Turkey's main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said today his convoy came under attack from gunfire in the northeastern region of Artvin but he was unharmed.
	Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), said he was safe and well after the incident whose origin was not immediately clear.
	"There is no problem, we are fine, don't worry," Kilicdaroglu told CNN-Turk television by telephone.
	Kilicdaroglu had been in the province to attend a rally where he planned to make a speech, private-run Dogan news agency reported.
	It was not yet known if Kilicdaroglu was the target or if he was caught up in a separate incident.
	Ozgur Ozel, head of CHP's parliamentary group, told CNN-Turk that a soldier driving a military vehicle had been injured.
	President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim were briefed by the provincial governor shortly after the incident, said a Turkish official, who did not wish to be named.
	Erdogan and Yildirim as well as Interior ...

Turkey opposition chief unharmed after convoy fired on

PTI Automatic

Iraqi forces backed by coalition air strikes today pushed the Islamic State group from Qayyarah, a northern town considered strategic for any future offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold of Mosul.
	"We control all parts of the town and managed, in very limited time, to root out Daesh (IS)," Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal Tawfik, who commands Iraq's ground forces, told an AFP reporter in Qayyarah.
	The commander said engineering units were now clearing the town, which lies about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Mosul, of unexploded ordnance and booby traps.
	Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a statement hailing what he said was a key step towards reclaiming Mosul, IS's de facto Iraq capital and the country's second city.
	"Our heroic forces achieved a big victory, an important step towards the liberation of Mosul," Abadi said.
	"I present my congratulations to the Iraqi people for the liberation of the strategic town of Qayyarah and neighbouring areas," he said.
	The ..

Iraq forces retake key town south of Mosul: commander

Turkey sent more tanks into Syria and sternly warned a Kurdish militia to withdraw from frontline positions, a day after pro-Ankara Syrian opposition fighters captured a key border town from jihadists.
	The tanks joined those which crossed the frontier yesterday in the so-called Operation Euphrates Shield, which Turkey says aims at ridding the northern Syrian border area of both Islamic State (IS) extremists and Kurdish militia.
	Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that the offensive had expelled IS from the Syrian town of Jarabulus, and pro-Ankara rebels reported the jihadists had retreated south to the town of Al-Bab.
	But Defence Minister Fikri Isik warned the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia -- who also had designs on Jarabulus -- to move back east across the Euphrates or also face intervention from Turkey.
	The new contingent of tanks roared across a dirt road west of the Turkish border town of Karkamis, throwing up a cloud of dust in their ...

Turkey sends more tanks to Syria, warns Kurdish militia

China's military will provide training for Syrian armed forces, a spokesman for Beijing's defence ministry said today, adding it would take place on Chinese soil.
	Beijing is a longstanding backer of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, which has engaged in a bloody war that has left more than 290,000 people dead and displaced millions since it began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government demonstrations.
	Last week senior Chinese military official Guan Youfei met with Syria's defence minister in Damascus and said he wanted closer military ties with the Syrian government, state media reported.
	"The Chinese military will provide the Syrian side with medical and nursing professional training," defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters at a monthly briefing.
	The training would take place in China, he added, and was intended "to ease the humanitarian crisis in Syria".
	The Chinese military has already provided Syrian authorities with medical equipment and ...

Chinese military will train Syrian troops: govt

Sri Lanka's opening batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan will retire from One Day International cricket after the third ODI against Australia in Dambulla, the island's governing body for the sport said today.
     Sri Lanka Cricket said it would dedicate the match on August 28 against Australia to the 39-year old Dilshan for his "invaluable contribution to his mother land".
     SLC in a statement extended its appreciation to the batsman wishing him all the best. There was no immediate comment from Dilshan.
     The aggressive right-hander retired from Test cricket in October 2013 after playing 87 matches and scoring 5,492 runs. He has also taken 39 Test wickets.
     Sunday's ODI will be his 330th.
     So far, he has scored 10,248 runs in the 50-overs format of the game and taken 106 wickets.

