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 ...

Three NATO soldiers killed in Kabul suicide bombing

PTI Automatic

The Ukrainian parliament today ratified a landmark EU pact that decisively steers the former Soviet state towards the West and away from Russian influence.
	President Petro Poroshenko told lawmakers the ratification of the association agreement -- in a simultaneous vote with the European parliament in Strasbourg -- was a "first step" towards membership of the European Union.
	"Tell me, who will now dare to shut Ukraine's doors to Europe? Who will be against our future membership in the EU, towards which today we are taking our first but very decisive step."
	A total of 355 lawmakers voted in favour of the ratification of the pact -- which had been rejected by former pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych in November, setting off months of turmoil that eventually led to his ouster and triggered Russia's seizure of Crimea and a separatist uprising in the east.
	However, Ukraine and the EU had agreed last week to delay until 2016 the implementation of a free trade deal that forms part ..

Ukraine parliament ratifies landmark EU pact

The death toll from a collapsed guesthouse at a megachurch in Nigeria's financial capital Lagos hit 57 today, rescuers said, as they held out hopes that more survivors would be found.
	Eight bodies were pulled overnight from the rubble of a collapsed guesthouse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos' Ikotun neighbourhood, Ibrahim Farinloye, southwest coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told AFP by text message.
	Farinloye said rescuers extracted a woman alive from the building's rubble today morning.
	She was able to walk away from the collapse with just a broken wrist. The discovery prompted rescuers to slow down their digging in the wreckage of the guesthouse.
	"It's going to be slower because we believe we can recover more people alive by the grace of God," Farinloye said, adding that rescuers were focusing on the area around the hostel's restaurant, where previous survivors have been found.
	A total of 131 people were injured in the collapse ..

Death toll hits 57 from Nigeria building collapse

The world can save both financial and environmental costs by shifting toward a low-carbon economy over the next 15 years, a high-level panel said today ahead of a UN summit.
	The commission co-chaired by former Mexican president Felipe Calderon called for greater global action on renewable power, deforestation and clean technologies as part of the fight against climate change.
	The report said that the next 15 years would be critical, with the global economy undergoing major structural changes and time running out to meet a UN-backed goal of checking global warming at 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
	The study estimated that the world will see USD 90 trillion in new infrastructure investment over the next 15 years, a period that is expected to witness increasingly rapid urbanization.
	"We can invest that amount of money in the current high-carbon emission path or we can do that in a different way," Calderon told reporters on a conference call.
	"So ...

Study urges 15-year plan for low-carbon growth

American parents will be allowed to adopt Vietnamese children again, authorities said today, ending a six-year ban imposed after allegations of baby-selling and fraud but with new restrictions.
	Two American agencies have been awarded licences but new US adoptions will be limited to children over the age of five, sibling groups and those with special needs, the US State Department said.
	Americans have been unable to adopt from Vietnam since a 2008 ban imposed due to US embassy concerns that many adoptees had been trafficked or given up after their families were coerced.
	Vietnam denied these claims but agreed to suspend adoptions with the United States.
	The communist country has since ratified the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of inter-country adoption, and revised its domestic law on adoption.
	"The United States welcomes Vietnam's efforts to enhance its child welfare and inter country adoption system," the State Department said.
	It named ..

Vietnam, US restart adoptions after six-year ban

An Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion, rumoured to be Russian President Vladimir Putin's lover, has been appointed the head of a powerful pro-Kremlin media group.
	Alina Kabayeva, 31, announced yesterday that she was standing down early after seven years as an lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party, without saying why.
	"Alina Maratovna has accepted the offer of our shareholders to chair the board of directors," National Media Group's spokeswoman Oksana Razumova told AFP using Kabayeva's patronymic.
	National Media Group (NMG) was created in a 2008 merger that included the holdings of businessman Yury Kovalchuk, who is also chairman of Bank Rossiya.
	The bank was hit by the first wave of Western sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea and both the European Union and the United States have slapped asset freezes and travel bans on Kovalchuk.
	Brussels said in July that NMG "controls television stations which actively support the Russian government's policies of ...

