Malaysia wants to return almost 200 shipping containers believed to contain plastic waste, officials said Thursday, but first they need to work out where they came from.
Southeast Asia has been flooded with waste plastic from more developed nations such as the US, Australia and Britain since last year when China -- which boasted a massive recycling industry -- ordered a halt to imports.
Malaysia has been particularly hard hit as many recyclers from China moved there as the ban took effect.
The government has already sent back at least 10 containers of plastic waste to different countries and closed down 155 illegal processing plants, senior environment ministry official K Nagulendran said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Malaysia on Thursday.
But officials are struggling to identify the origin of 198 more containers thought to contain scrap plastic at three ports.
The contents have been declared a type of plastic which can legally be imported, but none of the containers had the .

Return to sender: Malaysia seeks origin of tons of plastic waste

PTI Automatic

The same oceans that nourished human evolution are poised to unleash misery on a global scale unless the carbon pollution destabilising Earth's marine environment is brought to heel, warns a draft UN report obtained by AFP.
Destructive changes already set in motion could see a steady decline in fish stocks, a hundred-fold or more increase in the damages caused by superstorms, and hundreds of millions of people displaced by rising seas, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "special report" on oceans and Earth's frozen zones, known as the cryosphere.
As the 21st century unfolds, melting glaciers will first give too much and then too little to billions who depend on them for fresh water, it finds.
Without deep cuts to manmade emissions, at least 30 per cent of the northern hemisphere's surface permafrost could melt by century's end, unleashing billions of tonnes of carbon and accelerating global warming even more.
The 900-page scientific assessment is the ...

Oceans turning from friend to foe, warns landmark UN climate report

Belarus's strongman ruler Alexander Lukashenko said he was looking for a fresh start in ties with Washington as he met Thursday with White House national security advisor John Bolton.
"Since the start of the deterioration of our relations with the United States we have constantly proposed turning this bad page and opening a new chapter in our relations," Lukashenko told Bolton in Minsk, during the rare visit by a US official.

Belarus strongman says wants to 'open fresh chapter' in ties with US

A former senior commander of the dissolved FARC rebel army in Colombia announced Thursday he is taking up arms again along with other guerrillas who have distanced themselves from a historic peace accord signed with the government.
"We are announcing to the world that the second Marquetalia has begun," Ivan Marquez, dressed in military fatigues, said in a video posted on YouTube, referring to a rural enclave considered a birthplace of the FARC in the 1960s.
Marquez accused the government of betraying the accord under which 7,000 FARC fighters had laid down their weapons after half a century of armed conflict.
The whereabouts of Marquez, the Marxist FARC's number two leader and chief negotiator of the 2016 peace agreement, had been unknown for more than a year.
In the video, Marquez appears in the jungle flanked by men and women holding rifles. Behind them is a FARC banner.
He said the government has cheated in implementation of the accord, unilaterally changed its wording, and failed .

Former Colombian rebel leader says taking up arms again

A strengthening Hurricane Dorian appeared to have largely spared Puerto Rico, barrelling past the US territory still recovering from a powerful storm two years ago.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said the hurricane watch and tropical storm warning for the island had been lifted, and that "Dorian continues to move away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands."
"The threat has already passed," Puerto Rico's new governor, Wanda Vazquez, told a news conference Wednesday.
Vazquez announced that schools would reopen and people should return to work from Thursday.
She said the storm had given the island a chance to evaluate its hurricane response.
"These days have been a real exercise where we have been able to re-evaluate and make adjustments in all our responses to protect the people of Puerto Rico," she said.
But the danger for other areas is far from over: "Dorian is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane during the next couple of days," the NHC said.
Rainfall from ..

Hurricane Dorian appears to spare Puerto Rico, heads for Florida

A controversial Tibetan monk whose best-selling book on Buddhist wisdom was overshadowed by multiple allegations of sexual abuse has died in Thailand, his official social media account reported.
Sogyal Rinpoche, a former close friend of the Dalai Lama, suffered a pulmonary embolism and "left this world" at around 01:00 pm (0500 GMT) on Wednesday, a post on his Facebook page said.
"The doctors did everything they could but could not restore the function of his heart... Rinpoche is now resting in meditation," it said.
Rinpoche penned the best-selling "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" in 1992, which became a huge hit in the West with people disillusioned with their lifestyles.
It explored birth, karma, death and reincarnation, and how to train the mind through meditation.
Born in 1947 in Tibet, Sogyal Lakar Rinpoche was recognized as the reincarnation of Terton Sogyal, a teacher of the 13th Dalai Lama.
In the 1970s he became more prominent internationally and founded Rigpa, a ...

