Israeli and Palestinian officials met at the weekend to draw up an action plan to prevent the Ebola epidemic from spreading to the territories they control, the Israeli military said today.
	"During the meeting (yesterday evening), updates were exchanged between the parties, and transfer of information was agreed upon by way of additional meetings to take place in order to further track the issue," said COGAT, the defence ministry unit responsible for Palestinian civilian coordination.
	One proposal to combat the disease was for Israel to provide courses in advanced epidemiology for Palestinian and Jordanian medical staff, a health ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
	Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people this year, nearly all of them in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
	"There are contacts with the Israeli side regarding this within the context of WHO's instructions on fighting this ...

Israelis and Palestinians join forces to combat Ebola

PTI Automatic

People-smugglers kidnapped dozens of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh after duping them with fake job offers, and trafficked them to a rubber plantation in southern Thailand, officials said today.
	The 53 men -- mostly Rohingya refugees from Myanmar but also including Bangladeshi citizens -- were found on Saturday on the plantation in Takua Pa district in the southern Thai coastal province of Phang Nga.
	"Two Thai men have been charged with human trafficking," Nappadon Thiraprawat of Takua Pa police told AFP.
	The group will be treated as victims of trafficking rather than as illegal immigrants, he added, after interviews revealed they had been kidnapped and put on a boat south.
	A local official close to the case said most of the men were abducted around a week ago from a Bangladesh coastal area which is home to a large number of Rohingya Muslim refugees from neighbouring Myanmar.
	Many thought they were being recruited for odd jobs in the area, only to end up on the boat ...

Migrants kidnapped in B'desh, trafficked to Thailand:officials

Lewis Hamilton reeled off his fourth consecutive victory to extend his lead in the Formula One drivers' title race and secure Mercedes' maiden triumph in the constructors' championship on Sunday when he won the inaugural Russian Grand Prix in emphatic fashion.
     The 29-year-old Briton, starting from his 38th pole position, cruised to the 31st success of his career to draw level with fellow-Englishman Nigel Mansell in the record books, finishing the race 13.657 seconds ahead of Mercedes team-mate and nearest rival German Nico Rosberg.
     Hamilton's win lifted him 17 points clear of Rosberg, who made a mistake on the opening lap and, after a pit stop, recovered from the back of the field. Hamilton now has 291 points to Rosberg's 274 with three races remaining.
     Just a week after Jules Bianchi's life-threatening accident in the storm-hit Japanese Grand Prix, where the French driver suffered severe head injuries, the race was preceded by tributes to support his fight for life in .

Hamilton wins, Mercedes take teams' crown

Bolivia's indigenous President Evo Morales was widely expected to win a third term in power in elections today, along with a legislative majority that would permit him to push through his leftist reforms.
	Six million Bolivians were casting ballots in the presidential and congressional polls, which would likely expose the weakness of a fragmented opposition.
	Voting -- which is compulsory -- began on schedule at 8:00 am (1730 IST) and was to end at 4:00 pm. Alcohol consumption was prohibited 48 hours before and 12 hours after polling. Carrying firearms was also banned during the vote.
	Morales, who has blended leftwing economic policy with nationalist rhetoric and a focus on indigenous rights and the environment -- all while presiding over an economic boom -- was seen to have 59 per cent support heading into the election, according to surveys.
	That puts him more than 40 points clear of his nearest rivals: business magnate Samuel Doria Medina, with 18 per cent, and conservative former 

Morales set for landslide victory in Bolivia vote

Germany's foreign minister said today that Berlin had made serious mistakes in its military engagement in Afghanistan since 2001 and warned against a hasty withdrawal.
	Ahead of the end of US-led NATO combat operations in the war-ravaged country this year, Frank-Walter Steinmeier offered a sobering assessment of the 13-year mission.
	"There is a lot to indicate that our biggest mistake was to create expectations that were too high," he wrote in a column for the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
	"We not only wanted to snuff out the security threat that Afghanistan represented but also lead the country at high speed into a future according to our own vision."
	He said that despite progress in Afghanistan, the country was still plagued by a thriving drug trade and rampant corruption.
	Warlords hold power in several provinces and violence abounds, Steinmeier added, lamenting that the extremist Taliban had been "long been underestimated as a political player".
	But he said ...

