The United Nations has brokered an Israeli-Palestinian deal on imports of construction materials to Gaza to ensure they will not be diverted by Hamas militants, an envoy said today.
	The agreement on monitoring the supply of materials "must get up and running without delay," said Robert Serry, the UN envoy for the Middle East.
	The deal, announced by Serry at a UN Security Council meeting, would allow private companies to move in to rebuild Gaza after a recent 50-day war ravaged the enclave and left more than 2,140 Palestinians dead.
	It addresses Israel's concerns that cement and other materials could be used to rebuild Hamas tunnels by setting up a UN monitoring mechanism of the imports.
	Serry described the destruction in Gaza as "truly shocking," with some 18,000 houses flattened or severely damaged while 65,000 Palestinians remain in UN-run shelters and 100,000 are homeless.
	He appealed for the re-opening of crossing points to allow the delivery of materials and emphasised that .

UN brokers Gaza reconstruction deal

PTI Automatic

The US military's top officer today raised the possibility that American troops serving as advisers to Iraqi forces could eventually be sent on combat missions against Islamic State extremists.
	"To be clear, if we reach the point where I believe our advisors should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific ISIL (IS group) targets, I will recommend that to the president," General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
	Dempsey's remarks contrasted with President Barack Obama's repeated statements ruling out sending in combat forces to battle the IS group, promising there would be no "boots on the ground."
	Nearly 300 US military advisers are currently working with Iraqi government forces in their fight against the extremist IS group with roughly another 300 advisers due to deploy in coming days.
	Asked to elaborate on his remarks, Dempsey said the advisers are "very much in a combat advisory role" and that there is .

US could send advisors into combat in Iraq: general

The US space agency said today that a "major announcement" is coming later today regarding the return of human spaceflight launches to the United States.
	NASA, which has been unable to send people to space since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, said the announcement would be made at a news conference from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and would be broadcast live on NASA's television station and website.
	"We're returning human spaceflight launches to America. Learn who will take crews to the ISS (International Space Station)," NASA said on Twitter.
	A NASA spokesman declined to give further details until the announcement, which is timed to coincide with the closing of the US markets.
	The agency has spent hundreds of millions to help private companies like SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada develop their own crew transport vehicles so that Americans could launch flights to the ISS by 2017.
	In the meantime, the world's astronauts have had to rely on Russia's Soyuz ...

NASA to make announcement on US human spaceflights

The US military is building a new cyber defense corps that can be used to protect the nation and possibly for offensive purposes, the commander of the unit said today.
	National Security Agency director Michael Rogers, who also heads the US Cyber Command, said the 6,200-member unit should be fully operational by 2016, to bolster defenses against hackers and state-sponsored cyberattacks.
	Rogers told a cybersecurity conference that the unit would be able to assist in protecting against cyberattacks on "critical infrastructure," which includes computer-controlled power grids, financial networks, transportation and other key sectors.
	"We need to all recognize that our information systems are collectively under assault by a wide variety of actors who are interested in penetrating those systems for a variety of reasons," Rogers told the Billington Cybersecurity conference.
	The unit would also bolster protection of the Pentagon's own computer systems and help improve the cyber ...

US bolstering cyber defense with new corps: NSA chief

The Obama administration today said it will slash emissions of hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), a potent greenhouse gas used to fuel refrigerators and air conditioners that contributes to global warming.
	The White House joined twenty companies, including Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Target, Dupont and Honeywell, to scale down or eliminate HFCs in production chains.
	Subcontractors in federal offices will also phase down the use of HFCs.
	The new commitments will reduce the equivalent of 700 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2025, equal to taking about 15 million cars off the road for ten years, the White House said.
	HFCs are one of the most potent greenhouse gases contributing to climate change and are 10,0000 times stronger than CO2.
	"Unless we act now, US HFC emissions are expected to nearly double by 2020 and triple by 2030," the White House said in a statement.
	In June 2013, the US and China agreed to work together to reduce HFC emissions.
	According to a report from Climate ...

