Islamic State jihadists have captured the headquarters of Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian border town of Kobane, with a UN envoy warning thousands would likely be massacred if it falls to them.
	Outgunned Kurdish militia were struggling to prevent the jihadists closing off the last escape route for civilians still in the area, prompting an appeal yesterday for urgent military assistance.
	US-led warplanes have intensified air strikes against IS, which has been attacking Kobane for three weeks, but the Pentagon has said that there are limits to what can be done without troops on the ground.
	Washington also warned that the military campaign could lead to reprisal attacks "against US, Western and coalition partner interests throughout the world".
	The jihadists' advance has brought the front line to just 1.3 kilometres from the Turkish border but Ankara has so far refrained from any action against the jihadists.
	Four straight nights of protests among Turkey's large Kurdish ...

Jihadists seize Kurdish HQ in Syria's Kobane, massacre feared

PTI Automatic

Luis Suarez returned for Uruguay for the first time since his infamous World Cup biting shame and helped the South Americans to a 1-1 friendly draw against Saudi Arabia.
     The 27-year-old Barcelona star's shot from an angle on 47 minutes in Jeddah came back off the far post before hitting Hassan Muath Fallatah for an own goal.
     Suarez was replaced with 20 minutes to go but his hopes of a winning international return were ruined by Naif Hazazi's last-minute equaliser for the former Asian champions.
     Although still serving a nine-match competitive international ban for sinking his teeth into Italy's Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup, Suarez is allowed to play in friendlies.
     Suarez, whose club ban ends in two weeks when Barcelona face bitter rivals Real Madrid, could have scored just before coming off when he pounced on a dreadful back pass.
     But with only goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah to beat, he tried to dribble past the shot-stopper and was tackled.
     "Happy to ...

Suarez back in business, Japan edge Jamaica

Formula One has learned lessons from Jules Bianchi's life-threatening crash in Japan and will make key changes to improve safety, two of the sport's leading figures said.
     Jean Todt, president of the International Motoring Federation (FIA), and the ruling body's race director Charlie Whiting made this clear during a briefing in the paddock late on Friday at the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.
     The two also revealed more details of the terrible accident in which the 25-year-old Frenchman's Marussia car crashed into a recovery vehicle at the conclusion of the rain-lashed Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka last Sunday.
     "We have to learn from what happened," said Todt. "And we will, because we cannot be faced with such a situation again. Each life is very important."
     Film of the two accidents involving Bianchi and Adrian Sutil, who acquaplaned off the circuit at the same Dunlop Curve one lap earlier, were shown.
     The film showed Sutil run off the dry racing line, in heavy ..

F1 to make key changes after Bianchi smash

Australia continued their dominance over Pakistan with a hard fought five-wicket win in the second day-night international, taking an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
     Pakistan squandered an opening stand of 126 between openers Sarfraz Ahmed (65) and Ahmed Shahzad (61) and were bowled out for 215 in 49.3 overs with paceman Mitchell Johnson taking 3-40.
     Glenn Maxwell then punished the sloppy Pakistan fielding with an 81-ball 76 as Australia reached their target in 43.2 overs for their fourth consecutive one-day series win over Pakistan.
     Maxwell added an invaluable 85 for the fourth wicket with skipper George Bailey (28), steadying the chase after Pakistan dismissed Aaron Finch (14), David Warner (29) and Steven Smith (12) to leave Australia wobbling at 72-3.
     But Pakistan spurned a good chance of dismissing the dangerous Maxwell on five when Umar Akmal dropped him in the slips off debutant Raza Hasan.
     Hasan was also unlucky in the early overs when ..

Australia thump Pakistan to seal one-day series

At least nine people died and dozens more were missing after an overcrowded wooden boat went down off the south coast of Guinea, official said.
	The long thin pirogue boat had 69 passengers aboard when it left the port of Farmoriah yesterday for a weekly market further along the coast.
	"It capsized at sea not far from (the market town of) Benty, leaving nine dead while 18 escaped," the national navigation agency said in a statement read on television.

