Afghanistan's new president invited the Taliban to join in a peace process backed by the international community today, in an unusual direct reference to the insurgents who have stepped up attacks aimed at bringing down his month-old government.
	Speaking at a conference on Afghan peace and reconstruction in Beijing, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai made no specific proposals and indicated government forces wouldn't back away from the fight. However, his mention of the Taliban by name marked a departure from his usual public references to them as "political opponents."
	"Peace is our highest priority. We invite the political opposition, particularly the Taliban, to join and enter Afghan dialogue, and ask all of our international partners to support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process," Ghani Ahmadzai said.
	"We must not and will not permit groups pursuing grand illusions to use our country as the battleground or launching-pad against the international system," he added.
	It wasn't ...

Afghan leader makes rare reference to Taliban

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A series of bomb attacks struck marketplaces near Baghdad today, killing at least 15 people, Iraqi officials said as security forces recaptured parts of a strategic Sunni oil town north of the capital from Islamic State militants.
	Iraq is embroiled in its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops in the wake of a blitz this year by the Sunni militant Islamic State group, which has seized a third of the country's territory.
	After heavy fighting overnight, Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite volunteers managed to push into the strategic oil town of Beiji today, taking control of some of the town's southern districts, according to officials.
	The town had fallen into the hands of the Islamic State group in early June but Iraqi forces managed to keep the IS group from taking over the Beiji refinery, Iraq's largest.
	A media official in the Salahuddin provincial government said Iraqi troops seized the mayor's office and the police station in Beiji and that clashes were ...

Bombs at marketplaces near Baghdad kill 15 people

Just in time for Halloween, JK Rowling has given fans a glimpse of what makes a wicked witch tick.
	The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter published a 1,700-word essay today revealing the real-life inspiration behind one of her most memorable villains, the supernatural bureaucrat and Hogwarts teacher Dolores Umbridge.
	An ice-cold inquisitor dressed in pastel pink, Umbridge first appeared in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth of seven books in Rowling's multimillion-selling series. She was played by Imelda Staunton in the film adaptations.
	In the essay, published on the Pottermore website, Rowling calls Umbridge "one of the characters for whom I feel purest dislike," and says she is as reprehensible as the saga's arch-villain, Lord Voldemort.
	Rowling said Umbridge was inspired by a real person, "whom I disliked intensely on sight," who had a "pronounced taste for twee accessories" including frills, bows and undersized handbags.
	Rowling did not disclose the ...

Rowling reveals new tidbits on Pottermore site

The UN health agency is updating its guidelines for health workers dealing with the deadly Ebola virus, recommending tougher measures such as doubling up on gloves and making sure the mouth, nose and eyes are better protected from contaminated droplets and fluids.
	But the World Health Agency says the choice of equipment is much less important than the way it's used.
	Dr Edward Kelley, director of service delivery and safety for WHO, told reporters today the updated guidelines call for wearing one of two materials for gowns or coveralls and "an absolute recommendation for double-gloving that didn't exist before."
	Doctors Without Borders already recommends some of its staff in high-risk jobs, like cleaning Ebola treatment centres or handling bodies of Ebola victims, wear two or three pairs of gloves.

WHO issues new guidance on Ebola protective gear

Iraqi officials say bombs have struck marketplaces near Baghdad, killing at least nine people.
	One bomb went off at a sheep market in the Iraqi capital's western suburb of Suweib, killing five people and wounding 13.
	Police officials say the explosion happened around noon.
	Earlier today, a bomb blast near an outdoor market in the town of Madain, just south of Baghdad, killed four people and wounded 11.
	Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
	Iraq is embroiled in its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops in the wake of a blitz this year by the Sunni militant Islamic State group, which has seized a third of the country's territory.

Bombs at marketplaces near Baghdad kill 9 people

Royal Bank of Scotland, which is majority-owned by the UK government, has set aside 400 million pounds (USD 639 million) to cover potential fines arising from international investigations into alleged manipulation of foreign currency trading.
	The total represents over half the 780 million pounds the bank earmarked for "conduct and litigation costs" in third-quarter earnings released today.
	The results show the bank, which was bailed out by the government during the 2008 financial crisis, swung back to profit during the July-September period. Its net income of 896 million pounds follows an 828 million-pound loss last year.
	CEO Ross McEwan says the bank knows it has "a long list of conduct and litigation issues to deal with and much, much more to do to restore our customers' trust in us.

RBS sets aside USD 639 million for currency probe

Chinese authorities say a first-grader in the southeastern province of Jiangxi was slashed to death and two others severely injured in the latest violent attack on children in the country.
	Han Li, a propaganda official for Yiyang county, said today that a villager armed with a knife slashed the three children in Luojia village while they were returning home from school for the noon break.
	Han says police are searching for the man and the motive for the attack is unclear.
	China has seen a string of attacks on children in recent years by culprits often identified as being mentally ill or angry at society. In September, a man fatally stabbed four students as they were walking to their elementary school in the southern province of Guangxi.

