A human rights group is urging the nearly one million US citizens who live in Mexico to vote in hopes of keeping Republican Donald Trump out of the White House, organisers have said.
	"We are going to Mobile the almost eight million Americans who live abroad, a million of them in Mexico, and we want them to vote to stop Donald Trump," said Joseph Huff-Hannon yesterday, a campaign leader at Avaaz, an activist organisation for political, environmental and human rights issues.
	Under the shadow of Mexico's Angel of Independence monument, about 200 people gathered to register to vote next to a billboard-sized placard featuring an anti-Trump cartoon, one day ahead of the first presidential debate between Trump and his Democratic counterpart Hillary Clinton.
	Passersby posed with an effigy of Trump while a mariachi band serenaded them.
	The bureaucratic complications of registering to vote when Americans are abroad can discourage people from casting ballots and the Avaaz campaign is aimed ..

Activists in Mexico urge US expats to derail Trump

PTI Automatic

A suspected hacker was bailed by British police following reports that 3,000 photographs had been stolen from Pippa Middleton, sister-in-law of Prince William, and were up for sale.
	The pictures were reported by The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers to have been stolen from Middleton's iCloud account and included shots of her sister Kate, plus her and William's children Prince George, three, and Princess Charlotte, one.
	The Sun said it had been asked for USD 65,000 for the shots, after someone contacted the newspaper via the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp.
	London's Metropolitan Police said on yesterday a 35-year-old man arrested a day earlier had been released on bail, to return to a police station in the British capital in late November.
	Police said the suspect, whom they did not name, was arrested in the central English county of Northamptonshire on suspicion of a Computer Misuse Act offence.
	Detectives received a report on Friday regarding the alleged hacking of a personal ..

Suspect in Pippa royal photo 'hack' bailed by UK police

A Syrian journalist today accused the UK of playing into the hands of Bashar al-Assad's regime, following the confiscation of her passport at London's Heathrow airport after it was apparently reported stolen by Damascus.
	Zaina Erhaim, winner of the 2015 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) award, had travelled to the UK to speak at a "Women on the Frontline" event alongside BBC journalist Kate Adie.
	Erhaim said her passport was confiscated by British border police on Thursday when she arrived at Heathrow.
	"They told me my government reported my passport as being stolen and they have to confiscate it. They told me that they are returning the passport to the regime," Erhaim told AFP, alleging that Damascus requested that the passport be seized in order to harm her.
	"The regime can't kill me in the UK, so it's easier for them to just report me as stealing my own passport and force me to just be floating all over the place," said the 31-year-old.
	Erhaim, who is based in Turkey, accused ...

Syrian journalist accuses UK over passport seizure

Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by seven runs to take a 1-0 lead in a three-match one-day international series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka today.
     Tamim Iqbal made 80 runs while Mahmudullah added 62 to guide Bangladesh to 265 runs before Taskin Ahmed grabbed 4-59 to help the hosts dismiss Afghanistan for 258.
     Hashmatullah Shahidi (72) and Rahmat Shah (71) put on 144 runs for the third wicket before a dramatic late order collapse saw the visitors lose their way.
     The second and third match will be held at the same venue on September 28 and October 1.

Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by seven runs in first ODI

Pro-Kremlin activists who threw urine at pictures by US photographer Jock Sturges - best known for nude images of adolescents and their families - today forced its closure, a day after a government advisor condemned the images as "child pornography".
	Moscow gallery curator Natalia Litvinskaya told journalists the show had "nothing to do with paedophilia" but that she took the decision to close after receiving "threats from absolutely delusional people".
	The closure of the exhibition, "Jock Sturges- Absence of Shame" - came after influential conservative senator Yelena Mizulina yesterday released a statement on her website calling it "a public demonstration of child pornography materials" and said it "must be closed urgently".
	Russia's children's ombudswoman Anna Kuznetsova then weighed in, condemning it on Facebook a few hours later as "child pornography".
	The exhibition, which opened on September 7 at the established Lumiere Brothers Gallery close to the Kremlin, is the first to .

