Warnings that the Islamic State organisation may be plotting to attack Pope Francis during his visit to mostly-Muslim Albania on Sunday have been shrugged off by the Vatican.
	Despite warnings from Iraq's ambassador to the Holy See that the 77-year-old could be in danger - and reports in the Italian media of new IS recruits returning from the Middle East to Albania - the Vatican said security measures would remain unchanged.
	The Argentine pontiff, who habitually throws caution to the winds to mingle with the crowds, will use the same open-topped vehicle he uses in Saint Peter's Square at a mass in Tirana, the capital of one of Europe's poorest countries.
	Some worry the pope has made himself a target by speaking out against the Islamic State organisation and having the Holy See voice support for US air strikes in Iraq - a rare exception to its policy of peaceful conflict resolution.
	"In cases like this, where there is an unjust aggression, then it is licit to halt the aggressor," he 

Vatican shrugs off warning of IS plot against pope in Albania

PTI Automatic

Tens of thousands of people fled roof-high floods and one girl drowned in the Philippine capital today as another vicious storm swept across the disaster-plagued country.
	Rescue workers in trucks and rubber dinghies plucked residents from the tops of flooded homes, after one of Manila's major rivers burst its banks, swamping heavily populated eastern districts.
	"We're dealing with floods over a large area. Our local as well as national responders are out there leading the rescue operations," Mina Marasigan, spokeswoman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told AFP.
	She said the first known fatality was a girl who drowned at a flooded slum in northern Manila.
	Fung-Wong's winds were relatively light, with recorded maximum speeds of 85 kilometres an hour as it brushed past the northeast tip of the main island of Luzon around noon .
	However it brought heavy downpours of more than three weeks' worth overnight Thursday across Manila, more than 400 kilometres .

1 dead as tropical storm flooding paralyses Philippine capital

Sierra Leone today launched a controversial three-day shutdown to contain the deadly spread of the Ebola virus, as the UN Security Council declared the deadly outbreak a threat to world peace.
	Most of Sierra Leone's population of six million were confined to their homes from midnight, with only essential workers such as health professionals and security forces exempt from the lock down.
	Almost 30,000 volunteers will go door-to-door to educate locals and hand out soap, in an exercise that could lead to scores more patients and bodies being discovered in people's homes.
	Health experts have criticised the shutdown, arguing that coercive measures to stem the epidemic could backfire and would be extremely hard to implement.
	Doctors Without Borders warned that lock downs may end up driving people underground "and jeopardise the trust between people and health providers".
	But Sierra Leone President Ernest Koroma said that if the population were to heed the volunteers' advice, "the ...

Sierra Leone launches controversial Ebola shutdown

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) executive board today approved Indonesia as hosts for the 2018 Asian Games which faces a growing battle to find venues because of the cost.
     The continent's sports leaders had to find a quick replacement after Vietnam said in April that it could no longer afford to stage the next Asian Games.
     "Today it has been approved by the EB (executive board) that in 2018 will be the next Asian Games in Jakarta in Indonesia," said council president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.
     The body's general assembly should rubber stamp the decision on Saturday. But Sheikh Amad stressed that an earlier special assembly had given him "the authority to decide and find the replacement to Vietnam."
     Ade Lukman, an Indonesian Olympic Committee official, said the country was delighted. "Being selected to host the Asian Games is an honour for the Indonesian people," he told AFP.
     The OCA executive met in Incheon ahead of the opening of the 17th Asian Games ..

Indonesia to host 2018 Asiad

Asia's Olympics chief pleaded for good behaviour at the Asian Games Friday after an official was kicked out for sexual harassment and a footballer was accused of groping.
     Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said the 13,000 athletes and officials at the two week Games had to act with "goodwill and (appropriate) behaviour."
	The OCA on Wednesday expelled an Iranian team official for sexually harassing a female volunteer and issued strong warnings following an allegation against a Palestinian footballer.
     The Asian body called on Iran to send home equipment manager Amereh Ahmad for verbally harassing the volunteer on Monday.
     Police later said they are investigating a Palestinian footballer accused of groping a female worker in an athletes' village laundry on Tuesday.
     The unnamed player has been banned from leaving the country. South Korean police said Friday they had finished their investigation and sent the case to prosecutors to ...

