Around 5,300 migrants, mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa, were rescued in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast last week, EU border agency Frontex said today.
	Most were rescued over the weekend, plucked from wooden or rubber boats, in one of the busiest three-day periods since the Frontex-coordinated operation Triton was launched in November 2014.
	"Thousands of migrants have been rescued off the Libyan coast this weekend and I am proud to say that vessels and aircraft funded by Frontex helped save more than half of them," said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.
	"We have never had so many people on board before," said Lise Dunham chief commander of a Frontex-deployed Norwegian vessel.
	"We had many challenges on Saturday as there were so many boats in need at the same time. We are so happy that we had no casualties," said Lise Dunham chief commander of a Frontex-deployed Norwegian vessel.
	Italy's coastguard on Saturday oversaw the rescue of 4,400 people with help from ...

Over 5,000 migrants rescued off Libyan coast last week: EU

PTI Automatic

The return to prison of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed is a setback for human rights in the country, the UN said today, calling on the island nation's government to consider his early release.
	Just a month after Nasheed's 13-year prison sentence was commuted to house arrest, he was taken back to jail on Sunday night, as police used force and pepper spray on the ex- president's supporters gathered outside his home, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said.
	"The return of Mr. Nasheed to prison in our view constitutes a serious setback to the human rights situation as well as to moves towards finding a political solution in the Maldives," OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville told journalists.
	The OHCHR "has therefore urged the government to consider former President Nasheed's early release," Colville added.
	Nasheed, who was elected president in 2008 and served until he was toppled in 2012, was sentenced in March after a conviction under tough anti-terror laws, in a widely- criticised .

Ex-Maldives prez return to a jail a setback for rights: UN

Oil prices rebounded somewhat today but remained under pressure after a sell-off sparked by the faltering economy in top global energy consumer China.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for October delivery rose USD 1.13 to USD 39.37 per barrel.
	Brent North Sea crude for October climbed by USD 1.32 in early afternoon London deals to USD 44.01.
	The oil market had tumbled yesterday to 6.5-year lows on heightened fears over a potential Chinese economic slowdown.
	Brent slumped to USD 42.51 -- the lowest level since March 2009 -- and WTI collapsed to USD 37.75, a nadir last witnessed in February the same year.
	"Crude oil is... Cheaper than it has ever been in the past 6.5 years," said Commerzbank analysts in a note to clients.
	"Although prices are experiencing a recovery this morning, this is hardly worth mentioning given their recent losses.
	"Selling took place across the board yesterday, with total disregard for any losses, primarily amid fears of an economic slump in ...

Oil market stages rebound

The former head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee which awards the Peace Prize each year, historian Francis Sejersted, has died aged 79 following a long illness, his family said today.
	Sejersted headed the five-member committee from 1991 to 1999, when it bestowed the prestigious honour on some of the world's most iconic pacifists, including Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991 and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, who shared the 1993 prize together with South Africa's then-president Frederik de Klerk.
	Sejersted died overnight, his family told Norwegian news agency NTB.
	One of the more controversial decisions made by the committee during his tenure was to give the 1994 prize to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, jointly with Israel's then president Yitzhak Rabin and foreign minister Shimon Peres.
	Infuriated by the panel's decision to honour the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, one of the five members quit the committee, in a rare move.
	Before heading .

Death of Nobel committee head who honoured Mandela

China is expected to add more than 6,300 new aircraft to its commercial fleet by 2034, US manufacturer Boeing said today -- an increase of over 300 planes on its last forecast a year ago.
	The world's most populous country and second-largest economy will need 6,330 new aircraft worth USD 950 billion during the 2015-2034 period, Boeing said in its annual China Current Market Outlook.
	The country's expanding economy and rising income are driving air travel growth, Boeing said, upping its prediction by 310 units from last year.
	"We see strong growth in the country's aviation sector over the long term," Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told reporters.
	China's economic growth is slowing as Chinese leaders try to reform the economy to let consumption, instead of government-driven investment, to play a bigger role.
	That growth model will be "more sustainable" and "bodes well for tourism", Tinseth said.
	China's commercial fleet will number 7,210 .

