37
	T. Bavuma not out              17
	Extras: (1-)                    1
     Total: (4 wickets, 26 overs)   78
     Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-5, 3-20, 4-32
     Bowling: Starc 7-1-27-1 (1w), Hazlewood 8-1-26-2, Siddle 6-2-13-1, M Marsh 2-1-4-0, Lyon 3-0-8-0.

Perth, Nov 3 (AFP) Scoreboard at lunch on the first day

South Africa made a poor start in the first Test in Perth today and were struggling at 78 for 4 at lunch as Australia's pace bowlers took the early advantage.
     After winning the toss and electing to bat, the visitors lost quick wickets to the Australian attack on a bouncy WACA pitch with captain Faf du Plessis not out 37 at the break and Temba Bavuma unbeaten on 17 as the fifth-wicket pair added 46 to steady the ship.
	At one stage the visitors were 32 for 4 as the home side looked to atone for their 5-0 defeat in their recent one-day series in South Africa.
	Looking to improve on their recent away record, the South Africans made the worst possible start when they lost opener Stephen Cook after just four balls for a duck.
	Cook fell to paceman Mitchell Starc who was making a comeback from a leg injury sustained in a training accident.
	Starc squared up Cook and found the outside edge, with Mitchell Marsh leaping high to his left in the gully to snare a superb diving catch.
	The ...

Australian quicks strike against South Africa

Three people were shot dead in a night of violence across Thailand's restive deep south, in apparently coordinated attacks coinciding with a visit by the new minister for the Muslim-majority region.
	The assaults began late yesterday and rippled out over a wide area in the following hours with shootings, arson and bombings as well as the unfurling of banners decrying Thailand, which colonised the region more than a century ago.
	More than 6,600 people - the majority civilians - have died in a 12-year insurgency across the country's southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia as Muslim rebels fight for greater autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state.
	Two security guards were gunned down in Songkhla, one of the four provinces claimed as a historic sultanate by the rebels.
	"They were shot and killed at a car showroom," Lieutenant Colonel Pipop Chanapol of Songkhla police told AFP, adding the suspected rebels then torched the premises.
	In another fatal attack a soldier was shot dead ...

Three dead in Thai south night of violence

One of Australia's dirtiest power plants will be shuttered, its owner said today, in a move hailed by environmentalists.
	After decades of belching pollution, the Hazelwood brown coal-fired power station in Victoria state's Latrobe Valley will close in March after French energy giant Engie decided it was no longer viable.
	Some 500 people are set to lose their jobs when the plant shuts down, with another 250 remaining until 2023 to manage the decommissioning of the power station and rehabilitation of the adjoining mine site.
	Engie said it was also looking to sell the brown coal-fired Loy Yang B power station in the Latrobe Valley and the gas-fired Kwinana plant in Western Australia which supplies steam and electrical power.
	"Hazelwood is now more than 50 years old. It has been a wonderful contributor to the National Electricity Market but we have now reached the point where it is no longer economic to operate," Engie's Australia chief executive Alex Keisser said in a ...

Australia's 'dirtiest' power station to close

Arson was blamed for a blaze that destroyed an African-American church in Mississippi where a slogan for Donald Trump had been spray-painted on the exterior.
	A person of interest was being interrogated, officials said, after the historically black Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, a city of 35,000 people, burned Tuesday night.
	"The church was vandalised with the words 'Vote Trump' on the side," said mayor Errick Simmons at a press conference, describing the blaze as "a hateful and cowardly act."
	Fire officials said the century-old church was fully engulfed in flames, and sustained heavy heat, smoke and water damage, according to Greenville fire chief Ruben Brown, Sr.
	"The fire was intentionally set," Brown told AFP.
	An investigation into the fire as a possible hate crime was under way by local, state and federal officials.
	"This matter is a direct assault on people's right to freely worship," said Simmons.
	Police chief Delando Wilson said investigators are ...

