A former top CIA official emphatically endorsed Hillary Clinton for president today, calling Donald Trump an "unwitting agent" of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
	   "Mr. Putin played upon Mr. Trump's vulnerabilities by complimenting him," wrote former CIA deputy director Michael Morell in a New York Times op-ed. "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr.Putin had recruited Mr Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."
	A self-identified nonpartisan who has worked under both Republican and Democratic governments, Morell called Clinton "highly qualified" to lead the US, having worked with the Democratic nominee when she served as secretary of state.
	"Clinton is highly qualified to be commander in chief," Morell wrote. "I trust she will deliver on the most important duty of a president - keeping our nation safe."
	"Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security."
	The ex-intelligence chief also said ..

Ex-CIA boss backs Clinton, calls Trump a security risk

PTI Automatic

Gunmen opened fire at former Egyptian mufti Ali Gomaa in a Cairo suburb today, missing the pro-government cleric but wounding a bodyguard, the interior ministry said.
	Gomaa was on his way to a mosque near his house in the October 6 suburb when the assailants hiding in a park started shooting, the ministry said.
	His guards exchanged fire with the gunmen and forced them to flee, it said, adding that one of the guards was lightly wounded.
	Gomaa later told Egyptian state television of how he had taken shelter behind a mosque wall when the shooting started.
	After the attack, he "conducted the Friday prayers as a message to these people", the cleric said in a telephone interview.
	"This attempt is a message aimed at creating fear," he said.
	The private CBC Extra news channel showed footage of armed guards with pistols drawn escorting Gomaa out of the mosque after the shooting.
	In an interview with the channel, Gomaa said this was not the first attempt on his life and derided the ...

Senior Egypt pro-government cleric escapes shooting

One of Europe's biggest flea markets, in the northern French city of Lille, has been cancelled over security fears in the terror-hit country, mayor Martine Aubry said today.
	"We have really tried our best, but there are risks we cannot reduce," Aubry told a news conference alongside Michel Lalande, the top government official in the region.
	Lille's most popular event, held the first weekend of September each year, attracted nearly 2.5 million visitors in 2015.
	Cancelling this year's Grande Braderie de Lille was a "painful decision", Aubry said.
	Lalande said the decision was necessary because of the "hyper-urban format (of the market) with its streets full of people."
	He added: "There comes a time, despite our passions and our convictions, when we have to say stop."
	The Lille flea market is the latest event to be called off in a string of cancellations following last month's Bastille Day truck massacre in the Riviera town of Nice that claimed 85 lives following a fireworks ...

Major Europe flea market cancelled over security fears

The Islamic State group has killed several residents attempting to flee Hawijah, officers and local officials said today, as Iraqi forces prepared for an operation against the jihadist-held area.
	Hundreds of civilians have over the past few days managed to flee the area, which lies west of the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk and about 220 kilometres north of Baghdad.
	Hawijah and its surroundings are one of the last major areas east of the Tigris still controlled by IS and possibly the next target of the forces battling the jihadists in Iraq.
	"Our forces received 600 people yesterday and offered them assistance," a brigadier general with the Kurdish peshmerga forces told AFP.
	"We heard from them that Daesh (IS) is holding hundreds of families hostage and has executed young men for escaping from the land of jihad (holy war) to the land of the infidels," he said.
	A police colonel also said that several people had been shot dead by IS fighters as they attempted to flee the area ...

IS kills people trying to flee Iraq town: officials

More than 168,000 Russians have signed an online petition calling for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's resignation after he suggested a low-paid lecturer get a different job.
	His comments -- widely seen as out of touch and uncaring -- unleashed a torrent of bile in the press and on social media, with a petition on Change.Org calling for his ouster garnering 168,000 signatures by Friday.
	"The cabinet should be led by a person who is competent, educated and cares about the country," wrote the petition's author, Alexander Li.
	"We are seeing the opposite right now."
	The lower house of parliament is obliged to debate any petition that gets 100,000 signatures.
	At a youth education forum on Tuesday, Medvedev was asked by a university lecturer from the impoverished Dagestan region why teachers receive only around 15,000 rubles ($230) per month, while police are significantly better paid.
	"There's no need to compare," Medvedev said. "The issue is what you choose in life.
	Teaching, he ...