China needs more than 6,300 new planes by 2034: Boeing

Three people were killed in clashes overnight and into this morning between rival armed groups in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, near southern Sidon, medical sources said.
	The fighting between the Jund al-Sham Islamist group and members of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement prompted hundreds of residents to flee Ain al-Helweh camp and shelter in nearby mosques.
	Medical sources told AFP at least 35 people were wounded, with ambulances unable to enter the camp to retrieve more injured because of the intensity of the clashes.
	At least two of the dead were Fatah members, one of them an officer, Palestinian sources said. The identity of the third person was unclear.
	The sound of fierce gunfire and rocket fire could be heard in neighbouring Sidon this morning, although the fighting appeared to have eased somewhat by midday.
	The Lebanese army reinforced its positions at the four main entrances to Ain al-Helweh.
	Soldiers were allowing those able to reach ...

Clashes kill 3 at south Lebanon Palestinian camp

Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels today reported the deaths of five people in clashes in the east that raged despite a new EU push to end one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts in decades.
	A spokesman for the army in Kiev said four servicemen were killed and 12 injured in mortar fire exchanges across the eastern separatist province of Donetsk.
	"The situation is getting worse," Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told a daily press briefing. "The rebels' attacks have intensified."
	Pro-Russian militia commander Eduard Basurin told AFP that Ukrainian shells had killed one civilian and wounded another 12 in the rebels' de facto capital of Donetsk and their nearby stronghold of Gorlivka.
	The continuing violence brings to nearly 6,900 the number of people killed since Ukraine's industrial east was overrun by pro-Kremlin gunmen and what Kiev believes are Russian troops.
	Moscow denies sparking the uprising in reprisal for the February 2014 unseating of a Russian-backed president by a pro-Western leadership ..

Ukraine clashes kill five despite new EU push for peace

A 12-year-old boy accidentally punched a hole through a USD 1.5 million centuries-old Italian oil painting when he tripped and fell into the piece during an exhibition in Taiwan.
	The painting, entitled "Flowers" by Italian artist Paolo Porpora, dates back to the 1600s and is part of a collection of 55 artworks on show in the country's capital.
	Video footage released by the organisers shows the boy on Sunday trip over a platform in front of the artwork and then brace himself against the painting to break his fall. He then looks around helplessly before walking away.
	"The child fell and pressed onto the painting, putting a fist-sized tear in it," an employee at TST Art of Discovery, which organised The Face of Leonardo exhibition in Taipei, told AFP.
	The organisers have decided not to seek damages from the boy's family, according to Central News Agency.
	The painting was restored on site Monday and is now back on exhibition.
	A self-portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci worth 200 million ...

Taiwan boy accidentally damages USD 1.5 mn Italian painting

A child bomber killed six people today outside a bus station in the heartland of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in northeastern Nigeria.
	Witnesses reported seeing a "young girl" approaching the station in the Yobe state capital Damaturu around 7:00 am and refusing to be searched by security guards at the gate before blowing herself up.
	"A private taxi... Drove out of the park. As soon as the car came close, she detonated the explosives. Six people in the car were killed. She was also killed," bystander Sani Dankamasho told AFP.
	Reports said the bomber was aged around 12.
	The attack came just hours after United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon wrapped up two-day a visit to Africa's largest economy during which he hailed its "greater stability and peace" under its new leader as he commemorated a deadly 2011 attack on the global body by Boko Haram militants.
	Police and witnesses reported a second attack 10 minutes after the bus park bombing, in which a suicide bomber managed only to ...

Child bomber kills six in northeast Nigeria

At least 11 people, most of them children, were killed in a series of explosions at an Afghan gas storage facility, which triggered a massive inferno in a nearby settlement for displaced people, officials said today.
	It was not immediately clear whether the blasts late yesterday on the edge of the relatively peaceful western city of Herat were the result of an accident or caused by a militant attack.
	"Around midnight (Monday) a gas tanker exploded which triggered blasts in a gas storage plant, killing 11 people and injuring 10 others," Herat police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP.
	The explosions triggered a plume of flames into the night sky, which rapidly spread to a nearby settlement of mud houses for internally displaced people where most of the deaths occurred.
	Ihasanullah Hayat, spokesman for the governor of Herat, confirmed the toll and said the majority of those killed were children.
	A resident of the hillside settlement, who lost a 9-year- old daughter in the fire, ..

Blasts at Afghan gas storage facility kill 11, mostly children

Three Saudi soldiers have been killed by artillery fire from Yemen, and another died when his patrol vehicle crashed along the border, authorities in Riyadh said today.
	A Saudi border post in the kingdom's southern region of Jazan came under shell and rocket fire from Yemeni territory yesterday.
	After initially reporting that one soldier had been killed in the attack, an interior ministry spokesman said today that two others had succumbed to their wounds.
	Quoted by the official SPA news agency, the spokesman did not give a number of those thought to have been wounded in the attack.
	In a separate incident, a Saudi soldier operating along the border with Yemen was killed when his vehicle overturned, the spokesman added.
	Riyadh said Sunday that rocket fire had killed a general, the highest-ranking officer to die in cross-border attacks since a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes against Iran-backed rebels across Yemen in March.
	Nearly 60 people, mainly military personnel, have ...

