Five Turkish police officers and two civilians were killed today in a car bombing outside the southeastern city of Diyarbakir blamed on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels, the government said.
	The blast hit a police traffic control building on a highway leading southeast from Diyarbakir to the city of Batman, killing the seven, a Turkish official said, confirming media reports and asking not to be named.
	The local governor's office earlier said in a statement that 25 people were wounded including five police officers. One of those killed was a child.
	A previous toll had said six people were killed.
	An AFP photographer at the scene said the bombing had turned the three-storey police building into tangled rubble with rescue workers using diggers to search the debris for corpses.
	Locals were also inspecting the massive trench left in the ground by the bomb.
	The latest bombing came after at least eight people, mostly civilians, were killed on Wednesday in two separate attacks ...

PKK bombing kills 7 near Turkey's Diyarbakir

PTI Automatic

The battle for Syria's ravaged second city Aleppo is one of the worst urban conflicts ever fought, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said today.
	"This is beyond doubt one of the most devastating urban conflicts in modern times," Peter Maurer said in a statement, decrying the "immense" human suffering.
	The divided city of Aleppo has been rocked by escalating violence, with hundreds of people killed, untold numbers injured and tens of thousands trapped without aid, Maurer pointed out.
	"No one and nowhere is safe. Shell-fire is constant, with houses, schools and hospitals all in the line of fire. People live in a state of fear," the ICRC chief said.
	"Children have been traumatised. The scale of the suffering is immense," he added.
	Aleppo, Syria's former economic hub and a focal point of its five-year civil war, has been divided between a rebel-held east and regime-controlled west since mid-2012.
	Fighting for the city has intensified after regime troops seized 

Aleppo one of 'most devastating urban conflicts': Red Cross

Torrential rains in Moscow today beat a 129-year-old record for the heaviest August downpours, the state weather service said.
	Muscovites splashed through flooded streets after more than 48 millimetres of rainfall hit the city, authorities said, nearly double the previous maximum recorded back in 1887.
	"This is a new historical record for mid-August," the meteorological centre said in a statement.
	"The last record of 25.2 millimetres of precipitation was recorded in 1887."
	The downpour saw a tributary of the Moskva River break its banks in northeastern Moscow and flooded at least one station in the city's sprawling subway system.
	Emergency services said they had rescued some 80 people trapped in their cars and a bus on a flooded street in southern Moscow.
	The rains, which are also falling in central and southern Russian regions, have been relentless since yesterday and are expected to continue throughout tonight.

Torrential rain in Moscow beats century-old record

US stocks climbed back into record territory today as rising oil prices boosted petroleum-linked equities while European markets were little changed.
	London and Frankfurt saw small gains while Paris was nearly flat in the absence of major European data and with trading subdued on a national holiday in France and parts of Germany.
	Investors are also waiting for the UK's first official hard data since the Brexit vote, with statistics coming out later this week on inflation, unemployment and retail sales.
	But on Wall Street all three indices were above record highs struck last week.
	The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent around mid-day in New York as the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced nearly 0.7 pe cent.
	On the tech side Twitter shares jumped six percent on a New York Times report that it was in talks with Apple to bring its streaming of US NFL football games this fall to Apple TV. Apple stock was up over one percent.
	Dow ...

Wall Street hits new record highs

Saudi-led coalition air strikes hit a hospital in a rebel-held province of northwest Yemen today killing at least six people, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and a rebel official said.
	MSF "confirms that Abs hospital (in Hajja province) was targeted by air strikes today at 15:45 Yemen time", the Paris-based relief agency tweeted.
	MSF spokeswoman Malak Shaher confirmed the incident and told AFP the agency has had a team at the public hospital in the coastal town since 2015.
	Ayman Mazkour, who heads the health sector in Hajja province, said six people were killed and 20 wounded in the strikes, warning that the toll could rise.
	"Medical teams have not yet been able to enter the hospital," he said in a statement carried by the rebel sabanews.Net website, adding that coalition warplanes were still flying over the area.
	Residents in Abs also said that coalition jets, which have been striking rebel military targets in the town for days, hit the hospital and caused casualties.
	The strikes 

Air strikes on north Yemen hospital kill 6

Four Turkish police officers and two civilians were killed today in a car bombing outside the southeastern city of Diyarbakir blamed on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels, the government said.
	The blast hit a police traffic control post on the highway leading southeast from Diyarbakir to the city of Batman, killing the six victims, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters in Ankara.
	The local governor's office earlier said in a statement that 25 people were wounded including five police officers. One of those killed was a child.
	An initial toll had said three people were killed.
	An AFP photographer at the scene saw the bombing had turned the three-storey police building into tangled rubble with rescue workers searching the debris with diggers for corpses.
	Locals were also inspecting the massive trench where the ground had been blown out by the car bomb.
	The latest bombing came after at least eight people, mostly civilians, were killed on Wednesday in two separate .

