A man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing a Japanese astronomer who helped develop the international ALMA observatory in Chile.
	A court in Santiago sentenced Cristopher Quijada Villalobos for the robbery and manslaughter of Koichiro Morita.
	Police say the 57-year-old died was killed by a blow to the head from Quijada, who took his wallet and cellphone during a robbery in Santiago in 2012.
	ALMA says Morita was instrumental in creating the observatory on a high plateau in Chile's Atacama desert.
	The sentence was announced yesterday.
	ALMA searches for clues about the dawn of the cosmos, from the coldest gases and dust where galaxies are formed to the energy produced by the Big Bang.
	It is jointly funded by the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan.

Chile jails man in killing of Japanese astronomer

PTI Automatic

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said today it will spin off sports car maker Ferrari into a separate company.
	The company said in a statement that spinning off Ferrari was part of a plan to raise capital to support the new merged carmakers' future growth.
	Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said in a statement that it was "proper that we pursue separate paths for FCA and Ferrari" following the completion of the merger of Chrysler and Fiat with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month.
	A Ferrari spinoff has long been speculated as a way to unlock value in Ferrari. The move comes about two months after an awkward management transition at Ferrari that saw the longtime chairman Luca di Montezemolo resign after a public spat with Marchionne.

Fiat Chrysler to spin off sports car maker Ferrari

Rescue workers have been pumping water out of a coal mine in southern Turkey all night as relatives wait anxiously nearby after surging waters trapped 18 Turkish miners deep underground.
	Turkish news agencies say Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled a national holiday reception and was to visit the town of Ermenek in Karaman province where the mine is located today.
	Turkish officials say the workers' chances of survival are slim unless they managed to reach a safety gallery but about 20 miners did escape yesterday.
	Rescue workers were using huge pipes to pump water from 350 metres (380 yards) underground.
	Turkey's emergency agency says a broken pipe in the mine caused the flooding but did not elaborate. The incident has renewed questions about Turkey's poor workplace safety.

Rescuers press to save 18 trapped Turkish miners

A small group of Syrian rebels entered the embattled border town of Kobani from Turkey today on a mission to help Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State extremists in Syria, activists and Kurdish officials said.
	The group of around 50 armed men is from the Free Syrian Army, and it's separate from Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters who were also en route to Kobani, along the Syrian-Turkish border.
	Idriss Nassan, a Kurdish official from Kobani, said the FSA group crossed to Kobani through the Mursitpinar border crossing in Turkey. Nassan, who spoke in Mursitpinar, said they travelled in cars but did not have more details.
	The FSA is an umbrella group of mainstream rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. The political leadership of the Western-backed FSA is based in Turkey, where fighters often seek respite from the fighting.
	The 150 Iraqi peshmerga troops arrived in Turkey from Iraq early today and were expected to cross into Syria later in the day. Their deployment .

Syrian rebels enter Kurdish town from Turkey

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made his second trip to Somalia's capital today, walking around the seaside airport complex in a dark business suit.
	Ban's fashion choices are not typically newsworthy but are significant in Mogadishu: On his trip in 2011, he wore a UN-branded bullet-proof vest.
	The fact that his security advisers did not insist on war-time protection on this trip at least inside the well-protected airport complex is seen as another indication of Mogadishu's improving security.
	The African Union military force, which forced the militant Islamic group al-Shabab out of Mogadishu in 2011, has been making gains in southern Somalia as well, though the rebels still control wide areas of territory and continue to carry out deadly suicide and gunfire attacks in the capital.
	It is in the south that Somali business leaders export charcoal, an issue that Ban may bring up with Somali and African Union military leaders.
	The UN Security Council last week authorized the ...

No flak jacket: UN's Ban Ki-moon lands in Somalia

Volkswagen and a Chinese partner are recalling 2,70,000 cars in China to repair a software problem that might prevent air bags from activating properly, the government said today.
	The recall by FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co applies to 265,943 Audi A4L cars made in China and 4,692 imported Audi A4 allroad cars, according to the Administration for Quality Inspection, Supervision and Quarantine.
	In a collision at some angles the front air bags might fail to open, the agency said.
	It did not identify the supplier of the air bags but gave no indication they were linked to Japan's Takata Corp.
	More than 12 million cars that use Takata air bags have been recalled because the airbags can explode, possibly injuring drivers and passengers.
	Volkswagen and FAW announced another recall two weeks ago of some 570,000 vehicles to repair a possible suspension defect.

