Hurricane Odile has swirled menacingly toward Mexico's Los Cabos resorts, leading authorities to evacuate high-risk areas and open shelters as the powerful storm threatened to thrash the Pacific coast.
	Odile weakened slightly yesterday to category three strength in the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale as it crept toward the Baja California peninsula, packing 125 mile (205 kilometre) per hour winds, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.
	"All preparedness actions to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the Miami-based centre said, warning the hurricane could produce life-threatening floods and mudslides.
	The core of Odile will pass close to, or over, the southern tip of the peninsula, known for its luxury resorts, late yesterday and today, it added.
	Hotel occupancy in Los Cabos is low at this time of year, but authorities evacuated an unspecified number of people from vulnerable coastal areas and prepared shelters for 30,000 residents as heavy rain ...

Major hurricane threatens Mexico Pacific resorts

PTI Automatic

A life-size bronze statue of Amy Winehouse, complete with a red rose in her trademark beehive hairdo, was unveiled in London today to mark what would have been the British singer-songwriter's 31st birthday.
	Relatives and fans of the musician gathered in Camden, the north London district where she lived until her death in 2011 following a struggle with addiction, to see what would emerge from a large black box.
	The statue that appeared was dressed in high heels, a short dress with a belt and topped with the star's usual beehive hair style with a live red rose.
	"It is like stopping her in a beautiful moment in time. We really hope Amy's fans love the statue," said the singer's father Mitch Winehouse, who said seeing the statue was "incredibly emotional".
	Family members took photos with the statue, which will stand as a permanent memorial in Camden's Stables market, the heart of Winehouse's old stomping ground. Sunflowers and roses were laid at its feet.
	"The pose had to capture ...

Statue of Britain's Amy Winehouse unveiled in London

"All bases are covered" in a US-led multinational coalition against the Islamic State, John Kerry said, as Washington rallies diplomatic and public support to smash the jihadists.
	The US Secretary of State told CBS's Face the Nation that there were allies willing to join the United States in air strikes on IS, which has overrun large swaths of northern Iraq and Syria in a brutal and lightning campaign that has seen beheadings and forced religious conversions.
	"Some" had offered to put troops on the ground to defeat IS, Kerry said in the interview aired today, adding: "But we are not looking for that at this moment anyway."
	Kerry was speaking in Cairo yesterday, before news of the latest IS beheading of a Western hostage, Briton David Haines, and ahead of a likely Congress vote this week on President Barack Obama's plan to train and equip Syrian rebels, a key plank in his strategy to destroy IS.
	That strategy was outlined Wednesday by Obama in a primetime televised speech to the ...

'All bases covered' in coalition bid to crush IS

Paris police have arrested a convicted anti-Semite and radical black power activist after he arrived in France to promote a new book, a police source told AFP today.
	Kemi Seba, head of the French branch of the New Black Panther Party, was detained yesterday after a public appearance at the Main d'Or theatre in the French capital, the source said.
	A magistrate then ordered his incarceration today because Kemi Seba, whose real name is Stellio Capo Chichi, was wanted for having violated the terms of a 2009 suspended sentence for violence.
	He has been living in Senegal and had told followers he would tour France to promote his recent book. The theatre where he had appeared is used by the controversial comedian known as Dieudonne, who has been repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism.
	Kemi Seba is no stranger to brushes with the law.
	Two groups that he founded -- Tribu K and later Jeunesse Kemi Saba -- were dissolved by the French justice ministry for inciting "racist and anti-Semitic" ..

France arrests anti-Semite black power leader

A biographical picture of British codebreaker and war hero Alan Turing, featuring an Oscar-bait performance by Benedict Cumberbatch, today won the Toronto film festival audience prize for best picture.
	Turing was a brilliant Cambridge mathematician and pioneer of computer sciences who broke Nazi codes for the British military during the Second World War, helping to shorten the war.
	He ended his life in sadness, committing suicide in 1954 at the age of 41, two years after being convicted of the then crime of homosexuality.
	Turing was awarded a posthumous pardon by Queen Elizabeth II last December following a long campaign by supporters.
	Cumberbatch has been generating Oscar buzz for his portrayal of the computer sciences pioneer in Norwegian director Morten Tyldum's "The Imitation Game," about Turing's work at code and cypher centre Bletchley Park.
	A nod from Toronto audiences is sure to firm the movie as a favourite at the Academy awards.
	"There was something very subtle, ...

