Jihadists killed six soldiers and a civilian militia leader as they hit three towns in Nigeria's conflict-torn northeastern state of Borno, security sources and residents told AFP on Friday.
Several troops and militiamen are also missing, they said.  Suspected fighters from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), affiliated to the so-called Islamic State group, attacked the town of Gubio around 1630 GMT on Thursday, unleashing a battle with security forces.
"The bodies of six soldiers and the (local) head of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) were recovered outside the town with bullet wounds," a security source said.
The jihadists stormed into Gubio aboard a dozen pickup trucks mounted with machine guns, according to local resident Idrissa Kaka, who confirmed the death toll.
They also made off with three military vehicles and a van belonging to the CJTF.
"The whereabouts of the remaining soldiers is unknown. Our fear is that they were captured along with the vehicles," he ...

Six Nigerian soldiers dead in jihadist attacks

PTI Automatic

At least 10 people have died in a fire in a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, the fire service in the Brazilian city said, with preliminary reports suggesting a short circuit in a generator could have sparked the blaze.
The fire broke out at dusk Thursday at the Badim hospital in the north of Rio, sending medical staff and relatives into a desperate flurry to try to evacuate scores of patients.
"At least 10 people died," the Rio de Janeiro fire department said in a statement, without specifying whether the victims were patients or workers.
"About 90 patients had to be transferred to other medical units." The blaze was brought under control by 8:00 pm (2300 GMT), and firefighters searched until the early hours of Friday to recover bodies from the scene.
During the evacuation effort, dozens of gurneys and stretchers were taken into surrounding streets as ambulances struggled to get through crowds of curious onlookers to rush the most vulnerable patients to other hospitals.
"I was able to take 

At least 10 dead in Rio hospital blaze

Paris metro workers walked off the job Friday over plans for a major overhaul of the pension system, sparking huge traffic jams as commuters scrambled to find other ways of getting to work.
Ten of the city's 16 metro lines were shut down completely, while service on most others was "extremely disrupted," the city's RATP transit operator said.
Massive crowds waited on the platforms of the two automated driverless lines still operating and officials counted nearly 300 kilometres (185 miles) of traffic backups during the morning rush hour, more than double normal levels.
Two of the three main suburban lines that traverse the city were also severely disrupted, as were most bus and tram services.
But with many workers taking the day off, or managing to find alternative travel solutions, from bikes to electric scooters, skateboards and unicycles, the situation was not as chaotic as many had feared.
"We had expected a lot more people," an RATP agent at a station on Line 1, a fully automated .

Paris traffic gridlock as metro workers strike over pension reform

A rare royal tapestry housed at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris has been spared the water damage officials feared, after firefighters doused the great mediaeval edifice to extinguish last April's devastating blaze.
The huge tapestry, finished under the reign of king Louis Philippe in 1838, was evacuated from the gothic monument just days after the fire.
It had been stored in two parts in trunks -- which protected it from the molten lead falling from the roof, which was destroyed along with the steeple in the April 15 disaster.
But the tapestry had soaked up huge amounts of water, which swelled its weight to three tonnes from just one tonne when it was handed over to France's Mobilier National, which oversees the country's collection of valuable furniture and artworks.
"Rolled up, it would have been a bacterial soup" that could have quickly started rotting, said Herve Lemoine, head of the Mobilier National.
"Once it was unrolled, we had to dry it in a huge wind tunnel and then freeze it .

Prized Notre-Dame tapestry out of danger after water worries

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday warned the West against lifting sanctions on Russia as France pushes for rapprochement with Moscow.
But speaking on the sidelines of an annual forum in the capital Kiev, the 41-year-old leader told AFP that he had a "feeling" that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to improve ties with Ukraine.
Addressing the Yalta European Strategy (YES) forum, Zelensky said that some of Ukraine's Western partners have considered lifting sanctions against Russia.
"Sometimes they think about lifting sanctions. You are losing money. Seriously? "I am sorry but we are losing people," Zelensky said, referring to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the Moscow-backed separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"Essentially, sanctions are a tax needed to maintain world order. A peace tax, if you will. And you know in the civilised world it's normal to pay taxes," he said.
"Sanctions should remain" until peace was restored in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky ...

