Police in southern Mexico shot and wounded a German university student in a reported case of mistaken identity, prosecutors said today.
	His school, the Monterrey Institute of Technology, said in a Twitter post that he was in stable condition and expected to recover, though it did not release his name.
	The man was in a van with other students two Germans, two French and six Mexicans traveling back from Acapulco and passing through the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo just after a confrontation between police and kidnappers that killed one officer.
	Police tried to stop the van, believing it was suspicious. Police said they opened fire when they heard something that sounded like shot or detonation, said Victor Leon Maldonado of the Guerrero state prosecutor's office.
	The students kept driving, fearing that armed men might be trying to kidnap them, state prosecutor Inaky Blanco said.
	The German student was shot in the buttocks. Maldonado told reporters in a press conference ...

Mexican police shoot, wound German student

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A British court today dropped murder charges against a woman who killed her three severely disabled children after accepting manslaughter pleas.
	Tania Clarence admitted killing 4-year-old Olivia, and 3-year-old twins Ben and Max, but pleaded diminished responsibility.
	Clarence allegedly smothered them at the family's London home in April, before attempting suicide.
	Her husband Gary was in the couple's native South Africa at the time.
	The children all had type 2 spinal muscular atrophy, a condition which affects muscle strength.
	Defence lawyer Jim Sturman said that for Clarence, "caring for three children with this condition was exhausting, distressing, debilitating and turned out to be overwhelming." Prosecutor Zoe Johnson told a hearing at London's Central Criminal Court that Clarence "killed her three children because she wanted to end their suffering."
	Johnson said prosecutors accepted Clarence was depressed, which amounted to an "abnormality of mind."
	Clarence is due to be .

Mom in UK admits manslaughter of disabled children

The Palestinian Prime Minister on Monday urged international donor nations to honor their pledges to send billions of dollars to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after a devastating 50-day war against Israel, warning that similar promises in the past have come up empty.
	The call from Rami Hamdallah came during a meeting with visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is in the region to shore up international efforts to rebuild Gaza.
	In 50 days of fighting, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians, according to the United Nations.
	An additional 11,000 people were wounded and some 100,000 people were left homeless. Seventy-two people on the Israeli side were killed, including 66 soldiers.
	Israel has accused Hamas of using Gaza civilians as human shields and claims the number of militants killed was much higher than the UN figures.
	At a news conference with Ban in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the UN of being complicit in rocket 

Palestinian PM urges donors to keep Gaza pledges

French economist Jean Tirole today won the Nobel prize for economics for research on market power and regulation that has helped policy-makers understand how to deal with industries dominated by a few dominant companies.
	Calling Tirole "one of the most influential economists of our time," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said he's made contributions in a range of research areas. But it highlighted his role in clarifying "how to understand and regulate industries with a few powerful firms."
	Tirole, 61, works at the Toulouse School of Economics in France and has a Ph.D. From Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
	Left unregulated, industries that are dominated by a few single firms can produce undesirable results, such as unnecessarily high prices or unproductive companies blocking new competitive firms from entering the market.
	From the mid-1980s, Tirole "breathed new life into research on such market failures," the academy said, adding his work has strong bearing on how ...

Frenchman Tirole wins Nobel economics prize

Germany's Foreign Ministry says three German photojournalists detained in southeastern Turkey have been released.
	Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer confirmed Twitter messages from the photographers themselves today that they had been released in the town of Diyarbakir.
	Bjoern Kietzmann, Chris Grodotzki and Ruben Neugebauer were detained Saturday while covering Kurdish protests against the Islamic State group.
	According to German media reports Turkish police accused them of espionage.
	Schaefer said the foreign ministry was "aware of the significance of these allegations" and working to ensure that the journalists could continue their work.

