Thai explosives experts say substance from the bomb that blew up in downtown Bangkok last week smells like TNT, although police still have not received chemical test results, the national police spokesman said today.
	Prawuth Thavornsiri told journalists that it was still not clear if the bomb that killed 20 people Aug 17 was made of TNT or C4, a plastic explosive. But based on the experience of the bomb disposal experts, he said in English, "they say the smell looks like TNT."
	Prawuth says investigators are trying to find other pieces of the bomb to analyze.
	More than a week after the bombing at the Erawan Shrine, which also left 120 people injured, police appear to be no closer to tracking down suspects or determining a motive for the attack.
	Police have released an artist's sketch of the suspect who was seen in a security camera video from the open-air shrine leaving a backpack at a bench and walking away.
	A separate camera showed the suspect, wearing a yellow T-shirt, on the ..

Thai police say Bangkok bomb substance smells like TNT

PTI Automatic

Saudi Arabia's official news agency says the military has "intercepted and destroyed" a Scud missile fired from Yemen, which was claimed by Shiite rebels being bombed by a Saudi-led coalition.
	The news agency says the Saudi military destroyed the missile's launch pad inside Yemen. It says the missile was in the Jizan region in Saudi Arabia when it was intercepted today.
	A statement from the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, says the missile hit a power plant in Jizan.
	Houthi rebels and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh are fighting against an array of forces including southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants as well as troops loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
	The Houthis took over the capital, Sanaa, last September.

Saudis say Scud missile fired by Yemeni rebels intercepted

Amelia Boynton Robinson, a US civil rights activist who nearly died while helping lead the Selma, Alabama civil rights march in 1965, championed voting rights for blacks and was the first black woman to run for Congress in that southern state, died today at age 104, her son Bruce Boynton said.
	Boynton Robinson was among those beaten during the voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in March 1965 that became known as 'Bloody Sunday'. Fifty years later, Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, pushed her across the span in a wheelchair during a commemoration.
	Boynton Robinson, who was hospitalized in July after having a major stroke, turned 104 on Aug 18.
	In January, she attended the State of the Union address as a special guest of Democratic Alabama Rep Terri Sewell, who said Boynton's 1964 run for Congress paved the way for her. Sewell is Alabama's first elected black congresswoman.
	Boynton was the first woman to run on a Democratic ...

US civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson dies at 104

South Sudan President Salva Kiir today signed a peace deal with rebels, more than 20 months after the start of fighting between the army and rebels led by his former deputy.
	Kiir signed the agreement in Juba, South Sudan's capital, in a ceremony witnessed by regional leaders. Kiir said he was signing the document despite having serious reservations. He signed the same agreement endorsed last week in Ethiopia by rebel leader Riek Machar, said Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny.
	Machar, the former deputy president, signed the agreement last week in Ethiopia but Kiir refused, saying he needed more time, drawing condemnation from diplomats who want a quick agreement to end the violence in the world's newest country.
	Kiir was under intense pressure to sign the accord mediated by a group of neighboring countries, with the US threatening new UN sanctions if he failed to do so.
	Signing the agreement today, Kiir said he felt the peace deal had been imposed on him and said the agreement is ...

South Sudan leader signs peace deal amid sanctions threat

Microsoft says its new Windows 10 software is running on more than 75 million computers, tablets and other devices less than a month since the operating system was released.
	Analysts say that's a good start, although the company is hoping to get the software installed on a billion devices over the next three years.
	Microsoft, which is known for making software for personal computers, is hoping Windows 10 will help it rebuild loyalty among users who are increasingly relying on tablet, smartphones and other devices.
	Microsoft is offering Windows 10 as a free download for many computer owners. It's also installed in new machines that are being sold this fall.
	Along with some new features, Microsoft designed Windows 10 to fix some unpopular elements of the last Windows version.

