Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressed the US in a television interview broadcast today to extradite preacher Fethullah Gulen, saying waiting to get the alleged coup plotter was "intolerable."
	Erdogan complained in the interview with Mexico's Televisa television that US authorities were asking for documents for the extradition of Pennsylvania-based Gulen, whom he accuses of being behind last month's failed military putsch.
	"You have to be blind and deaf not to understand that he is behind all of this," Erdogan said.
	"If we request the extradition of a terrorist then you should fulfill that," he said. "If you start asking for documents and what not, then it's a huge obstacle in our way of fighting terrorism."
	"But at the moment we are running into the difficulty of not being able to receive a terrorist that we are asking to be extradited," he said.
	Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999 and has denied any involvement in the July 15 putsch ...

Turkey's Erdogan presses US to extradite preacher

PTI Automatic

North Korea today test-fired a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan, South Korea said, in an apparent show of force against the planned deployment of a US missile defence system.
	Washington quickly hit back, with the State Department saying it was aware of the reports and warning it was prepared to "defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation".
	The latest test also comes amid mounting tensions ahead of a planned US-South Korea joint military exercise later this month. Last year the drills involved 30,000 US soldiers and 50,000 South Korean troops.
	The missile was launched from near the western North Korea city of Unyul at around 07:50 am today, South Korea's defence ministry said.
	The projectile flew some 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) and was believed to be a Rodong mid-range missile, the defence ministry added.
	Japan's defence minister Gen Nakatani told reporters the missile was estimated to have fallen into Tokyo's exclusive economic zone 250 kilometres .

North Korea test-fires ballistic missile: S Korea

North Korea today test-fired a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan, South Korea's defence ministry said, in an apparent reaction to the planned deployment of a US missile defence system.
	The missile was launched from near the western city of Unyul at around 07:50 am today (local time), it added.
	The test follows the launch of three ballistic missiles on July 19 in what the North said were simulated nuclear strikes on the South.
	Pyongyang has carried out a series of missile tests this year in defiance of tough UN sanctions, and vowed to take "physical action" against the planned deployment of a US missile defence system in the South announced in July.
	UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from developing ballistic missile technology.
	Pyongyang has repeatedly warned of pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the South and US targets, although the main focus of its nuclear weapons programme is to develop a credible strike threat against the US mainland.
	A series of missile tests ..

N Korea test fires ballistic missile: S Korea defence ministry

Thousands of jobless Indians, Filipinos and Pakistanis are stranded and destitute in Saudi Arabia after the plunge in oil prices sparked construction layoffs, activists and officials said today.
	Some Filipinos are forced to beg or sift through garbage to survive after going unpaid for months, said Garry Martinez, chairman of the Migrante group which works for the millions of Filipino overseas workers worldwide.
	"Some of them have nothing to eat and have to go through the garbage for food," said Martinez.
	India said yesterday it was negotiating with Saudi authorities to repatriate thousands of its own nationals after they lost their jobs, leaving them with no money to return home.
	Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament in New Delhi she was sending a junior minister to Riyadh after reports that around 10,000 Indian workers had been left to starve.
	Indians are among millions of poor Asians working in the Gulf states, where human rights groups say many suffer ...

Thousands of jobless Asians stranded in Saudi

French President Francois Hollande today slammed the "excesses" of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as sickening.
	"His excesses make you want to retch, even in the United States, especially when -- as was Donald Trump's case -- he speaks ill of a soldier, of the memory of a soldier," Hollande told journalists in Paris.

Trump's 'excesses' are sickening, says Hollande

Love may know no bounds, but Paris intends to instill some: authorities are going to take a tougher line with swooning couples attaching "love-locks" to city bridges as a sign of their undying devotion.
	In June last year authorities removed hundreds of thousands of such padlocks from the city bridges, notably the Pont des Arts which had a section collapse under the weight of the locks.
	The wire mesh panels on which the love-locks were attached were replaced by perspex.
	However this has not dissuaded tourists, who merely turned their attention to the city' oldest bridge, the more than 400-year-old Pont Neuf.
	Paris deputy mayor Bruno Juillard said "signboards" would be installed on the bridge and others in French and English, with messages such as "No locks, Paris thanks you" and "Find another way to show your love."
	"We want Paris to remain the capital of romance and love, that lovers from across the world come to Paris. It is a very romantic city and particularly the River Seine, 

