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 ...

Dutch return to MH17 crash site as search resumes

PTI Automatic

The first elected lawmaker for Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party was today sworn in at the House of Commons, watched by party leader Nigel Farage.
	Douglas Carswell defected from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives but was re-elected in his old seat of Clacton, southeast England, last week with a majority of over 12,000.
	Farage grinned broadly as Carswell was sworn in, promising to be "faithful to her majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law, so help me God".
	It was not immediately clear where he would sit in the House of Commons as he walked away immediately after the ceremony.
	As he arrived at the House of Commons in pouring rain for the first time in his new party, Carswell was in cheerful form, posing in front of the Big Ben clock tower with his thumbs up.
	"I'm reinvigorated. Democracy works... I think change is coming -- people in the country feel let down by the two-party system," he said.
	In response to questions about the reaction 

British parliament swears in first UKIP lawmaker

Nationalist candidates from Bosnia's Croat, Muslim and Serb communities won the country's three-man presidency, election results showed today, underlining continued ethnic strains 20 years after the Balkan state's civil war.
	With more than 90 percent of votes counted, Bakir Izetbegovic of the main Muslim SDA party and Dragan Covic of the Croat HDZ BIH party had won seats in the collective presidency.
	The Serb seat remained undecided, with two nationalist candidates -- opposition figure Mladen Ivanic and Zeljka Cvijanovic, the candidate of the Bosnian Serb ruling SNSD party -- neck and neck.
	The unwieldy power-sharing arrangement is part of a political system created by the US-brokered Dayton peace accord that ended a 1992-95 ethnic war in which some 100,000 people were killed.
	But although Bosnia-Herzegovina has been at peace since that bloodletting, yesterday's general election, which also included parliamentary polls, laid bare widespread discontent over the economy and division 

Nationalists win Bosnia's joint presidency: results

US and Saudi warplanes carried out eight air strikes in Syria today, mainly targeting Islamic State jihadists fighting for a key border town, the US military said.
	Bombers and fighter aircraft hit IS positions in seven strikes around Kobane, the scene of heavy fighting between the jihadists and Kurdish rebels near the Turkish border, US Central Command said.
	The targets included IS units, staging areas, a heavy machine gun position, and five buildings held by the jihadist group.
	The IS group has poured in reinforcements to try to overcome tenacious Kurdish resistance, and the fighting has threatened to cut Kobane from the outside world.
	An air strike also hit an IS garrison northwest of the Syrian town of Raqa, according to the command, which oversees US military operations in the region.

US, Saudi warplanes strike around Syria border town: US

Former Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana was arrested today shortly after his return from exile in South Africa, aides said.
	Special forces moved in to detain the former leader, who has been in exile since his ouster in 2009, shortly after he returned to the Indian Ocean island and made an impromptu address to supporters at his home.
	The arrest was confirmed by his aides, who said he was taken to an "unknown destination by Malagasy police who arrived at his home in about 15 vehicles" around lunchtime.
	"They were heavily armed with automatic rifles and were wearing balaclavas to disguise their identities," his son Tojo said in a statement.
	"They did not say what they were charging him with or where they were taking him."
	The former leader was in 2010 sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment with hard labour for the death of 30 opposition protesters killed by his presidential guard in February 2009.
	It was not immediately clear if his arrest was related to that ...

Madagascar arrests ex-leader on return from exile

President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi today named Yemen's envoy to the UN Khalid Bahah as his new premier, his second bid this month to end the country's political crisis, state news agency Saba said.
	"After consultations over several nominees, all advisors nominated Khalid Mahfoudh Bahah," Saba reported.
	Bahah is from the southeastern Hadramawt province. He studied administration and finance in his home country as well as India.
	He was Yemen's ambassador in Canada, and later the impoverished country's minister of oil and minerals, before he became its envoy at the United Nations in August.
	Hadi's move came after Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak rejected his nomination only 24 hours after he was appointed on Tuesday following strong opposition from Shiite rebels.
	The rebels, known as Huthis from the name of their leading family, stormed into Sanaa in a lightning offensive on September 21 and proceeded to establish a strong military presence, mounting patrols and manning checkpoints.
	The ...

