Taliban militants killed six Afghan police officers today, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks on local security forces highlighting the challenges they face as NATO combat troops depart.
	The attack on a police post in Logar province south of Kabul came a day after militants ambushed a convoy in the north and killed 22 policemen.
	Foreign combat troops are pulling out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, leaving local soldiers and police to battle the persistent Taliban insurgency on their own.
	"A group of Taliban attacked a local police post in Baraki Barak district early in the morning and killed six police," district chief Mohammad Rahim Amin told AFP.
	"They fought till the last bullet, but they were finally overpowered by Taliban."
	Din Mohammad Darwish, the provincial governor's spokesman, confirmed the attack and said the incident was under investigation.
	The Taliban, who have waged a bloody fight against NATO and Afghan government forces over the past 13 ...

Taliban attack kills six Afghan police: officials

PTI Automatic

A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Central America early today killing at least one person and prompting a brief tsunami warning.
	Electricity was cut off in parts of El Salvador and beyond and walls crumbled, but there were no reports of widespread damage.
	The quake hit in the Pacific Ocean 170 kilometers southeast of the capital San Salvador, at a depth of 70 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said.
	The earthquake's magnitude was initially given as 7.4 but then lowered to 7.3
	The rumbling of the earth was felt all along the Central American coast, from Guatemala in the north to Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the south and inland to Honduras.
	In El Salvador, a man died when an electrical pylon fell on him in the city of San Miguel, its mayor Wilfredo Salgado told YSKL radio.
	"It was strong when it started to rumble, and it would not stop. My family just prayed and asked God for it to stop," Maria Etelvina Deras, who lives in Usulutan, 110 kilometers ...

7.3 magnitude earthquake off El Salvador coast: USGS

Britain's top envoy in Thailand met Thai and Myanmar officials in Bangkok today to discuss the investigation into the murder of two British tourists, as concerns mount over the handling of the probe.
	Thai police have charged two migrant workers from Myanmar with the murder of David Miller, 24, and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, after the tourists' battered bodies were found on the southern island of Koh Tao on September 15.
	Police have said the men confessed to the crime and their DNA matched samples taken from Witheridge's body.
	But unease over the case has deepened amid reports that the suspects were tortured into confessing -- an allegation Thailand has strongly denied.
	British Ambassador Mark Kent told AFP he was meeting with the Thai police, foreign ministry officials and his Myanmar counterpart, without giving further details.
	Before the meeting an official from the Myanmar president's office in Naypyidaw told AFP he hoped the talks "would help bring a fair ..

British envoy meets Thai, Myanmar officials on murder probe

Commanders from the US-led coalition against Islamic State jihadists will meet in Washington today to discuss halting the group's advance in Iraq and Syria, as air strikes failed to stop militants from reaching the centre of Kobane.
	IS fighters claimed nearly half of the flashpoint town, on the border with Turkey, yesterday -- despite more than three weeks of US-led airstrikes aimed at halting them.
	That failure will be among the main points up for discussion at today's meeting in Washington of military chiefs from the 22 countries in the US-led coalition, as will Turkey's call for the establishment of a protective buffer zone.
	Top brass, including national chiefs of staff, will also meet US President Barack Obama at Andrews Air Force Base outside the US capital, the White House said.
	The generals will "discuss a common vision on the counter-ISIL campaign, challenges and the way ahead," said US Colonel Ed Thomas, spokesman for the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff.
	Australia, ...

Coalition commanders seek plan to counter IS advance

Dozens of Japanese politicians, possibly including cabinet ministers, are poised to visit a Tokyo shrine condemned by China and Korea as a symbol of Tokyo's militarist past, as it begins its autumn festival this week.
	A cross-party group of national lawmakers plans to go to Yasukuni Shrine en masse on Friday as it kicks off the four-day festival.
	However, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who infuriated Beijing and Seoul by visiting the shrine in December last year, is thought unlikely to go.
	He will attend an Asia-Europe summit in Milan set for Thursday and Friday and is believed to have one eye on budding signs of an improved relationship with China, with view to a possible summit on the sidelines of a major international meeting next month.
	The parliamentarians' group said it does not know how many will join Friday's visit.
	In recent years, dozens of lawmakers have participated in the shrine's spring and autumn festivals as well as the August 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in ...