3 German photojournalists released in Turkey

A suicide bomber from the Islamic State extremist group detonated his explosives-laden vehicle in Kobani today, as fierce fighting with Kurdish militiamen resumed in the northern Syrian town near the Turkish border.
	The sound of explosions and occasional gunfire could be heard across the border from Kobani a day after Kurdish fighters managed to slow the advance of the jihadist group.
	What appeared to be a rocket-propelled grenade struck a minaret in the center of the town, emitting a cloud of white smoke.
	Activists said Islamic State militants were carrying out a three-pronged attack from the eastern side of the town and that clashes were ongoing in the southern part.
	The Syrian Kurdish enclave has been the scene of heavy fighting since late last month, with the better-armed Islamic State fighters determined to capture the border post.
	The extremist group has carved out a vast stretch of territory from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad and imposed a harsh version of ...

Fierce fighting resumes in Syrian Kurdish town

Hundreds of Afghan villagers protested today over their allegation that a NATO airstrike killed seven civilians, the first such incident to test Afghanistan's new president as foreign forces begin to withdraw from the country.
	NATO said the strike killed "eight armed enemy combatants."
	Former President Hamid Karzai repeatedly clashed with NATO forces over civilian casualties from airstrikes, straining relations as public anger against the coalition grew. There was no immediate response from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.
	The protesters brought seven corpses to the governor's office in eastern Paktia province, claiming they were civilians killed yesterday during a NATO airstrike in a mountainous area on the outskirts of the city of Gardez. The villagers said the strike targeted eight people collecting firewood and left one man wounded.
	"From the evidence it seems that all seven who have been killed in the airstrike of the coalition forces are civilians, but this needs to ..

Afghans allege NATO airstrike kills 7 civilians

Oscar Pistorius is a "broken man" after killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp because he lost the woman he said he loved as well as his reputation, friends, income and sense of self-worth, a psychologist called by his lawyers testified today.
	Dr Lore Hartzenberg gave the testimony ahead of the runner's sentencing for culpable homicide, and it was almost immediately characterized by the chief prosecutor as unbalanced.
	Hartzenberg said the double-amputee runner had sometimes cried, retched, perspired and paced up and down during meetings in which she tried to assist him.
	The testimony was part of an effort by the runner's legal team to persuade Judge Thokozile Masipa that Pistorius has suffered emotionally and materially for what he said was an accident and that he is remorseful.
	The team hopes the judge will be lenient when she sentences Pistorius after what is expected to be about a week of legal argument and testimony.
	Pistorius, once a celebrated athlete who ran in the 2012 ...

Psychologist says Pistorius is 'broken man'

Hurricane Fay toppled utility poles and knocked out power to thousands of people in Bermuda before moving out over open ocean, just as a new storm raced toward the eastern rim of the Caribbean threatening to become a hurricane.
	Fay strengthened into a hurricane yesterday afternoon but was expected to return shortly to tropical storm strength, according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.
	Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Gonzalo was centered roughly 125 miles (205 kilometers) east of the Guadeloupe yesterday afternoon and was expected to pick up strength as it moved toward Puerto Rico, according to the center.
	Tracking west at about 12 mph (19 kph), forecasters said accelerating Gonzalo could reach hurricane strength by the time it hit Puerto Rico's southern coastline tomorrow morning.
	After tracking across the US Caribbean territory of about 3.6 million people, forecasters expect Gonzalo to curve over the open Atlantic and stay away from the US East Coast.
	Tropical storm ...

Fay hits Bermuda, becomes hurricane in open waters

It's been more than four decades since Jimmy Carter campaigned across Georgia and asked voters to make him governor.
	His winning race set the stage for his election as president in 1976.
	Carter has just turned 90, but he was out campaigning yesterday for his grandson Jason, a Democratic state senator and lawyer from Atlanta who's challenging the Republican governor, Nathan Deal, on November 4, in a close race.
	The former president and his grandson spoke during a church service open to the public in south Georgia, a key area for Jason Carter as he looks to woo former Democrats back to a party that many left more than a decade ago. The visit to Mt Zion Baptist Church in Albany was part of a campaign push ahead of early voting, which begins today.
	Jimmy Carter spoke of the struggle for blacks to obtain the right to vote and praised his grandson for fighting against the state's voter identification law. The former president said Republicans are for limiting, not expanding, voter ...