Turing biopic wins Toronto film festival audience prize

A Social Democrat-led coalition appeared to be heading for victory in Sweden's general election today, with an exit poll as voting closed also showing major gains for the far-right Sweden Democrats.
	The Social Democrat-led red-green group, which also includes the Green and Left parties, was tipped to get 44.8 percent of the vote, according to the poll by public broadcaster SVT, while the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats were on 10.5 per cent, doubling their vote from the last election four years ago.
	The centre-right four-party coalition which has ruled Sweden for the past eight years was slated to get 39.7 percent, the exit poll indicated.
	If pollsters are right, Sweden's next prime minister is likely to be Stefan Loefven, a 57-year-old former trade unionist with almost no experience in national politics.
	Loefven has campaigned on a promise to narrow a growing income gap that has many in traditionally egalitarian Sweden worried. He has also vowed to improve the educational ...

Left wins Sweden vote as far right makes gains, says exit poll

A Chadian UN peacekeeper was killed and several others injured when their vehicle struck a landmine in northern Mali, military sources in the country said.
	"We lost one person when our vehicle encountered a mine near Aguelhoc. There are also some injured," a Chadian soldier from the United Nations MINUSMA peacekeeping force told AFP.
	A Malian military source based in the main northern town of Gao confirmed the information and accused jihadists active in the area of using landmines as a fighting tactic.
	"They have a whole supply line of mines and they find out which roads the MINUSMA vehicles use," the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	Four UN peacekeepers from Chad were killed on September 2 when their truck was blown up in the same northern desert region near Kidal.
	Three jihadist groups -- Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Ansar Dine and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) -- took control of much of the desert north of the west ...

Landmine kills Chadian peacekeeper in Mali

The brother of British hostage David Haines murdered by Islamist militants today issued a tearful video statement about growing religious radicalisation in which he quoted a verse from the Koran.
	"We are seeing more and more radicalisation in every walk of life. It is not a race, religion or political issue, it is a human issue," Mike Haines told British media.
	His voice breaking with emotion, Haines read out a passage from the Koran saying: "Since good and evil cannot be equal, repel thou evil with something that is better."
	He added: "The Muslim faith is not to blame for ISIL, nor is it the fault of people of Middle Eastern descent."
	Aid worker Haines was kidnapped in Syria in March 2013.
	His murder was revealed in a video released late yesterday by militants from Islamic State -- also referred to as ISIL -- an extremist group that has taken over a vast territory in Iraq and Syria in recent months.
	"ISIL are extremely dangerous and pose a threat to every nation, every ...

Murdered aid worker's brother says Islam 'not to blame'

Germany's fledgling anti-euro party celebrated election gains in two eastern states today, in a show of strength that spells a growing threat for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives.
	"We are the force that's renewing the political landscape," said a jubilant Bernd Lucke, leader of the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD), which wants Europe's biggest economy to scrap the euro and return to the Deutschmark currency.
	"I'm happy about this enormous vote of confidence," said the economics professor, adding that voters are turning away from mainstream parties that he said lack a clear message.
	His nascent conservative party, which was only formed early last year, gained 10 per cent in Thuringia state and 12 per cent in Brandenburg, said exit polls by public broadcasters ARD and ZDF.
	The strong results -- far better than those of the long established Greens, who scored five-six per cent, and the Free Democrats, who failed to get any seats -- came two weeks after the AfD party .

Anti-euro party extends gains in eastern Germany

The head of the main Syrian opposition group in exile said Sunday he expected the support of the international community to press the fight against Damascus and Islamic State jihadists.
	The United States is pushing for the formation of a broad international coalition to tackle IS which has captured swathes of Iraq and Syria, and has already secured the backing of 10 Arab states including Saudi Arabia.
	"The role of (the) international coalition against terrorism should be very clear," Hadi el-Bahra, head of the Syrian National Coalition, said at a news conference in Abu Dhabi.
	The SNC gathers together various groups seeking the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but has been weakened by divisions despite the support of Western countries and Saudi Arabia.
	"We are the Syrians, we are the people in charge," he said, adding "the international community should support our effort".
	Bahra said the SNC was "100 per cent" capable of fighting the IS "with a proper plan which we ..