VW recalls 270,000 cars in China to fix airbags

Al-Qaeda is using US airstrikes in Syria as a reason to extend olive branches to the renegade Islamic State group, saying the two should stop feuding and join forces to attack Western targets a reunification that intelligence analysts say would allow al-Qaeda to capitalise on the younger group's ruthless advance across the region.
	Analysts are closely watching al-Qaeda's repeated overtures, and while a full reconciliation is not expected soon if ever there is evidence the two groups have curtailed their infighting and are cooperating on the Syrian battlefield, according to activists on the ground, US officials and experts who monitor jihadi messages.
	Al-Qaeda is saying, "Let's just have a truce in Syria," said Tom Joscelyn, who tracks terror groups for the Long War Journal. "That is what's underway now. ... What we have seen is that local commanders are entering into local truces. There are definitely areas where the two groups are not fighting."
	The Islamic State group has seized .

Analysts: Al-Qaida still offers olive branch to IS

A Thai court today dismissed the first of four criminal and civil defamation cases filed against a British human rights activist by a Thai fruit processing company accused of mistreating migrant workers.
	The activist, Andy Hall, still faces charges in three other separate cases. The next trial begins tomorrow.
	Hall's legal troubles began after the activist helped author a report last year for the Finland-based watchdog Finnwatch that detailed what it said were poor labour conditions in seafood and pineapple export companies in Thailand. The report investigated a factory owned by Natural Fruit that employed hundreds of migrants from neighbouring Myanmar, and alleged the company illegally confiscated passports, paid below minimum wage and overworked staff in sweltering conditions so hot that heat strokes were common.
	Natural Fruit disputes the accusations.
	The first case related to defamation charges for an interview that Hall gave to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television on the ...

Thai court dismisses case against British activist

One of three girls who authorities say tried to join Islamic State militants in Syria was confused about what her role would be if she had actually made it there, the girl's father has said.
	The FBI says a 16-year-old Somali girl and her friends, 15- and 17-year-old sisters of Somali descent, were headed toward Turkey en route to Syria when authorities stopped them on October 20 at the Frankfurt, Germany airport. They sent them back to Denver, where FBI agents again interviewed them before releasing them to their parents without pressing charges.
	"She told me they were going to get there and somebody is going to contact them," said the father of the 16-year-old, who spoke to the press on the condition of anonymity because he is concerned for the girls' safety. "I ask her, 'Who's that person?' She actually didn't have a clear idea about what's going on. They're just like, you know, stupid little girls. They just want to do something, and they do it."
	They're safe now, but the father 

Girls accused of trying to join jihadis confused

A Hong Kong tycoon is feeling Beijing's wrath after he voiced doubts about the city's China-backed leader, who is struggling to end monthlong democracy protests.
	Delegates to China's top government advisory body are expected to vote today on kicking James Tien out after his comments on the unpopular Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying.
	Tien, who is also leader of the pro-Beijing Liberal Party, told a Hong Kong radio station last week that Leung had done a poor job of running the city and should consider resigning.
	Members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference would vote to expel him not because he criticised Leung but because he aired those sentiments in public, contradicting a resolution passed by the body in March expressing support for the city's leader, according to a Hong Kong delegate.
	"If you voice opposition, it shouldn't be made public because making it public is tantamount to not supporting" Hong Kong's leader, Chan Wing-kee, a member of the body's ...

Hong Kong tycoon feels Beijing's ire for criticism

A nurse who fueled Ebola fears by flying to Cleveland after being infected by her dying patient was released from a hospital isolation unit, where doctors defended her as a courageous front-line caregiver.
	Another nurse, held for days in a medical tent in New Jersey after volunteering in West Africa, was in an undisclosed location in Maine, objecting to quarantine rules as overly restrictive.
	While world leaders appeal for more doctors and nurses on the front lines of the Ebola epidemic, health care workers in the United States are finding themselves on the defensive.
	Lawyers now represent both Amber Vinson, who contracted the virus while caring for a Liberian visitor to Texas, and Kaci Hickox, who is challenging the mandatory quarantines some states are imposing on anyone who came into contact with Ebola victims.
	The virus is still spreading faster than the response, killing nearly half of the more than 10,000 people it has infected in West Africa.
	World Bank President Jim Yong .