Yemen names new PM in fresh bid to end crisis: state media

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today blamed "Palestinian extremists" for clashes at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, denying Israel was behind mounting tensions at the site.
	"Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo exactly as it's been for many decades. What we're seeing is Palestinian extremists who are instigating violence through incitement," he said in the presence of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
	Earlier in the day Ban said he was "deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem," which "inflame tensions and must stop."
	The UN chief's remarks came hours after clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters demonstrating against Orthodox Jews going to the esplanade, which is holy to both Islam and Judaism.
	Netanyahu also urged Ban to prevent the Palestinians from taking unilateral diplomatic measures at the United Nations.
	"A real peace can only be achieved through ...

Israel PM blames Palestinian 'extremists' for Jerusalem

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls today hailed the country's second win of Nobel season as a slap in the face for those who take pleasure in criticising the embattled nation.
	"After Patrick Modiano, another Frenchman reaches the top: congratulations to Jean Tirole," Valls wrote on Twitter after the Nobel economics prize was announced, adding it "really thumbed the nose at French bashing."
	Modiano's win for literature last week was already seen as a boost for a nation in the doldrums with a stagnating economy and deeply unpopular government.
	Valls hashtagged his twitter remark #fiersdelafrance ("Proud of France"), after previously hitting out at the gleeful crowing of newspapers and businessmen over the morose state of the nation.
	Batting away one crisis after another, France suffered a painful blow when Andy Street -- director of leading British retailer John Lewis -- recently described the country as "sclerotic, hopeless and downbeat" and "finished".
	On a trip to London earlier 

France PM says Nobel win 'thumbs nose at French bashing'

Iran must withdraw its "occupying" forces from Syria to help resolve that country's conflict, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said today after talks with his German counterpart.
	"Our reservations are about Iran's policy in the region, not about Iran as a country or people," the foreign minister said at a joint press conference in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
	"In many conflicts, Iran is part of the problem, not the solution," Prince Saud said, charging that Shiite-dominated Iran had forces in Syria "fighting Syrians."
	"In this case, we can say that Iranian forces in Syria are occupying forces," aiding President Bashar al-Assad, whom he described as an "illegitimate" leader.
	Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled Gulf states support rebel groups which have been battling Assad since March 2011 in a war which has killed more than 180,000 people.
	Assad receives financial and military aid from Iran, which denies having fighters on the ...

Iran must withdraw 'occupying' forces from Syria: Saudi

World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan today urged East Asian and Pacific countries to strengthen defences against the Ebola outbreak, warning that the whole world may be at risk.
	The region of 1.8 billion has been a hotspot for many emerging diseases including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and bird flu, but is so far free from the Ebola virus ravaging parts of West Africa.
	"In the simplest terms, this outbreak shows how one of the deadliest pathogens on earth can exploit any weakness in the health infrastructure," Chan told an annual meeting of Western Pacific health officials in a speech read for her.
	"You cannot build these systems up during a crisis. Instead they collapse. A dysfunctional health system means zero population resilience to the range of shocks that our world is delivering, with ever greater frequency and force."
	Chan added: "(W)hen a deadly and dreaded virus hits the destitute and spirals out of control, the whole world is put at risk."
	More than ...

WHO tells East Asia Pacific to bolster Ebola defences

Kurdish fighters engaged in fierce clashes with jihadists on the Turkish border near Kobane today, as Ankara denied allowing Washington to use its bases against the Islamic State group.
	US officials had earlier said Turkey would also host training for "moderate" Syrian rebels, in the hopes of finally creating a force capable of tackling IS on the ground.
	"There is no new agreement with the United States about Incirlik," a Turkish government official told AFP of an air base in southern Turkey that the US wants to use to launch air strikes.
	"Negotiations are continuing" based on Turkish conditions previously laid out, the official added.
	Near Kobane, fighting spread early today to the border area just north of the flashpoint town, threatening to cut it off from the outside world.
	IS fighters were also putting strong pressure on pro-government forces in Iraq, with concern over Anbar province and the key oil refinery of Baiji.
	With the jihadists advancing on its doorstep, NATO ...

