Swiss food giant Nestle is being sued in the US for allegedly knowingly allowing its Fancy Feast cat food to contain fish from a Thai supplier that uses slave labour.
	Pet food buyers who filed the class action lawsuit yesterday in US federal court in Los Angeles seek to represent all California consumers of Fancy Feast who would not have purchased the product had they known it had ties to slave labour.
	According to the lawsuit, Nestle works with Thai Union Frozen Products PCL to import more than 13 million kilogrammes of seafood-based pet food for top brands sold in the United States, and that some of the ingredients in those products came from slave labour.
	Men and boys, often trafficked from Thailand's poorer neighbours Myanmar and Cambodia, are sold to fishing boat captains who need crews aboard their ship, the complaint said.
	It spoke of shifts of up to 20 hours a day with little or no pay, and beatings or even death if the work is deemed unsatisfactory.
	"By hiding this from .

Nestle accused of using slave-caught fish in cat food

PTI Automatic

German authorities cancelled today a party to welcome refugees in the town of Heidenau, recently the scene of violent far-right protests, saying the public's safety could not be guaranteed due to a shortage of police.
	"Police forces currently available are not in a position to meet the forecasted developments in the situation," said Saxony regional authorities in a statement announcing a ban on all outdoor public gatherings from Friday 2pm to Monday 6am.
	Any demonstrations planned by far-right activists would therefore also be banned.
	"It cannot be ruled out that violent clashes could arise," it said, adding that the "lives and health of participants at public gatherings, bystanders but also police and security officers" could be at risk.
	Violent protests by far-right extremists and neo-Nazis erupted over the weekend at a refugee shelter in Heidenau.
	They were condemned by Chancellor Angela Merkel as "vile", and she also had strong words for families with children who marched ...

German town scraps refugee party

A major operation to spot check people's visas on the streets of Melbourne as part of a crime crackdown was cancelled today after sparking community outrage that Australia risked becoming "a police state".
	The controversy erupted after the Australian Border Force (ABF) released a statement today saying its officers would join police and transport officials at various locations this weekend to speak "with any individual we cross paths with" to identify visa fraudsters.
	"You need to be aware of the conditions of your visa; if you commit visa fraud you should know it's only a matter of time before you're caught out," said ABF Regional Commander for Victoria and Tasmania, Don Smith.
	The ABF, part of the Immigration Department, said the focus would be on people travelling to, from and around the city "targeting everything from anti-social behaviour to outstanding warrants".
	But the news spurred an online storm with users questioning how they would decide who to stop and whether it ...

Australian visa check operation dumped after community outrage

South Korean and US troops staged their biggest-ever joint live-fire drill today, including a simulated mechanised assault deep into North Korean territory, just days after the two Koreas ended a tense military standoff.
	The exercise, conducted in several stages, envisaged an initial North Korean provocation, followed by an escalating clash, and culminating in a counter-attack across the border.
	The drill was held near the border town of Pocheon, about 20 kilometres south of the demilitarised zone (DMZ), which splits the Korean peninsula between North and South.
	"In terms of ammunition and personnel mobilised, this is the biggest live-fire exercise South Korean troops have ever staged independently or jointly with US troops," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.
	It involved some 3,000 US and South Korean soldiers, around 100 tanks and armoured vehicles, 120 heavy guns, 45 helicopters and more than 40 jet fighters.
	It followed a recent surge in cross-border military tensions ...

US and S Korea troops stage massive live-dire drill

Austrian police have recovered more than 70 dead migrants from a lorry abandoned on a motorway, the government said today, in the latest horrific tragedy in Europe's unrelenting migrant misery.
	Thirty bodies were also recovered in the Mediterranean off Libya on Thursday after yet another boat crammed with migrants sank, while a Swedish coastguard ship docked in Sicily with a grim cargo of 52 dead.
	Austrian motorway maintenance workers first saw the poultry truck yesterday and noticed "decomposing body fluids" dripping from the vehicle, police spokesman Hans Peter Doskozil said.
	Police then briefly opened the rear doors and after being confronted by an overpowering stench and a mass of tangled limbs slammed them shut again and took the truck away for proper examination.
	Forensics experts worked all night to clear out of the vehicle seeking to identify the bodies. Police were due to give more details at 0900 GMT.
	The state of the bodies inside suggests that those inside had been ...

