A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group targeted Shiite Muslims in the Iraqi capital today, killing at least four people, security and medical officials said.
	The bomber targeted a tent in the Iskan area of western Baghdad where Shiites were distributing food and drinks to pilgrims making their way to the shrine city of Karbala, south of the capital.
	The attack also wounded at least 16 people, officials said.
	IS issued a statement claiming the attack in which it boasted that the bomber had successfully passed security checkpoints to carry the attack.
	The Sunni extremist group considers Shiites to be heretics and frequently targets them with bombings in Baghdad.
	The latest attack comes as Iraqi forces close in on Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country, after regaining much of the territory that the jihadists had overran in 2014.
	But even their ouster from the northern city of Mosul is unlikely to bring an end to IS bombings, and the jihadists may ...

IS suicide bombing targeting Iraq Shiites kills four

PTI Automatic

French President Francois Hollande today urged Britain to take in 1,500 unaccompanied minors from Calais' "Jungle" as officials stepped up efforts to finish demolishing the almost-deserted migrant camp.
	Hailing the evacuation of the sprawling encampment, Hollande vowed that France would not accept the emergence of any more makeshift camps, which have become a glaring symbol of Europe's worst migration crisis since World War II.
	He pledged youngsters left at a container camp near the site would be "very quickly dispatched" to reception centres, with the hope that they would eventually be taken in by Britain.
	"We had to rise to the challenge of the refugee issue. We could not tolerate the camp and we will not tolerate any others," he said while visiting a reception centre in Doue-la-Fontaine in western France.
	"There are 1,500 unaccompanied minors left in Calais and they will be very quickly dispatched to other (reception) centres," he added.
	Hollande said he had spoken with ...

Hollande urges Britain to take in 1,500 'Jungle' minors

Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen killed 17 civilians in a battleground southwestern town today, the insurgents said.
	Rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble after the raids hit residential buildings in Salo southeast of Yemen's third city Taez, rebel-controlled media said, giving a toll of 17 dead and seven wounded.
	Most of those killed were women, sabanews.Net said, reporting four strikes hit three residential buildings, "completely destroying them".
	A doctor at the town's public hospital said it had received the bodies of 15 dead and was treating seven wounded.
	There was no immediate comment from the coalition, which launched a military campaign against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies in March last year to support President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government.
	But a local Yemeni official loyal to the Saudi-backed government said the coalition air strikes had hit three adjacent homes by mistake.
	"All those in the houses ...

Coalition strikes kill 17 Yemen civilians: rebels

OPEC officials held talks with Russia and other non-cartel members today in Vienna to debate how to implement a plan aimed at cutting oil output to reduce a global supply glut and bolster prices.
	"The recovery process has taken far too long and we cannot risk delaying the adjustment any further," said Sanusi Barkindo, the secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, in his opening remarks.
	"Therefore, we should be calling for maximum commitment from all OPEC and non-OPEC countries in this regard and we should expect no less as this is our commitment, not only to our member countries but to the global community."
	Moscow's delegation declined to comment before the meeting. But OPEC and Russia - the world's top oil producer along with Saudi Arabia - have held several meetings recently to tighten cooperation to ease price volatility.
	"There is an acute and urgent need to speed up the rebalancing," Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said during a ...

OPEC, non-oil cartel members discuss production cuts

Germany's World Cup-winning coach Joachim Loew is set to extend his reign until 2020 amidst reports his new contract will be confirmed on Monday by the German FA (DFB).
     German daily Bild reported today that the 56-year-old, who took charge in 2006, will pen a two-year extension to lead Germany's defence of the World Cup in Russia in 2018 and to the European Championships in 2020.
     Loew, who led die Mannschaft to their fourth World Cup title in Brazil two years ago, is set to receive a huge pay rise to four million euros (USD 4.4m) per year.
     His current contract, which expires after the 2018 World Cup, reportedly earned him an annual salary of around three million euros.
     The DFB's president Reinhard Grindel refused to comment when approached by SID, an AFP subsidiary, but he is believed to want to get the deal sealed before the German FA meets in Erfurt on November 3-4.
	If Loew stays in office until 2020, his 14-year reign would make him the joint second-longest ...