Germany regrets 'mistakes' in Afghanistan mission

Weakened by its failure in July to seal a key deal on a global customs pact amid continued wrangling with India, the World Trade Organization is at a crossroads, observers say.
	   "We are in a unique situation in the history of the organisation," a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity ahead of a meeting later this month that others warn could fatally undermine the global trade body if the deal is not rescued.
	   A draft of the so-called Trade Facilitation Agreement emerged at the WTO's Bali conference in December last year and was meant to be finalised at the end of July.
	   But sparring between members, notably over demands from India that the world body gives the green light to the developing power's stockpiling of food, have put the long-sought deal on ice.
	   India and its supporters say such stockpiling is essential to ensure poor farmers and consumers survive in the cut-throat world of business, while Western countries meanwhile have raised concerns that this ...

WTO at a crossroads amid blocked trade deal

At least 21 people were killed and more than 60 wounded in tribal clashes west of the Libyan capital over the weekend, hospital sources said today.
	Witnesses said nationalist militia from the hilltown of Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, attacked the neighbouring town of Kekla which supports their Islamist-led Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) rivals.
	The clashes on that took place yesterday and today left 21 people dead and more than 60 wounded, officials at a local hospital said.

At least 21 dead in Libya clashes: hospital

The European Commission will give 3.9 million euros (USD 4.9 million dollars) in aid to humanitarian groups helping refugees from the besieged Syrian border town of Kobane, a statement said today.
	"Over 180,000 Syrians have been displaced to Turkey by the fierce fighting in Kobane. This further adds to the impact of what is the biggest humanitarian crisis of our times," said Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.
	The funding, part of a total 150 million euros (USD 189 million dollars) of European Commission humanitarian aid for Syria in 2014, would help provide water, medicine and shelter to refugees.
	Kobane, near the Turkish border, has been the target of Islamic State fighters for the past three weeks, forcing the departure of some 300,000 inhabitants.
	IS poured in reinforcements today as the Syrian town's Kurdish defenders kept up their high-profile resistance.
	The European Union is jointly managing almost three .

EU grants 3.9 million euros in aid to Kobane refugees

Three suicide car bomb attacks against offices in a Kurdish-controlled Iraqi town killed at least 25 people today, most of them Kurdish forces veterans volunteering to re-enlist, officials said.
	   "At 10:30 this morning (0730 GMT), three car bombs struck Qara Tapah," said Mayor Wahab Ahmed, who was lightly wounded in the attack.
	   Qara Tapah lies close to Jalawla, a key battleground northeast of Baghdad between pro-government forces and Islamic State group (IS) jihadists.
	   The mayor said the three car bombs targeted his office, a building used by the Kurds' asayesh internal security service and an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.
	   Ahmed said nearby buildings used by the electricity department and the Kurdish peshmerga forces' veterans affairs bureau were also seriously damaged in the explosions.
	   A high-ranking security official in the autonomous Kurdish regional government put the death toll at 27 and said most of the dead were peshmerga veterans who had 

Triple car bomb attack kills 25 in Iraq town: officials

A Texas health care worker who treated a man who later died of Ebola has tested positive for the disease in a preliminary test, doctors said today, the second person to be diagnosed with the illness on US soil.
	"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," said Dr David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
	"We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."
	The health care worker reported a low grade fever Friday night and was isolated and referred for testing, Texas health services said in a statement. It did not further identify the worker nor detail how exposure to the virus occurred.
	The statement added: "Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures. People who had contact with the health care worker after symptoms emerged will be monitored based on the nature of their interactions and the ...

Texas health care worker tests positive for Ebola: doctor

The Islamic State group poured in reinforcements today for its nearly month-long siege of Kobane as the Syrian town's Kurdish defenders kept up their high-profile resistance.
	IS has sustained serious losses in the battle for the town despite their superior armour, with at least 36 of its fighters killed yesterday alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
	With the world's press massed just across the nearby border with Turkey, the fight for the town has become one the jihadists cannot afford to lose, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
	"It's a decisive battle for them," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
	"If they don't pull it off, it will damage their image among jihadists around the world."
	Abdel Rahman said that IS was sending additional fighters from other areas it controls in Syria, including its Euphrates Valley stronghold of Raqa, after its Friday capture of the Kurdish command headquarters in Kobane failed to deliver a decisive ...

