Brent oil hit a fresh four-year low today, after another sharp sell-off in equities, with traders increasingly concerned about the global economic outlook ahead of key US inventories data.
	Brent North Sea crude for delivery in November struck USD 82.72 a barrel -- the lowest level for since November 23, 2010 -- in earlier Asian trade. The contract later stood at USD 83.34, down 44 cents from yesterday.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil for November meanwhile shed USD 1.45 to USD 80.33 per barrel.
	"Crude oil prices extended sharp declines ... As investors remained cautious awaiting key oil fundamentals data from the weekly US oil inventories report," said Sucden analyst Myrto Sokou.
	The US government's Department of Energy will later publish its weekly US crude inventories report -- a closely watched barometer of demand and supply in the world's top oil consuming nation.
	Crude futures had also fallen heavily again yesterday on rising fears that slowing economic growth 

Brent oil strikes fresh 2010 low before US inventories

PTI Automatic

Apple, facing tough competition in the tablet market, today unveiled a new line-up of iPads that feature its mobile payments system and include the fingerprint unlock used on iPhones.
	The California tech giant said its new iPad Air 2 would be thinner than its rivals, with upgraded graphics power and other features.
	The new line-up aims to help Apple regain ground in a tablet market increasingly dominated by the rival Android platform.
	Apple said its mobile payments system known as Apple Pay, allowing iPhone and iPad users to tap their devices to pay at retailers, would begin operations Monday with more banks and merchants on board.
	The iPad Air 2 is 18 percent thinner than its predecessor, Apple said as it unveiled the new device at its Cupertino, California headquarters.
	The new design at 6.1 millimeters (0.24 inches) "makes it the world's thinnest tablet," the company's vice president Phil Schiller said.
	"It's so thin you can stack two of them and it will still be thinner than 

New iPads aim to help Apple regain tablet momentum

The Iraqi capital Baghdad is not in immediate danger from Islamic State jihadists despite battlefield gains by the group in the country's west, a US military spokesman said today.
	"We don't believe that Baghdad is under imminent threat," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference.
	He acknowledged several deadly car bombings in Baghdad, including one claimed by the IS group, but said the city was not on the verge of collapsing.
	"It's not the first time in recent weeks or even months that there's been IED attacks inside Baghdad," he said, using the military's abbreviation for an improvised explosive device or home-made bomb.
	But he said Baghdad was not encircled or about to be overrun.
	"There are not masses of formations of ISIL forces outside of Baghdad about to come in," he said.
	Iraqi security forces "continue to stiffen their defensive positions in and around the capital, and in a very competent, capable way."
	Kirby said "terrible" weather and sand storms in ...

US says Baghdad is not under 'imminent threat' from IS

The United States has held direct talks for the first time with a key Syrian Kurdish group, whose troops have been battling the Islamic State group, the State Department said today.
	Previous contacts with the powerful Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) had been handled through intermediaries but a State Department official -- who was not identified -- met with the group within the last week, spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
	"We have engaged over the course of just last weekend directly with the PYD," Psaki said.
	Asked if the United States was discussing the PYD's urgent appeals for weapons, she said: "I don't think we're at that point."
	The meeting with the PYD took place in Paris, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
	US officials did not confirm or deny whether Secretary of State John Kerry presided over the talks. Kerry was in Paris as recently as Monday.
	The armed wing of the PYD, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), has been engaged in heavy ...

US officials held talks with Syrian Kurdish group: State Dept

US authorities allowed a health worker who was later diagnosed with Ebola to fly even after she reported a low-grade fever, and are now considering a travel ban in such cases, a source said today.
	The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spoke with the woman by phone when she was at a Cleveland, Ohio airport on October 13, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
	At that time, she reported a temperature of 99.5 Fahrenheit (37.5 Celsius). The threshold that would have kept her from flying was 100.4 F (38 C).
	"My understanding is she reported no symptoms to us," CDC director Thomas Frieden told lawmakers on Thursday.
	When she boarded the plane, the woman, who has been identified in US media as Amber Vinson, had been categorized in a group of people that needed "active monitoring" because of their contact with a Liberian man who died of Ebola in a Dallas hospital on October 8.
	Another nurse, Nina Pham, at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas was diagnosed with ...

