A super typhoon gained strength today as it tracked towards the Philippines, threatening more devastation for mostly poor communities where thousands of people have died in an annual tirade of mega-storms.
	Weather forecasters warned Hagupit, already generating wind gusts of 240 kilometers an hour, would continue to intensify as it swept in from the Pacific Ocean, and likely hit eastern islands on Saturday.
	"Let's prepare for everything," President Benigno Aquino told a nationally televised meeting of disaster agency chiefs, after hearing warnings of giant storm surges and house- destroying winds.
	Authorities said Hagupit would likely hit or pass near areas yet to recover from Super Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful storm ever recorded on land that killed or left missing more than 7,350 people in November last year.
	In Tacloban, one of the cities worst-hit by Haiyan, some residents began evacuating from vulnerable coastal areas well ahead of Hagupit's expected arrival, while others 

Super typhoon intensifies as it threatens Philippines

PTI Automatic

The Orion spacecraft, designed to carry humans farther in deep space than ever before, is poised to blast off today in what NASA hailed as a first step in mankind's journey to Mars.
	No astronauts will be on board the capsule when it launches aboard the United States' largest rocket, the Delta IV Heavy made by United Launch Alliance, but engineers will be keenly watching to see how it performs during the four-and-a-half hour flight.
	The launch marks the first of a US spacecraft meant to carry people into deep space since the Apollo missions that brought men to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
	With no American vehicle to send humans to space since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, some at NASA said the Orion launch has re-energized the US space program, long constrained by government belt-tightening and forced to rely on costly rides aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft to reach the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit.
	"We haven't had this feeling in awhile, since the end 

NASA counts down to Orion's first step to Mars

Washington does not want to see Russia isolate itself "through its own actions," US Secretary of State John Kerry said today, calling on Moscow to help halt the raging Ukraine crisis.
	"The United States and countries that support Ukraine's sovereignty and rights do not seek confrontation," Kerry said, insisting, "it is not our design or desire that we see a Russia isolated through its own actions."
	Kerry was speaking at the start of a meeting in Switzerland of top diplomats from the 57-member Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is charged with monitoring a shattered ceasefire between the Ukrainian army and separatist Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine reached in Minsk on September 5.
	The overall ceasefire has failed to fully stop fighting in a conflict that has left some 4,300 people dead, and a long-awaited local truce around the flashpoint Donetsk airport appeared to crumble yesterday just hours after it was signed.
	Before meeting his Russian ..

Kerry urges Russia not to isolate itself

Police in Kenya are holding 77 Chinese nationals accused of running a cyber crime centre from upmarket houses in the capital Nairobi, reports said today.
	The Daily Nation newspaper said Kenyan police believed the gang were "preparing to raid the country's communication systems" and that they possessed equipment capable of infiltrating bank accounts, Kenya's M-Pesa mobile banking system and ATM machines.
	It said 77 Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with the illegal activities. The raids were sparked after police began investigating a house fire that left one person dead.
	According to the Standard newspaper, the Chinese nationals were living in "military-style dormitories", and that China's ambassador to Kenya has been summoned to "explain if his government was aware of the group's activities".
	Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed "made it clear that the Chinese Government should fully cooperate on this matter. China promised to send investigators to work with ours .

Dozens of Chinese held in Kenya 'cyber bust': report

An oil pipeline rupture has caused thousands of cubic metres of crude oil to spill into the Arava desert in southern Israel near the border with Jordan, officials said today.
	The incident took place just north of the Red Sea resort city of Eilat and 500 yards from the frontier.
	The spill was "a couple of kilometres long", according to an Israeli environment ministry spokeswoman who was unable to give more specific information.
	She said it was unclear whether there was any foul play and environmental authorities would open an investigation.
	"They have forces on the ground that prevented it from spreading to Jordan," she added.
	The leak involved a 152 pipeline carrying crude oil from the southern port city of Ashkelon on Israel's Mediterranean coast to Eilat.
	Ronen Moshe, spokesman for the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC), said the spill happened at 1845 GMT yesterday in a new section of the pipeline.
	"The leak has been stopped," he said, adding that the reason for the ...