Japan lawmakers to visit controversial war shrine

Shiite militias backed by the Iraqi army are committing war crimes against civilians in their fightback against the Islamic State jihadist group, rights watchdog Amnesty International said today.
	It accused the Baghdad government of supporting and arming groups of Shiite fighters who have carried out a string of kidnappings and killings against Sunni civilians in response to IS's lightning capture of swathes of Iraqi territory in June.
	Amnesty said it had seen evidence of "scores" of "deliberate execution style killings" against Sunnis across Iraq as well as Sunni families having to pay tens of thousands of dollars to free abducted relatives.
	Many of those kidnapped are still missing and some were killed even after their families paid hefty ransoms to secure their release, the group said in a report.
	The watchdog called on the government of newly-installed Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to rein in the scores of militias targeting civilians across Iraq.
	"By granting its blessing ..

State-backed Iraq Shiite militias commit 'war crimes': Amnesty

Tropical Storm Gonzalo has surged to hurricane force east of the Caribbean basin, and forecasters said it was likely to grow stronger, issuing warnings for the St Martin and British Virgin Islands.
	The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre yesterday said the storm, a Category One on the Saffir-Simpson scale, was 140 miles (230 kilometres) east-southeast of St Thomas at 2100 GMT, packing winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kilometres per hour).
	A hurricane warning was issued for St Martin-Sint Maarten; Anguilla; and the British Virgin Islands, the centre said. That means hurricane conditions are expected in 12 hours' time.
	A watch was declared for the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, the NHC added. That means Gonzalo could hit there, but is not necessarily expected to do so.
	"Additional strengthening is likely" before the hurricane heads out into cooler waters further up the Atlantic, an NHC statement said.

Gonzalo surges to hurricane force in Atlantic: US forecasters

A Saudi court sentenced a Chadian and an Egyptian to death while several other people were jailed up to 33 years for "terrorist" related offences, official media has said.
	A Saudi Arabian accused also received the death sentence from the special court in Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday.
	Those jailed included five from the African nation of Chad, a Nigerian, a Yemeni and a Palestinian, along with Saudis, the agency said.
	It did not say when the offences occurred but the accused were charged with opening fire at a Khaldiya district apartment block in the holy city of Mecca.
	In June 2003 the interior ministry announced that five suspects preparing an "imminent" attack were shot dead and two security officers killed during a raid on the Khaldiya building.
	It said at the time that several suspects including Chadians, an Egyptian and a Saudi were arrested.
	At their trial in Riyadh, the accused were also charged with training "at Al-Qaeda camps", planning to kidnap ...

Chadian, Egyptian get Saudi death sentence in 'terrorist' case

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has said that even if there is no comprehensive deal with the West on its nuclear programme by next month's deadline, neither side would walk away.
	With discussions for a comprehensive agreement seemingly deadlocked, Rouhani's comments were the strongest signal yet that the long-running talks seeking an agreement will continue.
	Rouhani yesterday said there was "no turning back" on the need for a deal but with the cut-off date of November 24 just 40 days away the reality was that further discussions may be necessary.
	"Our will is that in 40 days the matter will be resolved but if other things happen and we are not able to solve all the problems, the two camps will find a solution," he said in a live interview on state television.
	"We succeeded in a provisional agreement and we have a great task in reaching a final agreement. This problem has lasted 12 years and it cannot be solved in a few days, though we made positive steps."
	Iran and the P5+1 ...

Rouhani says Iran and West will solve nuclear crisis

Cameroon's President Paul Biya today vowed his government would go after the Islamist group Boko Haram "until it's totally wiped out".
	He made the promise as he received 10 Chinese and 17 Cameroonians freed last week after spending months as hostages of armed men thought to belong to Boko Haram, an anti-Western rebel group in Nigeria which has been increasingly making incursions into Cameroon.
	"The Cameroonian government assures you that it will ceaselessly continue to fight Boko Haram until it's totally wiped out," Biya said.
	The 27 Cameroonians and Chinese were delivered to authorities on Friday night.
	The government has not said how they were freed, but a security source said that "a ransom" was paid and around 20 imprisoned Islamists were freed in exchange.
	"We take the line that when it comes to the protection of people or their lives, one does not speak of money," government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said.
	The Chinese foreign ministry in Beijing meanwhile refused ...

