North Korea has executed a vice premier and banished two other top officials to rural areas for re-education, South Korean officials said today.
	If confirmed, they would be the latest in a series of killings, purges and dismissals carried out since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011.
	North Korea is a closed, authoritarian country with a state-controlled press that often makes it difficult for outsiders, and even North Korean citizens, to know what's happening in the government.
	Rival South Korea, which runs several intelligence organizations mainly tasked with spying on North Korea, has a mixed record on reporting developments across the border. In May, a former North Korean military chief, who Seoul said had been executed, was found to be alive and holding several new senior-level posts.
	Jeong Joon Hee, a spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, told reporters Wednesday that Kim Yong Jin, a vice premier on education affairs in North Korea's cabinet, had ...

South Korea says top North Korean official executed

PTI Automatic

At least 11 people, including nine elderly people at a nursing home, were found dead today in Japan as heavy overnight rain from Typhoon Lionrock left towns flooded across the country's north.
	Police discovered the bodies in the town of Iwaizumi while checking another facility in the flooded neighborhood, said Takehiro Hayashijiri, an official at the Iwate prefecture disaster management division.
	The identity of the victims and other details, including the whereabouts of their caretakers, were not known, Hayashijiri said. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the home was for people with dementia.
	NHK also reported that authorities have found two more bodies in another town in Iwate prefecture.
	Its footage showed the nursing home partially buried in mud, surrounded by debris apparently washed down from the mountains. A car by the home was turned upside down.
	"We're making a government-wide effort to assess the extent of damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told ...

At least 11 dead as Typhoon Lionrock floods northern Japan

For all of his victories during two decades on the tennis tour, including eight Grand Slam titles, Andre Agassi looks back most fondly these days on the aftermath of a loss.
     During an interview in the city where he played his last professional match 10 years ago, Agassi called the way he walked away from the sport as good a moment as he had on court during his lengthy, successful always-in-the-spotlight career on Sept. 3, 2006, Agassi lost a third-round match at the U.S. Open against Benjamin Becker, then delivered an on-court speech in Arthur Ashe Stadium to an adoring crowd that gave him a lengthy standing ovation as he headed into retirement.
     "It really brought together what it's all been about from the beginning, which is people and connection. And it put everything into perspective: the ups, the downs, the successes, the failures, the triumphs, the comebacks. I not only grew up in New York, but New York helped me grow up," the 46-year-old Agassi said.
     "So when all .

10 years after last pro match, Andre Agassi visits US Open

Nine elderly people were killed when their nursing home flooded in northern Japan after Typhoon Lionrock dumped heavy rains on the area.
	Japanese broadcaster NHK, quoting Japanese police, said nine bodies were found Wednesday at a nursing home in the town of Iwaizumi in Iwate prefecture.
	Police found the bodies when they were investigating flooding at a nearby facility, NHK said. Its footage showed the nursing home partially buried in mud, surrounded by debris apparently washed down from the mountains. A car by the home was turned upside down.
	NHK said many of the residents in the nursing home were suffering from dementia.
	At least two rivers swollen by the typhoon have broken through embankments, flooding areas in northern Japan.
	NHK, quoting Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism, said the embankments gave way before dawn on Wednesday on the northern island of Hokkaido.
	Authorities in the town of Minami-furano are reporting many people trapped in houses and ...

At least 9 dead as typhoon hits northern Japan

Two more Mississippi universities have stopped flying the state's flag featuring the Confederate battle emblem, decisions that drew rebukes from the governor.
	Mississippi State University and the Mississippi University for Women confirmed yesterday that they removed the flag from outdoor flagpoles over the summer.
	The universities' actions came after state lawmakers failed to act on changing the flag this year.
	"The university community supports a flag that unites everyone in the state behind it," said Jim Borsig, president of the Mississippi University for Women.
	Delta State University is the only public Mississippi university still flying the flag. A statement from that school yesterday opened the door to removing it if the university cabinet votes to do so.
	Gov Phil Bryant told reporters yesterday that he disagrees with the universities' decision to remove the flag.
	He cited a state law calling for Mississippi's flag to "receive all of the respect and ceremonious etiquette ...

