Forces loyal to Libya's unity government today freed 13 foreigners held by the Islamic State group in its former coastal bastion of Sirte, the forces said.
	Loyalists freed a Turkish and an Egyptian detainee as well as 11 Eritrean women "thought to have been held hostage by Daesh", they said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
	Pro-government forces are fighting the last jihadists holed up in Sirte after launching an offensive to retake the city in May.
	Libya has been in chaos with rival administrations and militia vying for power of the oil-rich country since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
	IS jihadists overran the former president's home town of Sirte in June 2015, flying their black flags above public buildings and imprisoning, crucifying or beheading dozens of people.
	Forces allied with Libya's UN-backed Government of National Unity (GNA) began an offensive on May 12 aimed at ousting IS from the city and surrounding ...

Libya forces free 13 foreigners from IS: statement

PTI Automatic

Two men have been killed in a shoot-out in the southern French city of Marseille, which is known for its high crime levels, judicial sources said.
	The men's bodies were found by emergency services yeterday night in a black vehicle with no number plates.
	The men were 22 and 20 years old. While one had been known to police for drug use, the other had no criminal record.
	A third, lightly wounded man aged 24 was also found in the car. He was taken into custody, the Marseille prosecutor's office said.
	The men had been attacked by "two men on a scooter. One was armed with a Kalashnikov-style rifle, the other with a handgun," prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux said.
	The latest killings brought to 28 the number of fatal shootings in the province of Bouches-du-Rhone, the majority in the city of Marseille, since the start of the year.
	Most of them have been gangland killings.

Two dead in France gangland shoot-out

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has pardoned more than 1,500 prisoners as the gas-rich country celebrates 25 years of independence from the USSR, state television reported today.
	"On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Turkmenistan's independence, 1,523 citizens are being released from prison," television reported.
	Such amnesties are held several times a year to coincide with major public holidays in Turkmenistan, one of the world's most tightly controlled countries.
	The latest pardons were linked to upcoming celebrations on October 27 and 28 of 25 years since the Central Asian country left the Soviet Union.
	State television reported that the president had asked local government officials to help those pardoned find jobs.
	This is the fourth mass pardoning by the president of the isolated Central Asian country this year, according to official information. Previous amnesties this year released 2,950 people, including 26 foreigners.
	Turkmenistan's prison ...

Turkmenistan pardons 1,500 prisoners for Soviet breakup anniv

The Kremlin today said its military intervention in Syria aims to liberate the war-torn nation's territory from jihadists while keeping President Bashar al-Assad in power.
	Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview with Rossiya-1 national television set to air today evening said there were only two possible outcomes for the Syrian conflict -- either Assad remains in power or jihadists take over.
	"Either Assad is in Damascus, or Al-Nusra is," he said, referring to former Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Fateh al-Sham Front. "There is no third option here."
	Russia launched a massive air campaign in September last year to back longtime ally Assad.
	A recent surge of Russian air strikes on besieged rebel-held areas of second city Aleppo have prompted outrage at civilian deaths and the destruction of schools and hospitals.
	"It is necessary to liberate the Syrian territory," Peskov said, when asked whether Russia could step away from its involvement in the Syrian conflict.
	The Kremlin ...

Kremlin says it aims to 'liberate' Syria under Assad

Turkey hit Kurdish militia targets in northern Syria for the second time in less than 72 hours, the military said today, as Ankara vowed further action.
	Rockets struck 70 People's Protection Units (YPG) targets yesterday, the Turkish armed forces said in a statement that did not reveal whether any militia fighters had been killed.
	The strikes came after two Ankara-backed Syrian opposition fighters were injured when YPG forces opened fire south of the flashpoint town of Jarabulus, the military said, quoted in the official Anadolu news agency.
	Turkey views Syria's YPG and Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as terror groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), staging an insurgency in Turkey since 1984.
	Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatened further action against the YPG and PYD, saying that if they "continued to attack (Syrian opposition fighters) fighting against Daesh", the Islamic State group, Turkey would "do what is necessary".
	Quoted by ...

Turkey hits Syrian Kurd group again

Hundreds of wounded civilians were stranded in rebel-held areas of Syria's Aleppo 	today after the UN said security concerns had prevented evacuation convoys even as Russia extended a ceasefire into a third day.
	The unilateral "humanitarian pause" in the Syrian army's devastating Russian-backed assault on the opposition-controlled east of the city has largely held since it began on Thursday morning.
	The army has said it is an opportunity for civilians and rebel fighters who lay down their arms to leave.
	But so far there have been no organised evacuation convoys and only a handful of the 250,000 civilians still living in the rebel sector have left under their own steam.
	An AFP photographer in the Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood at one of the crossings over the front line the army has set up for evacuations said it was deserted today morning.
	After three months of siege by the army and nearly four weeks of relentless air strikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes, trust in government ...

