An avid gamer, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg took a break from her official duties in Bratislava this week to hunt for Pokemon monsters in the Slovak capital's old town.
	Accompanied by bodyguards, senior officials and a television crew, Solberg took advantage of some free time between two meetings on Monday to hit the town with her eyes firmly fixed on her smartphone, television footage aired today showed.
	The 55-year-old conservative leader told TV2 that while she was also hunting for Pokemon monsters, she was mainly trying to hatch eggs to get her hands on the rarest Pokemons, which requires some players to walk as much as 10 kilometres.
	The free Pokemon Go app uses graphics and satellite location and camera capabilities to overlay cartoon monsters on real-world settings, challenging players to capture and train the creatures for battles.
	Previously known for her fondness for the game Candy Crush, Solberg said last week she had become fascinated with Pokemon Go "the day ..

Norway PM pops out for Pokemon play in Bratislava

PTI Automatic

Twenty-six years after reunification, eastern Germany remains economically anaemic with little prospect of catching up with the rest of the country by 2030, a study published on Wednesday said.
	Of the eastern states, only "Saxony and Brandenburg will reach the level of overall average German growth" between 2015 and 2030, wrote Joachim Ragnitz of the Ifo economic think-tank.
	The remaining federal states formed from the former territory of the German Democratic Republic (GDR)- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia, and Saxony-Anhalt -will by contrast reckon with "in parts extremely low growth rates".
	Eastern Germany's GDP grew by 1.2 per cent per year between 2010 and 2015, underperforming the 1.6 per cent achieved by western Germany plus Berlin, Ifo calculated.
	While Brandenburg benefits from its proximity to Berlin and Saxony boasts two attractive large cities in Dresden and Leipzig, the other "new states" face significant challenges.
	The former GDR has seen a decades-long ...

Eastern Germany to lag behind for years to come: study

Powerful quake damages Myanmar's famed Bagan temples: police.

A powerful pre-dawn earthquake devastated mountain villages in central Italy today, leaving at least 38 people dead and dozens more injured, trapped or missing.
	Scores of buildings were reduced to dusty piles of masonry in communities close to the epicentre of the quake, which had a magnitude of between 6.0 and 6.2, according to monitors.
	It hit a remote area straddling Umbria, Marche and Lazio, to the north of a region devastated by a quake in 2009, rousing residents and vacationers in terrifying fashion.
	Italy's civil protection unit said in the first official death toll there had been 38 deaths in and around the villages of Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.
	"There are still so many people under masonry, so many missing," said Immacolata Postiglione, the head of the unit's emergency department.
	"My sister and her husband are under the rubble, we're waiting for diggers but they can't get up here," Guido Bordo, 69, told AFP in the tiny village of Illica, near ...

Dozens dead as Italy struck by powerful quake

A powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar today, the US Geological Survey reported.
	The quake, which the agency said struck at a depth of 84 kilometres, was felt in the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Yangon, Myanmar, AFP journalists reported.

Powerful 6.8 magnitude quake hits Myanmar: USGS

Powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake hits Myanmar: USGS. (AFP)

Embraced by kings and freedom fighters alike, Myanmar's peacocks have long been a national symbol of pride and resistance- but they are becoming ever harder to spot in the wild.
	Ornithologist Thet Zaw Naing is worried. Every year that goes by, Myanmar's national bird becomes a less familiar sight.
	"They always walk on the ground and they sleep in trees at night," he tells AFP.
	"And before they go to sleep, they always cry 'Oway Oway'. That's why people can know easily where they are and easily capture them."
	Decades ago the birds, with their bright green plumage and famously ostentatious male tail feathers, were ubiquitous.
	But like so many of Myanmar's most iconic flora and fauna, rampant poaching and habitat loss under decades of unaccountable junta rule has hit their numbers hard.
	For Myanmar, the declining peacock population is more than just a conservation tragedy -- it's a blow to the national psyche.
	The bird occupies a lofty place in the country's culture.
	For decades .

Myanmar's peacock: a national symbol dying off in the wild

The United States reiterated its recommendation that Americans in Gaza leave the territory controlled by Hamas, which Washington calls a terrorist group, "as soon as possible."
	The warning came after the Israeli army said it bombed dozens of targets in Gaza from Sunday to Monday, in response to rocket fire from the strip. Palestinian medical officials said four people were wounded.
	Washington regularly updates warning notices to Americans traveling to and living in countries around the world.
	In the case of Gaza, the State Department warned against "all travel" to the territory and "urges those present to depart as soon as possible when border crossings are open."
	It had issued a similar warning in December 2015.
	Since January, 14 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israeli territory, the military said.
	The border area has remained tense since the July-August 2014 war between Israel and Gaza militants that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians and 73 people on the Israeli ...

