Thrilled to win a point in the US Open final, and bent on proving a point, Novak Djokovic leaped and roared and threw an uppercut, then glared at some of the thousands of spectators pulling for Roger Federer.
     After winning another point in that game, Djokovic nodded as he smiled toward the stands. And moments later, Djokovic shook his right arm, bloodied by an early fall, and screamed,
     "Yes! Yes!" to celebrate a missed forehand by Federer.
     Djokovic appeared to be all alone out there in Arthur Ashe Stadium, trying to solve Federer while also dealing with a crowd loudly supporting the 17-time major champion proclaimed "arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport" by the stadium announcer during prematch introductions.
     In the end, Djokovic handled everything in a thrill-a-minute final on a frenetic night. Frustrating Federer with his relentless defense and unparalleled returning, Djokovic took control late and held on for a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory ...

Djokovic beats Federer for 2nd US Open title, 10th major

PTI Automatic

Frank D Gilroy, whose play about a veteran's fraught return home, "The Subject Was Roses," won him a Pulitzer Prize has died in Monroe, New York.
	He was 89. He passed away of natural causes on Saturday, his family announced through a statement.
	Gilroy, who served in the Army from 1943 to 1946 in the European Theatre, also won a Tony Award for "The Subject Was Roses." It premiered on Broadway in May of 1964. He then wrote a screenplay for a 1968 film adaptation starring Jack Albertson and Patricia Neal, which would earn both supporting Oscar nominations and a win for Albertson.
	The Bronx native attended Dartmouth and the Yale Drama School after serving in the Army and went on to work as a screenwriter for live television and film for years. Credits include shows "Studio One in Hollywood," and "Playhouse 90," and films "The Gallant Hours," and "The Fastest Gun Alive."
	Gilroy also directed movies for television and the big screen, including the 1971 Shirley MacLaine drama "Desperate .

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Frank D Gilroy dies at 89

Russian forces are expanding the tarmac of a major airport in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad and his minority sect, a prominent Syrian monitoring group said today.
	The report comes amid rising concern among US officials of increased Russian military activity in Syria.
	President Barack Obama cast the buildup as an effort to prop up the country's embattled leader, warning Moscow against doubling down on Assad.
	Russia, a longtime backer of Syria's government, denies it's trying to bolster Assad and says its increased military activity is part of the international effort to defeat the Islamic State group which has wreaked havoc in Syria and Iraq.
	Today, the Russian foreign minister called for the international community to include the Syrian government in efforts to fight IS.
	A former Lebanese general with knowledge of the Syrian military told The Associated Press last week that there are plans to build a military base in the coastal town .

Syria group: Russia expanding major Syrian airport

Thailand's 87-year-old king continues to suffer from a lung infection that doctors believe was caused by foreign particles such as food, saliva or nasal secretions entering his lungs, the royal palace said today.
	The statement on King Bhumibol Adulyadej's health was the second issued by the palace in a week, suggesting concern about his condition, which as of Saturday included a fever, decreased oxygen in the blood and a higher than normal pulse.
	The previous statement had said the king was responding to treatment, with most vital signs improving, and the latest statement said his blood pressure was normal.
	Tonight's statement said the king was taking antibiotics and nourishment intravenously, as well as being given oxygen and physical therapy to clear saliva from his lungs.
	It said a saliva test found bacteria in his lungs, with the diagnosis that inflammation of both lungs was caused by aspiration pneumonitis. It indicated that a new infection was found since the last statement .

Thai royal palace says king still suffering lung infection

Australia celebrated the consolation prize of winning the one-day series against England on Sunday after the pain of losing the Ashes.
     Aaron Finch hit an unbeaten 70 as England was trounced by eight wickets after being dismissed for only 138 at Old Trafford in the deciding fifth ODI.
     Australia's 3-2 series win came after losing the last two ODIs when England looked set to build on its Ashes success.
     But after winning the toss and choosing to bat, England was blown away in only 33 overs, with England captain Eoin Morgan forced to retire hurt with a concussion with the hosts at 22-3.
     Morgan was facing his sixth ball of the innings when he turned his head to a 90 mph (145 kph) bouncer from Mitchell Starc which hit the side of his helmet.
     Starc played in the Australian domestic match last year when Phillip Hughes died after being hit by a bouncer. Morgan remained on his feet for a couple of minutes before retreating to the turf when England's medical team arrived .