At 90, Jimmy Carter is back campaigning in Georgia

Archaeologists digging through a vast ancient tomb in Amphipolis in northern Greece have uncovered a floor mosaic that covers the whole area of a room seen as the antechamber to the main burial ground.
	The mosaic, 3 meters  long and 4.5 meters wide, depicts a horseman with a laurel wreath driving a chariot drawn by two horses and preceded by the god Hermes. According to a Culture Ministry announcement on Sunday, Hermes is depicted here as the conductor of souls to the afterlife.
	The mosaic is made up of pebbles in many colors: white, black, gray, blue, red and yellow. A circular part, near the center of the mosaic, is missing, but authorities say enough fragments have been found to reconstruct a large part.
	The ministry says that archaeologists have dated the mosaic to the last quarter of 4th century BC (325-300 B.C.), consistent with their belief the grave contains the remains of a contemporary of Alexander the Great, the ancient Greek King of Macedonia, who conquered the Persian .

Large mosaic in ancient tomb uncovered in Greece

In what's turned out to be a largely joyless election year, one state has upheld its reputation as a rollicking and colorful battleground, even if that's not always intentional.
	Want to see a three-term senator squirt beer into a football fan's mouth as the fan does a "keg stand" a handstand on a keg of beer? Come to Louisiana.
	How about a crusty character trying to return to Congress after a decades-long absence? Actually, Louisiana has two such candidates, but only one spent eight years in prison.
	Elsewhere in the US, campaigning has been marked by torrents of negative ads, numbingly familiar attacks on President Barack Obama's health care law and millions of dispirited voters or perhaps nonvoters.
	To be sure, there is serious campaigning and high stakes in Louisiana.
	Republicans' efforts to oust Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is crucial to their goal of netting six seats to control the Senate and thwart Obama's agenda for his remaining two years in office.
	Republican Gov. ...

Louisianans having fun in joyless election year

A car bomb exploded outside a popular cafe in Somalia's capital, killing 11 people and wounding eight others, a senior police official said today.
	The blast struck the Aroma cafe in Mogadishu and the bomb was believed to have been detonated by remote control, senior police official Mohammed Hussein said. Most of those who died were sitting outside the cafe, he said.
	No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion has fallen on the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants who have vowed to avenge the death of their leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed in early September in a US airstrike. Godane has been replaced by Ahmed Omar, also known as Abu Ubeid.
	Al-Shabab has continued to carry out attacks on Somalia's capital despite being pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union forces supporting Somalia's weak UN-backed government in August 2011.
	The Somali government troops backed by AU forces are making progress in capturing the remaining al-Shabab strongholds.
	Last ..

Car bomb in Somalia's capital kills 11

Police in Washington state say an actress known for her roles in "August: Osage County," ''Frozen River" and "Django Unchained" is missing.
	The Seattle Times reports that 32-year-old Misty Upham hasn't been heard from or seen for the past week.
	Officials at the Auburn Police Department say the Native American actress was staying at a family member's apartment on the Muckleshoot reservation near Auburn. Her father filed a missing persons report on Monday.
	Cmdr. Steve Stocker says Upham is not considered endangered. He acknowledges that her family is concerned about her and so are the police, but her disappearance is not suspicious.
	In a statement to the media on Friday, Upham's father Charles wrote that she has a medical condition that has the family concerned.

Family reports actress Misty Upham missing

Turkey will let US and coalition forces use its bases, including a key installation within 100 miles of the Syrian border for operations against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, American defense officials said today.
	The Obama administration had pressed Turkey for a larger role against the extremists, and a senior US official confirmed today that Ankara had agreed to train and moderate Syrian rebels on Turkish soil.
	A Turkish government official today said that Turkey put the number at 4,000 opposition fighters and said they would be screened by Turkish intelligence.
	US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has been traveling in South America, has said the US wanted access to the Turkish air bases, including one at Incirlik in southern Turkey, from which to launch strikes against the Islamic militants.
	That base is part of the agreement, according to US defense officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private talks between ...

