John McCain is being laid to rest at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
The private burial Sunday next to Adm Chuck Larson brings to a close the six-term senator's cross-country farewell after he died of brain cancer August 25 in Arizona.
The procession was carefully designed by McCain as a final call to arms to a nation he feared was at risk of losing its civility and sense of shared purpose.
To illustrate the warning, McCain asked former Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush to eulogize him at Washington National Cathedral. The service Saturday was a rebuke of President Donald Trump's divisive politics.
Trump had mocked McCain for getting captured in Vietnam and was not invited to any events. The president spent the day tweeting and golfing.

McCain ends 81-year journey with burial at Naval Academy

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At least nine earthquakes have rocked southern Italy in two hours, prompting frightened residents to sleep outdoors.
Italy's national seismology agency INGV says the strongest quake measured 5.1 and struck at 8:19 pm (local time) yesterday. That jolt was followed in rapid succession by eight more tremors, with the strongest measuring at 4.4.
Epicenter of the quakes was Montecilfone, a small town in Campobasso province in the south-central region of Molise.
Civil protection officials say a boy was slightly hurt after leaping off a balcony in fear, but no injuries are blamed directly on the quakes. Molise Governor Donato Toma says some buildings suffered cracks but no major damage occurred.
The biggest jolt was felt in much of Italy's south, including in Rome and Naples.

Quakes rock southern Italy, alarmed people sleeping outdoors

A Boeing passenger plane from China skidded off a runway while landing in a downpour at Manila's airport and its 157 passengers and eight crew members were evacuated on an emergency slide, officials said.
All the passengers and crew of Xiamen Air flight MF8667 were safe and were taken to an airport terminal, where they were given blankets and food before being taken to a hotel, Philippine officials said.
"We have no reports yet of injuries but the passengers were all drenched," said Eric Apolonio, a spokesman of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
The B737 aircraft veered off the runway around midnight into a grassy area, Apolonio said. He cited an initial report that the plane appeared to have "bounced" during the landing then its lights went out.
One of the plane's two engines appeared to have been damaged, another airport official said.
The airport's international runway was expected to be closed until about noon today and airlines were notified of the closure, ...

Plane from China skids off Manila runway amid downpour

Omarosa Manigault Newman has released another secret audio recording that she says proves President Donald Trump wanted to silence her after firing her from the White House.
In the recording played on MSNBC yesterday, Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump offers Manigault Newman a job earning USD 15,000 a month. The job wouldn't require her to report to any particular office or have a specific set of duties, other than to speak positively on Trump's behalf as part of his re-election campaign.
Lara Trump, married to Eric Trump, can be heard on the tape noting a New York Times report that suggested Manigault Newman had inside information that could be damaging to Trump.
"It sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things you've got in the back pocket to pull out," Lara Trump said. "Clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we can't have, we got to ... " Manigault Newman interjects: "Oh, God, no." "Everything, everybody, positive, right?" Lara Trump asks.
The secret ...

Recording: Omarosa offered $15,000 a month to be 'positive'

The Vatican has expressed "shame and sorrow" over a scathing Pennsylvania grand jury report about clergy who raped and molested children in six dioceses in that state, calling the abuse "criminally and morally reprehensible" and says Pope Francis wants to eradicate "this tragic horror."
In a written statement using uncharacteristically strong language for the Holy See even in matters like the long-running abuse scandals staining the US church, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke sought to assure victims that "the pope is on their side."
Pope Francis himself wasn't quoted in the statement, and there was no mention of demands in the United States among some Roman Catholics for the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington.
The grand jury report made public this week accused the cardinal of helping to protect some molester priests while he was bishop of the Pennsylvania city of Pittsburgh.
Burke said the incidents of abuse graphically documented in the report were ...

Vatican in 'shame and sorrow' over abuses in Pennsylvania

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has formed a group to coordinate and run US policy toward Iran as the Trump administration moves ahead with efforts to force changes in the Islamic Republic's behaviour after withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Accusing Iran of unleashing "a torrent of violence and destabilising behaviour against the United States, our allies, our partners and, indeed, the Iranian people themselves," Pompeo announced the creation of the Iran Action Group, which he said would drive administration policy in Washington and overseas.
He said the administration remains willing to talk to Iran but that in order to do so "we must see major changes in the regime's behaviour both inside and outside its borders."
Pompeo named Brian Hook, who is currently the State Department's director of policy planning, to run the group with the title of special representative for Iran. Hook led the administration's ultimately unsuccessful attempt to negotiate changes to the nuclear ...