9 dead, dozens missing as boat sinks off Guinea: official

Nine civilians were killed when suspected members of a notorious Ugandan Islamist group stormed a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this week, UN peacekeepers have said.
	"The attack took place during the night of the 8th to 9th October when the rebels invaded the town of Oicha and killed nine people belonging to two families, including the children," the United Nations' Monusco peacekeeping mission said in a statement yesterday.
	The attacks in the restive North Kivu province forced between 3,000 and 5,000 people to flee towards Beni, 30 kilometres to the south.
	Monusco said the rebels may have come from the Allied Democratic Forces, an Ugandan Islamist group targeted by the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers since the start of the year.
	The operations have weakened the rebels but local civil society groups have warned of renewed attacks by the ADF in recent days.
	Monusco chief Martin Kobler said he was "profoundly shocked" by the latest attack that "demonstrates ...

Nine killed in suspected Ugandan rebel attack in DR Congo: UN

Most people would be reluctant to pick a fight with a revered Buddhist holy man and 14 other Nobel peace prize winners, but that's just what South African President Jacob Zuma has done.
	When the Dalai Lama asked for a visa to attend next week's first ever summit of Nobel laureates in Africa, Zuma's government demurred and the Tibetan cancelled his trip.
	It's the third time Zuma's government dragged its feet on a visa for the bespectacled monk, so the president knew exactly what to expect: public opprobrium and a pat on the head from Beijing, which calls the Dalai Lama a terrorist.
	But this time the backlash was tougher and more damaging.
	Zuma's decision resulted in the embarrassing cancellation of the Cape Town Nobel event, which -- as if to underscore the contrast of the ANC's idealistic past and its hard-nosed present -- had been scheduled to mark the 20th anniversary of apartheid's collapse and the election of Nelson Mandela.
	South Africans of all stripes who remember the pain 

Dalai Lama row puts ANC on collision course with history

Algerian soldiers killed five gunmen during anti-militant operations, the defence ministry and army said today, a day after raiding the suspected hideout of jihadists who beheaded a French hostage.
	Three suspected militants were killed today in the area of Bouria, 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Algiers, the ministry said in a statement.
	Two Kalashnikovs and a semi-automatic rifle were seized, it added.
	The fourth militant were killed in a separate raid on yesterday in the Tiaret region, 340 kilometres southwest of Algiers.
	A separate statement from the army today said troops killed a fifth militant in the Tiaret region and that soldiers had also seized an assault rifle in the operation.
	The army also announced yesterday that it had destroyed a camp in the Djurdjura mountains, 150 kilometres southeast of Algiers, believed to have been used by militants who beheaded French hiker Herve Gourdel last month.
	Gourdel was kidnapped on September 21 by Jund al-Khilifa, or "Soldiers of .

Algerian army kills five suspected militants

President Barack Obama is considering shutting Guantanamo and transferring its terror-suspect detainees to US soil, according to a US news report that raised the ire of Republican lawmakers today.
	The report in the Wall Street Journal said that Obama is mulling moving the Guantanamo inmates to US soil without first obtaining congressional consent.
	While administration officials say Obama prefers a legislative solution rather than overriding Congress through executive action, a senior official told the daily that the president remained "unwavering in his commitment" to closing the prison, and wants all options on the table.
	But House Speaker John Boehner warned that Obama would be making a "dangerous" mistake to shift the detainees to US prisons.
	"An overwhelming majority of the American people and bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate oppose importing the terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay into the United States, yet the White House continues to move forward with its .

Republicans fume over report Obama may shut Guantanamo

Sixteen people were killed and about 30 injured in Haiti authorities said today, after a commercial bus carrying passengers and merchandise plunged into a ravine.
	The bus was carrying several dozen passengers at the time of the accident in the town of Saint-Michel, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital Port-au-Prince.
	"There are many people with head fractures. People are in shock," regional civil protection leader Raymonde Jourdain told AFP.
	Last month, at least 23 people, including an infant, died in a similar accident when a bus hurtled down a hill and into a ravine in the coastal town of Petit-Goave, about 70 kilometers west of the capital.

Haiti road accident kills 16

Twenty-six people, including four children, died in Angola today after a bus rammed into an oncoming truck near the city of Porto Amboim, south of the seaside capital Luanda.
	"A shared taxi burst a tyre and collided with a truck coming from the other side," Joaquim Faustino, the head of emergency services of the area told AFP.
	"Twenty-five people died instantly and another died in hospital later," he said.
	Road accidents claim the most lives in Angola after malaria.
	Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil producer after Nigeria and its third-largest economy.
	But its infrastructure is still a shambles and being steadily rebuilt after nearly three decades of devastating civil war.