Official: Man slashes 3 schoolchildren in China

Prosecutors say three people suspected of supporting the Islamic State group and thought to have been planning an attack in Europe were arrested in Switzerland earlier this year.
	Swiss federal prosecutors said in a statement today that the Iraqi citizens, whom they didn't identify, were arrested in late March and have been held in pre-trial detention since.
	They said the arrests weren't previously confirmed "so as not to jeopardise the outcome of enquiries still ongoing in Switzerland and abroad" to identify possible accomplices and support networks.
	Prosecutors say suspected offenses by the three include misuse of explosives and toxic gases with criminal intent and encouraging illegal entry to, exit from and residence in Switzerland. They say they've been working closely with US authorities and requested assistance from various European countries.

Switzerland: IS suspects arrested over attack plan

President Barack Obama has sought to mobilize Democratic voters in the race for governor in Maine while keeping his distance from the state's bubbling controversy over its Ebola quarantine policies and the nurse who has defied them.
	Ebola has emerged as a hot-button issue in the November 4 midterm elections, with Republicans criticizing the Obama administration for what they characterize as a disorganized response to the appearance of the virus in the US Four people have been diagnosed with Ebola in the country, and one has died.
	The elections feature races for governor in 36 states, although those contests have been overshadowed by competitive congressional races.
	The fight for control of the Senate is the biggest prize in the midterm elections, with Democrats struggling to fend off a Republican takeover.
	The Republicans need to pick up the six seats to take control of the Senate and they are widely expected to expand their majority in the House of Representatives. That would ...

Obama campaigns in Maine, avoids spat over Ebola

Norway's Prime Minister says her country will send 120 soldiers this year to join the international campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and help train local troops there. Another 75 Norwegian soldiers will go to Afghanistan next year.
	Describing the Islamic extremists' attacks against civilians and children as "shocking," Prime Minister Erna Solberg says the Scandinavian nation cannot ignore Iraq's plea for international help. She said yesterday that Norwegian soldiers would not take part in any fighting but would train and assist local security forces.
	The troops are expected in Iraq later this year to join a training center in the Kurdish regional capital of Erbil and one in Baghdad.
	Norwegian soldiers will be deployed in Afghanistan early next year in and around the capital, Kabul.

Norway to send training troops to Iraq

The European Union today carried out its biggest exercise to prevent cyber-attacks on Europe's public utilities and communications networks.
	The director of the European Network and Information Security Agency, Udo Helmbrecht, told The Associated Press that Thursday's one-day exercise involving 29 countries and 200 agencies dealt with attack scenarios against "critical infrastructure."
	Helmbrecht said European countries were working to improve their coordination between national security agencies and to further standardize protective software and methods.
	Examples of serious past incidents, he said, include a wave of cyber-attacks against Estonia in 2007 that severely affected the country's banks and government agencies, and the Stuxnet computer virus that was used to target energy and industrial sites in Iran.
	"Now this malware is out in the world, so if you are a criminal you can re-engineer it and use it to attack a water supply, or a car manufacturing plant, or a government," .

EU holds largest-ever cyber-security exercise

A senior Navy intelligence official and a California race-car mechanic were convicted in federal court for their roles in pushing through a secret Navy contract to build hundreds of untraceable rifle silencers for an unspecified, classified program.
	Navy civilian Lee Hall of Sterling was convicted yesterday of conspiracy and theft of government money for steering the nearly USD 2 million no-bid contract to his boss' brother, Mark Landersman, who was convicted of a single conspiracy count.
	Prosecutors presented evidence that Landersman received information off the Internet from his brother on how to make silencers and had costs of only USD 10,000, though defense lawyers presented testimony that Landersman spent thousands of hours in prior years working on prototypes for a more durable silencer.
	Prosecutors say the silencers didn't work and in some cases amplified sound, and in closing arguments described them as worthless "scrap metal."
	Defense lawyers said the silencers flunked ...

Pair convicted in secret USD 1.6 M Navy silencer deal

Israeli authorities say they have decided to reopen a key Jerusalem holy site for Muslim worshippers tomorrow.
	Israel blocked access to the Al Aqsa Mosque compound today, after clashes erupted in the city following the killing of a Palestinian suspect wanted in the shooting of a hard-line Jewish activist. It was the first time Israel has closed the site since 2000.
	In a statement, police said that Muslim men over the age of 50 and women of all ages could attend Friday's weekly prayers.
	Palestinians had condemned the closure as a "declaration of war.

Israel to reopen Jerusalem holy site

Authorities say at least four people are dead after a small plane lost power and crashed into a building at a Kansas airport.
	The twin-engine Beechcraft airplane lost power shortly after takeoff from Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport today.
	Wichita Fire Marshal Brad Crisp says at least four people inside the building were killed and five others injured.
	Four people remained missing early this afternoon, but a search was halted at midday after a portion of the building collapsed and was too dangerous for crews.

Officials: Kansas airport crash death toll at 4

Microsoft is looking to challenge Apple and Google with its own system for consolidating health and fitness data from various fitness gadgets and mobile apps.
	Microsoft is also releasing a USD 199 fitness band to work with this system.
	As more athletes and recreationalists track their fitness, a chief frustration has been the inability to bring data from one gadget into an app made by a rival.
	As a result, nutrition information might reside in one place, while data on calories burned might be in another. Consolidating data gives users and health professionals a bigger picture on health.
	Microsoft Health follows the launch of Apple's HealthKit in September and Google Fit earlier this week.
	Unlike rival systems, Microsoft Health will work with competing phones, not just those running Windows.