Wounded await evacuation on day three of Aleppo truce

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned the EU today not to forget that Turkey has alternatives to the bloc, whose ties with Ankara have become increasingly strained.
	He did not say what the alternatives were could be but closer relations between Russia and Ankara has caused concern in the West.
	"Turkey always has alternatives. Europe should not forget: too much coyness can make love fed up," he said during a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) conference.
	Turkey's bid to join the union dates back to the 1960s, although formal talks began in 2005. Only 16 chapters of the 35 chapter accession process have been opened.
	Turkey's relationship with the EU has come under strain since the July 15 failed putsch and Brussels' failure to deliver visa-liberalisation in time as part of the March deal to solve the refugee crisis in Europe.
	Ankara has also attacked Brussels for not showing more support after the coup bid as EU officials criticised Turkey's crackdown against ...

EU should not forget Turkey has alternatives, PM warns

The head of the European parliament and Canada's trade minister held last-ditch talks today aimed at salvaging a trade deal threatened by a Belgian region's refusal to sign on.
	EU assembly chief Martin Schulz also planned an 11th-hour huddle with Paul Magnette, head of Wallonia's socialist government which is blocking the agreement between Ottawa and the 28-nation European Union.
	The Brussels meetings are aimed at "reviving CETA talks. We can't stop at the last mile," Schulz wrote on Twitter, referring to the agreement's name.
	CETA would link the EU market of 500 million people with the world's 10th biggest economy.
	"We have done our job, it's now up to the European Union to finish theirs," countered Canada's Chrystia Freeland after the talks with Schulz, adding that she was returning to Toronto today.
	"I really hope that the Europeans can bring it to a conclusion and that I can come back in a few days with my prime minister to sign the agreement," she said, cited by Belgium's ...

Last-ditch talks aim to save EU-Canada trade deal

Bahrain will auction the confiscated assets of the main Shiite opposition in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom after it was dissolved over terrorism-related charges, a judicial source said today.
	An administrative court on Thursday ordered the auctioning of Al-Wefaq's assets to be held on October 26, the source said.
	The group's dissolution in July drew strong criticism from UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Bahrain's allies in Washington and London, as well as Shiite-dominated Iran which Manama accuses of meddling in its affairs.
	After the latest court decision, security forces seized Al-Wefaq's assets including its headquarters outside Manama and two other offices in Shiite villages, the source said.
	The accusations that led to the ban -- upheld by an appeals court last month -- included "harbouring terrorism", inciting violence and encouraging demonstrations which threatened to spark sectarian strife in the Shiite-majority country.
	Al-Wefaq's leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, has been behind bars .

Bahrain to auction banned opposition's seized assets

Scoreboard at the close of play
on the second day of the second Test between Pakistan and West Indies played at Sheikh Zayed Stadium today.
     Pakistan 1st innings (overnight 304 for 4)
     Sami Aslam b Bishoo                    6
     Azhar Ali b Gabriel                    0
     Asad Shafiq b Gabriel                 68
     Younis Khan c Chase b Brathwaite     127
     Misbah-ul-Haq lbw b Gabriel           96
     Yasir Shah c Bishoo b Holder          23
     Sarfraz Ahmed b Gabriel               56
     Mohammad Nawaz b Holder               25
     Sohail Khan c Johnson b Holder        26
     Zulfiqar Babar c Hope b Gabriel        0
     Rahat Ali not out                      0
     Extras: (B-1, LB-15, NB-9)            25
     Total: (all out; 119.1 overs)        452
     Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-42, 3-129, 4-304, 5-332, 6-342, 7-412, 8-430, 9-452.
     Bowling: Gabriel 23.1-1-96-5, Cummins 20-1-65-0, Holder 22-8-47-3, Bishoo 26-0-112-1, Chase 19-1-80-0, Brathwaite 9-0-36-1.
   

Abu Dhabi, Oct 22 (AFP) Scoreboard at the close of play

West Indies lost two late wickets to hand the initiative to Pakistan on the second day of the second Test here today.
     West Indies had defied Pakistan's bowlers well until the 44th over with the score 106 for 2, but they then lost Marlon Samuels (30) and Kraigg Brathwaite (21) in the space of three balls without adding any further runs.
     Nightwatchman Devendra Bishoo and Jermaine Blackwood were yet to score as West Indies trail Pakistan's first innings total of 452 by 346 runs with six wickets intact.
     Darren Bravo, who made 87 and 116 in the first Test in Dubai, made an attractive 43 but his dismissal left Pakistan in a dominant position.
     A late collapse hit the West Indies hard as Samuels edged fast bowler Rahat Ali to slip before Brathwaite was run out by Misbah-ul-Haq's throw after setting off for a quick single.
     Bravo, who opened the innings after Brathwaite was off the field when Pakistan were batting and could not come in at the start, helped the tourists .