Sri Lanka's Dilshan to retire after 3rd ODI

The United Nations called today for the creation of an independent international body to investigate an array of serious violations in war-torn Yemen.
	In a new report, the UN laid out a long line of allegations of grave human rights abuses by all sides in Yemen's bloody conflict, which has left nearly 4,000 civilians dead.
	"Civilians in Yemen have suffered unbearably over the years from the effects of a number of simultaneous and overlapping armed conflicts," UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.
	"And they continue to suffer, absent any form of accountability and justice, while those responsible for the violations and abuses against them enjoy impunity," he said.
	"Such a manifestly protracted unjust situation must no longer be tolerated by the international community," he insisted, demanding the creation of "an international, independent investigative body".
	The report listed numerous attacks on residential areas, market places, hospitals and schools, ...

UN rights chief urges international probe of Yemen violations

A Vietnamese woman paid a friend to cut off her hand and foot in a bid to claim a handsome insurance payout, state-run media reported today.
	The woman, identified only as LTN, checked into a Hanoi hospital in May with one third of her left foot and one third of her left hand severed, but doctors told her they could not reattach the limbs.
	She later told police she was struck by a train as she walked on the tracks and was rescued by her friend Doan Van D., according to Tuoi Tre's English edition.
	The 30-year-old submitted a claim to her insurance company for 3.5 billion dong ($130,000), a huge sum in Vietnam where the average monthly income is $2,100.
	But authorities smelled a fraud.
	"N hired D to cut her hand and foot, then continued to have him report false information to the police," said Bac Tu Liem police chief Nguyen Thanh Tung said, according to the newspaper.
	Hanoi police declined to comment to AFP about the case, but reports said the woman offered her friend around ...

Vietnamese woman cuts off limbs for insurance payout

Japan's All Nippon Airways said today it is cancelling some Boeing Dreamliner flights owing to a problem with the plane's engine, and warned of more groundings.
	The carrier, the biggest worldwide Dreamliner operator with a fleet of 50 jets, said nine domestic flights scheduled for tomorrow would be halted so it could fix a problem with a Rolls Royce-produced engine.
	The move came after ANA grounded a domestic Dreamliner flight earlier today, also citing an unspecified engine problems.
	"We will definitely cancel nine flights tomorrow and more afterward but we don't know the specifics yet," an ANA spokeswoman said.
	In February, a Tokyo-bound ANA Dreamliner flight was forced to return to Kuala Lumpur due to engine trouble, marking another hit for an aircraft plagued by setbacks.
	Rival Japan Airlines, also a major Dreamliner customer, has nearly 30 of the aircraft but the engines are produced by General Electric.
	The Dreamliner, built largely with lightweight composite materials ...

Japan's ANA cancels Dreamliner flights over engine trouble

Moroccan police have launched a manhunt for an ex-circus employee suspected of murdering the 18-year-old son of the troupe's Italian owner, state media reported today.
	The troupe's owner and three Portuguese performers were also wounded in Wednesday's knife attack in the Atlantic coastal city of Kenitra, the official MAP news agency said.
	The suspect being sought by police had been fired from the circus and is believed to have been motivated by revenge.
	An Italian source told AFP that the circus had been making summer tours of Morocco for several years.

Italian circus owner's son killed on Morocco tour

Russia has released a Japanese citizen detained on a disputed island claimed by both countries, Tokyo's foreign ministry said today, ahead of diplomatic talks on the long-running territorial dispute.
	Tokyo and Moscow are working to resolve decades of tensions over four islands occupied by the Soviet Union in the closing days of World War II and now controlled by Russia.
	The man, an interpreter who has not been identified, was visiting Kunashiri - Kunashir in Russian - one of the islands off northern Japan, as part of a visa-free visit programme that started in 1992.
	The man was detained by Russian customs ahead of his scheduled departure and accused of trying to take cash off the island illegally, a Japanese ministry official said.
	The Russian customs service has said on its website they found some four million Japanese yen (USD 40,000) in his bags, while only USD 10,000 can be taken out of the country undeclared.
	The man had claimed that he was asked by a local resident to carry 

