Hundreds of demonstrators stood within touching distance from officers in riot gear late yesterday before dissipating at the start of protests over the 2-month-old death of Michael Brown that activists say was racially motivated.
	Organisers of the four-day Ferguson October events expected 6,000 participants. The initial protest yesterday outside a St. Louis County prosecutor's office didn't draw nearly that amount.
	Later, tensions increased, with protesters outside the Ferguson Police Department chanting anti-police remarks such as, "How many kids did you kill today?"
	A wall of about 100 officers in riot gear stood near them. The St. Louis County Police Department announced that it would arrest anyone who touched an officer.
	Most of the crowd soon left, with organisers urging people to avoid arrest so that they could come back for more protests throughout the weekend.
	Protesters renewed their call for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in .

Hundreds join Missouri protest of police shootings

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An Afghan police official says a suicide bomber, dressed in a police uniform, struck inside a police headquarters in southern Helmand province, killing one officer.
	Fared Obiad, a local police spokesman, says the bombing took place today in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. He says the bomber walked into a police compound but was stopped before entering a building where a security meeting was underway.
	Obiad says he then detonated his explosives. The explosion killed one officer and wounded three others.
	No group claimed responsibility but the Taliban have stepped up their attacks on Afghan security forces as foreign combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of the year.
	A Taliban suicide car bomber targeted a former police chief in Lashkar Gah on Wednesday, killing five people.

Suicide blast kills policeman in south Afghanistan

Greece's coalition government early today won a confidence vote it called for in a bid to build support among its backbenchers and ease fears of political instability ahead of a crucial presidential vote early next year.
	All 155 lawmakers in the conservative-socialist coalition backed the motion, while 131 opposition lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament rejected it and two said they were voting neither way.
	Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras sought confirmation of his economic reform policies halfway through his four-year term amid opposition calls for snap elections, insisting that the prospect of renewed political risk could spook international markets as the bailed-out country tries to exit a punishing six-year recession.
	"Early elections would be a disaster and would cancel all the effort that's been made" to revive Greece's finances, he said during the debate. After the vote, Samaras insisted that the next parliamentary election would be held when the government's ...

Greek governing coalition wins confidence vote

Finance officials from the world's largest economies are being urged to prevent the global economy from falling into a "new mediocre" in which growth remains stuck at subpar levels for years to come, trapping millions of people on unemployment rolls.
	Finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of 20 nations, which include traditional economic powers such as the United States, Japan and Germany, and emerging economies such as Russia, China and India, were wrapping up two days of talks Friday with a joint statement of goals and a news conference expected in the early afternoon.
	The meetings were coming at a time when the news from Europe has been gloomy, raising the prospect that the 18 nations that share the euro currency could be in danger of slipping into another recession.
	Germany reported on Thursday that it had the biggest monthly plunge in exports in five years. That came after earlier news of sharp declines in industrial production, factory orders and business .

Top finance officials hope to boost growth

British prosecutors say veteran BBC radio and TV host Paul Gambaccini will not face charges after a lengthy investigation into alleged sexual offenses.
	Prosecutors said today there was insufficient evidence to bring a case against the 65-year-old Gambaccini.
	The prominent broadcaster has maintained his innocence since he was arrested last year. He has worked at BBC for more than four decades and become one of Britain's best-known music presenters.
	Gambaccini released a statement saying he would not discuss the "trauma" he had been "unjustly subjected to" following his arrest. He said he was grateful for public support he had received and indicated he would shortly return to work.
	Gambaccini was one of more than a dozen people arrested following the abuse scandal surrounding the late BBC broadcaster Jimmy Savile, who investigators say abused hundreds.

BBC host cleared of suspicion of sex offenses

The space shuttle Endeavour has been paired once again with a space lab and storage pod it used on some missions, as the countdown to its final exhibit continues at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
	A crew yesterday delicately positioned the 3,000-pound (1,360-kilogram) portable lab and pod inside the orbiter's huge cargo bay, the Los Angeles Times reported. Workers also installed a replica robotic arm, airlock and docking system.
	The installations move the Endeavour one step closer to becoming the nation's most complete iteration of a grounded shuttle on display.
	The final exhibit is still four years away from being complete. But visitors to the temporary exhibit site will get a rare, brief chance to see Endeavour with both cargo bay doors open before they are closed again for more work after Oct. 21.
	None of the other shuttles on display has equipment in the cargo bay, according to the newspaper. Endeavour will also be the only one of the three retired shuttles that .

Retired shuttle paired with space lab

Egyptian police have arrested 40 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood during protests after today's prayers in Cairo and Egypt's second city Alexandria, Egyptian security officials said.
	The officials say protesters shouted slogans against the police and armed forces and blocked traffic in scattered marches in Alexandria after today's prayers. Those arrested were in possession of "incendiary leaflets," fireworks, digital cameras and a laptop, police said. Security forces said police also found buckshot rounds and a knife on demonstrators arrested in Giza, a district of the capital. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to brief reporters.
	The Brotherhood and other Morsi supporters have continued to hold small, scattered weekly protests despite a sweeping crackdown launched after his July 2013 ouster. More than 1,000 people, mainly Morsi supporters, have been killed in street clashes since then and thousands more, ...

