An explosion at a criminology institute in Brussels today has caused major damage but no casualties, prosecutors and the fire service said.
	It was not immediately known what caused the blast, but a fire service spokesman, Pierre Meys, said "it was probably not accidental."
	The prosecutors' office declined to speculate on the cause of the explosion at the Institute of Criminology in a Brussels suburb.
	Belgian media said the blast was caused by a car which rammed the building.
	"The explosion was extremely powerful," said Meys. "Windows of the lab were blown out dozens of metres away."
	He said about 30 firefighters were at the scene at around 3:00am fighting the blaze.
	The institute is part of Belgium's federal justice system.
	Among its tasks is to carry out scientific analyses linked to criminal cases and to study the functioning of the penal system.
	The explosion occurred with Belgium on high alert after suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the ...

Explosion at Brussels crime lab, no casualties: prosecutors

PTI Automatic

The six people who went into isolation for a year in Hawaii to help NASA plan for a mission to Mars emerged, happy to breathe fresh air and meet new people.
	The team was based on a barren, northern slope of Mauna Loa, living inside a dome that is 36 feet (11 meters) in diameter and 20 feet tall.
	French astrobiologist Cyprien Verseux said that he was "feeling excited" about being in the open and eating fresh food again.
	The most challenging aspect of the experiment was the monotony, he said in a Periscope interview by organizers posted on Twitter.
	Crew members experienced no seasons inside the dome, and were able to go outside only dressed in spacesuits.
	Nevertheless he was upbeat about the experiment results.
	"A mission to Mars in the near future is realistic," he said. "The technical and psychological problems can be overcome."
	The crew also included a German physicist and four Americans -- a pilot, an architect, a doctor/journalist and a soil scientist.
	The dome was located .

Mars isolation experiment in Hawaii ends

Ivan Rakitic's first-half header maintained Barcelona's 100 percent start to the La Liga season as the champions withstood a wave of late pressure to win 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao.
     Rakitic finished off an excellent team move after 20 minutes, but with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez uncharacteristically wayward in front of goal, Athletic nearly grabbed a point when Benat Etxebarria's free-kick flew just wide late on.
     Barca join Real Madrid and top-of-the-table Las Palmas as the only sides with two wins from their first two games. Champions League finalists Atletico Madrid are already four points off the pace after disappointing draws against newly-promoted Alaves and Leganes.
     "The games here are always very similar," Rakitic told BeIN Sports.
     "It is very intense, there is a lot of pressing. Both teams played well, but in the end we deserved the win."
     Still without Neymar due to his exertions in winning Olympic gold and the injured Andres Iniesta, Barca demonstrated .

Rakitic winner edges Barca past Athletic Bilbao

Sam Allardyce marked his first squad announcement as England manager on Sunday by including uncapped West Ham United midfielder Michail Antonio in a 23-man party for next week's World Cup qualifier in Slovakia.
     Antonio was included on the same day he scored for the Hammers in their 3-1 loss away to Premier League leaders Manchester City.
     The 26-year-old has adjusted well to life in the Premier League since joining the Hammers from Nottingham Forest a year ago.
     He scored nine goals in 32 appearances for the London club last season, while his two most recent Hammers games have seen Antonio head in against both Bournemouth and City.
     "I think he's in outstanding form," Allardyce told the Football Association's website as he explained his decision to select Antonio, who only a few seasons ago was playing non-league football for Tooting and Mitcham in south London.
     Jamie Vardy, a key figure in Leicester City's stunning Premier League title success last season, has ..

Antonio in Allardyce's first England squad

Internet mogul Kim Dotcom launched his appeal today against extradition to face video piracy charges in the US, arguing for his case in New Zealand to be live-streamed to ensure a fair hearing.
	The German national and founder of the Megaupload file-sharing service, who has permanent residency in New Zealand, faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted in the United States of piracy, which US authorities say cost copyright owners hundreds of millions of dollars.
	His lawyer Ron Mansfield told the court the case raised "unprecedented issues of public and international interest" and it would not be a fair hearing without live-streaming.
	Mansfield said conventional reporting was unlikely to cover all aspects of a case that has attracted global attention and could be "unbalanced".
	Streaming had been successfully used in previous court cases and inquiries in New Zealand, he added.
	However, Judge Murray Gilbert delayed making an immediate decision, saying he wanted to give other media ...

