At least 10 people died and dozens were injured when an explosion rocked a market area in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's southern home city of Davao tonight, police said.
	The explosion occurred close to one of Davao's top hotels that is popular with tourists and business people, city spokeswoman Catherine dela Rey told AFP.
	"There was an explosion but as to what caused it, it is still under investigation," dela Rey said.
	"Ten people died on the spot, at least 30 injured.

10 dead as blast rocks Philippine city: police

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Finland said today it would sharply cut the number of places available to house asylum seekers by the end of next year as the influx dwindles.
	Pekka Nuutinen, Finland's incoming top immigration official, told public broadcaster Yle that the capacity of the centres would fall from this year's peak of 30,000 to 10,000 by the end of 2017.
	Funding was a key factor behind the decision together with security and the location of the centres, Nuutinen said.
	Some 32,500 people sought asylum in Finland in 2015 and the figure is expected to be just 10,000 this year and in 2017.
	This year, Iraqi accounts for the largest share, at 22 per cent, followed by Afghans (15 per cent) and Syrians (nine per cent).
	Like other Nordic countries, Finland, led by a centre-right government, has recently tried to discourage asylum seekers by tightening rules and reducing social benefits.

Finland to close most asylum-seeker hostels

No Zika cases have so far been detected among athletes, spectators or other participants in last month's Olympic Games in Brazil, the World Health Organisation said today.
	"We don't have any confirmed cases of Zika amongst travellers or amongst... The athletes," Peter Salama, the WHO's chief on outbreaks and health emergencies, told reporters.
	He pointed to data presented by Brazilian experts to the UN health agency's emergency committee yesterday detailing the situation in the country, which by has been the hardest-hit by far.
	The experts provided "very convincing data" showing that among all Olympic athletes and spectators who sought medical attention during the Games, not a single case of acute Zika infection had been detected, emergency committee chair David Heymann said.
	Nor have any such cases been reported in people who returned back to their own countries following the games, he said.
	Ahead of the Olympics there was widespread concern that international travellers ...

No Zika cases detected among Olympics participants: WHO

An explosion rocked a market area in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's southern home city of Davao tonight, killing people, local media reported.
	10 people died in the blast, CNN Philippines reported, citing presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella, as it showed footage of security forces at the explosion site.

Deadly blast in Philippine president's home city: media

Officials at Beirut's international airport said today they were investigating how a teenage boy was able to sneak onto a flight and travel to Turkey without a ticket or passport.
	The boy boarded an Istanbul-bound plane operated by Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines, on Wednesday.
	He was discovered by the crew onboard after the plane had already taken off, when they realised there were more passengers on the aircraft than on the manifest they had been given, local media said.
	"Widescale investigations are ongoing into the details of the incident and how the child passed through the security checkpoints and boarded the plane without being detected," airport authorities said in a statement published by the official National News Agency.
	It added that anyone found to have been "negligent" would be punished, and that security procedures were being strengthened "to prevent the recurrence of such an incident."
	Local media said the boy was 13 years old, and had managed to .

Investigation after boy sneaks onto Beirut-Istanbul flight

Huthi rebels in Yemen said today an air raid by Saudi-led coalition warplanes on a house northeast of the capital Sanaa killed nine civilians including women and children.
	The raid hit a house in Maran village, "killing nine people, the majority of them women and children, and wounded others", the rebel-controlled sabanews.Net website said.
	The report accused the coalition of deliberately targeting the house and called for international intervention to "end systematic massacres and aggression" in Yemen.
	It was not possible to verify the toll independently.
	On Wednesday, the Iran-backed Shiite Huthis said coalition aircraft killed 16 people including women and children when they attacked a house in Saada province, the insurgents' heartland in north Yemen.
	The Arab coalition launched a military campaign against the Huthis and their allies in March 2015, after the rebels closed in on Gulf-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in his southern refuge of Aden, forcing him into ...