More than 70 migrants dead in Austrian truck tragedy

Air China, the country's flag carrier, said its net profit surged more than 720 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2015, supported by lower fuel prices.
	The company made net profits of 4.19 billion yuan (USD 655 million) in the first half, up strongly from 510.37 million yuan in the same period last year, it said a statement filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange late yesterday.
	"The global aviation industry was generally healthy with sustained growth in demand and relatively low fuel prices," Air China said, adding a recovery in the world economy and a "steady" Chinese economy supported the company.
	China's growth is actually slowing. The economy expanded 7.0 percent in each of the first two quarters of this year, lower than the 7.4 percent growth last year, which was its weakest since 1990.
	The airline said its operations benefited from lower oil prices, which contributed to a near 30 percent reduction in fuel costs for the first half.
	Air China carried 43.67 million ...

Air China reports leap in H1 profit on lower fuel costs

A deadly fireball that ripped through a crowd of young people at a Taiwan water park in June was caused when coloured powder was ignited by stage lights, an investigation reportedly showed today.
	The cornstarch powder had been sprayed over the crowd of hundreds of partygoers at the Formosa Fun Coast water park.
	It exploded when it came into contact with the lights, whose surface temperatures reached more than 400 degrees Celsius, the Liberty Times reported, citing a fire department investigation.
	Eleven people were killed and hundreds were hospitalised, some with third-degree burns covering more than 90 percent of their bodies.
	The report has been submitted to prosecutors, but officials declined to comment on its content.
	"We will use this report as a reference," Shihlin district prosecutors' office spokeswoman Su Pei-yu told AFP. "We can't reveal details at the moment as the investigation is still underway."
	The event, which drew around 1,000 people -- mostly between 18 and 25 .

Deadly Taiwan fireball caused by stage lights: report

Liu Hong won the women's 20 kilometres walk today to hand China its first gold medal of the Beijing world championships, as defending champion Ashton Eaton took control of the decathlon.
     The morning after Usain Bolt's emphatic 200m win at the Bird's Nest stadium, Liu gave home fans something to cheer when she headed a Chinese one-two in the walk with "little sister" Lu Xiuzhi.
     The pair broke early and built up a massive lead in Beijing's scorching morning heat, with Liu coming home for gold in one hour 27.45 minutes with Lu right behind her. Ukraine's Lyudmyla Olyanovska took bronze, 28 seconds behind.
     "There was a lot of pressure but I was confident in this mission," said Liu, who added that she had struck a pact with Lu, her junior by seven years, not to race each other in the final kilometres.
     "When we hit the front at the start I didn't think we were going that quick but nobody followed us, so we just carried on. It's a dream to win the gold."
     After the US 

Liu breaks China gold drought, Eaton leads decathlon

Shanghai stocks were up 1.93 per cent at midday today, extending gains after China cut interest rates earlier in the week and amid rises in global markets following days of turmoil.
	The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumped 59.43 points to 3,143.02. The Shanghai market surged 5.34 per cent yesterday, cheered by a rally on Wall Street after the Chinese rate cut.
	The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, added 1.87 per cent, or 32.74 points, to 1,784.95.
	Global markets were roiled this week on the potential impact of slowing growth in the Chinese economy, the world's second-largest.
	Authorities yesterday cut interest rates for the fifth time since November and reduced the amount of money banks must keep on hand in a bid to stimulate expansion, prompting widespread rallies, even though analysts say more action is needed.
	"The short-term bottom is clear now," Zhang Gang, an analyst with Central China Securities, told AFP.
	"It will further ...

Shanghai shares up 1.93 percent by the break

Austrian police found the decomposing bodies of up to 50 migrants in an abandoned truck, sparking a cross-border hunt for the people-smugglers responsible for the latest tragedy in Europe's migrant crisis.
	The grisly discovery near the Slovakia and Hungary borders came as at least 30 more migrants drowned in the Mediterranean and European leaders again met to try to find ways to handle the tide of people seeking refuge in the European Union.
	Austrian police said the vehicle found yesterday abandoned in the emergency lane of a motorway had "decomposing body fluids" dropping from it.
	When they opened it, there was a powerful stench of human decay and the bodies lay piled on top of each other, crammed into a small rectangular space in a sea of tangled limbs.
	Officers at the scene were unable to determine the exact number of dead, assess people's gender or determine whether there were any children among them.
	There were "at least 20, but there could be as many as 40 or 50", said ...