Best-selling Tibetan monk accused of sexual abuse dies in Thailand

The end of Italy's first post-war government experiment with far-right populists marks a stunning defeat for League leader Matteo Salvini, but his political career is far from over.
Outgoing interior minister Salvini on Thursday railed against the "little government" that has replaced him, but he has massively lost his bet on snap elections.
"He committed a political error rather than one of timing," said Lorenzo Castellani, political science lecturer at Rome's Luiss University.
Salvini bet on the advantage of surprise when on August 8, in the middle of the summer holidays, he pulled the plug on his own coalition with the Five Star Movement (M5S).
But he underestimated the ability of Italy's parliamentary system and European allies to fight back.
He didn't see that "through contacts between European capitals and Italian President Sergio Mattarella a deal was reached to prevent him cashing in on votes", Castellani told AFP.
On the day he pulled the plug, opinion polls said his party ...

Curtains for Italy's first post-war populist government

Rights activists on Thursday decried overcrowding and outmoded conditions in Senegal's jails after two inmates lost their lives in the main prison in the capital Dakar.
The detainees died on Tuesday inside the Rebeuss facility in the city centre after a cell ventilator spat out "sparks" that caused panic among prisoners, the justice ministry said in a statement.
"Prompt intervention by prison warders did not make it possible to save all the occupants because two inert bodies were found lying on the floor," the statement said, without noting how many detainees were held in the cell.
Three human rights groups issued a joint statement calling for an "independent and impartial investigation", adding that they had "ceaselessly denounced the dilapidation of this prison".
"It's time that the government took urgent measures to solve the problem of prison overpopulation," said the text released by Amnesty Senegal, the Senegalese League of Human Rights and the Dakar-based African Assembly for ..

Senegal rights groups decry jail conditions after deaths

Former South American football chief Nicolas Leoz, a key suspect in the huge FIFA corruption scandal investigated by the US Justice Department, has died aged 90 in Asuncion, medical sources said.
The United States had sought to extradite the Paraguayan -- one of the most powerful men in South American football -- to face trial over alleged bribery and money laundering but his lawyers frustrated all attempts to do so, citing his frail health.
He died of heart failure in hospital on Wednesday, medical sources and local media reported in Paraguay.
Leoz had been under house arrest in Asuncion in connection with the scandal and was suspected of receiving millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for marketing and TV rights for games.
In November 2017, a court in Paraguay ruled that the former president of the Confederation of South American Football (CONMEBOL) could be extradited to face trial in the United States, pending a medical board being set up to evaluate his health.
Leoz, who ...

Ex-South American football boss, mired in FIFA scandal, dies

A German man and four others were arrested in Romania for allegedly holding troubled German teenagers like slaves, officials said Thursday.
A judge ordered the five to be detained for 30 days, the German's lawyer Ioan Sas told AFP.
The man, who founded a programme for adolescents with problems, is "accused of creating an organised criminal group, human trafficking and sequestration", he said.
"There is no proof against him," Sas said, adding the centre continued to operate.
The man's German wife and two others, who were also involved with the programme, have been placed under judicial control and will have to report to police while investigations are on, prosecutors said.
The "Projekt Maramures", financed by the German state, was licensed by Romania's labour ministry, according to investigators.
A German foreign ministry spokeswoman has said her country had not been aware of any problem in the past 20 years.
But Romanian prosecutors allege children aged 12 to 18 were detained in ...

Romania arrests five for allegedly 'enslaving' German teens

Steve Smith was back playing in his first match since being concussed by England fast bowler Jofra Archer as Australia faced Derbyshire on Thursday.
But with Derbyshire captain Billy Godleman deciding to bat after winning the toss, Smith had to wait for his first innings since being hit on his unprotected neck during the drawn second Test at Lord's.
Smith, felled by a 92 mph Archer bouncer, was ruled out of the rest of that match -- with concussion substitute Marnus Labuschagne taking his place -- and his injury meant he also missed England's dramatic one-wicket win in the third Test at Headingley that levelled the five-match Ashes series at 1-1.
But star batsman Smith is set to make his Test comeback in next week's fourth Ashes match at Old Trafford provided he comes through this three-day fixture in Derby unscathed.
There was a worrying moment for Smith early Thursday when a ball landed just short of him at second slip and hit him a painful blow on the hand but the star batsman ...