Yemen rebels say coalition air raid killed 9 civilians

Brock Turner, the former Stanford University student whose light sentence for a campus sexual assault ignited a national furor, was released from jail today after serving three months of a six-month sentence.
	TV news cameras caught the 21-year-old former swimmer as he left the Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose, California, and quickly drove away in a car without commenting.
	Turner was convicted in March of three counts of sexual assault after being caught raping an intoxicated and unconscious 22-year-old woman behind a dumpster at a fraternity house.
	He was released early from jail for good behaviour while incarcerated.
	Judge Aaron Persky set off a storm of outrage in June when he sentenced Turner to only six months in prison, followed by three years probation, setting aside prosecutors' call for a six-year prison term.
	Persky, who had also been a student at Stanford, now faces a recall campaign and has removed himself from hearing criminal cases.
	The case threw a spotlight on 

Ex-Stanford student leaves jail early after sexual assault

France and Germany today said they were doing everything possible to revive Ukraine peace talks with Kiev and Moscow, even if Russian President Vladimir Putin was reluctant.
	France and Germany have pushed the "Normandy format" to try to end the Ukraine crisis which has plunged ties with Moscow to Cold War lows, but Putin accuses Kiev of acting in bad faith.
	French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that "even if we can sense some reticence on the Russian side on the Normandy format ... We are determined to make the (Minsk) peace accords work. We are doing everything on our part to restart a fruitful dialogue."
	German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said earlier that Berlin and Paris were "not satisfied" with how the Minsk peace accords, agreed in late 2014 and reaffirmed in early 2015, were being implemented.
	However, a fresh ceasefire which has held since yesterday offered "a little glimmer of hope," Steinmeier said as he arrived for talks with his European Union ...

France, Germany trying to revive Ukraine talks: ministers

Driverless minibuses will begin taking passengers in the eastern French city of Lyon at the weekend in a year-long experiment that officials are calling a "world first".
	The two electric vehicles, fitted with high-tech equipment including laser sensors, stereo vision and GPS, can ferry around 15 passengers at a top speed of 20 kilometres an hour.
	The initial route in the heart of the city will last 10 minutes and include five stops.
	Manufactured by the French firm Navya and costing 200,000 euros (USD 225,000) apiece, a prototype was tested in 2013.
	The minibuses have already been tested in other French cities as well as in Sion, Switzerland, but without carrying passengers.
	Driverless electric minibuses made by other companies have also been tested in the western French city of La Rochelle as part of a European experiment.

'World first' as driverless buses take passengers in France

Women who have joined Islamic State fighters in Syria are facing closer scrutiny when they return to France as the potential danger they represent was underestimated, the country's top prosecutor said today.
	Francois Molins told the daily Le Monde that "hundreds" of women would return from Syria in the next few months.
	French authorities had probably been wrong "at first to say that they were just following their husbands and that they were restricting themselves to domestic chores in Syria", he said.
	"Now they are systematically arrested when they return and taken into custody."
	He said 59 women have been charged in France of whom 18 were serving prison sentences.
	The prosecutor also noted a rise in the number of radicalised girls in France "with very worrying profiles".
	"They are sometimes behind terrorist plots which, on an intellectual level, are quite far along," he told the paper.
	Twenty-three boys and 12 girls under the age of 18 are currently facing charges in France ...

Women back from Syria 'a danger': French prosecutor

Ireland's fragile minority government agreed today to recommend an appeal against the EU's tax ruling on Apple but said it was recalling parliament early for a special session to debate the issue.
	The deal overcomes a split in cabinet over the 13 billion euros (USD 15 billion) plus interest that the EU says Apple owes in back taxes, putting Ireland at the centre of a row between Europe and the United States.
	Apple chief Tim Cook has urged the government to appeal the ruling to secure future investments but opinion polls have shown public support for Ireland taking the money and spending it on social services.
	A finance ministry spokesman told AFP there had been a "unanimous decision by the cabinet to appeal the decision" by the European Commission.
	Parliament will meet next Wednesday, ahead of its scheduled return on September 27, officials said.
	Earlier this week, three independent ministers propping up the government had refused to back the appeal and said they wanted greater ..