Cameroon vows to wipe out Boko Haram after hostages' release

British lawmakers were to vote today on whether to recognise Palestine as a state in a debate unlikely to change government policy but laden with political symbolism.
	The House of Commons debate was being watched around the world after Sweden drew anger from Israel this month for saying it would recognise Palestine.
	It was initiated by backbencher Grahame Morris from the main opposition Labour party, who said Britain had a "moral responsibility" to act because of its history as colonial power in the region.
	"It's absolutely clear that Israel-Palestine relations are stuck at an impasse, as is our foreign policy," Morris said, opening the debate.
	"Both of these impasses must be broken. We hear a great deal of talk about the two-state solution but today, through validating both states, members will have the opportunity to translate all of that principled talk into action."
	The vote is non-binding as it was initiated by a backbencher.
	Members of the government, which backs a ...

British MPs to hold non-binding vote to recognise Palestine

The French and US presidents Francois Hollande and Barack Obama today called for "stepped-up" international efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic ravaging three west African countries.
	The two leaders, speaking by telephone, stressed the need for "a stepped-up mobilisation of the international community and the European Union, in close coordination with the United Nations, the WHO (World Health Organisation) and the countries concerned," Hollande's office said in a statement.
	The epidemic has claimed more than 4,000 lives this year with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone most affected.

Hollande, Obama urge 'stepped-up' global efforts on Ebola

An Algerian air force plane crashed today in the south of the country during a training exercise, killing the two soldiers on board, the defence ministry said.
	It said the Sukhoi Su-24, a bomber first developed in the former Soviet Union, went down near Hassi Bahbah in the Djelfa region, 270 kilometres south of Algiers.
	An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the accident.
	On July 24, an Air Algerie plane crashed in Mali, killing all 116 people on board. And the crash of a military transport plane in eastern Algeria in February killed 77 soldiers and family members.

2 dead in Algeria military plane crash

Jihadists today fought their way into central Kobane in heavy clashes with the Syrian border town's Kurdish defenders, ahead of a Washington meeting of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group.
	The breakthrough saw IS claim half of Kobane, nearly a month after the Sunni extremists began their assault on the town on the Turkish frontier, despite more than three weeks of US-led air strikes in Syria aimed at stopping them.
	That failure will be among the main points up for discussion at Tuesday's meeting in Washington of military chiefs from the 21 countries in the US-led coalition, as will Turkey's call for the establishment of a protective buffer zone.
	In their latest air strikes, American and Saudi warplanes targeted seven sites around Kobane, the US military said, including IS staging posts used to try to cut the town off from the outside world.
	A Kobane politician who is now a refugee said IS fighters had surrounded Kobane to the south, east and west, and warned of a .

Jihadists fight way into centre of Syria border town

Three bombings within an hour today rocked Shiite neighborhoods in the Iraqi capital as people filled the streets, distributing sweets for the Eid al-Ghadir Muslim feast, leaving at least 22 dead.
	The attacks, at least two of which were carried out with suicide car bombs, occurred in or on the edge of the frequently targeted districts of Kadhimiyah and Sadr City, police said.
	A suicide car bomb blew up against a security checkpoint on Aden square, at the entrance of the northwestern neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, killing 11 and wounding 31, a senior Baghdad police officer told AFP.
	And a bomb in the popular Mredi market in the sprawling northern neighborhood of Sadr City killed five and wounded at least 24 people, the same source said.
	In Habibiyah, on the southern edge of Sadr City, a suicide car bomb attack left at least six dead -- three policemen and three civilians -- in an area home to scores of car dealerships.
	Sources at the interior ministry and in the capital's hospitals ..

Triple Baghdad blasts kill at least 22: police

Dozens of masked men rushed barricades at Hong Kong's main pro-democracy site today, sparking renewed accusations that authorities are using hired thugs to disperse demonstrators.
	Groups of men, many wearing surgical masks, descended on the front lines of the rally at Admiralty near the city's central business district, triggering clashes with protesters after police had moved in to take down some barriers.
	Demonstrators, who have come under attack from organised crime gangs known as triads at another flashpoint demonstration site in Mongkok, shouted: "Weapons! Weapons!" and "Arrest the triads" as police struggled to impose order.
	Despite repeated orders to disperse, rallies now into their third week have taken on an air of permanence, with tents, portable showers and lecture venues springing up in recent days.
	Pro-democracy lawmakers who back demonstrators' calls for Beijing to grant the right to direct elections in the former British colony were quick to round on the ...