Russia frees Japanese man held on disputed island

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter began his final appeal today against his six-year ban from football, in a long-shot quest for redemption after his career ended in scandal.
     Blatter entered the world's top sports court for a one-day hearing seeking to overturn a suspension imposed by FIFA over ethics violations.
     "I will accept the verdict," Blatter, 80, told journalists outside the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
     "I do hope it will be positive for me, but we are footballers. We learn to win but also we learn to lose," he added.
     The case that triggered Blatter's downfall first emerged in September of last year, when Swiss prosecutors said they were investigating Blatter over a suspect two million Swiss franc payment ($2 million, 1.8 million euros) he authorised in 2011 to his one-time heir apparent, Michel Platini.
     Platini, the former head of European football, was also sanctioned by FIFA over the funds.
     The Frenchman lost ..

Blatter mounts final FIFA ban appeal

A German man has been arrested on Indonesia's Bali island for allegedly making crystal methamphetamine in a secret lab, officials said today, with authorities seizing bags of powders and bottles used to produce the drug.
	The 35-year-old German, his Indonesian partner -- a transgender woman -- and two Indonesian men were detained on Monday, accused of making crystal meth together, the anti-drugs agency said.
	The group could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty of producing and using the substance, the agency said, but the suspects look likely to avoid the death penalty as they had so far made only a small quantity.
	Just 10 grams of the drug was seized when they were arrested. Authorities suspect it was mostly for personal consumption, with just a small amount sold to others on Bali.
	Indonesia imposes capital punishment for some drug-related crimes, such as trafficking narcotics into the country, and has caused global outrage by sharply increasing its use of the death penalty 

German man arrested over Bali meth lab

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un declared a submarine-launched missile test the "greatest success", state media said today, as the UN weighed a condemnation of the launch which appears to advance Pyongyang's nuclear strike capability.
	The US mainland and the Pacific are now "within the striking range" of the North's army, the official KCNA news agency reported Kim as saying after Wednesday's launch.
	The missile was fired from a submarine submerged off the northeastern port of Sinpo on Wednesday, according to South Korea's military. It flew 500 kilometres towards Japan, far exceeding any previous sub-launched tests.
	The UN Security Council met for two hours yesterday to discuss North Korea's latest provocative move and agreed to consider a statement condemning the launch.
	"There was a general sense of condemnation by most members of the council and therefore we will have to see how we would then be phrasing the press statement," said Ramlan bin Ibrahim from Malaysia, which currently 

N Korea leader says missile test 'greatest success'

Indonesia's navy said today it had found a tanker carrying almost USD 400,000 worth of diesel that was taken by its own crew last week due to a commercial dispute.
	The MT Vier Harmoni was initially feared to have been hijacked after setting sail from Malaysia, in waters that have suffered a string of pirate attacks in recent times.
	But Indonesian authorities quickly realised the vessel, which was transporting 900,000 litres of diesel, had been taken by its Indonesian crew due to a dispute.
	The navy deployed ships and a helicopter to search for the tanker, which was reported missing on August 16 after setting sail from southern Malaysia a day earlier.
	"The hunt was conducted day and night, non-stop, by the team," said navy spokesman Edi Sucipto.
	He said the tanker was found Wednesday off West Kalimantan province, on the Indonesian part of Borneo island.
	The tanker is being escorted to Tanjung Pinang, the provincial capital of Indonesia's Riau Islands, for further investigations, .

Indonesian navy finds fuel tanker taken by own crew

Four Iranian military vessels sped close to two US Navy guided missile destroyers with their weapons uncovered in the Strait of Hormuz in an "unsafe and unprofessional" encounter between the longtime foes, American defense officials have said.
	The USS Nitze shot warning flares, sounded its whistles and attempted unsuccessfully to communicate with the Iranian boats during Tuesday's incident, US Central Command spokesman Commander Kyle Raines said in a statement, adding that the Iranian vessels came within 300 yards (meters) of the American destroyer. The Nitze was accompanied on its mission by the USS Mason, another destroyer.
	The encounter occurred in international waters in the strait, a vitally important choke point with Iran to its north and the United Arab Emirates to the south.
	The destroyer had to change course to avoid a possible collision, even though it was near offshore oil rigs.
	"Nitze also changed its course multiple times in close proximity to offshore oil rigs in an .