Loew to extend Germany reign until 2020 - reports

President Francois Hollande today acknowledged that France bore "broad responsibility" for the internment of thousands of Roma by the World War II Vichy regime and in the early months of the post-war government.
	"The day has come, and this truth must be told," Hollande said in the first presidential visit to the main internment camp for Roma, located in Montreuil-Bellay, central France.
	"The (French) Republic acknowledges the suffering of travelling people who were interned and admits that it bears broad responsibility," Hollande said.
	Roma, also known as gypsies, were brutally persecuted in the Holocaust, parallelling the systematic murder of Jews. Estimates of how many died vary widely, between 220,000 and half a million.
	The Vichy regime is the term for the government set up in France - but under de-facto Nazi control - after France surrendered to Germany in 1940.
	The Vichy regime fell in late 1944 when the allied forces reconquered France and General Charles de Gaulle set up .

Hollande acknowledges French role in Roma internment in WWII

Scoreboard at stumps on the second
day of the second Test between Bangladesh and England at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here today.
     Bangladesh 1st innings: 220
     England 1st innings (overnight 50 for 3)
     A Cook lbw b Mehedi            14
     B Duckett c Rahim b Shakib      7
     J Root lbw b Taijul            56
     G Ballance c Rahim b Mehedi     9
     M Ali b Mehedi                 10
     B Stokes c Mominul b Taijul     0
     J Bairstow lbw b Mehedi        24
     Z Ansari c Shuvagata b Mehedi  13
     C Woakes Shuvagata b  Mehedi   46
     A Rashid not out               44
     S Finn c Rahim b Taijul         0
     Extras: (B-13, LB-7, NB-1)     23
     Total: (all out; 81.3 overs)  244
     Fall of wickets:1-10, 2-24, 3-42, 4-64, 5-69, 6-114, 7-140, 8-144, 9-243.
     Bowling: Mehedi 28-2-82-6, Shakib 16-5-41-1, Taijul 25.3-3-65-3, Kamrul 3-0-16-0, Shuvagata 4-0-8-0, Sabbir 5-0-12-0.
     Bangladesh 2nd innings:
     Tamim Iqbal c Cook b Ansari         ...

Dhaka, Oct 29 (AFP) Scoreboard at stumps on the second

Left-arm spinner Zafar Ansari dismissed Mahmudullah Riyad off the final ball of the day to bring England back into the contest in the second Test after Bangladesh surged ahead with 152-3 at stumps on the second day.
     Bangladesh made a confident start in the second innings thanks to a fluent batting by their top-order after Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid shared 99 runs in the ninth wicket to give England a vital 24-run first innings lead.
     The hosts wiped out the deficit quickly and went for almost five runs in an over in the final session to put the pressure back on England before Ansari's late strike restored some parity for the visitors.
     Ansari earlier removed Tamim Iqbal for 40 to make the first innings century maker his maiden Test wicket and two balls later Ben Stokes got rid of Mominul Haque to put a brake on Bangladesh's breakneck speed.
     But Imrul Kayes, unbeaten on 59 overnight, and Mahmudullah shared 86 runs for the third wicket to help the home side restore ..

Bangladesh ahead in topsy-turvy Test

The Swedish Academy said today that Bob Dylan is not obliged to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, but is required to hold some sort of lecture or even sing a song.
	Dylan could provide anything from a short speech, a performance, a video broadcast - or even a song, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, told the public Swedish Radio.
	"I hope he will do what he desires to do," she said, adding that the academy will "do everything it can" to adapt the festivities to his wishes.
	Dylan finally broke his silence yesterday, saying he plans to pick up his Nobel prize for literature in Stockholm on December 10, calling it "amazing, incredible".
	"It's hard to believe," the US singer-songwriter told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper yesterday. "Whoever dreams about something like that?"
	Asked if he would attend the Nobel prize winners' banquet, which is hosted by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, Dylan said: "Absolutely. If it's at all possible."
	The ...

Nobel panel signals desire for Dylan song at ceremony

Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid shared 99 runs in the ninth wicket partnership to give England a vital 24-run first innings lead over Bangladesh in the second Test in Dhaka today.
     Bangladesh took the last two wickets in six balls after new ball was available, wrapping up England's first innings for 244 runs on the stroke of the tea break on the second day.
     Woakes made 46 while Rashid added an unbeaten 44 to lift England from a precarious 144-8, giving them what looked like an unlikely lead after five wickets fell in the morning session.
     Their die-hard batting overshadowed the bowling heroics of Bangladesh's teenage off-spinner Mehedi Hasan who finished with 6-82, his second five-wicket haul in as many matches.
     Mehedi broke the partnership when he forced an edge from Woakes at slip and five balls later, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, who claimed 3-65, wrapped up England's innings with the wicket of Steven Finn.
     England's innings could have ended a little earlier ..