Paris steps up fight against 'love-locks'

The Saudi-led coalition must address "very serious concerns" about the killing of children in Yemen, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said today, but the alliance remained off a blacklist of child rights violators.
	Ban reported to the Security Council on his controversial decision to temporarily remove the coalition from the UN list of shame, a move that sparked an outcry from human rights groups.
	Saudi Arabia reacted angrily to the decision in June to blacklist the coalition after a UN report found the military alliance was responsible for 60 percent of the 785 children's deaths in Yemen last year.
	"I still have very strong concerns about the protection of Yemeni children," Ban said, adding that the United Nations is continuing its review with the Saudi-led coalition.
	Last week, Saudi Arabia outlined in a 13-page confidential letter to the UN secretary-general the measures that the coalition is taking to prevent civilian deaths.
	In the letter obtained by AFP, Saudi Ambassador Abdallah ...

UN asks Saudi coalition to do more to prevent Yemen child

A woman in the US state of Florida tried to Snapchat a video of herself holding a gun but instead accidentally shot her cellphone, injuring her right hand, authorities said.
	Regina Powell, 22, said she was "foolishly playing" with the .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun, trying to make a Snapchat video, when it went off, the Volusia county sheriff's office said.
	The bullet destroyed her cellphone and injured her thumb and index finger.
	The incident occurred yesterday in Deltona, Florida.
	Police were still looking for the gun, which the woman's aunt tossed out of her car window as she drove Powell to the hospital.
	According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 586 people were killed last year in accidents involving firearms.
	The right to bear arms is protected under the second amendment of the US Constitution.

US woman accidentally shoots self while Snapchatting

The US Air Force today declared an initial squadron of F-35A stealth fighters as ready for combat, a major milestone for the futuristic aircraft dogged by delays and cost overruns.
	The squadron of about 12 planes is based at Hill Air Force Base in Utah and the planes' combat rating -- known as initial operational capability -- comes after completion of a raft of tests and training exercises.
	"The F-35A will be the most dominant aircraft in our inventory, because it can go where our legacy aircraft cannot and provide the capabilities our commanders need on the modern battlefield," said General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, who heads the US Air Combat Command.
	Air Force officials did not give a timeline of when the squadron might see combat, but said an overseas deployment is likely by early 2017.
	"This is just the beginning, this is an interim step that will get us to what the full combat capability of the F-35 eventually will be," Carlisle said.
	The US Marine Corps last year announced 

US Air Force declares F-35A fighter jet 'combat ready'

One of the world's last surviving groups of woolly mammoths likely died of thirst as the salty seas rose around these iconic Ice Age creatures 5,600 years ago, researchers say.
	The study also warns that a similar scenario could imperil island people and animals in the coming years as the climate warms and sea level rises, making fresh water harder to access.
	The research took place on St. Paul Island, a remote area of Alaska that was once part of the Bering Land Bridge that joined the Americas to Asia.
	The island became isolated between 14,700 and 13,500 years ago due to sea level rise during the last deglaciation, and the land area shrank significantly. Its current size is 42 square miles (110 square kilometers).
	No humans were known to live in the area at the time, said the report in the August 1 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
	To find out what happened to the woolly mammoths, researchers collected a sediment core from 

Alaskan woolly mammoths died of thirst: study

A mayor was shot dead in Mexico's central Puebla state, the third mayor to be killed in the country in less than two weeks, authorities said today.
	Jose Santa Maria Zavala, the mayor of Huehuetlan El Grande, was found dead yesterday night next to a bullet-riddled sport-utility vehicle, according to a police report obtained by AFP.
	The body had "bullet wounds" and the front of the vehicle was hit, the report said. His secretary, who had been traveling with him, was not there when police arrived and her whereabouts are unknown.
	The motive for the homicide was not immediately known.
	Some 40 mayors have been murdered in the country since 2003, according to the Association of Mayors of Mexico. Seven mayors-elect and 32 former mayors have also been killed in the past 13 years.
	Two other mayors were killed last month.
	Ambrosio Soto, the mayor of Pungabarato in the drug violence-plagued southern state of Guerrero, was ambushed by gunmen on the night of July 23-24.
	Soto's leftist ...