Oil pipeline bursts near Israel-Jordan border

Somalia's Shebab insurgents said they had assassinated a former lawmaker and his bodyguard and wounded another MP in a drive-by shooting in Mogadishu today to show the government they remained a threat.
	Gunmen in a moving car opened fire as the lawmaker drove through the centre of the city, before racing off, witnesses said. MP Mustafa Mayow was wounded in the attack.
	"The government say they have eradicated the Shebab from Mogadishu, but this is to show that we are here and active," Shebab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu Musab told AFP.
	The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels are fighting to overthrow the country's internationally-backed government.
	At least five lawmakers have been killed in Mogadishu this year. The extremists say they are targeting MPs as they allowed the deployment of foreign troops on Somali soil.
	Recent Shebab attacks in Somalia have targeted key government and security sites in an apparent bid to discredit claims by the authorities and African Union troops that they .

Somalia's Shebab assassinate ex-lawmaker, wound another

The Ukraine military reported today more than 70 rebel attacks on its positions in the past 24 hours.
	The attacks took place across several parts of the frontline in eastern Ukraine, a military spokesman said, including in Lugansk and the airport in Donetsk, where the two sides have this week tried to put ceasefires in place.
	The claims could not be independently verified, but an AFP reporter in Donetsk city said there had been heavy fire, including the use of Grad rockets, throughout the night.
	A ceasefire agreed at the weekend is due to come into force on Friday in the Lugansk region -- one of two provinces under rebel control -- although local rebel leaders have said they are not happy with the terms.
	A truce at Donetsk airport was also agreed on Tuesday after negotiations between a visiting deputy head of Russia's ground forces and a senior Ukrainian general, but sporadic attacks have continued.
	The attacks come as US Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei ..

70 rebel attacks in east Ukraine: military

Eight more bodies were recovered today from the area where a South Korean trawler sank in the Bering Sea off Russia's far east coast, leaving 33 crew members still missing, officials said.
	A total of 20 bodies have now been recovered since the 1,753-tonne Oryong 501 trawler went down Monday in rough, icy seas with 60 people on board.
	Only seven people were rescued.
	The eight bodies recovered today included two Indonesians, two South Koreans, two Filipinos and two unidentified crew members, said a spokesman for the vessel's operator, Sajo Industries.
	A US coastguard plane has been helping South Korean and Russian ships scouring the area, backed by a Russian helicopter.
	South Korea plans to dispatch two naval planes and a coast guard ship, despite the increasingly unlikely prospect of finding any survivors.
	Those on board included 11 South Koreans, 35 Indonesians, 13 Philippine crew members, as well as a Russian fisheries inspector who was among the rescued.

Eight more bodies found near sunken S Korea trawler

Thousands of protesters hit the streets of New York after a grand jury declined to charge a white police officer in the choking death of a black man, days after a similar decision sparked unrest in US cities.
	Soon after the decision by the grand jury, hundreds of protesters converged on  Rockefeller Center and in New York City's iconic Times Square chanting "No justice, no peace," the rallying cry of demonstrators already angered by a separate grand jury decision last week not to indict a white policeman in the fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
	Police made at least 30 arrests, New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
	A series of small protests converged into a march of about 5,000 people down Broadway and eventually into Times Square, the Washington Post reported. Drivers stuck in traffic by the march honked their horns in solidarity, the paper said.
	Both cases, coupled with the death of a 12-year-old black boy who was gunned down by ...

Protests erupt in New York after jury decision in police death

Al-Qaeda in Yemen has threatened to execute a US hostage who called for help in a video released by the jihadist group, SITE Intelligence reported today.
	The purported hostage said he was 33 and kidnapped more than a year ago in Sanaa in the video dated December 2014.
	In the video, the hostage said he was looking for help and that his life was in danger.
	The photojournalist was kidnapped in the Yemeni capital in September 2013, the US-based monitoring agency said citing reports.
	The video features a message by Nasser bin Ali Al-Ansi, of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, threatening to kill him three days "after the issuance of this statement" if Washington failed to meet the group's demands.
	"Otherwise, the American hostage held by us will meet his inevitable fate," he said, without elaborating on the demands.
	AQAP is considered by Washington as the most dangerous affiliate of Al-Qaeda.
	Yemen is a key US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda, allowing Washington to conduct a ...

