A coalition of 21 states is suing the US Department of Labor over a new rule that would make more higher-earning workers eligible for overtime pay.
	Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt filed the lawsuit in Texas yesterday, urging the court to block implementation before the regulation takes effect on Dec 1.
	The measure would shrink the so-called "white collar exemption" and more than double the salary threshold under which employers must pay overtime to their workers.
	Laxalt said the rule would burden private and public sectors and represents inappropriate federal overreach. Officials from the labor department didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
	Other plaintiffs include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
	This version has been edited to reflect that the white collar exemption is reduced, not repealed.

21 US states sue to block expansion of overtime pay law

PTI Automatic

A city official in northwestern Poland says that Nazi-era newspapers, coins, documents and Hitler's "Mein Kampf" have been found in a "time capsule" that was buried in 1934 in the foundations of a Nazi training center.
	Explorers in Zlocieniec dug for the copper cylinder at the remains of the Ordensburg center after learning it could hold a documentary movie showing celebrations of the town's 600 years, in 1933.
	At the time, the city was in Germany and was called Falkenburg.
	Sebastian Kuropatnicki, spokesman for Zlocieniec authorities, said Tuesday they were curious to see the movie.
	When the container was opened September 13, it held no film but did have the center's 1934 founding act on parchment, a letter, coins, photos and two copies of Hitler's book.

Nazi-era coins, photos, papers, Hitler's book found in Poland

Colson Whitehead is up for another literary honour, the Kirkus Prize for fiction.
	Whitehead's acclaimed "The Underground Railroad," a novel set during the Civil War, is among six nominees announced Tuesday for the $50,000 award. Whitehead's book is also on the longlist for the National Book Awards and last month was chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club.
	Another novel on the National Book Awards longlist, Adam Haslett's "Imagine Me Gone," is a Kirkus finalist. The other fiction choices are Joe McGinniss Jr's "Carousel Court," CE Morgan's "The Sport of Kings," E Annie Proulx's "Barkskins" and Amor Towles' "A Gentleman in Moscow."
	Kirkus, the book industry trade publication, also announced six finalists each for USD 50,000 prizes in nonfiction and children's literature.
	Like the National Book Awards, many of the Kirkus picks have themes of race and social justice.
	Winners will be announced November 3.
	Nonfiction nominees include Susan Faludi's memoir about her father, "In the .

Colson Whitehead is finalist for Kirkus fiction prize

Libyan medics say a helicopter crashed near the eastern city where the internationally- recognised parliament is based, killing all six people on board, including the military adviser of a powerful general.
	Tobruk Medical Center says in a statement today that the son of the adviser to Gen. Khalifa Hifter was also on board the helicopter, which crashed the night before.
	The Libyan news portal al-Wasat quoted Col Al-Safi al-Sanini as saying that the MI8 helicopter was on an official mission to Ras Lanuf oil terminal, once of three such facilities captured by Hifter's forces last week.
	The debris was found 120 kilometres west of Tobruk, where the parliament is based. Hifter is allied with the parliament, which has rejected a UN-backed government based in the capital, Tripoli.

Helicopter crash in Libya kills 6, including aide to general

War refugees and leaders and representatives of several religions, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others, joined Pope Francis today in a day of prayer for peace in Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis, who preached tolerance and gentleness.
	After chatting and shaking hands with dozens of participants, Francis sat down to dine with them in the Franciscan convent. The guests included 12 refugees who fled war and conflicts in Nigeria, Eritrea, Mali and Syria, which was represented by three Christians who fled the besieged city of Aleppo.
	Francis took his papal name from the peace-loving saint who was born in the Umbrian hill town, where Franciscans from the religious order founded by the medieval saint care for the basilica and its renowned artworks.
	St. John Paul II established the inter-religious prayer gathering in Assisi in 1986.
	This year, Christians were invited to pray in the Basilica of St. Francis, while those from other religions will pray in the town that ..

Pope meets refugees, religious leaders at Assisi peace day

Berlin officials say a well-known member of the city's Pirate Party was found dead in his apartment along with the body of another man and that homicide detectives are investigating.
	Berlin police today confirmed that two bodies had been found in the apartment of state parliament member Gerwald Claus-Brunner yesterday, but refused to provide more details.
	The Pirate Party says on its website that the 44-year-old politician had been suffering from an "incurable illness" and that officials told them it appears he took his own life. The party did not mention the second person.
	Berlin's B.Z. Newspaper, citing law enforcement sources, reports Claus-Brunner likely died before the Berlin Pirate Party lost its seats in the state parliament during Sunday's election.

Body of German politician, other man, found in Berlin flat

Sri Lanka cricketer Nuwan Kulasekara was arrested and released on bail after he was involved in a fatal road incident.
	Kulasekara was driving a car which collided with a motorbike on Monday, instantly killing the rider.
	Citing initial investigations, Sri Lanka Cricket said the motorcyclist lost control while trying to overtake a bus and was flung into Kulasekara's path.
	The 34-year-old seam bowler last played for Sri Lanka in March in the World Twenty20.
	In June, he retired from test cricket after 21 matches to concentrate on one-day internationals and T20s.