Police arrest 40 protesters at Islamist rallies

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said today he's confident "social stability" can be preserved in Hong Kong and stressed that Beijing won't change its "one country, two systems" approach to running the territory.
	Li met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin as protesters gathered for a pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong, a day after the semi-autonomous city's government called off talks with student leaders. Students have been protesting restrictions on the first direct election for Hong Kong's leader, promised for 2017.
	Li didn't mention the demonstrations directly. However, he said preserving Hong Kong's "long-term prosperity and stability" is not just in China's interest but in that of the former British colony's residents.
	"I am convinced that Hong Kongers, with their wisdom, are in a position and that the (Hong Kong) government has the authority to preserve the prosperity of the city and also social stability," said Li, speaking through an interpreter. He said the regional ...

Chinese premier: confident of Hong Kong stability

Nissan is recalling more than 238,000 Altima midsize cars worldwide because a secondary latch can fail and allow the hoods to fly open while the cars are in motion.
	Only Altimas from the 2013 model year are covered by the recall so far, but Nissan is investigating whether other models could be involved, according to documents posted today by US safety regulators. It appears the problem is limited to Altimas, but Nissan is checking other latches with similar designs, spokesman Steve Yaeger said.
	On the Altima, Nissan's top-selling vehicle in the US, debris and rust can combine with interference between the secondary latch lever and the hood, causing the latches to bind. That could keep them unlatched when the hood is closed. If the primary latch is inadvertently released, the hood could open while the cars are being driven.
	Nissan says dealers will modify the latch lever, as well as clean and lubricate the secondary latch joint. The latch assembly could be replaced. The company ...

Nissan recalls 2013 Altimas for hood latch problem

Protesters angered by the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by police faced off with officers in St. Louis for a second night as accusations of racial profiling prompted calls for a federal investigation ahead of a weekend of planned rallies and civil disobedience.
	State and city leaders have urged the Justice Department to investigate the death of Vonderrit D Myers Wednesday night, fearing he was targeted because he was black. Police say the white officer who killed Myers was returning fire, but Myers' parents say he was unarmed.
	Myers' death comes two months after the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a black unarmed 18-year-old, by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson. Brown's killing sparked dozens of often violent protests in the St. Louis suburb. A state grand jury is deciding whether Officer Darren Wilson will face charges in his death.
	Late last night following a quiet candlelight prayer vigil for Myers, hundreds of people joined a more rowdy gathering to ...

Angry protesters yell at riot police in US

An interior ministry official says 25 football fans in Belarus have been detained after a match where they sang chants insulting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
	Ivan Kubrakov, head of law enforcement for the Belarusian interior ministry, told The Associated Press today that 14 Ukrainians and 11 Belarusians were arrested following a match between the two countries.
	Footage of yesterday's match in the city of Borisov, some 100 kilometers east of the capital Minsk, show fans yelling a chant that includes an unprintable insult to the Russian president.
	Kubrakov did not specify whether the arrests were specifically related to those slogans, and said only that most had been detained for "minor hooliganism" and for being drunk. Putin visited Belarus on Friday for a summit with other ex-Soviet leaders.

25 detained after anti-Putin chants at match

Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai win the Nobel

The captain of a Chinese fishing vessel was killed today following a fight with South Korean coast guard officers who stopped his ship for suspected illegal fishing activities, officials said.
	A South Korean guardsman shot the man in the stomach with a handgun after he violently resisted inspections in the waters off South Korea's western coast, said coast guard official Kim Hye-gyeong.
	The 45-year-old Chinese national was airlifted to a hospital and pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, according to officials at the Mokpo Hankook Hospital. The hospital did not immediately announce the exact cause of death.
	The deadly fight occurred as a dozen South Korean coast guard officers boarded the Chinese ship for searches in South Korea's exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from shore.
	When other Chinese fishing ships pulled nearby and sent their crew members aboard the ship being inspected, the Chinese captain began resisting more violently, which led to .

Chinese captain dead in fishing clash in S Korea

Six US military planes have arrived in the Ebola hot zone with more Marines, as West Africa's leaders pleaded for the world's help in dealing with "a tragedy unforeseen in modern times."
	"Our people are dying," Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma lamented by videoconference at a World Bank meeting in Washington. He said other countries are not responding fast enough while children are orphaned and infected doctors and nurses are lost to the disease.
	Alpha Conde of Guinea said the region's countries are in "a very fragile situation."
	"This disease is today an international threat and deserves an international response," he said, speaking through a translator.
	Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he was reminded of the start of the AIDS epidemic.
	"We have to work now so this is not the next AIDS," Frieden said.
	Elsewhere, University of Maryland researchers announced that the first study of a possible Ebola vaccine in Africa was ...