Yemen's Qaeda parades US hostage, threatens to kill him: SITE

Pilots of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific were due to start work-to-rule action today after long-running pay talks broke down, raising the prospect of delays and cancellations in the run-up to Christmas.
	Union leaders announced the move -- which will see pilots work only their contractual hours -- as the latest round of negotiations with airline management over pay and working hours failed.
	"It is unfortunate that a year of negotiations has brought us to this point," said Chris Beebe, General Secretary of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA).
	The union represents more than 2,000 Cathay pilots and said that 92 per cent of members had approved the action.
	"The pilot members, who are based in Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States, will be instructed to perform their assigned duties in strict conformance with their existing conditions of service," HKAOA said in a statement late yesterday.
	Beebe said the union "looks forward to resuming talks with management 

Cathay pilots in 'work-to- rule' over pay dispute

Chinese travellers have taken 100 million "outbound" trips this year, officials said, with the vast majority visiting Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
	Just under four percent of the 100 million trips counted up to the end of November were to Europe, China's state tourism administration said yesterday, while 90 per cent were within Asia.
	Although Beijing considers self-governing Taiwan as part of China along with Hong Kong and Macau, the tourism administration said that nearly 71 per cent of "outbound" trips were to the three territories.
	The total number of people travelling abroad was not given but the figures call into doubt previous reports that some 97 million Chinese did so last year.
	Six countries South Korea, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Vietnam and Singapore have seen more than one million trips by Chinese citizens so far this year, the administration said on its website.
	China's economy has boomed over the past decade, expanding the ranks of its middle-class who are ..

China says 100 million 'outbound trips' this year

Japanese telecom giant SoftBank will invest USD 250 million in Southeast Asian mobile taxi booking app GrabTaxi, the two firms said today, as rivalry in the region between US-based Uber and homegrown rivals increases.
	In a statement, the pair said the deal will make Softbank the biggest investor in the Malaysia-based startup.
	"This new round of funding will help drive our mission of revolutionising and improving the way Southeast Asians commute more aggressively than ever before," Anthony Tan, GrabTaxi's chief executive and founder, said in the statement.
	GrabTaxi, which is also backed by Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings, operates in 17 cities across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.
	Its app employs smartphone and satellite technology to match customers with registered taxis close to their location.
	According to GrabTaxi, the service has the largest network of its kind in Southeast Asia, with more than 500,000 active users and .

Japan's Softbank pumps USD 250 mn in Uber rival GrabTaxi

Five children were among 10 people who were killed when their small plane crashed in central Colombia after developing technical problems, officials said.
	The plane's pilot had asked for an emergency landing at Mariquita airport but the aircraft never got that far, said Colonel Carlos Roche, deputy director of Colombia's aviation authority.
	"Unfortunately, it didn't make it and crashed eight miles (13 kilometers) from the airport," killing the two pilots and eight passengers, he said yesterday.
	Among them were five children, the aviation authority added. All those on board the Piper PA-31 Navajo plane were Colombian.
	Investigators are at the crash site and rescuers had recovered the victims' charred bodies.
	The accident occurred as Colombia's Congress debates the state of aviation safety in the country, which one senator accused of having "outdated infrastructure" in some airports and "crews that work grueling shifts with no labour rules.

Five children among 10 dead in Colombia plane crash

Sudanese opposition parties and rebels meeting in Addis Ababa have agreed to form a new alliance, one of the groups said, urging the creation of a transitional government in Khartoum.
	The agreement is the first to include as a wide range of political parties and armed groups as it does working together against the 25-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir.
	An alliance of insurgents from the war-torn Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur regions known as the Sudan Revolutionary Front signed the agreement with the opposition Umma Party, a grouping of smaller parties and civil society groups, the SRF said yesterday.
	"The SRF, Sudanese political forces and civil society organisations signed the Sudan's Call today in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa," said Nur al-Daim Mohamed, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army-Minnawi.
	The document said the groups wanted a "transitional government to manage the interim term" before a new government could be elected.
	Unlike previous agreements, .

New Sudan opposition alliance formed

UNESCO chief Irina Bokova has called for the creation of "protected cultural zones" to save heritage sites in conflict-torn Iraq and Syria that were at risk of "cultural cleansing".
	Efforts should start with the  "highly iconic site" of the Umayyad mosque in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, Bokova yesterday told a Paris conference on safeguarding the two countries' cultural riches.
	"I believe that the Umayyad mosque, located within the World Heritage site of the old city of Aleppo, could and should be our starting point. It is not too late to take action," she said.
	"We must create protected cultural zones around heritage sites, through stronger engagement with local actors."
	More than three years into a bloody civil war, Syria's historical sites have suffered from widespread looting and damage, according to UNESCO.
	The situation has worsened since Islamic State jihadists seized swathes of Syria and Iraq in recent months, destroying sites they consider idolatrous or ...

