Oscar Pistorius, serving a five-year prison sentence for killing his girlfriend, received a long visit from his brother and sister for his 28th birthday that may have bent the rules of his incarceration, a South African newspaper reported today.
	Carl and Aimee Pistorius were able to visit the double-amputee track star for nearly two hours yesterday morning at Pretoria's central prison, the Sunday Times reported.
	Pistorius is technically allowed five hour-long visits per month, the paper said.
	His siblings also brought balloons, gifts and a birthday cake bought outside the prison, which would usually not be allowed, the paper said, while their vehicles did not appear to have been searched.
	Prison services spokesman Logan Maistry told the paper that Pistorius had not been receiving special treatment, but that an investigation would be opened to look into the allegations.
	Because of his physical disability, Pistorius, sentenced in October, is being held in the prison's hospital ...

Pistorius birthday visit may have bent prison rules: report

PTI Automatic

Suspected Jewish extremists firebombed a house in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early today, its mayor said, pointing the finger of blame at local settlers.
	"At 4:00 am (0730 IST), settlers came and threw molotov cocktails at a house which partly burned down," said Masud Abu Mura, mayor of Khirbet Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah.
	He said four women were inside the house at the time, but they all escaped unharmed.
	Near the house, the assailants scrawled "Death to Arabs" in Hebrew.
	Mohammed Abdelkarim Hamayel, whose aunt and two female cousins live in the house, said the assailants were believed to be from the Shilo settlement, a few kilometres to the north of the village.
	"In the middle of the night, my aunt woke up when she heard voices speaking Hebrew. Someone knocked on the door but she didn't answer because she was afraid," he told AFP.
	"They threw a tear gas canister and several molotov cocktails at the balcony which caught fire."
	Israeli police, who are .

West Bank home torched in suspected settler attack

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian farmer near the border in northern Gaza today in the first deadly shooting since an August truce ended a 50-day war, medics said.
	Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra identified the dead man as Fadel Mohammed Halawa, 32, saying the bullet had hit him in the back.
	Qudra said the bullet appeared to have been fired from a nearby army watchtower at a man who was farming land near the border fence.
	It was the first time a Palestinian from Gaza had been killed by Israeli fire since a seven-week war between Israel and Hamas militants ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on August 26.
	Following the initial truce agreement, the sides were supposed to have resumed talks on some of the thornier outstanding issues within a month, but the deadline has been repeatedly delayed.

Israel army shoots dead first Gazan since Aug truce: medics

Israel's interior ministry today revoked the residency of a Palestinian convicted of driving a suicide bomber to a Tel Aviv nightclub where he killed 21 people in 2001.
	The move came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers a bill to rescind both the residency and social benefits of any Palestinian resident in Israel or annexed east Jerusalem involved in attacks on Israelis, reports said.
	The proposed legislation would reportedly extend the measures to family members as well.
	In a statement, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan confirmed he had cancelled the permanent residence of Mahmud Nadi, who served a 10 year prison sentence for his part in the 2001 bombing.
	Nadi was convicted of being an accomplice to murder, helping cause serious injury and helping someone to stay in Israel illegally.
	The decision to strip him of his residency was communicated to him in a letter sent by Erdan, which gave no explanation of the timing of the move.
	"In these circumstances, given the severity .

Israel revokes residency of Palestinian over 2001 attack

Some 250 Syrian migrants crammed onto a fishing boat were rescued off the northern coast of Cyprus today as the vessel hit rough seas in the Mediterranean, Turkish media reported.
	Turkish Cypriot authorities were able to rescue the passengers, who were aboard a Tanzanian fishing boat with a number of children among them, after an operation lasting several hours in bad weather and rough seas, Hurriyet newspaper reported.
	The boat had signalled for help some 300 metres off Cyprus.
	The passengers were transferred to another vessel and later transported to a gymnasium in Kyrenia in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus, Turkey-based Dogan news agency reported.
	According to the UN refugee agency, more than 2,500 people have drowned or disappeared so far in 2014 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
	On September 10, some 500 people died when their boat was intentionally capsized off Malta in the deadliest such recent incident. Many of the migrants were Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian 