Olympic rhythmic gymnast linked to Putin to head media group

Fijian President Epeli Nailatikau called for a violence-free election today as the South Pacific nation prepares to return to democracy almost eight years after a military coup.
	Nailatikau said there was no room for threats or intimidation in tomorrow's poll and all parties should accept the result of a ballot he described as "the first free and fair elections in our history".
	"Do not be intimidated by threats of violence or actual violence," he told a function in Suva.
	"I urge all political parties and their supporters not to intimidate anyone or engage in any untoward activity.
	"Democracy is about allowing all individuals to vote freely without fear or favour. We must all accept the will of the people and unify as a nation."
	Fiji's ballot is seen as pivotal to ending the country's "coup culture", which saw four governments toppled between 1987 and 2006, largely due to tensions between indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians.
	The lead up to tomorrow's election has been ...

Fiji president urges violence-free election

Iran's foreign minister headed to New York today to resume nuclear talks with major powers but it was unclear if there would be a repeat visit by President Hassan Rouhani, who launched Tehran's opening a year ago.
	Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was to hold a working lunch with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the lead negotiator for the six powers, his deputy Abbas Araqchi said.
	The two diplomats will set the terms for the relaunch of negotiations for a comprehensive deal on the future scope of Iran's nuclear programme to allay international concerns about its ambitions, Araqchi told state news agency IRNA.
	The talks tomorrow and Thursday will take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the same venue where in September last year Rouhani held a historic telephone call with President Barack Obama, overcoming more than three decades of estrangement between the two governments.
	The honeymoon period after that call saw Tehran strike an interim ..

Iran FM heads to New York for nuclear talks

Thousands of people living near the Philippines' most active volcano began leaving their homes on Tuesday as lava trickled down its slopes and authorities warned of a dangerous eruption.
	Mayon, a volcano famed in equal parts for its near-perfect cone and brutal volatility, had begun to stir again with magma rising to the top and small earthquakes rattling deep inside, authorities said.
	"A hazardous eruption is possible within weeks," the director of the state volcanology agency, Renato Solidum, told AFP.
	Residents within an eight-kilometre (five-mile) radius will be forcibly evacuated, said regional civil defence director Bernardo Alejandro.
	He said authorities expect to evacuate almost all of the 50,000 people in the danger zone -- a picturesque coconut farming area near the Pacific coast -- within three days.
	"We'll have no problems with the 99 percent who will evacuate but there are some who will be hard-headed," Alejandro said, citing the response to a similar evacuation call 

Thousands evacuated as Philippine volcano threatens to erupt

The number of hungry people in the world has dropped by 100 million over the last 10 years, though one in nine are still undernourished, with Asia home to the majority of the underfed, the UN said today.
	The UN's food agencies said the global number was down over 200 million since the early 1990s, but warned that despite the progress made, "about 805 million people in the world, or one in nine, suffer from hunger."
	The Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of undernourished people by 2015 is within reach "if appropriate and immediate efforts are stepped up," the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Programme said in a joint yearly report.
	To date, 63 developing countries have reached the target and six more are on track to reach it by 2015, they said.
	"This is proof that we can win the war against hunger and should inspire countries to move forward, with the assistance of the international community as ...

100 million people saved from hunger over last decade: UN

Taiwan displayed how its fighter jets and early warning aircraft could land, refuel and take off on a closed motorway today, in a scenario simulating a Chinese attack that wiped out the island's air force bases.
	The exercise - the first of its kind since 2011 - was a reminder of lingering Chinese hostilities towards the island despite warming ties between the two rivals.
	"The scenario of the drill was that the air bases were severely damaged after intensive bombings of ballistic and cruise missiles by the Chinese communists," Major General Hung Kuang-min told reporters.
	Three jet fighters - an F-16, a Mirage 2000-5 and a home-made Indigenous Defence Fighter - practised landing on a freeway in southern Chiayi County, where they refuelled and loaded missiles and other ammunition before taking off again.
	Today's manoeuvres were the first to feature an E-2K, a US-made early warning aircraft.
	Around 1,200 soldiers were mobilised for the drill, part of war games codenamed "Han Kuang ...

