An ancient temple in the Syrian town of Palmyra was reduced to rubble by Islamic State militants, a witness said today, confirming the complete destruction of the ancient monument in what UNESCO said was a "war crime."
	The UN cultural agency called the destruction of the temple, part of a sprawling Roman-era complex that was once among the most popular tourist sites in the Middle East, an "immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity."
	Kishore Rao, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, said the ancient oasis city of Palmyra sat at a crossroads between the Roman empire, Persia, China and India, and that its soaring architecture was a "masterpiece of human creative genius."
	"The destruction of any part of it is equally deplorable," Rao told The Associated Press.
	Activists outside Palmyra reported the demolition of the Temple of Baalshamin late yesterday, but there were conflicting accounts of the timing and the extent of the destruction.
	The witness, who goes by the .

Witness: Ancient Syrian temple completely destroyed by IS

PTI Automatic

A security official in Burkina Faso says several suspected Islamic militants have launched a rare attack near the West African nation's border with Mali.
	Witness Alassane Hamidou said at least two people were wounded in tonight's attack.
	Hamidou told The Associated Press that his life was spared by the attackers because he's Muslim and they were looking for Christians.
	The security official who confirmed the attack spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.
	It wasn't immediately clear who was behind the violence, though neighboring Mali is home to an array of extremist groups.
	Burkina Faso has largely been spared jihadi violence destabilizing nearby countries. However, a Romanian security officer working at a mine in Burkina Faso was kidnapped nearly five months ago.

Armed groups launch attack in Burkina Faso near Mali

Nigeria's new president is ordering an investigation into military hardware and weapons purchased since 2007, part of his ongoing fight to end corruption and ensure the armed forces are properly equipped to fight the Boko Haram Islamic uprising.
	Today's announcement came the same day former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki was charged in court with unlicensed possession of firearms. Nigeria's intelligence agency said it uncovered a large cache of arms and ammunition in a July raid on Dasuki's home "capable of undermining national security."
	Dasuki had taken control of weapons procurement from the Ministry of Defense.
	A statement from President Muhammadu Buhari's office said an investigating committee will recommend a streamlined process for weapons purchases to replace one that "very often resulted in the acquisition of sub-standard and unserviceable equipment.

Nigerian leader orders investigation of weapons purchases

A US right-to-die group was fined USD 30,000 today for assisting in a woman's 2007 suicide.
	Final Exit Network Inc was convicted in May of assisting the suicide of Doreen Dunn, 57, of Minnesota, who lived with chronic pain for a decade before she took her own life. The group was also convicted of interfering with a death scene, but was not fined on that charge.
	Judge Christian Wilton also ordered Final Exit Network to pay nearly USD 3,000 in restitution to Dunn's family to cover funeral expenses. But he declined to order the 15 years of probation sought by prosecutors to restrain the group from involvement in other suicides in the state.
	Robert Rivas, an attorney for the group, said it would pay the fine this week but plans to appeal. He told the judge that Final Exit Network is unrepentant, and that the court set a precedent by making speech a crime in Minnesota.
	Dunn's husband, Mark Dunn, asked the judge to consider the family's grief at finding out that her death was actually a 

Right-to-die group fined USD 30K in US woman's suicide

Health authorities in Sierra Leone released the country's last known Ebola patient from a hospital today, a milestone that allows the nation to begin a 42-day countdown to being declared free of the virus that has killed nearly 4,000 people here.
	President Ernest Bai Koroma presented a certificate of discharge to Adama Sankoh, 40, who contracted Ebola after her son died from the disease late last month.
	"The Ebola fight is not yet over. Go and tell members of your community that. Go back to your community and continue to live life as you used to," the president said when presenting the certificate to the woman.
	Sankoh, whose 23-year-old son contracted Ebola in the capital, Freetown, before traveling to his home village, thanked everyone who provided her care during her illness. She also vowed to be the last person infected in Sierra Leone with the virus.
	"Although my child died of Ebola I am very happy that I have survived today," she said upon leaving the Ebola treatment center ..