Syria opposition head seeks support of anti-IS coalition

Scientists today said they had invented a device that uses a magnet to extract bacteria, fungi and toxins from blood, potentially throwing a lifeline to patients with sepsis and other infections.
	The external gadget -- tested so far in rats but not yet humans -- could be adapted one day for stripping Ebola and other viruses from blood, they hoped.
	Acting rather like a spleen, the invention uses magnetic nanobeads coated with a genetically-engineered human blood protein called MBL.
	The MBL binds to pathogens and toxins, which can then be "pulled out" with a magnet, the developers wrote in the journal Nature Medicine.
	The "bio-spleen" was developed to treat sepsis, or blood infection, which affects 18 million people in the world every year, with a 30-50 per cent mortality rate.
	The microbes that cause it are often resistant to antibiotics, and spread fast.
	If the invention is shown to be safe for humans, "patients could be treated with our bio-spleen and this will physically clean 

Scientists unveil magnetic cure for bad blood

The pro-Russian party that ruled Ukraine under ousted president Viktor Yanukovych said today it would boycott next month's parliamentary polls and form an "opposition government" to fight for regional powers and against Kiev's westward course.
	The decision by the once-dominant Regions Party came as top politicians formed leadership lists for the October 26 election that was called early to regain people's trust after two decades of post-Soviet corruption and economic malaise.
	The polls have been an afterthought for many horrified Ukrainians watching their nation being ravaged by a pro-Russian eastern uprising that erupted in the wake of the toppling of the Kremlin-backed Yanukovych in February.
	But the new 450-seat chamber will enjoy additional powers that could make its cooperation essential to President Petro Poroshenko's attempts to pull Ukraine out of its worst security and economic crises since independence in 1991.
	The Verkhovna Rada parliament will nominate prime ministers .

Main pro-Russia party to boycott Ukraine vote

Scores of veterans of elite Israeli intelligence unit 8200 rallied to its defence today after 43 comrades said they would no longer take part in its "injustices" against millions of Palestinians.
	The open letter, which was sent to Israel's political and military leadership last week, was one of the most high-profile expressions of conscientious objection in years.
	The signatories -- reservists and former members of 8200 -- said the intelligence collected by the unit "was an integral part of Israel's military occupation", and that they would refuse to continue to serve.
	They charged that information gathered by Unit 8200 was used by civilian intelligence agencies to coerce Palestinians uninvolved in militant activity, and urged other members of the intelligence corps "to speak out against these injustices and to take action to bring them to an end".
	But in a letter of reply today, 200 veterans of the unit denounced their former comrades' refusal to serve.
	"We wish to express ...

Israel intelligence hits back over refuseniks' letter

More than 1,000 activists paraded through Hong Kong's streets on Sunday carrying huge lengths of black cloth, in a sombre protest against a recent decision by Beijing that crushed the city's hopes for full democracy.
	Democracy activists in the former British colony had expectations Hong Kongers would be able to vote for their leader cut short in August when China announced plans for a highly restricted form of universal suffrage.
	Under the proposal, candidates for the 2017 polls will be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee -- and just two or three approved nominees will be allowed to stand.
	Occupy Central, the movement behind Sunday's march, said 4,000 participated in the rally, while police put the turnout at a more conservative figure, saying that 1,860 people took to the streets.
	Protesters in dark clothing held wide strips of material half a kilometre long displaying Chinese characters painted in white that read "civil disobedience" and "boycott classes".
	A coalition of ...

Black-clad democracy activists stage sombre Hong Kong rally

A previously unseen letter written by Pablo Picasso, complete with sketches, has gone on display in western France.
	The letter, to his friend the French poet Max Jacob, comes from a private collection and is displayed at the fine arts museum in the western city of Quimper.
	Beginning "my dear Max" and signed "your brother Picasso", the letter shows the close bond between the Spanish artist and Jacob, who was "his best friend at the time and the person who really discovered him", according to museum director Ambroise Guillaume.
	It was written in 1903 when Picasso was in Barcelona and offers details of his life there and also his wish to come back to Paris.
	"If I can work here, I'll stay here, but if I see I can't do anything here, I'll bugger off back to Paris," wrote the artist in broken French.
	The letter is extremely rare given that only 10 or so letters from Picasso to Jacob have ever been found, the museum noted.
	The sketches show a women appearing to comfort a seated man, an 

Unseen Picasso letter -- with doodles -- on display in France

Nigerian preacher and televangelist TB Joshua today linked a deadly building collapse at his Lagos megachurch to a suspicious aircraft but rescue workers ruled out the theory of foul play.
	Joshua, dubbed "The Prophet" by fanatical followers because of his purported predictions and healing powers, showed footage of the moments leading up to the collapse on his emmanuel.Tv network.
	Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said 42 people were killed in Friday's incident, while 130 escaped or were pulled out alive from the rubble.
	In the security camera footage, apparently from opposite the vast church compound, what is described as an aircraft is seen over the building four times at 11:30 am (1030 GMT), 11:43 am, 11:45 and 11:54 am.
	The uncompleted building, five floors of which are visible above a high wall, is then seen to collapse at 12:44 pm, throwing up huge clouds of dust into the air.
	"After the incident, the strange aircraft does not return," a commentary ...