Pompeo forms Iran Action Group to run policy after nuke deal

Walmart raised its financial outlook for the year after beating Wall Street's expectations for its fiscal second quarter and seeing the strongest growth in more than a decade in sales at established stores. Its shares surged 10 per cent before the opening bell today.
The report is strong evidence that Walmart's efforts to improve the experience shoppers have at its stores and expand its online services, particularly in grocery, are helping bring people to its websites and stores. Like many other retailers, Walmart is also benefiting from a stronger job market and rising confidence.
Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 4.5 percent at Walmart's U.S. division, topping analysts' expectations for a 2.4 percent increase.
The measure is a strong indicator of a retailer's health. The figure was helped by a more than 2 percent increase in customer traffic and in transactions. Online sales soared 40 percent, up from a 33 percent increase the previous quarter.
With shoppers feeling ...

Walmart sees sales rise at stores and online, raises outlook

Malaysia's new government has repealed a widely criticized law prohibiting "fake news," in a move hailed as a landmark moment for human rights by a group of Southeast Asian lawmakers.
The bill was passed in April under former Prime Minister Najib Razak despite concerns that it would be used to silence dissent ahead of a May 9 general election.
Najib's long-ruling coalition was ousted in the polls, ushering in the country's first transition of power since independence from Britain in 1957.
After an intense six-hour debate in Parliament and protest by lawmakers in Najib's party, the law was repealed Thursday with a simple voice vote.

New Malaysian government repeals law banning 'fake news'

Israel has opened its only cargo crossing with the Gaza Strip weeks after closing it amid a surge in violence with the Islamic militant group Hamas.
The reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing came as Egypt was stepping up efforts to broker a lasting cease-fire. It was not clear if the move was part of a broader deal in the works.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the reopening of the crossing was "a clear message to residents of the Strip: Quiet pays and violence doesn't pay."
Kerem Shalom is the main commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and serves as the primary avenue for food, fuel, construction materials and aid to enter the beleaguered Palestinian territory. Israel and Egypt have imposed an economically crippling blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized control of the coastal territory from the internationally backed Palestinian Authority in 2007.
Israel says the blockade is needed to contain Hamas, a militant group that seeks its destruction. While the ...

Israel eases Gaza restrictions amid cease-fire efforts

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the horrific suicide bombing the previous day that targeted a Shiite area of the Afghan capital, killing 34 students.
The claim of responsibility was posted today on the IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency.
IS says its bomber, identified as "martyrdom-seeking brother Abdul Raouf al-Khorasani" carried out the attack, allegedly killing or wounding more than 200 students.
Afghanistan's Health Ministry has released a revised casualty toll, saying 34 students were killed and 57 were wounded.
Afghanistan's IS affiliate is known as The Islamic State in Khorasan Province. Khorasan is the ancient name for an area that encompassed parts of present-day Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

IS claims responsibility for deadly Kabul attack on Shiite students

A regular-season Spanish league game is coming to the United States, possibly as early as this year, but a "clasico" between Real Madrid and Barcelona is pretty much out of the question.
The league said today it is planning to play a match across the Atlantic as part of a new 15-year partnership with sports and entertainment group Relevent to promote soccer in North America.
The group operates the International Champions Cup, the world's largest summer club tournament. Barcelona and Real Madrid faced each other in the tournament in Miami last year.
The league gave few details on the planned regular-season game. League president Javier Tebas, however, dismissed the possibility of taking the "clasico" away from Spain.
The league said it is still making arrangements for the game and there is no timetable for when it will happen, but it could be this season.
The Spanish league has been trying to expand internationally for some time, hoping to grow and keep pace with the powerful Premier ..