Woakes, Rashid give England vital lead

Scoreboard at tea on the second day
of the second Test between Bangladesh and England here today:
 Bangladesh first innings 220
 England first innings (overnight 50-3)
 A. Cook lbw b Mehedi 14
 B. Duckett c Rahim b Shakib 7
 J. Root lbw b Taijul 56
 G. Ballance c Rahim b Mehedi 9
 M. Ali b Mehedi 10
 B. Stokes c Mominul b Taijul 0
 J. Bairstow lbw b Mehedi 24
 Z. Ansari c Shuvagata b Mehedi 13
 C. Woakes Shuvagata b  Mehedi 46
 A. Rashid not out 44
 S. Finn c Rahim b Taijul 0
 Extras (B-13, LB-7, NB-1) 21
 Total (all out; 81.3 overs) 244
 Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-24, 3-42, 4-64, 5-69, 6-114, 7-140, 8-144, 9-243.
 Bowling: Mehedi 28-2-82-6, Shakib 16-5-41-1, Taijul 25.3-3-65-3, Kamrul 3-0-16-0, Shuvagata 4-0-8-0, Sabbir 5-0-12-0.

Dhaka, Oct 29 (AFP) Scoreboard at tea on the second day

A Palestinian attacked Israeli troops with his car and then with a knife in the occupied West Bank before being shot and seriously wounded, the army said today.
	The attack happened late on Friday near the Jewish settlement of Ofra, northeast of the city of Ramallah, an army statement said.
	The assailant attempted to run over soldiers with his car, prompting them to open fire. He then got out of the vehicle brandishing a knife and troops fired again, seriously wounding him, the statement said.
	There has been a spate of car-ramming and knife attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories, most of them in the West Bank or annexed east Jerusalem.
	Analysts say Palestinian frustration with the Israeli occupation and settlement-building in the West Bank, comatose peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.
	Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media is a leading cause.
	Human rights groups have accused Israeli security forces of using excessive ..

Palestinian attacker shot by Israeli troops: army

Iraqi paramilitary forces launched an operation today to retake Tal Afar from the Islamic State group, opening a new front in the nearly two-week-old offensive to recapture jihadist-held Mosul.
	Forces from the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary umbrella organisation dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias, have largely been on the sidelines since the launch of the Mosul operation.
	And the western approach to Mosul, a route on which Tal Afar is located, is the only one where ground forces, which have advanced on the city from the north, east and south, are not yet deployed.
	"The operation aims to cut supplies between Mosul and Raqa and tighten the siege of (IS) in Mosul and liberate Tal Afar," Hashed spokesman Ahmed al-Assadi told AFP, referring to IS's main strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
	Assadi said the operation was launched from the Sin al-Dhaban area south of Mosul and aimed to retake the towns of Hatra and Tal Abta as well as Tal Afar.
	The drive toward Tal Afar could bring the 

Iraq forces launch operation to cut Mosul off from Syria

Iraqi officials said today that the security forces foiled an attack by jihadists of the Islamic State group on the city of Ramadi, capital of the western province of Anbar.
	The reported thwarted attack led to 11 arrests and comes after a string of diversionary attacks by the jihadists since the start two weeks ago of a massive offensive against IS bastion Mosul.
	Iraqi forces "arrested 11 Daesh (IS) members who were planning to attack the city" from the suburb of Al-Tash, on the southern edge of Ramadi, said Captain Ahmed al-Dulaimi of the Anbar police.
	Iraqi forces retook Ramadi from IS early this year. Mine clearing and reconstruction efforts are under way but few civilians have returned.
	Anbar provincial council member Raja al-Issawi said that the 11, arrested yesterday, had confessed to planning an attack on the city.
	The loss of Mosul could spell the end of IS's days as a land-holding force in Iraq but observers warn the group's remnants could increasingly activate sleeper ..

Iraq says foiled IS attack on Ramadi

Fresh fighting shook Aleppo today as rebels battled to break a siege of the city by the Syrian regime, accused by Washington of using starvation as a weapon of war.
	Opposition fighters unleashed a barrage of rockets on the government-held western side of the divided city yesterday as they announced a major offensive aimed at reopening vital supply lines.
	"In just a few days, we will open the way for our besieged brothers," rebel commander Abu Mustafa told AFP.
	The rebel fire has killed at least 21 civilians, including two children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
	"Fighting continues on the western outskirts of Aleppo, where rebels have been making advances," the British-based monitoring group, which has a network of sources on the ground, said today.
	More than 1,500 fighters from the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib to the west were attacking government-controlled districts of the city along a front stretching for 15 kilometres (nine miles), it said.
	The ...