White House tackles HFC emissions to slash global warming

Survivors of the most deadly migrant shipwreck in years have described the horrifying moment traffickers capsized their boat and left them to drown, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said today.
	"After they hit our boat they waited to make sure that it had sunk completely before leaving. They were laughing," one survivor told IOM.
	Fresh witness testimony confirmed around 500 people drowned after their boat sank off Malta on Wednesday, including up to 100 children who had been making the treacherous journey from Egypt to Italy, according to the Geneva-based organisation.
	After three days at sea clinging to life buoys, a freighter picked up nine survivors. Two Palestinians were taken to Italy while the other seven, including a two year-old girl, were taken to hospital in Crete. One later died and the toddler remains in a critical condition.
	The Palestinians, aged 27 and 33, told IOM their boat had been intentionally sunk by the people smugglers after the migrants ...

Traffickers 'laughed' as they capsized boat with 500 refugees

A 65-year-old Thai women has committed suicide by leaping into a pond of crocodiles at a farm popular with tourists on Bangkok's outskirts, police said today.
	The incident occurred during opening hours at the farm which doubles as a zoo and draws visitors who can feed the deadly reptiles from a walkway.
	The woman jumped on Friday from a resting point on the walkway into the middle of pond -- which contains hundreds of adult crocodiles, Preecha Iam-nui of Samut Prakan police told AFP.
	"Her sister said the victim was suffering from stress and depression," Preecha added.
	The farm is an hour outside Bangkok.
	Safety rules are often lax at Thai tourist attractions, which include tiger and crocodile farms.
	The Samut Prakan farm fences are just a few feet high to allow visitors -- including children -- to feed the reptiles.

Thai woman perishes after leap into crocodile pond: police

Prominent rights activist Maryam al-Khawaja, daughter of a jailed Shiite opposition figure, is to stand trial from October 1 charged with assaulting a police officer, her lawyer said today.
	Mohammed al-Jishi told AFP the prosecutor general had also decided to extend her custody pending the trial. A conviction could carry a five-year prison sentence, he said.
	Khawaja, a director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights who also has Danish nationality, was arrested after arriving at Manama airport on August 30.
	In a hearing last week in a judge's office, attended only by Jishi and a Danish diplomat, Khawaja insisted the charges against her were "vindictive and fabricated," according to the lawyer.
	Her arm in a sling, she countered by accusing police of attacking her at the airport. Jishi said Khawaja had to see a doctor during her custody due to her apparent trauma.
	Bahrain's prosecution, citing witnesses, said Khawaja "took by surprise a female police officer and a policewoman when she 

Bahrain sets October 1 trial date for key activist

China's outbound investment more than doubled in August to USD 12.62 billion, data showed today, far outstripping foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, which fell to a four-year low.
	China has been actively acquiring foreign assets, particularly energy and resources, to power its economy, with firms encouraged to "go out" and make overseas acquisitions to gain market access and international experience. Officials have said overseas direct investment (ODI) could exceed FDI this year.
	The 112.1 per cent year-on-year increase in ODI announced by the commerce ministry was a dramatic contrast to the 14.0 per cent fall in FDI, which sank to USD 7.20 billion. Both sets of figures exclude investment in financial sectors.
	FDI was also less than July's USD 7.81 billion and was the lowest since July 2010, when it stood at USD 6.92 billion.
	Commerce ministry spokesman Shen Danyang denied any link to Beijing's multiple probes into foreign companies.
	Chinese authorities have in ...

China's overseas investment soars as FDI drops again

Police in Beijing have detained an 81-year-old writer who has long been a sharp critic of the Communist Party, a human rights lawyer said today, as Chinese authorities further their campaign against dissent.
	Tie Liu, whose real name is Huang Zerong, was taken away by police and placed under criminal detention at the weekend for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", said his friend, lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan.
	The charge is frequently used to silence those who challenge the ruling party.
	Tie -- who turned 81 in May -- has long been a thorn in the side of Communist authorities. As a young journalist critical of Mao Zedong, founding father of the People's Republic, he spent more than 20 years in labour camps before being rehabilitated in 1980.
	More than ten police officers raided Tie's house over the weekend. They took away computers and books and issued a summons, Liu said, adding that Tie's assistant Huang Jing was also detained.
	"His wife believes it's because of an essay he wrote," 

Chinese police detain 81-year-old writer: lawyer

Thirteen countries with wild tiger populations agreed today to take part in a global count to establish how many of the critically endangered big cats are left and improve policies to protect them.
	Experts say that although the tiger population is thought to have remained stable over the last four years, a lack of accurate numbers is hindering effective policies.
	The pledge came at a global conference in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka where more than 140 people have converged for three days to discuss actions to save the tiger.
	"We really need science-based data on the number of tigers," said John Seidensticker of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington.
	The count is due to be completed within two years and will replace data Seidensticker said was based mostly on "guesstimates".
	The world's wild tiger population fell to little over 3,200 in 2010 from 100,000 only a century ago and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has listed the animal as .

