Shots were fired today in front of the Israeli embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara, media reported.
	The NTV and CNN-Turk television channels said that two people tried to enter the well-defended embassy but one was "neutralised", without specifying if the person had been wounded or killed. Employees of the embassy took refuge in a shelter, it added.

Shots fired in front of Israeli embassy in Ankara: reports

PTI Automatic

German political parties have fallen victim to a new round of cyber attacks, documents showed today, after Berlin's domestic spy agency accused Russia of a series of operations aimed at spying and sabotage.
	Politicians and employees of several parties received emails purporting to be sent from NATO headquarters, but which instead contained a link that installed spyware on the recipient's computer, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily and regional broadcasters NDR and WDR reported.
	Citing unnamed security experts, German media said the attacks on August 15 and 24 appeared to have been carried out by state-backed Russian hackers.
	A document circulated by Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), seen by AFP on Wednesday, warned lawmakers of the attacks.
	"Given the background of the American situation, it is important to me to protect the parties from spying," Arne Schoenbohm, chief of Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), told the Sueddeutsche.
	He was ...

German political parties hit by cyber attacks

Polling closes today in the contest to lead Britain's Labour, with Jeremy Corbyn tipped to defeat the challenge from Welsh MP Owen Smith amid deep divisions in the centre-left opposition party.
	In an eight-hour meeting of party chiefs yesterday, Corbyn rejected a plan by his deputy Tom Watson to let the party's lawmakers vote on who should be in the "shadow cabinet" leadership in parliament.
	Watson has also proposed giving the party's MPs and trade unions more power over the choice of future Labour leaders, in response to criticism of the current process by Corbyn opponents who say party members and supporters have too much influence.
	Many shadow cabinet members resigned over the summer in protest at Corbyn's leadership and a majority of the party's MPs voted no confidence in him but the veteran socialist has clung on, saying that he has helped boost the party's membership to record numbers.
	Some commentators have warned the party could split.
	"Together we are very, very strong," 

Ballots close in UK Labour leadership race

A Palestinian court today delayed a ruling on whether to hold municipal elections, making it unlikely the first vote since 2006 to include both Fatah and Hamas will be held on time.
	The high court postponed its ruling until October 3, only five days before the scheduled October 8 date for the elections.
	Two weeks of campaigning are usually alloted for Palestinian elections and had been set to begin on Friday.
	"The decision is postponed until the 3rd of October," said Hisham al-Hatoo, head of the Palestinian high court in the Fatah-led West Bank.
	On September 8, the court suspended the elections following disputes between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements over candidate lists.
	Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, boycotted the last Palestinian municipal elections in 2012, but it was due to participate this year.
	Fatah and Hamas have not contested an election since 2006 parliamentary polls, which Hamas won -- sparking a conflict that led to near civil war in Gaza .

Palestinian court delays ruling on whether to hold local polls

Four medics were killed and a nurse critically wounded when an air strike hit a clinic in a village near Syria's second city Aleppo, the aid group that supports it said.
	The four staff of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM) were in two ambulances that had been called to the clinic to take some patients for more specialised treatment, the group said.
	The clinic in the village of Khan Tuman was completely levelled in the 11:00 PM strike and more dead were feared to be buried under the rubble, the group added.
	"The building has three floors, including a basement. Because of the intensity of the bombardment, the three storeys collapsed and are completely destroyed," the groups' hospitals and trauma director for the area, Ahmed Dbais, said in a statement.
	"We don't yet know exactly how many dead there are."
	Khan Tuman is near Orum al-Kubrah, the town where an attack on aid trucks and a warehouse killed around 20 civilians on Monday, triggering a war of words ...

4 medics killed in strike on clinic near Syria's Aleppo: NGO

The United States has charged an Afghan-born American restaurant worker, who was critically wounded in a police shootout, with detonating and planting bombs in New York and New Jersey.
	US prosecutors said Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, carried out twin bombings on Saturday in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and along the route of a US Marine Corps run in the New Jersey town of Seaside Park.
	The 13-page indictment slapped him with four charges, including use of weapons of mass destruction, bombing a place of public use and destruction of property by means of fire or explosives.
	He was captured on Monday while carrying a handwritten journal that lauded Osama bin Laden and US-born Al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, and criticized US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, it said.
	He will be transported to Manhattan to face the charges, said federal prosecutors in New York. If convicted, he risks spending the rest of his life behind bars.
	Prosecutors said 31 people were wounded in the ...