Ebola nurse on defensive gets call from Obama

A former gang member was put to death for the fatal shootings of three rivals 14 years ago in San Antonio.
	Miguel Paredes, 32, was convicted yesterday evening along with two other men in the September 2000 slayings of three people with ties to the Mexican Mafia.
	The victims' bodies were rolled up in a carpet, driven about 80 kilometers southwest, dumped and set on fire. A farmer investigating a grass fire found the remains.
	Parades was pronounced dead at 6:54 pm (local time). The execution was carried out after the US Supreme Court turned down a last-day appeal from attorneys who contended Paredes was mentally impaired and his previous lawyers were deficient for not investigating his mental history.
	His execution was the 10th this year in Texas, the nation's most active death-penalty state. One other Texas inmate is set to die in December and at least nine are scheduled for execution in early 2015, including four in January.
	Paredes' attorney, David Dow, said the execution should 

Texas executes ex-gang member for deaths of 3

A UN human rights investigator has said that he was surprised and gratified that North Korean officials raised the possibility of allowing him to visit their country, but the prospect of such a trip remains deeply uncertain because of demands the North Koreans made in exchange.
	Marzuki Darusman yesterday said North Korea is insisting that a UN resolution drop a recommendation that the North be referred to the International Criminal Court over its human rights record.
	The special investigator said he conveyed this message to the European Union and Japan, which drafted the resolution, but that he would not be involved in any further discussions between the parties.
	Darusman met with four North Korean officials on Monday, the first such encounter since the office of special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea was created 10 years ago.
	He said he was surprised when the officials mentioned the possibility of a visit, which would be a breakthrough in international efforts to have 

UN investigator cautious on North Korea engagement

Thousands of cheering, flag-waving people gave a noisy send-off to a group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga troops who have left for Turkey, the first step on their way to help their Syrian brethren fight Islamic extremists in the embattled border town of Kobani.
	The unprecedented mission by the 150 fighters to help fellow Kurds in their battle with the Islamic State group came yesterday after Ankara agreed to allow the peshmerga cross into Syria via Turkey, although the Turkish prime minister reiterated that his country would not be sending any ground forces of its own to Kobani.
	A US State Department official confirmed that peshmerga fighters are on their way to Kobani but did not know when they were expected to arrive.
	The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to be identified in discussing the issue.
	Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the BBC that sending the peshmerga was "the only way to help Kobani, since other countries don't want to use ground .

Iraqi Kurds head to fight militants in Syria

Malaysia's top court today began hearing a final appeal filed by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim against a sodomy conviction widely regarded as a means to neutralize the threat he poses to the country's ruling coalition.
	Anwar was sentenced to five years in prison in March on charges of sodomizing a male aide in 2008 after the appeals court overturned an earlier acquittal.
	"I am confident of winning the case if we have judicial independence. I'm mentally prepared, but I don't have much hope," the 67-year-old said before entering the Federal Court where around 200 of his supporters had gathered.
	Critics and independent human rights activists say the case against Anwar is the latest salvo in a long-running campaign by Malaysia's coalition government to silence its most potent threat. The US government and other Western governments have expressed concerns over his treatment.
	"This trial is so unjust. We hope and pray that justice will be served, not just for Anwar but for all ...

Malaysia's Anwar makes final appeal in sodomy case

Prosecutors have charged two Thai university students with defaming the country's monarchy in a stage performance last year, moving on a complaint filed by a group of royalists, a lawyer said today.
	The students a male and a female were charged on Friday with lese majeste, which mandates a prison term of up to 15 years for anyone insulting Thailand's monarchy, said Pawinee Chumsri, a human rights lawyer who is representing the pair.
	The students were involved in a play at Bangkok's Thammasat University last October called "The Wolf Bride," which told the story of a fictional monarch. They have been in jail since their arrest in August, with their bail requests repeatedly turned down by a Bangkok court, Pawinee said.
	"We are seeking to bail them for the fifth time already. The court had said in the past that the case has a severe penalty and the alleged crime was done in front of a large number of people," Pawinee said.
	In Thailand, anyone can file a lese majeste complaint with ...

