Australia has lifted a temporary ban on controversial live sheep exports, with the first ship due to depart for the Middle East this week with about 60,000 animals on board.
The live export trade has been under scrutiny since horrific footage of dead and dying heat-stressed sheep on vessels bound for the Middle East was released in April 2018, prompting a public outcry and forcing sweeping reforms to the industry.
Though the government resisted calls to outlaw the practice entirely, a review led to a temporary embargo on live exports during the northern-hemisphere summer from June to September this year.
Rural Export and Trading WA, an exporter, said the ship is due to leave Fremantle, in Western Australia state, for Kuwait by Tuesday.
It is expected to be the first of many to depart in the coming months, much to the chagrin of animal welfare campaigners.
New guidelines introduced in 2018 required exporters to significantly increase cargo space for sheep and to ensure independent ...

Australia resumes live sheep exports after ban lifted

PTI Automatic

Aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Monday accused the World Health Organisation of rationing the Ebola vaccine in the Democratic Republic of Congo where more than 2,100 people have died of the deadly virus.
"One of the main problems currently is the fact that in practice the vaccine is rationed by the WHO and that too few people at risk are protected today," MSF said in a statement.
It called for "the creation of an independent international coordination committee" to "guarantee the transparency of the management of stocks and data sharing".
Around 225,000 people have received the Ebola vaccination manufactured by German pharma giant Merck since August 8, 2018, "but this number remains largely insufficient", MSF said.
"Up to 2,000-2,5000 people could be vaccinated every day, against the current 50-1,000 people," MSF director of operations Isabelle Defourny said in the statement.
"MSF's efforts to expand access to the vaccination in collaboration with the Ministry of Health... .

WHO accused of rationing Ebola vaccine in DR Congo

Interior ministers from four EU countries meet Monday in Malta to try to work out an automatic system to determine which countries will welcome migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean.
The ministers from France, Germany, Italy and Malta hope to end the long, drawn-out negotiations that have seen vulnerable asylum seekers including babies stranded at sea, sometimes for weeks.
They take place ahead of a European summit in October in Luxembourg.
The mooted automatic distribution system would only be a temporary solution until the current system, the "Dublin regulation", can be revised.
Its critics have long argued that it places an unfair burden on the Mediterranean frontier countries Italy, Malta, Greece and Spain.
Italy's new, pro-EU government has moved quickly to turn the page on the anti-migrant policies pursued by former far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini, who closed the ports to those rescued.
After a meeting last week, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and ...

EU ministers in Malta to thrash out new migrant system

Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria lost Sunday in shock-riddled final qualifying round first legs for the 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Cameroon.
Nigeria conceded three final-quarter goals to crash 4-1 in Togo, Ivory Coast fell 2-0 in Niger and a stoppage-time goal condemned Ghana to a 1-0 home defeat by Burkina Faso.
The Nations Championship is restricted to footballers playing in their country of birth, which deprived the three African powerhouses of their Europe-based stars.
But the Togolese, Nigeriens and Burkinabe also had to do without many professionals playing abroad who form the backbone of their national teams.
Return matches are scheduled for October 18-20 and the aggregate winners secure places at a 16-nation tournament set for January and February on dates to be announced.
Nigeria, runners-up to hosts Morocco in the previous final last year, made a great start in Lome with Ibrahim Sunusi netting on 11 minutes.
Nane Richard Yentoudie equalised soon after and .

Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana shocked in CHAN qualifying

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Sunday the problem of racism in Italian football has "not improved" after a Serie A match between Atalanta and Fiorentina was halted for several minutes because of racist abuse of Brazilian Dalbert.
Fiorentina defender Dalbert, 26, asked the referee to halt play after half an hour at the Stadio Ennio Tardini until a warning statement was read out by the stadium speaker to jeers and whistles from the Atalanta fans.
Play resumed after three minutes with visitors Fiorentina leading 1-0 after a goal from Federico Chiesa.
"In Italy the situation has not improved and this is serious," Infantino, in Italy ahead of the FIFA Best Awards on Monday, told the Italian Rai2 channel.
"Racism is fought through education, condemning it, talking about it, we cannot accept racism in society and in football.
"We have to identify those responsible and throw them out of the stadiums, we need clear sentences, as in England, we must not be afraid to condemn the racists, ..