Clashes near border as Turkey denies use of bases to battle IS

Taliban militants killed 22 police officers and wounded eight after ambushing a police convoy in northern Afghanistan today, officials said.
	The early morning attack in Sari Pul province highlights Afghanistan's fragile security situation, with local forces facing a persistent Taliban insurgency as NATO winds down its military presence.
	The police were attacked as they travelled to reinforce colleagues in another district in Sari Pul.
	"They were ambushed as they were going from Laghman area to Alaf Safid. Twenty-two police were martyred, eight wounded and seven were taken captive," provincial governor Abdul Jabar Haqbin told AFP.
	Around 10 police vehicles were torched, he said.
	"They called for foreign forces' air support, but they arrived very late," he added.
	He said the attack sparked a gunbattle that lasted several hours and left 23 Taliban fighters dead.
	Kazim Kenhan, a provincial police spokesman, confirmed the incident.
	The Taliban were not immediately available to ...

Taliban ambush in northern Afghanistan kills 22 policemen

A Jordanian court charged 26 people today with "terrorist acts" following unrest that wounded four people, including two police, when security forces shut a market in central Amman.
	They were arrested during clashes Friday evening that flared again on Saturday after stalls at Abdali second-hand clothing market were dismantled, a judicial source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	"The prosecutor general of the state security court charged 26 people over terrorist acts, using weapons and inflammable materials in contravention of the anti-terrorism law," the source said.
	The prosecutor general took the men into custody for 15 days.
	"Four people were wounded during the unrest, including two gendarmes," a security source told AFP. The source added that security forces were targeted by "live gunfire and Molotov cocktails".
	The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and the country's main opposition group, criticised the decision to close 

Jordan charges 26 with 'terrorism' after market unrest

Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is to be admitted to hospital to undergo surgery, her daughter said today.
	"Wishing my mother a speedy recovery and good luck with the surgery. Love always", Zindzi Mandela said on her Twitter account.
	The treatment will help blood circulation in the 78-year-old's leg, according to a source close to the family.
	Once a hero of the apartheid struggle in her own right, Madikizela-Mandela was previously hospitalised in 2011 for a "minor foot" operation.
	Mandela, who died last year, and Winnie married in 1958 and they had two daughters. They separated in 1992 and divorced four years later.
	She had tirelessly campaigned for his release during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid.
	But her image was tarnished by a series of scandals, including her links to the kidnap and murder of a young activist and a 2003 fraud conviction.
	She remains an MP and a top member of the ruling African National Congress.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to undergo surgery: daughter

People aged over 60 bear the brunt of disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes, and governments must stop sidelining them before tragedy strikes, the United Nations said today.
	"The older person is often invisible in our communities until they show up in the mortality figures after a disaster event," said Margareta Wahlstroem, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
	Her office pointed to research showing that older people suffer disproportionately from disasters, not just in hard-hit developing countries but also in rich nations.
	In 2005, 75 percent of those killed by Hurricane Katrina in the United States were over 60 -- an age group that made up just 15 percent of the population of New Orleans.
	And when Japan was hit by an earthquake and a tsunami in 2011, 56 percent of fatalities were aged 65 and over, despite comprising just 23 percent of the population.
	"Demographic change means we are living in an ageing world," Wahlstroem said in a statement.
	The world is ..

Disasters hit over-60s hardest: UN

Iraqi government troops stationed on the edge of Heet in beleaguered Anbar province have withdrawn to another base, leaving the city under full jihadist control, security sources said today.
	Islamic State (IS) fighters had assaulted and eventually seized the centre of the western city on the Euphrates river, but a sizeable contingent of government forces remained holed up in a nearby base.
	"Iraqi forces evacuated Heet training camp last night(yesterday) on the orders of the military command," a senior police official in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, told AFP.
	"Our military leaders argued that instead of leaving those forces exposed to attacks by IS, they would be best used to shore up the defence of Asad air base," he said.
	Ahmed Hamid, who heads the Anbar provincial council's security committee, said around 300 members of the security forces pulled out of the Heet training academy a few kilometres (miles)  northwest of the city.
	Asad is a large base northwest of Heet ...