US urges Americans to leave Gaza 'as soon as possible'

A powerful earthquake that rocked central Italy today left 38 people dead and the total is likely to rise, the country's civil protection unit said in the first official death toll.
	"There are still so many people under masonry, so many missing," said Immacolata Postiglione, the head of the unit's emergency department.
	She had earlier announced a toll of 37 but subsequently corrected her statement.

38 dead in Italy quake: first official toll

England's players will be allowed to skip the tour of Bangladesh later this year if they have concerns about security in the country, limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan has revealed.
     Morgan, Test captain Alastair Cook and team members will meet the England and Wales Cricket Board's security director Reg Dickason on Thursday to discuss the matter.
     An attack in Dhaka last month claimed by the Islamic State group saw 20 hostages killed, including nine Italians, and Australia have cancelled senior and under-19 tours of Bangladesh in the past year.
     "They'll debrief us on the findings on both tours (Bangladesh and India) and we'll chat about it. It has to be quite open," Morgan said in comments reported by British media on Wednesday.
     "People have missed tours in the past so you have to make guys feel safe to go. It's a decision you'd rather get out of the way sooner rather than later.
     "There's always room for a personal decision. You also have to understand guys ...

England players get Bangladesh tour choice

North Korea today test-fired a submarine-launched missile 500 kilometres towards Japan, marking what weapons analysts called a clear step forward for its nuclear strike ambitions.
	The flight distance, which was tracked by South Korea's military Joint Chiefs of Staff, far exceeded any previous SLBM tests, suggesting significant progress in technical prowess.
	A proven SLBM system would take North Korea's nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a  "second-strike" capability in the event of an attack on its military bases.
	"While there are still a lot of questions about the details, this test certainly seems to have been successful," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.
	"This system is still in development, but North Korea is clearly making progress," Lewis told AFP.
	South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited a military source as ...

North Korea test-fires sub-launched missile close to Japan

Italy earthquake: 37 dead according to first official

Replicas of a large piece of debris from missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370 will be set adrift and tracked by satellite in the hope of helping find the plane's crash site, Australian officials said today.
	Canberra is leading the search for the aircraft which vanished in March 2014 with 239 people onboard and is currently probing the Indian Ocean floor off the Australia's far west coast.
	In a regular update on the underwater search, which has so far failed to find a single piece of debris from the plane, the Australian government said a new drift modelling study would be done.
	The government's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said while experts had been working to model the drift of MH370 debris over the past 18 months, a "further intensive study will be undertaken".
	Of particular interest to the modelling will be the first piece of debris found from MH370 -- a two-metre (almost seven-foot) wing part known as a flaperon -- which washed up on the French Indian Ocean island ..

Australia to study drift of MH370 debris

In a court case with repercussions for the art world and millions of dollars at stake, a US judge ruled in favor of an artist who was sued for denying a painting was his.
	A US District Court judge in Chicago decided that Peter Doig, a world-famous artist who insists he did not create a desert landscape painting, is telling the truth.
	The man who owns the disputed piece of art, a retired Canadian corrections officer by the name of Robert Fletcher, sued Doig for refusing to acknowledge that the painting is one of his works -- which means its value is significantly diminished.
	Judge Gary Feinerman ruled that there was "conclusive" evidence that Doig did not paint the disputed work, and that he had the right to say a painting was not his.
	The facts surrounding the case date back to Canada in the 1970s, when Fletcher met a man named Peter Doige -- spelled with an e -- and watched him study art while jailed for a drug offense.
	Fletcher says he remembers being impressed by one of ...

US judge sides with artist forced to prove painting is not his

Turkey's army backed by international coalition air strikes today launched an operation involving fighter jets and elite ground troops to drive Islamic State jihadists out of a key Syrian border town.
	The operation, the most ambitious launched by Turkey in Syria conflict, is aimed at clearing jihadists from the town of Jarabulus which lies directly opposite the Turkish town of Karakamis, the prime minister's office said.
	The operation began around 4:00 am local time (0100 GMT) with Turkish artillery pounding dozens of IS targets around Jarabulus.
	Turkish F-16 fighter jets and coalition war planes also hit targets inside Syria. Media said an unspecified number of elite Turkish special forces were already on the ground inside Syria.
	Tensions had flared across the Syria-Turkey border the previous day, following rocket fire from Jarabulus which landed inside Turkey with the Turkish army firing howitzer rounds in response.
	"The Turkish Armed Forces and the International Coalition Air .

