The International Olympic Committee today urged athletes to show "respect" to each other in the wake of a war-of-words involving drug-tainted swimmers and their rivals.
     Australia swimmer Mack Horton triggered uproar in China after branding rival Sun Yang as a "drugs cheat" before dethroning the Chinese star at the weekend.
     That was followed by more vitriol on Sunday when athletes rounded on two-time Russian doping offender Yulia Efimova.
     Efimova, cleared at the l1th hour to compete in Rio, was subjected to boos from the crowd while rival swimmers took verbal digs.
     IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the organisation encouraged free speech and had no plans to take action.
     However he said competitors had a right to compete "in tranquillity" and appealed to athletes to show respect to one another.
     "Clearly we want to encourage freedom of speech," he said. "But on the other hand of course the Olympics is about respecting others and respecting the right of others to 

Respect each other, IOC urges athletes after China furore

PTI Automatic

Britain's crisis-hit main opposition Labour Party vowed to appeal against a High Court decision today that would allow 125,000 newly-signed up members to vote in its leadership contest.
	The party's National Executive Committee had decided people who had been members for less than six months up to July 12 could not vote in the contest between embattled leader Jeremy Corbyn and relatively unknown challenger Owen Smith.
	The High Court said the NEC's decision amounted to a breach of contract, in a ruling that would increase the voter base by around a quarter.
	But Labour said it would take the decision to the Court of Appeal -- to the fury of socialist stalwart Corbyn's campaign, for whom the High Court verdict was seen as a huge boost.
	"The Labour Party will appeal this ruling in order to defend the NEC's right, as Labour's governing body, to uphold the rule book," a spokesman said.
	Corbyn's campaign manager John McDonnell, Labour's finance spokesman, said the "deeply disappointing" .

UK's Labour appeals ruling on new members' leadership votes

Syrian regime forces and rebel factions sent hundreds of reinforcements to Aleppo today as both sides braced for a crucial battle to control the country's second city.
	Fighting for Syria's former economic powerhouse is intensifying after an opposition advance at the weekend broke through a three-week government siege of the city's rebel-held east, dealing a major setback to regime troops.
	Rebel forces yesterday announced a bid to capture all of Aleppo city, which if successful would mark the biggest opposition victory yet in Syria's five-year civil war.
	But forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are putting up a fierce fight and have begun pouring in reinforcements.
	The main opposition coalition said today it was only a matter of time before rebels take all of Aleppo, but the United States warned there would be no quick victory.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said some 2,000 pro-regime fighters from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Lebanese Shiite movement ..

Both sides brace for crucial battle for Syria's Aleppo

World oil prices rebounded today, with support coming from an announcement by OPEC that the producers' cartel plans an informal meeting next month which may result in lower output.
	Around 1600 GMT, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October was up USD 1.12 at USD 45.39 a barrel compared with the close on Friday.
	 US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for September delivery rallied USD 1.24 to USD 43.04 a barrel.
	"Oil prices are climbing on rumours that global producers are mulling over... An oil output freeze deal," wrote analysts at oil broker PVM.
	OPEC today announced an informal meeting of member countries in Algeria set for September, ahead of a planned meeting due at the end of November.
	The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said in a statement that the meeting would take place on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Algeria from September 26 to 28.
	Vienna-based OPEC last month said it expected the global supply glut to ease further this year 

Oil prices rebound as OPEC agrees extra meet

It is only a matter of time before rebels capture all of Aleppo, the head of Syria's main opposition coalition said today as fighters launched an offensive to take the divided second city in its entirety.
	Syrian National Coalition chief Anas al-Abdeh, in an interview with AFP, also praised a new-found unity among opposition factions that has seen the Fateh al-Sham Front -- which used to have ties with Al-Qaeda -- join forces with other rebels in the battle for Aleppo.
	Over the weekend, opposition fighters succeeded in ending a three-week government siege of Aleppo's rebel-held east -- a major blow to the government forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
	"I think this possibly is one of the most important developments of the Syrian revolution in the last five and a half years," Abdeh said in an interview in Istanbul, where the National Coalition is based.
	"I think it will pave the way for a proper political transition, something the international community is not taking sufficiently .

