Canada's parliament adopted has 0an opposition motion to resettle Yazidi refugees within four months, while declaring IS group's persecution of Yazidis near the Syrian border in northern Iraq a genocide.
	Iraqi activist Nadia Murad was on hand for the unanimous vote in the House of Commons.
	The government said it is still sorting out a plan for the airlift and does not yet know how many Yazidi refugees Canada will take in over the 120-day period.
	But Immigration Minister John McCallum reminded that Canada had managed to resettle more than 25,000 Syrian refugees in just a few months at the start of the year.
	"It is important to emphasise that Canada will always be an open country willing to step up and support people in need from all around the world," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the Commons.
	"I am pleased to see Nadia (Murad) again today and reassure her that in the coming months we are committed to bringing in vulnerable Yazidi refugees," he said.
	Murad was taken by ...

Canada parliament votes to take in Yazidi refugees

PTI Automatic

Efforts to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear program and "denuclearise" the Korean Peninsula are bound to fail, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said.
	The United States is set to deploy its THAAD missile defense system to South Korea as soon as possible, despite opposition from China, in an effort to protect against North Korea's pursuit of missile and nuclear technology.
	"The notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearise is probably a lost cause. They are not going to do that. That is their ticket to survival," Clapper said yesterday during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.
	"And I got a good taste of that when I was there, about how the world looks from their vantage. And they are under siege, and they are very paranoid. So the notion of giving up their nuclear capability, whatever it is, is a nonstarter with them."
	Clapper, who went on a secret mission to North Korea in November 2014 to rescue two American prisoners, ..

Denuclearising N Korea a 'lost cause,' US intel chief says

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the opposition-majority legislature of staging a "parliamentary coup" after lawmakers voted to put him on trial amid a tense political and economic crisis.
	   Accused by the legislature of "abandoning his post" and "criminal and political responsibility" for Venezuela's descent into crisis, Maduro fired back by calling a meeting of his National Defense Council today -- the same day the opposition plans massive anti-government protests.
	"We will not permit a parliamentary coup of any kind," he told cheering supporters at a rally in Caracas, after jetting back from an international tour.
	Lawmakers earlier voted to open a "political and criminal trial" against Maduro over what they themselves have declared a coup: authorities' decision last week to halt their efforts to call a referendum on removing the leftist leader from power.
	It is unclear what impact yesterday's legislative vote will have. The Supreme Court -- which the opposition .

Maduro, opponents trade 'coup' charges in Venezuela crisis

Moscow has said that Russian and Syrian warplanes have not conducted any air strikes on the city of Aleppo for the last seven days and are upholding a moratorium on bombing.
	"All flights by Russian and Syrian air forces have been completely halted in a 10-kilometre zone around Aleppo since October 18," senior military official Sergei Rudskoi said at a briefing yesterday.
	"The moratorium on air strikes by Russian and Syrian planes around the city will be extended," he added, without specifying a timeframe.
	A so-called "humanitarian pause" declared by Damascus and Moscow ran out at 1600 GMT on Saturday, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported there were air strikes afterwards against the opposition-controlled district of Sheikh Saeed.
	Russia's defence spokesman Igor Konashenskov said earlier that six passages for civilians to leave rebel-held eastern Aleppo were still functioning and that 48 women and children left late Monday.
	Moscow had on Monday ruled out early ...

Russia says halt in Aleppo bombing will be extended

Republican ex-secretary of state Colin Powell has announced he will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November 8 presidential election.
	The announcement by Powell, a retired four-star US Army general who served in George W Bush's administration, is the latest from a long line of Republican former and current officials and politicians who have announced they are not voting for their party's nominee Donald Trump.
	"General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton," his assistant Peggy Cifrino yesterday told AFP.
	In a June email that was hacked and published last month, Powell had called Trump an "international pariah" and a "national disgrace," following months of provocative and demeaning rhetoric by Trump against minorities, immigrants, women and others.
	In an another stinging indictment of the brash Republican billionaire, in an August email Powell blasted as "racist" the so-called birther movement propelled by ...