Smith returns to action for Australia against Derbyshire

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, serving a 20-year jail term in Russia, was moved to Moscow ahead of a possible prisoner swap, Russian news agencies and Ukrainian MPs said Thursday.
Sentsov, who lived in Crimea and opposed its annexation by Moscow, was convicted in 2015 for plotting and carrying out attacks there in a controversial case.
He is Ukraine's most famous political prisoner in Russia and was sent to an Arctic penal colony despite a global campaign for his freedom, including by Hollywood stars.
Russian news agencies TASS and Interfax cited sources saying that Sentsov, 43, had been transferred to the capital.
"He was brought to Moscow in the framework of an exchange process," a source told Interfax.
TASS quoted a source as saying that Sentsov was shipped from his prison to the capital, without further details.
Ukrainian MP Akhtem Chiygoz, who is from Crimea, told local media that the swap could happen on Friday but everything was still "speculation".
"Oleg Sentsov is in ...

Ukraine filmmaker in Moscow for possible prisoner swap: reports

Yemen's government on Thursday accused the United Arab Emirates of launching air strikes against its troops in the southern city of Aden in support of separatist fighters.
"The Yemeni government condemns the Emirati air strikes against government forces in the interim capital Aden and in Zinjibar, which resulted in civilian and military casualties," Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Hadhrami said in a tweet.
The UAE has trained and supported separatists who seek an independent southern Yemen, although it is a key pillar in a Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government against Iran-aligned Huthi rebels.
Hadhrami urged Saudi Arabia "to stand by the legitimate government and stop this illegal and unjustified military escalation".
The deputy foreign minister did not say when the alleged air strikes took place.
But residents in Aden told AFP they heard air strikes late Wednesday when forces loyal to Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi entered Aden.
The UAE-backed Security Belt .

Yemen govt accuses UAE of launching air strikes against troops

Defending US Open champion Novak Djokovic complained of feeling "quite rough and unpredictable" as a nagging shoulder problem hampered him during Wednesday's second-round win over Juan Ignacio Londero.
The world number one received medical treatment to his left shoulder throughout the match on his way to a 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 win and said he feared the injury could have forced him to retire.
"It was not easy to play with this kind of sensation, to be honest. I did not experience that too many times in my career," Djokovic said.
"I had obviously, you saw, a medical timeout. At changeovers, I tried to use within the rules as much as I can physiotherapy and medical help. That has definitely helped me stay in the match.
"The way it has started for me, especially midway through the first set, I didn't know if I would be able to finish the match."
Djokovic, who is attempting to become the first back-to-back men's champion here since Roger Federer won from 2004-2008, said the problem ...

'Rough and unpredictable': Djokovic troubled by shoulder at US Open

Nigeria has announced the "partial closure" of its border with Benin to clamp down on the smuggling of goods, above all rice, into the country.
The West African powerhouse is targeting "massive smuggling activities, especially of rice, taking place on that corridor", the presidency said in a statement Wednesday.
Nigeria is heavily reliant on imports to feed its booming population, while the government is seeking to bolster agriculture as it looks to diversify the oil-dependent economy.
The authorities are looking to stem the inflow of key produce with restrictions such as curbs on importers' access to foreign exchange.
Such measures have helped push up prices, creating an incentive for smuggling from neighbouring countries.
The statement by President Muhammadu Buhari's office did not indicate when the latest measures took effect and what the "partial closure" entails.
It said the measure would "allow Nigeria's security forces to develop a strategy" to combat smuggling, which it called 