Australia wins consolation ODI prize after Ashes loss

At least 28 people seeking a better life in Europe drowned today as they attempted a wind-swept sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, while a record number of asylum seekers reached Hungary's border with Serbia just two days before the government vows to make its southern frontier more difficult to cross.
	Greece's coast guard said the 28, including four infants and 10 older children, died when their wooden boat containing more than 125 people capsized near Farmakonissi.
	The island lies midway between Samos and Kos, two of the favored targets for smugglers sending thousands of migrants and refugees daily to Greek islands off Turkey's coast.
	Officials said 68 others were rescued while 30 more swam to the barely populated island. Coast guard officials said the boat may have been toppled in part because of wind gusts exceeding 50 kph (30 mph).
	Today's tragedy came just a day after two other boats capsized and at least five people, four children and a 20-year-old man, were presumed ...

28 drown off Greece as Hungary absorbs record migrant flow

The good news for the Chinese visitor to Bangkok was that a doctor had successfully removed a foreign object from her large intestine that could have damaged her digestive system.
	The bad news: It was a 10 million baht (USD 278,000) diamond the woman was accused of stealing from a jewelry fair, adding a piece of rock-hard evidence to the case against her.
	Police Col Mana Tienmaungpak said today that authorities got to the bottom of the theft when a doctor wielding a colonoscope and the medical equivalent of pliers pulled the 6-carat gemstone from the large intestine of the woman alleged to have filched it, after nature and laxatives failed to get it out.
	The woman and a Chinese man were arrested Thursday night at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on their way out of Thailand on the basis of surveillance video from the fair just outside Bangkok, where earlier that day the duo allegedly switched a fake stone for the real one after asking to inspect it. The dealer at the booth selling ...

Colonoscope helps Thai police recover stolen 6-carat diamond

Yemen's internationally recognized president will not participate in UN-brokered talks later this week with Shiite rebels who control the capital and much of the country's north, his office said today.
	The statement said there would be no talks with the rebels, known as Houthis, unless they accept a UN resolution that obliges them to withdraw from areas they seized and surrender weapons taken from state institutions.
	President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled Yemen earlier this year, and his government is currently based in Saudi Arabia, which is leading a US-backed coalition that has been striking the Iran-supported rebels from the air since March.
	Yemen's conflict pits an array of forces against the Houthi rebels, who are allied with security forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
	The conflict has killed more than 4,000 people, leaving the Arab world's poorest country in the grip of a humanitarian crisis and on the brink of famine.
	Several previous attempts to get the 

Yemen's exiled president backs out of talks with rebels

Suicide bombers attacked a northern Cameroon town this morning, killing at least seven people and severely wounding 18, a local official said.
	The attack hit the town of Kolofata, which sits near the Nigerian border and has been repeatedly targeted by the Nigeria-based Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.
	The death toll could climb, said Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North Region, who confirmed the attack Sunday morning as he was heading to the area. He said he had been told three bombers were involved, and that the wounded were being taken to the hospital in the town of Mora.
	"The death toll may be high because it was a market day in the locality and many people from surrounding villages and Nigeria usually come to buy and sell on market days," Bakari said.
	The attack came one day after Major General Iliya Abbah, the Nigerian commander of a five-nation regional force set up to fight Boko Haram, concluded a visit to the Mora military base in northern Cameroon, where 2,500 ..

Official: Suicide bombers kill 7 in northern Cameroon town

Thousands of people rushed to escape one massive wildfire charging across California's tinder-dry Sierra Nevada foothills and another out-of-control fire that broke out in Northern California, sending four firefighters to the hospital with burns.
	The northern fire began in Lake County, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of San Francisco, and grew to about 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) in just a few hours, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said yesterday.
	The blaze has since exploded to more than 101 square miles (262 square kilometers) amid triple-digit temperatures and land parched from several years of drought. A thick layer of smoke kept air tankers and helicopters from flying yesterday.
	The fire forced the evacuation of two towns as well as residents along a 35-mile (56-kilometer) stretch of State Route 29.
	The firefighters were airlifted to a hospital burn unit, where they were listed in stable condition, department spokesman Daniel Berlant ...