US charges Afghan-born suspect with NY, NJ attacks

Twelve officers were injured during violent protests in a North Carolina city sparked by the fatal police shooting of an African-American, officials said.
	Demonstrators gathered late yesterday near an apartment complex in Charlotte where the shooting occurred, carrying signs that read "Black Lives Matter" and chanting "No justice,
	News reports said the man shot by the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer, identified as Keith Lamont Scott, was African-American, as was the officer who killed him.
	"Approximately 12 officers injured. One officer hit in face with a rock," read a tweet posted by the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Police Department.
	A separate police department tweet said the officers were "injured tonight working to protect our community during demonstration."
	News reports said an unspecified number of civilians were also hurt.
	WSOC-TV reported that police donned riot gear and used tear gas as they tried to subdue the angry crowd, which authorities said attacked and damaged ...

12 officers hurt in N. Carolina protests after police shooting

The Red Cross appealed today for USD 15.5 million in emergency funding to help flood-ravaged North Koreans, warning of a "secondary disaster" in the impoverished country unless urgent assistance is provided.
	At least 138 people are known to have died and nearly 400 are missing after torrential rain triggered major floods, devastating villages in the country's northeast, the UN said last week.
	According to the UN, 140,000 people need assistance. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said that about 70,000 remain homeless after tens of thousands of houses were damaged or destroyed.
	"People were vulnerable before this disaster but now they are in danger of reaching tipping point," said Chris Staines, head of the IFRC delegation in Pyongyang, in a statement.
	"Winter is on our doorstep and when you add up the impact of the floods and the risks people now face, we could see a secondary disaster here in the months ahead", Staines said, following a ...

Red Cross seeks USD 15.5 mn to help flood-hit N. Korea

Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must stand trial for corruption, a judge ruled, after prosecutors accused the popular leftist of masterminding the large-scale plundering of state oil company Petrobras.
	The crusading judge behind the Petrobras investigation, Sergio Mora, accepted charges filed last week by prosecutors investigating Lula -- making him the highest-profile figure to face trial in a case that has taken down some of the country's most powerful business executives and politicians.
	"Given that there is sufficient evidence of (Lula's) responsibility... I accept the charges," Moro said in his decision.
	The charges allege that Lula, 70, received the equivalent of 3.7 million reais (USD 1.1 million) in bribes.
	Among the accusations are charges that the former union leader and his wife received a beachside apartment and upgrades to the property from a major construction company, OAS, which was one of the players in the Petrobras scheme.
	More broadly, ...

Brazil's Lula to stand trial for corruption

Hong Kong police arrested six people today over death threats to a new city lawmaker who is advocating more autonomy from China, with reports saying some of the suspects have triad links.
	Eddie Chu was one of several rebel lawmakers to win seats in landmark legislative elections earlier this month.
	He and his family have been under 24-hour protection since the vote on September 4 due to threats to their safety.
	Police told AFP today that six men had been arrested for "intimidation" linked to the death threats made to Chu, but gave no further detail.
	The South China Morning Post said suspected triad members were among those arrested in Wednesday morning raids, citing an unnamed police source.
	Television footage showed some of the suspects wearing black hoods and being led into a police station.
	Chu is an environmentalist who has campaigned against the destruction of heritage properties to make way for newer developments and is pushing for better rights for rural residents.
	He ...

Hong Kong 'triads' arrested over lawmaker death threats

The death toll from a series of landslides and flash floods in Indonesia climbed to 19 today, an official said, including several children found by rescuers scouring for survivors.
	The worst-hit region was the west of Indonesia's main island of Java, where torrential downpours in Garut saw floodwaters quickly rise to 2 metres, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.
	"The official report (from Garut)... Is that 16 people were killed and eight others are still missing," he said.
	Among the dead from the fast-rising floods were an eight-month-old toddler and four other children under the age of ten, Sutopo added, citing a casualty report from the local disaster agency in Garut.
	More than one thousand people have been forced from their homes in the district and are taking shelter in nearby emergency tents set up by search and rescue teams.
	Elsewhere in West Java, the death toll from a landslide in Sumedang regency rose to three, with one other ...