Ukraine leader says Russia sanctions must remain in place

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the possibility of a Brexit deal, noting a "good deal of progress" in talks with Brussels.
"There is the rough shape of a deal to be done... I am cautiously optimistic," Johnson said, speaking during a visit to Rotherham in northern England.

UK's Johnson says 'cautiously optimistic' for Brexit deal

The Czech foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador on Friday amid a row over a controversial Soviet-era statue in Prague that city authorities want to replace with a World War II memorial.
Prague authorities put a tarp over the vandalised statue of Soviet General Ivan Stepanovich Konev in August, triggering a sharp reaction from Moscow.
Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky called Ondrej Kolar, mayor of Prague's sixth district who approved the tarp, a "gauleiter", or a regional Nazi Party leader during World War II.
Medinsky also accused Kolar of supporting hooligans and tarnishing the memory of Soviet soldiers.
While Konev is regarded as a hero in Russia, many Czechs see him as a symbol of Soviet-era oppression.
He led Red Army troops that liberated Prague from the Nazis in 1945, but he was also in charge of Operation Whirlwind, which crushed the anti-Soviet Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
Konev, who died in 1973, also played a role in the 1968 Soviet-led crackdown on the ...

Czechs summon Russian envoy amid Soviet-era statue row

Countries are only "slowly" making headway in meeting promises to relocate stranded refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya and Niger, a senior UN official says.
Nearly 48,000 people are in Libya, some of whom are being held in detention camps, according to UN figures, while thousands of others have been evacuated to neighbouring Niger, where they are waiting in transit camps.
So far, 6,606 of them have received a promise of permanent relocation in a third country.
Pledges have been made by Belgium, Britain, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
But in an interview with AFP, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' special envoy for the central Mediterranean, Vincent Cochetel, said only "close to half of these pledges have been met."
Cochetel was speaking this week on the sidelines of a meeting in the Malian capital Bamako which gathered international experts and African ministers on forced ...

Refugee crisis in Libya and Niger making slow headway, says UN

British Airways has cancelled all its scheduled UK flights for September 27, when company pilots will again strike in a long-running row over pay.
It comes after the carrier cancelled all flights departing and arriving in the UK on Monday and Tuesday owing to BA's first strike by pilots in the company's 100-year history.
In a statement released late Thursday, BA called on the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) union "to call off their strike and return to negotiations".
The airline added: "We are very sorry that BALPA's actions will affect thousands more travel plans." This week's strike sparked travel chaos for about 200,000 passengers, mostly using London's Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
BALPA estimates that the 48-hour strike cost the airline 80 million pounds (USD 99 million, 89 million euros), but BA has yet to provide a figure.

Strike-hit BA axes all UK flights for September 27

David Warner was again dismissed for single figures as England paceman Jofra Archer made early inroads into Australia's batting line-up in the fifth Ashes Test on Friday.
The tourists had reached 55-2 by lunch, with Steve Smith unbeaten on 14 and Marcus Labuschagne not out 32.
Earlier, England added just 23 runs to their overnight score at the sun-soaked Oval in London, dismissed for 294 on a good-looking pitch.
Jos Buttler, who counter-attacked impressively on Thursday, was bowled by Pat Cummins for 70 and Jack Leach was the last man out for 21.
Mitchell Marsh's dismissal of Leach gave him figures of 5-46 on his return to the Test side while Cummins took 3-84.
Tim Paine's Australia will fancy their chances of building a substantial first-innings lead as they seek their first series win in England since 2001.
But they were dealt a big blow when Warner was out in just the second over, caught by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow off Archer for five.
Warner was initially given not out but ...

