France's defence minister says the country will send an additional six fighter jets to aid the battle against extremists from the Islamic State group.
	Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the reinforcements in comments today to the French parliament.
	The French Defence Ministry says there are 12 French aircraft already in the region helping carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.
	Le Drian says six Mirage jets would join the force, which on Monday carried out airstrikes against targets around Kirkuk.

6 French fighter jets added to Islamic State fight

PTI Automatic

The acting director of the Secret Service is warning US lawmakers of "potentially dire consequences" from lowered morale and operational security at the agency.
	Joseph Clancy offered the sobering assessment in written testimony presented to the House Judiciary Committee ahead of a hearing today.
	Clancy was making his first appearance in Congress since his appointment last month to lead the embattled agency that protects the president and his family. The Secret Service has suffered a string of embarrassments, including a fence jumper who made it into the White House, which led to the resignation of its previous director.
	Clancy acknowledged that the agency has fallen short of its goal of perfection. He said that being in the spotlight has had detrimental effects on employee morale and operational security.

Secret Service chief:Morale suffering at US agency

The mother and sister of two jailed Egyptian pro-democracy activists have ended a 76-day hunger strike they had undertaken to press for the release of imprisoned government critics.
	Activists have used hunger strikes recently to protest the arrest of thousands of people in a sweeping government crackdown on dissent. Rights groups say dozens of prisoners are on hunger strike.
	In a statement announcing the end of their strike, Mona Seif said the experience made her "truly appreciate more the struggle of the brave detainees in our country's prisons." Seif's brother Alaa Abdel-Fattah is currently facing a retrial on charges of organizing an illegal protest, and her sister Sanaa was convicted for breaking the same law along with 22 other activists.

Prominent Egyptian activists end hunger strike

After a request from the Saudi monarch, Egypt today vowed to support a reconciliation agreement between its Gulf patrons and Qatar aimed at easing regional tensions linked to Doha's support for Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
	The tensions, which are also connected to Saudi-Qatari competition for influence among Syrian rebel groups, escalated following last year's overthrow of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's Brotherhood-backed government.
	Qatar gave billions of dollars in aid to Morsi's government before it was overthrown by the military amid massive protests against his yearlong rule.
	Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have since stepped in with billions of dollars in aid for the military-backed government.
	The UAE and Saudi Arabia perceive the Brotherhood as a threat because of its political activism. Both countries, as well as Egypt's new leadership, have branded it a "terrorist group."
	Details of the Gulf agreement, which also involved Kuwait, the United 

Egypt backs Gulf unity agreement with Qatar

Volkswagen is recalling 442,000 Jettas and Beetles to fix a problem that can cause rear suspension failure if the cars aren't fixed properly after a crash.
	The recall covers 2011 through 2013 Jettas and 2012 through 2013 Beetles.
	VW says in documents posted by US safety regulators today that if rear trailing arms are damaged in a crash and not repaired correctly, they can fracture suddenly. That can cause loss of control and possibly a crash. Trailing arms connect the axle to the frame.
	The company says there have been no crashes or injuries in the US, but there were reports of fractured trailing arms mainly in Asian countries.
	Dealers will inspect trailing arms for damage and install sheet metal to help prevent a loss of vehicle control.
	The sheet metal will be installed at no cost to customers, but customers will have to pay for repairs if their suspension was damaged, VW said.
	Parts currently aren't available, but VW will notify customers to take their cars to dealers for a ..

VW recalls 442,000 cars to fix suspension problem

Two bodies authorities believe to belong Miss Honduras 2014 and her sister have been found buried near the spa where they disappeared six days ago, the Honduras National Police director said today.
	Authorities are awaiting confirmation from forensic officials that the bodies are Maria Jose Alvarado, 19, and her sister, Sofia, 23, said Gen Ramon Sabiillon. Plutarco Ruiz, boyfriend of Sofia, and an accomplice, Aris Maldonado, have been arrested, Sabillon said.
	Both women were shot to death.
	The sisters were last seen Thursday in a spa in Santa Barbara, about 400 kilometers west of Tegucigalpa, where they had gone to celebrate Ruiz's birthday.
	Alvarado, 19, was crowned Miss Honduras in April and was expected to compete in the Miss World Pageant in London next month. She was supposed to have left for London on Sunday. Sabillon said Ruiz led authorities to the bodies.