Fighter jets land on Taiwan highway in China attack war games

Shivnarine Chanderpaul's phenomenal run of form against Bangladesh continued with the veteran West Indies batsman unbeaten on 63 in guiding his team to 208 for four, an overall lead of 427, at stumps on the third day of the second and final Test at the Beausejour Stadium.
     After captain Denesh Ramdin declined to enforce the follow-on despite a first innings lead of 219 when the tourists were dismissed for 161 in the morning session, the home side slipped to 100 for four yesterday before an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 108 between Chanderpaul and Jermaine Blackwood (43 not out) killed off any prospect Bangladesh had of precipitating a complete batting collapse.
     Chanderpaul, now in his 21st year as an international cricketer, has yet to be dismissed in this series and has totalled 645 runs - with just one dismissal - in his last seven Test innings against Bangladesh, including the current effort, dating back to the 2012 series on the Indian sub-continent.
     This was his ...

Chanderpaul thwarts Bangladesh once again

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a NATO convoy close to the US embassy in Kabul today, killing three soldiers and wounding at least 13 Afghan civilians.
	At the side of the road, US and Polish troops gave first-aid to blood-stained comrades beside the wrecked remains of a military vehicle, but the nationality of the dead soldiers was not confirmed.
	The massive blast occurred at about 8:00 am (0330 GMT) during heavy rush-hour traffic outside the Supreme Court and on a main road leading to the heavily-fortified US embassy.
	"We can confirm three International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) members died as a result of an enemy attack in Kabul day," the NATO coalition said in a statement.
	"It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."
	The blast shook nearby buildings as emergency vehicles raced through the streets to the scene on a main road that NATO convoys use every day.
	"It was a suicide car ...

Three NATO soldiers killed in Kabul suicide car bomb

Thai police today searched for the killers of two British tourists found naked and beaten to death on the southern resort island of Koh Tao, as their bodies were due to arrive in Bangkok for forensic tests.
	David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were found dead early yesterday with head wounds near a beachside bungalow on the island, a diving hot-spot near Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand.
	An island-wide search for suspects was under way with police deployed at Koh Tao's main pier.
	"There are three possible suspects," southern regional police commander Panya Maman told AFP, without confirming their nationalities.
	UK media reports said police were seeking a British man who had been travelling with Miller in connection with the killings.
	"We have set up a coordination centre which is responsible for the investigation and mobilised both Koh Tao and Koh Phangan residents to help police," Panya said.
	The bodies of the victims are due to arrive in Bangkok later today for ...

Thai police hunt killers of two Britons found beaten to death

Twelve Nigerian soldiers were today sentenced to death for mutiny after shots were fired at their commanding officer in the restive northeast city of Maiduguri earlier this year.
	A nine-member military tribunal, sitting in Abuja, convicted the soldiers following the incident on May 14 when shots were fired at the commanding officer of the Nigerian Army's 7th Division, which is tasked with fighting Boko Haram insurgents.
	Court president Brigadier General Chukwuemeka Okonkwo said the sentences were subject to confirmation by Nigeria's military authorities but added there was no doubt about the gravity of the offence.
	The panel considered "its likely effect on the counter-insurgency operations in the northeast as well as its implications on national security", he told the court.
	Nigeria's army has been under pressure to end the bloody five-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives, made tens of thousands of others homeless and seen the militants make territorial gains in ...

12 Nigerian soldiers sentenced to death for mutiny

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who recently abolished a carbon tax on greenhouse gas emissions, said today he would skip a United Nations climate change summit attended by 125 other world leaders.
	Abbott will be in New York soon after the September 23 talks but has decided to miss the one-day meeting to attend parliament in Canberra.
	"My first duty in a sense is to the Australian parliament and that's where I'll be early in the week," the conservative leader said of why he was not attending.
	"There are quite a lot of things happening in the Australian parliament in the next week or so," he said. The government has plans to introduce new anti-terror legislation to the legislature.
	Australia will be represented by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop at the summit called by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to try to build momentum ahead of the 2015 deadline for a historic climate deal to be signed in Paris.
	United States President Barack Obama is expected to attend the talks which 