Colin Powell is voting for Clinton: aide

The two co-mayors of Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish-majority city in southeast Turkey, have been arrested as part of a "terrorism" enquiry, security officials said today.
	There was a heavy police presence around the town hall following the arrests of Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli, who together lead a city that has been rocked by clashes between security forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
	Dozens of police were surrounding the town hall with light armoured vehicles and trucks loaded with water cannon as officers searched the building, an AFP correspondent said.
	Kisanak was held at the local airport and Anli at his home, officials told AFP.
	Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly warned that local officials accused of offering logistical help to the PKK -- which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation -- would be prosecuted.
	Last month, 24 mayors suspected of links to the PKK were suspended and replaced with officials close to ...

Turkey's Diyarbakir mayors arrested in 'terror' probe

A large glacier in West Antarctica lost up to half a kilometre in thickness in seven years, thinning more quickly than scientists thought possible, according to a study released today.
	The Smith Glacier, spilling into the Amundsen Sea, shed up to 70 metres (230 feet) per year between 2002 and 2009, according to the study, based on NASA data collected during aerial flyovers.
	"If I had been using data from only one instrument, I wouldn't have believed what I was looking at because the thinning was so large," said lead author Ala Khazendar, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
	Ice-penetrating radar and laser altimetry both yielded the same results, he reported in Nature Communications.
	After 2009, Smith continued to shed mass, though at a slightly slower pace, Khazendar told AFP.
	Earlier studies using less precise techniques estimated that two ice shelves buttressing the glacier lost about 12 metres (40 feet) in thickness each year over the same period.
	Ocean-fronting .

Antarctic glacier thinning more rapidly than thought: study

The Vatican today urged Catholics not to scatter the ashes of the dead after cremation and instead to store them in places approved by the Church.
	The new guidelines published by the Church also say that the ashes of the dead should not be kept at home but should instead be kept at a cemetery or other sacred place.
	Doing so reduces "the risk of shielding the dead from prayers for them and the memory of their family and the Christian community", German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the prefect of the doctrinal watchdog, told journalists.
	"We also avoid eventually forgetting (them) and the lack of respect which can happen, especially after the passing of the first generation," he said.
	"Conserving ashes in a home is not authorised," Mueller said.
	The Vatican first gave permission for cremation in 1963.
	The new guidelines come just in time for "All Souls' Day" on November 2 when the faithful typically pray for the dead.
	"The body is not the private property of the family. A ...

Vatican tells Catholics not to scatter ashes of the dead

Venezuela's opposition-majority legislature today voted  to open a political trial against President Nicolas Maduro, who is resisting efforts to remove him from power in a volatile political crisis.
	A majority of lawmakers in the National Assembly voted in favor of a motion to launch a "political and criminal trial" against Maduro after he blocked their drive for a referendum on removing him.
	They voted to summon Maduro to appear before the assembly on November 1 to answer charges of "criminal and political responsibility and of abandoning his post."
	It is unclear what impact the vote will have. The Supreme Court -- which the opposition claims Maduro controls -- has ruled the National Assembly's decisions invalid.
	The center right-dominated opposition blames Maduro for a dire economic crisis in the oil-rich nation.
	Hit by the fall of global oil prices, Venezuela's economy has crashed, sparking protests and looting driven by shortages of food, medicine and basic goods.
	Maduro ...

Venezuela lawmakers vote for political trial of president

The train that derailed in Cameroon last week killing 79 people was travelling "abnormally" fast before the crash, a senior executive from the rail operator's French parent company told AFP today.
	"On part of the tracks approaching the station where the derailment occurred, we had speeds that were abnormally high compared to the speeds we should have had," said Eric Melet, head of Bollore Africa Railways.
	A judicial enquiry has been launched into the accident which also injured about 550 people.
	Melet said trains travelled at between 40 and 50 kilometres per hour in "slow zones" such as approaches to railway stations.
	"But we have indications which seem to show that the approaching train was travelling at between 80-90 kilometres an hour when it should have been much less."
	The train was travelling from the capital Yaounde to the economic hub of Douala and came off the rails near the central city of Eseka.

'Cameroon train was going 'abnormally' fast before crash'

Rap mogul Jay Z will return to the stage to rally voters for Hillary Clinton in the key swing state of Ohio, her campaign said today.
	The Democratic presidential candidate's website invited fans to enter a lottery for a ticket to Jay Z's free show, which will take place on November 4 in Cleveland.
	The rapper and husband of Beyonce also performed in Ohio to support President Barack Obama during the 2012 election when he tinkered with his hit "99 Problems" to throw in a reference to Republican rival Mitt Romney.
	Jay Z has played few shows in the past two years as he focuses on his Tidal streaming company, although he is also scheduled to perform next month in India at the Global Citizen Festival against poverty.
	Prominent musicians have rallied behind Clinton in her quest to be the first woman president, notably pop superstar Katy Perry who has described herself as Clinton's "number one fan."
	Miley Cyrus, the pop star known for her provocative on-stage antics, surprised university .