Bodies believed of Miss Honduras, sister found

Half of all medicine available on the Afghan market has either been smuggled into the country or made under sub-standard conditions in neighbouring Pakistan, according to a report released today.
	Up to 300 companies in Pakistan produce poor quality drugs exclusively for Afghanistan because their products do not meet Pakistani government standards, said the report by the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, a joint body set up by the Afghan government and international community.
	Since there is no Afghan government regulation of pharmaceuticals, the medicine can be sold freely in Afghanistan, it said.
	"The market for imported pharmaceuticals here is between USD 700 million and 800 million, and more than half of it is illicitly imported drugs," said Eva Joly, the head of the committee. Joly called on the Afghan government to begin regulating the pharmaceutical market.
	This flood of poor quality drugs causes wider health problems for the Afghan ...

Report: Sub-standard medicine floods Afghan market

A man who killed a suburban Kansas City gas station attendant in front of the worker's young stepdaughter in 1994 was put to death early today, the ninth execution in the US state of Missouri this year.
	Leon Taylor, 56, was pronounced dead at 12:22 am at the state prison in Bonne Terre, minutes after receiving a lethal injection. With Taylor's death, 2014 ties 1999 for having the most executions in a year in Missouri.
	Taylor shot worker Robert Newton to death in front of Newton's 8-year-old stepdaughter during a gas station robbery in Independence, Missouri. Taylor tried to kill the girl, too, but the gun jammed.
	Taylor's fate was sealed yesterday when Gov Jay Nixon declined to grant clemency and the US Supreme Court turned down his appeal.
	Taylor, his body covered by a white sheet, could be seen in the execution chamber talking to family members through the glass in an adjacent room. Once the state started injecting 5 grams of pentobarbital, Taylor's chest heaved for several ...

Missouri executes Leon Taylor for 1994 killing

The German Cabinet today approved plans to deploy up to 850 soldiers to the NATO-organised training and advisory mission in Afghanistan that will start work in January.
	Germany has been a major troop contributor in Afghanistan's comparatively calm north over the past decade and will continue to be responsible for that region in the new mission, called Resolute Support.
	The one-year deployment approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government still requires approval by the German Parliament, where her coalition has a large majority. German military missions abroad are typically authorised on a year-by-year basis.
	Germany currently has 1,520 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the security mission that will end next month, a figure that is down from more than 5,000 at its peak.

Germany OKs 850 troops for Afghan training mission

Scoreboard on Wednesday of the third Australia-South Africa one-day international at Manuka Oval:
     Aaron Finch b de Villiers 109
     David Warner c de Villiers b Philander 53
     Shane Watson c Miller b Behardien 40
     Steve Smith not out 73
     George Bailey c du Plessis b Morkel 12
     Mitchell Marsh c de Villiers b Morkel 22
     Matthew Wade not out 8
     Extras (1lb,7w,4nb) 12
     TOTAL: (for 5 wickets) 329.
     Batting time: 212 minutes. Overs: 50.
     Fall of wickets: 1-118, 2-189, 3-242, 4-264, 5-295.
     Bowling: Morne Morkel 10-0-84-2 (5w 2nb), Vernon Philander 10-0-70-1 (1w 2nb), Dale Steyn 10-0-53-0 (1w), Farhaan Behardien 8-0-39-1, Imran Tahir 6-0-40-0, A.B. De Villiers 6-0-42-1.
     Hashim Amla b Hazlewood 102
     Quinton de Kock c Marsh b Hazlewood 47
     Faf du Plessis c Warner b Marsh 17
     Rilee Rossouw c Wade b Starc 2
     A. B. De Villiers lbw Richardson 52
     Farhaan Behardien c Finch b Hazlewood 12
     David Miller lbw Starc 3
     Vernon .