Olympic chief warns over sex harassment

Scotland has voted against independence in a historic referendum, the BBC forecast today after preliminary results showed 54.3 per cent voting "No" and 45.7 per cent voting "Yes".
	"The BBC forecasts that Scotland has voted against becoming an independent country," read a statement on its website.

Scotland votes against independence: BBC forecast

Early figures today indicated the turnout for Scotland's historic independence referendum could be the highest ever in the United Kingdom, for a vote that could break up the centuries-old union.
	A survey released after polling stations closed said independence could be narrowly rejected, but both "Yes" and "No" campaigners said it was too close to call as counting was underway in Scotland's 32 voting districts.
	"So that's that. Polls have closed. What an amazing, emotional, inspirational day of democracy this has been. Now we wait," said Nicola Sturgeon, deputy leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) that demanded the vote.
	Crowds gathered for all-night parties in Glasgow and Edinburgh, draped in the blue-and-white Saltire flags of Scotland and setting off flares, while campaigners waited anxiously for results in counting centres.
	"We are going to stay out till the result," said Dylan McDonald, 17, one of Scotland's 16- and 17-year-olds who have been able to vote in the ...

Early count points to record turnout in Scotland vote

Larry Ellison has stepped down as chief executive of Oracle, handing off the helm of the successful technology company he co-founded in 1977, the company announced.
	Ellison, who recently turned 70 years old, will be replaced as CEO by in-house executives Safra Catz and Mark Hurd. Ellison will continue to have a hand in the California company's operations as chief technology officer and executive chairman of the board.

Larry Ellison steps down as Oracle chief executive

Scotland voted today in an epic independence referendum that could break up the centuries-old United Kingdom and create Europe's newest state since the collapse of Yugoslavia.
	Queues snaked outside polling stations and voters -- some wearing traditional kilts and tartan hats -- spoke emotionally about the momentous choice they were faced with.
	"I felt different today than in most of the previous votes. I might be making a difference and my vote counts," said 23-year-old Aidan Ford after casting his vote in Glasgow.
	The campaign has fired up many Scots who have previously taken little interest in politics and has revolved around questions of national identity that are rarely discussed in Britain.
	The question for voters at Scotland's more than 5,000 polling stations is "Should Scotland be an independent country?" and they are asked to mark either "Yes" or "No".
	The result is expected early tomorrow.
	Some 97 per cent of eligible Scots -- nearly 4.3 million people -- have ...

Scotland votes on independence from Britain

A former US Army officer has been jailed for seven years for leaking confidential military information to his Chinese girlfriend in Hawaii.
	Benjamin Pierce Bishop, an ex civilian defense contractor and retired lieutenant colonel, also admitted retaining classified information at his home.
	The 60-year-old was sentenced yesterday to 87 months behind bars and three years' supervized release, in a plea agreement after admitting to two charges in March.
	In March 2012, he emailed classified information to his 27-year-old Chinese girlfriend, who was in the US as a graduate student at the time.
	The leaked information related to joint training and planning sessions between the United States and the Republic of Korea, and was classified as SECRET.
	He also admitted keeping documents at his home including the US Armed Forces Defense Planning Guides for 2014-2018, one called Optimizing US Force Posture in the Asia-Pacific and another titled US Department of Defense China Strategy.
	Bishop ...

Former US officer leaked secrets to Chinese girlfriend

Fighting between Shiite rebels and Sunni Islamists backed by troops killed nearly 40 people outside Sanaa today, as the UN envoy huddled in the rebel stronghold to try to end Yemen's political crisis.
	Fighting raged between the rebels, known as Huthis or Ansarullah, and fighters of the Islah (Reform) party in Shamlan, just north of the capital, where rebels have been camped for weeks.
	It has spread to Iman University of religion which belongs to top Islah cleric Abdulmajid al-Zindani, they said.
	"More than 38 people were killed and dozens more wounded," a security official told AFP, his numbers confirmed by hospital sources.
	Most of the casualties occurred in clashes after tribal fighters ambushed a rebel convoy on the road linking Shamlan and the university, with a tribal source saying 30 Huthis had also been taken prisoner.
	Today's deaths brought to 81 the number registered in three days of fighting.
	Meanwhile, UN envoy Jamal Benomar spent a second day in the rebel bastion of .