Global wild tiger population to be counted by 2016

A Pakistani court today postponed for almost a month the hanging of a murderer in what would have been the country's first civilian execution for six years, lawyers said.
	Shoaib Sarwar, who was convicted in 1998, was set to be hanged in Rawalpindi's Adiyala jail on Thursday following orders issued by another court last week, despite outrage among rights groups.
	Pakistan has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangings since 2008. Only one person has been executed since then, a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.
	"We are relieved to have managed to avert this impending injustice through a stay order," said Maryam Haq, a lawyer from the non-profit group Justice Project Pakistan.
	Prosecution branch officials  confirmed the staying of the execution until October 13.
	Haq said her organisation had argued that the execution should be stayed on the basis that Sarwar had been in prison for over 18 years -- longer than a life sentence -- therefore execution .

Pakistan court stays execution of murder convict

War-torn South Sudan has banned all foreign workers -- including aid workers -- and ordered they be replaced by locals, an official notice said today.
	"All non-governmental organisations, private companies, banks, insurance companies, telecommunication companies, petroleum companies, hotels and lodges working in South Sudan are directed to notify all the aliens working with them in all the positions to cease working as from 15th October," said a government statement, published in several newspapers.
	The order said the organisations and companies should advertise the positions -- ranging from receptionists to executive directors -- so that they can be filled by "competent South Sudanese nationals".
	The impending expulsion of foreign workers comes despite warnings that the country, gripped by civil war for the past nine months, is on the brink of famine.
	South Sudan is also heavily dependent on a network of international aid groups for humanitarian assistance for 1.3 million people .

S.Sudan bans all foreign workers despite looming famine

Powerful Al-Qaeda branches in Yemen and North Africa called today for jihadists in Iraq and Syria to unite against the common threat from a US-led coalition.
	An unprecedented joint statement from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb urged their "brothers" in Iraq and Syria to "stop killing each other and unite against the American campaign and its evil coalition that threatens us all."
	AQAP and AQIM also called on the people of 10 Arab countries that have joined the coalition against the Islamic State group to prevent their governments from acting against IS.
	And it promised "dark days" to the "alliance of infidelity and evil".
	Al-Qaeda's leadership under Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egypt-born successor to group founder Osama bin Laden, has disavowed IS, which has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria. And it has its own branch, the Al-Nusra Front, fighting in Syria.
	But the joint statement, released on two jihadist Twitter accounts, called for differences .

Qaeda branches urge united jihadist front against coalition

Fighting in Ukraine has driven nearly 370,000 people to flee to neighbouring countries, most of them to Russia, the UN said today.
	"Some 366,866 people have fled to neighbouring countries, the vast majority to Russia," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN's humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.
	Nearly 326,000 of them have fled to Russia, the agency said, adding that another 263,000 people had been displaced inside Ukraine.
	The new estimate that around 630,000 people have fled their homes in total was meanwhile likely a gross underestimate, Laerke acknowledged.
	"These are very conservative estimates," Laerke said, stressing that the real number "is likely to be much higher."
	He pointed out that some 5.1 million people live in areas directly affected by the conflict, which has cost nearly 2,900 lives.
	On September 2, the UN's refugee agency put the number of people who had sought asylum in Russia at around 260,000, while it said another 260,000 had been displaced inside ...

Nearly 370,000 have fled Ukraine for neighbouring countries:

Nearly USD 1.0 billion dollars is needed to fight the Ebola outbreak raging in west Africa, the United Nations said today, more than doubling the estimate it made less than a month ago.
	UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters in Geneva there was a "huge funding challenge", warning that "if not dealt with effectively now, Ebola could become a major humanitarian crisis in countries currently affected."
	The response to the crisis will require USD 987.8 million (763 million euros), with about half needed for the worst-hit country, Liberia, the UN said in its response plan.
	It stressed there were some 22 million people living in the three countries most affected by the outbreak.
	The UN announcement came as the death toll from the worst-ever Ebola epidemic rose to 2,461, out of 4,985 cases in the three west African countries that have borne the brunt of the disease, according to fresh figures from the World Health Organization.
	The UN document estimates that some 20,000 ...