Microsoft says Windows 10 now on 75 million devices

In a move likely to upset Israel's government, the Palestinians are seeking to raise their flag, along with the Vatican flag, at UN headquarters -- just in time for Pope Francis' visit next month.
	Supporters of the idea hope the UN General Assembly will adopt a resolution on the flag-raising shortly before the pope arrives.
	They're betting that the United States or other allies of Israel will not block the plan and risk offending the Holy See on Francis' first US visit.
	The Palestinians' proposal has been tabled, and a draft of the resolution has been seen by The Associated Press. It would allow non-member observer states -- there are only two -- to display their flags with the 193 member states.
	While the Vatican's mission to the UN earlier expressed support for the idea, it circulated a letter this week distancing itself from the draft, asking the Palestinian mission to "kindly to remove in its draft resolution any reference to the 'Holy See' and any generic reference 'on behalf 

Palestinians could raise flag at UN before pope visit

The chair of Britain's inquiry into the Iraq war has defended the time spent on the investigation amid heated criticism from families of those killed in the war.
	John Chilcot responded Wednesday to increasing pressure from bereaved families to release the findings, saying that the report must be fair.
	The inquiry into decisions and mistakes in Britain's planning and execution of the war began in 2009.
	Chilcot has not yet given a timetable for the conclusion of the report, which has been held up partly by a process giving those criticized a chance to respond.
	He says that while he understands relatives' anguish, "it is critically important that the report should be fair to all who participated in the conflict and to those who bore the responsibility of taking decisions.

UK Iraq war inquiry chair defends decision to move slowly

A Turkish official says a Syrian opposition commander has died in a bomb attack in the Turkish city of Antakya, near the border with Syria.
	Ercan Topaca, governor for Turkey's Hatay province, told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency that Jamil Raadoun died of his wounds in a hospital Wednesday, hours after a bomb placed beneath his car exploded.
	Topaca said the 44-year old Raadoun was a commander of the Suqour al-Ghab brigade, a group affiliated with the opposition Free Syrian Army.
	He said an investigation has been launched but added it appeared to be the result of "conflict between Syrian opposition groups."
	The governor said Raadoun was the target of a similar attack in April, but the bomb was discovered before it could explode.

Official: Syrian opposition figure dies in attack in Turkey

Israel's leading museum says a young visitor accidentally bumped into a display case and broke an ancient glass artifact.
	Ran Lior of the Israel Museum says the item, a gold-glass base of a 4th century Roman funerary vessel, broke along a previously repaired crack.
	He said today the museum has restored the item and returned it to the display.
	The artifact includes a Latin inscription and a depiction of a Christian couple with their children.
	It is one of some 300 ancient Roman and Near Eastern artifacts donated to the museum this year by Robert and Renee Belfer. The artifacts are on public display for the first time.
	Lior declined to discuss the "poor girl" who inadvertently broke the artifact this week.

Young visitor accidentally breaks artifact at Israel museum

Female directors are getting slightly more work in the expanding world of TV series and outlets, but the same can't be said for their minority counterparts, according to a new Directors Guild of America study.
	Women directed 16 per cent of the nearly 4,000 episodes that aired last season, a year-to-year increase of 2 per cent, the guild found.
	Minorities, both male and female, directed 18 percent of episodes, a 1 percent dip, according to an analysis of episodes from nearly 280 broadcast, cable and online series from the 2014-15 season.
	Both the TV and movie industries have long been under scrutiny for a lack of opportunity for women and minorities, with studies by entertainment unions and others finding that the preference for hiring white men is deeply entrenched.
	The TV "pie is getting bigger," the directors guild noted in the annual study released yesterday, with the total of 3,910 episodes representing a 10 percent increase over the previous season.
	But the video-on-demand ..

Study: Female directors make work gains; minorities lag

The general manager of a TV station in Virginia says two crew members were fatally shot on air in central Virginia.
	Jeffrey A Marks, general manager of WDBJ-TV, identified the two killed as Alison Parker and Adam Ward.
	The station says in tweets and in a story on its website that the incident happened at a shopping centre. The station says law enforcement officials are on the scene.
	The station is based in Roanoke, Virginia, and serves the southwest and central part of the state. The shopping mall is just off Smith Mountain Lake.
	Moneta is southeast of Roanoke.