Up to 50 found dead in Austria truck as migrant crisis rages

The Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's "Big Four" state-owned banks, said its net profit for the first half of 2015 rose only 0.3 per cent year-on-year, citing the slowing domestic economy and growing bad loans.
	Net profit was 104.32 billion yuan (USD 16.3 billion) in the first six months, against 104.03 billion yuan for the same period last year, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.
	The bank, which has traditionally served rural areas of China, said downward pressure on the world and domestic economies, as well as increased bad loans, weighed on its performance.
	"Currently, global economic development remains unstable and uncertain. China's economy is still confronted with great downward pressure," bank Chairman Liu Shiyu said in the statement.
	China's economy grew 7.0 per cent in each of the first two quarters, slowing from a 7.4 per cent expansion last year, which was its weakest since 1990.
	"In the face of various challenges such as .

China Agricultural Bank reports flat H1 net profit

Colombia and Venezuela have recalled their ambassadors for consultations, amid mounting tensions that began nearly a week ago when Caracas closed off their shared border.
	Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro made the move to indefinitely close the frontier last Friday, declaring a state of emergency in part of the border region over an attack that wounded four people.
	Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said yesterday that his nation "wanted to tell the world... What had happened, because it was totally unacceptable."
	He said he made the decision to recall his ambassador after Venezuela failed to comply with an agreement for a Colombian official to visit the border town where the aggressions allegedly took place.
	Santos also said he had asked his foreign minister to convene an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers from South American regional security bloc UNASUR.
	Shortly thereafter, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez announced that Caracas was recalling its ...

Colombia, Venezuela recall ambassadors amid border tension

World number one Novak Djokovic and 14-time major champion Rafael Nadal are on a US Open quarter-final collision course following draw at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
     And Britain's Andy Murray, who opens against Australia's tour bad boy Nick Kyrgios, might have to get past French Open winner Stan Wawrinka and 17-time major winner Roger Federer just to get a crack at Djokovic in the final on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.
     The paths will be filled with qualifiers ahead of Monday's start of the year's final Grand Slam event in New York, where Djokovic's only title came in 2011.
     The 28-year-old Serbian star owns nine Grand Slam titles and seeks his third of the year after a third career win at Wimbledon and a fifth trophy at the Australian Open.
     Djokovic has tasted defeat four times in the US Open final, losing to Federer in 2007, Nadal in 2010 and 2013 and Murray in 2012.
     Nadal leads Djokovic 22-20 in their all-time rivalry, but Djokovic won their most recent meeting ..

Djokovic on Nadal collision course at US Open

Crude extended gains in Asia today following a 10 per cent price surge in the previous session fuelled by strong US economic data.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October delivery rose 52 cents to USD 43.08 while Brent crude for October gained 23 cents to USD 47.79 in late-morning trade.
	Both WTI and Brent today closed up 10.3 per cent, after hovering around six-and-a-half year lows all week on concerns about China's faltering economy.
	"We are seeing very strong volumes in Asian trading... there's a bit of shock and disbelief at the strength of the US economic data," Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, told AFP.
	The rally comes after the Commerce Department reported the US economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.7 per cent in the second quarter, sharply above the initial appraisal of a 2.3 per cent gain.
	The more robust April-June growth mainly reflected higher investment, state and local government spending, and consumer spending ...

Oil prices extend gains on strong US data

A Swedish coastguard ship docked at the Sicilian port of Palermo carrying more than 570 migrants and the bodies of 52 people, officials have said.
	The Italian coast guard said it had rescued around 1,400 people off the coast of Libya yesterday, a day after it pulled another 3,000 to safety from the same area.
	Italian media said a refrigerated lorry was waiting at the dock to take away the bodies for examination by forensic experts.
	Palermo's prosecutor opened a murder inquiry similar to that launched by Catania earlier this month after the discovery of 49 bodies in the hold of another packed fishing boat.
	Shortly after the bodies were brought ashore, Libya's coast guard announced that another boat, carrying around 200 migrants, had capsized off the country's coast. At least 10 people drowned in that incident. The search for survivors was ongoing.
	Swedish officials said the Poseidon coastguard vessel had rescued 130 people on Wednesday from a rubber dinghy and another 442 people ..

Another 1,400 migrants rescued off Libya, 52 found dead

Austrian police have found the decomposing bodies of up to 50 migrants in an abandoned truck, sparking a cross-border hunt for the people-smugglers responsible for the latest tragedy in Europe's migrant crisis.
	The grisly discovery near the Slovakia and Hungary borders came as at least 30 more migrants drowned in the Mediterranean and European leaders again met to try to find ways to handle the tide of people seeking refuge in the European Union.
	Austrian police said the vehicle found yesterday on a motorway -- which had the markings of a Slovakian poultry company and Hungarian number plates -- contained between 20 and 50 bodies.
	German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in Austria for a summit with Balkan leaders on the crisis, said she was "shaken" by the "horrible" news.
	"This is a warning to us to tackle this migrants issue quickly and in a European spirit, which means in a spirit of solidarity, and to find solutions," Merkel said.
	So far this year, over 2,300 men, women and children .