Spanish league plans to play regular-season match

The bridge that collapsed in the Italian port city of Genoa was considered a feat of engineering innovation when it was built five decades ago, but it came to require constant maintenance over the years. Its design is now being investigated as a possible contributor to its stunning collapse.
The Morandi Bridge was severed in its midsection during a heavy downpour Tuesday, killing at least 39 people. Italian prosecutors focused their investigation into possible design flaws or inadequate maintenance of the 1967 bridge.
Engineering experts said the disaster points to the challenges of maintaining any aging bridge, regardless of its design.
"What the general public does not comprehend is that bridges have been traditionally designed in the past for a life span of 50 years," said Neil Hawkins, a professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Illinois, who specializes in reinforced and prestressed concrete design.
"The environment in which the bridge exists can have a major effect .

Italy collapse points to difficulties with aging bridges

A special United Nations panel is urging Bahrain to immediately release imprisoned activist Nabeel Rajab, describing him as the victim of government-sponsored "persecution" for his political views in the island kingdom.
The statement by the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention comes as Rajab is serving a five-year prison sentence for tweets he sent, a case widely criticised internationally as the kingdom's government continues a crackdown on dissent.
He faces further time in prison on other charges similarly denounced abroad.
Bahrain, home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet and a British naval base, did not immediately respond to a request for comment today on the panel's statement. The kingdom did not respond to the UN panel's questions regarding Rajab's case.
"Mr Rajab's political views and convictions are clearly at the centre of the present case and that the authorities have displayed an attitude towards him that can only be characterized as discriminatory," the panel said.
"He has ..

UN panel calls on Bahrain to release activist Nabeel Rajab

The main global group for certifying sustainable wood has suspended plans to give its influential endorsement to Indonesian paper giant Sinarmas after revelations it cut down tropical forests and used an opaque corporate structure to hide its activities.
The Forest Stewardship Council said today that it had halted a process that could have enabled the Asia Pulp & Paper arm of Sinarmas to be readmitted to the organisation.
The group said it is awaiting information from the conglomerate "related to its corporate structure and alleged unacceptable forest management activities" by companies thought related to it and wants full disclosure.
Three months ago, the council had sent a come clean ultimatum to Sinarmas, one of the world's largest paper companies, and its billionaire Indonesian family owners.
The FSC mark, a stylised tree, is sought by paper producers and other wood users as an endorsement they can use in the marketplace to promote their products as "green" and charge a ...

Forests group halts plan to endorse Indonesian paper giant

One of the world's largest urban forests is under threat from a tiny beetle.
The polyphagous shot hole borer is thought to have made its way to Johannesburg from Southeast Asia on packing crates or through the trade in plant materials.
Trudy Paap, a forest pathologist at the University of Pretoria, discovered the beetle in the Pietermaritzburg Botanical Gardens last year.
She published her discovery in the journal Australasian Plant Pathology, calling it part of "the surge in the global spread of invasive forest pests" because of globalization.
The beetle has since moved to Johannesburg, 320 kilometers (198 miles) away, and spread across its urban forest, which according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology initiative Treepedia has the world's sixth-largest green canopy cover.
Today, many of Johannesburg's estimated 6 to 10 million trees are dying, a crisis obscured only by the current winter season. Some of the infected trees have the telltale holes the 2-millimeter-long ...

One of world's top urban forests threatened by tiny beetle

A 74-year-old man with terminal cancer today said he could die happy after reaching a 1 million Australian dollar (USD 727,000) landmark settlement against a Catholic religious order for sexual abuse he suffered in Australia more than 50 years ago.
Paul Bradshaw was to testify today in the Western Australia state District Court about his ill treatment at Castledare Junior Orphanage and Clontarf Orphanage run by the Irish Chritian Brothers order in the 1950s and '60s.
But instead, a settlement was reached with the Trustees of the Christian Brothers for the abuse he suffered at the hands of Brothers Lawrence Murphy, Bruno Doyle and Christopher Angus, who are all dead.
Bradshaw is the first victim to claim damages for historical child sex abuse under laws that recently came into effect in Western Australia, removing the time limit for such cases.
He cried outside court, explaining his 60-year fight and said he was relieved his family would receive his compensation money. He said doctors .