IS pours in reinforcements to Syria's Kobane: monitor

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defence minister to pull thousands of troops from the border with Ukraine, the Kremlin said ahead of key talks on a fragile truce in the ex-Soviet country.
	"The head of state has tasked the defence minister with beginning to bring troops back to their permanent bases," the Kremlin said late yesterday evening.
	The Kremlin said the order meant that 17,600 servicemen, who had in the summer participated in military drills in the southern Rostov region on the border with Ukraine, would be pulled back.
	Defence minister Sergei Shoigu received the order after reporting that "summertime training on military ranges of the Southern military district is over," the Kremlin said.
	The yesterday meeting between Putin and his defence minister took place after the president chaired a meeting of his national security council, said the Kremlin, without providing further details.
	Putin is expected to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for key ...

Putin orders troop pullback from Ukraine border: Kremlin

A roadside bomb killed the police chief of Iraq's battleground province of Anbar today, officials said, after the Pentagon expressed concern about a renewed offensive by jihadists in the area.
	The attack came near the provincial capital of Ramadi, one of the few areas between Baghdad and the Syrian border not controlled by fighters loyal to the Islamic State group, provincial and police officials said.
	"Major General Ahmed Saddag was killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) blast targeting his convoy this morning," Faleh al-Issawi, the deputy head of the provincial council, told AFP.
	"The blast hit the convoy as it was passing through the Abu Risha district," just northwest of Ramadi, he said.
	A senior police official in the province confirmed Saddag's death and said four other policemen were also wounded in the attack.
	"The police chief was leading forces involved in an operation to retake Twei" from IS, Colonel Abdulrahman al-Janabi said.
	He said clashes between ...

Bomb kills police chief of Iraq's troubled Anbar

Australian police charged two teenagers today after a video of one of them allegedly racially abusing a train guard in a five-minute rant went viral online.
	The young men, aged 17 and 18, were questioned by Queensland police earlier today over the expletive-filled tirade on a Brisbane train on October 2.
	A video of the incident attracted thousands of views after it was posted on Facebook and YouTube yesterday.
	One of the teenagers started hurling abuse at the guard after he was told to take his feet off a seat, while another person believed to be his friend recorded the video as he giggled and laughed.
	"Do you want to come to Australia and learn some proper English?" the teenager yelled before allegedly using racist and offensive language.
	The younger man was charged with assault, creating a nuisance in a train and threatening violence, while the 18-year-old was charged with creating a nuisance on a train, Queensland police said in a statement.
	"It will further be alleged one of 

Australian police charge teens over 'racist' train rant

Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters have an "almost zero chance" of changing Beijing's stance and securing free elections, the city's embattled Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in a TV show today.
	Demonstrators calling for Beijing to grant full democracy to the former British colony have paralysed parts of Hong Kong for more than two weeks, causing widespread disruption and prompting clashes between protesters and residents who opposed road blockades.
	In an interview broadcast on a local channel TVB today, Leung said the street protests had "spun out of control" and warned it was highly unlikely the action would alter Beijing's position.
	He added if the government had to clear the protests sites, police would use a "minimum amount of force" to handle the situation.
	China announced in August that while Hong Kongers will be able to vote for Leung's successor in 2017, only two or three vetted candidates will be allowed to stand -- an arrangement the protesters dismiss as "fake ..

HK leader says democracy movement has 'almost zero chance'

Four civilians including a 12-year-old boy were killed and several wounded when a mortar bomb hit a crowded road in conflict-hit eastern Myanmar, witnesses and police said today.
	The incident happened yesterday in an area of Karen state near the Thai border, which residents say has been rattled by fighting in recent weeks between troops and a rebel splinter group representing the ethnic Karen minority.
	The latest round of talks aimed at securing a nationwide ceasefire in a nation beset by ethnic insurgencies ended in deadlock late last month -- leaving the government still short of its target of reaching peace before elections next year.
	A "heavy weapon" hit the road between the towns of Kawkareik and Myawaddy yesterday morning, a local police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
	"Three men and a 12-year old boy were killed. Another two women and eight more men -- including an abbot from a nearby monastery -- were wounded," the policeman said.
	A local hospital official, ...

