Qatar's main Hamad International Airport is adding a USD 10 fee for all passengers departing from the airport, including on connection flights.
	The decision, announced today, comes after the Middle East's busiest airport in Dubai and a smaller one in the nearby emirate of Sharjah also added similar fees earlier this year.
	The measure helps boost revenue in Gulf countries following a slump in the price of oil that has impacted their economic growth and limited spending capabilities.
	The fee will be added to tickets for travel starting December 1. Children under two-years-old without a seat will be exempted.
	The airport, which is home to one of the region's largest airlines Qatar Airways, says the charge will help it to increase capacity and invest in new infrastructure and technology.

New passenger fee added at Qatar's international airport

PTI Automatic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel today slammed those countries in Europe who say they won't take in Muslim refugees, a position that several eastern European governments have taken in response to the influx of migrants from the Islamic world.
	Merkel said she was hopeful that European Union members would reach an agreement on outstanding questions arising from the migrant crisis, one of which is how to fairly distribute asylum-seekers among all the bloc's 28 member states.
	She told German public broadcaster ARD that "everybody has to do their bit" and didn't rule out the possibility of letting some countries take in fewer migrants if they contribute more financially instead.
	"How the individual components are weighted will have to be seen," said Merkel. But she reiterated her stance that blocking refugees based on their religion was misguided.
	"What I continue to think is wrong is that some say 'we generally don't want Muslims in our country, regardless of whether there's a ...

Merkel rejects Muslim migrant ban, urges fair distribution

Scoreboard today at stumps on the
second day of the second Test between South Africa and New Zealand at SuperSport Park:
     Stephen Cook c Williamson b Bracewell 56
     Quinton de Kock c Boult b Wagner 82
     Hashimm Amla c Watling b Wagner 58
     JP Duminy c Watling b Southee 88
     Faf du Plessis not out 112
     Temba Bavuma c Bracewell b Wagner 8
     Stiaan van Zyl c Taylor b Wagner 35
     Vernon Philander b WAgner 8
     Kagiso Rabada c Nicholls b Santner 7
     Dale Steyn not out 13
     Extras: (b 10, lb 4) 14
     TOTAL: (for 8 wickets declared in 154 overs) 481
     Fall of wickets: 1-133, 2-151, 3-246, 4-317, 5-342, 6-426, 7-442, 8-463.
     Bowling: Tim Southee 35-5-114-1, Trent Boult 35.4-7-107-0, Doug Bracewell 30.2-9-98-1, Mitchell Santner 14-1-62-1, Neil Wagner 39-8-86-5.
     Martin Guptill c Van Zyl b Philander 8
     Tom Latham c De Kock b Steyn 4
     Kane Williamson not out 15
     Ross Taylor run out Bavuma 1
     Henry Nicholls not out 4
     Extras: (lb .

Centurion, Aug 28 (AP) Scoreboard today at stumps on the

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a giant celebration of the country's main youth league tonight, capping the organisation's first gathering in more than 23 years.
	The Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League plays a major part in North Korea's social system.
	Young people from the ages of 14 to 30 are expected to join and take part in activities ranging from study sessions to helping out in major construction projects.
	North Korea says the youth league has five million members.
	Pyongyang's May Day Stadium, which has a capacity of 150,000, was almost full tonight, and the crowd stood and cheered as Kim Jong Un walked in.
	The event lasted just over an hour, with thousands of torch-carrying youths rushing around the stadium in formation, making patterns, symbols and slogans.
	Fireworks burst above the stadium at the show's climax.
	North Korean state media did not immediately report on what took place at the 9th Congress of the youth league, which ran Friday through today.
	Foreign 

Kim Jong Un attends celebration of N Korea youth league

Russia has lifted its ban on charter flights to Turkey, opening the way to a resumption of the package tours that were a major source of revenue for Turkey.
	In rescinding the ban today, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he was doing so on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.
	Russia imposed the ban in November after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane at the Syrian border, an action that Putin denounced as a "treacherous stab in the back."
	After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologised for the downing, he and Putin patched up relations at a meeting three weeks ago.
	Putin said then that charter flights to Turkey could resume "in the near future," but added that painstaking work was still needed to revive trade and economic cooperation.

