Israel has approved the construction of 98 settler homes in the occupied West Bank and an industrial zone near Palestinian political capital Ramallah, the watchdog Peace Now said today.
	"At a time when world leaders met to commemorate (former Israeli premier) Shimon Peres and the way he advocated for peace, the Israeli government has created a new obstacle to a two-state solution," a Peace Now spokeswoman said.
	Peres, 93, died on Wednesday and was buried yesterday at a Jerusalem ceremony attended by many world leaders including President Barack Obama of the United States, which has tried to broker new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Israel gives go-ahead for 98 West Bank settler homes: NGO

PTI Automatic

Pope Francis today called for Christian unity as he visited the seat of Georgia's ancient Orthodox Church on the second day of his peace mission to the volatile Caucasus region.
	The pontiff and Patriarch Ilia II, the head of the Georgian Church, linked arms as they entered the 11th-century Svetitskhoveli Cathedral to the sound of bells chiming and a choir performing polyphonic chants.
	Earlier today, the pope held an open-air mass for thousands of faithful in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, offering worshippers the "consolation that we need amid the turmoil we experience in life".
	Yesterday, the pontiff called for peaceful "coexistence" in the conflict-ridden ex-Soviet region at the start of a three-day tour that will also take him to Azerbaijan just months after he visited its arch-foe Armenia.
	Tiny Orthodox Georgia -- one of the world's oldest Christian nations -- fought a brief war with Moscow in 2008, and two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, are under what it insists ..

Pope calls for Christian unity on Caucasus peace tour

Thailand's hospital-bound King Bhumibol Adulyadej is still being treated for kidney failure although an infection in his lung has eased, the palace said today, in the latest update on the 88-year-old's ailing health.
	Bhumibol is the world's longest-reigning monarch and beloved by many in Thailand.
	However he has not been seen in public for nearly a year as he battles a series of ailments in a Bangkok hospital.
	The palace tightly controls news about his health and it is difficult to ascertain his overall condition.
	The latest statement issued by the Royal Household Bureau on Saturday night said he was recovering from a respiratory infection in his left lung after being treated with antibiotics.
	However it said he continues to receive renal replacement therapy, a treatment for acute kidney failure.
	"Today he has no fever and his breathing is normal...A blood test showed that the infection has reduced but he still has a small amount of urine, therefore doctors continue to give him .

Ailing Thai king's lung infection eases, kidneys still failing

At least two people were killed and five injured today when a car loaded with explosives blew up near a restaurant in Mogadishu, a security official and witnesses said.
	The car was parked in front of the Blue Sky restaurant, near a busy road close to the headquarters of the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in a southern district of the city.
	The blast was detonated remotely outside the restaurant, security forces spokesman Mohamed Dahir told AFP, adding that "information we have gotten so far indicates that two civilians were killed in the blast".
	Sources said the restaurant is frequented both by security personnel and civilians.
	"I saw two dead bodies and five wounded, most of them civilians who were passing by the area," added eyewitness Abdukadir Shilow. "There is chaos around the restaurant and Somali forces sealed off the road after the blast."
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility although immediate suspicion fell on the Al-Qaeda linked ...

Car bomb kills two in Mogadishu

Lewis Hamilton blitzed his rivals in qualifying today to secure pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
     The reigning world champion clocked the fastest lap ever recorded at the 5.543km circuit in 1min 32.850sec.
	His amazing drive eclipsed the pole position lap record for Sepang set by Juan Pablo Montoya in a Williams way back in 2004.
	But Hamilton still reckoned it wasn't perfect despite being more than four-tenths faster than Mercedes rival and championship leader Nico Rosberg.
	"I really enjoyed the lap. It could have been faster," said Hamilton, who has consistently outpaced his rival Rosberg all week.
	It marks a welcome and timely return to form for the three-time world champion after his Mercedes teammate won the last three races to open up an eight-point title race lead.
	Hamilton trailed Rosberg by 43 points after the first four races of a rollercoaster season, only to turn that into a 19-point lead.
	The hard-won advantage evaporated as the German sped to victory ..