West Indies crumble after Misbah's near miss

Three masked men who were reportedly armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles robbed a jewellery store located in a shopping mall in Chatelineau in southern Belgium, local police said.
	"When the shop opened, three masked men attacked the staff with heavy weapons. They took the stolen goods in a vehicle fitted with stolen registration plates," police spokesman Eric De Brabander told the RTBF television channel.
	"No one was injured but the staff are in shock."
	According to Belgian media reports, the men were wielding Kalashnikov rifles when they stormed the jewellery store - similar to those used in the Paris attacks in November last year.
	While there appeared to be no jihadist link, the robbery occurred with Europe on edge over the fear that attacks like those that have struck Belgium, France and Germany in the past year may occur again.
	Witnesses said two explosions were heard during the hold-up.
	The mall was evacuated for several hours, though by midday it had been reopened.
	The .

Kalashnikovs used to rob Belgian jewellery store

The first woman to conquer Mount Everest, Junko Tabei of Japan, died aged 77, media reported today.
	Tabei died of peritoneal cancer on Thursday at a hospital in Saitama, north of Tokyo, Japan's public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News said, quoting her family.
	She completed the first conquest of Mount Everest by a woman in 1975, accomplishing the feat via the southeast ridge route.
	She went on to conquer soaring peaks in several continents - Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mount McKinley in the United States and the Vinson Massif in Antarctica - heralding the era of women climbers.
	Even after reaching the world's highest peak, the Fukushima native continued climbing mountains at home and abroad.
	In an interview with AFP in 2003, she said: "I don't have the desire to climb Everest again any more. If I had enough time and money to do so, I would rather climb other mountains that I have not attempted before."
	Her last challenge was made in July when she climbed Mount Fuji, central Japan, ...

First woman atop Everest dies aged 77: reports

Moscow today escalated a row over its attempts send observers to the US presidential polls, accusing Washington of adopting an "anti-Russian" stance.
	Moscow has said that it is trying to send its own observers to various US states to monitor the November 8 vote, but has been refused accreditation so far.
	Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov accused US officials of treating the issue of observers in an "absolutely anti-Russian vein", speaking to RIA Novosti state news agency.
	"If we are deprived of this for political reasons, we will draw our own conclusions," he warned.
	"Our American colleagues shouldn't count on us simply forgetting this in the future," he said, accusing them of "unacceptable statements".
	State Department spokesman John Kirby yesterday accused Moscow of a "PR stunt" and denied any federal policy to refuse Russian observers.
	He also pointed out that Russia had opted not to join the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observer ...

Moscow calls US 'anti-Russian' in election observer row

At least 60 were killed when a packed passenger train derailed between Cameroon's two main cities, a hospital source in the capital Yaounde said today, giving a new toll the day after the accident.
	Almost 600 people were injured when the train, travelling from Yaounde to the economic hub of Douala, came off the rails near the central city of Eseka at around midday yesterday.
	"We have received between 60 and 70 bodies at the station this morning," a railway official who asked not to be identified told AFP in Yaounde today.
	The train was crammed with people because a collapsed bridge had made travelling the same route by road impossible.
	"Some of the wounded are arriving unconscious. We think the death toll will rise," said the railway official, adding that the injured had been taken to various hospitals in the capital.
	Passengers' relatives thronged the city's main hospital to look for their loved ones.
	At the hospital's morgue "there are 28 unidentified bodies. The identified ...

Cameroon rail accident toll rises to at least 60

Scoreboard at stumps on the
third day of the first Test between Bangladesh and England at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium today.
     England 1st innings: 293
     Bangladesh 1st innings (overnight 221 for 5)
     Tamim Iqbal c Bairstow b Batty       78
     Imrul Kayes b Ali                    21
     Mominul Haque c Stokes b Ali          0
     Mahmudullah c Root b Rashid          38
     Mushfiqur Rahim c Bairstow b Stokes  48
     Shakib Al Hasan st Bairstow b Ali    31
     Shafiul Islam c Broad b Rashid        2
     Sabbir Rahman c Cook b Stokes        19
     Mehedi Hasan lbw b Stokes             1
     Taijul Islam not out                  3
     Kamrul Islam b Stokes                 0
     Extras: (B-2, LB-4, W-1)              7
     Total: (all out; 86 overs)          248
     Fall of wicket: 1-29, 2-29, 3-119, 4-163, 5-221, 6-221, 7-238, 8-239, 9-248.
     Bowling: Broad 8-2-12-0, Batty 17-1-51-1, Woakes 7-2-15-0, Rashid 16-1-58-2, Ali 22-4-75-3, Stokes 14-5-26-4, Root ..