UNESCO calls for 'protected cultural zones' in Syria, Iraq

Venezuelan prosecutors have charged a prominent opposition leader with conspiracy in relation to an alleged plot to assassinate leftist President Nicolas Maduro.
	Maria Corina Machado, a vocal supporter of anti-government protests that rocked the country earlier this year, vehemently rejected the charge as she left the attorney general's office after questioning.
	"Today they have charged me with the crime of conspiracy," she said. "All the accusations and supposed evidence are false, and I reject them."
	Under Venezuelan law she faces eight to 16 years in prison if convicted.
	The attorney general's office yesterday said in a statement she had been charged with "conspiracy" for "allegedly having links to the assassination plan against the president."
	Maduro, who succeeded the late Hugo Chavez last year and has come under mounting political pressure as the country's oil-based economy sours, has made frequent claims of plots against him.
	Machado, 47, who says the evidence against her 

Venezuela opposition leader charged over 'plot' to kill prez

Full scoreboard of the third one-day international between England and Sri Lanka in Hambantota today.
	   Sri Lanka:
	   T. Dilshan c Buttler b Finn                   23
	   K. Perera c Morgan b Woakes                    0
	   K. Sangakkara c Ali b Jordan                  63
	   T. Kandamby c Jordan b Woakes                  0
	   A. Mathews c Buttler b Jordan                 37
	   L. Thirimanne not out                         62
	   J. Mendis c Finn b Root                       12
	   T. Perera c Ali b Woakes                       8
	   D. Prasad st Buttler b Bopara                 21
	   R. Herath not out                              2
	   Extras: (lb4, w10)                            14
	   Total (for eight wickets, 35 overs)          242
	   Fall of wickets: 1-6 (K. Perera), 2-30 (Dilshan), 3-31 (Kandamby), 4-118 (Mathews), 5-150 (Sangakkara), 6-175 (J. Mendis), 7-202 (T. Perera), 8-233 (Prasad).
	   Bowling: Finn 7-0-42-1, Woakes 7-0-41-3 (w1), Ali 7-0-36-0 (w3), Jordan 7-0-46-2 

Cricket: England v Sri Lanka one-day scoreboard

US Secretary of State John Kerry today welcomed any Iranian military action against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq as "positive" after the Pentagon said Tehran had carried out air strikes against the group.
	Kerry, hosting a meeting of an anti-IS coalition in Brussels, said international airstrikes were finally stopping the advance of the jihadists across Iraq and Syria, but warned it could take years to finally defeat them.
	But in a sign of the deepening complexity of the regional conflagration, Syria's Iranian-backed President Bashar al-Assad criticised the Western and Arab air strikes for having no effect.
	Kerry told the meeting of officials from 60 states in the coalition that a campaign of around 1,000 strikes had had a "significant" impact on the Sunni extremist IS, which declared a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in June.
	"Our commitment will most likely be measured in years," he told the meeting at NATO headquarters, adding that the partners would "engage in this campaign for .

Kerry says any Iran strikes against IS 'positive'

NATO allies Turkey and the United States are narrowing their differences over plans to create a no-fly zone along the Syrian border, the Turkish foreign minister said today.
	However, his comments contrast with statements from the White House which suggest the two countries remain divided on how to respond to the Syria conflict.
	"When the idea of a no-fly zone and safe zone emerged everybody had differing views, and some did not even understand what it meant," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted by the state-run Anatolia news agency following a NATO meeting in Brussels.
	"But we have allies, especially the United States, who have begun to understand its importance."
	"I can say that our approach on this issue with the United States in particular is getting closer. We see the number of countries considering a no-fly zone or safe zone a must increasing," Cavusoglu added.
	His comments, however, stood in stark contrast to messages from the United States indicating a no-fly zone 

Turkey-US moving closer on Syria no-fly zone: Ankara

An Israeli local council said today it will spend millions of dollars beautifying a settlement in east Jerusalem, where mounting Palestinian anger has spilled over in to recent clashes.
	Jerusalem city council said in a statement it planned to use USD 12.5 million to fund construction of a park, children's playgrounds, green spaces and new street lighting in Har Homa, as well as football and basketball grounds.
	It did not give a precise timeframe for the spending plan, only saying work would begin "in the near future".
	Construction first began on Har Homa -- or Jabal Abu Ghneim as the site is known to Palestinians -- in 1997, well after the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
	It sparked violent Palestinian protests and a freeze by the Palestinian Authority of high-level contacts with Israel.
	The settlement construction is considered a breach of the Oslo accords by the Palestinians but not by Israel, which does not see east Jerusalem as occupied territory.
	A string of deadly ...

AFP

AFP

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