US says Turkey OKs use of bases against militants

A triple suicide bombing today killed at least 58 people in Iraq as a roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province, authorities said, attacks that dealt major blows to Iraqi security forces struggling to combat the Islamic State extremist group.
	The triple attack took place in Qara Tappah in ethnically mixed Diyala province, an official from the Kurdish Asayish security forces said.
	He said the first bomber detonated an explosives vest at the gateway to a security compound that also houses the office of a main Kurdish political party. Minutes later, two suicide bombers plowed cars filled with explosives into the compound, causing heavy damage, he said.
	The Islamic State extremist group claimed the attack, saying it was carried out by three foreign jihadists.
	The authenticity of the online statement could not be independently verified, but it was posted on a Twitter account frequently used by the militant group.
	The group has seized towns in volatile Diyala .

Triple suicide bombing in Iraq kills 58 people

A donor conference in Cairo to raise money to rebuild the Gaza Strip after this year's war between Hamas and Israel ended with pledges of USD 5.4 billion for reconstruction there, Norway's foreign minister said today.
	Egyptian state television quoted Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende as offering the figure at the end of Sunday's one-day conference.
	That's far beyond the USD 4 billion initially sought by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
	Qatar pledged USD 1 billion toward the reconstruction, once again using its vast wealth to reinforce its role as a regional player as Gulf Arab rival the United Arab Emirates promised USD 200 million.
	The pledges followed US Secretary of State John Kerry earlier announcing immediate American assistance of USD 212 million.
	The European Union pledged USD 568 million, while Turkey, which has been playing a growing role in the Middle East in recent years, said it was donating USD 200 million.
	Delegates representing some 50 nations and 20 ...

Norway foreign minister: USD 5.4B pledged for Gaza

A hospital official says fighting between Islamist militias and rival groups in western Libya has killed at least 23 people.
	Emad Khalifa Abdul-Salam of Gharyan hospital, south of the capital Tripoli, said an ongoing, intense battle continued today in the nearby town of Kikla.
	It also left 43 people injured including ten in critical condition, mostly from shrapnel wounds.
	The fighting over Kikla is part of a power struggle between an Islamist militia that seized control of the Tripoli airport from anti-Islamist groups, finally driving them out of the capital.
	Libya descended into chaos following the 2011 NATO-backed toppling of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Violence and rivalry between political groups deeply split the country which currently has two rival governments and parliaments.

Militia fighting in Libya's west kills 23

Oscar Pistorius faces sentencing this week in a South African court after being convicted of culpable homicide for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
	The sentencing of the double-amputee athlete is expected to involve several days of legal argument and testimony during which Judge Thokozile Masipa will assess what kind of penalty Pistorius deserves for shooting Steenkamp through a closed toilet door in his home.
	The sentence for a conviction for culpable homicide, or negligent killing, is at the judge's discretion and can range from a suspended sentence and a fine to as much as 15 years in prison.
	Pistorius will return to the courtroom tomorrow for the first time since his conviction last month. He is currently free on bail.

Oscar Pistorius faces sentencing this week

Security officials say police backed by armored vehicles have stormed the campuses of at least two prominent Egyptian universities to quell anti-government protests by students.
	Today's largest rallies took place at Cairo and the Islamist al-Azhar universities. They were organized by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Student protest spokesman Youssef Salhen said protesters clashed briefly with police outside al-Azhar.
	A security official said at least six people were arrested at al-Azhar, where police fired tear gas. He spoke anonymously because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.
	Authorities have intensified security at universities nationwide to prevent the resurgence of student protests. Last year, at least 16 students were killed.
	Morsi's supporters continue to hold small, scattered protests despite a crackdown after he was ousted in July 2013.

Egypt police in 2 universities to quell protests

Suspected Taliban militants led a string of attacks on police and civilians across northern and eastern Afghanistan today, killing at least 14 people, security officials said.
	The violence reflects the militants' persistent campaign against Afghanistan's Western-backed government, which last month signed separate security agreements with the United States and NATO allowing over 10,000 foreign troops to train and advise Afghan forces after the international combat mission ends at the end of the year.
	In Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of the northern Balkh province, two gunmen dressed in police uniforms stormed into the province's police headquarters and opened fire, killing two officers, said Sher Jan Durani, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.
	Police intercepted the attackers at a second security gate inside the compound, and shot them dead, he said. Nine other policemen were wounded during the gun battle.
	Separately, Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in Monogai district of ..

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