Russia to resume charter flights for tourists to Turkey

Binyamin Ben Eliezer, a veteran Israeli politician who held several top governmental posts and often served as a bridge to the Arab world, died today.
	He was 80.
	Israeli media reported that he died at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital after a long illness.
	Ben Eliezer, known affectionately by his original Arabic first name, "Fuad," was born in Basra, Iraq, in 1936 and moved to Israel in 1950.
	He joined the Israeli military in 1954 and served as a commander in the Mideast wars that followed. He retired in 1984 with the rank of brigadier general and entered politics.
	Ben Eliezer was a prominent member of the dovish Labor party and served in senior ministerial positions including defense, trade and communications.
	He held the defence post at a particularly difficult time, at the height of the second Palestinian intifadah, or uprising, in 2001 and 2002.
	A native Arabic speaker, Ben Eliezer was on friendly terms with deposed Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders and helped .

Veteran Israeli politician Ben Eliezer dies aged 80

Seven decades after their deaths, a state burial was held today in Poland for two World War II heroes who fought the Germans but were later killed by the communists for their pro-independence activity.
	The relatives of the 17-year-old Home Army nurse and a 42-year-old ensign attended the religious ceremonies along with President Andrzej Duda and Polish government officials.
	The burial with military honors took place in Gdansk, in the north, where the two were captured in 1946, tortured and executed on August 28, 1946.
	Their bodies were dumped in an unmarked pit at Gdansk military cemetery. Pavement tiles were put on top to conceal the site.
	The remains of Danuta Siedzikowna, codename "Inka," and Feliks Selmanowicz, "Zagonczyk," were found in 2014. They were identified through DNA tests as part of government efforts to locate and properly honor thousands of Poles who fought for the nation's independence against the Nazi Germans and then against the communists.
	Only a few hundred ..

State burial in Poland for WWII heroes slain by communists

Hillary Clinton has landed on a very personal counterpunch to what she says is Donald Trump's checkered business past: her dad.
	As the Democratic presidential nominee works to undercut Trump's economic record and promote her plans for small businesses, she is invoking memories of her late father's Chicago drapery business.
	Recalling Hugh Rodham hard at work making and printing curtains for hotels and office buildings, Clinton argues that he would have been "stiffed" in a deal with the celebrity businessman.
	"He expected to be paid when he showed up," Clinton said recently during an event in Warren, Michigan. "He did the work. He paid for the supplies and the labor he often hired to help him on big jobs. I can't imagine what would have happened to my father and his business if he had gotten a contract from Trump."
	Clinton hopes to remind voters that despite her years in public life that have left her a multimillionaire, she comes from a middle-class background and understands the ..

Clinton invokes father's memory to hit Trump on business

One Turkish soldier was killed and eight others wounded in two separate blasts today in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast, and Kurdish militants launched a rocket-propelled grenade at a civilian airport, officials and the state-run news agency said.
	The Anadolu Agency said one soldier was killed and three were wounded after a roadside bomb was triggered remotely by rebels linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the Hakkari province.
	In another attack, five civilian village guards were wounded in Siirt province after their van hit an improvised explosive device on a road, the news agency said, blaming PKK for the blast.
	Earlier today, Kurdish rebels, apparently targeting a police checkpoint at Diyarbakir Airport, fired a grenade that exploded near the airport's VIP passenger entrance, shattering windows, the local governor's office said. No injuries were reported.
	Passengers were taken to safety after the attack and flights resumed after a brief pause during the .

1 Turkish soldier killed, 8 wounded in southeastern Turkey

The US will reach its target this week of taking in 10,000 Syrian war refugees in a year-old resettlement program, the US ambassador to Jordan said today, after meeting families headed to California and Virginia.
	The resettlement program has emerged as an issue in the US presidential campaign, with Republican nominee Donald Trump alleging displaced Syrians pose a potential security threat.
	Alice Wells, the US ambassador to Jordan, said today that keeping Americans safe and taking in some of the world's most vulnerable people are not mutually exclusive.
	"Refugees are the most thoroughly screened category of travelers to the United States, and Syrian refugees are subject to even greater scrutiny," she said.
	Wells said the target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the US in the 2016 fiscal year will be reached tomorrow, as several hundred Syrians depart from Jordan over 24 hours.
	The Jouriyeh family, which attended today's short ceremony, is headed to San Diego, ...