US military planes arrive at epicenter of Ebola

The United Nations has reported its first peacekeeper death in the Central African Republic since it took over the duties of trying to calm months of unprecedented violence between Christians and Muslims.
	The peacekeeper died in a crash after a UN convoy was attacked in the capital, Bangui, yesterday said Vannina Maestracci, a spokeswoman for the UN secretary-general. The head of the UN mission, Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, said in a statement that another peacekeeper was severely wounded and seven slightly injured.
	Gaye strongly condemned the yesterday evening ambush. There was no information yet on the attackers, and the nationalities of the peacekeepers were being withheld until families could be notified.
	The news came shortly after commanders of the various UN peacekeeping missions gathered at United Nations headquarters for a Security Council meeting on how to deal with increasing violence and other challenges.
	"As we are meeting here now, we may listen to bad news ...

UN: 1st peacekeeper killed in C African Republic

An attorney for a 19-year-old Indian-origin teen accused of trying to join Islamic State militants in Syria said the US government doesn't have evidence his client sought to provide material support to foreign terrorists.
	Mohammed Hamzah Khan's lawyer spoke after a detention hearing today in Chicago. The federal judge delayed a ruling on keeping Khan in custody until Oct 21.
	Attorney Thomas Durkin spoke to reporters flanked by Khan's parents, Shafi and Zarine Khan. He says the parents are US citizens, originally from India.
	Authorities arrested Khan Saturday at O'Hare International Airport.
	Before going to the airport, authorities say Khan left his parents a letter saying he was traveling to Syria. Durkin says the parents weren't aware of those plans and didn't see the letter until agents found it in a search.

Lawyer: No proof teen sought to back terrorists

Though braced by a resurgent United States, the global economy is under threat from other regions from Europe and Latin America to China and Japan where growth is stalling and prospects remain dim.
	That's the bleak picture facing global finance officials who are meeting this week in Washington to consider policies to address the world's uneven growth. Their meetings follow downbeat assessments of the global economy issued this week by the International Monetary Fund, the Brookings Institution and the Federal Reserve.
	The talks are beginning today with finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of 20 nations, which includes traditional powers such as the United States, Japan and Germany and emerging economies such as Russia, China and India. Next will come meetings of the 188-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending organisation, the World Bank.
	In a global forecast prepared for the meetings, the IMF downgraded its outlook this year because Europe is 

Finance officials face global economy under threat

The UN management chief says member states owe the world body about USD 3.5 billion for its regular operating budget and far-flung peacekeeping operations.
	Yukio Takasu told reporters after briefing the General Assembly's budget committee today that "as a whole the financial situation of the United Nations is very sound and generally good except the regular budget."
	Unpaid assessments for the regular budget total just over USD 950 million, including about USD 800 million owed by the United States, USD 77 million by Brazil and USD 28 million by Venezuela, he said.
	Member states owe about USD 2.6 billion to the separate peacekeeping budget, Takasu said.
	France owes USD 356 million, the United States USD 337 million and Italy around USD 250 million, he said.

UN member states owe world body about $3.5 billion

The barrage of US cruise missiles last month aimed at an al-Qaida cell in northern Syria killed just one or two key militants, according to American intelligence officials who say the group of veteran fighters is still believed to be plotting attacks against US and European targets.
	The strikes on a compound near Aleppo did not deal a crippling blow to the Khorasan Group, officials said, partly because many important members had scattered amid news reports highlighting their activities. Among those who survived is a French-born jihadi who fought in Afghanistan with a military prowess that is of great concern to US intelligence officials now.
	"The strikes were certainly effective in setting back the Khorasan Group, but no one thinks they were a permanent solution or a death blow to the threats that come from this cell," said Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat and a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
	On September 22, the US fired 46 cruise missiles at eight locations to target the 

Airstrikes not end threat from Syrian terror cell

A US report released today says China's human rights record has worsened in key areas over the past year and that limits on free speech and assembly are growing.
	The annual report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said the country has tightened restrictions on civil society, rights advocates, journalists and religious organisations. It added that President Xi Jinping has adhered "to the authoritarian model of his predecessors" since taking power last year.
	That model "poses a serious challenge to U.S.-China relations and China's own development," the report said. It recommended that the US press for more freedoms in China, including by looking at how it issues visas to Chinese officials.
	"Human rights and rule of law conditions in China overall did not improve this past year, and declined in some of the areas covered by this report," it said. "The Chinese government and Communist Party continued to emphasise authoritarian control at the expense of human rights and .

US report: China's human rights record worsening

An imprisoned Syrian journalist and human rights activist has won a major writing award celebrating free speech.
	Mazen Darwish shares the PEN Pinter prize with India-born British novelist Salman Rushdie. The award was announced today at a ceremony in London.
	Darwish was the director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression when he was arrested in February 2012 along with two colleagues. The three have been charged with "publicising terrorist acts."
	Rushdie said Darwish "courageously fought for civilised values free expression, human rights in one of the most dangerous places in the world." He said he hoped the prize would bolster calls for Darwish to be released.
	The award was established in 2009 in memory of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter. It goes jointly to a British writer seen as sharing Pinter's "unflinching, unswerving" gaze on society, and an international writer who has faced persecution, chosen by the British winner and writers' organisation .

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