Six killed in PKK bombing near Turkey's Diyarbakir

A moderate 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Peru killed at least nine people and left 40 injured, crushing villagers under rubble and blocking roads, officials said today.
	The quake knocked down about 50 homes and cut off roads and power in the southern Arequipa region.
	The governor of Arequipa, Yamila Osorio said on the radio that three people were reported killed in Achoma and six in another village, Yanque.
	"It was tragic. They got wounded people out as best they could," said Yanque resident John Rivera on RPP radio.
	"There were no lights, no beds. The electricity has got cut off. We still have water but we don't know what will happen next."
	Earthquakes are fairly common in Peru but this one hit at a shallow depth of eight kilometers yesterday night so damage could be heavy near the epicenter.
	The epicenter was 10 kilometers from the city of Chivay, capital of Caylloma province, according to the Geophysical Institute of Peru.
	Two aftershocks hit this morning.
	The quake caused ...

Earthquake in Peru kills at least nine: officials

Russia is close to joining forces with the United States around Syria's ravaged second city of Aleppo, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in comments aired today.
	"Step by step we are getting closer to the situation in which -- and I'm only speaking about Aleppo here -- we will be able to begin battling together so that there is peace on this territory," Shoigu told Rossiya 24 television.
	In the interview conducted on Saturday but shown only today, Shoigu said Moscow is in close negotiations regarding the city, where Russian planes and regime forces are battling rebels for control.
	Shoigu said Moscow and Washington are still deeply at odds over the situation in Aleppo, accusing rebels of holding civilians hostage and waging brutal suicide bombings.
	"In the eastern part of Aleppo, people are hostages," he said, accusing the rebels of planting bombs along escape routes established by Russia and of staging executions.
	He blasted accusations that Moscow has imposed a blockade on ...

Russia 'close' to joining forces with US on Aleppo: minister

Thousands of Catholic pilgrims offered up prayers for terror-scarred France during Assumption celebrations today in Lourdes, held under tight security after last month's massacre in Nice and murder of a priest.
	The gathering at the shrine in the foothills of the Pyrenees is the first major Catholic event in France since priest Jacques Hamel was killed in his church on July 26.
	Undeterred by the threat, an estimated 22,000 pilgrims from across Europe, the Middle East and Asia descended on the Lourdes shrine for one of the biggest dates in the Christian calendar, marking the ascent into Heaven of the Virgin Mary.
	"We've come to pray for peace in the world, which seems to be in chaos," said Piet Tarappa, a businessman who was among a group of 35 Indonesians from Jakarta.
	Security was tight ahead for the annual four-day pilgrimage, which culminated with an open-air mass Monday at the spot where Mary is said to have appeared to a shepherd girl in 1858.
	Soldiers in fatigues with ...

Catholic pilgrims rally behind terror-hit France in Lourdes

Zambia's incumbent President Edgar Lungu was today declared the winner of a closely-fought election in the southern African country that the opposition claimed was rigged.
	Election commission chief Esau Chulu announced that Lungu was "duly elected" after releasing the final results from Thursday's election which put the president ahead of his main rival Hakainde Hichilema by around 200,000 votes.
	Lungu polled over 1.86 million votes against Hichilema's 1.66 million, according to results released four days after polling day.
	Hichilema had charged yesterday that unexplained delays in releasing the results were a clear sign of fraud to produce a win for Lungu's Patriotic Front (PF).
	"Clearly this is rigging an election, with the collusion of managers at the Electoral Commission of Zambia or commissioners," said the wealthy businessman, who had made his fifth bid for the presidency.
	"We know that the PF, once they realised that they were behind, they wanted to force a re-run. The ...

Zambia's Lungu re-elected in disputed vote

Corruption investigators in Ukraine say an illegal, off-the-books payment network earmarked USD 12.7 million in cash payments for Donald Trump's presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the New York Times reported today.
	It is not clear if Manafort actually received any of the money designated for him from 2007 to 2012 while working as a consultant for pro-Russian former president Viktor Yanukovych's party, the Times said.
	Manafort issued a statement vehemently denying any wrongdoing. "The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, non-sensical and silly," the statement says, according to NBC News.
	Manafort's name appears 22 times in 400 pages of handwritten Cyrillic taken from ledgers found at the headquarters of Yanukovych's Regions Party, the Times said.
	The article includes a scan of one of the pages. Those assigned payments totalled USD 12.7 million.
	The ledgers were obtained by Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
	Investigators say the network was ...