Yemen clashes kill nearly 40 as UN envoy presses rebel talks

Saudi Arabia has agreed to fund the restoration of Cairo's Al-Azhar mosque in recognition of its role as a "beacon of moderate Islam," the Egyptian president's office said today.
	The announcement came after talks between President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and visiting Saudi intelligence chief Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Abdel Aziz on the coalition Washington is building against the Islamic State group (IS) in Iraq and Syria.
	"In recognition of the important role played by Al-Azhar as a beacon of moderate Islam in spreading tolerant values across the region (Saudi King Abdullah) has taken the generous initiative to restore Al-Azhar," Sisi's office said.
	The 1,000 year-old mosque spreads over a hectare in the ancient heart of Cairo and oversees a network of seminaries that form Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning.
	Its top cleric, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, has condemned the jihadists of IS as "criminals (who) have been able to transmit to the world a tarnished and alarming image of ...

Saudi to restore Egypt's 'beacon of moderate Islam'

There is no evidence that Arab Bank executives supported terrorism, a defense lawyer told a US jury today at the end of a month-long trial.
	The Jordan-based multinational went on trial in New York on August 14, accused of aiding terror by transferring support funds to the families of Palestinians who died in the conflict with Israel.
	In more than three hours of detailed concluding arguments, lawyer Shand Stephens disputed that the institution made payments to designated terrorists and that those funds were used to bankroll terror attacks.
	"There's not one word of testimony in this case that would lead you to conclude that any one of those people deliberately supported terrorism. Not a word," he told a district court in Brooklyn.
	The families of several Americans killed in attacks in the early 2000s allege the bank violated the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act when it served as a conduit for money from a Saudi Arabian fund to the Palestinian families.
	But Stephens said Arab Bank provided ..

'No evidence' Arab Bank supported terror, NY trial told

US aircraft have targeted a training camp for Islamic State jihadists in northern Iraq, bombing buildings, fighters and vehicles in the first such air strike, military officers said today.
	"In total, one air strike near an ISIL (Islamic State group) training camp southeast of Mosul destroyed an ISIL armed vehicle, two ISIL-occupied buildings and a large ISIL ground unit," the US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said in a statement.
	It was the first time US aircraft had targeted a training camp since the air campaign began on August 8, a US military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
	About 40 jihadist fighters were on the ground at the time of the strike, the officer said.
	A second air raid damaged an IS ammunition depot southeast of Baghdad, according to Central Command.
	The air strikes, which involved both bombers and fighter jets, took place over the past 24 hours and "all aircraft exited the strike areas safely," it ...

For first time, US targets IS training camp in Iraq: Centcom

Saudi Arabia today beheaded a Pakistani who attempted to smuggle heroin into the kingdom, the interior ministry said, adding to the more than 50 people executed this year.
	"Sanaullah Mohammed Amir was executed in Qatif governorate in Eastern Province today because he tried to smuggle a large quantity of heroin" into the country, said the ministry, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.
	The sentence against Amir was endorsed by appeal and supreme courts before a royal order was issued to carry it out, the interior ministry said.
	His decapitation takes to 55 the number of people beheaded in the ultra-conservative Gulf nation so far this year, compared with 78 people in all of 2013, according to an AFP count.
	A UN independent expert last week called on Saudi Arabia to implement an immediate moratorium.
	"Despite several calls by human rights bodies, Saudi Arabia continues to execute individuals with appalling regularity and in flagrant disregard of international law standards," ..

Saudi beheads Pakistan man for heroin smuggling attempt

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today called for greater political and military support from Washington and tighter sanctions on Russia as he told US lawmakers that Kremlin aggression represented a threat to global security.
	Speaking to a joint meeting of the US Congress, Poroshenko spoke of the threats posed by proxy wars, terrorism and extremist movements, warning: "If they are not stopped now, they will cross European borders and spread throughout the globe."
	Poroshenko was in Washington to meet President Barack Obama at the White House, but he first took his message of defiance and freedom to Congress, where he received several standing ovations for seeking US support and pledging to stand up to Kremlin-backed aggression.
	He called Russia's annexation of Crimea "one of the most cynical acts of treachery in modern history," plunging Europe into its worst security crisis in decades.
	"What we got from Russia was annexation and a war that has brought Ukraine to the brink," he 