Another mayor killed in Mexico, third since July

Sri Lanka said today it was withdrawing permission for a Chinese company to buy the freehold to 20 hectares of land being reclaimed under a USD 1.4 billion port project after India objected.
	Instead it will grant the state-owned construction company a 99-year lease on the land next to the port in Colombo, under a new agreement.
	"India had a big concern about giving freehold land to China near the Colombo harbour," government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters.
	"We have amended the agreement. There will be no freehold land but it will be on a 99-year lease."
	The government had put the project on hold pending a review of all the big-ticket agreements signed under the previous administration of Mahinda Rajapakse.
	The former president relied heavily on Chinese investment to rebuild the country's infrastructure after the end of the island's decades-long ethnic war in May 2009, a move which some say alienated India.
	The Chinese-funded port was also controversial among ...

Sri Lanka withdraws freehold land offer to China

Moscow today blasted criticism by Washington over its actions in Syria, saying it was "unacceptable" to demand restraint around Aleppo, the city divided between Syrian government troops and rebels.
	"As soon as there is real headway in fighting terrorists, made by the Syrian government and army with our support, the Americans started... Demanding that we stop fighting terrorists," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA-Novosti agency.
	Britain-based monitors reported that Russia launched heavy air strikes in the Aleppo outskirts, slowing a last-ditch effort by rebels to break the siege.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry on yesterday called on Russia and its Damascus ally to restrain "from conducting offensive operations" in Aleppo, where regime forces surrounded rebel-held districts.
	Kerry said the attacks prevented the warring parties from meeting yesterday, the target date set for the regime and opposition to agree on the framework for political transition.
	"We will see ..

Russia rejects US criticism of Aleppo strikes

World number four Stan Wawrinka withdrew from the Rio Olympics with a back injury today, dealing another body blow to the tennis tournament which has been hit by a series of high-profile pull-outs.
     The 31-year-old is the third Swiss player to withdraw after Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic who also scratched from the event through injury.
     "I am very sad," said Wawrinka, the former French and Australian Open champion.
     "Going to Rio was close to my heart. After Beijing (2008) and London (2012), I wanted to live these Games in Brazil.
     "Sadly, it's not possible. I wish good luck to all the Swiss athletes who will go to Rio and I will support them from distance."
     Wawrinka aggravated his back injury in Toronto last week where he reached the semi-finals.

Wawrinka out of Rio with back injury

International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach today demanded a sweeping overhaul of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Tuesday as Russian appeals against bans mounted just three days from the opening of the Rio Games.
     Bach rejected the "nuclear option" of ordering a complete ban on Russian athletes over accusations of widespread state-organised doping. Two swimmers could be told on Tuesday whether their demand to be allowed to compete has been successful.
     In a strongly-worded speech to the IOC, Bach called for WADA to be subjected to a thorough review, laying bare a growing rift between Olympic chiefs and the body responsible for leading the global fight against doping.
     "Recent developments have shown that we need a full review of the WADA anti-doping system," Bach said.
     "The IOC is calling for a more robust and efficient anti-doping system. This requires clear responsibilities, more transparency, more independence and better worldwide harmonisation."
     .

IOC slams anti-doping body as Games loom

North American entertainment giant IMAX Corp said today it plans to open 150 new cinemas in China after reaching agreement with Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group, in its largest ever new theatre deal.
	The agreement brings Wanda's commitment for IMAX cinemas in China to 360, according to an IMAX statement, in a partnership that dates back to 2007.
	Owned by billionaire Wang Jianlin, Wanda is seeking to shift its focus from property to services and entertainment as profits wane in China's real estate sector.
	This month Wanda announced it had bought the London-based Odeon & UCI cinema group in a deal worth around USD 1.2 billion.
	And in May it launched operations at its first theme park, a USD 3.4 billion project in Nanchang, just weeks before US entertainment giant Disney opened a park in Shanghai, its first on the Chinese mainland.
	IMAX, headquartered both in the United States and Canada, now has 1,102 cinemas in 69 countries, with a total of 335 already open in China.