10,000th Syrian reaches US this week in resettlement program

Ride-hailing service Uber and competitor Careem have unexpectedly suspended services in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi.
	San Francisco-based Uber said today the move was temporary and that its "goal is to resume operations as soon as possible."
	It declined to say what prompted the suspension.
	The state-backed daily The National reported that rival car service Careem also halted services in the capital starting yesterday afternoon.
	In a statement to The Associated Press, Careem said the suspension came after some of its cars were stopped by authorities.
	"Until we have further clarification on the situation, Careem has decided to temporarily limit services in Abu Dhabi to avoid any inconvenience this may cause," the company said. It did not elaborate.
	Officials at the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport could not be reached for comment.
	The companies' operations in the Emirates' largest city of Dubai, which has a different transport regulator, were unaffected by the ..

Uber, rival Careem suspend services in UAE capital Abu Dhabi

Bulldozers with huge claws and other heavy equipment clanked down the streets of Italy's quake-devastated town of Amatrice today, pulling down dangerously overhanging ledges and clearing rubble as investigators tried to figure out if negligence in enforcing building codes added to the high death toll.
	Italy's state museums, meanwhile, embarked on a fundraising campaign, donating their proceeds today to relief and reconstruction efforts in the earthquake zone.
	In addition to killing 291 people and injuring hundreds, Wednesday's 6.2 magnitude quake flattened three medieval towns in central Italy, destroying not only private homes but also churches and other centuries-old cultural treasures.
	The idea is to use art for art harnessing the nation's rich artistic heritage to help recover and restore other objects of beauty in the hard-hit towns.
	Culture Minster Dario Franceschini had appealed to Italians to "go to museum in a sign of solidarity with people affected by the earthquake." On 

Bulldozers work to clear out Italy's quake-hit towns

Authorities say a woman has been rescued and two men remain missing after a small plane crashed into a lake near a New Orleans airport.
	New Orleans Police Department spokeswoman Dawne Massey says in a statement early Sunday that department officials responded at 8:53 p.M. Saturday to a report that a Cessna aircraft carrying three people had crashed into Lake Ponchatrain near New Orleans Lakefront Airport.
	The airport is located about 10 miles northeast of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana.
	Massey says one female passenger was picked up by a private yacht and transported to Ochsner Hospital. Her medical condition was not immediately known.
	Massey says NOPD divers were preparing to deploy in an effort to locate the additional two male passengers and the wreckage.
	No further details were immediately available.

1 rescued, 2 missing after plane crash in New Orleans lake

A Southwest Airlines flight bound for Orlando, Florida, made an emergency landing due to a major problem with one of its two engines.
	Flight 3472 from New Orleans diverted the airplane to Pensacola, Florida, after the pilot detected something had gone wrong with an engine yesterday morning, according to a Southwest statement.
	The jet, a Boeing 737-700, landed in Pensacola around 9:40 am (local time) with no apparent injuries to the 99 passengers or five crew members on board, according to Southwest.
	Pictures taken from the plane and posted online made it appear that part of the engine had blown apart, but Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said there was no explosion. He said Southwest will work with investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board to determine the cause.
	It's rare for Southwest or any other major airline to have such serious engine trouble, said Michael Boyd, president of airline consulting firm Boyd International.
	"It's a one-off, almost unheard of," ...

Florida-bound Southwest flight diverted by engine problem

An attack submarine that is sponsored by first lady Michelle Obama and will be named for her home state has been delivered to the US Navy.
	Submarine builder General Dynamics Electric Boat, based in Groton, Connecticut, delivered the submarine that will become the USS Illinois to the Navy today after nearly five and a half years of construction.
	The first lady, who's from Chicago, will be involved in the life of the submarine and the lives of its sailors and their families.
	The submarine will become the USS Illinois, SSN 786, and begin its active service at a commissioning ceremony in Groton on October 29.
	It took thousands of shipyard employees in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia and submarine supply businesses nationwide to build the USD 2.7 billion submarine, the 13th member of the Virginia class.
	There were no major issues during construction, and the submarine performed "superbly" during recent tests at sea, said an Electric Boat vice president, Kenneth ...

Navy gets $2.7B attack submarine sponsored by Michelle Obama

Mourners in Italy prayed, hugged, wept and even applauded as coffins carrying victims of the country's devastating earthquake passed by at a state funeral today, grieving as one nation after three desperate days of trying to save as many people as possible.
	In the central town of Ascoli Piceno, they gathered to bid farewell to 35 of the 291 people confirmed dead so far after the quake that struck a swath of countryside early Wednesday at the foothills of the central Apennine mountains.
	The caskets of 35 people had been brought to a community gym one of the few structures in the area still intact and large enough to hold hundreds of mourners.
	The local bishop, Giovanni D'Ercole, celebrated Mass beneath a crucifix he had retrieved from one of the damaged churches in the picturesque area of medieval stone towns and hamlets.
	Emotions that had been dammed up for days broke in a crescendo of grief. One young man wept over a little girl's white coffin. Another woman gently stroked ...