Yemen fire kills 3 Saudi soldiers, as one dead in crash

Australian authorities today dropped a terror charge against a teenager over an alleged Islamic State-inspired plot to attack Anzac Day commemorations honouring the war dead, citing insufficient evidence.
	Harun Causevic, 18, was arrested along with fellow teen Sevdet Ramden Besim in raids in Melbourne in April and both were charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act.
	But the terrorism-related charge against Causevic was struck out today and he was released on bail, a Magistrates Court of Victoria spokeswoman told AFP.
	Three weapons charges against him were adjourned until November, she added. Besim remains in custody on terror offences.
	Five men were initially arrested in the counter-terrorism raids in Melbourne but only two were charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act on Anzac Day, when Australian and New Zealand Army Corps troops who died in combat are remembered.
	A 14-year-old in Britain was also charged with inciting the purported attack and encouraging them .

Terror charge against Australian teen dropped

At least 40 people have been killed in more than 24 hours of Saudi-led coalition air strikes and fighting in Yemen's central Baida province, military sources said today.
	The fighting and air raids in Mukayris, a town seen as a gateway to southern provinces recently recaptured by pro-government forces, left 19 rebels, 15 loyalists and six civilians dead, the sources said.
	Coalition strikes against rebel positions in Baida continued today as fighting raged on, the sources added.
	Baida is home to mainly-Sunni tribes who have been fighting Shiite Huthi rebels since the militia advanced from its northern stronghold late last year.
	Mukayris is on the border between Baida and the southern province of Abyan, which loyalists have recaptured along with Aden, Lahj, Daleh, Shabwa since mid-July.
	Other clashes were ongoing today and coalition raids struck rebels in the vast oil-rich Marib province, in the east, witnesses said.
	Yesterday, one local official said that up to 53 Huthis were ...

At least 40 killed in Yemen air strikes, fighting

A Saudi soldier has been killed by artillery fire from Yemen, while another died when his patrol vehicle crashed along the border, authorities in Riyadh said today.
	A Saudi border post in the kingdom's southern Jazan region came under shell and rocket fire from Yemeni territory yesterday.
	One soldier was killed and three others wounded, an interior ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official SPA news agency.
	In a separate incident, a Saudi soldier operating along the border with Yemen was killed when his vehicle overturned, the spokesman added.
	Riyadh said Sunday that rocket fire from Yemen had killed a Saudi general, the highest-ranking officer to die in border attacks since a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes against Iran-backed rebels across Yemen in March.
	Close to 60 people, mainly military personnel, have been killed in Saudi Arabia's border region since the Riyadh-led operation was launched.

Saudi soldier killed by Yemen fire, one dead in crash

German economic growth picked up in the second quarter of 2015, and the public finances of Europe's economic powerhouse were firmly in the black in the first half, data showed today.
	German gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.4 per cent in the period from April to June, up from 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, the federal statistics office Destatis said, confirming a flash estimate released earlier this month.
	At the same time, Destatis calculated that Germany's finances were firmly in the black, with the federal, regional, municipal and welfare budgets running up a combined surplus of 21.1 billion euros (USD 24.4 billion) in the period from January to June.
	That is equivalent to 1.4 per cent of GDP, Destatis said.
	Germany's public finances "continued to profit from the favourable employment situation and positive growth, as well as moderate spending," Destatis said.
	But the statisticians warned against extrapolating the first-half figures on to the year as a whole, as ..

German economic growth picks up, finances in black

Eight people are missing and feared dead after a major landslide hit a road in remote eastern Indonesia, an official said today.
	Heavy downpours in an isolated mountainous region of Papua province triggered the landslide on Sunday, burying six construction workers and two bystanders under rock and rubble.
	Papua police spokesman Patridge Renwarin said news of the incident did not reach local authorities until yesterday, when a rescue team was quickly assembled.
	But bad weather prevented police, the army and local officials from reaching the site of the landslide yesterday, with the effort to reach those buried resuming today.
	"I have heard reports that the team reached the site and the evacuation process is ongoing," Patridge told AFP.
	Landslides are common in Indonesia, one of the world's most natural-disaster prone nations.
	The national disaster agency estimates about half of the country's 250 million population live in areas susceptible to landslides.

