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.

August shatters global heat records for 16th month in a row

PTI Automatic

Two French engineering companies formally signed a contract in Sudan today to carry out environmental impact studies on Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam project on the river Nile, officials said.
	The French firms BRL and Artelia were chosen late last year to carry out technical studies on the project following a meeting between top diplomats from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
	BRL Director General Gilles Rocquelain told AFP after the contract was signed in Khartoum that the studies will begin after two months and "will take 11 months to complete".
	The Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese water ministers also attended today's signing ceremony.
	Ethiopia began building the huge dam on the Blue Nile in 2012, and when completed in 2017 it will be Africa's largest.
	However, the three countries have since failed to overcome their differences about sharing the water.
	Egypt, which is almost totally reliant on the Nile for agriculture and drinking water, fears that the Grand Renaissance Dam will .

French firms to gauge impact of Nile dam project

A German immigration official has been arrested and charged with espionage for an Indian secret service for allegedly spying on members of the Sikh religion, prosecutors said today.
	The 58-year-old German national, identified only by the initials T.S.P., was accused of "espionage activity and violation of professional secrecy rules in 45 cases," they said in a statement.
	Working at an immigration office in the western town of Ostwestfalen, he accessed databases to pass on information on suspected extremist and opposition members of the religious group, said federal prosecutors.
	He was detained in the town in North Rhine-Westphalia state on February 17 and has been in custody since.
	Federal prosecutor filed their indictment on September 7 at the state security division of the Superior Court in Berlin, but only released their statement almost two weeks later.
	Spying for a foreign power carries up to 10 years' jail under German law.

German official charged with spying on Sikhs for India

Ride-hailing startup Grab said today it has raised USD 750 million from investors to expand in burgeoning Southeast Asian markets including Indonesia, as it aims to build its lead over US-based rival Uber in the region.
	The new investments led by Japan's SoftBank Group raised the Singapore-based firm's total capital to more than USD 1.0 billion, it said in a statement.
	Competition between Uber and local startups has grown fierce in Southeast Asia, home to more than 600 million people and a rising middle class.
	Grab is considered the leading ride-hailing platform in the region, operating in nearly twice as many cities as Uber, with the startup claiming up to 1.5 million bookings a day.
	Singapore state investment agency Temasek Holdings was an early investor in the firm.
	Grab said participants in the recent round of fundraising included both new and existing investors which it did not name, but reports last month said China's Didi Chuxing was among those planning to back the ...

Ride-hailing firm Grab raises USD 750m from investors

As many as 400 migrant staff working for an electrical company in Qatar have gone unpaid for up to four months, a leading figure in the Indian community said today.
	The workers are set to meet the Indian ambassador in Doha within the next two weeks to discuss their plight, Arvin Patil of the Indian Community Benevolent Forum charity told AFP.
	The staff are thought to be employed by an Abu Dhabi-based firm.
	"Around 300 to 400 people have not been paid," said Patil.
	"We could give money if there were one or two people but 300 minimum is very, very difficult. We are interested in helping these people."
	Patil said people from other migrant groups based in the emirate had also not been paid by the firm.
	Indians comprise the largest single group of expatriates in Qatar, numbering around 545,000 out of a total population of some 2.5 million.
	The failure to pay them comes despite the introduction of a Wage Protection System (WPS) last November, meant to ensure that wages are paid ...

Hundreds of Qatar migrant workers 'unpaid for months'

US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted today that hopes for a ceasefire in Syria remain alive after meeting with Russia and key powers with a stake in the civil war.
	In brief remarks to reporters as he left a New York hotel after a meeting of the International Syria Support Group, Kerry said talks would reconvene later this week.
	"The ceasefire is not dead," Kerry insisted, one day after the Syrian military declared a week-old truce over and launched new bombardments on rebel held cities.
	The United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura confirmed that there was still hope of reviving the ceasefire, but admitted that delegates agreed it was in danger.
	The 23-nation ISSG, chaired by Kerry and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
	The talks were brief and, participants said, tense.
	"The mood is that nobody wants to give this thing up," Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told reporters.
	"Quite ...