Trump aide's name surfaces in Ukraine corruption probe: NYT

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today appealed for calm after a flare-up with Ukraine over the annexed Crimea peninsula but warned Moscow was ready to stamp out any attempts to destabilise the region.
	A simmering feud between Russia and Ukraine sparked by the Kremlin's seizure of Crimea in 2014 burst back into life on Wednesday when Russia accused Kiev of attempting armed incursions into the region.
	Ukraine fiercely denied the allegations but a subsequent war of words sparked fears of a wider conflict between the two ex-Soviet neighbours.
	Lavrov said Moscow remained committed to a stalled European-brokered peace plan to end fighting in two eastern regions between Kiev and pro-Russian rebels and cautioned against succumbing to "emotions".
	"For now the main thing is not to give in to emotions, not to slip into taking some extreme actions but to try to stabilise the situation with restraint and concentration," Lavrov said following talks with his German counterpart Frank- ...

Lavrov urges calm after Ukraine flare-up over Crimea

Turkey has summoned Sweden's ambassador after Stockholm accused Ankara of legalising sex with children, the Turkish foreign minister said today.
	Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom had tweeted on her official account that the "Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed", following a controversial ruling by the Turkish constitutional court.
	"It is a scandal for a foreign minister to post such a tweet based on false news or speculation," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in televised comments, adding that the Swedish ambassador to Ankara had been summoned to his ministry.
	Cavusoglu blasted the "unacceptable" tweet, saying Wallstrom should have acted "responsibly".
	"A foreign minister should not tell lies and should not adopt an approach accusing Turkey," Cavusoglu said. "Yes to criticism but this is a slander, a lie."
	Turkey's top constitutional court in July annulled a provision punishing as "sexual abuse" all sexual acts involving children ...

Turkey summons Swedish envoy over tweet: minister

Scoreboard at stumps on the third
day of the third and final Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Colombo on Monday:
     Sri Lanka 1st innings 355
     Australia 1st innings
     D. Warner c Kusal Perera b de Silva    11
     S. Marsh b Lakmal                     130
     S. Smith st Kusal Perera b Herath     119
     A. Voges lbw b Herath                  22
     M. Henriques st Kusal Perera b Herath   4
     M. Marsh c Mendis b Herath             53
     P. Nevill lbw b Dilruwan Perera        14
     M. Starc not out                        9
     N. Lyon c Mendis b Dilruwan Perera      3
     J. Hazlewood b Herath                   0
     J. Holland c Mathews b Herath           1
     Extras (b4, lb9)                       13
     Total (all out, 125.1 overs)          379
     Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Warner), 2-267 (S. Marsh), 3-275 (Smith), 4-283 (Henriques), 5-316 (Voges), 6-353 (Nevill), 7-367 (M. Marsh), 8-376 (Lyon), 9-377 (Hazlewood), 10-379 (Holland)
     Bowling: Perera ..

Colombo, Aug 15 (AFP) Scoreboard at stumps on the third

Centuries from skipper Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh gave Australia hope of a consolation victory in the final Test against Sri Lanka Monday before being pegged back by their bogeyman Rangana Herath.
     Smith and Marsh put on a record 246 runs for the second wicket, raising Australian hopes of building a match-winning lead in response to Sri Lanka's first innings total of 355 before the veteran Herath put the brakes on with a six wicket haul.
     Australia were eventually all out for 379, a lead which was reduced to just two runs by the close of play as Sri Lanka reached 22 at stumps, albeit with the loss of opener Dilruwan Perera who was lbw to Mitchell Starc for eight.
     Dimuth Karunaratne was unbeaten on eight, alongside Kaushal Silva who has so far made six at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in the final match of the series. Australia are trailing 0-2.
     Herath -- who took a hat-trick in the last Test and 10 wickets in the first match of the series -- again brought the ...

Smith, Marsh tons give Australia slender lead

Two Turkish police officers and a child were killed today in a car bombing outside the southeastern city of Diyarbakir blamed on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels, local officials said.
	The blast hit a police control post on the highway leading southeast from Diyarbakir to the city of Batman, the local governor's office said in a statement, adding that 25 people were wounded including five police officers.
	Television images showed the bombing had turned the three- storey police building to tangled rubble. Locals were also inspecting the massive trench where the ground had been blown out.
	The latest bombing came after at least eight people, mostly civilians, were killed on Wednesday in two separate attacks blamed on PKK militants in Turkey's southeast.
	Hundreds of members of the Turkish security forces have been killed by the PKK in attacks since the collapse of a two- year ceasefire in July last year.
	The PKK has kept up attacks after the July 15 failed coup during which a ...