'Black church defaced by Trump graffiti, destroyed by arson'

South Korea's embattled President Park Geun-Hye picked a new chief of staff today as part of a reshuffle of top aides aimed at quashing public discontent over a spiralling political scandal.
	Han Gwang-Ok, a former aide to late President Kim Dae-Jung, was named chief of staff, an appointment the presidential Blue House said would help get the rattled administration back on track.
	The 74-year-old veteran politician, a long serving liberal who switched sides and joined Park's administration in 2013, has dedicated his life to "democracy and national reconciliation".
	"He is well suited to assist the president from the citizens' perspective," presidential spokesman Jung Youn-Kuk said.
	Park is scrambling to deflect rising public anger over a scandal engulfing her administration in which her close friend Choi Soon-sil, who has been detained for questioning since Monday, is accused of influence peddling and meddling in state affairs.
	In an effort to deflect some of the criticism, Park had 

Scandal-hit S Korean president picks new chief of staff

Jihadist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on his fighters to resist as Iraqi forces were poised today to enter the city of Mosul where he declared a "caliphate" two years ago.
	The appeal was made in an audio recording released on the Internet and purported to be by the elusive leader of the Islamic State group, his first message this year.
	"Do not retreat," he said. "Holding your ground with honour is a thousand times easier than retreating in shame."
	"To all the people of Nineveh, especially the fighters, beware of any weakness in facing your enemy," Baghdadi said, referring to the northern Iraqi province of which Mosul is the capital.
	In June 2014, days after jihadist fighters swept across swathes of Iraq, he made a rare public appearance in Mosul and announced the creation of an Islamic "state" straddling Iraq and Syria.
	The "caliphate" has been shrinking steadily since last year and Iraqi forces earlier this week reached Mosul, the jihadists' last major stronghold in ...

Fight to the end, IS boss Baghdadi urges Mosul jihadists

Titleholders Real Madrid and English Premier League winners Leicester must both wait to take their place in the last 16 of the Champions League after they could only manage draws Wednesday on a night which saw just Dortmund advance.
     Leicester, who had previously rattled off three wins in this their debut season after their unlikely Premier League title success, could only secure a goalless draw at Copenhagen.
	That points left the Foxes' three points clear of Group G rivals Porto who saw off Club Brugge 1-0 in Portugal with a Tomas Silva goal.
	In Group F, Real Madrid were held 3-3 by Legia Warsaw despite a goal in the opening minute from Gareth Bale.
	Karim Benzema added a second but Legia, looking for their first point, roared back with goals from Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Miroslav Radovic and Thibault Moulin until Mateo Kovacic levelled for the defending champions.
	Dortmund, champions in 1997, thanked a first half goal from Adrian Ramos for a 1-0 home win over Sporting Lisbon which 

Real, Leicester must wait as Dortmund advance

A US military base in southern Japan went into a brief lockdown today following reports of gunshots, but declared "all clear" after finding no evidence that shots were fired.
	"On November 3, 2016, at 9:33 am (0603 IST) security received a report of gunshots heard inside building 141... The building was evacuated," Commander Fleet Activities Sasebo Japan said in a Facebook post.
	"All clear, lockdown has been lifted. No evidence of shots fired or an active shooter," it said shortly afterwards, adding that no injuries had been reported.

Temporary lockdown at US naval base in Japan

US naval base in Japan on lockdown over possible

An Israeli military court has sentenced a Palestinian minor to life in prison for killing an Israeli woman, the army said.
	"The Judea military court sentenced the assassin of Dafna Meir, who was killed by stabbing on January 17, 2016, to life in jail and to fines of 750,000 shekels" (about USD 196,000/178,00 euros), the army said in a statement yesterday.
	The 38-year-old Israeli nurse and mother of six died of her wounds after she was stabbed at her home in the Jewish settlement of Otniel in the occupied West Bank.
	The statement did not mention the name of the attacker because he was a minor.
	It said the army would "continue dispensing justice with the greatest of severity against those who carry out terrorist acts".
	A wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks began a year ago, but the violence has significantly declined in recent months.
	Since October last year, the violence has claimed the lives of 237 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, an ...

Israel jails Palestinian minor for life for murder

Authorities in Morocco have pressed charges of homosexuality against two teenaged girls allegedly caught kissing and will put them on trial this week, a human rights group said today.
	Police detained the pair, only identified as 16-year-old Sanaa and 17-year-old Hajar, in Marrakesh last Thursday, said Omar Arbib, an activist at the Moroccan Association of Human Rights.
	"They were caught kissing and hugging on the roof of a house in Hay Mohammadi district," said Arbib.
	"Someone photographed them, sent the picture to the family who informed the police" and the two girls were arrested on the same day, he told AFP.
	They appeared before prosecutors and were due in court on Friday facing charges of "licentious or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex" under article 489 of the penal code.
	The Moroccan Association of Human Rights has appointed a lawyer to defend the girls who if convicted could be imprisoned for between six months and three years.
	But Arbib called for the ...