Sierra Leone releases its last known Ebola patient

A California company has broken ground on a USD 30-million battery recycling plant in Nevada that federal officials say will be the first of its kind in the world.
	AquaMetals is building the plant at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center east of Reno where Tesla Motors is building its electric battery factory.
	The US Department of Agriculture guaranteed a USD 10 million business loan for the Oakland-based company to complete the world's first commercial-scale electro-chemical lead battery and recycling plant.
	AquaMetals officials say the technology they call "AquaRefining" is more efficient and environmentally friendly than traditional recycling.
	USDA Rural Development spokeswoman Kelly Clark told the Reno Gazette-Journal that it uses a new water-based process to remove the lead instead of smelters that create toxic waste.
	Operations are expected to begin in 2016.

USD 30M battery recycling plant breaks ground in US

Palestinian authorities found liable in a high-profile lawsuit over Americans killed in terrorist attacks must pay USD 10 million in cash and an additional USD 1 million monthly payment while the case is on appeal to secure the hundreds of millions awarded by a jury, a US judge said today.
	In ordering the security payment, Manhattan federal Judge George B Daniels said he had given significant thought to a motion filed this month by the US State Department, which intervened in the case via the Department of Justice to argue a high bond could threaten the stability of the region by straining the cash-strapped Palestinians.
	The payment also mirrored the amount proposed by a lawyer for the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, who argued that forcing the Palestinians to front an expensive bond payment would have dire human costs for the people living in the territories.
	"Respectfully, a million means a lot to the Palestinian Authority," Mitchell Berger told 

US judge: Palestinians to pay USD 10M to secure terror verdict

The Russian ruble plunged 2.9 per cent today to hit a seven-month low amid a further drop in oil prices, the country's key export.
	The ruble was trading at 71.04 to the dollar at the close of trading in Moscow, its lowest level since Jan 30, when Russian markets were hit by a combination of low energy prices and Western sanctions. After the market closed, the ruble recovered slightly in futures trading in an indication that it may recover some of its losses.
	Oil is the backbone of the Russian economy and the fall of the ruble follows a sharp decline in the price of crude.
	The US oil contract on Friday dropped below USD 40 per barrel for the first time since 2009 and today was down another USD 1.23 a barrel at USD 39.22.
	The ruble's slide was accompanied by falls in the currencies of many other post-Soviet countries, with the Belarusian ruble falling more than 5 per cent to a new record low against the dollar, with a drop also recorded for the Ukrainian hryvnya and various ...

Russian ruble collapses to 7-month low on weak oil prices

The company behind the adultery website Ashley Madison is offering a USD 500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a group that hacked the site.
	Hackers last week released detailed records on millions of people registered with the website, one month after a break-in at Ashley Madison's parent company, Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc. The website, whose slogan is, "Life is short. Have an affair," is marketed to facilitate extramarital affairs.
	Toronto Police announced the reward today at a news conference.
	The hackers who took credit for the break-in have accused the website's owners of deceit and incompetence and said the company refused to bow to their demands to close the site.

Cheating site Ashley Madison offers reward for info on hack

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen doubled its near-daily airstrikes today in the central province of Marib and the adjacent border area of Jawf, in order to allow allies on the ground to push north toward insurgent strongholds, authorities said.
	There was no immediate word on casualties.
	Marib's pro-government forces also received major reinforcements, including hundreds of Saudi-trained troops, ambulances and armored personnel carriers manned by Saudi and Emirati soldiers, pro-government officials said.
	The forces aim to take Saada, the main northern stronghold of the Houthi rebels, they added.
	Yemen's conflict pits the Iran-allied Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh 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.
	Pro-government forces recently pushed the Houthis out of several key southern ...

Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen ramp up as allies push north

Bahrain detained a former lawmaker after he visited Iran on charges of financing terrorism and being involved in a bombing that killed two police officers, accusations the Gulf nation's largest opposition group dismissed today as "absolute nonsense."
	Hasan Isa, a prominent Bahraini cleric, was detained on Aug 18 at Bahrain International Airport. An Interior Ministry statement yesterday did not identify Isa by name, but said the suspect it holds is also accused of distributing money he'd raised during rallies to wanted fugitives and a "terrorist group," without elaborating.
	Shiite opposition group al-Wefaq identified Isa as the suspect. It said he was innocent and was being targeted under laws that criminalize peaceful political activism. Al-Wefaq earlier said that Isa's lawyers have not been allowed to see him.
	Police have arrested five other suspects in connection with the July 28 bombing in Sitra, just south of the capital, Manama. Police investigators say those suspects are ...