'Child porn' row engulfs US photographer's Moscow show

France's envoy to the United Nations asserted today that war crimes were being committed in Syria's battered city of Aleppo, as the Security Council met for urgent talks on the escalating military campaign.
	"War crimes are being committed here in Aleppo," French Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters, adding- "They must not be unpunished and impunity is simply not an option in Syria."
	The Security Council was holding urgent talks after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was appalled by the "chilling" air bombardments on Aleppo and warned that the use of advanced weaponry could amount to war crimes.
	"Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse in Syria, they have," British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said.
	"The incendiary munitions that are dropping on Aleppo are indiscriminate and a clear breach of international law -- the barrel-busting bombs that are falling from the skies likewise," he said.
	The meeting was called by Britain, France and the United States to ...

France at UN says war crimes committed in Syria's Aleppo

Swiss voters approved a new surveillance law today, in a victory for the government which argued the security services needed enhanced powers in an increasingly volatile world.
	The proposed law won 65.5 per cent support across the wealthy alpine nation, final results showed.
	Switzerland's police and intelligence agencies have had limited investigative tools compared to other developed countries- phone tapping and email surveillance were previously banned, regardless of the circumstances.
	But the new law will change that.
	The government insisted it was not aiming to set up a vast data-gathering apparatus, similar to the one developed by the US National Security Agency that came into the public eye in part through former contractor Edward Snowden's revelations.
	"This is not generalised surveillance," lawmaker and Christian Democratic Party vice president Yannick Buttet told public broadcaster RTS as results were coming in.
	"It's letting the intelligence services do their job," he .

Swiss voters back new surveillance law

Syrian and Russian warplanes again pounded rebel-held east Aleppo today ahead of a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the worst surge in violence to hit the devastated city in years.
	Residents and a monitor reported heavy air raids overnight and early today on the besieged east of the city, which Syria's army has pledged to retake.
	The UN Security Council was due to meet later in an emergency session to discuss the escalating violence, which UN chief Ban Ki-moon described as "chilling".
	Washington and its European allies said before the meeting that the burden was on Moscow - a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime - to save a truce that fell apart in the past week.
	At least 115 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syrian and Russian bombardment of eastern Aleppo since the army on Thursday announced an operation to take it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	The monitor said at least 19 children were among those killed in the assault, which has ...

Fresh strikes pound Aleppo ahead of UN Syria talks

Egyptian rescue workers have recovered 168 bodies from a migrant shipwreck off Egypt's Mediterranean coast, the health ministry said today.
	Survivors have said up to 450 migrants were on board the overcrowded fishing vessel headed to Italy from Egypt when it keeled over on Wednesday off the port city of Rosetta.
	Egypt's military has said it rescued 163 survivors and that recovery attempts were continuing.
	The International Organization for Migration said most of those rescued were Egyptians but they also included Sudanese, Eritreans, a Syrian and an Ethiopian.
	The tragedy sparked an emergency cabinet meeting and also topped the agenda of talks between President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Egypt's security chiefs yesterday.
	Prime Minister Sherif Ismail ordered heightened patrols of harbours used by migrant boats and of the northern coastline.
	A new bill being submitted to parliament would include "deterrent penalties" against people smugglers.
	Egyptian authorities have so far in ...

Egypt migrant shipwreck deathtoll rises to 168

Temba Bavuma made a century on his one-day international debut to set up a comfortable 206-run win for South Africa in a one-off one-day international against Ireland at Willowmoore Park on Sunday.
	   Bavuma hit 113 in a total of 354 for five after South Africa were sent in to bat. Ireland were bowled out for 148 in reply.
	   Ireland captain Will Porterfield's gamble did not pay off as Bavuma and Quinton de Kock (82) punished the Irish bowling in an opening partnership of 159.
	   Porterfield described his team's performance as "disappointing" and bemoaned early chances which went astray.
	   JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien both hit rapid half-centuries to take South Africa to a total that always looked likely to be well beyond Ireland's reach.
	   Porterfield was out to Kagiso Rabada without scoring to the second ball of the Ireland innings and the visitors crumbled despite good innings of 40 by Paul Stirling and 41 by Kevin O'Brien.
	   Off-spinner Duminy completed a good ...

Bavuma stars on debut as South Africa rout Ireland

Donald Trump has hinted he might invite a former lover of Bill Clinton to the first presidential debate, but his campaign said today it has no such plans.
	Rather, Trump's tweet to that effect was meant to show the Trump campaign has ways to "get inside the head of Hillary Clinton," Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, said on CNN.
	"We've not invited her formally and don't expect her to be there as a guest of the Trump campaign," Conway said of the ex-lover, former model Gennifer Flowers.
	The Clinton campaign ridiculed Trump's mention of Flowers as frivolous.
	"If this is what Donald Trump wants this debate to be about, that's up to him," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on ABC.
	"He is a reality TV star. He's very experienced at providing television entertainment. The presidency's not about entertainment," Mook said, referring to the show Trump once starred in, "The Apprentice."
	Clinton has admitted having an affair with Flowers in the 1970s while serving as ...