CDC cleared Ebola nurse to fly, mulls travel ban

Brazilian police said today they have arrested a suspected serial killer who admits to slaying 39 people in a four-year killing spree, including 16 young women.
	"He was arrested Tuesday night after a 70-day investigation and yesterday admitted to slaying 39 people since 2011, including 16 women, homosexuals and homeless people," a police spokesman from central Goias state told AFP.
	He said the suspect, 26-year-old security guard Thiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha, was arrested in the central city of Goiania, adding he had earlier today slit his wrists after smashing the light bulb in his cell.
	Firefighters prevented the suspect from inflicting serious self-harm and police then paraded him before the media.
	Police say he has told them he did not know his victims and acted out of an inner "fury he felt against everything" which only subsided when committing murder.
	After the slayings, he would feel remorse which only fueled his anger and led him to kill again.
	A police search of his ..

Brazilian arrested in 39 serial killings

Europe said today it will review how passengers leaving Ebola-hit African countries are screened for infection, as it seeks to contain the escalating spread of a virus recognised as the worst global health emergency in years.
	The World Health Organisation also said it was ramping up its efforts to help 15 African countries defend themselves against the virus -- one of the deadliest known to man.
	The European Commission "will immediately undertake an audit of exit screening systems in place in the affected countries... To check their effectiveness and reinforce them as necessary," the bloc's health commissioner, Tonio Borg, said.
	EU health ministers meeting in Brussels also agreed to coordinate measures at entry points to the European Union, although any decision on screening for Ebola rests with individual European countries.
	The review of the exit screening in the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be conducted in coordination with the WHO, Borg ...

World steps up Ebola action as infections soar

FBI chief James Comey renewed a call today for broader law enforcement authority to tap into emerging technologies, saying the Edward Snowden revelations have led to unwarranted mistrust of law enforcement.
	Comey said the revelations about widespread surveillance have led to a climate which could hinder the ability to catch criminals and terrorists, underscored by new efforts to encrypt smartphones to make them inaccessible to investigators, even with a warrant.
	"Perhaps it's time to suggest that the post-Snowden pendulum has swung too far in one direction -- in a direction of fear and mistrust," Comey said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.
	"There will come a day -- and it comes every day in this business -- where it will matter a great deal to innocent people that we in law enforcement can't access certain types of data or information, even with legal authorization. We have to have these discussions now."
	Comey's comments sought to renew the debate about the FBI "going ...

FBI renews call for wider wiretap powers

The United States imposed new financial sanctions on Syria today for human rights abuses, by blacklisting a general and a dozen firms and officials.
	The Treasury Department sanctioned high-ranking military leader Brigadier General Qusay Mihoub of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence, saying he had ordered his unit in the southwestern city of Daraa to "stop the protesters by all possible means," including lethal force, during anti-government marches in 2011.
	"Under Mihoub's command, the SAFI Daraa Branch was responsible for human rights abuses and the deaths of hundreds of civilians, including targeted assassinations," the US Treasury said.
	It said officers in the unit had shot, beaten, detained, tortured and burned alive detainees.
	Among the blacklisted companies were Cyprus-based Piruseti Enterprises Ltd. And Frumineti Investments Ltd. And their directors, Issa al-Zeydi and Ioannis Ioannou.
	Ioannou is suspected of helping Damascus skirt sanctions. Piruseti and Frumineti are accused 

US sanctions Syrian officer, firms

Two peacekeepers were killed today in an attack in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said, the latest deaths in increasingly dangerous peace missions in Africa.
	"This has been a bloody October for UN peacekeeping," Ban said.
	"In Darfur, Mali and the Central African Republic, we have lost 14 peacekeepers in hostile acts -- nearly one per day."
	The two peacekeepers were serving in the joint United Nations-African Union mission deployed in late 2007 to help end bloodshed between militias, rebel forces and gangs in Darfur.
	A wave of attacks in northern Mali have left 31 peacekeepers dead since July last year, while a Pakistani blue helmet serving in the Central African Republic was killed last week in an ambush.
	Ten UN peacekeepers have been injured in Bangui since Friday in attacks on their patrols.
	"Blue helmets must be allowed to undertake their life-saving work without interference," Ban told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
	The UN's 130,000 troops, .

Two peacekeepers killed in Darfur attack: UN chief

France moved closer today to adopting an "anti-terrorism" law which would slap a travel ban on anyone suspected of planning to wage jihad after the upper house Senate approved the draft law.
	The bill comes as authorities are increasingly wary about the number of French citizens and residents travelling to fight in Iraq and Syria who could potentially come back and stage attacks in their home country.
	But while the majority of senators approved the bill, the Greens and Communists voted against it due to fears it would curtail citizen freedoms.
	The travel ban included in the draft law would see suspects have their passports and ID cards confiscated for six months, with the measure renewable for up to two years.
	It also brings in punishment for "lone wolves" who plan terrorist attacks on their own, and allows authorities to ask Internet service providers to block access to sites that endorse "acts of terrorism".
	The bill was approved by the lower house National Assembly last month ..