Ukraine leader warns of Russia threat, seeks US support

The Islamic State group released a video today of a British freelance photojournalist, John Cantlie, in which he says he is being held captive.
	In the video posted on YouTube, Cantlie, wearing an orange jumpsuit, speaks to the camera in the style of a news report and promises to reveal in a series of programmes the "truth" about the jihadist group that has seized parts of Iraq and Syria.
	There was no immediate threat to his life apparent in the video.
	Speaking in English with Arabic subtitles, Cantlie says in the 3:21-minute video - titled "Lend Me Your Ears" - that he plans to reveal "the truth behind the systems and motivation of the Islamic State".
	Cantlie, who had contributed to British newspapers including The Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph, as well as to Agence France-Presse, said he was captured after travelling to Syria in November 2012.
	It was not clear when the video was shot, or when Cantlie was taken hostage by IS, but in it he referred to recent events including ..

IS group posts video of captive British journalist

Jihadists of the Islamic State group were closing in on a strategic Syrian town near the Turkish border today, expelling Kurdish fighters from surrounding villages, a monitoring group said.
	The capture of Ain Al-Arab -- Syria's third largest Kurdish town, known to the Kurds as Kobane -- would give IS control of a big swathe of Syria's northern border with Turkey.
	"IS fighters have seized at least 21 villages around Kobane," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	"IS is using heavy weaponry, its artillery and tanks," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that thousands of Kurdish fighters defending the enclave were being encircled in a pincer movement.
	Speaking to AFP via the Internet, an activist in Kobane said that fearful villagers were pouring into the town from the surrounding countryside.
	"If the situation doesn't change, it is very possible that (IS) will enter the city," said Jan Ali, using a pseudonym to protect his identity.
	"We are seeing the signs 

IS jihadists close in on Syria Kurd town: monitor

Four people have died from an outbreak of the lung infection Legionnaire's disease in northeastern Spain, regional health authorities said today.
	Catalonia's regional health department reported earlier this week that two people had died in the outbreak in the town of Sabadell, near Barcelona.
	It raised that toll to four after two people in their eighties died today. Currently 28 people have been diagnosed with the disease since September 5, it said.
	Four patients have been discharged and 20 more remain in hospital.
	"It cannot be ruled out that more people may turn out to be affected in the coming days as the incubation period for the disease is 10 days maximum," the department said in a statement.
	Legionnaire's disease is a lung infection caused by the legionella bacteria. It is not contagious but can multiply in water and air conditioning systems.
	Investigators were waiting for the results of tests carried out at sites suspected of being linked to the outbreak, the statement ...

Legionnaire's disease kills four in Spain

Italy's young, reformist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was facing potential embarrassment today after local media reported his father is being investigated for bankruptcy fraud in Geneva.
	Investigators opened a probe last year into the 2013 failure of the Chil Srl newspaper distribution and advertising firm, founded by Tiziano Renzi, the daily Il Secolo XIX reported.
	The newspaper said prosecutors have asked for an extension of the investigation into Renzi senior and two others. The public prosecutor's office was not immediately available for comment.
	Should the case go to trial it would prove a big embarrassment for fresh-faced Renzi junior, who took over in Italy earlier this year on a pledge to clean up politics and tackle widespread corruption.

Italy PM's father investigated for bankruptcy fraud: report

The first democratic election in eight years in Fiji was today hailed by a multinational observer group as "credible" and representing the will of Fijians.
	Voreqe Bainimarama, who seized control of the Pacific island nation in a bloodless coup in 2006 was heading for a landslide victory with provisional results giving his Fiji First Party more than 60 per cent of the vote.
	"This was a credible election," said a statement from the 92-member panel drawn from 13 countries around the world as well as the European Union.
	"While counting is ongoing and the results are yet to be finalised, we assess that the outcome is on track to broadly represent the will of the Fijian voters."
	The completed result from the election may not be known until Saturday.
	The observer group, jointly chaired by Australia, Indonesia and India, said that while there were some problems with voter registration and pre-polling it did not see any significant irregularities in the vote counting process.
	"Political .

AFP

AFP

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