Australia-South Africa scoreboard

The Senate has blocked a bill to end bulk collection of Americans' phone records by the National Security Agency, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's primary proposal to rein in domestic surveillance.
	The 58-42 vote yesterday was two short of the 60 needed to proceed with debate under Senate procedural rules. Voting was largely along party lines, with most Democrats supporting the bill and most Republicans voting against it. The Republican-controlled House had previously passed its own NSA bill.
	The legislation would have ended the NSA's collection of domestic calling records, instead requiring the agency to obtain a court order each time it wanted to analyze the records in terrorism cases, and query records held by the telephone companies. In many cases the companies store the records for 18 months.
	The revelation that the spying agency had been collecting and storing domestic phone records since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was among the most ...

Senate blocks NSA phone records measure

A member of the 165-member medical team Cuba sent to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with the disease, according to state media.
	Felix Baez Sarria is being treated by British doctors in Africa but he will be transferred to a special unit in Geneva at the recommendation of the World Health Organisation, Cuban state media said, citing the island's Ministry of Public Health.
	Cuba won global praise for sending at least 256 medical workers to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to help treat Ebola patients. State officials have emphasised the medics' high state of readiness for the mission, saying the doctors, nurses and support staff received weeks of instruction in protective measures and equipment.
	Once in Africa, the Cubans got two to three weeks of additional training before heading into the field. They were to be quarantined in Africa for weeks at the end of their six-month mission before returning to Cuba.
	State media said that Baez, an internal medicine specialist, .

Cuba says doctor catches Ebola in Sierra Leone

Peru has sent 1,000 police into its southeastern jungles to dismantle illegal gold-mining camps, just weeks before the country hosts global climate talks.
	Even before the officers began blasting away at miners' makeshift shelters, the Amazon rain forest nearby looked like a war-scape, pocked with craters and littered with the trunks of amputated trees.
	Peru's anti-illegal mining czar, retired army Gen. Augusto Soto, marched the men six miles (11 kilometers) to the wasteland known as La Pampa, where 50,000 hectares of rainforest have been obliterated in the past six years.
	They destroyed motors and dynamited a dozen motorcycles as they tore down dwellings that included at least one mud-flanked bordello. The miners had removed and hidden some machinery.
	Peru first criminalised unlicensed gold mining in 2012 but only began enforcing the law vigorously this year with serious manpower and explosives. The operations have displaced thousands of the estimated 40,000 people who authorities 

Peru attacks illegal mining ahead of climate talks

Breaking from the tradition of awarding the Olympics only to a single host city, the IOC is opening the door to possible wider bids, including bids from an entire country, joint bids from more than one city and even the possibility of events held in more than one country.
     The possibility of new types of bids was among the 40 recommendations released yesterday as part of International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach's reform agenda, his drive to make the bidding process and the games themselves more attractive and less costly.
     "We want to create more diversity in the candidatures," Bach told a small group of reporters at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. "There is no one-size-fits-all solution."
     Under the proposals, the IOC would allow "the organisation of entire sports and disciplines outside the host city or, in exceptional cases, outside the host country notably for reasons of geography and sustainability."
     That would be a first for the Summer Games. The ...

IOC opens door to joint bids and new sports events

The latest twist in FIFA's World Cup bid corruption case has landed on the desk of Switzerland's attorney general.
     FIFA filed a "criminal complaint" against unnamed individuals, calling on Swiss federal prosecutors to investigate money transfers connected to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests that were won by Russia and Qatar.
     The unexpected move comes five days after FIFA had welcomed a "degree of closure" on the case.
     "In particular there seem to be grounds for suspicion that, in isolated cases, international transfers of assets with connections to Switzerland took place, which merit examination by the criminal prosecution authorities," FIFA said in a statement.
     The significance of the dramatic-sounding request by FIFA President Sepp Blatter for a criminal investigation was far from clear. But FIFA said Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber will get all 430 confidential pages of American prosecutor Michael Garcia's report.
     "The (office) will ...

FIFA files criminal complaint over World Cup bids

The 44-year-old son of soccer legend Pele was arrested in Brazil after losing an appeal in a money laundering case involving a drug gang.
	Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, known as Edinho, had been convicted earlier this year and sentenced to 33 years in prison for laundering money for the gang. The former goalkeeper had been allowed to remain free during the process, but a local judge yesterday said his appeal was rejected.
	Edinho can appeal again to a higher court, but judge Suzana Pereira said in her ruling that this time he must remain in jail.
	Edinho's lawyers told Brazilian media that they were surprised with the ruling and will request Edinho's immediate release.
	Pele's press office said the former player will not immediately comment on his son's arrest. The 74-year-old Pele, a World Cup champion with Brazil in 1958, '62 and '70, successfully underwent surgery to remove kidney stones last week. He was discharged from hospital on Saturday.
	Edinho was taken into custody during a ..