250 Syrian migrants rescued off Cyprus

Former Washington mayor Marion Barry, who left office in disgrace and went to prison on drug charges only to return for a fourth term, died at a Washington hospital, a spokeswoman said today. He was 78.
	United Medical Center spokeswoman Natalie Williams confirmed the former mayor's death, but declined to give further details.
	The Washington Post, citing hospital officials, said the mayor was in cardiac arrest when he arrived at the hospital and could not be revived.
	Local media said he had only just been released from another area hospital earlier in the evening after being admitted Thursday for observation, after what the local NBC affiliate reported was a urinary tract infection.
	Barry had received a kidney transplant five years ago, and had also suffered from prostate cancer and diabetes.
	Barry, the Mississippi-born son of a sharecropper and a leader in the civil rights movement, dominated local politics in the US capital for decades, despite repeated scandals and multiple ...

Controversial Washington ex-mayor Marion Barry dies

Two high-ranking Thai police officers have been charged with royal defamation, an official said today, a rare arrest of senior public servants as use of the draconian law intensifies after a May coup.
	Central Investigation Bureau chief Pongpat Chayapun and his deputy Kowit Vongrongrot have been charged under the strict lese majeste law, a police spokesman told AFP.
	Under the law, which is Section 112 of the Thai criminal code, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.
	"The two police officers have been arrested and charged under Section 112," national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said, confirming their names and positions.
	He would not confirm where they were being held or give any other details of the arrests.
	Rights groups say there has been a rise in both charges and convictions under Thailand's royal slur law - one of the strictest in the world - since the army seized power on May 22.
	Under martial law .

Two Thai policemen charged with royal defamation: official

North Korea's top military body warned today of "catastrophic consequences" for supporters of a UN resolution censuring its human rights record, as state media reported its leader presiding over a fresh military exercise.
	A resolution urging the United Nations Security Council to refer the North's leadership to the International Criminal Court for possible charges of "crimes against humanity" passed by 111 to 19 with 55 abstentions at a UN General Assembly human rights committee last week.
	The resolution, introduced by Japan and the European Union and co-sponsored by some 60 nations, drew heavily on the work of a UN enquiry which concluded in February that the North was committing rights abuses "without parallel in the contemporary world".
	The North since then has repeatedly slammed the resolution as a political "fraud". On Thursday it warned that it was being pushed into conducting a fresh nuclear test.
	The National Defence Commission (NDC), chaired by the country's leader Kim ...

N.Korea warns of 'catastrophic consequences' over UN ruling

Quinton de Kock hit the first one-day century by a South African at the Sydney Cricket Ground to help his team to 280 for six in the final One-day International against Australia today.
     The wicketkeeper's 107 off 123 balls with 14 fours was his sixth ODI hundred but first against Australia.
     In the absence of injured skipper AB de Villiers, de Kock stepped up to play a valuable innings for the Proteas, who were looking to avoid a fourth defeat in the five-game ODI series.
     De Kock survived a close shave on 98 as Steve Smith's throw narrowly missed the stumps when the batsman was well down the pitch.
     He went on to raise his century before he was caught off his glove going for a uppercut off paceman Pat Cummins in the 41st over.
     De Kock put on 107 for the second wicket with Rilee Rossouw, who scored 51 off 71 balls as a replacement for de Villiers.
     The skipper injured his ribs while fielding in Friday's fourth ODI in Melbourne.
     Farhaan Behardien provided 

De Kock ton lifts South Africa to 280 for 6 in final ODI

A war of words over Bahrain's legislative election heightened today, with the Sunni leadership and the Shiite opposition, which boycotted the polls, at odds over the turnout rate and trading accusations of malpractice.
	With the vote-counting still underway after yesterday's elections to the 40-member parliament, the focus was on voter turnout, which became a key marker of the poll's validity after the opposition boycott.
	The official electoral commission put it at 51.5 percent, but the Shiite opposition, which has dismissed the elections as a "farce", said that only 30 percent of eligible voters had turned out.
	Both sides also traded accusations of electoral malpractice, with the opposition saying tens of thousands of people were pressured to vote, while the Sunni authorities accused Shiite militants of preventing others from reaching ballot stations.
	The legislative polls were the first since security forces in the Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom crushed Arab Spring-inspired protests .