FIFA chief urges action after racist abuse halts Serie A game

Real Madrid eased the pressure on Zinedine Zidane and delivered a resounding response to their loss to Paris Saint-Germain by winning 1-0 away at high-flying Sevilla in La Liga on Sunday.
Karim Benzema headed in the decisive goal at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan to secure an impressive victory against a Sevilla side that were unbeaten and hoping to return to the top of the table.
Instead, it is Madrid that go level on points with Athletic Bilbao in first place after a controlled and determined performance that was by some distance their best since Zidane's return as coach in March.
"We have had a quite difficult time but the players reacted," Zidane said.
His position had come under scrutiny after Madrid's woeful 3-0 defeat by PSG in the Champions League on Wednesday, a result that continued their bumpy start to the season, following a turbulent summer in the transfer market.
But this win should do wonders for belief and leaves Barcelona as Spain's chief club in crisis, with Ernesto ...

Benzema ensures Madrid bounce back with impressive win over Sevilla

Neymar scored a fine late winner as Paris Saint-Germain beat Lyon 1-0 to move three points clear at the top of the Ligue 1 table.
The Brazilian finally beat Anthony Lopes, who had pulled off numerous impressive saves, with three minutes of normal time on Sunday to play at the Groupama Stadium.
It was Neymar's second winning goal in as many league games since being reinstated to the team following a protracted transfer saga which saw him attempt to force through a return to Barcelona.
"Neymar can do better," said PSG coach Thomas Tuchel.
"It's the second or third game in four months for him. He's not at 100 percent capacity.
"He is not at his limit. He can do better, he will do better. He's going to get to his best level, with matches and decisive goals like that, it's going to help him."
The Parisians sit top on 15 points after Angers and Nice both won over the weekend to temporarily join Tuchel's side at the summit, and followed up their impressive midweek Champions League victory ...

Neymar saves PSG to send French champions three points clear

Manchester United's demoralising defeat against West Ham was a stark reminder of how far they have fallen as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wrestles with how to turn around his side's fortunes.
Mistakes at the back, a desperate lack of midfield creativity and a worrying shortage of firepower up front have left the club well off the pace just six games into the new Premier League season.
The statistics do not make pretty reading for United fans. Since Solskjaer's honeymoon period came to an end in March they have won just five out of 19 matches in all competitions.
After nine successive away victories under the Norwegian in all competitions, they have now gone nine without a win and are already 10 points behind leaders Liverpool.
And it has all come at a time when their two main rivals, Manchester City and Liverpool, are setting new standards at the top of the Premier League.
Jose Mourinho, sacked in December, told Sky Sports after Sunday's defeat at the London Stadium that he did not see any ...

Can Solskjaer save Manchester United's season?

Simone Biles won the all-around competition at the US selection camp Sunday to confirm her spot on a fifth straight gymnastics World Championships team.
Biles, undefeated in official all-around competition for six years, will tie Kerri Strug as the only US women to compete at worlds in five different years when she takes part in the 2019 championships in Stuttgart, Germany, next month.
Biles tallied 58.55 points to prevail by .35 over Sunisa Lee.  Biles had the top score on floor exercise and vault among 15 gymnasts competing in Sarasota, Florida.
She opened on floor with the "triple-double" tumbling pass, the never-before-seen move featuring two flips and three twists which she debuted at the national championships in August.
Biles claimed the lone automatic world championships team spot by winning the all-around.
The rest of the US team will be chosen by the selection committee.  Five more women will be named to the world championships team after another day of competition on ...

US gymnast Biles confirms world championships berth

Oil prices rallied Monday after Iran warned the presence of US forces in the Gulf was causing instability in the region, while equities were mostly down as Donald Trump said he did not want a partial trade deal with China.
While a loosening of monetary policy by central banks is providing support to investors, they remain on edge following last week's attack on Saudi oil facilities that was claimed by Huthi rebels in Yemen but blamed by the US on Iran.
President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday hit out at a US move to increase troop numbers in Saudi Arabia, saying: "Foreign forces can cause problems and insecurity for our people and for our region."
He called on outside powers to "stay away" from the region and added that Tehran would present a peace plan to the United Nations within days.
Investors are concerned about a possible conflict in the oil-rich Middle East after last week's attacks -- which hammered Saudi Arabia's biggest crude plant -- though both sides have said they do not want a 