Irish cabinet agrees to appeal Apple ruling

After mending fences with Russia and Israel, Turkey wants to normalise relations with Syria, the prime minister said today, confirming a policy shift after years of supporting rebels opposed to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
	"We have normalised our relations with Russia and Israel," Binali Yildirim said in a televised speech.
	"Now, God willing, Turkey has taken a serious initiative to normalise relations with Egypt and Syria."
	Relations between Turkey and Egypt sharply deteriorated after the Egyptian military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
	On Syria, Turkey had persistently insisted Assad's departure was key to any resolution of the country's five-year war and backed rebels trying to oust him.
	But last month Yildirim signalled a shift, saying that Assad was "one of the actors" in Syria and could stay on temporarily during a transitional period.
	Last week, Turkey launched an operation against Islamic ...

Turkey takes 'serious' steps to restore ties with Syria: PM

German carmaker Daimler said today it would pilot a project to allow sensor-studded, networked cars to share information about available parking spots to save drivers time.
	"The daily hunt for a parking space often takes up as much time again as the actual journey," the Mercedes-Benz maker said in a statement, causing "stress and annoyance".
	Daimler will work with Bosch -- the world's largest auto- parts maker -- on the scheme dubbed "community-based parking" in its home city of Stuttgart, capital of southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg state.
	During the project, set to begin "imminently", participating cars will use built-in ultrasound sensors to scan the roadside while travelling at speeds of up to 55 kilometres per hour.
	Information about free parking spaces will then be sent via a "secure connection" to Bosch's cloud computing service to be processed.
	One technical challenge will be identifying which gaps in the roadside are genuine parking spaces and which are exits from parking .

Daimler to test using cars to scan for parking spaces

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton bounced back to top the times ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in Friday's second free practice for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.
     The defending three-time world champion, who leads Rosberg by nine points in the title race, was second behind him in Friday's opening session.
     On a hot late summer's afternoon at the old Autodromo Nazionale in Monza's former royal park, the 31-year-old Briton clocked a best lap in one minute and 22.801 seconds to outpace German Rosberg by 0.193 seconds.
     Hamilton is seeking to complete a hat-trick of successive Italian wins and to claim his 50th Formula One victory in Sunday's race.
     Four-time former champion Sebastian Vettel was third fastest ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, the Italian team closing the gap behind the Mercedes to less than half a second as they made use of their latest upgraded power units.
     Under-scrutiny Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, who was given a 

Hamilton shades Rosberg in Monza practice

A Thai military court issued two more arrest warrants today accusing Muslim men from its insurgency-torn south of involvement in last month's tourist town bombings, deepening speculation the attacks were waged by rebels from the border region.
	The new warrants came as Thai officials met for peace talks with representatives of the ethnic Malay militants behind the 12-year revolt in Thailand's three southern border provinces, a Muslim-majority area known as the 'deep south'.
	No one has claimed responsibility for the August 11-12 bombing spree that struck top tourist towns further north, killing four and wounding dozens.
	But security analysts say the attacks bore all the hallmarks of the southern insurgents, even if the tourist towns lay far outside their traditional conflict zone.
	Thai authorities have now identified five suspects -- all Muslim men from the deep south, several of whom have a record of involvement in the insurgency.
	Yet police stressed again today it was too early ..

Two more arrest warrants issued for Thai tourist bombings

More than 300 Syrians living in a rebel held town near Damascus were evacuated today under a deal with the government, state media reported.
	The agreement between the regime and the rebels had already seen thousands of civilians and opposition fighters leave the town of Daraya, southwest of the capital, after a four-year government siege.
	Civilians evacuated today from nearby Moadimayet al-Sham had been living there for around three years after fleeing fighting in Daraya.
	Moadimayet al-Sham is also under government siege, but after a truce deal signed in late 2013 has been spared the heavy fighting that has ravaged other rebel-held areas around the capital.
	Negotiations are underway to secure a deal under which rebel fighters in the town will also leave, though civilians will reportedly remain, parties to the talks told AFP.
	The evacuees walked to the edge of Moadimayet al-Sham, where eight buses were waiting to take them to reception centres elsewhere in Damascus province, an ...