Australian PM Abbott to skip UN climate summit

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a convoy carrying foreign troops in Kabul today, triggering a massive blast that shook the city, causing an unknown number of casualties.
	At the side of the road, foreign troops gave first-aid to some blood-stained fellow soldiers from the convoy, but the nationality of those involved was unclear.
	The explosion occurred near the main entrance to the heavily fortified US embassy at about 8:00 am (0900 IST) during heavy rush-hour traffic, with several people badly wounded, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
	One vehicle from the convoy was thrown off the road and destroyed by the blast, which was also close to the Supreme Court and a military base.
	It was the first major attack in the capital for weeks, as Afghan politicians try to end a stalemate over the result of June 14 presidential elections.
	"It was a suicide car bomber targeting a foreign forces convoy along the airport road," Farid Afzali, chief of the city's ..

Suicide car bomb targets foreign convoy in central Kabul

Buildings in Tokyo shook today as a strong quake hit Japan, reports said, but there was no immediate risk of a tsunami and no damage was reported.
	Seismologists said the epicentre was around 44 kilometres north-northeast of the Japanese capital and was located around 50 kilometres below the surface.
	The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.6. Their Japanese counterparts said there was no danger of a tsunami from the tremor, the effects of which could be felt in buildings for more than a minute after the initial shaking began.
	The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was battered by a tsunami after a powerful undersea quake in 2011, said nothing unusual had been noted at the still-fragile site.
	"There was no abnormality in our monitoring at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the earthquake. Also, we have not received any reports of damage from the latest quake," spokesman Keisuke Murakami said.
	The Japan Atomic Power Co. Said the ...

Strong quake hits Japan

Hong Kong was shuttered today as a powerful typhoon swept past the city, bringing strong winds and rain that caused flight disruptions and forced the closure of the stock market and container ports.
	Typhoon Kalmaegi, packing gusts of 125 kilometres (77 miles) per hour, was centred 400 kilometres southwest of Hong Kong as it barrelled towards the northern tip of China's Hainan island.
	"Although the tropical cyclone is moving away from Hong Kong, gales are expected to persist for some time," the Hong Kong Observatory said on its website.
	The Observatory hoisted the number-eight tropical cyclone warning yesterday evening and said it would remain in place until late morning today, triggering the closure of schools and businesses in the city.
	At Hong Kong's airport, over 500 flights were delayed while nearly 40 were cancelled, a government statement said.
	It said that there were 44 reports of fallen trees and that some parts of the city were flooded, but there were no reports of ...

Typhoon shuts down Hong Kong with strong winds, rain

Rival gangs armed with guns and knives clashed at an overcrowded prison in central Bolivia leaving four inmates dead and 11 others wounded, officials said.
	The violence erupted overnight in the El Abra prison yesterday, outside the city of Cochabamba and police lost control of the jail for several hours as inmates attacked each other after an alcohol-fueled party.
	"So far we have counted four dead and 11 wounded. The dead have now been removed and the wounded taken to hospital," said Andres Cuevas, a regional government official.
	Rivalry between Bolivian and foreign prison gangs was to blame, according to the regional police commander, Alberto Suarez.
	"Because of these power struggles, fighting has broken out in which unfortunately people have been wounded by knives and firearms," Suarez told Radio Fides.
	He did not name the nationalities of the foreign inmates. Bolivian media reports said they were Colombians jailed for drug trafficking.
	The four dead were all Bolivian and ...

Four dead in armed clashes at Bolivia prison

A widened Panama Canal will be open for business in 2016 after a USD 400 million cash injection to help complete the long-delayed project was received, the waterway's chief administrator has said.
	Jorge Quijano, the Panama Canal Authority's lead administrator, told reporters yesterday the USD 400 million loan to complete a USD 5.3 billion expansion was received by the consortium widening the canal in Central America.
	"This is going to help cash flow, ... Keep independent contractors paid, and get the construction completed," Quijano explained.
	The project was initially planned to have been completed this year in time for the canal's 100th anniversary.
	Now, construction is expected to be finished in 2015, and the widened canal to open in early 2016. The authority says.
	The widening will allow it to handle so-called "Post-Panamax" ships with a capacity of up to 15,000 containers, instead of the current maximum of 5,000.
	But the project has been plagued by delays, strikes and a ...

AFP

AFP

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