France moves closer to law cracking down on jihadists

NATO said today it saw no sign of any significant Russian pullback from Ukraine's border, despite President Vladimir Putin ordering thousands of troops to withdraw ahead of truce talks.
	"We would welcome the withdrawal of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, as this would be a step in the right direction. But for the moment, we have not seen major and significant movements yet," a NATO official told AFP.
	The Kremlin said on Saturday that Putin had ordered the pullback of 17,600 servicemen who had participated in summer drills in the southern Rostov region on the border with Ukraine.
	The order came ahead of key talks between Putin, Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko and European leaders in Milan on Friday on the fragile truce in the former Soviet country.
	But the Nato official said: "There is still a large and capable force sitting on the border of Ukraine and heavy equipment still has to be pulled back.
	"As NATO leaders made clear at the Wales summit (in September), Russia 

NATO says no sign of major Russian pullback from Ukraine

Kurdish fighters backed by a flurry of US-led air strikes were holding out today against jihadists in Kobane, as an Islamic State offensive on the Syrian border town entered its second month.
	The Kurds claimed to have pushed IS back in parts of Kobane, but the Pentagon warned the multinational strikes may not prevent the town's fall even though hundreds of jihadists are thought to have been killed.
	Mortar and heavy machinegun fire rang out later as IS appeared to have relaunched its bid to cut the town off from the Turkish border, said an AFP correspondent across the frontier.
	Despite intensified strikes on Kobane this week by the United States and its Arab allies, the Kurds are calling for increased firepower in the battle for the strategic town.
	"We need more air strikes, as well as weaponry and ammunition to fight them on the ground," said Idris Nassen, a Kurdish official in Kobane.
	An estimated 200,000 mainly Kurdish Syrians have fled the IS onslaught for the relative safety .

Kurds hold out in Syria's Kobane one month into IS assault

The World Health Organization said today it was increasing efforts to help several African countries fight Ebola if the deadly virus arrives on their soil.
	"It will take time, months, before this outbreak is stopped. In the meantime, we need to make sure it doesn't spread to other countries," Isabelle Nuttall, head of WHO's alert and response arm told reporters in Geneva.
	With the death toll from the outbreak ravaging west Africa set to pass the 4,500 mark this week, and the total number of infections expected to exceed 9,000, Nuttall acknowledged that the virus will surely pop up in a number of countries.
	"They may have a case, but after one case, we don't want more cases," she said, explaining the push to boost preparedness in Africa.
	Most focus will be on Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Mali and the Ivory Coast, which border Ebola-ravaged Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
	Eleven other nations -- Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, ..

WHO ramping up Ebola protection efforts across Africa

Some schools in Ohio and Texas closed today amid fears that students or staff had been exposed to a nurse who had Ebola infection during an airline flight.
	The US Centers for Disease Control has reached out to 132 people who were on the same October 13 flight as Amber Vinson, but said there was an extremely low risk that anyone was infected.
	She had a low-grade fever and was not vomiting or experiencing diarrhea on the trip from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth, but she should not have been allowed to board a commercial airline, CDC chief Tom Frieden said.
	Three schools in central Texas were closed because two students had traveled on the same Frontier Airlines flight, according to a statement posted online.
	School superintendent Susan Kincannon said North Belton Middle School and Sparta Elementary -- where the students attend -- were closed, as well as Belton Early Childhood School while health authorities evaluated the risk.
	"I'm frustrated that we didn't learn until late tonight 

US schools close in Ohio, Texas, over Ebola fears

Islamist militias held their ground today in the face of an assault by an ex-general backed by army units aimed at retaking Libya's second city of Benghazi, military sources said.
	Medics, revising an earlier toll, said at least 25 people had been killed in 24 hours of fighting since early Wednesday, when Khalifa Haftar's forces launched what he called an operation to "liberate" Benghazi.
	Tanks spearheaded attacks on an Islamist militia, the "February 17 Martyrs Brigade," while warplanes carried out raids on its headquarters in a western suburb of the Mediterranean city.
	The army and Haftar's forces said they captured the February 17 headquarters after several hours of clashes yesterday.
	But military sources said today that Islamist fire forced pro-government forces were later forced to withdraw from the former army base.
	Gunfire and explosions echoed throughout the night, AFP correspondents said.
	After a morning lull, fierce clashes broke out today in the western suburbs of ...