Aleppo capture 'only matter of time': Syrian opposition

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that Franz Kafka's manuscripts are the property of the National Library of Israel, ending a lengthy legal battle, judicial sources said today.
	The nation's top court yesterday rejected an appeal by the heirs of Max Brod, a friend of Kafka and the executor of his estate to whom he had willed his manuscripts after his death in 1924.
	Kafka had instructed Brod to burn the manuscripts after his death but his friend did not honour that request and took them with him when he fled the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 and emigrated to Palestine.
	On his death in 1968, Brod bequeathed the papers to his secretary Esther Hoffe, with instructions to give them to the "Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the municipal library in Tel Aviv or another organisation in Israel or abroad."
	But Hoffe, who died in 2007, instead kept them and shared them between her two daughters -- sparking multiple legal battles.
	In the trial against Hoffe's heirs, which began in ...

Kafka's manuscripts are Israeli property: court

A coalition air strike destroyed 83 oil tankers used by the Islamic State group over the weekend in eastern Syria, the US military announced today.
	Pentagon spokesman Matthew Allen said the strike was conducted by "multiple coalition aircraft" Sunday evening near Albu Kamal, in Deir Ezzor province along Syria's border with Iraq.
	"This strike is a component of ongoing Tidal Wave II operation designed to attack the distribution network of Daesh's oil-smuggling operation and degrade their capacity to fund their operations," Allen said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
	Operation Tidal Wave II, named after a World War II mission to bomb oil refineries, has seen the US-led coalition conduct a series of strikes on the IS group's oil infrastructure.
	In just two strikes last year, coalition planes destroyed about 400 tankers that were lined up in the desert waiting to take on illicit oil.
	In those cases, the United States dropped pamphlets warning drivers of the imminent strike. The ...

Dozens of IS oil tankers destroyed in Syria strike: US

As if Hillary Clinton were not formidable enough of a rival, Donald Trump now faces competition from a new quarter -- largely unknown Republican dissident, Evan McMullin, who launched his White House bid today.
	"It's never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us," McMullin, a little-known former CIA counterterrorism operative, said on his Facebook page.
	The 40-year-old McMullin's entrance in the race highlights how the "Never Trump" movement is still actively seeking to upend Trump's candidacy less than three months before the election.
	The Republican Party's official presidential nominee has endured a turbulent two weeks in which he suffered many self-inflicted wounds, with increasing numbers of Republicans expressing concerns about Trump's capacity to run the country or voicing outright support for rival Clinton.
	"In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, ...

Anti-Trump conservative launches US presidential bid

The Turkish government said today a total of 216 soldiers, including nine generals, were still at large after last month's failed coup attempt.
	"There are 216 fugitive soldiers in total from the Turkish armed forces and the gendarmerie," Deputy Prime Minister and top government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting.
	"Nine of them are generals," he added. Thirty fugitives were from the gendarmerie and 186 from the army.
	Kurtulmus however dismissed claims that some of the fugitive soldiers joined the ranks of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants.
	He said this was merely "speculation" following a report in the opposition Sozcu daily that 60 plotters including three generals had taken refuge with the PKK in northern Iraq.
	Kurtulmus also said nine foreigners were investigated for links with US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen in post-coup inquiries, adding four of them were arrested, three detained, while one was freed and one .

Turkey says nine generals still at large after coup bid

Sri Lanka's police sought spiritual help from Buddhist clergy today to bless an accident-prone highway in a country that has some of the world's most dangerous roads.
	Police at Mawathagama, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north-east of Colombo, directed three saffron-robed monks to bless a spot where there had been five fatal accidents in a month, a police official said.
	"Traffic constables sat by the roadside while monks chanted sacred texts to bless a dangerous double bend," the official told AFP confirming reports of the unusual traffic management effort.
	Sri Lanka's police deal with about seven road fatalities each day.
	The official, who declined to be named, said it was the first time that a Buddhist "pirith" (chanting of Buddha's teachings) blessing had been used to tackle the growing problem of reckless driving in the Buddhist majority country.
	Sri Lanka's new police chief, Pujith Jayasundara, has said that he secured the top job in April thanks to the recital of "pirith" .

Sri Lanka seeks spiritual help to reduce accidents

Tourists have flocked back to Sri Lanka's palm-fringed beaches since a bloody civil war ended in 2009, but environmentalists warn unchecked development means some areas are now so polluted, swimming there is a health hazard.
	Sewage from thriving hotels and guesthouses pours, often untreated, out into the water polluting the sea and shore.
	Even the country's own tourism minister says he has stopped swimming in the seas close to capital Colombo because of the dirty water.
	More than two million visitors now head to the tiny Indian Ocean island every year, more than four times the number that came in 2009.
	Yet there are fears it is becoming a victim of its own success.
	Guesthouses have sprung up to cater for soaring numbers of visitors -- but often with little thought for how to deal with the waste they produce.
	Many simply discharge raw sewage straight into the sea, exposing bathers to potential health issues.
	The problem is most acute just south of Colombo at Mount Lavinia, an ...