War of words after Bahrain vote, boycotted by opposition

Lionel Messi became the all-time top goalscorer in La Liga history with a hat-trick as Barcelona swept aside Sevilla 5-1 to remain two points adrift of league leaders Real Madrid.

Messi breaks La Liga goals record with hat-trick

Press Trust of India

Tunisians vote today in their first presidential election since the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, a ballot set to round off an often fraught transition to democracy.
	Among the 27 candidates, the hot favourite is former premier Beji Caid Essebsi, an 87-year-old veteran whose anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party won parliamentary elections last month.
	Others vying for the presidency include outgoing President Moncef Marzouki, several ministers who served under former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, leftwinger Hamma Hammami, business magnate Slim Riahi and a lone woman, magistrate Kalthoum Kannou.
	Some 5.3 million people are eligible to cast ballots, with tens of thousands of police and troops deployed to guarantee security amid fears Islamist militants might seek to disrupt voting.
	In most of the country, polls open at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) and close 10 hours later. However, voting will be limited to only five hours in some 50 localities close to the Algerian border, ...

Tunisians elect president for first time

Iran and world powers face an uphill struggle today to break the deadlock in their high-stakes nuclear negotiations and secure a historic deal on the eve of a deadline.
	"We're working hard," US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday in Vienna, "and we hope we're making careful progress, but we have big gaps, we still have some serious gaps, which we're working to close."
	Kerry, who on Friday postponed a trip to Paris to remain in Vienna for the talks, met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif yesterday afternoon, their fourth meeting in three days.
	German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also in the Austrian capital, called this final weekend of talks, after months of negotiations, a "moment of truth".
	At stake is a historic deal in which Iran would curb its disputed nuclear activities in exchange for broad relief from years of heavy international economic sanctions.
	It could end a 12-year standoff that has even raised the prospect of Israeli military ...

Iran, world powers seek elusive nuclear deal before deadline

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has ordered more air support for the security forces and allied tribal fighters battling jihadists in the western province of Anbar.
	He "ordered to provide extensive air support to Anbar, arm its sons, support and reinforce the armed forces in the province," a statement from his office said yesterday.
	The statement came as pro-government forces tried to fend off a major offensive by the Islamic State (IS) group in and around the provincial capital Ramadi.
	It said Abadi gave instructions to bolster the western province's defences after meeting a delegation from the Anbar provincial council in Baghdad.
	"He assured that military operations will go on until the province is cleared, until the situation is stable and security and stability prevail," the statement said.
	IS on Friday launched an attack from four directions on Ramadi, a city that lies 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the capital Baghdad and is one of the last areas in Anbar under ...

Iraq PM orders more air support for embattled province

A watercolour painted by a young Adolf Hitler a century ago went under the hammer for 130,000 euros (USD 161,000) today at an auction in the southern German city of Nuremberg.
	The buyer wished to remain anonymous, according to auction house Weidler.
	The 1914 painting of the city hall in Munich was put up for sale by two elderly sisters, whose grandfather bought the artwork in 1916, when Hitler was in his 20s. The work measures 28 by 22 centimetres (11 inches by 8.7 inches).
	As a budding young artist, Hitler applied to the Vienna Academy of Art but was rejected. He continued to paint however, copying images from postcards that he sold to tourists.
	Experts consider his work to be of mediocre quality and the larger auction houses generally refuse to sell the late Nazi dictator's works.
	Nuremberg famously hosted the trials of Nazi leaders after World War II. Hitler himself committed suicide in his Berlin bunker in the dying days of the war.

Hitler painting goes under the hammer for USD 161,000

The Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 23 tribesmen during a major attack in the Ramadi area, a tribal leader and a police officer said today.
	Parts of Anbar capital Ramadi have been outside government control since January, but IS struck yesterday with hours of shelling, car bombs and attacks by gunmen from four different directions in a bid to take more ground.
	By today, most of the fighting was over, but clashes were still taking place in southern Ramadi, a city 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Baghdad that is one of the last major population centres of Anbar still under government control.
	Police Captain Qaysar al-Hayani said IS militants had besieged fighters from the Albu Mahal and Albu Fahad tribes in Al-Sijariyah, waited for them to run out of ammunition, and then executed 23.
	Sheikh Omar al-Alwani, a commander of tribesmen fighting IS, said about 15 jihadists infiltrated Al-Sijariyah, east of Anbar province capital Ramadi, by pretending to be students from ...