Eight feared dead in Indonesian landslide

An unmanned cargo ship loaded with emergency supplies - including Japanese whisky - successfully docked at the International Space Station early today, officials said.
	But thirsty astronauts will have to keep their hands off the golden tipple - it's a science experiment.
	Drinks giant Suntory sent the booze to space so it could test how time in a zero-gravity environment affects its flavour.
	Researchers for the company have said that storing the beverage in an environment with only slight temperature changes and limited liquid movement could lead to a mellower flavour.
	The unusual cargo was placed inside the 5.5-tonne vessel "Kounotori" (stork in Japanese), which blasted off from southern Japan last Wednesday attached to an H-IIB rocket.
	It was also loaded with food, water, clothing and tools necessary for experiments in space.
	Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, 45, who is living at the ISS, used a robotic arm to grab the vessel before it was successfully berthed at the station.
	The 

Japanese whisky arrives at the International Space Station

Australian police said today 70 kilograms of cocaine worth USD 12.6 million has been seized from a yacht, as they crack down on syndicates trafficking drugs through the South Pacific.
	Five people, including a Briton and an Estonian, were arrested and remanded in custody over the haul, believed to be one of the largest cocaine seizures in Queensland state history, Australian Federal Police said.
	"We believe this operation has disrupted and caused significant damage to a number of organised criminal enterprises that are seeking to profit from the high prices and demand for illegal narcotics in Australia," said Federal Police organised crime commander David Stewart.
	Police said they were tipped off about a possible drug shipment by the British National Crime Agency, which suggested a yacht was making its way to Australia from South America.
	Authorities monitored the vessel as it sailed from the Pacific state of Vanuatu and arrived at Queensland's popular Gold Coast tourist strip on ..

Australian police find USD 12.6 mn cocaine haul on yacht

Japan's finance minister today warned over the yen's rapid rise after the dollar plunged to a seven-month low against the unit on fears over China's economy and global growth.
	In Tokyo, the greenback fetched 119.94 yen following the comments, from 118.51 yen in New York where it fell at one stage to 116.18 yen, its lowest level since February. The dollar was above 124 yen last week.
	The euro bought 138.44 yen from 137.55 yen in US trading, while it slipped to USD 1.1541 against USD 1.1606.
	A bloodbath on global equity markets driven by fears over a slowdown in China -- and the broader impact on the global economy -- pushed traders into the yen, which is seen as a safe haven in times of turmoil.
	Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso today cautioned over the yen's rapid rise which he described as "rough", and said Tokyo was in frequent contact with other G7 nations about the market swings.
	A rapid rise in the yen hurts major Japanese exporters such as Toyota and Sony by denting their ..

Japan finance minister warns over yen's rapid rise

Cambodian police today showed off a seizure of nearly 1.5 tonnes of marijuana worth more than USD 7 million packed into coffee bags, part of an ongoing drug crackdown in the country.
	General Khieu Samon, head of the interior ministry's anti-drug office, said 1,487 kilograms of marijuana was seized on Friday in Phnom Penh during raids in which three Cambodians were arrested.
	"The marijuana was packed into bags of Dao coffee, which was smuggled from neighbouring Laos into Cambodia," he told reporters during a press conference in which officers presented the drug haul, the suspects and seized equipment to the media.
	Dao is a brand of Laos coffee popular in Cambodia.
	"They planned to smuggle the marijuana to third countries where the price is high... The seized marijuana is worth more than USD 7 million in Western markets," Khieu Samon added.
	Around 1.5 kilograms of marijuana oil worth at least USD 75,000 was also confiscated.
	Khieu Samon said foreign ringleaders were thought to be .

Cambodia seizes 1.5 tonnes of marijuana worth USD 7 mn

The United States soon will deploy F-22 Raptors in Europe, sending the stealth fighter jets to reassure NATO partners concerned about Russia's actions in Ukraine, a Pentagon official has said	.
	Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James did not offer specifics about where or when the single-seat jets would be deployed, citing operational security reasons. James also would not say how many of the planes would be deployed.
	The deployment comes at the request of commanders in the region, she said yesterday, adding that F-22 pilots will train with NATO partners.
	The F-22 was designed for air-to-air combat - attacking other warplanes - but also is capable of ground attacks.
	The US Air Force has about 180 F-22s, which became operational in 2005. They have been used in US-led coalition strikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

AFP

AFP

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