Italy buries quake dead, recalls sisters embracing in rubble

Eight soldiers were killed in an attack in Paraguay's north by suspected members of a little-known rebels group, authorities said today, just days after Colombian officials and guerrillas reached a peace deal to end the longest running insurgency in Latin America.
	Paraguayan Interior Minister Francisco De Vargas reported the first five deaths from the Saturday attack in Arroyito, a town about 305 miles from Asuncion.
	Bernardo Jacquet, a physician at Hospital Concepcion, located some 90 kilometer from where the attack occurred, later said that the death toll had risen to eight.
	Authorities suspect the attack was carried out by a little-known Paraguayan guerrilla group called the Paraguayan People's Army.
	The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on Wednesday announced the finalization of a peace agreement after more than four years of grueling negotiations in Cuba.
	A cease-fire in the Colombian conflict that lasted more than a half-century ..

8 troops killed in suspected rebel attack in north Paraguay

Investigators in eastern China said they have not found high levels of pollution around a school where an explosive state television report in April said hundreds of kids had fallen sick with illnesses including leukemia.
	Soil, air and water contamination levels at the Changzhou Foreign Language School, which was built near recently closed chemical plants about 160 kilometers northwest of Shanghai, were found to be within acceptable levels, according to state media.
	The results of the three-month investigation appear to contradict reports that had sparked mass outrage earlier this year at a time when China was grappling with a series of public health scandals.
	In April, China's central government moved swiftly to launch a probe just hours after state broadcaster China Central Television, or CCTV, aired a segment saying that 500 kids had fallen ill and that soil tests showed toxic chemical levels at 95,000 times the national limit.
	The CCTV segment, which garnered tens of millions .

China says school condemned in TV pollution report is safe

Hillary Clinton received her first national security briefing today as the Democratic presidential nominee, meeting with intelligence officials for an overview of the major threats facing the nation around the globe.
	Clinton attended the briefing for more than two hours at the FBI office in White Plains, New York, near her suburban New York City home. Republican Donald Trump received his briefing earlier this month, a customary move for major party nominees but one that has been the subject of a political tussle during the campaign.
	Trump was campaigning on Saturday in Iowa, headlining Republican Sen. Joni Ernst's annual "Roast and Ride" fundraiser at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The celebrity businessman was not planning to join the 42-mile motorcycle ride that is part of the event but bringing his campaign to a state where polls show a tight contest, a rare bright spot for Trump amid a sea of challenging battleground states.
	The activities capped a week that saw some of the ...

Clinton receives first intelligence briefing as nominee

Witnesses and emergency services say a truck has struck an overpass and collapsed a pedestrian bridge onto one of England's busiest motorways, the M20, injuring one person.
	Witnesses say a truck hauling construction vehicles appeared to clip the bridge Saturday on the London-bound M20.
	Ambulance officials say the injured man was a motorcyclist who came off his bike as the bridge started to collapse in front of him, but his injuries were not life-threatening.
	The southeast motorway, which links London with the major cross-Channel port of Dover and the nearby Eurotunnel terminal, was closed in both directions.
	The shutdown caused massive traffic jams on what was already an exceptionally busy three-day weekend for holidaymakers heading to and from France.

1 hurt as truck hits, collapses bridge on English motorway

Anti-Islam activists have staged an hour-long demonstration atop Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
	The protesters unfurled a banner calling for "secure borders" in Germany as crowds of tourists milled around the iconic monument today.
	Police said 15 people were briefly detained over the protest and are likely to face charges of trespassing, harassment and breaching laws on public assembly.
	Berlin police spokeswoman Patricia Braemer said the protesters belonged to the Identitarian Movement.
	Germany's domestic intelligence agency earlier this month said it was putting the far-right group under observation because it aims to subvert democracy.
	Leaflets scattered by supporters of the group claimed the government is trying to replace Germany's population with Muslim immigrants.
	Germany has seen an unprecedented influx of asylum-seekers, many from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, over the past year.

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