Tourist boom threatens Sri Lanka's golden beaches

A referendum victory for Thailand's ruling generals over a new constitution is a "backwards" step for the country, the toppled ex-premier said today as the democracy movement reels from its first poll defeat in a decade.
	The bitterly-divided kingdom has been ruled by a junta for two years since Yingluck Shinawatra's government was booted from office.
	The majority 'yes' vote in support of the charter was the first test of public opinion since 2014 coup, although independent campaigning and open debate was stifled ahead of the polls.
	The vote lends legitimacy to a junta that says it alone can stabilise Thailand and detoxify politics after a decade of turmoil.
	It also lands a hammer blow on the nation's pro-democracy movement, which since 2006 has been winded by two coups, court rulings and a bloody military crackdown.
	Unofficial results released by the Election Commission showed 61.4 per cent of the country backed the document, with 38.6 per cent voting 'no'.
	The turnout was just .

Thai junta poll win sends country 'backwards': ex-PM

Two manatees born and bred at the Singapore Zoo left the city-state early today for Guadeloupe as part of the world's first repopulation programme for the mammal, which became extinct on the French Caribbean island.
	Males Kai, seven, and Junior, six, left Singapore at 4:50 am local time for the 34-hour journey on a chartered Singapore Airlines cargo flight, the zoo operator said.
	After a farewell ceremony yesterday attended by representatives from the French embassy, the manatees -- weighing hundreds of kilos -- were coaxed onto canvases and placed in custom-built open-top crates lined with thick sponge, an operation involving dozens of zoo staff.
	They will be periodically sprayed with water during the journey. Two veterinarians from Guadeloupe's national park and an aquarist from Singapore's zoo are travelling with them.
	Kai and Junior, who were born in captivity, are the first of 15 of their kind to arrive in the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin, a 15,000 hectare (37,000 acre) protected ..

Manatees leave Singapore for Caribbean repopulation scheme

Syria's brutal conflict has now claimed the lives of more than 290,000 people, a monitoring group said today, giving its latest death toll for the devastating five-year war.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 292,817 people had been killed between March 2011 -- when the conflict erupted -- and the end of July.
	The toll represents an increase of just over 10,000 people since the monitor gave its last account on May 26.
	Among the dead are 84,472 civilians, including 14,711 children and 9,520 women, it said.
	The Observatory also documented the deaths of 50,548 non-jihadist rebels and Kurdish militiamen.
	Another 49,547 extremist militants including non-Syrians were killed.
	A total of 104,656 pro-regime fighters were killed, among them 57,909 soldiers and 1,306 militants from the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is fighting on behalf of Damascus.
	The monitor said that 3,594 of those killed have been unidentified.
	The Britain-based Observatory depends on a network 

More than 290,000 killed in Syria war, monitor says

About 50 people were killed in weekend clashes in Ethiopia between police and anti-government protesters, opposition and diplomatic sources told AFP today.
	Protests swept the vast Oromia region and even reached the capital Addis Ababa, a rare event in a nation with a government considered among the most repressive in Africa.
	"We have reports of between 48 to 50 protesters killed in Oromia. This death toll might be higher because there were a lot of wounded," said Merera Gudina, leader of the opposition Oromo People's Congress.
	A diplomat confirmed 49 people were killed across Oromia, a region straddling central-western Ethiopia, and in Amhara, in the north.
	"They appear to be low level, quite disorganised protests scattered all around... The brutal response of the government risks provoking more anger and making it worse," the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
	The authorities have since Friday blocked access to social media, the activists' key channel for such rallying 

'Dozens killed' in weekend Ethiopia protests

Delta Airlines grounded all its flights for several hours today because of a system-wide computer breakdown, making for a messy day at airports around the world.
	Even after the US carrier lifted the order about six hours into the snafu, it warned of continued cancellations and delays, as tens of thousands of passengers around the globe were left stranded.
	Travelers crowded ticket counters, lay on the ground in airports and tried to grin and bear it. Ticket agents were reduced to checking people in manually, news reports said.
	The carrier blamed the computer problem on a power outage in its hub in Atlanta, Georgia.Flights have resumed but on a limited basis, Delta said in a statement after flights had been grounded for about six hours. However, the ripple effect of the meltdown will drag on.
	"Customers heading to the airport should expect delays and cancellations," the statement said.
	"While inquiries are high and wait times are long, our customer service agents are doing ...