Morocco to try teen girls over homosexuality

Spain's National Court said today it was investigating the country's ambassador to Afghanistan and his former deputy for alleged security flaws after an attack on the Kabul embassy last year that left six dead.
	Four Afghan policemen and two of their Spanish counterparts were killed in December last year when Taliban insurgents burst into the embassy after a car bomb blew off the gate of the compound, sparking a shoot-out inside.
	Relatives of one of the Spanish policemen who died and seven others who were injured filed a complaint accusing Ambassador Emilio Perez de Agreda and his then deputy Oriol Sola of involuntary manslaughter.
	According to court papers published today, the plaintiffs allege the ambassador failed to act on warnings of security flaws at the embassy.
	Since it was built in 2008, there had been warnings about flimsy sentry boxes, or doors that were only made out of wood, which were later reinforced, according to the papers.
	The building is outside the secure ...

Spain ambassador to Afghanistan probed over embassy attack

The US Federal Reserve said today the case for raising interest rates has strengthened further with improving economic conditions, but monetary policymakers decided to wait for more progress before acting.
	Just a few days before the bitterly-contested presidential election, the US central bank kept the benchmark interest rate at the same level where it has been since December 2015, a move universally expected by analysts.
	However, the Fed, while not explicit on the timing, left the door open to a rate hike soon, possibly in their next meeting in December.
	Two central bankers favored an immediate increase. The Federal Reserve Bank presidents of Kansas City, Esther George, and Cleveland, Loretta Mester, dissented on the vote.
	The statement noted continued improvement in the labor market and economic growth, as well as slight increases in inflation, a key focus of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's monetary policy arm.
	"The Committee judges that the case for an increase in 

Fed to wait for more economic progress before rate hike

Canadian media giant Quebecor announced today it is cutting 220 jobs, or eight percent of its workforce, including at its flagship TVA television network.
	"In Quebec as elsewhere in the world, our industry is facing ongoing disruption," said chief executive Julie Tremblay, adding that the company, which began restructuring two years ago, must "further adjust structural costs and become more agile."
	The slashed positions are mainly managers, professionals and administrative support staff, the company said.
	At TVA Group, 125 positions will be abolished. This is not expected to impact news coverage, Tremblay said.
	Two local Quebec magazines -- Chez Soi and Tellment bon -- will also no longer be published.
	TVA last Friday announced a third-quarter loss of Can$32.5 million.

Media giant Quebecor cuts 220 staff, 8% workforce

Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera took three wickets apiece to break Zimbabwe's resistance and secure a 225-run victory for Sri Lanka in the first Test at Harare Sports Club today.
     After declaring on their overnight total of 247 for six to set Zimbabwe 412 for victory on the final day, Sri Lanka were under threat of being held to a draw as Graeme Cremer once again proved to be the thorn in their side with his stubborn 43.
     But Herath finished with figures of 3 for 38, which included the key wickets of Cremer and Sean Williams, and Perera took 3 for 34 as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 186 with just 7.3 overs left in the game.
     A rollercoaster of a final day began with Zimbabwe making a strong start to their innings, as openers Tino Mawoyo and Brian Chari saw off the new ball.
     Even after Chari was bowled in Lahiru Kumara's first over to depart for 10, Mawoyo found solid support from Hamilton Masakadza as the pair batted for almost an hour.
     However a poor umpiring .

Herath, Perera lead Sri Lanka to crushing win

Amnesty International today said Russian authorities had shut them out of their office in Moscow, with city authorities citing rent arrears.
	The global human rights campaign group said that the locks had been changed and the alarm system switched off in the premises, which is its only office in Russia.
	Amnesty International regularly criticises Russian authorities for overly harsh treatment of prisoners and urges the release of those jailed in cases it views as politically motivated.
	"Staff found the office was sealed around 10 am (0700 GMT). The organisation had not received any warning and the premises was sealed in their absence," the rights group wrote on its website.
	Amnesty regularly criticises Russian authorities for overly harsh treatment of prisoners and urges the release of those jailed in cases it views as politically motivated.
	Most recently yesterday it called on the authorities to "end the pattern of impunity for torture and other ill treatment" after Russian ...

AFP

AFP

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