Manager: 2 US TV station workers fatally shot on air

This probably isn't what the United Nations had in mind when it established the International Day of Peace: Burger King is asking McDonald's to join forces to create a "McWhopper."
	In full-page newspaper ads today, Burger King says it's calling for a truce with McDonald's so that they can create a mashup of their most famous burgers, the Big Mac and the Whopper.
	Burger King says it wants to serve the concoction for a single day at a popup location in Atlanta, a midway point between the headquarters of the two chains.
	Burger King is tying the publicity stunt to a nonprofit called Peace One Day, which says it promotes Peace Day.
	The United Nations created the International Day of Peace in 1981 to coincide with its annual opening session in September.
	It then designated September 21 as the annual "day of non-violence and cease-fire" in 2001.
	In a comment posted on its Facebook page, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook said the proposal was inspiration for a good cause, then took a dig 

Burger King to McDonald's: Let's make a McWhopper

The Philippine defense chief said he asked the visiting US Pacific commander today to help protect the transport of fresh Filipino troops and supplies to Philippine-occupied reefs in the disputed South China Sea by deploying American patrol planes to discourage Chinese moves to block the resupply missions.
	The Philippines has protested past attempts by Chinese coast guard ships to block smaller boats transporting fresh military personnel, food and other supplies to a Filipino military ship outpost at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, which is also being claimed and guarded by Chinese coast guard ships. The tense standoff at the shoal has lasted two years.
	Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the commander, Adm Harry Harris Jr, assured him of US readiness to provide assistance, adding that the US military has flown an aircraft at least once when a Philippine boat delivered supplies last year to Filipino marines marooned on a rusty naval ship that ran aground years ago at the ...

Philippines seeks US help to protect troops in disputed sea

The deep sea hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner will likely include cutting-edge sonar equipment when it ramps up again in October after the stormy southern hemisphere winter has passed, the Australian search leader said today.
	The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which oversees the recovery operation on Malaysia's behalf, has been criticised by some deep-sea salvage experts for not choosing synthetic aperture sonar, or SAS, from the outset of the search for Flight 370 that began far off the west Australian coast in October last year.
	With the standard side-scan sonar that has been used to scour half the search area so far, the sonar image of a seabed feature becomes less clear the farther it is away.
	With SAS, the sonar image remains sharp regardless of the feature's distance.
	Martin Dolan, the bureau's chief commissioner, said negotiations are underway to hire SAS equipment to add to a fourth ship that would join the search during the approaching summer, with the 

Search for MH370 may ramp up soon with new sonar equipment

Myanmar's opposition leader has warned armed ethnic minority groups not to rush into signing a nationwide ceasefire deal, a position that pits her against President Thein Sein, who has made reaching a deal before November's general election his top priority.
	Talks between more than a dozen rebel groups and the government have been on-again-off-again for more than 18 months.
	Win Htein, an executive of the opposition National League for Democracy, said today that party leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed her opinion at a meeting over the weekend with Maj Htoo Htoo Lay of the Karen National Union, which has announced it is ready to sign.
	Ethnic minority groups seeking greater autonomy have been fighting the central government for decades.

Suu Kyi: Myanmar rebels shouldn't sign peace deal in haste

One August day, Airida Pettersen received the news many immigrant mothers have come to dread: School representatives told the Lithuanian that child welfare officials removed her two children from the classroom and placed them in a foster home.
	She pleaded to know why but she said nobody would give her a straight answer.
	Pettersen, who moved to Norway in 2008 after marrying a Norwegian, is one of hundreds of immigrant parents whose children were taken away by Norway's Child Protection Service, or Barnevernet, ostensibly to protect them from mistreatment.
	After a series of highly charged custody disputes, the oil-rich Scandinavian country now faces accusations of cultural insensitivity at best and child theft at worst, as increasing numbers of immigrant children are being seized by officials and handed over to Norwegian foster families.
	Of 6,737 children taken in 2012, the latest available data, some 1,049 were immigrants or born to immigrant parents. That compares to 744 children ..