2 more universities furl Confederate-themed Mississippi flag

The Islamic State group said today that its spokesman and senior commander has been killed while overseeing military operations in northern Syria, and threatened to avenge his death.
	The IS-run Aamaq news agency said Abu Muhammed al-Adnani was "martyred while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns in Aleppo," without providing further details.
	His death, if confirmed, would be the latest blow to the Islamic State group, which has been on the retreat in Syria and Iraq, where it has declared a self-styled Islamic caliphate straddling both countries.
	Adnani, a senior leader in the group, has been the voice of IS over the past few years, and has released numerous, lengthy audio files online in which he delivered fiery sermons urging followers to carry out attacks.
	Earlier this year, he called for massive attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He has also called for attacks in Western countries, telling Muslims in France on occasion to attack "the filthy ...

Islamic State group says spokesman killed in Syria

Every few months, a pilot somewhere in the world is stopped before a jet takes off because of suspicion of drunkenness. It makes headlines and gives nervous travelers another reason to avoid flying.
	Despite their notoriety, such cases are extremely rare.
	Each day, there are 90,000 flights around the world, carrying more than 8 million people. And the overwhelming majority of pilots in those cockpits are sober.
	Pilots take being fit to fly seriously and act accordingly," says former US Airways pilot John M Cox, now CEO of the consulting firm Safety Operating Systems. "Pilots know they are one of the most carefully monitored professions and therefore, are very conservative."
	There are occasional lapses. The latest incident occurred Saturday morning when two United Airlines pilots were pulled from their flight - and arrested - as they prepared to fly 141 passengers from Scotland to the United States.
	But don't think this will end the pilots' careers.
	United has removed both men ...

Intoxicated in the air: drunk pilots make news but are rare

News agencies report a concert marking Uzbekistan's 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union has been cancelled amid uncertainty about the health of the country's hospitalised president.
	The Uzbek government on Sunday announced that Islam Karimov, the 78-year-old hardliner who has ruled since independence, had been hospitalized, but gave no further details. His daughter later said on social media that he had suffered a brain hemorrhage.
	No government statements on his health were issued today, a day after unconfirmed reports of his death circulated.
	Russia's Interfax news agency cited an unnamed organizer of the independence day observances as saying a concert planned for Wednesday in the capital Tashkent had been cancelled.
	The state news agency RIA Novosti cited a diplomatic source as saying Uzbekistan informed Russia of the cancellation.

Reports: Uzbek concert cancelled amid president health doubt

A federal grand jury indicted a New York City woman today for her alleged role in a student visa "pay to stay" scam uncovered after federal authorities set up a fake university.
	Ting Xue faces one count of conspiracy and seven counts of visa fraud.
	The bogus school, the University of Northern New Jersey, was set up by undercover agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Cranford, a small town about 15 miles outside New York City.
	Xue, 28, a naturalized US citizen who lives in Queens, allegedly used her consulting business to recruit foreign nationals to enroll in the school so they could fraudulently obtain or keep student or work visas.
	She was one of 21 people charged in April with helping more than 1,000 foreigners get the bogus documents over a two-and-a-half-year period.
	The school had no instructors, classes or degree programs, but its authentic-looking website promised "a high quality American education to students from around the world." The site contained ...

Indictment: Woman used feds' fake university to get visas

SpaceX has a taker for the first flight of one of its recycled rockets.
	The Luxembourg-based company SES a longtime SpaceX launch customer said today it will send its next communications satellite up on a previously flown Falcon rocket. It will be the first true reuse of a rocket previously used for an orbital mission. The launch will take place sometime this fall from Cape Canaveral.
	"Thanks for the longstanding faith in SpaceX," SpaceX chief Elon Musk said via Twitter. "We very much look forward to doing this milestone flight with you."
	The chief technology officer at SES, Martin Halliwell, said SpaceX's testing for the upcoming mission gives his company "full confidence."
	SES was the first commercial satellite operator to launch with SpaceX, back in 2013, he noted, and the satellite operator is excited to team up with SpaceX for another first.
	"We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight," Halliwell said in a news release.
	SpaceX said it can save ...