No plans to invite Bill Clinton's ex-lover: Trump campaign

Two teenage girls from the French city of Nice are being held on suspicion of planning an attack directed by a notorious Syria-based French jihadist, a source close to the investigation said today.
	The suspects, aged 17 and 19, live in the same area of Nice as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the radicalised Tunisian man who drove the truck that killed 86 people in the city on July 14.
	Searches failed to find any weapons at their homes.
	The teenagers have told investigators they had been in contact with Rachid Kassim, a French jihadist based in the areas of Syria and Iraq held by the Islamic State group.
	"They admitted they had been planning a violent attack under the influence of Rachid Kassim before abandoning their plans," a source in the investigation said.
	The 17-year-old, who was not on the intelligence services' radar before, has admitted "hating soldiers", the source said. She was charged on September with associating with terror suspects.
	The 19-year-old is known to ...

Two teenage girls held in France over 'terror plot'

Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists have killed four Chadian soldiers in a cross-border raid in the volatile Lake Chad region, a security source told AFP on today.
	"Around 8.00 PM (local time) yesterday night, Boko Haram members attacked the Djoroye border post near the Niger border in the Lake Chad region killing four of our soldiers," the source said.
	"The Chadian army killed seven Boko Haram fighters," the source said. The military did not comment, refusing to confirm or deny the attack.
	Boko Haram, which wants to establish a caliphate in northern Nigeria, has been waging an insurgency since 2009.
	Their battle has spilled across the borders of neighbouring countries which, including Chad, Niger and Cameroon, have formed a regional force to fight back.

4 Chadian troops killed in Boko Haram attack: security source

A Portuguese man spent 43 years in a wheelchair because of a mistaken medical diagnosis, finally re-learning to walk only in his fifties, a newspaper reported today.
	When Rufino Borrego was 13, he was diagnosed by a Lisbon hospital as having incurable muscular dystrophy, the Jornal de Noticias reported.
	After that he used a wheelchair to get around for more than four decades - until a neurologist realised in 2010 that he in fact suffered from a different disease that weakens the muscles, myasthenia.
	The rare disease can be treated simply by taking asthma medication - and just a year after his new diagnosis, Borrego was able to walk for the first time to his usual neighbourhood cafe.
	"We thought it was a miracle," Manuel Melao, owner of the cafe in Alandroal, southeast Portugal, told the newspaper.
	Now aged 61, Borrego is able to live a normal life, requiring only two physiotherapy sessions a year.
	He insists he harbours no ill-feelings against the hospital that made the original 

Man spends 43 years in wheelchair on wrong diagnosis

A child died from injuries sustained during a bomb attack on a Kurdish wedding in southern Turkey last month, raising the death toll to 57, local media reported today.
	As a result, 34 children are now among those killed in the suicide attack in the city of Gaziantep which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said was carried out by a child bomber acting on the orders of the Islamic State group.
	Mahsun Nas, 13, was the latest victim of the bombing on August 20, the Dogan news agency reported, and succumbed to his injuries while in hospital where he had been since the attack.
	The bombing was the deadliest in 2016 after the country has suffered more than a year of attacks linked to IS and Kurdish militants.
	A triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport in June left 47 dead, with authorities pointing the finger at the extremist group.
	Four days after the attack, Ankara launched its unprecedented military incursion into northern Syria against IS militants and Syrian .

Death toll rises to 57 in Turkey attack from August: report

An Israeli court today sentenced a Palestinian Islamic preacher to eight months in prison over a sermon at a volatile Jerusalem holy site in which he called for Jews to be killed.
	The Jerusalem magistrates' court had in March found Sheikh Omar Abu Sara, 51, guilty of incitement to violence and racism in a sermon he delivered at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
	In his November 28, 2014 sermon, which was also uploaded to YouTube, Abu Sara said "the Jews" were treacherous, stubborn, murderous, rude and shameless, while also calling them "monkeys and pigs".
	"I'm telling Jews explicitly -- it's time to slaughter you, time to fight you, time to kill you," he said, according to a transcript of the speech in the court decision.
	He vowed Muslims will "free this land from your filth, and that day is approaching."
	The sermon came against the backdrop of months of unrest over perceived Jewish attempts to take control over the holy site, which Jews refer to as the Temple Mount and consider their .