UN says USD 1.0 billion needed to fight Ebola

Passengers faced a second day of travel disruption today as Air France pilots extended a strike in protest at the airline's plans to expand its low-cost subsidiary.
	Air France was forced to scrap 60 per cent of its flights as unions estimated three quarters of pilots followed their call to strike.
	Unions fear the flag carrier is seeking to bolster its Transavia France subsidiary, a leisure airline that flies to holiday destinations, because pilots there earn less than Air France pilots.
	A pilot for the French flag carrier earns about 75,000 euros (USD 97,000) a year on average while captains of long-haul flights can earn up to 250,000 euros (USD 323,730).
	In a bid to soothe fears that management is seeking to expand Transavia at the cost of the higher-paid Air France pilots, the company announced the Transavia fleet will be limited to 30 planes instead of the 37 originally planned.
	This concession, however, will only run until 2019.
	The company held talks yesterday night with ...

Fresh travel disruption as Air France pilots extend strike

Kenya began emotional commemorations on today to mark the first anniversary of Nairobi's Westgate mall massacre, remembering the 67 people killed by Somali Islamist gunmen and those who risked their lives to stop them.
	In a speech at a memorial site opened at the capital's National Museum, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta said the east African nation had been "seriously scarred" but was not broken by the attackers from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels.
	"This is a time that brings much pain and sorrow to many, and is still a time of healing, (we) having also lost members of our family in this senseless massacre," said Kenyatta, whose nephew and his fiancee were among those killed.
	"The nation may have been seriously scarred but we shall never be broken as a people," she said.
	A week of memorial events opened with an emotional film called "Our Nairobi", which included testimonies of those caught up in the attack.
	The four Shebab gunmen stormed the upmarket mall on a busy Saturday .

Solemn commemorations in Kenya one year on from mall massacre

US President Barack Obama will try to "turn the tide" on the Ebola epidemic today by ordering 3,000 US military personnel to west Africa to curtail its spread as China also dispatched more experts to the region.
	The White House said Obama will travel to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta -- where US Ebola victims were treated -- to make the announcement, meant to spur a global effort to tackle the outbreak that has already killed 2,400 people.
	It comes as alarm grows that the worst-ever Ebola epidemic which spread through Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea before reaching Nigeria, is out of control. A separate strain of the disease has appeared in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
	Most of the US effort, which will draw heavily on its military medical corps, will be concentrated in impoverished Liberia -- the worst hit nation -- with plans to build 17 Ebola treatment centres with 100 beds in each.
	China is also sending more medics to neighbouring Sierra Leone ..

Obama sends 3,000 troops to W  Africa to 'turn tide' on Ebola

Jihadists shot down a Syrian warplane conducting strikes on the Islamic State group stronghold of Raqa today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
	"IS fighters fired on a military aircraft which crashed," the Britain-based group said.
	"It is the first aircraft shot down since the regime launched air strikes against the jihadists in July following their declaration of a caliphate in late June," said the group, which relies on a wide network of doctors and activists for its reports.
	Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the plane was carrying out strikes on the IS stronghold of Raqa when it was hit.
	It crashed into a house in the Euphrates Valley city, the sole provincial capital entirely out of Syrian government control, causing deaths and injuries on the ground, he added.
	A photograph posted on a jihadist Twitter account purported to show the burnt-out wreckage of the plane.
	"Allahu Akbar (God is greater), thanks to God we can confirm ...

IS jihadists down Syria warplane: monitor

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a NATO convoy in Kabul today, triggering a massive blast that killed one Polish soldier and two other foreign troops as well as wounding at least 13 civilians.
	NATO soldiers gave first-aid to bloodstained comrades beside the wrecked remains of a military vehicle that was thrown to the side of the road, while city residents carried injured Afghans to hospital.
	The attack was mounted during morning rush-hour traffic outside the Supreme Court and near the heavily-fortified US embassy, on a route used by NATO convoys every day.
	"We can confirm three International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) members died as a result of an enemy attack in Kabul today," the NATO coalition said in a statement.
	ISAF does not release the nationalities of casualties, but in Warsaw a spokesman for Polish army said one of its soldiers had been killed and two others slightly wounded.
	The nationalities of the two other ISAF victims was not ...

AFP

AFP

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