Archer removes Warner as England strike back in fifth Test

A British man convicted in the UK of child pornography offences was charged Friday with sexually abusing minors in a poor minority Roma community in central Bulgaria, prosecutors said.
They said Daniel Erickson-Hull, 44, was detained Thursday in a Roma neighbourhood in the town of Sliven, where he lived as a self-proclaimed evangelical preacher.
He is charged with abusing four boys under the age of 16, the regional prosecutors' office said in a statement.
"The charges... are for sexual abuse between January and September 2019," the office's spokeswoman Vanya Beleva told AFP.
Television pictures showed a small crowd of Roma people from the man's self-styled congregation gathered outside the Sliven regional court on Friday to protest against his detention.
The charges followed a BBC report, broadcast earlier this week, on sex offenders fleeing abroad.
The programme revealed that Erickson-Hull breached his court orders by spending time near unaccompanied children and by failing to report 

British man charged with child sex abuse in Bulgaria

Czech prosecutors said Friday they had cleared billionaire  Prime Minister Andrej Babis of any wrongdoing in an alleged two-million-euro case of EU subsidy fraud involving one of his farms.
Police recommended in April that Babis be indicted in the case in which he and several others, including family members, risked five to 10 years behind bars. Babis flatly denied any wrongdoing.
The 65-year-old agro-chemicals mogul, pegged by Forbes as the second-wealthiest Czech, was suspected of abusing special EU small business subsidies to create his luxury Stork Nest resort and farm near Prague in 2007.
Police alleged that Babis had only temporarily removed the farm from Agrofert, his sprawling food, chemicals and media holding, so as to make it eligible for the EU small business subsidy.
Prosecutors said Friday the police allegation was unsubstantiated.
"The evidence we have made us conclude the Stork Nest farm met the definition of a small- and medium-sized company," Prague prosecutor Martin .

Prosecutors clear Czech PM of EU subsidy fraud

London Stock Exchange Group on Friday formally rejected a takeover bid by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, citing "fundamental concerns" over the bid worth 32 billion pounds (USD 40 billion, 36 billion euros).
In a statement, LSEG said management "unanimously rejects the conditional proposal and, given its fundamental flaws, sees no merit in further engagement" regarding the offer made Wednesday.

London Stock Exchange rejects Hong Kong takeover bid

At least 10 people died in a fire inside a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday evening with rescuers desperately trying to evacuate scores of patients from the building, the fire service said.
The fire broke out at dusk at the Badim hospital in the north of the city, with first reports suggesting the cause was a short circuit in a generator in the oldest part of the complex.
"At least 10 people died," the Rio de Janeiro fire department said in a statement, without specifying whether the victims were patients or workers.
"About 90 patients had to be transferred to other medical units."
The blaze was brought under control by 8:00pm (2300 GMT), and fire fighters searched until the early hours of Friday to recover bodies from the scene.
During the emergency evacuation, dozens of trolly beds and stretchers were taken into the surrounding streets as ambulances struggled to get through crowds of curious onlookers to rush the most vulnerable patients to other hospitals.
Dense ...

At least 10 dead in Rio de Janeiro hospital blaze: fire service

Vandals spray-painted swastikas and slogans about the crash of flight MH17 on a British cemetery for World War II soldiers in the Netherlands, police said Friday.
The desecration of the cemetery at Mierlo, near the southern city of Eindhoven, comes as the Netherlands marks the 75th anniversary of the start of its allied liberation from the Nazis.
"We take the matter very seriously and have started an extensive investigation," police said, adding that they were probing possible further incidents of vandalism in the town.
A large swastika was daubed on a chapel at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery, while letters were painted on several of the 664 graves at the cemetery, and a large stone cross was also defaced.
The vandals also wrote "MH17 Lie" on an outer wall of the cemetery.
The Netherlands was the country that lost the most people in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014 over part of eastern Ukraine that was held by pro-Russian separatists.
Cemetery ...

Vandals spray swastikas on British war graves in Netherlands

At least 10 people died in a fire at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday night with rescuers desperately trying to evacuate patients from the building, the fire service said.
"At least 10 people died," the Rio de Janeiro fire department said in a statement, without specifying whether the victims were patients or workers at the Badim hospital in the north of the city.