Norway accused of unfairly taking away immigrant children

President Barack Obama has called Japan's leader to express regret over recent WikiLeaks allegations that the US had spied on senior Japanese officials.
	Obama told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he thought the trouble the revelations caused Abe and his government was regrettable, a Japanese government spokesman told reporters.
	The 40-minute call took place today morning Japan time.
	Japanese officials faced questioning from the media and in parliament after WikiLeaks posted online what appeared to be five US National Security Agency reports on Japanese positions on international trade and climate change. They date from 2007 to 2009. WikiLeaks also posted what it says was an NSA list of 35 Japanese targets for telephone intercepts.
	Abe told Obama that the allegations could undermine trust between the countries, and reiterated his request for an investigation of the matter.
	The comments from both sides seemed to echo the exchange between Abe and US Vice President Joe Biden in a ...

Obama expresses regret to Japan's Abe for spying charges

US and China officials took a major step toward an agreement to advance "clean coal" technologies that purport to reduce the fuel's contribution to climate change and could offer a potential lifeline for an industry that's seen its fortunes fade.
	The agreement between the US Department of Energy and China's National Energy Administration would allow the two nations to share their results as they refine technologies to capture the greenhouse gases produced from burning coal, said Christopher Smith, the Energy Department's assistant secretary for fossil energy.
	Terms of the deal were finalised yesterday. Officials said it would be signed at a later date.
	Smith spoke after he and other senior officials from President Barack Obama's administration met with representatives of China's National Energy Administration during an industry forum in Billings.
	The discussions took place near one of the largest coal reserves in the world the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming, where ...

China, US seek 'clean coal' agreement as industry struggles

Two men wearing Afghan security force uniforms opened fire Wednesday inside a military base in southern Afghanistan, killing two NATO service members before being shot dead themselves, the international force said.
	NATO offered few details about the shooting in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, which appeared to be the latest so-called "insider attack" to target foreign troops or contractors in the country. Afghan officials said they had no immediate details about the attack.
	In a statement, NATO said the two men in Afghan uniforms opened fire on a vehicle with international troops inside it. Both shooters were killed when NATO forces returned fire, it said.
	NATO did not elaborate, nor did it identify the nationalities of the international troops killed nor the base the attack took place. It said the attackers wore "Afghan National Defense and Security Forces uniforms," which include the country's police, military and border patrol.
	The motive for the attack was not ...

NATO: Men in Afghan uniforms kill 2 foreign troops at base

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump engaged in a prolonged confrontation with the anchor of the nation's leading Spanish-language network during a news conference, first having the well-known news personality removed before allowing him back in.
	Jorge Ramos, the Miami-based anchor for Univision, stood up and began to ask Trump about his immigration proposal, which includes ending automatic citizenship for infants born in the United States to parents in the country illegally.
	As Ramos began to speak, Trump interrupted him, saying he hadn't called on Ramos before repeatedly telling him to "sit down" and then saying, "Go back to Univision."
	As one of Trump's security detail approached Ramos, the anchor continued to speak, saying, "You cannot deport 11 million people." Ramos was referring to Trump's proposal to deport all people in the country illegally before allowing some of them to return.
	As he was taken from the room, Ramos said, "You cannot build a 1,900-mile wall," ..

Trump has Univision anchor removed from new conference

Dr James "Red" Duke, a trauma surgeon who attended to Texas Gov John Connally on the day of the Kennedy assassination, has died in Houston. He was 86.
	After the Kennedy assassination, Duke went on to become a prominent Houston trauma surgeon and familiar television doctor.
	In a statement, Dr Richard Andrassy, surgery department chairman at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, said Duke died yesterday at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston of natural causes.
	During the 1980s, Duke became familiar for his thick Texas drawl and bushy red moustache featured in his nationally syndicated medical segment.

AP

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