3 killed in PKK bombing near Turkey's Diyarbakir

A Dubai court today sentenced to death a Jordanian man convicted of raping and killing an eight-year- old boy in a crime that shocked public opinion in the UAE, media reported.
	The Dubai court of first instance convicted 49-year-old Nidal Eisa Abdullah of kidnapping Obaida Sedqi from his father's garage on May 20 before raping and killing the boy, the local Gulf News daily said.
	He was also ordered to pay 21,000 dirhams (USD 5,700) to the victim's parents, the newspaper said.
	Abdullah had admitted he raped and murdered the boy, also Jordanian, but denied kidnapping the victim, the Dubai daily said.
	The defendant, who became publicly referred to as "Obaida's killer", claimed that the boy "had willingly sat with him in the car", it added.
	According to Gulf News, Abdullah is said to have "lured the eight-year-old to his car by offering to buy him a scooter" before having forced sex with the boy and then strangling him.
	But during one of the hearings, Abdullah told the court that he 

Dubai hands death sentence to child killer: report

Tokyo and Seoul struck a conciliatory note today on the anniversary of the end of World War II, with South Korea's president calling for a "future-oriented" relationship and Japan's prime minister denouncing the "horrors of war".
	Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual donation to a controversial Tokyo war shrine but again avoided visiting it, in an apparent nod to China and South Korea.
	South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, meanwhile, called for a "future-oriented" relationship with Tokyo even as a group of Seoul lawmakers sparked official anger in Japan by visiting islets claimed by both nations.
	August 15 is an emotional date in both countries, remembered in Japan as the day in 1945 when wartime Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender. In South Korea it is marked as the day Japan's harsh 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula came to an end.
	China, which was partially occupied by Japan from the early 1930s to 1945, marks the end of the war on September 3.
	A frequent ...

Japan, S Korea strike conciliatory note on war anniversary

Russia's navy today launched drills including artillery and missile fire in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the defence ministry said.
	"A Russian navy attack group started tactical drills in the east of the Mediterranean Sea," the ministry said in a statement.
	"During the drills the ability of the navy's forces to deal with resolving crises of a terrorist nature will be tested," it said.
	Russia has previously beefed up its naval forces in the area to support its bombing campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
	Two of Russia's newest Buyan-class corvettes will take part in the exercises along with vessels already stationed permanently in the area, the ministry said.
	It said the gunboats are equipped with the latest long-range missile system which was used to bombard Islamic State targets in Syria last year.
	The exercises are the latest in a series of manoeuvres conducted by Moscow's forces since relations with the West fell to their lowest point since the Cold War .

Russia starts navy drills in eastern Med

Nigeria's army said today it wants to question three suspects, including a journalist, for allegedly concealing information on the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.
	The announcement came just a day after Boko Haram released a new video purportedly showing some of the more than 200 girls who were seized by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria in April 2014.
	Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said local journalist Ahmad Salkida had been in contact with Boko Haram, as had Ahmed Bolori and Aisha Wakil, both activists familiar with the workings of the Islamist group.
	"There is no doubt that these individuals have links with Boko Haram terrorists and have contacts with them," he said.
	"They must therefore come forward and tell us where the group is keeping the Chibok girls and other abducted persons to enable us to rescue them."
	Usman said the military would work with other security agencies to bring in the suspects if they fail to turn themselves in.
	The mass kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls ..

Nigerian journalist wanted over Chibok girls

Saudi soldiers on the front lines of the war in Yemen are getting a month's extra salary from King Salman, official media said.
	The handout comes after an escalation of the 17-month-old war following the suspension of peace talks between Yemeni rebels and the internationally recognised government.
	King Salman "has ordered paying a month's salary to active participants at the front lines" of the Yemen operation, which began in March last year, the Saudi Press Agency reported late yesterday.
	"The order covers employees of the ministries of interior, defence, and the National Guard," it said, without giving the total cost of the bonus.
	It comes as the kingdom battles a projected USD 87-billion deficit in 2016 after oil revenues collapsed by more than half over the past two years.
	In April, Saudi Arabia announced its wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to diversify the oil-dependent economy.
	Dozens of Saudi troops have died along the border or on the Yemeni battlefield since the kingdom ..

AFP

AFP

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