Twenty-six die in Angolan road accident

Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox announced a joint venture today, partnering with "Big Brother" creator Endemol to create up a big new player in the TV production segment.
	The deal announced by the two firms creates a 50-50 joint venture between US-based Fox and Netherlands-based Endemol's majority owner, investment firm Apollo Global Management.
	The new venture will have creative operations in over 30 markets, "with a diverse portfolio of over 600 formats, both scripted and non-scripted, coupled with digital, gaming, and distribution operations," a statement said.
	The partnership "advances our strategy of accelerating 21st Century Fox's growth in worldwide television production," said Chase Carey, the company's president and chief operating officer.
	The venture incorporates Fox's Shine Group, which produces reality programs like "Masterchef" and "The Voice" and Apollo's CORE Media Group, which produces "American Idol."
	Sophie Turner Laing, former managing director of content at 

Murdoch joint venture creates TV production powerhouse

Medical experts have now identified 272 of the 298 people aboard the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 shot down in Ukraine in July, the Dutch justice ministry said today.
	Ten more people were identified this week of whom seven held Dutch nationality, the ministry said in a statement, adding that their relatives would be informed.
	It did not reveal the nationalities of the three others, per requests from the embassies concerned.
	The information was given after Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans revealed that the body of one of the people on the plane was found with an oxygen mask around his neck.
	The passenger was identified as an Australian passenger in media reports.
	The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17 while flying over insurgent-held territory in conflict-wracked eastern Ukraine.
	Forensics experts suspended their search for bodies due to clashes between Kiev and the pro-Russian rebels near the crash site ...

Netherlands says 10 more MH17 passengers identified

A German aid worker who was kidnapped in Pakistan over two years ago has been released in neighbouring Afghanistan, Berlin said today.
	"The government is very relieved that a German national who was kidnapped more than two years ago in Pakistan has been freed in Afghanistan," a foreign ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
	He was now in the care of the German government, receiving counselling and was "doing well under the circumstances", said the spokeswoman, adding that an international "partner" had helped set him free.
	Newspaper Bild said that Germany's KSK special forces were involved in the handover of the aid worker for the group Welthungerhilfe (World Hunger Aid), who was identified only as Bernd M.
	He was taken in January 2012 in Pakistan, and handed over at a mosque on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, after his kidnappers had forced him to march through regions of eastern Afghanistan, the report said.

German aid worker freed in Afghanistan after 2 years captivity

The United Nations said today it had quarantined 41 personnel from its Liberia mission, including 20 soldiers, following a second infection among its staff of the deadly Ebola virus.
	The measure came two days after the mission, known as UNMIL, announced an "international staff member" working in its medical department tested positive after complaining of symptoms consistent with the Ebola virus.
	"Following the discovery on October 5 that an UNMIL medical staff member was symptomatic for Ebola, the mission conducted robust contact tracing to ensure all people that came into contact with the staff member while they were symptomatic are assessed and isolated as necessary," it said in a statement.
	"As a result of the rigorous contact tracing, 41 staff members who were possible contacts are under close medical observation, including 20 military personnel."
	UNMIL, which has 6,000 troops and police in Liberia, said the personnel would undergo "precautionary" observation for the 21-day ...

UN quarantines 41 personnel in Ebola-hit Liberia

Airbus said today that China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) has signed an agreement to buy 70 A320 family aircraft, an order worth USD 6.6 billion (5.2 billion euros) at list prices.
	The order reflects the strong demand from Chinese carriers for single-aisle aircraft for domestic, low cost, regional and international operations, the European aircraft manufacturer said.
	"We are grateful to China for its strong vote of confidence in our leading A320 family aircraft, and are happy to see them assembled at our Chinese facilities," Airbus chief executive Fabrice Bregier said in a statement.
	Airbus has already assembled and delivered 190 A320 aircraft from a facility in China's Tianjin Free Trade Zone.
	It said it had also signed a letter of intent with its Chinese partners to build a similar facility for A330 family aircraft, wide-body planes that can carry over 400 passengers.
	"In its 30 years history the Airbus partnership with China keeps on growing and expanding," Bregier .