At least 10 dead in Rio de Janeiro hospital fire: fire service

Two more Rohingya men were shot dead by officers Friday in a southern Bangladesh border town, police said, amid a clampdown on the refugees after the killing of a ruling party official.
Police said the pair were accused of the murder of Omar Faruk, a youth wing official of the Awami League party, who was shot in the head by suspected Rohingya criminals late last month.
Nearly a million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh, 740,000 of whom fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar.
Masud Hossain, head of police in the border district of Cox's Bazar, told AFP the two men were grievously injured during a gunfight with police near Teknaf town early Friday morning and were later declared dead in hospital.
"They are Rohingya miscreants. They were involved in robbery, abduction and drug smuggling," he said, adding they were "accused in the case" of Faruk's murder on August 22.
With the latest deaths, six Rohingya men allegedly involved in Faruk's 

Two more Rohingya shot dead over Bangladesh politician's murder

Paul Pogba heads a lengthy Manchester United injury list for the visit of in-form Leicester City to Old Trafford on Saturday with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer potentially missing seven first-team players.
Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Diogo Dalot and Eric Bailly will also definitely miss the clash with the Foxes, while Jesse Lingard and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are both doubtful after withdrawing from England's Euro 2020 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Kosovo.
Pogba twisted his ankle in the 1-1 draw at Southampton two weeks ago and did not play for France in their two matches during the international break, with the midfielder expected to return for the match at West Ham on 22 September.
Shaw (hamstring) and Martial (thigh) have still not recovered from the injuries sustained in the 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on 24 August, while Dalot (hip) and Bailly (knee) are longer-term injuries.
"The treatment room has been busy and it still is," said Solskjaer. "We don't really know who is going to be ...

Injury-ravaged Man Utd without Pogba for Leicester test

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said Friday that big-money summer signing Eden Hazard has been passed fit and will make his long-awaited La Liga debut against Levante on Saturday.
"We all want to see Eden," said Zidane.
"There's a lot of pressure on him, a lot of expectation. But he is ready and that is the most important thing."
Hazard was expected to make his debut in Vigo in the opening round in mid-August after joining Madrid for an initial 100 million euros from Chelsea in June.
But the Belgian pulled up with a thigh strain at the club's training base in Valdebebas and had to sit out the first three weeks of the season during which Real struggled, collecting one win and two draws.
Zidane, however, called for patience as Hazard finds his feet again.  "We have to go gently," he said. "He (Hazard) was injured for three weeks, he has been back for a week.
"We have seven games in 21 days and we will have to go gently. It will be up to me to keep an eye on his minutes and his playing 

Hazard to make Real Madrid debut in La Liga

Boris Johnson will meet EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker in Luxembourg on Monday, officials said, as the British prime minister bids to broker a Brexit compromise ahead of the October 31 deadline.
Johnson will "hold talks with President Juncker on Brexit," his Downing Street office said without providing further details.
EU spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud told reporters that the two would have a working lunch that was arranged by "common accord".
The British pound gained one percent against the dollar in Friday trading on speculation that the two sides were edging closer to a compromise over the contentious Irish border issue.
Johnson refuses to sign off on an agreement that includes the "backstop," a compromise intended to keep the frontier open for trade and crossings in all post-Brexit scenarios.
It was accepted by his predecessor Theresa May but repeatedly failed to win backing in the British parliament.
Eurosceptics fear the stop-gap measures designed for the border between EU member ...

UK's Johnson to meet EU's Juncker on Monday for Brexit talks

Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen has voiced his frustration at playing second fiddle to Manuel Neuer in the German national team.
Ter Stegen, 27, sat on the bench throughout Germany's Euro 2020 qualifiers against the Netherlands and Northern Ireland last weekend, despite repeated assurances from coach Joachim Loew that he would get a chance to prove himself in 2019.
"It's not easy to find an explanation for what I am experiencing," Ter Stegen told reporters at a marketing event in Barcelona on Thursday.
"I am still trying everything, but this trip with Germany was a tough blow for me."
The undisputed number one at Barcelona, Ter Stegen has struggled to usurp Neuer in the German national team.
He has made just one appearance for Germany this year, a 45-minute cameo in a friendly against Serbia last March.
Loew has described Ter Stegen as a "world class goalkeeper", but said Monday that he didn't want to change his goalkeeper after a destabilising 4-2 defeat to the Dutch.
"I ..

AFP

AFP

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