Hong Kong authorities accused of hiring thugs after clashes

A South African prison official today recommended Oscar Pistorius clean a museum as punishment for shooting dead his girlfriend, sparking prosecution anger in a court weighing what sentence to give the Paralympian.
	Defence witness, Joel Maringa, a social worker in South Africa's notoriously crowded and brutal jails, said Pistorius should not go to prison, but receive "correctional supervision" through three years of house arrest. He should also clean a Pretoria museum for 16 hours a month, Maringa said.
	Prosecutor Gerrie Nel described Maringa's suggestion as "shockingly inappropriate".
	Pistorius was found guilty last month of negligently killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day 2013.
	The 27-year-old double amputee athlete was cleared of the more serious charge of murder. The lesser verdict shocked the country and fuelled criticism of South Africa's legal system.
	His sentencing, which began today, was expected to run for most of the week.
	The ..

Pistorius should get community service, says prison official

Belgium's new interior minister today sparked uproar after saying that Flemish collaborators with the Nazi occupiers in World War II "had their reasons", touching a raw nerve in a sharply divided country.
	Jan Jambon is the right-hand man of Bart De Wever, whose nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), based in Belgium's north, dominates the centre-right coalition led by Prime Minister Charles Michel from the French-speaking south.
	"The people who collaborated with the Germans had their reasons," Jambon told La Libre Belgique daily, noting that he was not alive at the time to judge.
	The new coalition was sworn in on Saturday and faces a vote of confidence in parliament Thursday which it is expected to win.
	Jambon made his comments in an interview during which he was asked about a speech he made to a 2001 meeting organised by the Sint-Maartensfonds, an association for Flemish fighters who fought for Germany against Russia on the eastern front.
	"I defy anyone to find a phrase, a ...

Belgian minister's Nazi collaboration remarks spark uproar

Syria's main opposition bloc failed to agree on a prime minister during a weekend summit in Turkey, participants said, the latest setback for a coalition long beset by internal divisions.
	A member of the National Coalition who declined to be named said the biggest dispute at the Istanbul meeting centered around a split between the favored candidates of vital funders Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
	The official said that out of 13 hopefuls the two frontrunners were former agriculture minister Walid al-Zohbi -- seen as being close to Riyadh -- and Ahmad Tohme, the provisional head of the coalition who is reportedly backed by Doha.
	"Qatar made clear that its financial support to the coalition would end if Tohme was not re-elected," another participant told AFP.
	Tohme, who is close to Syria's influential Muslim Brotherhood, headed the coalition for 10 months before being relieved of his duties at the bloc's previous general assembly.
	The summit in Istanbul was extended for three days due to .

Syria opposition fails to elect new prime minister

The British government today summoned Thailand's top diplomatic representative in London to lay out its "real concern" about the investigation into the murder of two British tourists on a holiday island, officials said.
	Thai police last week charged two migrant workers from Myanmar with the murder of David Miller, 24, and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, after the tourists' battered bodies were found on Koh Tao on September 15.
	Junior foreign minister Hugo Swire summoned Thai charge d'affaires Nadhavathna Krishnamra and "stressed that there was a real concern in the UK about how the investigation has been handled by the Thai authorities," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
	Swire "said that it was crucial for the investigation to be conducted in a fair and transparent way," it said.
	He also noted "his concern about the way that the police had engaged with the media on the case, and reiterated that the UK police stood ready to assist with the investigation and ...

Britain summons Thai envoy over tourist murder probe

Dutch officials today returned to the crash site of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine where the search for remains and belongings resumed despite sporadic exchanges of fire.
	The Dutch were part of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) team that has brokered a return to where the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 crashed in rebel-held territory on July 17.
	"Four Dutch nationals were at the disaster site, as part of an OSCE team," Justice Ministry spokesman Jean Fransman told AFP.
	"Trucks are at the scene to take what's found somewhere before they're returned to the Netherlands," he said.
	Members of Ukraine's State Emergency Services (SES) are conducting the search for body parts and possessions that resumed today, he said.
	"Some personal effects have already been collected by the local population," Fransman said.
	"We hope that this will be done quickly but we will take all the time necessary."
	All 298 people on board the flight were killed, two-thirds of them ...

AFP

AFP

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