Death toll from Indonesia floods, landslides, rises to 19

Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) is set to raise USD 7.4 billion in its Hong Kong initial public offering, which is expected to be the world's biggest flotation this year, reports said today.
	The listing is also poised to be the biggest since Chinese internet giant Alibaba floated in New York in 2014, raising USD 25 billion.
	But the USD 7.4 billion valuation misses the company's previously hoped-for USD 8.1 billion mark as analysts say demand for the stock is tepid.
	PSBC will sell 12.1 billion shares at HK$4.76 (USD 0.61) each when it floats on the Hong Kong exchange on September 28, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
	That comes in at the lower end of the bank's original price range, which valued the shares between HK$4.68 and HK$5.18.
	Analysts attribute the lukewarm interest to the recent flat performance of large Chinese financial firms on Hong Kong's bourse.
	"In the last year or so, most of these big financial firms on their debut at best went .

China's PSBC raises USD 7.4 billion in Hong Kong IPO: reports

Ten people have been killed in flash flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an official said today, with a search ongoing for three others still missing in the disasters on Java island.
	Torrential downpours triggered flash flooding in Garut in West Java early today, which quickly rose to around 2 metres (6.5 feet), national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.
	He said preliminary data from the local disaster agency in Garut showed "eight people died and one person is still missing" after a river burst its banks.
	Thirty others were injured in the district, four seriously, while hundreds were forced to abandon their homes as the water rose, he added.
	Emergency shelters and temporary kitchens have been set up to assist those made homeless by the disaster.
	Elsewhere in West Java heavy downpours caused landslides in Sumedang regency, killing two people and burying a suspected two others under an avalanche of mud and rock.
	"The search for them continues," 

10 dead, 3 missing in Indonesian floods, landslides: official

A niece of Spanish Football Federation president Angel Maria Villar was found dead in Mexico after she was abducted and held for ransom for several days, Spain's foreign minister said.
     The body of the unnamed woman was found at a morgue in the central city of Toluca about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of Mexico City after she was kidnapped on September 13, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo told radio Onda Cero.
     Her captors had forced her to withdraw money from bank machines and demanded money from her family to ensure her release, he added.
     "An amount was paid, although much lower than what they had asked, and we were convinced that it would be a matter of time before she appeared safe and sound. Unfortunately things did not turn out that way," the minister said.
     "It is very sad news and totally unexpected," he added.
     The woman's husband and her cousin Gorka, one of Villar's sons, had travelled to Mexico along with two Spanish police officers ..

Spanish football chief's niece dead in Mexico after kidnapping

Donald Trump's hardline stance on immigration after two bombings in the New York area again sparked debate on the White House campaign trail today, as his son sparked a firestorm by comparing Syrian refugees to lethal candies.
	The Republican presidential hopeful's uncompromising position on illegal migrants -- even calling them a dangerous "Trojan horse" who enter the country with the aim of doing harm -- is inextricably linked with his meteoric political rise.
	Most Republicans approve of his tough talk, with polls showing that a majority of party members agreed with his call last December to bar Muslims from entering the United States.
	Since then, Trump has refrained from specifically targeting Muslims, but he has championed police profiling of suspects and promised to bar immigrants and travellers from certain countries deemed dangerous, like Syria.
	The candidate has repeatedly warned of the risks posed by Syrian refugees, citing the arrival in Europe of Islamic State operatives 

Trump slams 'Trojan horse' migrants, son sparks outrage

Former president George H.W. Bush plans to vote for Hillary Clinton in November, the niece of president John F Kennedy wrote in a Facebook posting.
	"The President told me he's voting for Hillary!!" read the caption of a picture Kathleen Kennedy Townsend posted on Facebook, as she shook the 92 year-old ex-president's hand.
	The news site Politico posted a screenshot of the picture with the comment.
	Townsend, 63, is a Democratic former lieutenant governor of Maryland and the daughter of former attorney general Robert Kennedy, assassinated in 1968. Her uncle was president Kennedy (1961-1963).
	On Facebook Townsend is identified as Kathleen Hartington, her middle name.
	The Bush clan has not offered their support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
	A spokesman for Bush, president 1989-1993, was neutral on the subject when asked.
	"The vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days," spokesman Jim 