Thousands flee 2 fast-moving California wildfires

Three inmates are dead and five injured after a disturbance at an Oklahoma prison, a spokesman for a company that owns and operates the facility has said.
	Staff at Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing quelled an inmate disturbance around 4:40 p.M. Yesterday, said Steve Owen of Nashville, Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America.
	He said in a release that the incident lasted about 40 minutes and was contained to one housing pod.
	No staff members were injured. The inmates who were hurt were taken to hospitals. It's not clear what caused their injuries.
	The names of those killed and injured were not immediately released.
	Owen said the prison was placed on lockdown and inmates confined to their housing areas. The facility southwest of Tulsa houses medium- and maximum-security male inmates for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
	The incident occurred in a medium-security portion of the prison, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terri Watkins told The Associated .

Spokesman: 3 inmates dead, 5 injured at US prison

Two odd-looking Chinese soft-shelled marsh turtles raised for food in Asia have been seen south of Boston, and there's concern they could eventually threaten local ecosystems if they become established in the northeastern New England states.
	New England Aquarium experts said yesterday it is possible someone decided to release the animals after buying them for cooking. They urge people not to release non-native animals into the wild, and to report any sightings of the soft-shelled turtle.
	People on Wollaston Beach in Quincy saw a turtle digging in the sand this past week, and the aquarium's marine animal rescue team picked it up for identification. A second sighting was reported later in the week.
	"The concern is that if it can establish a population, it actually can survive our winter," said Nigella Hillgarth, the New England Aquarium's president and CEO, and a zoologist. "It could cause major changes in the ecosystem. None of the animals in that ecosystem are adapted to a predator 

US experts concerned by sighting of invasive Chinese turtle

Canada's Conservative government has so far declined to resettle more Syrian refugees despite the haunting image of a drowned 3-year-old washed up on a Turkish beach that focused the world's attention on the largest migrant crisis since World War II.
	Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government announced yesterday that Canada will provide USD 100 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugee camps but made no announcement to resettle more refugees in Canada.
	A number of countries have announced they will take in thousands of more Syrian refugees since the picture of the dead toddler pierced people's consciousness two weeks ago.
	Canada's government has endured sharp criticism for taking in just 2,500 refugees since January 2014. More than 4 million Syrians have fled their country since the conflict began in 2011.
	The Harper government announced in January it would accept 10,000 over three years and promised in early August to accept an additional 10,000 over four ..

Canada announces money for refugees, but not taking more in

Conservative leader Evangelos Meimarakis has called on Greeks to give him the chance to form a government with his New Democracy party at "its core" and undo the damage from seven months of a left-led coalition.
	Meimarakis told an audience of party supporters and local business people at the Thessaloniki International Fair yesterday that "voters cannot gamble away" the "last chance" in the September 20 election to save the country from the policies of the leftist Syriza government.
	Meimarakis promised business-friendly policies that would bring jobs, growth and, eventually lower taxes, instead of the state-driven economy he accused his opponent, former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, of promoting.
	Tsipras called an early election to seek a fresh mandate after securing a bailout from Greece's euro zone and International Monetary Fund lenders.

Greek conservative leader promises jobs, growth, low taxes

A 24-year-old mother is in custody after her dirty, barefoot 4- and 6-year-old children were found living in a wooden shipping crate in an underground cave in Kansas City, Missouri.
	The woman was charged yesterday with two counts of felony child endangerment.
	Jackson County detectives were serving a search warrant for an alleged stolen car operation in the caves on the city's east side Thursday when they found the children, alone, in the 8-by-10-foot (2.4-by-3-meter) crate furnished with vehicle bench seats.
	Prosecutors say the children were poorly clothed, barefoot and covered in dirt, and the younger one was eating from a cup of dry ramen noodles.
	A spokesman for the Jackson County prosecutor's office said today he didn't know if the woman has an attorney.

US mom charged after kids found living in crate, cave

Yemen's Shiite rebels intensified attacks against pro-government forces today in the southern city of Taiz, as they pushed to seize a strategic mountain and landmark positions in the city ahead of scheduled peace talks, security officials said.
	The fighting in Yemen's third-largest city left 14 people dead and 27 wounded, with the toll including both fighters and civilians, said the officials, who remain neutral in a conflict that has splintered security forces.
	The conflict in Yemen pits the rebels known as Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
	The conflict has killed more than 4,000 people, leaving the Arab world's poorest country in the grip of a humanitarian crisis and on the brink of famine.
	The Houthis are aiming to take the Jarrah mountain that overlooks many neighborhoods in Taiz, as well as reclaim Taiz's ...