Kulasekara arrested and bailed out after fatal road incident

Russian police are looking for a gunman who shot a prominent Ukrainian separatist figure to death at a suburban Moscow restaurant.
	Yevgeny Zhilin, 40, was shot Monday night in the Gorki-2 neighborhood west of Moscow. According to investigators, the killer, wearing a false moustache and sunglasses, had been waiting for the victim at a nearby table for 20 minutes and took several shots.
	Zhilin died on the spot, while his companion was hospitalized in grave condition, Russia's Investigative Committee spokesperson told Tass news agency Tuesday.
	Zhilin was an early organizer of the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine and took part in combat activities.
	He was also the leader of the pro-Russian group Oplot, which had its own militarized forces. Zhilin has been on Ukraine's wanted list since 2015.

Prominent Ukrainian separatist killed in Moscow

Some parks have ducks, some have swans. Bangkok's Lumphini Park is famed for its monitor lizards.
	But the park's population of the reptiles some of which are up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) long has grown to around 400, leading park officials to become concerned and come up with a plan to relocate them.
	Today, park staff could be seen using ropes and snares to catch around 40 of the lizards.
	While the lizards are gentle in nature and don't attack the many Thais and foreigners who flock to the centrally located park, they do damage the park's trees and landscape, according to Suwanna Jungrungrueng, the director of Bangkok's environment department.
	Their sheer numbers have also caused concern with the authorities after reports of runners and bikers falling while swerving to try to avoid the lizards.
	The city's plan is to relocate the lizards to a government-run animal sanctuary outside of Bangkok.

Bangkok starts to clear lizards from popular park

South African university students who want free education are protesting on several campuses, and police have arrested at least 10 students who blocked an entrance at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
	Protesters also blocked entrances at the University of Cape Town, which has suspended classes today and tomorrow because of the unrest. Hundreds of students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal marched in the city of Pietermaritzburg.
	The students are reacting to a South African government announcement that universities can increase fees by up to 8 percent next year.
	The government has also promised to pay about USD 180 million to cover the costs of poor students.
	The protesters want free education for all students. In 2015, the government froze university fees for this year after big protests.

South African students rally for free education; 10 arrests

French authorities have made eight new arrests in connection with the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice that left 86 people dead, the Paris prosecutor's office said today.
	The office said the suspects detained Monday were French and Tunisian and had links to the attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who plowed a 19-ton truck down Nice's Promenade des Anglais and into a crowd assembled for a July 14 fireworks display.
	All eight were arrested in the Alpes-Maritimes region in the southeastern corner of France that includes Nice.
	At least five people already face preliminary terrorism charges in the attack, and are accused of helping Bouhlel obtain a pistol and providing other support. It was not immediately clear what role is suspected for the men arrested this week.
	The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the July 14 attack. French authorities say Bouhlel, a Tunisian with French residency, was inspired by the extremist group's propaganda, but they say no evidence has ..

8 new arrests in France truck attack that killed 86 in Nice

German authorities say they are charging a 58-year-old German citizen with espionage for allegedly passing confidential information to an Indian intelligence agency.
	Federal prosecutors say the man, identified only by the initials T.S.P. In line with German privacy laws, worked at a local government office dealing with immigrants in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
	Prosecutors said in a statement today that the man used his access to government files to obtain and transmit information about "extremist Sikhs" and Indian opposition figures in Germany to the unidentified Indian agency.
	The man has been detained since his arrest on February 17.

Germany charges man with spying for Indian intelligence

A US permanent resident detained for a year in Iran over spying allegations has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and a USD 4.2 million fine, his supporters said today, the latest in a wide crackdown in Iran on those with foreign ties following the country's landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
	The sentence for Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen who advocates for internet freedom and whose nonprofit group did work for the US government, comes ahead of Iranian officials attending the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York.
	It also shows the challenge faced by Western governments and those wanting warmer ties with Iran, where hard-liners in the country's security forces target dual nationals and others in secret trials.
	"There's no regard for any international order, any international agreement or any international state of relations that they care about," said David Ramadan, a former Virginia state legislator who co-founded a group called Friends of Nizar ...

US resident gets 10-year Iran prison sentence

Greek authorities say two crew members were rescued after their helicopter suffered an engine failure and fell into the sea near the coast in northern Greece during a training exercise.
	Military authorities said the Apache attack helicopter splashed down today close to the shoreline east of the northern city of Thessaloniki.
	The crew members were apparently not injured but were transported to a military hospital in Thessaloniki as a precaution.

Greek military helicopter crash lands in sea during training

A typhoon has caused serious flooding and flight cancellations in southern Japan.
	Typhoon Malakas swept across the southern part of Kyushu island early Tuesday morning before heading east along Japan's Pacific coast toward central Japan and Tokyo.
	Strong winds and heavy rain toppled utility poles and flooded buildings in parts of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands.
	The storm left cars half-inundated in parking lots, and washed out at least one section of coastal road. More than 30,000 buildings lost power.
	Five people were reported injured, none seriously, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
	The Japan Meteorological Agency said Malakas had maximum sustained winds of 126 kilometers per hour with gusts to 180 kph.