Hamilton scorches to record Malaysia GP pole

A civilian was killed and two wounded in Yemen's second city Aden today when explosives being carried by a man blew up, a local government official said.
	The man had shouted "run, run" to bystanders when he left a vehicle in the Crater district of the city, the official said.
	It was unclear whether he had intended to blow himself up and had second thoughts or had been forced to wear an explosives vest which was then detonated by someone else.
	Aden is the headquarters of Yemen's Saudi-backed government. The capital Sanaa and much of the north of the country are controlled by Shiite rebels and their allies.
	The southern port city has been hit by frequent bombings claimed by jihadists of Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group.
	The insecurity prompted the cabinet to move to neighbouring Saudi Arabia last year only returning on September 22.

Bomb kills civilian in Yemen's Aden

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stirred up controversy over the treaty that almost a century ago set the borders of modern Turkey, alarming both neighbouring Greece and secular opposition at home.
	In a speech Thursday, Erdogan for the first time rejected the notion that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne was a "victory" for Turkey and wistfully lamented the loss of Aegean islands which are now Greek territory.
	The treaty -- the founding basis of the modern Turkish state out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire -- has usually been seen inside the country as a triumph of its secular leadership led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
	For the secular opposition in Turkey, Erdogan's comments have represented another dangerous lapse into neo-Ottomanism, signalling his regret that Ankara does not control territory stretching from Balkans to Africa as Constantinople did in Ottoman times.
	But for pro-Erdogan commentators his remarks were a timely reminder that modern Turkey has just a fraction of the ...

Erdogan stirs trouble over 1923 Turkey border treaty

A two-year-old girl was killed and two children injured today after their village was hit by heavy artillery in Myanmar's rebel-held north, an activist and local resident said, the latest violence to threaten the new government's peace bid.
	The shots were reportedly fired in Pu Wang village in northern Shan state, an area bordering China where ethnic minority rebels are locked in a long-running battle with the Myanmar army.
	Sporadic clashes in the region have displaced tens of thousands of people and dampened enthusiasm for a peace push driven by Myanmar's newly elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
	"It happened in the morning today when these three children were playing. Six powerful shots were fired into the village," Ying Sau, a pastor in the ethnic Kachin village, told AFP.
	His nephew's two-year-old daughter was killed, while two children, ages 5 and 6, were injured and taken across the border to a hospital in China, he said.
	Khon Ja, an activist from the Kachin Peace Network, ...

Children hit by artillery in restive northern Myanmar

Combining the old adage about death and taxes, French authorities have sent a demand for property duties to a dead woman -- addressed to her grave in a small town in Brittany.
	The mayor of the seaside town of Sarzeau said he had received a letter from the public finance offices to a dead resident, addressed to "grave 24, row E, cemetery road", his secretary told AFP today.
	The town's treasurer Christophe Libre told the Ouest France regional newspaper it was a demand for property taxes.
	"Unfortunately it's not the first time we've had this sort of letter from the public finance centre in Vannes," Libre told the paper. Vannes is the nearest large town to Sarzeau.
	He said it could have been a "joke from someone doing the change of address," or "one of the heirs who didn't want to pay the property tax".

Dead Frenchwoman hit with tax demand - in her grave

The wife of Nigeria's central bank governor was kidnapped and held for some 24 hours, police and security sources said today, in the latest high-profile abduction in the country's south.
	A federal police source in Abuja said Margaret Emefiele was seized on the road from Benin City in Edo state, southern Nigeria, to Agbor, in neighbouring Delta state, on Thursday.
	"Five other persons were kidnapped along with her," said the source. "They are her driver and four other women with whom she was travelling."
	Security officials secured her release at about 12:30 am on Saturday (2330 GMT Friday) and she was taken to the Delta state police headquarters in Asaba. The other four people were also freed.
	Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spokesman Isaac Okoroafor told AFP he did not have more details but confirmed: "She has been released."
	Margaret Emefiele's husband, Godwin, became CBN governor in March 2014, replacing Lamido Sanusi, who was dismissed after claiming the state-run oil firm had ...