Australian sex abuse victim settles with Catholic order

Dave Dave, a respected Las Vegas artist who was badly scarred as a boy when his father tried to burn him to death in Southern California, has died. He was 42.
Dave, who was born David Rothenberg, died on July 15 at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said yesterday.
The cause of his death awaited results of toxicology and other tests and a police investigation, the coroner said.
Dave was a close friend of Michael Jackson, who met him after the boy survived a 1983 attack that left him with burns over 90 percent of his body.
Dave was 6 years old when his father, Charles Rothenberg, gave him a sleeping pill, doused his bed with kerosene and lit it in a Buena Park motel room near Disneyland during a bitter custody fight. The father fled.
The boy underwent numerous skin grafts and was left disfigured but refused to define himself as a victim.
"There is a lot that happens in people's lives, but that doesn't define them as a human being, it makes them ...

Dave Dave, whose father set him on fire in 1983, dies at 42

Roman Catholic priests across Pennsylvania used religious rituals, symbols of the faith and the threat of eternity in hell to groom, molest and rape children, a grand jury found, in what the state's top prosecutor called the "weaponisation of faith".
An 884-page report on the statewide grand jury's investigation, released Tuesday, detailed how "predator priests" used the children's own religious faith and trust in them as religious leaders to victimize and then silence them.
One priest tied up a victim with rope in the confessional in a "praying position," the grand jury wrote. When the victim refused to perform sex, the angered priest used a 7-inch crucifix to sexually assault him, the report said.
Another victim recounted how a priest used a metal cross to beat him.
At a parish rectory, the report said, four of the priests made a boy strip and pose as Jesus on the cross while they took photos.
"He stated that all of them giggled and stated that the pictures would be used as a ...

Prosecutor: Priests 'weaponised' the faith to abuse kids

Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne could face a lengthy layoff with a knee injury that forced him to attend an event using crutches on Wednesday.
De Bruyne and his City teammates attended the premiere of a documentary series about the team hours after the midfielder injured his right knee in a training session.
"Kevin is a great player and it's just unfortunate that it's happened to him in training but there's more than enough depth in the squad," defender Kyle Walker said.
City said it was unclear how long the Belgian will be sidelined because "the extent of the problem is not yet known" and that more tests on the knee are needed.
De Bruyne missed two months of the 2015-16 season  his first at City  after sustaining ligament damage in the same right knee.
City opened its Premier League title defense with a 2-0 win at Arsenal on Sunday, with De Bruyne only featuring as a second-half substitute due to a curtailed pre-season after the World Cup.

Man City midfielder De Bruyne injures knee in training

Wayne Rooney scored two goals and D.C. United beat the Portland Timbers 4-1 on Wednesday night to move out of last place in the Eastern Conference.
D.C. (6-9-6) won its third consecutive home game. Portland (10-5-7) has lost two straight after going unbeaten in its previous 15 matches.
Rooney, the English star who joined the Washington club in June, tied it at 1 in the 43rd minute by running past the defense for Yamil Asad's through ball and rolling it by Jeff Attinella.
Rooney bent in a free kick in the 68th for his third MLS goal. Oniel Fisher made it 2-1 in the second minute of the second half with his first career goal. Luciano Acosta's individual effort set it up, drawing multiple defenders and finding Fisher for a shot off the post and in.
Former Timber Darren Mattocks capped the scoring on a breakaway in stoppage time for his ninth goal. D.C. goalkeeper Bill Hamid started in his first appearance since rejoining United on a 1 1/2-year loan from the Danish club FC ...

Wayne Rooney scores 2 goals, DC United beats Timbers 4-1

The nation's newsrooms are pushing back against President Donald Trump with a coordinated series of newspaper editorials condemning his attacks on "fake news" and suggestion that journalists are the enemy.
The Boston Globe invited newspapers across the country to stand up for the press with editorials today, and several began appearing online a day earlier.
Nearly 350 news organisations have pledged to participate, according to Marjorie Pritchard, op-ed editor at the Globe.
In St Louis, the Post-Dispatch called journalists "the truest of patriots ." The Chicago Sun-Times said it believed most Americans know that Trump is talking nonsense.
The Fayetteville, NC Observer said it hoped Trump would stop, "but we're not holding our breath ." "Rather, we hope all the president's supporters will recognize what he's doing - manipulating reality to get what he wants," the North Carolina newspaper said.
Some newspapers used history lessons to state their case. The Elizabethtown Advocate in ...

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