Jay Z to rally voters for Clinton

Spanish police today said they had detained one of Britain's most wanted fugitives, who fled the country in 2008 after allegedly raping a woman and was found working in Tenerife.
	Mohammed Jahangir Alam, a Bangladeshi who had been living in Britain on a temporary visa, was convicted in absentia in 2010 for the alleged sexual assault, and sentenced to 14 years in jail.
	"The fugitive was tracked down at his work place, a restaurant where he was eventually detained," Spanish police said in a statement.
	They added he had fake ID on his arrest in Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife, part of Spain's Canaries off the coast of Africa. It was unclear exactly when he was detained.
	A Spanish police spokeswoman told AFP he had fled Britain in 2008.
	Mohammed Jahangir Alam, believed to be 32, was arrested as part of Operation Captura, a joint campaign by Spanish and British police to detain people in Spain who are suspected of committing crimes in Britain.
	Last week, as Britain's National ...

One of Britain's 'most wanted' arrested in Tenerife

A review of scientific evidence on breastfeeding out today found that some long-held advice is worth ditching, including that babies should avoid pacifiers and moms should breastfeed exclusively in the first days after birth.
	Individual interventions to help expectant and new moms breastfeed are still recommended, but systematic or hospital-wide policies tend to show little benefit, said the report by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of experts.
	The benefits of breastfeeding include providing optimal nutrition and an immune system boost for babies, while helping mothers bond with infants and speeding maternal weight loss after birth.
	"There is convincing evidence that breastfeeding provides substantial health benefits for children and adequate evidence that breastfeeding provides moderate health benefits for women," said the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
	"However, nearly half of all mothers in the United ...

Some breastfeeding advice worth ditching: US task force

A US judge today granted final approval for a USD 14.7 billion class action settlement in Volkswagen's diesel emissions cheating scandal, the largest such automaker settlement in history.
	The agreement also resolved some claims brought by US and California environmental regulators who had sought penalties for Volkswagen's violations of pollution laws.
	"Final approval of the 2.0-liter TDI settlement is an important milestone in our journey to making things right in the United States and we appreciate the efforts of all parties involved in this process," Hinrich Woebcken, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in a statement.
	The settlement offers compensation to nearly a half-million owners of polluting Volkswagen and Audi diesel-powered vehicles in the US which the German automaker has admitted configuring to deceive emissions tests.
	This allowed some cars to emit almost 40 times the permissible levels of harmful nitrogen oxides.
	Owners of 2.0-liter diesel-powered 

Judge gives final approval in Volkswagen emissions settlement

Italian bank Monte Paschi di Siena (BMPS) today announced plans to cut 2,600 jobs and close around 500 branches in a bid to turnaround the troubled lender.
	BMPS, the world's oldest bank still operating today, unveiled the overhaul as it posted a net loss of 1.15 billion euros (USD 1.3 billion) in the third quarter, sparking volatile trading in its shares.
	Losses linked to loans led to the result, which compared to a net profit of 255.8 million euros in the same period a year earlier, the bank said.
	But under new chief executive Marco Morelli, the bank now aims to cut costs by closing about a quarter of its 2,000 branches and slashing personnel costs by nine percent over three years.
	It targets net profit above 1.1 billion euros in 2019 under the vast three-year overhaul, it said.
	Italy's third-biggest lender will also seek improvements of its loans and risk reduction.
	The bank, which last year posted its first net profit in five years, will also rein in administrative costs and .

Italy's crisis-hit BMPS bank to cut jobs, close branches

Human Rights Watch today said Turkey's state of emergency amounted to giving "a blank cheque" for police to torture, abuse or threaten people detained after the failed coup.
	The US-based watchdog cited 13 cases of alleged abuse, including torture, sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse and rape threats among people arrested after the July 15 attempted putsch.
	"By removing safeguards against torture, the Turkish government effectively wrote a blank cheque to law enforcement agencies to torture and mistreat detainees as they like," Hugh Williamson, HRW's Europe and Central Asia director, said in a statement.
	Its report detailed several examples of detainees with bruises and marks on their body and said some lawyers were too scared to record evidence that their clients had been tortured.
	A forensic specialist told HRW: "There was not a part of (a detainee's) body that was not covered in bruises."
	In one alleged incident, an Istanbul-based lawyer told the rights group that .