Iranian navy in 'unsafe' intercept of US destroyer: official

Italy quake toll climbs to at least 247: civil

USA women's goalkeeper Hope Solo has been slapped with a six-month ban from the national team for her comments in which she called the Swedish players "a bunch of cowards", US Soccer announced.
     The 35-year-old Solo made the comments after the Americans were eliminated in a penalty shootout from the Rio Olympics women's soccer tournament on August 12.
     "The comments by Hope Solo after the match against Sweden during the 2016 Olympics were unacceptable and do not meet the standard of conduct we require from our National Team players," US Soccer president Sunil Gulati said in a statement Wednesday.
     "Beyond the athletic arena, and beyond the results, the Olympics celebrate and represent the ideals of fair play and respect. We expect all of our representatives to honor those principles, with no exceptions."
     Solo wasn't backing down Wednesday and defended her "coward" comments by saying the suspension wasn't warranted.
     "I am saddened by the federation's decision to ..

US Soccer slaps Solo with six-month suspension

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will play doubles together in a new competition pitting Europe against the Rest of the World in a Ryder Cup-style tennis team event.
	   The Laver Cup was launched in New York on Wednesday with Federer and Nadal, who have won 31 Grand Slam titles between them, both committed to the event which will be held for the first time in Prague from September 22-24 next year.
	   Former Grand Slam heavyweights Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe will be the captains.
	   Organisers of the tournament, named after Rod Laver, the last man to achieve the calendar Grand Slam in 1969, are hopeful that the current top two in the world -- Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray -- will also be persuaded to play.
	   The new tournament would likely be played just a week after the Davis Cup semi-finals.
	   "It's going to be unbelievable to be on the same side of the net as Rafa finally. It's a great feeling not facing the big forehand," said 35-year-old Federer, who attended the launch ...

Federer, Nadal to team up in Laver Cup

Australia's Steve Smith has been rested to focus on next month's tour of South Africa leaving David Warner to lead the side for the remainder of the Sri Lanka series.
     Smith captained Australia to an 82-run loss in the second one-day international Wednesday which tied the series 1-1.
     "I hate missing cricket, but in the long run it will do me a world of good," said Smith who returns home with three one-day internationals and two Twenty20s still to be played.
     "The schedule is very busy. I still want to take on the role in all three formats and do it to the best of my ability," he added.
     Cricket Australia's chairman of selectors Rod Marsh said Smith needed time off.
     "Steve has a large amount of cricket coming up in the next 12 months and we wanted to find a time for him to freshen up and these last five matches provide a good opportunity to do so," Marsh said in a statement.
     "Regardless of the results of the first two matches our plan was always for Steve to .

Smith rests, Warner skippers Aussies in Sri Lanka

Attack on Kabul's American University ends as attackers

Jason Roy overcame a dizzy spell to lead England's charge to a 44-run win under the Duckworth/Lewis method in a rain-marred first one-day international against Pakistan in Southampton.
	Surrey opener Roy's quickfire 65 fired England towards an initial victory target of 261 yesterday.
	But after a third and final rain interruption of this day/night fixture at 9:37 pm local time (2037 GMT), the umpires eventually called the game off with England 194 for three.
	Eoin Morgan, the England captain, was 33 not out and Ben Stokes 15 not out.
	Earlier, Pakistan were held to a modest 260 for six, captain Azhar Ali top-scoring with 82 after he won the toss.
	Sarfraz Ahmed made 55 and Babar Azam 40 before he was unluckily out lbw.
	Pakistan were going well at 173 for three after 35 overs but then lost Azhar before a rain stoppage put a further break on their run-scoring.
	Roy and Joe Root (61) took England to the brink of victory with a second-wicket stand of 89 in 14 overs.
	Roy sparked ...

AFP

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