Dotcom demands live-stream of US extradition appeal

Part of Los Angeles airport closed due to possible gunfire

Ben Stokes is looking forward to giving England an extra bowling option as they go in search of a one-day international series-clinching win against Pakistan at Trent Bridge on Tuesday.
     England will head to Nottingham 2-0 up with three to play after convincing wins at Southampton and Lord's.
     All-rounder Stokes has been involved in both those victories but as a batsman only after a calf problem prevented England one-day captain Eoin Morgan deploying him as a member of the hosts' pace attack.
     But the Durham star hopes to be firing on all cylinders come Tuesday's day/night clash in the English Midlands.
     "The plan from the start was to be fit and ready to bowl by the third ODI and by the way things are going it is looking likely I will be an option for Eoin in Nottingham if needed," he said after Saturday's four-wicket win at Lord's.
     "I have done all the prep to get myself fit and put my hand up to say I am ready to bowl.
     "I've bowled for about 15 minutes ...

Stokes eager to bowl against Pakistan

An Australian aid worker who was kidnapped in Afghanistan four months ago has been freed and is "safe and well", Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said today.
	Katherine Jane Wilson, who goes by the name Kerry and is reportedly aged around 60, was grabbed in the city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan, in late April.
	She had been visiting the city for a women's embroidery project when gunmen abducted her, Ataullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, told AFP at the time.
	He said she was taken before dawn from the home in which she was staying by "unidentified gunmen" who were disguised as police.
	"I confirm that Kerry Jane Wilson, who was abducted in Afghanistan in April this year, has been released, and she is now safe and well," Bishop said in a statement.
	The minister, who has previously said Australia does not pay ransom for kidnappers, voiced relief for Wilson and her family but would not provide details of 

Abducted Australian woman set free in Afghanistan: Canberra

Former England batsman Mal Loye expects the current team's tour of Bangladesh to go ahead despite security concerns even though he quit a coaching position in the country because of terrorism fears.
     Loye, now 43, was appointed high performance head coach by the Bangladesh Cricket Board in May 2015 but quit because of concerns the Australia team would be targeted by terrorists.
     Last month's attack at a cafe in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, saw 20 hostages and two police officers killed.
     But Loye first became concerned about the security situation in Bangladesh with the shooting dead of an Italian man last September.
     He believes the Australia cricket team were the targets of a terror plot, prompting the cancellation of their tour in October.
     "The week I left, the Australia team didn't turn up because the terrorists had planned to take us out when we had an event sorted with the touring team," former one-day international batsman Loye, 43, told Britain's Mail 

Loye says terror fears saw him quit Bangladesh role

Oil prices tumbled in Asia today on a strong dollar and after key OPEC producers downplayed the prospects of limiting output at a meeting next month.
	Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh on Friday said his country wanted its share of the crude market to return to levels seen before Western nuclear sanctions were imposed on it 13 years ago.
	The comments suggest Tehran might not join possible efforts by OPEC and Russia to cap production at the gathering in Algeria.
	Earlier, Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid Al-Falih also downplayed hopes for a cut in production.
	At around 0850 IST, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 53 cents, or 1.11 per cent, at USD 47.11 and Brent fell 52 cents, or 1.04 per cent, at USD 49.40.
	"Oil prices came under pressure following media reports of the Saudi oil minister's comments that there was limited possibility of any agreement for major intervention during the planned informal meeting of OPEC members next month," said EY oil and gas analyst 

Oil prices sink in Asia on strong dollar, output fears

Israel's Supreme Court today ruled that a national charged with selling US defence equipment to Iran can be extradited to the United States, the justice ministry said.
	It said in a statement that Arye Eliyahu "Eli" Cohen should be rendered to US authorities "in order to stand trial for the commission of federal offences of trading military spare parts with Iran".
	"According to the charge sheet on which the extradition request is based, during the years 2000-2004 Cohen exported military spare parts from the United States to his place of residence in Israel," the Hebrew-language statement said.
	It said that he and three accomplices in the United States shipped parts for Hawk missiles, fighter aircraft and armoured troop carriers from the US to Israel, using false declarations as to the materials and their final destination.
	A transcript of today's court hearing said that the charges alleged that between 2012-2013 Cohen "on two occasions re-exported from Israel to Iran, via Greece, ..