Islamists resist assault on Libya's Benghazi

Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank is going ahead with an initial public offering worth at least USD 3.6 billion despite opposition from Muslim clerics.
	The IPO from Sunday, making NCB the last Saudi bank to go public, is expected to be one of the largest in the world this year.
	"It will be very, very highly watched", said Beshr Bakheet of the privately-held Osool and Bakheet Investment Company.
	Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the kingdom's official Council of Senior Ulemas, said on television that the IPO is haram, or forbidden under Islamic tenets which ban usury.
	"What is clear to me now is that it is not permissible," he said, adding that many of the bank's investments were already haram.
	After a lively public debate over the moral legitimacy of the share offer, the amount of subscriber interest in the IPO will be key, Bakheet said.
	Will investors buy or will they back off because of what some religious authorities are saying, he asked.
	Only three of Saudi Arabia's 12 .

Saudi bank in USD 3.6 bn IPO

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Europe today its gas supplies could be at risk as he prepared for talks with Ukraine counterpart Petro Poroshenko at an Asia-Europe (ASEM) summit overshadowed by the crisis.
	NATO meanwhile said it had seen no sign of any major Russian pullback from the Ukrainian border despite Putin saying earlier this week nearly 18,000 troops had been withdrawn from the frontier.
	US and European Union leaders had welcomed that announcement as a positive gesture ahead of the Poroshenko talks but also reminded Putin that sanctions would remain in place until he stopped meddling in Ukraine completely.
	With the financial markets in turmoil, partly due to the uncertainties over Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to put the ball firmly in Putin's court.
	Merkel said it was "first and foremost" Russia's responsibility to make sure a tenuous ceasefire and peace plan agreed last month with pro-Moscow rebels "really will be implemented."
	Putin is due to .

Putin warns Europe on gas supplies ahead of Ukraine talks

Serbia laid out the red carpet today for Russian President Vladimir Putin, on a visit to shore up ties with its loyal European ally as Moscow faces increasing international isolation.
	Thousands of people lined the streets to greet the Kremlin strongman as he attended a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of Belgrade's liberation from Nazi occupation.
	The event -- the first military parade in Belgrade in 30 years -- was brought forward by four days to coincide with Putin's visit.
	Shortly before his arrival, Putin accused his US counterpart Barack Obama of a hostile approach towards Russia, warning in a Cold War-style tirade that Moscow would not be blackmailed by the West over the conflict in Ukraine.
	"Russia, just as it was in the past, will always see Serbia as our closest ally," Putin said after a meeting Serbian counterpart Tomislav Nikolic, seeking to cement Russia's influence in its Balkan ally.
	"Next May we will together celebrate the 70th anniversary of the great .

Serbia gives isolated Putin a hero's welcome

Mozambique's main opposition party Renamo today claimed victory in the country's election, rejecting official tallies that showed the ruling Frelimo party on path for a landslide victory.
	"We are not accepting the results of these elections," party spokesman Antonio Muchanga said, in a move that raises the spectre of post-election violence.
	"We can categorically say Renamo won these elections," Muchanga told AFP.
	With nearly a quarter of the polling stations reporting, Frelimo's candidate, former defence minister Filipe Nyusi, looked set to become the country's new president, having garnered 63 percent of the vote.
	Incumbent President Armando Guebuza, also from Frelimo, is prohibited by the constitution from running for a third term.
	Initial tallies showed Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama struggling to win 30 percent of the vote.
	But amid allegations of ballot tampering and election violence Renamo -- which fought a long civil war against the formerly Marxist Frelimo -- said the ...

Mozambique opposition Renamo rejects election results

Hurricane Gonzalo gained strength in the Atlantic today as it barreled toward Bermuda, which was bracing for a hit from the powerful Category Four storm.
	Gonzalo's winds were whirling at 145 miles (233 kilometres) per hour, taking it back up a notch on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, the US National Hurricane Center said.
	It was expected to pass near Bermuda, which could see flooding along the coast. Gonzalo, which has already killed one person in the Caribbean, triggered a hurricane warning for the British overseas territory.
	Bermuda Premier Michael Dunkley said government offices and schools would be closed Friday in the grouping of islands home to about 60,000 people.
	The international airport was expected to shutter from late Thursday until at least Saturday.
	At 1500 GMT, the storm was located about 485 miles south-southwest of the Bermudian archipelago. It was moving north at seven miles per hour, according to the Miami-based NHC.
	"This general motion is expected to ...

AFP

AFP

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