Turkey launches anti-IS operation in Syria

At least 18 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck central Italy in the early hours today, according to local officials.
	Deaths were reported in three villages in a mountainous area straddling the regions of Lazio and Marche: Amatrice, Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto.
	At least 10 people died in Pescara, a hamlet that is part of the bigger village of Arquata del Tronto, according to civil protection officers cited by the ANSA news agency.
	Six bodies were recovered at Amatrice, according to the president of the Lazio region, and two at Accumoli, according to the town's mayor.

Italy toll quake climbs: at least 18 dead

French defence contractor DCNS has been hit by a massive leak of secret data on its submarines likely to alarm India, Malaysia and Chile which use the boats, The Australian newspaper reported today.
	The 22,400 leaked pages, which the daily said it had seen, detail the combat capability of the Scorpene-class DCNS submarine designed for the Indian navy, variants of which are used by Malaysia and Chile.
	Brazil is also due to deploy the vessels from 2018.
	Australia in April awarded DCNS an AusUSD 50 billion (US USD 38 billion) contract to design and build its next generation of submarines.
	Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought to play down the impact of the leak, saying in Canberra that while it was "of concern", the Scorpene was a different model to the subs Australia is buying.
	"The submarine we are building or will be building with the French is called the Barracuda, quite, completely different submarine to the Scorpene they are building for India," he told Channel Seven.
	"We ...

Secret data leak hits French submarine maker: report

World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim will seek a second term of office, the global development lender said today as it announced the start of a selection process for the presidency.
	Kim's bid to remain as president comes in the face a rare public rebuke from the Bank's rank-and-file, who earlier this month declared that the institution faced a "crisis of leadership."
	"The executive directors expressed unanimous support for an open, merit-based and transparent selection, with nominations open to all member countries," the executive board said in a statement.
	Kim's five-year term ends on June 30.
	Following an unwritten rule, the United States, the Bank's largest shareholder, has always chosen its president, while the International Monetary Fund leader has been drawn from Europe.
	The World Bank staff association said in an open letter on August 8 that this tradition flew in the face of principles of transparency, diversity and merit-based selection, given that the process had always ...

World Bank presidency search opens with Kim's hat in ring

Police are struggling to control crowds at a hot springs park in Taiwan that has become a hub for Pokemon Go players after gaining a reputation as a spot to catch rare creatures.
	The normally quiet park in Beitou, just outside the capital Taipei, has been thronged in recent days by enthusiasts of the wildly popular mobile gaming app.
	Pokemon Go has sparked a global frenzy since its launch last month as users hunt for virtual cartoon characters overlaid on real-world locations using augmented reality technology.
	Police are now having to divert traffic around the Beitou park and bring in additional manpower to control the crowds, they said this week.
	An unverified video that appeared to show thousands of people rushing across a traffic intersection in Beitou, apparently chasing after a Pokemon, went viral this week.
	Police say they have now downloaded the app Go Radar -- which players use to locate Pokemons -- to predict where the crowds will gather.
	On Tuesday night, hundreds of .

Taiwan police grapple for control of Pokemon swarms

Oil fell in Asia today after industry data showing an increase in US crude stocks added to oversupply worries and traders took advantage of a recent rally to book profits.
	Prices had closed higher yesterday on news that Iran was willing to join calls by OPEC and Russia for production curbs after scuttling previous efforts to reach a deal in April.
	But the gains were reversed in Asian trade after data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) overnight showed US crude inventories rose by 4.5 million barrels in the week ending August 19, after falling by one million barrels the week before.
	Rising stocks indicate weaker demand in the world's top oil consuming nation and add to worries about a global crude supply glut.
	"This jawboning (of oil prices) looks like it is rapidly being reversed in the wake of the weekly US API inventories number," said Angus Nicholson, a Melbourne-based analyst with IG Markets.
	A similar decline when the US energy department releases the official data .

Oil prices down in Asia, Brent stays below USD 50

Central Italy was struck by a powerful, 6.2-magnitude earthquake in the early hours today, leaving at least three people dead and devastating dozens of mountain villages.
	Numerous buildings had collapsed in communities close to the epicentre of the quake near the town of Norcia in the region of Umbria, witnesses told Italian media, with an increase in the death toll highly likely.
	The tremors were sufficiently strong to wake residents of central Rome, some 150 km away.
	The first two confirmed victims were an elderly couple whose home collapsed in Pescara del Tronto in the Marche region, east of the epicentre, according to national broadcaster Rai.
	Another person died and a family of four including two young children were trapped, feared dead, in their collapsed house in Accumoli, a village close to the epicentre, according to its mayor.
	"We have a tragedy here," Stefano Petrucci told Rai. "For the moment one death is confirmed but there are another four people under the rubble ...

AFP

AFP

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