Four civilians killed in explosion in troubled Myanmar region

Bosnia voted today to choose new leaders and a parliament amid mounting social discontent in a country plagued with corruption and ethnic disputes hampering its approach to the European Union.
	Nearly 20 years since a devastating war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs the country is one of Europe's poorest and remains split along ethnic lines.
	The 1992-1995 conflict, which killed 100,000 people, left the former Yugoslav Republic divided into two semi-autonomous entities -- the ethnic Serb Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- linked by weak central institutions.
	Some 3.3 million voters are eligible to cast ballots to elect three members -- a Croat, a Muslim and a Serb -- of the joint presidency as well as a new central parliament. They will also elect assemblies for the two entities and in Republika Srpska a president.
	"I will not vote for current rulers. They did not improve anything," Nadja Kadric, a librarian in her 50s, told AFP in Sarajevo, echoing the ...

Bosnians vote amid economic woes, ethnic splits

Kurdish fighters halted a thrust by Islamic State jihadists towards the heart of the Syrian border town of Kobane, after the UN warned thousands of civilians risked massacre if it falls

Kurds battle for heart of Kobane as UN fears massacre

Press Trust of India

Lava is again flowing out of Mayon, the Philippines' most active volcano, raising fears an eruption could be imminent, authorities said today.
	The government has already evacuated around 63,000 people living inside a six-kilometre (3.7-mile) danger zone around the volcano, after it began to spew out white smoke and some lava last month.
	Activity had appeared to quieten down but a fresh cascade -- confirmed by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology Sunday -- this time stretching further down the slopes, has prompted concerns that an eruption may soon take place.
	"The first activity started on September 15 and lasted for a few days. After that, there was a lull or no summit activity, but this morning, our volcanologists spotted a lava flow," said Renato Solidum, head of the government volcanology agency told ABS-CBN television.
	"What is happening now is that there is very slow movement... Of lava flow about 350 metres (1,148 feet) in length from the summit," he ...

Fresh lava spews out of Philippine volcano

Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Cairo early today to lend US backing to a high-profile conference aiming to raise billions of dollars to help rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip.
	Some 50 countries are to attend the talks, with Palestinians hoping for USD 4 billion in global pledges, despite wariness from donors that without a full peace treaty with Israel they may just be pouring money down the drain.
	"I think it's very fair to say that there are serious questions being raised by a lot of the donors about... How best to break this cycle" of violence, a senior State Department official told reporters before Kerry left Washington.
	There has to be reflection about "how best to ensure that we're not going to find ourselves back here doing the same thing again in a year or two".
	Kerry will also have a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the conference, likely to focus on US efforts to build a coalition against Islamic militants who have seized territory in Iraq and ..

Kerry arrives in Cairo for Gaza aid talks

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo spent a rare Saturday in the shadows as Argentina and Portugal slipped to defeats in friendly internationals staged more than 8,000km apart.
     Messi missed a first-half penalty as Brazil beat Argentina 2-0 in a fiercely contested "Superclasico" in front of 50,000 fans in the Chinese capital.
     Seven hours later, Ronaldo's Portugal lost 2-1 to France in Paris.
     At Beijing's Olympic Stadium, journeyman Diego Tardelli was the unlikely hero with his first two goals for Brazil.
     Atletico Mineiro striker Tardelli, 29, put Brazil ahead on 28 minutes, before Messi curled his soft penalty attempt close to goalkeeper Jefferson just before half-time.
     Tardelli was on target again in the second half as Brazil restored pride after the World Cup, when the hosts were hammered in the semis while Argentina reached the final.
     "Brazil are the best team in the world with a great tradition," beamed coach Dunga, who is rebuilding following the 7-1 ..

AFP

AFP

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