Israel sentences Islamic cleric for call to kill Jews

Newly re-elected British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn repeated calls for unity today in his deeply divided party, but risked antagonising MPs who had opposed him by promising more power to his grassroots supporters.
	Corbyn was confirmed in his position on Saturday with 61.8 per cent of the vote among party members and supporters, seeing off a challenger backed by the majority of his lawmakers, who believe he can never lead them into government.
	But the main opposition party remains bitterly split between left-wingers and moderates, at a time of major change in Britain as Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative government negotiates the country's withdrawal from the European Union.
	In his acceptance speech at the party conference in Liverpool, northwest England, Corbyn pledged to "wipe the slate clean" after accusations of bullying and fears of an irreparable breach in the century-old movement.
	The 67-year-old said Sunday he was "reaching out" to his critics -- but his proposal to 

Corbyn reasserts authority over divided UK Labour

A leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party admitted today that it has a problem with sexism in its ranks, after a female politician spoke out about vulgar and belittling comments.
	Peter Tauber, general secretary of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that remarks made public by Berlin CDU politician Jenna Behrends, 26, were not an isolated incident.
	"I hear about stories like these again and again, but without names. That makes it hard to do anything about it," Tauber said.
	"We need a new sensitivity in all areas of society because sexism is not just a problem in politics."
	Behrends made national headlines last week when she spoke out against gender discrimination within the CDU, saying that a member of the Berlin city-state's government had called her a "big sweet mouse" in front of a group of people.
	She said the same official asked another member of the party, using offensive language, whether he was having a sexual ...

Merkel's party confronts sexism charges

Africa's elephant population has suffered its worst drop in 25 years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said today, blaming the plummeting numbers on poaching.
	Based on 275 estimates from across the continent, a report by the conservation group put Africa's total elephant population at around 415,000, a decline of around 111,000 over the past decade.
	It is the first time in 25 years that the group's African Elephant Status Report has reported a continental decline in numbers, with the IUCN attributing the losses in large part to a sharp rise in poaching.
	"The surge in poaching for ivory that began approximately a decade ago - the worst that Africa has experienced since the 1970s and 1980s - has been the main driver of the decline," said IUCN in a statement.
	Habitat loss is also increasingly threatening the species, the group said.
	IUCN chief Inger Andersen said the numbers showed "the truly alarming plight of the majestic elephant".
	"It is shocking but ...

African elephants 'suffer worst decline in 25 years

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said today he wants governments to do more to combat drugs in sport following the Russian doping scandal that rocked the buildup to the Rio Olympics.
     Reinforcing his belief that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) should be completely overhauled, Bach said it was time that governments played a more active role to help create a better and more transparent system of tackling cheats.
     "This has had to happen together with WADA because WADA, in the fight against doping, is the platform," Bach told the Olympic Council of Asia General Assembly.
     "We (also) need the commitment of government. Together with governments, we want to make WADA more efficient."
     The IOC and WADA have been at odds over their roles in dealing with anti-doping cases after WADA led calls for Russia to be banned from Rio following allegations of state-backed doping.
     The IOC opted not to ban Russia, instead leaving the decision to ...

IOC boss Bach wants greater clarity on doping roles

Buckwheat Zydeco, the accordion player who found an unexpected mainstream audience with the danceable genre of Louisiana's Creole community, has died. He was 68.
	The artist, whose real name was Stanley Dural Jr, had been suffering from lung cancer. His manager, Ted Fox, wrote on his website that Buckwheat died yesterday at 1:32 am (local time), "keeping musicians' hours right to the bitter end."
	Buckwheat grew up in a musical family immersed in the sounds of zydeco, which has similarities to the blues but is defined by a faster-paced, up-tempo sound.
	"My dad played the accordion for family entertainment. He played the accordion every day, in the morning before work, when he came home for lunch and after supper," he said in a 2014 interview with the Nuvo newspaper of Indianapolis.
	Before Buckwheat, the music was seldom heard outside of the homes of Louisiana Creoles, the people of the southern US state with blended African, French and indigenous roots.
	But after winning critical ..

AFP

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