Pele's son arrested in money laundering case

A Greek former finance and defense minister has been convicted of failing to declare USD 1.5 million that his wife had placed in a Swizz bank account.
	An Athens court yesterday sentenced Yannos Papantoniou and his wife Stavroula Kourakou to four years each in prison and ordered them to pay fines of 10,000 euros respectively. The prison sentence will be suspended pending the couple's appeal.
	The court said Papantoniou, a Socialist, should have listed the sum in his 2010 annual wealth declaration.
	The 65-year-old served as minister of finance and national economy between 1996 and 2001, and held the defense portfolio from 2001-2004.
	He has said the money had already been declared under other bank accounts, before they were moved to the Swiss account.

Greek ex minister convicted over Swiss account

Alice Lee, the sister of the famous "To Kill a Mockingbird" author and an influential Alabama lawyer and church leader in her own right, died yesterday at age 103.
	Lee helped guard the privacy of her famous younger sister Nelle Harper Lee, who in 1961 won the Pulitzer Prize for her only published novel. Requests to interview Harper Lee often landed on the desk of Alice Lee, and the answer was always a firm, but polite, "No."
	Alice Lee practised law until a few years ago, following the footsteps of her father - the model for small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, the driving character in "Mockingbird."
	For a time, Lee was Alabama's oldest practicing lawyer.
	Johnson Funeral Home in Monroeville, the sisters' longtime south Alabama home, posted an online notice saying Lee died yesterday.
	Retired United Methodist minister Thomas Lane Butts of Monroeville said she had been in declining health for a few weeks, and "her heart wore out."
	Butts said her death means all three of Harper Lee's ...

Alice Lee, sister of 'Mockingbird' author, dies

Oscar Pistorius' lawyers have filed court papers asking a judge to reject prosecutors' attempts to take the athlete's case to South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal.
	Pistorius' lawyers say that Judge Thokozile Masipa should not grant prosecutors permission to challenge her decision to acquit Pistorius of murder for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through a toilet cubicle door.
	Masipa instead found the double-amputee Olympic athlete guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced him to five years in prison.
	Prosecutors want to appeal that verdict, saying Masipa made an error in her interpretation of the law. They said they also want to appeal the sentence, calling it "shockingly light."
	Pistorius, who turns 28 this weekend, could be released from jail to go under house arrest after 10 months in prison. He is currently serving his sentence at a prison in the South African capital, Pretoria.
	If on the appeal Pistorius is convicted of murder, he would face a minimum of ..

Pistorius lawyers ask judge to reject state appeal

A top health official says a seventh doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola.
	Dr Moses Kargbo, who had been a retired medical officer in the Ministry of Health, died today at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center east of the capital, Freetown, where he had been receiving treatment.
	He had been volunteering to help fight the spread of the virus at a government hospital in the central Tonkolili district.
	Kargbo's death was confirmed by Dr Amara Jambai of the Health Ministry.
	It comes a day after that of Dr Martin Salia, a surgeon who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and was transported to a Nebraska hospital over the weekend for aggressive treatment.
	Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

7th doctor dies of Ebola in Sierra Leone

Facebook is launching a new free mobile app for its popular Groups feature that let users create and interact with communities on the site, whether they're based on hobbies, geography or culture.
	Facebook Inc has been working to expand its presence on people's mobile devices by creating and buying apps such as Messenger, Paper, Instagram and WhatsApp.
	The apps Facebook created from scratch through its Creative Labs have faced varying levels of success.
	Paper, a mobile news reader, hasn't really caught on.
	Slingshot was launched as a rival to the ephemeral messaging service Snapchat but it hasn't been much of one. Facebook declined to provide user figures for Creative Labs apps today.
	Messenger, which is not from the company's Creative Labs division, has fared much better, though it helped that Facebook essentially forced users to download it after it removed the messaging functionality from its main app.
	Unlike with Messenger, though, the company says it won't require people to .

AP

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