Bahrain detains former Shiite lawmaker after trip to Iran

Spirits arrived at the International Space Station today. Not the ghostly ones, but the kind you drink - distilled spirits.
	A Japanese company known for its whiskey and other alcoholic beverages included five types of distilled spirits in a space station cargo ship. The station's big robotic arm operated by Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui grabbed onto the supply craft launched Wednesday by his homeland. Flight controllers helped anchor it down.
	The supply ship contains nearly 10,000 pounds of cargo, including the six liquor samples. Suntory Global Innovation Center in Tokyo wants to see if alcoholic beverages mellow the same in space as they do on Earth.
	The samples will spend at least a year in orbit before being returned to Earth. An identical set of samples will be stored on the ground in Japan.
	The experiment has NASA's blessing. Spokesman Dan Huot said all research flown to the space station is agreed upon by everyone involved. It's not the first liquor-related space ...

Japan delivers whiskey to space station for science

US investors got a serious jolt today when the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 1,000 points minutes after the market opened in a wave of selling that circled the globe after a historic plunge in Chinese stocks.
	Though the declines eased significantly as the morning went on, it sent a shiver of fear through Americans with retirement accounts or saving to buy a home that the bull market is over.
	The Dow was down 199 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 16,259 points as of 12:51 p.M. Eastern time. The S&P 500 dropped 27 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 1,943. The Nasdaq composite fell 43 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 4,662 points. The three indexes are down for the year.
	The Standard & Poor's 500 index briefly slid into correction territory after the opening Wall Street jargon for a drop of 10 percent or more from a recent peak. The last market correction was four years ago. Treasurys surged as investors bought less risky assets.
	The Dow fell 1,089 points within the first four minutes ...

US stocks pare losses after 1,000-point Dow plunge

Police say two men from Iowa who made online threats against Pokemon competitors referencing the Boston Marathon bombings and the Columbine High School massacre were stopped as they tried to register for the World Pokemon Championships in Boston.
	Eighteen-year-old Kevin Norton, of Ames, and 27-year-old James Stumbo, of Boone, were ordered held without bail on gun charges today pending a Sept 1 hearing.
	Boston police Commissioner William Evans said the men made threatening statements in a closed online Pokemon forum before driving 25 hours to Boston on Thursday for the championships. Both were experienced players invited to attend.
	The moderator of the Pokemon forum notified security at the convention center where the competition was held over the weekend.
	Officers found a 12-gauge shotgun, an AR-15 rifle and several hundred rounds of ammunition in their car.

2 men held without bail for alleged threats to Pokemon event

Ukraine's president vowed to increase troop numbers to fend off attacks by Russia-backed separatist rebels and warned his countrymen that there is still the threat of a "large-scale invasion," in an impassioned speech to mark Independence Day today.
	Speaking during a military parade, President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine must not be complacent even though hostilities have largely died down. In a show of force, thousands of Ukrainian servicemen marched in downtown Kiev to commemorate the country's independence from the Soviet Union on Aug 24, 1991.
	"We stand for peace, but we are not pacifists. We must get through the 25th year of independence as if on brittle ice. We must understand that the smallest misstep could be fatal. The war for independence is still ongoing," Poroshenko said.
	Poroshenko didn't say how many more troops he would send to eastern Ukraine. He claimed that Russia had massed about 50,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, still had 9,000 soldiers in eastern ...