Airbus says China to buy 70 A320 planes worth USD 6.6 bn

Iran released a video today showing supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on his first outdoor walk since undergoing prostate surgery, as part of a more open policy on his health.
	In an unprecedented step last month, the Islamic republic publicised Khamenei's hospital treatment, which followed years of widespread rumours that he had prostate cancer.
	His surgery on September 8 was described as successful and since being released he has been pictured in official meetings but not as prominently as in Friday's two minutes and 35 seconds video.
	"This was the first time I could go for a hike after my surgery and it was recommended by my doctors," Khamenei was quoted as saying on his khamenei.Ir website.
	Wearing white training shoes and a short coat over his robes as he trekked on a hill road, the supreme leader was accompanied by several aides in the early morning in hills in northern Tehran.
	The 75-year-old cleric, who has ruled since the death in 1989 of Islamic republic founder ...

Iran releases video of leader's first post-surgery hike

Islamic State group fighters executed nine people today in two northern Iraqi towns on suspicion of ties to anti-jihadist Sunni grassroots organisations, security sources and witnesses said.
	In the town of Az-Zab, 90 kilometres (55 miles) west of the oil hub of Kirkuk, six people were executed in public.
	"IS executed four residents of the lower part of Az-Zab and two from villages near Az-Zwiya," a few miles further to the west, a local security official said.
	Witnesses said the six were accused of being involved in efforts to organise Sunni resistance to IS in the Hawija region. They were executed on a marketplace, they said.
	It was in the same area that residents of the village of Tel Ali burned an IS flag last month.
	In retaliation, the jihadists abducted 50 residents and put up flags across the region, even booby-trapping some of them to stop locals from removing them.
	In Baiji, about 35 kilometres (20 miles) to the south, three men were beheaded today, a security official ..

IS jihadists execute nine people in northern Iraq

A spike in clashes between rival militias in Libya has pushed the number of people driven from their homes to an estimated 287,000, the United Nations' refugee agency said today.
	UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters that some 100,000 people had fled over the past three weeks from Warshefana, on the outskirts of the capital Tripoli.
	Another 15,000 people were estimated to have been displaced around Libya's eastern city of Benghazi, he said.
	The oil-rich North African nation has been in turmoil since an uprising toppled longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi three years ago, with interim authorities facing powerful militias that fought to oust him.
	A total of some 287,000 people are estimated to have fled conflict and are scattered in 29 towns and cities countrywide, many of them in dire straits, he said.
	"The need for healthcare, food, and other basic commodities - plus for shelter ahead of winter - has become critical," said Edwards.
	He said aid agencies were working flat out ..

Libya clashes drive 287,000 from homes: UN

Liberia said today it was banning journalists from Ebola clinics, defying media rights campaigners who have warned panicked African governments against "muzzling" reporters in response to the crisis.
	Government spokesman Isaac Jackson made the announcement as he was questioned on a radio phone-in show about reporters being barred from covering a strike at a Monrovia Ebola treatment unit (ETU).
	"Journalists are no longer allowed to enter ETUs. These journalists enter the ETUs and cross red lines," Jackson, the deputy information minister, told listeners to commercial station Sky FM.
	"They violate people's privacy, take pictures that they will sell to international institutions. We are putting an end to that."
	Journalists had earlier been denied access to the Island Clinic in Monrovia to cover a nationwide "go slow" day of action by healthcare workers demanding risk bonuses for treating Ebola.
	The minister told the Monrovia-based station he would insist that journalists report his .

Liberia bans journalists from Ebola centres

Jihadists captured the headquarters of Kurdish fighters defending the battleground Syrian town of Kobane today as a UN envoy warned of a looming "massacre" by the Islamic State group.
	Outgunned Kurdish militia were struggling to prevent the jihadists closing off the last escape route for the thousands of civilians still in or near the town, prompting an appeal for urgent military assistance.
	US-led warplanes have intensified air strikes against IS fighters who have been attacking Kobane for three weeks but the Pentagon has warned that, without a force on the ground to work with, there are limits to what can be done.
	Neighbouring Turkey has so far held back from any action against the jihadists on its doorstep, despite four straight nights of protests among its own large Kurdish minority that have left 31 people dead.
	The jihadists' advance has brought the front line to just 1.3 kilometres from the border.
	"IS now controls 40 per cent of the town," said the Britain-based Syrian ...

AFP

AFP

Page 2792 - Afp