Yemen's rebels intensify attacks in southern city of Taiz

High winds were to blame for the toppling of a massive crane that smashed into Mecca's Grand Mosque and killed at least 107 people, including two Indian women, ahead of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage, the head of Saudi Arabia's civil defence directorate said today.
	The disaster during a violent thunderstorm that roared through Islam's holiest city yesterday afternoon was the deadliest incident in years surrounding the hajj, which gets underway in full later this month.
	Images shared on social media showed a horrifying scene. The crane boom pierced through the roof of the mosque, bringing down slabs of reinforced concrete and leaving bodies lying amid pools of blood on the polished mosque floors as frightened survivors screamed in panic.
	The director general of civil defence, Suleiman bin Abdullah al-Amro, told satellite broadcaster Al-Arabiya that the unusually powerful winds that toppled the crane also tore down trees and signs as a storm whipped through the area.
	He ...

Saudi blames Mecca Grand Mosque crane collapse on high winds

Saudi Arabia said it has taken in about 2.5 million Syrians on religious and humanitarian grounds in the years since the country's conflict began and has offered residency to hundreds of thousands, as it sought to rebut suggestions that oil-rich Gulf states should do more to address the plight of refugees fleeing civil war.
	The official Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed official at the Foreign Ministry as saying the kingdom does not consider those it has taken in as refugees and does not house them in camps "in order to ensure their dignity and safety."
	The OPEC heavyweight is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, which outlines the rights of refugees and obligations on those countries that are party to it.
	Saudi Arabia did not specify how many of those Syrians admitted remain in the country, saying only that those who wished to stay, a figure it put at "some hundreds of thousands", have been granted residency status.
	That status gives the Syrians access to work, ...

Saudi says hundreds of thousands of Syrians given residency

The head of the UN's nuclear test ban treaty organisation says Iran should follow up on its historic nuclear deal with world powers by ratifying the treaty and assuring it will never conduct a nuclear test explosion.
	Lassina Zerbo said in an interview yesterday with The Associated Press that if Iran doesn't ratify the treaty, "it will leave room for the doubt that people have put in this deal and the good intentions of Iran."
	Zerbo said Iran should have signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, known as the CTBT, before negotiations started on the deal to rein in its nuclear program, in order to give assurances to critics that it has no intention to develop nuclear weapons and that there is a religious prohibition, or "fatwa," against possessing them, issued in 2013 by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
	Ratifying the treaty now, he said, will assure doubters in the United States and elsewhere that before or after the nuclear agreement ends in 15 years, Iran will 

UN official urges Iran to sign nuclear test ban treaty

A suspect in the disappearance of an American woman missing since April from a famed Christian pilgrimage route in northern Spain has been arrested and led authorities to the body of a woman, a Spanish security official said.
	The arrest, and the discovery of the body, came yesterday after about 300 Spanish officers searched the area where Denise Thiem, 41, of Arizona was last seen April 5 in the town of Astorga.
	Authorities were trying to determine whether the body was that of Thiem, said the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of rules preventing the official from being named.
	The official provided no details about the suspect or where the body was found.
	Astorga is on the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, also called the St James Way, which ends at the Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Santiago de Compostela.
	Spanish TV showed footage yesterday of officers at a small apartment building taking away the suspect, a bearded man who appeared to 

Spain: Body found in case of missing American woman

The White House says it is trying to arrange a November meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
	Spokesman Josh Earnest says he anticipates a White House meeting in early November. It would be the first formal meeting between the two leaders in months.
	Obama pointedly refused to see Netanyahu in March when the Israeli leader appeared before a joint meeting of Congress and harshly criticised a US-negotiated nuclear deal with Iran, Israel's enemy.
	Lawmakers had arranged Netanyahu's appearance without White House input.
	Congressional Republicans failed this week to block the deal from going forward. Earnest says the leaders have not spoken since a Senate procedural vote on the deal on Thursday. Vice President Joe Biden earlier this week disclosed arrangements for the meeting.

AP

AP

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