168,000 ink petition demanding Russia PM's resignation

Scoreboard at lunch on the third day of the third Test between England and Pakistan at Edgbaston on Friday.
	   England 1st Innings 297
	   Pakistan 1st Innings (overnight: 257-3)
	   M Hafeez c Ballance b Anderson       0
	   S Aslam run out (Vince)              82
	   A Ali c Cook b Woakes                139
	   Y Khan c Bairstow b Woakes            31
	   M Haq not out                         44
	   A Shafiq b Broad                       0
	   S Ahmed not out                       20
	   Extras (b-2, lb-17, nb-1)             20
	   Total (For 5 wkts, 116 overs, 507 mins) 336
	   Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-181, 3-257, 4-274, 5-296
	   Bowling: Anderson 25-7-37-1, Broad 25-4-74-1 (1nb), Finn 22-6-59-0, Woakes 25-5-65-2, Ali 17-2-79-0, Vince 1-0-2-0, Root 1-0-1-0.

Birmingham, Aug 5 (AFP) Scoreboard at lunch on the third day of the third Test between England and Pakistan at Edgbaston on Friday.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq patiently steered his side into a first-innings lead over England on the third day of the third Test at Edgbaston on Friday.
     At lunch, Pakistan were 336 for five -- 39 runs ahead of England's 297. Misbah was 44 not out, his so far two-hour innings featuring five fours in 89 balls.
     By contrast, Sarfraz Ahmed had made a typically brisk 20 not out off just 27 balls. Pakistan had scored at a modest rate of barely three runs an over during Friday's morning session but they had now kept England in the field for nearly eight-and-a-half hours in total.
     With the four-Test series all square at 1-1, Pakistan resumed on 257 for three after Azhar Ali had been dismissed for 139 off the last ball of Thursday's play, following partnerships of 181 and 76 with Sami Aslam (82) and Younis Khan (21 not out) respectively.
     All-rounder Chris Woakes, who had dismissed Azhar, struck again on his Warwickshire home ground when he got rid of Younis for 31.
     ..

Misbah guides Pakistan into lead over England

China's Evergrande Real Estate has bought a stake worth more than USD 1 billion in the nation's biggest property company Vanke - the latest development in an ongoing tussle over control of the firm.
	Bosses of Vanke, China's largest residential developer by sales, have for months been trying to stave off what would be the country's first hostile blue-chip takeover, after a private conglomerate purchased a more than 20 per cent stake.
	Evergrande announced it had paid 9.11 billion yuan (USD 1.37 billion) for 4.68 per cent of Vanke shares in a statement filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.
	"Vanke is one of the largest property developers in China with strong results. The acquisition is an investment of the group," it said.
	Vanke confirmed the deal today in a statement to the Shenzhen exchange, where its shares traded up 6.5 per cent by the close.
	Share prices on the Hong Kong exchange were also boosted 1.6 per cent by the end of play.
	It is not yet clear where Evergrande 

China's Evergrande buys $1.37 bn stake in troubled Vanke

At least 10 people, including seven children, were killed in air strikes on the rebel-held east of Aleppo city today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
	The Britain-based group said it was unclear if the raids on Aleppo's Marjeh district were carried out by aircraft belonging to the Syrian government or its ally Russia.
	The latest civilian deaths come as rebels press an assault intended to break a government siege of opposition-held Aleppo that began on July 17 and has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis.
	The assault started on Sunday and is targeting the Ramussa district that contains the main supply route to the government-held west of the city.
	Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the war that began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
	After some initial advances, government forces backed by Russian air strikes have pushed back opposition fighters, which include jihadists from Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.
	According ..

Strikes kill 10 in Syria's rebel-held Aleppo: monitor

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has ordered the party to be "cleaned" of supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's arch foe US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, state media reported today.
	In a circular signed by the party's deputy leader Hayati Yazici, he ordered an "urgent clean-up in the party organisation" to eliminate those linked with the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation - a name Ankara gives for the movement blamed for the July 15 failed putsch, Anadolu news agency reported.
	The party decree also said the operation should take place "without giving any room for trouble or gossip within the party."
	A party official, contacted by AFP, was not immediately available to confirm the decree.
	Turkey has accused Gulen of running a "parallel state" and staging the coup attempt through its supporters in the army -- which the reclusive cleric vehemently denies.
	Turkish authorities have implemented a relentless crackdown in the wake of the coup.
	Over ...

Turkey ruling party orders clean-up after coup attempt: report

South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) conceded defeat today in the city of Port Elizabeth as local election results underlined the declining popularity of the party that led the anti-apartheid struggle.
	The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) won Port Elizabeth, an industrial city on the south coast, by about six percentage points, bringing it victory in a key battleground of the municipal election.
	With almost all votes counted in Port Elizabeth, the DA -- on 47 per cent -- did not win an outright majority and will seek to build a coalition alliance with smaller parties.
	In an ironic twist, the ANC, a party founded by Nelson Mandela, suffered its first major loss in a municipality known as Nelson Mandela Bay. Encompassing Port Elizabeth and the surrounding rural area, the area was a hotbed of anti-apartheid activism which won the name in 2001.
	"We accept that we have lost (Port Elizabeth)," said Jackson Mthembu, ANC chief whip in parliament, ahead of final results for ...