Kerry: Syria 'ceasefire is not dead'

Outspoken Czech President Milos Zeman announced today he is backing US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, pitting himself against his country's prime minister who favours Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
	"I'd vote for Donald Trump if I were a US citizen," Zeman said, quoted by the Dnes Czech daily.
	Branded a populist by his critics, the ex-communist leftist Zeman shares Trump's staunch anti-migrant stance and a fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
	Hungary's anti-migrant right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- also a Putin fan -- became the first European leader to endorse Trump, calling him a "better option" for the bloc than Clinton.
	But in August leftist Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka insisted Clinton was better than Trump for the NATO alliance on security issues as relations between Russia and the West reach their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War.
	Trump drew the ire of eastern NATO members including Lithuania and Estonia that were ruled ..

'I'd vote Trump', says Czech president

A Finnish court today jailed five members of Cuba's national volleyball team for gang raping a woman during a Volleyball World League championship in July and filming the attack.
	According to the charge sheet, four of the players subjected the woman, whose identity was not revealed, to an hour-and-a-half ordeal which they filmed and photographed.
	These four, team captain Rolando Cepeda Abreu (27), Abrahan Alfonso Gavilan (21), Ricardo Calvo Manzano (19) and Osmany Uriarte Mestre (21) received five-year prison sentences for aggravated rape.
	A fifth player, Luis Sosa Sierra (21), received a shorter sentence of three years and six months, while the court acquitted a sixth teammate, Dariel Albo Miranda (24).
	The Pirkanmaa district court in southern Finland ruled the woman had met some of the players at a basement nightclub in the hotel where the Cuban team was staying during the tournament in Tampere on the night of July 2.
	She later agreed to go upstairs to Uriarte Mestre's room and 

Five Cuban volleyball players jailed for gang rape in Finland

Jordanians voted today in an election that could see opposition Islamists re-emerge as a major parliamentary force in the key Western ally.
	The focus will be on turnout and the performance of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood.
	Experts expect the party to clinch around 20 seats in the 130-seat parliament, which would make it the largest opposition force.
	The vote comes as Jordan wrestles with the spillover of wars in neighbouring Syria and Iraq and the burden of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees.
	The kingdom is a member of the US-led coalition battling jihadists in both neighbouring countries and was the target of a June 21 suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group that killed seven border guards.
	The Phenix Center, a local pollster, has said 42 percent of eligible voters planned not to take part in the election, reflecting a general lack of enthusiasm for a parliament with limited powers to affect government ...

Jordan votes in election tipped to see Islamist return

Oil prices dipped today with analysts expecting volatility in the run-up to a producers' meeting next week, while traders are also awaiting the release of US stockpiles data.
	Around 1130 GMT, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in November was down 48 cents at USD 45.46 a barrel compared with today's close.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for October shed 35 cents to USD 42.95 a barrel.
	The commodity plunged last week on supply glut worries but bounced slightly Monday after OPEC member Venezuela said a deal to limit output was close.
	Unrest in key producers Libya and Nigeria also raised the prospect their exports would be hit.
	Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro said Sunday that participants in producer talks by the 14-nation OPEC cartel and Russia in Algeria from September 26-28 are working on a deal.
	But some analysts said that in the absence of any firm agreement, prices will continue to swing.
	"The credibility of bullish production freeze rhetoric from Venezuela is ...

Oil drops with producers' meeting, US data on horizon

The United Nations suspended all humanitarian convoys in Syria today following a deadly air strike on aid trucks, as fighting intensified after the regime declared an end to a week-long truce.
	Both Syria and Russia denied they were behind the raid on the convoy near northern city Aleppo, which the Red Cross said killed "around 20 civilians" including an employee of the Syrian Red Crescent.
	Air raids and shelling meanwhile pounded key battlefronts across the country -- dimming hopes that the fraught ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington could be revived.
	Key players including the United States and Russia were meeting in New York today in an effort to salvage the peace process, which US Secretary of State John Kerry had warned could be the "last chance" to end Syria's civil war.
	Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opened a meeting of the 23-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in New York, where world leaders have gathered for the UN General ...