IMAX to open 160 cinemas with China's Wanda

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has imposed a travel ban on several parliamentary officials accused of corruption, his office said today, but the parliament speaker rejected the order.
	Defence Minister Khalid al-Obeidi today told parliament that speaker Salim al-Juburi and several lawmakers were corrupt and had sought to blackmail him.
	Abadi ordered a "temporary travel ban" against those accused, in order "to investigate the validity of the allegations", a statement from his office said.
	But Juburi rejected the travel ban, saying this could only be ordered by the judiciary and calling for everyone to respect both it and the constitution.
	"The decision to prohibit the travel of any citizen who carries an Iraqi passport is one of the exclusive prerogatives of the Iraqi judiciary," his office said in a statement.
	The members of parliament accused by Obeidi included Alia Nasayif, who has herself brought corruption allegations against the minister. The other two are Mohammed ...

Iraq PM bans travel by officials accused of corruption

Faf du Plessis will stand in as captain for an injured AB de Villiers in two Test matches against New Zealand later this month.
	   De Villiers suffered an elbow injury while playing in the Caribbean Premier League and will be out of action for about six weeks.
	   Fast bowler Morne Morkel was also ruled out, for between four and six weeks, because of a bulging disk in his back.
	   But fellow fast bowlers Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander were both included in a 15-man squad announced on Tuesday after missing most of the 2015/16 season because of injury.
	   The Tests against New Zealand start in Durban on August 19 and Centurion on August 27.
	   All-rounder Wayne Parnell, who has not played in a Test match since December 2013, is the only member of the squad who did not play in South Africa's most recent series against England last season.
	   It will be the first time since his debut in 2004 that De Villiers has missed a Test match because of injury.
	   South Africa's one-day ...

Du Plessis to captain South Africa, Steyn returns

Global heat, greenhouse gases and sea levels all climbed to record highs last year, making 2015 the worst in modern times across a range of key environmental indicators, international scientists said today.
	A dire picture of the Earth's health is painted in the State of the Climate report, a peer-reviewed 300-page tome that comes out once a year and is compiled by 450 scientists from around the world.
	The record heat that the planet experienced last year was driven partially by global warming, and was exacerbated by the ocean heating trend known as El Nino, it said.
	El Nino, which just ended in July, was one of the strongest the Earth has seen "since at least 1950," said the report, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information.
	"This 'annual physical' of Earth's climate system showed us that 2015's climate was shaped both by long-term change and an El Nino event," said Thomas Karl, director of the NOAA ...

Global heat, sea level hit record highs in 2015

A high-profile Hong Kong pro-independence leader said today he had been barred from standing in upcoming parliamentary elections -- the latest candidate backing separation from mainland China to be disqualified.
	The apparent ban for Edward Leung, of the Hong Kong Indigenous party, from the September vote came despite him signing a controversial new form declaring Hong Kong is an "inalienable" part of China.
	Critics have slammed the new stipulation by electoral authorities as political censorship and an attempt to deter prospective candidates from advocating self-determination or independence from Beijing.
	Some activists are calling for more distance or even a complete breakaway from the mainland as fears grow that freedoms in the semi-autonomous city are disappearing due to Beijing interference.
	Campaigners, including Leung, have challenged the declaration form in court and at least 13 prospective candidates have refused to sign it.
	Leung, 25, eventually signed last week, despite 

Anger as Hong Kong pro-independence leader barred from polls

An international lawyers' rights group today said China had "forced" a prominent lawyer to refuse their award to secure her release from prison.
	"The Chinese authorities forced Wang Yu to refuse the award...In return for so-called freedom," the jury of the Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize said in a statement.
	"This is the first time...That the prize has been refused by a laureate under pressure from the authorities of their home country," said the jury for the prize, which was awarded in Athens in June.
	Wang Yu was among one of more than 200 lawyers and legal activists held last July in a swoop on those who had taken on civil rights cases considered sensitive by China's ruling Communist Party, which tightly controls the court system.
	But yesterday a Hong Kong-based TV channel with ties to China's government said she had recently been bailed out.
	Wang told Phoenix TV that she had experienced "the legal civilisation of China and humane care" while in ...

AFP

AFP

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