ANC concedes local election defeat in key S Africa city

South Korea's Foreign Minister cautioned today against escalating a missile-defence row with China that has fuelled combative editorials in Beijing's state media and an apparent backlash against Korean TV and pop stars.
	"Whenever difficulties and challenges arise in South Korea-China relations... We should not over-react," Yun Byung-Se said in a briefing to local reporters.
	The dispute has its roots in the announcement last month that South Korea would deploy a sophisticated US anti-missile system to counter the growing threat from North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
	China condemned the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system as a move against its own national security interests and a threat to regional stability.
	In a strongly worded editorial published yesterday, the People's Daily warned Seoul of the potentially costly "domino effect" of its decision.
	In any conflict between China and the United States, "South Korea will inevitably be the ...

K-pop a target in China-S Korea missile row

Candidates banned from standing for election in Hong Kong because they are advocating a split from mainland China are set to protest tonight as tension over the upcoming vote escalates.
	Five pro-independence candidates who tried to register were rejected by election officials who said their stance went against Hong Kong's mini-constitution.
	Critics have slammed the move as censorship as fears grow over Beijing interference in the semi-autonomous city in a range of areas, from politics to media and education.
	The candidates and their supporters are due to rally near the government's headquarters later today.
	Andy Chan, 25, leader of the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party and a disqualified candidate, said the rally would be peaceful, focusing on the future aims of the movement.
	"Our goal is to become a political party that will be in office, we want to be the people that will administer Hong Kong," Chan said in a video posted on Facebook.
	Pro-independence activists have ...

Banned election candidates protest in Hong Kong

Australia were dismissed for a record low against Sri Lanka in the second Test today after a Rangana Herath hat-trick, before striking back with three wickets in a tumultuous morning session.
     After the visitors were all out for 106 in their first innings, Sri Lanka were 31 for three at lunch on the second day, giving them an overall lead of 206 runs in a match that is proceeding at breakneck speed.
     An astonishing 11 wickets fell in the session as the Australians were skittled out for their lowest score in 28 Tests against Sri Lanka before the hosts began their second innings by losing three wickets.
     Kusal Perera was at the crease on 15 at the break, batting alongside his skipper Angelo Mathews who has yet to get off the mark.
     Australia, who resumed on their overnight score of 54 for two, struggled throughout the morning against both Herath and his fellow spin bowler Dilruwan Perera who shared eight wickets between them.
     Off-spinner Perera bowled overnight ...

Herath hat-trick puts Lanka on top in Galle

A Chinese human rights activist was today given a three year suspended prison sentence for subversion, state media said -- the fourth such case this week as authorities crack down on dissent.
	Christian activist Gou Hongguo had gone abroad to be trained in "subverting state power", the Second Intermediate People's Court in the northern city of Tianjin said Friday on a verified social media account.
	He also sought to turn public opinion against the government and attempted to overthrow the socialist system, among a litany of other offences, it said.
	He was given three years in prison, suspended for three years, the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that he had pleaded guilty and said he would not appeal.
	The sentence is relatively light by the standards of dissident trials in China, where the courts are controlled by the ruling Communist Party.
	Gou, who had protested against forced evictions, was one of more than 200 activists and lawyers involved in cases the Communist ...

China activist tried for subversion, 4th case in 4 days

Scoreboard at lunch on Day 2 of the
second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle on today:
     Sri Lanka 1st innings: 281 all out in 73.1 overs
     Australia 1st innings (overnight 54 for two)
     J Burns c Perera b Fernando           0
     D Warner c Mathews b Dilruwan Perera 42
     U Khawaja b Dilruwan Perera          11
     S Smith b Herath                      5
     A Voges c Karunaratne b Herath        8
     M Marsh c Karunaratne b Sandakan     27
     P Nevill lbw b Herath                 0
     M Starc lbw b Herath                  0
     N Lyon c Mendis b Perera              4
     J Hazlewood c Mathews b Perera        3
     J Holland not out                     0
     Extras (B-5, LB-1)                    6
     Total (all out in 33.2 overs)         106
     Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-54, 3-59, 4-59, 5-80, 6-80, 7-80, 8-85, 9-89, 10-106.
     Bowling: Fernando 2-0-16-1, Herath 11-2-35-4, Dilruwan Perera 15-4-29-4, Mathews 3-1-13-1, De Silva 2-1-7-0, Sandakan ...