Nigeria central bank governor's wife kidnapped, released

California's governor has signed a measure mandating prison time for people who rape unconscious or intoxicated victims, the fallout in the case of an ex-Stanford student athlete that sparked widespread outrage.
	Governor Jerry Brown signed the legislation just weeks after 21-year-old Brock Turner, formerly on the Stanford swim team, was released from jail.
	Turner served just three months of his six-month sentence for raping an intoxicated and unconscious 22-year-old woman behind a dumpster at a fraternity house.
	Brown said in a statement that he is generally "opposed to adding more mandatory sentences."
	However he believes this legislation "brings a measure of parity to sentencing for criminal acts that are substantially similar," he said in a statement.
	Mandatory minimum sentence critics often say that these measures disproportionately affect minority and low-income defendants, and result in prison overcrowding.
	Brown also signed into law a bill expanding the legal definition ..

California toughens rape laws after infamous Stanford case

At least two barrel bombs hit the largest hospital in the rebel-held side of Syria's Aleppo city today, the medical organisation that supports it said.
	The facility, known as M10, had already been hit by heavy bombardment on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area in what UN chief Ban Ki-moon denounced as "war crimes."
	"Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital and there were reports of a cluster bomb as well," Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) said of Saturday's attack.
	Both facilities were put out of service by Wednesday's bombardment, leaving only six operational hospitals in the eastern parts of the city, according to SAMS.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said air strikes also hit a smaller field hospital in the Sakhur neighbourhood on Saturday.
	"One person was killed and the field hospital is out of service," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
	He was not able to immediately confirm ..

Barrel bombs hit largest hospital in rebel-held Aleppo: NGO

Two children died and three are missing after more than 50 students fell off a collapsed suspension bridge in northern Laos on their way to school, state-run media reported today.
	Several ropes supporting the slatted wooden bridge in Luang Prabang province snapped, tipping the children, a teacher and motorcyclist into the Xeng River below, according to the state-run Vientiane Times.
	"Two children have died, 52 people have been rescued and three children are missing," the newspaper said.
	The accident reportedly took place yesterday morning while the children were making their daily trek across the river to school.
	The deputy governor of Viengkham district, Saykham Chanthoumma, told the Vientiane Times authorities were searching for the three remaining children by boat.
	The official said the cables of the bridge, which was built in 2013, had not been checked for over a year.
	Local authorities will cover the costs of hospital treatment for those injured, he added.
	Ruled by an ...

Two children drown after Laos bridge collapse: state media

England's one-day international cricket side arrived in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Friday amid huge security for a three-match series, officials said.
     The visiting side landed at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport shortly before 9.00 pm local time and was immediately surrounded by a big security presence, police said.
     "Huge number of security personnel were deployed here at the airport for the visiting England side," said airport police chief Nur-e-Azam.
	"In addition to regular security forces, members of other forces including the elite Rapid Action Battalion and police were deployed in providing security to the visiting side," he said.
	Hossain Imam, chief security consultant of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, confirmed that the visiting side was escorted to a hotel under heavy protection.
	Bangladesh authorities had earlier promised England's cricketers "unprecedented security" in a desperate attempt to prevent the country from becoming a no-go zone for ..

England cricketers arrive in Bangladesh amid tight security

Following days of protests, police in San Diego have released video footage of the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, saying the decision was made to counter "misinformation" being circulated about the incident.
	The grainy cellphone and surveillance videos show the victim, Alfred Olango, 38, a Ugandan immigrant, being confronted by two police officers in the parking lot of a strip mall and then being shot as he pointed a cylindrical object at one of the officers.
	The object turned out to be a vape inhaler.
	The deadly confrontation in El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego, has prompted daily street demonstrations that turned violent late Thursday after protesters shut down streets and began throwing bottles and rocks at passing vehicles and smashing car windows.
	One person was also pulled off his motorcycle.
	"Our goal today is to clarify and hopefully calm the community's concerns regarding the recent officer-involved shooting," police chief Jeff Davis told reporters yesterday as ..