2 Thai students indicted in anti-monarchy case

Turkey's state-run television says a coal mine in southern Turkey has collapsed, trapping 23 workers inside.
	TRT television says the tragedy occurred Tuesday in the town of Ermenek, in Karaman province, and that eight other miners were quickly rescued. Private Dogan news agency said rescue teams were trying to pull out the trapped miners.
	The mine collapse was likely to raise more concerns about persistent mine safety issues in the country.
	In May, a fire inside a coal mine in Soma, western Turkey, killed 301 people. Turkey's worst mining disaster, it exposed poor safety standards and superficial government inspections in the country's mines.

23 trapped in Turkish mine collapse

Pirates in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta hijacked a police gunboat, killed three officers and kidnapped six local oil workers, the military said today.
	Joint Task force spokesman Col. Mustapha Anka said the gunboat and police were escorting a barge-load of oil for the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, which was not attacked. The attack happened on Friday on the Barbara River in southern Bayelsa state, Anka told The Associated Press.
	The day before, the Bayelsa police command reported that six Nigerians working for Agip had been kidnapped by pirates. Oil workers usually are held for ransom and released unharmed.
	Piracy in Nigeria is aimed at oil theft and kidnapping for ransom and cost the nation some $131 million in the past three years, according to the Contemporary Maritime Piracy Database.
	While piracy has gone down in the rest of world and especially in Somalia since a multinational force was deployed, it has increased in Nigeria.
	Last year, Nigerian pirates and armed robbers were .

Nigeria: Pirates hijack gunboat, kidnap workers

South Korea's spy agency says it has an explanation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's mysterious 6-week-long public absence.
	An aide for a South Korean lawmaker says the National Intelligence Agency told legislators today that a foreign doctor operated on Kim in September or October to remove a cyst from his right ankle.
	The aide to opposition lawmaker Shin Kyung-min said the spy agency disclosed the information in a closed-door briefing.
	Kim's lengthy absence from public view triggered speculation about his health. He reappeared in state media earlier this month hobbling with a cane.
	It wasn't immediately clear how the spy agency obtained the information. It has a spotty track record of analysing developments in opaque North Korea.

Seoul officials say Kim Jong Un had ankle surgery

A female boxer in South Africa has died after being in a coma for two weeks following a bout, another sports death in a country already mourning the loss of a former world-champion runner and the captain of the national football team.
     The sports ministry's announcement Tuesday that Phindile Mwelase had died Saturday in the hospital means three South African athletes died in three days.
     Former 800-meter world champion and Olympic silver medalist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was killed in a car crash on Friday. Popular national soccer team captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa was fatally shot in an apparent house robbery on Sunday, unleashing widespread dismay and anger in South Africa, which struggles with high levels of violent crime.
     Mwelase died at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in the capital, Pretoria, South Africa's sports ministry said, after she was knocked out in a bout on Oct. 10. It didn't give her age but reports said she was 31.
     The ministry said it was "a very ..

Female boxer dies following bout

An Army two-star general and 11 of  his staff are being isolated at the base in Italy upon returning from serving in West Africa to help with the Ebola fight.
	The general and his staff were met by Italian security officials wearing full hazardous materials suits when they arrived in Vicenza, Italy, over the weekend, a senior military official said Monday.
	Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, the commander who led the US response in Liberia, and the members of his headquarters staff were some of the first troops to go to Liberia and were there to provide the initial assessments of the military needs and to begin coordinating the US response. They did not have contact with Ebola patients.
	But the Army told Williams and his staff before leaving Liberia that they would be isolated near their base in Vicenza, Italy, for 21 days and they had prepared for it, said the military official, who was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly by name, so spoke on condition of anonymity.
	It's not ...

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