Nigerian preacher suggests sabotage over building collapse

Some 2,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Glasgow today to protest against the BBC's coverage of Scotland's independence referendum, four days before the knife-edge vote.
	Demonstrators claimed that coverage by the British broadcaster has been biased against the separatist "Yes" camp, which wants Scotland to break away from the rest of Britain.
	They chanted and waved banners in favour of independence as they marched from the city's George Square along the banks of the River Clyde to the headquarters of BBC Scotland.
	First Minister Alex Salmond this week accused the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson of heckling him at a media briefing.
	Salmond, who is leading the "Yes" campaign, also told this week's Sunday Herald newspaper that the BBC's coverage was biased.
	"Don't get me wrong, I like these folk, but they don't realise they're biased. It's the unconscious bias which is the most extraordinary thing of all," he said.
	The BBC insists its coverage of the debate has been ...

Nationalists march against 'biased' BBC Scotland vote coverage

Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed today to resolutely combat anti-Semitism, speaking at a rally to condemn a spate of hate speech and attacks against Jews in Germany during the latest Gaza conflict.
	About 5,000 attended the event, held under the banner "Stand Up: Jew Hatred - Never Again!", which coincided with the first ever annual meeting of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in the German capital.
	"The fight against anti-Semitism is our state and civic duty," said Merkel in an address at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate, close to the city's Holocaust Memorial.
	"I will not accept it, and none of us here will accept it."
	In July, at the height of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Germany's Jewish community condemned an "explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews" at pro-Palestinian rallies where some demonstrators chanted that Jews should be "gassed", "burnt" and "slaughtered".
	More seriously, four people were shot dead in May at the Jewish museum in Brussels, Belgium. The museum ...

Merkel pledges zero tolerance for anti-Semitism

Success of the US campaign against Islamic State militants will come when the group no longer poses a threat to the United States and its allies in the Middle East, a top US official said today.
	US national security advisor Denis McDonough appeared to calibrate President Barack Obama's vow to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the militant group, in spelling out US objectives in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press.
	"Success looks like an ISIL that no longer threatens our friends in the region, no longer threatens the United States," he said, using an alternative acronym for the group that has grabbed large areas of Syria and northern Iraq.
	"An ISIL that can't accumulate followers, or threaten Muslims in Syria, Iran, Iraq, or otherwise. And that's exactly what success looks like."
	Obama's vow in a September 10 speech announcing a stepped-up US air campaign against the militants has drawn a skeptical response, with critics noting that even Al-Qaeda has not been destroyed, despite a 

US goal to neutralise IS threat: Obama aide

Some 140 tiger experts and government officials from 20 countries met in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka today to review progress towards an ambitious goal of doubling their number in the wild by 2022.
	The nations, including the 13 where tigers are still found in the wild, had vowed at a landmark meeting in 2010 in the Russian city of St Petersburg to double the population of critically endangered wild tigers.
	Experts say the number declined to as few as 3,200 in 2010 from 100,000 only a century ago. But since then, poaching has reached critical levels and has emerged as the greatest threat to wild tigers.
	Statistics from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, show that a minimum of 1,590 tigers were seized between January 2000 and April 2014. That represents an average of two per week.
	Officials, however, listed some progress in the four years since the St Petersburg summit, including a rise in the wild tiger population in major "tiger range" nations -- countries where the 

Bangladesh meet begins to save endangered tigers

Campaigners for and against Scottish independence scrambled for votes today ahead of a historic referendum, as a religious leader prayed for harmony after polls showed Scots were almost evenly split.
	The Church of Scotland's moderator John Chalmers called for Scots to "live in harmony with one another" whatever the result and hailed the feverish run-up to Thursday's vote as "a wonderful democratic concerto".
	"All of those who will vote 'Yes' and all of those who will vote 'No' need to remember that we belong together in the same Scotland," he told worshippers at St Mary's Episcopal Church in Edinburgh in a sermon broadcast on BBC radio nationwide.
	"We cannot afford to lose the momentum and interest in civic life which this campaign has generated," said Chalmers, moderator of the general assembly of the Church, the largest religious group in Scotland.
	The pro-union camp has been far ahead in the polls for many months, but the difference has narrowed in recent weeks and a raft of ...

AFP

AFP

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