US police release video of fatal shooting of black man

The New York Police Department, the largest city police force in the United States, has agreed to buy 1,000 body cameras, officials confirmed.
	The move is part of a nationwide push to equip more police with the technology in response to a national outcry over the deaths of unarmed -- often African American -- men at the hands of police in disputed circumstances.
	An official at the New York's mayor's office confirmed yesterday to AFP that the police department had agreed to order 1,000 body cameras from Seattle-based Vievu LLC.
	The city of more than 8.5 million people has around 34,500 uniformed police officers.
	"The department worked very closely with all the concerned parties in the selection process. We are looking forward to the implementation of the program," a police spokeswoman said in a statement.
	The Daily News newspaper said the planned purchase was part of a five-year, $6.42 million contract that police hope to start rolling out in 20 precincts by the start of ...

New York police to buy 1,000 body cameras

Spain's crisis-hit Socialists geared up for a key meeting today that could help end the country's prolonged political deadlock and decide the fate of embattled party leader Pedro Sanchez.
	The roughly 300 members of the party's federal committee -- its de-facto parliament -- have been summoned to the Socialist headquarters in Madrid for a showdown between allies of Sanchez and opponents who want him out.
	The outcome could see the party lift its veto on a new government led by acting conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a move that would be key in unblocking Spain's nine-month political paralysis.
	Since December 2015, the country has been without a fully-functioning executive as rivals fail to agree on a government following two elections in which none of the main parties won an absolute majority.
	Even Rajoy, whose Popular Party won both elections though without enough seats to rule alone, was forced into negotiating a minority government which was voted down in parliament ...

Crisis-hit Socialists prepare for leadership showdown

A member of the Israeli security forces was stabbed and seriously injured in the West Bank town of Qalandia, a police spokeswoman said, adding that the Palestinian attacker was then gunned down.
	The 28-year-old attacker, a Jerusalem native, approached an Israeli checkpoint and stabbed a member of the security forces yesterday, who was rushed to hospital. Fellow security forces members then shot the Palestinian dead, police said.
	Violence since last October has killed 231 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national, according to an AFP count.
	Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests or killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
	Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with the Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have helped feed the ...

Israeli stabbed, Palestinian attacker killed: police

At least 11 people were killed today and 14 injured in an early morning bus crash in the eastern state of Bolivar, Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said.
	The bus flipped over as it was traveling along a major thoroughfare connecting the state capital Ciudad Bolivar and the town of Santa Elena de Uairen near the Brazil border.
	Officials gave no explanation for what caused the crash.

Venezuela bus crash leaves 11 dead, 14 hurt

Spain's debt-laden energy giant Abengoa today posted a 3.7-billion-euro (USD 4.2-billion) net loss in the first half of 2016, as it seeks to seal a deal with creditors to ward off bankruptcy.
	A "general slowdown in business" contributed to the result, the Seville-based group said in a statement.
	It had only posted a loss of 340 million euros in the first quarter, while in the first six months of 2015, the group made a 72-million-euro profit.
	The world player in solar and wind power, biofuels and water management announced last year that it was filing for preliminary protection from creditors following years of frenzied, unsustainable expansion worldwide.
	It has launched a recovery plan that includes the sale of biofuels assets and other non-strategic holdings, as well as job cuts -- it has already shed at least 11,000 jobs since the end of last year -- and finalised a debt restructuring deal in August.
	The group now has until October 25 for creditors and investors to sign off on .

Spain's Abengoa posts 3.7-bn-euro first half loss

Syrian regime forces advanced in the battleground city of Aleppo today, backed by a Russian air campaign that a monitor said has killed more than 3,800 civilians in the past year.
	The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity accused Syria's government and its ally Moscow of provoking a "bloodbath" in the city, saying the eastern rebel-held portion had become "a giant kill box".
	Syria's army was advancing on two Aleppo fronts, as talks between key players Washington and Moscow -- which back opposing sides in the war -- appeared close to collapse.
	Damascus's bid to recapture all of the divided northern city prompted the UN to warn of "a humanitarian catastrophe".
	UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced he is setting up an internal board of inquiry to investigate the September 19 bombing of an aid convoy in Syria that killed 18 people.
	The UN panel will report to Ban, who will "decide what further steps to take", a UN statement said.
	Just over a week after Syria's army announced an operation ..

AFP

AFP

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