UN suspends Syria aid convoys after deadly strike

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the annual General Assembly debate today with a call to end the fighting in Syria as he condemned the "sickening, savage" attack on an aid convoy.
	"I appeal to all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started," Ban said in his farewell address.
	The former South Korean foreign minister is stepping down on December 31 after 10 years in what has been widely described as the world's most impossible job.
	Now in its sixth year with over 300,000 dead, the war in Syria is dominating this year's gathering of world leaders.
	Ban denounced the "sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack" on an aid convoy and confirmed that the United Nations had suspended deliveries of humanitarian assistance.
	"Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower," he added.
	The UN chief hailed the aid workers on the convoy to Aleppo province as "heroes" and said "those who bombed them were cowards" before calling for 

Ban opens UN General Assembly with call to end Syria fighting

Greek police arrested nine migrants after clashes and a huge fire at an asylum seekers' camp, as the UN warned today that 2016 could be the deadliest year yet for refugees trying to reach Europe.
	Some 5,000 migrants fled yesterday when dozens of tents and shelters at the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos were torched, in a blaze sparked when migrants of different nationalities got into a brawl.
	The people arrested - including Afghans, Iraqis as well as one national each from Senegal, Syria and Cameroon - were taken into custody over the violence that led to the fire, a police source said.
	"Calm has returned to the (island), but the situation is still changing," the source said, adding 40 riot police had been sent to Lesbos.
	The Moria unrest underscored the ongoing urgency of Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II as the UN refugee agency warned fatalities in the Mediterranean could outstrip last year's total of almost 4,000.
	Billionaire investor George Soros also ...

Greek migrant camp torched as UN warns of deadly year

The UN today said it was "extremely concerned" by a Cairo court's decision to freeze the assets of five prominent human rights activists and three NGOs.
	The decision, which was taken on Saturday, has been widely criticised by global rights groups, and stoked fears of an intensified crackdown on Egyptian civil society.
	"We are extremely concerned by the recent decision of a Cairo Criminal Court to freeze the assets of five prominent human rights activists," UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters.
	The rights activists are Hossam Bahgat, who founded the leading Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights NGO, Gamal Eid, Bahey el-Din Hassan, Mostafa al-Hassan and Abdel Hafez al-Tayel.
	The court also froze the assets of Bahey el-Din Hassan's Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Mostafa al-Hassan's Hisham Mubarak Law Centre and the Egyptian Centre for the Right to Education.
	The move was linked to a long-running investigation into the foreign funding of Egyptian ...

UN alarm as Egypt freezes assets of key rights activists

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the annual General Assembly debate of world leaders today with a call to end the fighting in Syria.
	"I appeal to all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started," Ban said in his farewell address.

Ban opens UNGA debate with call to end Syria fighting

The suspect held on suspicion of carrying out weekend bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey is in critical but stable condition in a hospital, police said today.
	Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, was wounded in a shootout yesterday with police in Linden, New Jersey, just four hours after the FBI released his mugshot and sent text message alerts to millions of people.
	"Critical but stable," New York police commissioner James O'Neill told CBS News when asked if the suspect would likely survive.
	Rahami was shot multiple times and underwent surgery yesterday, the local prosecutor said. He has been charged on five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and two unlawful weapons counts.
	Police are still investigating the motives behind Saturday's bombings in the New York neighborhood of Chelsea, which injured 29 people, and a pipe blast at a US Marine Corps race on the Jersey shore.