300 Syrians leave rebel town under govt deal

China will launch an anti-trust probe into the USD 3.8 billion merger of US media giants Comcast and DreamWorks Animation, the country's commerce ministry said today.
	In April, Comcast -- the biggest cable television operator in the US -- bid for the creators of the Kung-fu Panda series, a smash hit in China.
	A Chinese company lodged a complaint about the deal, commerce ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told a regular briefing today, "saying it would have an unfavourable influence on market competition in China".
	He gave no further details but said monopoly regulators will conduct an investigation under the country's anti-trust law and "relevant regulations".
	The ministry today also announced it had launched a probe into the recent merger between Chinese ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing and the local operations of its US rival Uber.
	In recent years, Chinese authorities have stepped up scrutiny of foreign firms, launching sweeping investigations into alleged malpractice in sectors ...

China to probe Comcast, DreamWorks merger

Turkey today claimed that Uzbekistan's ailing President Islam Karimov, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation for over two decades, had died but there was no confirmation from Uzbek authorities.
	"Uzbek President Islam Karimov has died. May Allah rest him in peace," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said during a televised cabinet meeting.
	"As the Turkish republic, we share the sorrow of the Uzbek people," he added.
	An Uzbek government statement today had described him as being in critical condition, saying his health had worsened "sharply" following a stroke.
	Rumours have swirled over the president's condition since Uzbek officials first said last Sunday that he had been hospitalised, with opposition media based outside the very tightly-controlled Central Asian nation claiming he had already died.
	Long criticised by rights groups for brutally crushing dissent, Karimov has ruled Uzbekistan with an iron fist since before it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Turkey PM says Uzbek leader dead but no official confirmation

A Zimbabwean court denied bail today to 58 people arrested during protests last week against President Robert Mugabe, who has vowed to crack down on a surge of anti-government dissent.
	The court freed another 11 people on USD 50 bail each, including security guards picked up from their work, bystanders and a journalist.
	"In respect of all the others, bail is refused," Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe said, concluding a nearly week-long hearing.
	Last Friday, riot police fired tear gas, beat up several people and blocked off the site of the opposition demonstration in the capital.
	Protesters fought back, throwing stones at police while some set tyres ablaze and pulled down the sign for a street named after Mugabe.
	Friday's demonstration -- which had been authorised by a court -- was to demand electoral reform before 2018 when Mugabe, 92, plans to stand for re-election.
	Zimbabwe has seen a mounting tide of violent protests, with demonstrators calling for the resignation of the ...

Zimbabwe court denies bail to 58 after anti-Mugabe protests

A group of Myanmar migrants filed a lawsuit today against a major Thai food exporter over allegations of forced labour on a chicken farm, as accusations of abuse dog the kingdom's multi-billion-dollar poultry industry.
	Thailand's seafood sector has gained global notoriety for using trafficked labour and subjecting boat crews to slave-like conditions.
	But the poultry industry, which exports around a third of its broiler meat to Europe, has largely evaded scrutiny.
	Fourteen migrant workers are now demanding USD 1.3 million in compensation for being overworked and underpaid on a Thai chicken farm, said Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN), a group that helped them launch the case.
	The labourers said they were forced to work gruelling 20 hour days that included sleeping in chicken rearing areas on the Lopburi farm that supplied meat to Betagro -- a Thai food conglomerate with clients around the globe.
	Their suit, filed at a labour court in Saiburi province, demands compensation from .

Myanmar workers sue Thai food titan for labour abuse

Brazil has turned a page on years of crisis, the country's new leader Michel Temer said today as he made his international presidential debut in China only a day after being sworn in to replace Dilma Rousseff following a bitter impeachment fight.
	"Even though we suffered from political and economic upheaval, as well as economic downturn, this page has been turned," Temer said in a speech in the Chinese commercial hub Shanghai.
	"Brazil has put all the economic and political instability it suffered in the past few years behind us."
	Temer, 75, came to China for the G20 summit which starts in nearby Hangzhou on Sunday, and is seeking to consolidate his position after senators in Brasilia voted Wednesday to convict Rousseff on charges of having illegally manipulated government accounts.
	His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping called him an "old friend" when they met on the shores of the city's landmark West Lake, adding: "China and Brazil make up together the East and West's two biggest ...

AFP

AFP

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