George H.W. Bush for Democrat Clinton? A Kennedy says so

Amsterdam's iconic canals may soon see the world's first driverless boats, doing everything from moving people and goods to providing "pop-up" bridges and cleaning up thousands of dumped bicycles, the project's scientists said.
	The first prototypes of the so-called "Roboat" will launch next year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) said.
	MIT has donated 20 million euros (USD 22.3 million) to the research.
	"While the first prototypes of self-driving cars are taking to the road, Amsterdam ushers in a new chapter in the international push for autonomous vehicles," the AMS said in a statement earlier this week.
	"Imagine a fleet of autonomous boats for the transportation of goods and people," added MIT professor Carlo Ratti, who heads the Roboat research programme.
	The boats could also stack together to form bridges across the canals, for instance to alleviate crowding during busy events.
	"Roboat offers 

Amsterdam to pilot world's first 'self-drive' boats

A protein unique to a miniscule creature called a water bear, reputedly the most indestructible animal on Earth, protects human DNA from X-ray damage, stunned researchers reported.
	Human cells cultivated with the newly-discovered protein, dubbed "Dsup" for "damage suppressor", experienced half as much decay as normal cells when blasted with radiation.
	"We were really surprised," said lead author Takuma Hashimoto, a biologist at the University of Tokyo who designed the experiments.
	"It is striking that a single gene is enough to improve the radiation tolerance of human cultured cells," he told AFP, referring to the tardigrade-derived protein.
	Tardigrades, as the water bears are more prosaically known, have long fascinated scientists with their veritable superpowers of survival.
	Barely the size of a grain of sand, they look as if they escaped from a Star Trek sequel.
	Seemingly eyeless, they have bodies resembling hazmat suits, eight puffy legs with bear-like claws, and a ...

'Water bear' protein shields human DNA from X-rays

The United States officially labelled the Syrian jihadist rebel group Jund al-Aqsa a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" organization today as talks continued on securing a ceasefire in the war-riven country.
	The US State Department said the four-year-old group was originally a unit of the al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda arm in Syria, before splitting off to carry out operations independently.
	Today Jund al-Aqsa operates primarily in Idlib and Hama provinces, but remains "openly allied" with al-Nusra, already designated a terror group two years ago, the State Department said.
	It said Jund al-Aqsa was behind two suicide bombings in Idlib in March 2105 and a February 2014 "massacre" of 40 civilians in Maan in central Hama.
	The designation, and parallel sanctions by the US Treasury Department, forbid US entities and individuals from any transactions with the group.
	The designation came as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov led talks in New ..

US names Syrian group Jund al-Aqsa to terror list

Young backers of leftist British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn are being encouraged to bring their teddy bears to the party's annual conference this week as part of a series of political activities for children.
	"Bring your favourite toy to the workshop where we will imagine the party it might join and lead, and what it stands for," read an invite from the Momentum movement to "The Teddy Bear Mandate" workshop.
	Momentum is a far-left movement that supports Corbyn and has announced it is launching a nationwide initiative ,"Momentum Kids", to promote political activity that is "fun, engaging and child-friendly".
	Other sessions by the group for the conference of the main opposition Labour Party in Liverpool, northwest England, starting on Saturday include a badge and banner-making workshop to prepare youngsters for demonstrations.
	"We need loud voices, big placards and empowered children," read the invitation posted by Momentum, which is calling its events "The World ...

Leftist teddy bears? Corbyn group launches kids' wing

Last month was the hottest August on record in modern times and marked the 16th month in row when global records for heat were shattered planet-wide, US authorities said today.
	The string of unusual heat across land and sea surfaces is "the longest such streak in the 137-year record," said the monthly climate report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
	"The June-August and January-August global temperatures were also the highest on record," it said.

AFP

AFP

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