Up to 50 dead in Austria truck as migrant crisis rages

Two French investigative journalists were arrested today in Paris on suspicion of trying to blackmail the king of Morocco, legal sources in both countries said.
	Eric Laurent and Catherine Graciet, who are working on a book about King Mohammed VI, were arrested after a meeting with a Moroccan official at which they were given money, a source close to the French investigation told AFP, confirming remarks made by a lawyer for the Moroccan government.
	"A sum of money was handed over and accepted," the source said, adding the journalists were being investigated for attempted extortion and attempted blackmail.
	Eric Dupond-Moretti, a lawyer for the Moroccan government, told RTL radio that Laurent had contacted the royal palace in July, saying he was writing a book about the king.
	The journalist allegedly demanded three million euros (USD 3.4 mn) in hush money not to publish the book, which reportedly contains damaging revelations about Mohammed VI.
	Editions du Seuil publishing company ..

2 journalist held for 'attempted blackmail of Morocco king'

From round disks to oval clusters; many galaxies in the Universe have undergone a dramatic transformation over the past eight billion years or so, researchers reported today.
	An international team looked at data on some 10,000 of the billions of galaxies in the observable Universe today, and then used the Hubble and Herschel telescopes to peer back in time.
	They found that 83 percent of stars formed since the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago, were initially grouped in flat, rotating, disc-shaped galaxies, according to a statement from the Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy, whose astronomers led the study.
	"However, only 49 percent of stars that exist in the Universe today are located in these disc-shaped galaxies, the remainder are located in oval-shaped galaxies," it said.
	"The results suggest a massive transformation in which disc-shaped galaxies became oval-shaped galaxies."
	The bulk of stars in the Universe are thought to have been formed between 12 ...

Astronomers uncover evidence of galaxy metamorphosis

Qatar Airways was shamed into relaxing its policy of sacking cabin crew for getting pregnant or marrying in their first five years of employment, a labour federation said Thursday, while welcoming the move.
	"Qatar Airways has been shamed into action, and that's a tremendous advance," International Transport Workers Federation president Paddy Crumlin said in an statement.
	"No amount of hiding behind 'best airline' awards has kept the truth about how staff are treated from emerging."
	The ITF said the move, confirmed by the Doha-based carrier Wednesday, was a "first victory" for staff rights.
	And it said that, working closely with staff, it "will continue to campaign for further change and respect for workers' rights."
	Company executives said Wednesday the restrictions had been phased out over the past six months.
	"Our policies have evolved with the airline's growth," a spokeswoman said.
	Under the new regulations, women who get pregnant are now offered temporary ground jobs and ...

Qatar Airways 'shamed' into action over pregnancy, marriage

World champions Australia beat Ireland by 23 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method for rain-affected matches in their lone one-day international in Belfast today.
	Ireland, set a revised target of 181 in 24 overs were dismissed for 157 in 23.4 overs, with Nathan Coulter-Nile taking three for 13 and Pat Cummins two for 19.
	Earlier, Australia in their first match at this level since winning the World Cup, made 222 for six in 40.2 overs before their innings was cut short by rain.
	David Warner top-scored with 84 and fellow opener Joe Burns made 69 on ODI debut in what was Steven Smith's first match as full-time Australia captain following the retirement of Michael Clarke.
	Australia's tour continues with a lone Twenty20 and five-match one-day series against England, who beat them 3-2 in the recent Ashes Test campaign.

Cricket: Australia beat Ireland by 23 runs

US oil prices surged more than 10 per cent today, climbing back above USD 40 a barrel after strong American economic growth data lifted confidence about the world's biggest economy and petroleum user.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in October jumped USD 3.96 to USD 42.56 a barrel, up 10.3 per cent from yesterday's close.
	US prices have been at or near six-and-a-half year lows all week, with WTI closing below USD 40 on Monday for the first time since 2009 and staying there through yesterday.
	The rally came after the Commerce Department reported the US economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.7 per cent in the second quarter, much above the initial appraisal of a 2.3 per cent gain.
	The more robust April-June growth mainly reflected higher investment, state and local government spending, and consumer spending than was reported in the initial estimate.
	The data is "really waking people up over the fact that we're a growing country and demand is going to get better ..

AFP

AFP

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