Delta grounding lifted, but travel chaos not over

Armed groups killed 14 people in a string of overnight attacks in an area of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that has long been shaken by ethnic violence, the army and local officials said today.
	"During the night, we counted (many) attacks" on both civilians and on military positions, Captain Guillaume Ndjike, an army spokesman in the strife-torn North Kivu province, told AFP.
	Ndjike blamed the raids on Mai-Mai tribal militias and local self-defence groups often formed on ethnic lines, as well as Rwandan Hutu rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
	In the bloodiest single attack, seven people were shot dead or hacked to death with  machetes in the town of Kibirizi, he said, confirming an earlier report by local officials.
	 The bloodshed was blamed on the FDLR, which has been present in eastern DRC since the end of the Rwandan genocide 26 years ago.
	Another four civilians were killed in Kashalira while a soldier and a civilian were killed in ...

Armed groups kill 14 in troubled east DR Congo

A senior German diplomat, making the most high-profile visit to Ankara by a Berlin official since the failed July 15 coup, urged Turkey to respect international law as it deals with those responsible for the attempted putsch.
	"If this attempt had succeeded, it would have been a disaster for Turkey, Germany and the region," Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Markus Ederer said after seeing the damage to parliament from bombs dropped by F-16 jets.
	He offered Berlin's support in punishing putschists but stressed actions should be "within the rule of law".
	"It is essential that these criminal investigations are conducted in accordance with international norms -- European Union, Council of Europe and OSCE standards," Ederer told a press briefing at the parliament building in Ankara.
	Tensions between Berlin and Ankara worsened last month after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was blocked by a German court from delivering a speech from Turkey to a rally in Cologne.
	Relations were ...

Germany urges Turkey to respect rule of law after failed coup

Boko Haram's shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a new video vowing to fight on, shrugging off an apparent split in the hardline jihadist group blamed for thousands of deaths since 2009.
	"I... Abubakar Ash-Shakawy (Shekau), the leader of Jama'atu Ahlissunnah Lidda'awati Wal Jihad, made it a duty for myself (to fight) Nigeria and the whole world," Shekau said in the video released yesterday, using the group's name since it declared allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.
	Last week, Shekau said in an audio message he was still head of the group despite his purported replacement by Sheikh Abu Musab al-Barnawi, a former Boko Haram spokesman.
	"We have no desire to fight our Muslim brethren," Shekau, who last appeared in March, said in the 24-minute video.
	Shekau ridiculed suggestions that he was dead, and looked more composed and energetic than in previous appearances.
	"I'm alive by the permission of Allah," he said in his speech in Arabic and Hausa, adding that he would 

Boko Haram's Shekau vows to fight on in new video

A young British sugar trader facing charges of trafficking cocaine worth USD 5.8 million was bailed today by a Nairobi court, with his lawyer declaring "the wrong man" had been arrested.
	In a high-profile case, Jack Marrian, 31, was charged last Thursday after police in the eastern port city of Mombasa seized a 100-kilo (220 pounds) stash of cocaine in a sugar consignment ordered by British firm ED&F Man.
	Magistrate Derrick Kuto said Marrian, who has lived in East Africa since early childhood, had to post a bond of 70 million shillings (USD 690,600) with two Kenyan sureties.
	Kuto also said Marrian had to surrender his passport given the seriousness of the charge. He could face a life sentence if convicted.
	Dressed in a grey-blue suit and patterned tie, Marrian showed little emotion during the hearing, except to smile once at his parents across the packed courtroom.
	Defence lawyer Sheetal Kapila told AFP he believed the case was driven by the authorities' desire "to stop Kenya ...

British sugar trader bailed in Kenya cocaine haul case

Japan's newly appointed defence minister today ordered the nation's military to be ready to destroy any missiles fired by North Korea that threaten the country, local media reported.
	Tomomi Inada issued the order, public broadcaster NHK said, without mentioning any indication that Pyongyang is preparing to launch such a missile.
	Last week Prime Minister Shinzo Abe picked Inada, a close confidante with staunchly nationalist views, as the new defence minister.
	NHK said Inada is expected to renew the readiness order every three months so that Tokyo can seamlessly maintain a state of alert.
	A Japanese defence ministry spokesman declined to confirm the report.
	Her appointment came Wednesday, the same day North Korea, a major security headache for Japan, fired a ballistic missile that landed just 250 kilometres (155 miles) off its coast -- hitting Japanese-controlled waters for the first time.
	The US military said the North had actually launched two Rodong intermediate-range missiles .

AFP

AFP

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