Typhoon causes serious flooding in southern Japan

Two priests have been found dead after they were abducted in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz.
	The Veracruz state prosecutors' office says the two men were kidnapped Sunday in the northern Veracruz city of Poza Rica. Their bodies were found dumped by a roadside Monday.
	A third man who was abducted with them was later found alive.
	The Mexican Council of Bishops identified the dead men as priests Alejo Nabor Jimenez Juarez and Jose Alfredo Juarez de la Cruz.
	The council said that "we express our pain and indignation at the violence committed against them."
	Priests have been killed before in Mexico, mainly in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, though the motives remain unclear.
	The area around Poza Rica has been the scene of drug gang violence.

2 priests found dead after being kidnapped in Mexico

Three foreign workers, including two Italians, were kidnapped in southwestern Libya, Italy's Foreign Ministry and officials in the town of Ghat said.
	The ministry said in a brief statement that it had learned about the abduction. It declined to provide further details, citing the "delicateness" of the situation.
	A statement by the media office of Ghat municipality said that foreign engineers, who worked for construction company CON.I.COS, were abducted by unidentified assailants on the road linking Tahala and Ghat early in the morning.
	It gave their names as Italians Bruno Cacace and Danilo Calonego, and a Canadian identified only as Frank.
	The statement yesterday quoted the head of the Ghat Municipal Council Koumani Mohammed Saleh as saying that al-Qaida is not behind the abduction.
	"The abduction of the engineers was carried out by a small outlawed group," he was quoted as saying.
	He also said that officials are working on securing their release. The incident, the statement ...

3 foreign workers kidnapped in southwestern Libya

Authorities have identified the woman killed during a shooting rampage that also wounded two police officers as the 25-year-old daughter of Ethiopian immigrants.
	Sara Salih was shot seven times while sitting in a vehicle Friday night with a 36-year-old man, who was shot in the arm and chest.
	Moments before, police say, suspect Nicholas Glenn had fired about 18 shots at veteran police Sgt. Sylvia Young as she sat in her patrol cruiser on a West Philadelphia street corner.
	He then randomly fired five shots at two bar employees, a 42-year-old man and 41-year-old woman, as he ran down the street.
	Glenn later died in a shootout with responding officers. Beyan Salih, Sara's father, heard the gunshots from the family's apartment during the Friday overnight attack but didn't know his daughter had been shot until after he got home from work Saturday afternoon, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported . That's when he was told she had died.
	"I didn't know," he said, sobbing on his front porch. ..

Woman killed in shooting rampage was daughter of immigrants

Amnesty International says it has evidence that a Saudi-led coalition battling Yemeni rebels dropped a US-made bomb on a hospital, and is calling for a halt to arms sales to the coalition.
	The airstrike in question hit a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, in northern Yemen last month, killing 19 people.
	Amnesty says in a report released today that a picture analyzed by a munitions expert reveals that a US-made precision-guided Paveway-series bomb was dropped on the site.
	The attack the fourth on the MSF's facilities prompted it to withdraw from northern Yemen due to what it described as "indiscriminate bombings and unreliable assurances" from the US-backed coalition.

Amnesty: US bomb used in Saudi-led strike on Yemen hospital

Federal regulators today granted tentative approval to the first drug for muscular dystrophy, following an intense public campaign from patients and doctors who pushed for the largely unproven medication.
	The approval comes nearly five months after the Food and Drug Administration and a panel of outside advisers panned the drug, saying there was little evidence that it helped. But regulators faced a public backlash from patients' families, politicians and physicians.
	The FDA cleared Sarepta Therapeutics' Exondys 51 for a rare form of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a deadly inherited disease that affects boys. It's the first FDA approval for the degenerative condition, which causes muscle weakness, loss of movement and eventually death.
	The approval was based on a company study of just 12 boys. The agency is requiring Sarepta to conduct a larger study examining whether Exondys 51 results in improved movement and function for patients. If the study fails to shows it helps, the FDA said 

FDA tentatively approves 1st drug for muscular dystrophy

Secretary of State John Kerry today expressed hoped that a ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia could still hold, despite a declaration from the Syrian military that the truce is over amid other indications the latest international attempt to quiet the fighting has failed.
	Shortly after Syria's armed forces declared that the truce was dead and blamed opposition rebels for undermining it, Kerry noted that the cease-fire had not produced the desired reduction in violence and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid. But he said some aid was finally moving.
	"We have not had seven days of calm and of delivery of humanitarian goods," Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
	Those seven days of calm and aid deliveries were required before the US and Russia could embark on a plan to cooperate in targeting the Islamic State group and al-Qaida affiliates working in Syria.
	He denounced the Syrian military declaration, but also suggested that ...

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