Israeli to be extradited to US over Iran defence sales

Final scoreboard of the third
one-day international between Sri Lanka and Australia in Dambulla on Sunday:
	   Sri Lanka
	   K. Gunathilaka b Starc                 5
	   T. Dilshan c Bailey b Zampa           42
	   K. Mendis c Warner b Hazlewood         4
	   D. Chandimal c Zampa b Faulkner      102
	   A. Mathews lbw b Zampa                 2
	   D. De Silva c Marsh b Faulkner        12
	   K. Perera b Starc                     11
	   T. Perera c Marsh b Hastings           9
	   S. Prasanna c Bailey b Zampa           3
	   D. Perera c Warner b Hastings         17
	   A. Aponso not out                      1
	   Extras (lb 10, w 8)                   18
	   Total (all out; 49.2 overs)          226
	   Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Gunathilaka), 2-23 (Mendis), 3-96 (Dilshan), 4-103 (Mathews), 5-133 (de Silva), 6-154 (K. Perera), 7-165 (T. Perera), 8-178 (Prasanna), 9-217 (D. Perera), 10-226 (Chandimal)
	   Bowling: Starc 10-0-42-2, Hazlewood 10-0-51-1, Hastings 10-1-41-2, Faulkner 9.2-0-44-2, ..

Dambulla, Aug 28 (AFP) Final scoreboard of the third

Half-centurion George Bailey starred in Australia's tense run chase as the visitors edged past Sri Lanka by two wickets in the third one-day international and took a 2-1 lead in Dambulla on Sunday.
     Australia chased down 227 in 46 overs to deny Sri Lankan batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan a winning farewell in his final ODI.
     Bowlers set up the win for the visitors after restricting Sri Lanka to 226 all out in 49.2 overs with Dinesh Chandimal top-scoring with 102.
     The Sri Lankan bowlers also made their presence felt with skipper Angelo Mathews providing the hosts with two early wickets including that of his opposite number David Warner.
     Mathews got Warner caught at point for 10 as Dilshan took a splendid catch.
     Aaron Finch, who scored a 29-ball 30 with three fours and a six, was next to go after left-arm spinner Amila Aponso trapped the opening batsman lbw.
     Mathews struck again with his medium-pace to get Shaun Marsh, who was included in the XI in place of ...

Australia beats Sri Lanka, leads ODI series 2-1

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed today to devote equal energy to combatting Islamic State jihadists and Syrian Kurdish fighters, on the fifth day of a major offensive that has left dozens dead.
	"We will make any kind of contribution to the work to clear Daesh (IS) from Syria," Erdogan told a rally in the southern city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.
	"For the issue of the PYD (Democratic Union Party) terror group in Syria, we have just the same determination," he added, referring to the main pro-Kurdish party in northern Syria and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.
	Today, Turkish forces ramped up their offensive, with Turkish warplanes and artillery pounding areas held by pro-Kurdish forces close to a town liberated from IS this week.
	Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish "terrorists" and that the army was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties.
	But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 civilians ...

'Turkey to fight IS, Kurdish militia with same determination'

Colombia readied for a rendezvous with history at midnight today when the guns fall silent in a 52-year-old war between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the South American country's largest leftist rebel group.
	"The end of the conflict has arrived!" President Juan Manuel Santos exulted on his Twitter account Friday after signing a decree to halt military operations against the FARC, as the rebel group is known.
	The measure goes into effect at midnight (0500 GMT), five days after the conclusion of peace negotiations that have been underway in Havana since November 2012.
	Throughout that period the war continued, with the government refusing a truce for fear that any let-up in the military pressure would enable the FARC to rebuild a force currently officially estimated at 7,500 fighters.
	Nevertheless, as the negotiations deepened, the FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire in July 2015, and the government responded by suspending air attacks on the rebels.
	The .

Colombia readies for conflict-ending cease-fire

A British man died in a French hospital early today after falling ill while swimming across the Channel from Dover in southern England, police said.
	The man, in his forties, arrived in the northern port city of Calais shortly before midnight (2200 GMT), brought in by a safety boat that was travelling alongside him, a police spokesman said.
	His heart had stopped and he was in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest when the emergency services took him to hospital.
	Despite attempts to revive him, the man died shortly before 3:00 am.
	In July 2013, a British woman in her 30s died in a Boulogne hospital after trying to swim the Channel to raise money for charity.