Galle, Aug 5 (AFP) Scoreboard at lunch on Day 2 of the

A Malaysian television show has apologised following an outcry on social media over a comedy skit featuring an actor in "black-face" makeup pretending to be US R&B star Usher.
	The skit was a parody of a recent performance by popular Malaysian singer Yuna and Usher in the US in June, where they had hugged, sparking criticism in conservative Muslim-majority Malaysia.
	Malaysia bars hugging, kissing and foul language by performers on stage. It also prohibits women from baring skin between their shoulders and knees.
	In the spoof, a woman acting as Yuna bows in front of the comedian in "black-face" makeup posing as Usher, instead of hugging him.
	The video, which was shared widely on social media, was broadcast on local Malay entertainment programme "MeleTOP" on Tuesday.
	The show tweeted late Wednesday: "We would like to sincerely apologise to Yuna & Usher for our recent parody video, which was poor judgement on our part."
	"We have removed the video and would like to request ...

Malaysia show apologises for 'black-face' Usher parody

An Indonesian city has hit on an original idea to rid its popular beaches of crocodiles - it will offer cash prizes to people who catch the man-eating reptiles, an official said today.
	The population of dangerous saltwater crocodiles around two beaches near Kupang in eastern Indonesia has been increasing in recent years and there have been reports of tourists being attacked.
	Authorities now plan to launch a competition offering cash prizes of five million rupiah ($380) to animal experts for each of the reptiles caught alive, said local tourism chief Marius Ardu Jelamu.
	"We have warned visitors to be careful when visiting the beaches but it's not enough, we must do something," Jelamu told AFP.
	"Some of these animals are three to four metres (10 to 13 feet) long, this is very scary."
	Jelamu said the scheme was aimed at only people experienced in dealing with crocodiles - not the general public - and the animals would likely be caught using tranquilliser guns and ropes.
	After being 

Indonesian crocodile catchers to snap up prizes

US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen has condemned Turkey's judicial system after a court issued an arrest warrant that accuses him of ordering last month's bid to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
	"It is well-documented that the Turkish court system is without judicial independence, so this warrant is yet another example of President Erdogan's drive for authoritarianism and away from democracy," he said in a statement late on Thursday.
	The arrest warrant, issued earlier in the day, accuses Gulen of "ordering the July 15 coup," the Anadolu news agency reported.
	Gulen strongly denies any involvement in the attempted putsch and the movement he leads insists it is a charitable network promoting tolerant Islam.
	"The issuance of an arrest warrant from a Turkish court changes nothing about my status or my views," Gulen said.
	"I have repeatedly condemned the coup attempt in Turkey and denied any knowledge or involvement.

Gulen slams Turkey judicial system over arrest warrant

Oil prices fell in Asia on profit-taking today following two days of gains, with concerns about a global oversupply keeping optimism in check.
	The losses come despite a rally across regional stock markets after the Bank of England announced an interest rate cut -- the first since 2009 -- and surprise stimulus to shore up the economy after Britain's vote to leave the EU.
	At about 0355 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 36 cents, or 0.83 per cent, at USD 41.57 and Brent was 40 cents, or 0.90 per cent, down at USD 43.89.
	The commodity rose around six percent over Wednesday and Thursday an energy report showing US gasoline stockpiles had slipped last week.
	However, the gains came after both contracts had fallen into a bear market, having lost 20 per cent from recent highs above $50 seen in early June.
	Prices dropped below USD 40 a barrel on Monday, the first time since April.
	"We've had a strong turnaround at a key level near USD 40 a barrel and that means the risks .

Oil prices down on profit-taking

Anti-doping investigation leader Richard McLaren has accused the International Olympic Committee of twisting the conclusions of his bombshell report on state-run substance abuse in Russia.
     The Canadian lawyer, clearly frustrated at reactions to his work, told the Guardian newspaper "people have misconstrued what went into that report, particularly the IOC and international federations."
     The report issued by McLaren on July 18 said Russia's sports ministry was helped by the secret service to manipulate Russian samples at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events in Russia.
     The IOC decided against a blanket ban on Russia and IOC president Thomas Bach has said the report, while "serious", contained "allegations" against the Russian government.
     "I wouldn't put anything in that report that I didn't have evidence of and wouldn't meet the criminal standard in any court around the world," McLaren respondend to the Guardian.
     "Nothing in there is an ...

AFP

AFP

Page 1523 - Afp