Ukraine vows to increase troops to fend off rebel attacks

Chancellor Angela Merkel today condemned the neo-Nazi riots outside a refugee shelter in eastern Germany over the weekend, calling the attacks and those Germans who stood by watching them "shameful."
	Dozens of police were injured when a far-right mob hurled bottles and fireworks at officers trying to ensure asylum seekers could move into a shelter in Heidenau, south of Dresden.
	Merkel, who had been criticized by commentators in Germany for failing to speak out swiftly against the attacks, which began Friday night, said the images shown on television were "shocking."
	"I condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent outbursts. There was an aggressive mood against foreigners there that isn't acceptable in any way," she told reporters in Berlin.
	Hundreds of people took part in a peaceful march organized by the far-right National Democratic Party, or NPD, on Friday evening, but hours later some of the protesters began attacking police who seemed unprepared for the ...

Merkel condemns neo-Nazi riots outside refugee shelter

Target Corp has agreed to pay USD 2.8 million to settle a hiring discrimination claim filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
	The EEOC says three employment assessments formerly used by the Minneapolis-based retailer disproportionately screened out applicants for professional positions based on race and gender. It says the tests were not sufficiently job-related.
	The EEOC also says an assessment that was performed by psychologists violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits employers from subjecting applicants to medical exams prior making a job offer.
	The EEOC says thousands of people were adversely affected, and the settlement money will be divided among them.
	Target agreed to take several steps to ensure the validity of its hiring process, including keeping better data for assessing the impact of its hiring procedures.

Target Corp to pay USD 2.8M discrimination settlement

A confidential document from the UN's atomic agency says the extra work related to monitoring Iran's compliance with last month's nuclear deal will cost about 9.2 million euros (USD 10.5 million) each year.
	The International Atomic Energy Agency document obtained by The Associated Press also estimates the final tab will be nearly 138 million euros (USD 157 million) over the life of the pact.
	Drawn up for a special IAEA meeting Tuesday, the document says the costs are calculated from the time the deal begins to be implemented, at some point after it is adopted on October 18.
	The document extrapolates the total cost by saying the estimated annual cost of 9.2 million euros is "foreseen as being applicable for 15 years." That is the expected duration of the Iran deal.

UN expects Iran nuke deal monitoring to cost USd 10.5M a year

US President Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran seems to be picking up the momentum it needs to survive fierce opposition in Congress from its Republican opponents With Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid now on board.
	Reid had yesterday become the 27th and most powerful Senate Democrat to throw his support behind the president and the Iran nuclear deal, which could open the door for some of his non-committed colleagues to come aboard.
	"I strongly support the historic agreement and will do everything in my power to ensure that it stands," Reid said in a news release. Reid said he works to ensure that "America holds up our end of the commitment we have made to our allies and the world to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran."
	Congress plans to vote on a resolution of disapproval of the deal struck by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany with Iran. Even if the resolution passes, President Barack Obama plans to veto it and it would take a two-thirds majority ..

Reid: Iran deal best path to stop country from getting bomb

The Islamic State extremist group has claimed responsibility for executing at least 30 people for sodomy, the head of an international gay rights organisation said today at the first-ever UN Security Council meeting spotlighting what organisers called the "barbaric treatment."
	"It's about time, 70 years after the creation of the UN, that the fate of LGBT persons who fear for their lives around the world is taking center stage," said US Ambassador Samantha Power, who organised the meeting on violence and discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people with Chile's UN envoy.
	Jessica Stern, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, told the council that courts established by the militant group in Iraq and Syria claim to have punished sodomy with stoning, firing squads and beheadings and by pushing men from tall buildings.
	Fear of the Islamic State group has fueled violence by other militias and "private actors" against ...

Islamic State claims 30 killed for sodomy, UN meeting told

Britain's foreign minister said today that Iran is a major regional player that can be an ally in fighting terrorism but that London must "tread carefully" in its relationship with Tehran.
	Tehran and world powers struck a deal last month on Iran's contested nuclear program, and yesterday Britain and Iran reopened their respective embassies after a break of several years.
	Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran today, said the two countries shared common ground despite a "deep legacy of distrust."
	He said they agreed on the need to defeat the Islamic State group, and to stop opium from Afghanistan reaching Europe.
	Hammond told the BBC that "Iran is too large a player, too important a player in this region, to simply leave in isolation."
	Rouhani meanwhile dismissed any military option against his country's nuclear program as "ridiculous," after US President Barack Obama last week said force remained on the table to prevent Iran from ...

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