Briton dies after trying to swim the Channel

Egypt's government said today it will ask parliament to approve a draft law that would increase jail terms for those who perform female circumcision.
	Female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), was banned in Egypt in 2008.
	But the practice involving the partial or full removal of the external sex organs, ostensibly to control women's sexuality, remains widespread, especially in rural areas.
	In Egypt, the procedure is practised by both Muslims and Christians.
	Under the current law, those who practise FGM can be sentenced to jail terms of between three months and two years.
	But the bill which the government hopes parliament will endorse would see those convicted of female circumcision jailed for between five and seven years, a statement from the prime minister's office said.
	The government also proposes that those convicted be given jail terms with hard labour if the procedure leads to the death or permanent physical disability of the women being circumcised.
	FGM can 

Egypt seeks tougher penalties for female circumcision

Donald Trump is committed to a "fair and humane" approach to securing America's borders, but details of his evolving immigration policy will be revealed at a later time, his presidential campaign team said today.
	The Republican presidential candidate's hardline stance on repatriating the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US has been a central tenet of Trump's White House campaign - and a hugely popular selling point to his most ardent supporters.
	To keep illegal migrants out, Trump has promised to build a wall on America's southern border - to be paid for, he has declared at rally after campaign rally, by Mexico.
	One year ago, he issued an immigration reform plan calling for an end to automatic citizenship for those born in the US, a right which some say is abused by undocumented migrants seeking American birthright for their children.
	This past week, however, the Republican presidential candidate - once uncompromising in his vow to use a deportation force to repatriate ...

Trump immigration policy to be fair and humane: campaign chief

South African captain Faf du Plessis ground out a century and was rewarded for his patience when New Zealand lost three quick wickets before the close of play on the second day of the second Test at SuperSport Park today.
     New Zealand finished the day on 38 for three, 443 runs behind South Africa's first innings total of 481 for eight declared.
     In an era of rapid scoring in Test cricket, much of South Africa's innings was a return to a more attritional age, with the run rate hovering at around three runs an over.
	Du Plessis was particularly cautious as he tiptoed to a fifth Test century off 225 balls.
	But it paid off for South Africa as reunited fast bowling pair Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander ripped out both openers before Ross Taylor was run out.
	It left New Zealand in deep trouble in a match which will decide the series after the weather-hit, abandoned first Test in Durban.
	Martin Guptill survived a sharp chance to Stiaan van Zyl at third slip off Philander when he ...

South Africa strike at New Zealand top order

Five civilians were killed and seven injured in clashes in central Mali between farmers and minority ethnic Fulani cattle herders, regional officials said today.
	Mali's government said in a statement that it had deployed security forces to the region to prevent further clashes without blaming any groups for the violence, which took place yesterday.
	It called for an investigation to determine the culprits and said a government delegation was preparing to visit the site of the incident.
	Herdsmen are often armed to protect themselves from attacks by cattle rustlers, and they sometimes stage deadly reprisals against the towns where the thieves are from.
	Abdoul Aziz Diallo, president of the Tabital Pulaaku community group which represents Mali's Fulani community, told AFP the incident began after a number of animals were stolen.
	"A significant number of animals were stolen. The owners of the animals went to look for their livestock and they fell into an ambush and there were clashes. .

Five killed, seven injured in Mali community clashes

Gabon's main opposition candidate Jean Ping claimed Sunday he had been elected president, unseating Ali Bongo in a single-round election.
	Official results from yesterday's vote are due out on Tuesday and candidates are prohibited by law from making such announcements.
	"I have been elected. I am waiting for the outgoing president to call to congratulate me," veteran politician Ping, 73, said in the capital Libreville, prompting jubilation from hundreds of his supporters.
	"Ping president!" they chanted.
	"You have foiled the congenital fraud of this regime which we are finally going to see off," added Ping.
	Bongo, 57, has been in power since a disputed election held in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who had ruled the oil-rich Central African country for 41 years.
	Ping, like the current president, worked for many years in Omar Bongo's administration.
	Both of the two frontrunners had already predicted their own victory and accused the other of cheating.
	Shortly ...

AFP

AFP

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