Chittagong, Oct 22 (AFP) Scoreboard at stumps on the

Ben Stokes gave England a firm grip on the first Test with bat and ball before Shakib Al Hasan's 5-79 revived Bangladesh hopes here today.
     Stokes hit 85 runs in the second innings to steer England to 228-8 at stumps on the third day after his three-wicket burst earlier in the morning helped them dismiss Bangladesh for 248 runs.
     The visitors now lead their hosts by 273 runs, which could be handy on a pitch that offered spinners plenty of turn, making life difficult for batsmen from both sides.
     Stokes appeared to have mastered the wicket with his counterattacking innings, which came off 151 balls with six fours and three sixes.
     Jonny Bairstow gave him a good company as the duo shared 127 for the sixth wicket to bail out England from a precarious 62-5 in the second innings.
     Bairstow missed out on a very deserving half-century, leaving the pitch for 47 after he was played on by Kamrul Islam, the bowler's maiden Test wicket and only wicket so far taken by a ...

All-round Stokes puts England in control

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Baghdad today to review the six-day-old offensive to retake Mosul, the Islamic State group's last major stronghold in Iraq.
	He will meet commanders from the 60-nation coalition which is led by the United States and assists Iraqi forces in their drive against the jihadists.
	Carter is also due to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi and is expected to discuss Baghdad's objections to Turkish involvement in the Mosul operations.
	The Pentagon chief was also expected to discuss the post- IS future of Mosul, Iraq's second city and the place where jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the caliphate in June 2014.
	The ethnic and religious mosaic of the Mosul area as well as the involvement of many foreign countries in the operations make any post-conflict political settlement a complex affair.
	"There will be a big job of reconstruction and stabilisation after," Carter told reporters travelling with him yesterday.
	He said it ...

Pentagon chief in Iraq to discuss Mosul offensive

Toxic fumes released when jihadists torched a sulphur plant near Mosul earlier this week have killed two Iraqi civilians and forced US troops at a nearby base to wear masks.
	"Daesh blew up the sulphur plant two days ago and that has led to the deaths of two people among the civilians in nearby villages," Iraqi General Qusay Hamid Kadhem told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group (IS).
	The senior officer of the interior ministry's elite rapid response force said "many others were injured as a result of the toxic smoke."
	According to several security and health sources in the area, where tens of thousands of Iraqi forces are involved in a massive offensive to wrest Mosul back from IS, the group torched at least part of the Mishraq sulphur factory on Wednesday.
	The blast released toxic fumes that were seen and felt by residents in the area and, early today, by forces and reporters around Qayyarah, one of the main staging bases of the anti-IS operation south of ...

'Sulphur cloud from IS-torched Iraq plant kills 2 civilians'

Iraqi security forces have killed 48 of the gunmen who stormed parts of Kirkuk in a shock attack claimed by the Islamic State group, the city's police chief said.
	"Forty-eight Daesh (IS) terrorists have been killed in the clashes," Brigadier General Khattab Omar Aref told AFP, adding that some of them blew themselves up when the security forces cornered them.
	Special counter-terrorism and intelligence units were hunting down some of the dozens of IS fighters who stormed public buildings in the early hours of yesterday.
	Clashes have been taking place almost uninterrupted since and the city, which lies some 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, remains under curfew.
	A senior interior ministry official said that at least 46 other people had been killed in the IS raid and ensuing clashes, mostly members of the security forces.
	"The security forces control the situation now but there are still pockets of jihadists in some southern and eastern neighbourhoods," Aref said.
	"We have foiled ...

Iraq forces have killed 48 IS attackers in Kirkuk:police chief

Scoreboard at tea on the second
day of the second Test between Pakistan and West Indies played at Sheikh Zayed Stadium today.
     Pakistan 1st innings (overnight 304 for 4)
     Sami Aslam b Bishoo                    6
     Azhar Ali b Gabriel                    0
     Asad Shafiq b Gabriel                 68
     Younis Khan c Chase b Brathwaite     127
     Misbah-ul-Haq lbw b Gabriel           96
     Yasir Shah c Bishoo b Holder          23
     Sarfraz Ahmed b Gabriel               56
     Mohammad Nawaz b Holder               25
     Sohail Khan c Johnson b Holder        26
     Zulfiqar Babar c Hope b Gabriel        0
     Rahat Ali not out                      0
     Extras: (b-1, LB-15, NB-9)            25
     Total: (all out; 119.1 overs)        452
     Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-42, 3-129, 4-304, 5-332, 6-342, 7-412, 8-430, 9-452.
     Bowling: Gabriel 23.1-1-96-5, Cummins 20-1-65-0, Holder 22-8-47-3, Bishoo 26-0-112-1, Chase 19-1-80-0, Brathwaite 9-0-36-1.
     West Indies 

AFP

AFP

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