SpaceX gets taker for 1st flight of recycled rocket

Authorities responded to singer Chris Brown's Los Angeles home early today after a woman called police seeking assistance, officials said.
	The call came in around 3:00 AM, from outside the sprawling hillside property in the Tarzana neighborhood, police Lt. Chris Ramirez told reporters at the scene. Ramirez didn't say what assistance the woman needed.
	"Detectives are trying to make contact with Mr. Brown," Ramirez said. They also want to talk with the woman and any witnesses, he said.
	Police were waiting for a judge to approve a search warrant for the home in the San Fernando Valley area, Officer Lyle Knight told The Associated Press.
	Meanwhile, Brown posted a least three online videos declaring his innocence and dismissing TV reports that he was barricaded inside.
	"I don't care. Y'all gonna stop playing with me like I'm the villain out here, like I'm going crazy," Brown said in one Instagram video, waving a cigarette and looking at the camera.
	"When you get the warrant or ...

Police at Chris Brown's home after woman sought assistance

A terminally ill man with weeks to live has fulfilled a dying wish by marrying his girlfriend.
	The Daily News Journal reports Chris Ford and Nicole Wismer had planned to marry in October but moved up the ceremony to Sunday after doctors told Chris he might not make it that long.
	Ford was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth and throat about a year ago, not long after the couple's son was born. The Philadelphia native moved to his mother's home in La Vergne, Tennessee, while undergoing cancer treatment.
	The community came together to donate a venue and other services for the celebration. Despite his weakened condition, Ford was able to dance down the aisle with his new bride after the ceremony was complete.

Man with weeks to live fulfills wish by marrying girlfriend

In normal circumstances, a 13 billion euro (USD 14.5 billion) cash award would make any country ecstatic. But Ireland is no ordinary country when it comes to tax law and its government insists it doesn't want the colossal windfall.
	The Irish government joined Apple in vowing Tuesday to appeal the European Commission's judgment that the smartphone and computing giant didn't pay the correct volume of tax to Ireland for more than a decade, a mounting bill that analysts say could constitute 19 billion euros (USD 21 billion) with interest.
	At stake is the foundation of Ireland's multinational-dependent, export-driven economy, which has rapidly rebounded from a banking crisis and 2010 international bailout to become once again the fastest growing in Europe.
	Since the 1980s, successive Irish governments have made low corporate tax and other tax-avoidance measures a key part of their sales pitch to woo foreign firms to Ireland.
	Today, most of the biggest names in drug making, social media 

Why Ireland doesn't want to take billions from Apple

The German pilot who deliberately flew his airliner into a mountainside last year had struggled with learning to fly and had failed a key test of his skills during training in the US, according FBI interviews with his flight instructors.
	Andreas Lubitz was promoted anyway. But his training difficulties were one more "red flag" that should have caused Lufthansa and the airline's Arizona flight school to take a closer look and discover his history of depression, asserted attorneys representing families of crash victims.
	Lubitz was a co-pilot for Germanwings, a regional airline owned by Lufthansa, when he locked Flight 9524's captain out of the cockpit and set the plane on a collision course with a mountain in the French Alps last year. All 144 passengers and six crew members, including Lubitz, were killed.
	One instructor, Juergen Theerkorn, described Lubitz as "not an ace pilot," and said he failed one flight test because of a "situational awareness issue."
	In aviation, loss of ...

Suicidal Germanwings pilot had struggled in US flight school

French President Francois Hollande today criticised Turkey's "contradictory" military intervention in Syria and warned Russia not to become a "protagonist" in the war, a day after a US official warned that clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdish forces would detract from the fight against the Islamic State group.
	The mounting criticism comes as a spokesman for the Kurdish-led forces in Syria said IS militants carried out a two-pronged attack on villages south and west of the former militant stronghold of Manbij, taking advantage of clashes between his forces and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels.
	The Kurdish-led forces seized Manbij from IS earlier this month after a 10-week campaign.
	Turkish troops entered Syria last week and together with allied Syrian rebels have pushed to clear both IS militants and Kurdish-led forces from the border area around the Syrian town of Jarablus.
	Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish forces an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a domestic ..