Syria rebels battle to break Aleppo siege

Twenty-five people were killed, six of them gendarmes, in two days of violence around the town of Bambari in the troubled Central African Republic, the UN force MINUSCA said today.
	Six police and four civilians were killed in an ambush by armed men last morning, while on Thursday, 15 people died in fighting on the town's outskirts between the former Muslim Seleka militia and Christian vigilante groups known as "anti-balaka" (anti-machete), it said in a statement.
	In a further incident, anti-balaka fighters yesterday attacked eight members of MINUSCA as they were heading to Bambari airport, the force said. A seven-year-old child was injured.
	The UN force said there had been a "rise in tension in certain regions," citing "confrontation between armed elements of the ex-Seleka and anti-balaka" groups.
	It called on the armed groups to end "the cycle of attack and reprisal."
	Bambari lies in central CAR, about 250 kilometres northeast of the capital Bangui.
	The bloodshed is the latest .

25 dead, including six police, in Central African clashes: UN

Icelanders voted today in a snap election that could see the anti-establishment Pirate Party form the next government in the wake of the Panama Papers tax-dodging scandal and lingering anger over the 2008 financial meltdown.
	Voters are expected to punish the incumbent coalition after the Panama Papers revealed a global tax evasion scandal that ensnared several senior politicians and forced former prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson to resign.
	Although the current government of the conservative Independence Party and the centrist Progressive Party survived the scandal, it promised a snap election six months before the end of its term in spring 2017.
	"We're loosing support (because of the) big anti-establishment (feeling)," Birgir Armannsson, member of parliament for the Independence Party, told AFP.
	The Pirate Party - founded in 2012 by activists, anarchists and former hackers - has been campaigning for public transparency, institutional reform, individual freedoms and the .

Iceland votes in snap polls after Panama Papers scandal

Chinese vessels have left the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a Philippine official said today, less than a week after President Rodrigo Duterte visited Beijing pledging closer ties.
	The firebrand leader used the trip to vaunt his move away from traditional ally the United States in favour of Beijing -- which was previously at loggerheads with Manila over the maritime dispute.
	China took control of the Scarborough Shoal, 230 kilometres from the main Philippine island of Luzon, in 2012, driving Filipino fishermen away from the rich fishing ground, sometimes using water cannons.
	In a case brought by former president Benigno Aquino, the Philippines won a resounding victory at an international tribunal earlier this year over Beijing's extensive maritime claims in the area, infuriating the Asian giant.
	But Duterte has made a point of not flaunting the ruling and President Xi Jingping told the Philippine leader on his recent visit that there was no reason for ...

Chinese vessels leave disputed shoal: Philippine official

Thousands of Thais streamed into the gates of Bangkok's Grand Palace today as the public was granted its first chance to enter the throne hall where the body of late King Bhumibol Adulyadej is lying in state.
	Bhumibol, who died at 88 two weeks ago, was adored by many of his subjects and seen as an anchor of stability in a kingdom rocked by turbulent politics.
	His passing has thrust the country into a year of official mourning, with most Thais wearing only black and white since his death and TV channels devoting hours of airtime to footage from his 70-year reign.
	For the past two weeks crowds have massed outside the Grand Palace, a compound of shimmering temples and pavilions in Bangkok's old quarter, to pay tribute before a portrait of the monarch.
	But today was the first time the public has been allowed to enter the ornate throne hall where his body is lying in a coffin behind a gilded urn.
	"I have been waiting here since 1:00 am," said Saman Daoruang, an 84-year-old sitting in .

Thousands queue to visit coffin of late Thai king

Two suicide bombings rocked Nigeria's northeast city of Maiduguri this morning, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of others,  emergency services said.
	"Two suicide bombers riding in motorised rickshaws this morning detonated their explosives 10 minutes apart, with one of them targeting the Bakassi IDP (internally displaced persons) camp on the outskirts of the city," Mohammed Kanar, spokesman for Nigeria Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said.
	"Nine persons lost their lives with twenty-four persons injured and evacuated to various hospitals," NEMA said in a statement posted on Twitter.

2 suicide bombers kill nine in NE Nigeria: emergency services

Bob Dylan

Dylan, whose lyrics have influenced generations of fans, is the first songwriter to win the literature prize.

AFP

AFP

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