Nigeria targets smuggling with 'partial closure' of Benin border

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who turned her party's fortunes around in Scotland, said she was resigning on Thursday, a day after the government announced it was suspending parliament ahead of a Brexit deadline.
Davidson, who supported staying in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, said she was stepping down mainly to be with her new son and partner, but also mentioned "the conflict I have felt over Brexit" in a statement on Twitter.
Davidson, a charismatic politician who was once seen as a potential national leader of the Conservative Party, said she intended to remain a member of the Scottish Parliament.
Davidson has been a strong critic of a no-deal Brexit -- a prospect that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not ruled out if no agreement is reached with the EU by October 31.
She said she believed Johnson's assurances that he was trying to get a new deal with the European Union and urged parliamentary colleagues to approve it if he did so.
"Prime minister, get us 

Scottish Conservative leader says resigning

China will hold a massive military parade showcasing some of its most advanced weaponry to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the communist state, authorities announced Thursday.
It comes as the trade war with the US threatens to engulf the international economy, with Beijing and Washington's navies jostling for influence in Southeast Asia, and continuing unrest in Hong Kong.
The military and civilian parade, held in the capital on October 1, is expected to be the biggest in its history.
"We have to point out that this military parade won't be targeted at any countries or districts and any specific incidents," said General Cai Zhijun, a member of the Chinese Army General Staff, at a press conference in Beijing Thursday.
Cai said that the size of the military parade was not a sign of aggression and the Chinese army was "committed to safeguarding world peace and regional stability." However, the largest army in the world "will show some advanced weapons for the first time," he ...

China unveils plan for huge anniversary military parade

The United States must observe a landmark nuclear deal and halt "economic terrorism" against Iran if it wants to hold talks, the Islamic republic's foreign minister said Thursday.
Tehran and Washington have been locked in a bitter standoff since last year when US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its atomic programme.
Trump said Monday he was ready to meet Iran's President Hassan Rouhani within weeks, in a potential breakthrough reached during a G7 summit in the French seaside resort of Biarritz.
But Rouhani has said Washington must first lift sanctions imposed since its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, and Foreign Minister i9ijjjjMohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that message.
"The United States is engaged in economic war against the Iranian people, and it won't be possible for us to engage with the United States unless they stop imposing a war, engaging in economic terrorism against the Iranian .

US must observe nuclear deal if it wants talks: Iran

Indonesia's Papua was plunged into chaos again Thursday as angry protesters torched a government building and damaged businesses, according to an AFP reporter, after nearly two weeks of riots across the island.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched near Papua's biggest city Jayapura where they set fire to a regional assembly building and hurled rocks at shops and hotels, the reporter said.
Many called for independence from Indonesian rule and an end to racism against the minority group.
The protest comes a day after violence flared in remote Deiyai, where a clash between protesters and Indonesian security forces left at least one soldier and two demonstrators dead, according to officials.
The confrontation sparked reports that Indonesia's military -- long accused of committing rights abuses against Papuans during a decades-old separatist insurgency -- had gunned down six protesters.
Authorities denied that claim and said they were attacked by hundreds of Papuans armed with machetes and ...

Rioters torch government building in Indonesia's Papua

The head of the United Nations Thursday mooted a meeting of key countries to drum up support to tackle the devastating Amazon forest fires, which he called a "very serious situation."
Speaking on the sidelines of an African development conference in Yokohama, Antonio Guterres urged the international community to do more to quell the more than 83,000 fires set this year, more than half of which are raging in the massive Amazon basin.
"We are strongly appealing for the mobilisation of resources and we have been in contact with countries to see whether, during the high level session of the General Assembly, there could be a meeting devoted to the mobilisation of support to the Amazon," Guterres told reporters.
World leaders are expected to gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly from September 23 to 30.
The UN chief's comments came after Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree on Wednesday to ban burning throughout the country for two months, amid global outrage ..

UN chief moots summit to tackle Amazon fires

A US military plane flew over the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, the island's government said, just days after one of its navy ships sailed through the waters and the latest arms sale between Washington and Taipei.
Taiwan's defence ministry said in a statement that the transport aircraft flew south along the "median line" of the narrow strait, a traditionally respected maritime line dividing self-ruled Taiwan and mainland China, in a move likely to provoke Beijing.
"Nothing unusual" occurred, the statement added.
A USS transport ship passed through the strait last Friday, a few days after US State Department approved the transfer of 66 F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan in an USD 8 billion deal, the latest huge military hardware sale.
China has blasted the arms deal and threatened to sanction firms involved in the sale of the fighter jets, at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing are already strained by a punitive trade war.
China views any passing through the strait as a breach ..

AFP

AFP

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