Turkey police torture detainees under post-coup emergency: HRW

The US-led coalition is "laying the groundwork" for the "isolation" of Raqa, the Islamic State group stronghold in Syria, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said today.
	"We have already begun laying the groundwork for our partners to commence the isolation of Raqa," Carter said after meeting coalition defence ministers in Paris to discuss the aftermath of the planned capture of Mosul from IS in Iraq.
	"Today we resolved to follow through with that same sense of urgency and focus on enveloping and collapsing ISIL's control of Raqa," he added, using another acronym for IS.
	Carter said the coalition would rely on "capable and motivated local forces that we identify and then enable" to wrest the city from the Sunni extremists.
	"That is our general strategic approach. We are seeking a lasting defeat of ISIL and a lasting defeat can't be achieved by outside.
	"It can only be achieved by those who live there," he said, adding: "These will be Syrians enabled by us."
	Carter was among a ...

'Groundwork' being laid for 'isolation' of Raqa: US

US President Barack Obama will head to Greece, Germany and Peru next month for what could be his final trip abroad before leaving the White House in January, his office said today.
	The November 14-21 trip -- which will fall between the November 8 election to choose his successor and Inauguration Day on January 20 -- will aim to show Obama's engagement with both his transatlantic and Asia-Pacific partners.
	Obama will arrive in Greece on November 15 for talks focused on the country's efforts to right its struggling economy and to hail the "remarkable generosity" shown by Athens towards the human sea of migrants arriving on its shores, the White House said.
	He is due to meet with both Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
	About 850,000 migrants fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived in Greece last year, a majority of them on the island of Lesbos. In October 2015, at the height of the crisis, 10,000 migrants were arriving on Lesbos ...

Obama to head to Greece, Germany, Peru in mid-November

The EU today moved to prolong border controls in the passport-free Schengen area for three months, missing an end-of-year deadline to scrap the emergency measures adopted to cope with last year's massive migrant influx.
	The European Commission, the European Union executive arm, recommended continuing checks at the borders of Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and non-EU Norway for three months starting in November.
	The EU had said it wanted to restore full functioning with no border controls across the Schengen area -- which includes 22 EU countries as well as Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein -- by the end of the year.
	"We are working hard to return to a normal functioning Schengen area as soon as possible, and we have made significant progress," European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said in a statement.
	"But we are not there yet," he said on the sidelines of a session of the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg.
	The Commission said "a ..

EU to extend Schengen border controls for three months

Six reporters, photographers and media chiefs are to be tried in France for invasion of privacy over topless photos of Britain's Duchess of Cambridge published in 2012, judicial sources said today.
	The snaps of Kate, the wife of Prince William, were taken with a long lens and showed her topless on a balcony of a private residence in the south of France during a holiday with her husband.
	The photos, which first appeared in French celebrity magazine Closer in September 2012, sparking fury from the British royal family and reviving a debate on press intrusion into the private lives of celebrities.
	Closer's chief editor, the head of the Mondadori press group which owns the magazine, two photographers of a Parisian agency and a photographer and a senior figure at regional daily La Provence will now have to answer in court over the publication of the intimate photos, under a July magistrate's order.
	The pictures in question first appeared on the front page of the regional daily in ...

Six to be tried in France over topless Kate photos

Security forces in the occupied West Bank have uncovered a Palestinian cell plotting to assassinate three senior leaders, a security official said today.
	"The four-man cell planned to assassinate three leaders," the source said, adding that the targets came from the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
	Three of the suspects, including a senior member of the Palestinian security services, were arrested more than two months ago, the source said, while a fourth was on the run.
	The targets were Ghassan Shakaa, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee, as well as Jamal al-Tirawi and Amin Maqbool, officials in president Mahmud Abbas' Fatah party, the source added.
	He said they sought to undermine security in Nablus.
	Tirawi confirmed the plot, saying all of the suspects were also members of Fatah and were known to him personally.
	"The three suspects admitted planning the assassination," he told AFP.
	He added that the fourth person was the "key to solving the 

AFP

AFP

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