Microsoft too offering big-picture health service

Twenty-one rarely seen letters by Thomas Jefferson have gone on display at the Museum of the City of New York.
	The correspondence with Robert Livingston was written from 1800 to 1803.
	Livingston was chancellor of New York state. He administered President George Washington's oath of office 12 years before Jefferson himself became president.
	Jefferson's handwritten letters touch on important issues of the day including the Louisiana Purchase, the first steam engine and the Napoleonic Wars.
	Jefferson also inquires about the unearthing of a mammoth skeleton in upstate New York.
	Museum Director Susan Henshaw says the letters reveal Jefferson's wider legacy as an "all-around collector of knowledge."
	They were donated to the museum in 1947 by Livingston's descendant Goodhue Livingston.
	They'll be displayed through December 5.

Rare Jefferson letters go on display at NYC museum

Iraqi authorities today found the bodies of 48 Sunni tribesmen killed by the Islamic State group in the restive western province of Anbar, an official said.
	Faleh al-Issawi, a councilman in the Anbar provincial government, said the bodies were found in a mass grave outside the town of Hit.
	Those killed were tribal fighters allied with the government and members of the security forces who were rounded up from villages around Hit after IS militants seized the area in early October, he said.
	It was the second such mass grave uncovered in as many days.
	A grave found yesterday contained bodies of 30 Sunni fighters killed hours earlier. They too had been captured during the fall of Hit, a town located about 140 kilometers west of Baghdad.
	Most of the tribal fighters came from the Al Bu Nimr tribe, he said.
	"The government should help Al Bu Nimr to fight back. The situation is tragic and civilians are leaving their houses fearing more reprisals from the IS group," al-Issawi said.
	The .

Bodies of 48 Sunni tribal fighters found in Iraq

An international rights group says Islamic State militants carried out a mass killing of hundreds of Iraqi prison inmates when they seized the country's second-largest city of Mosul in June.
	Human Rights Watch said today that some 600 male Shiite inmates from Badoosh prison outside Mosul were forced to kneel along the edge of a nearby ravine and shot with automatic weapons.
	The New York-based watchdog said in a statement that the Shiite prisoners were separated from several hundred Sunnis a small number of Christians who were later set free. The statement was based on interviews with survivors.
	Also in June, the Islamic State group claimed it had "executed" about 1,700 soldiers and military personnel captured from Camp Speicher outside Tikrit city.

Group says militants killed 600 Iraqi prisoners

Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group has completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google Inc. In a move aimed at becoming a global smartphone brand.
	Lenovo said it completed the USD 2.9 billion purchase on today, adding to a flurry of acquisitions and initiatives aimed at transforming the world's biggest maker of personal computers into a major player in wireless computing.
	Google bought Motorola Mobility in 2012 for USD 12.4 billion but appeared to decide quickly the purchase was a mistake. It sold its set-top operations to Arris Group Inc. for USD 2.35 billion and its smartphone assets, along with some 2,000 patents, to Lenovo.
	Lenovo chairman Yang Yuanqing said when the purchase was announced in January that it would help transform Lenovo into a global competitor in smartphones.

Lenovo wraps up purchase of Motorola phone unit

Iranian authorities have foiled a sabotage attempt involving tanks used for the transportation of heavy water, a key component in nuclear reactors, an Iranian newspaper reported today.
	The independent Arman daily quoted Asghar Zarean, deputy head of Iran's nuclear department, as saying that Iranian nuclear experts thwarted the sabotage attempt "in recent weeks" but did not provide a more specific timing.
	"Thanks to the full alertness of our colleagues, we were able to detect and defuse the sabotage attempt," said Zarean, who is also in charge of security at Iran's nuclear agency.
	An unidentified foreign country was behind the attempt, Zarean added without elaborating. He did not indicate what kind of result the sabotage meant to achieve.
	Heavy water is not radioactive but it is essential in both reactors that generate power and in those used in manufacturing nuclear weapons. Iran has only one known heavy water reactor, in the central city of Arak, which is still under ...

Iran foils sabotage attempt on heavy water tanks

Emerging Asian nations are finding out what developed ones did years ago: money and the stuff it buys brings happiness.
	Levels of self-reported well-being in fast-growing nations like Indonesia, China and Malaysia now rival those in the US, Germany and the United Kingdom, rich nations that have long topped the happiness charts, according to a Pew Research Centre global survey released Friday.
	It says it shows how rises in national income are closely linked to personal satisfaction.
	The pollsters asked people in 43 countries to place themselves on a "ladder of life," with the top rung representing the best possible life and the bottom the worst. Pew carried out the same survey in 2002 and 2005 in most of those countries, enabling researchers to look at trends over time.
	But the data also suggested that there is a limit to how much happiness money can buy. For example, 56 per cent of Malaysians rated their life a "seven" or higher on the ladder, significantly more than the 36 per ...

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