Oil rallies on MidEast tensions, stocks weighed by trade remarks

British travel group Thomas Cook on Monday declared bankruptcy after failing to reach a last-ditch rescue deal, triggering the UK's biggest repatriation since World War II to bring back stranded passengers.
The 178-year-old operator had been desperately seeking 200 million pounds ( USD 250 million, 227 million euros) from private investors to save it from collapse.
"Despite considerable efforts, those discussions have not resulted in agreement between the company's stakeholders and proposed new money providers," Thomas Cook said in a statement.
"The company's board has therefore concluded that it had no choice but to take steps to enter into compulsory liquidation with immediate effect."
The government said it had hired planes to fly home an estimated 150,000 holidaymakers to the UK, in an operation starting on Monday.
"Following the collapse of Thomas Cook and the cancellation of all its flights, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced that the government and UK Civil Aviation 

UK travel giant Thomas Cook collapses, stranding tourists

Indonesian authorities have cited failures in the Boeing 737 MAX design and oversight as contributing to the 2018 Lion Air plane crash, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The report into the crash, which will be formally released in early November, also blames pilot error and maintenance issues for the crash that killed 189 people shortly after the flight departed from Jakarta last October, the newspaper said.
The Boeing plane model was later grounded worldwide after an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crashed after taking off from Addis Ababa in March, killing 157 people.
Preliminary investigations into both accidents have implicated the MCAS anti-stall system, designed specifically for the 737 MAX.
Indonesian investigators could still change their findings, which have been shared with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Wall Street Journal says.
US officials are scheduled to visit Indonesia at the end of September to ..

Indonesia blames 737 MAX design for Lion Air crash: report

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resumed his re-election campaign on Sunday with a promise to lower taxes, but once again had to apologise for a photo showing him in blackface makeup.
Trudeau, 47, was already under fire for an ethics lapse and other controversies, and the decades-old photos and videos that resurfaced last week of him engaging in activities he has acknowledged as "racist" dealt a fresh blow to his chances.
After taking Saturday off, Trudeau travelled to Brampton on Sunday, in the central province of Ontario, where he announced two concrete measures aimed at wooing middle-class voters, the main targets of both his Liberal party and opposition Conservatives in the October 21 elections.
If he is reelected, Trudeau said middle-class Canadians would not pay taxes on the first 15,000 Canadian dollars (USD 11,300) they earn.
He also promised to cut Canadian cell phone plan costs, which he called "among the most expensive in the G7", by 25 per cent.
These two measures ...

Trudeau returns to campaign with promise of lower taxes

The United States said Sunday it will make its case against Iran at the United Nations this week, insisting it wants to give diplomacy "every opportunity to succeed" in the wake of a devastating attack on a vital Saudi oil complex.
Setting the stage for President Donald Trump's address to the annual UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put aside threats of US military retaliation against Iran for the attack.
"President Trump and I both want to give diplomacy every opportunity to succeed," Pompeo said in an interview with ABC's "This Week".
"Our administration's taking this on in a serious way and we are working diligently to see that this has a diplomatic outcome," he said.
"But make no mistake about it, if we are unsuccessful in that and Iran continues to strike out in this way, I am confident that President Trump will make the decisions necessary to achieve our objectives."
The United States has accused Tehran of carrying out the sneak air attacks that set .

US emphasises diplomacy in standoff with Iran

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will on Friday meet with top Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the state department announced Sunday.
The two envoys last met in mid-May in Sochi, Russia.
Since then, Washington and Moscow abandoned their 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty, which limited the use of nuclear and conventional medium-range weapons.
The treaty's end has heightened fears of a renewed arms race between the US and Russia, even as President Donald Trump expressed his desire for better relations with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
But ties remain tense and Trump administration officials regularly criticise Moscow for its policies, particularly towards Ukraine and Syria.
A senior US official said Washington intends to use the annual meeting at the UN headquarters in New York to counter "malign influence by autocratic states," in particular Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria and China.
The INF banned ...

Pompeo to meet with Russia's top diplomat Lavrov at UN

Israel's national electricity company said Sunday it was cutting power to parts of the occupied West Bank due to outstanding payments amounting to nearly USD 483 million.
The Israel Electric Corporation said it was owed 1.7 billion shekels in debts from the main Palestinian power distributor for the West Bank, which is based in east Jerusalem.
From Monday, the company "will reduce the current in some areas of the West Bank" because of the debts, it said in a statement.
It said it had found no alternatives to being paid.
But the Palestinian Authority denounced the move as "blackmail" by the Israeli authorities.
"The (Israeli) occupation government is seeking, through these sanctions and the exploitation of electricity debts, to put pressure on the Palestinian government to accept an agreement that does not respect the rights of the Palestinians," said Palestinian energy authority head Zafer Melhem.
The Palestinian Authority says in the past two months it has repaid nearly USD 100 ...