France criticises Turkish military intervention in Syria

The former head of Israel's Mossad spy agency says the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is crucial to Mideast peace, joining the ranks of retired security men to urge the government to seek a two-state solution.
	Speaking to reporters today in northern Israel, Tamir Pardo says he does not believe Israel can reach any agreements with the Arab world without solving the Palestinian issue.
	He notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed the idea of Palestinian independence and called on the Israeli leader to "follow that path."
	Dozens of former Israeli commanders have urged Netanyahu to push harder to resolve the Palestinian issue. Many have accused him of mishandling the matter, though Pardo's vague comments stopped short of doing so.

Israeli ex-spy chief says Palestinian state crucial to peace

A court has ruled that a Pakistani citizen should be expelled from Romania on charges of promoting "extremist Islamism" online, causing a threat to national security.
	The Court of Appeal ruled today that the man, identified only by his initials SA, should be expelled for 10 years. Romania's main domestic intelligence agency said in a statement today that the man entered Romania illegally in 2015 and then married a Romanian woman.
	It said he sought to obtain a residency permit based on his marriage.
	The agency said it kept him under surveillance and found he was engaged in spreading propaganda online for Pakistani "terrorists."
	The statement said he supported the "supremacy of extremist Islam" and "global jihad," and was interested in making improvised explosive devices.

Pakistani man to be expelled from Romania over terrorism

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator says a "minimum" of 10,000 people have been killed and wounded in Yemen's conflict.
	Jamie McGoldrick provided the updated toll to reporters in the capital, Sanaa, today. When asked by The Associated Press if he was referring to civilians, he said, "I never address combatants."
	Yemen's conflict pits an internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced from power in 2012 following an Arab Spring uprising.
	Local affiliates of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have exploited the chaos to expand their reach.
	A day earlier, McGoldrick called for the reopening of the airport and the resumption of commercial flights into Sanaa, which fell to the Houthis in September 2014.

UN says 10,000 civilians killed, wounded in Yemen conflict

Firefighters in Abu Dhabi are battling a blaze that broke out in a high-rise building under construction in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
	The adjacent Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi hotel says in a statement that the fire started at 11:15 a.M. Today and that authorities ordered the hotel evacuated an hour and a half later.
	The Ministry of Interior posted images of thick white smoke billowing from the building and officials and firefighters on the scene. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
	Cities in the fast-developing Emirates have been hit by a spate of fires in recent years, including one in a residential tower in Dubai last month and another at a luxury hotel next to the city's biggest shopping mall on New Year's Eve.

High-rise tower being built in Abu Dhabi catches fire

for the recently concluded 'National Workshop on Road safety'. This first-of-its-kind event was hosted by the State Government in coordination with the World Bank and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (Government of India) on August 19th and 20th in the city. The two-day workshop which was inaugurated by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu witnessed eminent speakers from across the world speaking on road safety related issues. Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon'ble Union Minister, Road Transport & Highways, Shipping; Shri Sanjay Mitra, Secretary, Road Transport & Highways, GoI; Shri Sidda Raghava Rao, Minister - Road Transport, AP and Shri Younis Khan, Minister Road Transport Rajasthan & Chairman - Group of Ministers working on Road Safety Program also attended the event. The team from World Bank and the representatives of US, Australia and New Zealand Police were also present at the workshop.
Speaking on the partnership, Ravi Teja, Business Head - South, Ola said,  "As India's ...

Ola Powers the First Ever 'National Workshop on Road Safety'

Taliban officials say the extremist group has appointed a new military chief as the insurgents try to gain ground rather than talk peace under a new leadership.
	The officials said in telephone interviews over the weekend that the appointment of Maulvi Ibrahim Sadar, once a close ally of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar, heralds a commitment to confrontation at a time when multiple governments are trying to coax the Taliban to the negotiating table.
	Sadar is a battle-hardened commander, who gained prominence among Taliban foot soldiers following the movement's overthrow in 2001. The two officials both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the Taliban.
	Sadar's appointment coincides with an uptick in Taliban attacks against Afghanistan's security forces.

AP

AP

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