IS kills at least 23 Iraqi tribesmen near Ramadi

Obama urged Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform as he used his weekly address today to again defend his unilateral action shielding millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
	"I still believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together - both parties - to pass that kind of bipartisan law," Obama said in his weekly radio and television address, referring to a wide-ranging overhaul that had passed the Senate but was blocked in the House of Representatives.
	"That bill would have secured our border, while giving undocumented immigrants who already live here a pathway to citizenship if they paid a fine, started paying their taxes, and went to the back of the line," the president said, speaking from the Las Vegas, Nevada high school where he launched his immigration reform efforts two years ago.
	"But until that happens, there are actions I have the legal authority to take as President - the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and ...

Obama urges critics to 'pass a bill' on immigration

The Pakistani Taliban today claimed responsibility for an attack on a political party camp in the southern city of Karachi which wounded at least 15 people.
	Three provincial legislators were among those wounded when gunmen hurled hand grenades and opened fire on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) membership drive meeting in the city's restive eastern district of Orangi Town yesterday.
	Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the Jamatul Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, said the attack was in revenge for the arrest and killing of Taliban members in Karachi.
	"We will keep on targeting MQM, Awami National Party (ANP)and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Karachi," he told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
	The PPP rules southern Sindh province while the MQM represents the city's dominant Urdu-speaking population.
	Karachi, a city of 18 million people which contributes 42 percent of Pakistan's GDP, has been plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence for years.

Pakistani Taliban claim Karachi attack on political camp

Nico Rosberg survived intense pressure and several nervous errors on Saturday to claim what may be a vital pole position for the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, edging out his Mercedes teammate and arch-rival Lewis Hamilton.
	Rosberg, who secured his 11th pole of the season, has to come first and hope that Hamilton, who leads him by 17 points in the drivers' championship, finishes outside the top two to overtake the Briton and take the Formula One drivers' title.
	In a tightly-contested qualifying session, the 29-year-old German produced his best lap of the weekend when he most needed it to outpace championship leading Hamilton by four-tenths of a second.
	Rosberg clocked a best time of one minute and 40.480 in the top ten shootout to finish ahead of Hamilton with impressive Finn Valtteri Bottas third for Williams.
	Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth in the second Williams car, ahead of Australian Daniel Ricciardo and his outgoing Red Bull team-mate, four-time champion German ...

Rosberg edges Hamilton in pole for F1 title decider

A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit central Japan late today, the US Geological Survey said.
	The quake struck at 10:08 pm (1308 GMT), with its epicentre at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) in the north of Nagano Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, according to USGS and Japan Meteorological Agency, which measured it at 6.8.
	There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, although some traffic was disrupted with the road and train authorities checking safety, public broadcaster NHK said.
	There was no damage to any of the seven nuclear reactors at the sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in neighbouring Niigata prefecture as they have been off-line since 2011, NHK quoted the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., as saying.
	Japan is hit by around a fifth of the world's powerful quakes every year and sits at the conjunction of several tectonic plates.
	A strong tremor revives memories of the 9.0 earthquake in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami which sparked the ...

6.2 quake hits central Japan: USGS

A top German league official today backed calls for a European boycott of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar over corruption allegations.
     Bundesliga chief executive Christian Seifert told the Suddeutsche Zeitung daily that a "boycott would be the most efficient arm" if Europe could unite to take on global governing body FIFA.
     "As a serious organisation, we (Germany) no longer feel represented by this FIFA, we no longer feel that we are a member," he added.
     "Seventy-five percent of the players in the World Cup are under contract in Europe and if Europe says 'we will no longer participate', then that changes everything," Seifert said.
     "FIFA could certainly suspend Germany, England, Italy and Spain for the next three World Cups but that would have no impact. Because there would be no more World Cup."
     But Seifert said a boycott could only work if Europe was united in taking such a decision "which I doubt a lot."
     But the German official attacked .

AFP

AFP

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