Israel cuts power in parts of West Bank over debts

A blockbuster Tutankhamun show set a new all-time French record Sunday, with 1.42 million visitors flocking to see the exhibition in Paris, the organisers said.
The turnout beat the previous record set by another Tutankhamun show billed as the "exhibition of the century" in 1967, when 1.24 million queued to see "Tutankhamun and His Times" at the Petit Palais.
"Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh" -- which has been described as as a "once in generation" show -- will open in London in November.
The last time a show of comparable size about the boy king opened there in 1972 it sparked "Tutmania", with 1.6 million people thronging the British Museum.
More than 150 treasures from the  monarch's tomb -- including 60 which have never left Egypt before -- have been assembled for the show.  The Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities said this was the largest number of Tutankhamun artefacts ever to have left Cairo.
Almost all of the 3,400 exhibits come from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo's ...

Paris Tutankhamun show sets new record with 1.42 mn visitors

Britain's main opposition Labour Party was torn by infighting Sunday as it tried to forge a coherent Brexit strategy that could reverse polls indicating a likely election drubbing.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's moment of truth at the annual party conference comes with Britain facing the grim prospect of ending its 46-year involvement in the European Union on October 31 without a plan for future trade.
Yet the same bitter disagreements over Europe that saw Boris Johnson's right-wing Conservatives lose their working majority -- and make a general election appear inevitable -- are also fraying Labour on the left.
The 119-year-old party's support base consists of cosmopolitan city-dwelling europhiles and traditional working-class communities that rejected Brussels in the 2016 referendum.
Polls show these views have become even more entrenched today -- a polarisation that further complicates Corbyn's bid to find a unifying stance.  The strongly anti-European Brexit Party and the ...

UK Labour seeks Brexit plan to reverse poll slump

A blockbuster Tutankhamun show set a new all-time French record Sunday, with 1.42 million visitors flocking to see the exhibition in Paris, the organisers said.
The turnout beat the previous record set by another Tutankhamun show billed as the "exhibition of the century" in 1967, when 1.24 million queued to see "Tutankhamun and His Times" at the Petit Palais.
The show will open in London in November where 1.6 million paid to see "The Treasures of Tutankhamun" at the height of "Tutmania" in 1972.

Paris Tutankhamun show sets new French record with 1.42 mn visitors

Taylor Fritz put Team World to within one win of capturing their first Laver Cup after the American saw off Europe's Dominic Thiem 7-5 6-7 (3/7) 10-8 in a barnstorming match in Geneva that leaves his side 11-7 up with two matches to play.
World had come into the day 7-5 down but were boosted by Rafael Nadal's withdrawal with a hand injury.
Fritz, himself a replacement for injured Nick Kyrgios, followed up on John Isner and Jack Sock's 5-7 6-4 10-8 defeat of Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas with a surprise tie-break triumph over world number five Thiem.
"That was such a big match for Team World to win, we really needed that," said Fritz.
"Now we're four points in the lead, one match from the win. It was so crucial.
"This has to be one of the biggest wins of my career. It means so much more when you're playing for other people as well."
John Isner will aim to seal the tournament win when he takes on Federer, but should the World number 20 lose to the 20-time Grand Slam champion ...

Fritz puts World on brink of first Laver Cup

West Ham inflicted more away-day pain on a poor Manchester United side on Sunday, lifting themselves to fourth in the Premier League with a comfortable 2-0 win at the London Stadium.
Andriy Yarmolenko's goal shortly before half-time and a wonderful late Aaron Cresswell free-kick extended United's barren run on the road.
United, who started the season by thumping Chelsea 4-0, have lost twice already in their opening six league games and lie seventh, without an away win in any competition since March.
Injury-hit United were without midfielder Paul Pogba and forward Anthony Martial and huffed and puffed but failed to break down their dogged opponents.
West Ham are riding high under Manuel Pellegrini, unbeaten since a 5-0 drubbing in the first match of the season and this victory followed a home win last season against United at the London Stadium.
But it was a chastening day for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men, just a day after champions Manchester City came close to matching United's Premier 

AFP

AFP

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