Iraq pulls troops from IS-held western city

Iceland has closed down a website believed to be used by the jihadist organisation Islamic State, according to the authority responsible for the country's Internet domain name ".Is".
	"ISNIC has suspended domains that were used for the website of a known terrorist organisation," the Internet in Iceland Inc authority said in a statement late yesterday.
	The site "khilafah.Is" - which ISNIC said was run by a group calling itself Islamic State - was traced back to a web hosting company on the island nation at the weekend and was believed to have been online since mid-September.
	Several other websites with the name "khilafah" - or caliphate, an Islamic state which IS militants claim to have established in parts of Iraq and Syria - already exist in other countries with other domain name endings, including ".Com" and ".Org" and without clear links to the group.
	ISNIC head Jens Petur Jensen told public broadcaster RUV that it was the first time Iceland has closed down a domain name and ...

Iceland shuts down 'Islamic State' website

UN chief Ban Ki-moon today slammed Israeli settlement building and warned against "provocations" at Jerusalem's holy sites, calling for renewed peace talks to avoid further conflict with the Palestinians.
	Ban was in the West Bank city of Ramallah where he met Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah, a day after a Cairo conference at which international donors pledged USD 5.4 billion to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
	"The amount that has been committed, pledged by the international community is quite encouraging," Ban said at a joint news conference with Hamdallah.
	The funds would go towards the "urgently needed" reconstruction of infrastructure and homes, he said, referring to an "unprecedented" level of destruction in Gaza where nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed in the 50-day war in July and August.
	But "while rebuilding is important, we must tackle the root causes of instability," Ban said.
	"We must give renewed attention to the West Bank.
	"I once again strongly ...

UN's Ban slams Israel settlements, urges peace talks

The Islamic State jihadist group says that it has given Yazidi women and children captured in northern Iraq to its fighters as spoils of war, boasting it had revived slavery.
	The latest issue of its propaganda magazine Dabiq released yesterday was the first clear admission by the organisation that it was holding and selling Yazidis as slaves.
	Tens of thousands of Yazidis, a minority whose population is mostly confined to northern Iraq, have been displaced by the four-month-old jihadist offensive in the region.
	Yazidi leaders and rights groups warned in August that the small community faced genocide and that threat was put forward by Washington as one of the main reasons for launching air strikes.
	Thousands of Yazidis remained trapped on a mountain near their main hub of Sinjar for days in August, while others were massacred and the fate of hundreds of missing women and children remained unclear.
	In an article entitled "The revival of slavery before the hour", Dabiq argues that by 

IS jihadists boast of enslaving Yazidis

US entertainment firm Universal Parks & Resorts will invest more than USD 3 billion with a Chinese partner to open a movie theme park in Beijing in 2019, the city government and state media said today.
	The park, which will feature characters and scenes from Hollywood blockbusters such as Harry Potter and the Transformers franchises, will be located in the city's eastern district of Tongzhou, the city government's news office said on its verified account on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
	The project has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, and is expected to open to tourists in 2019, it said, without providing further details.
	Universal Parks & Resorts and partner Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment Co. Will spend more than 20 billion yuan (USD 3.26 billion) to build the park, which will cover an area of 120 hectares (296 acres), The Mirror newspaper reported.
	The development will include a ...

Universal plans USD 3 bn Beijing theme park: city

Former Madagascar president Marc Ravalomanana, who has been living in exile in South Africa since his ouster in 2009, returned home today.
	"I am here to support peace and democracy, but more urgent is the fight against poverty," he told supporters at his home in the capital Antananarivo.
	Madagascar has on several occasions blocked Ravalomanana's return to the Indian Ocean island since his rival Andry Rajoelina seized power.
	In 2012, a plane carrying him was turned back in mid-flight when he tried to return home after nearly three years in exile.
	Ravalomanana first fled to Swaziland after the coup and later moved to South Africa.
	The former leader was in 2010 sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment with hard labour for the death of 30 opposition protesters killed by his presidential guard in February 2009.
	A spokesman for the South African department of international relations, Clayson Monyela said he had no details of Ravalomanana's return.
	Political stability is slowly ...

AFP

AFP

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