NY bombing suspect 'critical but stable': police

A Chinese company under investigation by local police may have aided North Korea's nuclear programme, think tanks in South Korea and the US have said, just days after Pyongyang conducted its fifth nuclear test.
	Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co. Ltd. Logged more than USD 530 million in two-way trade with North Korea between 2011 and 2015, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul and C4ADS in Washington said in a report released yesterday.
	Information in online advertisements and databases show that the company sold pure aluminium ingots, aluminium oxide and other products that could qualify as potential military and nuclear dual use products under US export restrictions, it said.
	The company, which is based on the North Korean border in Liaoning province's Dandong city, exported around USD 171 million worth of goods to the North between 2011 and 2015, the report said, adding its imports from the country totalled more than USD 360 million during the same ...

China probes firm suspected of aiding N. Korea nuke project

Pope Francis denounced those who wage war in the name of God today, as he met faith leaders and victims of war to discuss growing religious fanaticism and escalating violence around the world.
	"The world is at war, the world is suffering," the Argentine said ahead of the meeting, which came as fighting resumed in Syria and the US investigated an attack possibly linked to the Islamic State group.
	"There is no God of war," he said, calling on "all men and women of good will, of any religion, to pray for peace".
	The annual World Day of Prayer event, established by John Paul II 30 years ago and held in the medieval town in central Italy, aims to combat the persecution of peoples for their faiths and extremism dressed up as religion.
	The pope was quick to remind the West that while it had suffered a string of deadly jihadist attacks, there were parts of the world where cities were being flattened by fighting, prisoners were tortured and families were starved to death.
	"We are ...

'No God of war', Pope says as faith leaders meet

Eight workers at the Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi Aramco were injured in an oil terminal fire today, the company said.
	There was no impact on operations at the Gulf coast Ras Tanura facility, Saudi Aramco said in a statement.
	Emergency services "successfully responded to a minor fire" at about 9:00 am (local time) and the blaze has been fully contained, it said.
	"Workers in the facility have been evacuated."
	The injured employees received medical treatment, and the cause of the fire is being investigated, Saudi Aramco said.
	The company is at the heart of Saudi Arabia's wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to wean the economy of the world's biggest petroleum exporter off oil.
	The kingdom plans to float less than five percent of Saudi Aramco on the stock market. The proceeds would help form what will become the world's biggest state investment fund, with around USD 2 trillion in assets.

Saudi oil terminal fire hurts 8 workers

A Kuwaiti court sentenced a ruling family member to three years in prison today on charges of insulting the Gulf state's ruler and other royals.
	Any criticism of Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah can result in charges of insulting him. Dozens of opposition activists have been jailed for the offence in recent years.
	The charges against Sheikh Abdullah Salem Al-Sabah, grandson of the emir's late half-brother Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, stemmed from video messages he posted on Snapchat early last year in which he strongly criticised the functioning of the government.
	Al-Sabah family members hold all the main cabinet posts and Sheikh Abdullah singled out several of them for criticism.
	The court ordered that he pay $16,500 in damages to one of them.
	He can appeal his conviction.
	It is not Sheikh Abdullah's first run-in with the Kuwaiti authorities.
	In 2012, he was questioned for posting comments on Twitter deemed sympathetic to the opposition and critical of the emir.
	In ..

Kuwait royal jailed for three years for 'insulting' ruler

A powerful typhoon slammed into Japan today, leaving at least three dozen people injured and one missing, as torrential rains caused serious flooding that washed away a bridge and inundated homes and cars.
	Transportation across southern Kyushu - hit by deadly quakes earlier this year - and parts of western Japan came to a standstill as Typhoon Malakas ripped across the country, packing winds of up to 180 kilometres per hour.
	Television footage from public broadcaster NHK showed houses, cars and fields partly submerged in muddy brown water in Miyazaki prefecture, where a record 578 millimetres of rain fell on one city in just 24 hours.
	Cars and pedestrians sloshed through waterlogged streets while a wall of water washed away a bridge in Kagoshima city.
	NHK said at least 36 people were injured, and officials issued evacuation advisories that affected about 620,000 people.
	A 66-year-old climber was missing after he reportedly fell into a swollen river that had breached its banks, ...

AFP

AFP

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