The United States and dozens of other countries vowed to speed up and strengthen the UN's overstretched peacekeeping response to crises around the world.
	More than 130,000 peacekeeping staffers are now deployed in operations around the world, a record, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a special meeting yesterday that he and US Vice President Joe Biden hosted on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly of world leaders.
	The UN doesn't have its own standing army and relies on contributions from its 193 member states. In recent years, stress has soared as peacekeepers have been sent to the front lines of everything from ethnic conflict to Islamic extremism.
	This month, the UN withdrew its peacekeepers from many positions on the Golan Heights after 45 Fijian peacekeepers were held for two weeks by fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front.
	According to the UN, 102 peacekeepers died in 2013, 36 from direct attacks and others from accidents and illnesses. The ...

US, others vow to strengthen UN peacekeeping

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In an emotional appeal to world leaders meeting in New York, Lebanon's prime minister said his country is facing a "fierce terrorist onslaught" and a national disaster created by more than a million Syrian refugees flooding the tiny nation.
	Speaking before the UN General Assembly yesterday, Tammam Salam said Lebanon is determined not to give in to "pressure and blackmail" by Islamic extremists who overran a town bordering Syria in August and are holding about 20 Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage.
	The Islamic State, an al-Qaida breakaway group, has already beheaded two of them and the Nusra Front, the main al-Qaida branch in Syria, has shot a third, sparking days of violence against Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
	Since then, Lebanese troops have clashed with jihadist fighters in the border area near the Lebanese town of Arsal. The extremists have made various demands in exchange for the soldiers' release, including the release of Islamist prisoners in Lebanese jails.
	"We will ...

Lebanese prime minister calls for world's help

A man fired from a food processing plant beheaded a woman with a knife and was attacking another worker when he was shot and wounded by a company official, police said today.
	Moore Police Sgt Jeremy Lewis says police are waiting until the 30-year-old man is conscious to arrest him in yesterday's attack and have asked the FBI to help investigate after co-workers at Vaughan Foods told authorities that he recently started trying to convert several employees to Islam.
	The man, whom The Associated Press is not naming because he has not been charged, stabbed Colleen Hufford, 54, severing her head, Lewis said.
	Lewis said the man then stabbed Traci Johnson, 43, a number of times before being shot by Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff's deputy and the company's chief operating officer.
	"This was not going to stop if he didn't stop it. It could have gotten a lot worse," Lewis said.
	Lewis said that Moore police have asked the FBI to aid in the investigation and look into the man's background ..

Police: Woman beheaded at US workplace

A South African university is investigating white students accused of racism for wearing dark colouring on their faces in a portrayal of Venus and Serena Williams at a costume party.
	Stellenbosch University said yesterday that it was informed about a photograph on Twitter that showed two students posing as the tennis siblings. It noted social media reaction that mentioned "blackface," which was common in old American minstrel shows featuring white performers as stereotyped black characters.
	The two students and another student who posted the photograph say they aimed to portray two sports stars without "malicious or racial intent," and they regret their judgement error.
	The student council says some students believe the three should be expelled, while others dismiss the incident as a mistake that should not be taken seriously.

South African students investigated over costumes

Denmark became the latest country to join the US-led coalition that is launching airstrikes on Islamic State group militants in Iraq. Lawmakers in Britain and Belgium were also debating today whether to commit warplanes to the struggle too.
	Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said her government would send four operational planes and three reserve jets along with 250 pilots and support staff in the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq. The deployment will last for 12 months. Lawmakers in Denmark must also approve, but that is considered a formality.
	"No one should be ducking in this case," she said. "Everyone should contribute."
	Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said a failure to act against a group that's committed a series of beheadings and crucifixions was not an option.
	"This is about psychopathic terrorists that are trying to kill us and we do have to realise that, whether we like it or not, they have already declared war on us," he said. "There ...

Denmark joins fight against Islamic State group

Police and protesters clashed briefly in Ferguson just hours after the St Louis suburb's police chief issued an apology to the family of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer last month.
	Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson appeared outside the police department in civilian clothes late yesterday to assure protesters that there would be changes in the wake of Brown's killing, The St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
	Brown was unarmed when he was fatally shot August 9 during a confrontation with Officer Darren Wilson. The shooting sparked numerous protests and racial unrest in the predominantly black community.
	Some residents and civil rights activists have said responding police officers were overly aggressive, noting their use of tear gas and military-style vehicles and gear.
	"All those things that are causing mistrust are being evaluated and we are going to be making changes," Jackson said.
	The police chief started to march with ...

Police, protesters scuffle after Ferguson apology

The chairman of a Philippine energy company said today a Chinese state-owned oil producer hasn't responded to a revived proposal to jointly explore a disputed area of the South China Sea but drilling will go ahead by 2016 with or without a partnership.
	Manuel Pangilinan said that Filipino-British company Forum Energy PLC communicated the offer to China National Offshore Oil Corp to explore Reed Bank, northwest of the Philippine island of Palawan. Philippine and Chinese vessels had a confrontation there three years ago.
	Pangilinan said the Chinese company, also known as CNOOC, has not responded but Forum is continuing its attempts to engage with the Chinese company. He said the project has not attracted other investors because it is in an area of conflicting territorial claims and other investors did not want to offend China.
	Pangilinan is chairman of Philex Petroleum Corp, majority owner of London-based Forum Energy that has been awarded the exploration contract.
	He had an initial 

Filipino-UK firm to drill for gas in disputed sea

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by the Polish airline LOT made an emergency landing today at Scotland's Glasgow Airport.
	No injuries were reported.
	Airport spokesman Brian McClean said that the flight from Chicago en route to Warsaw with 248 people on board landed safely at 11:35 a.M local time. He said the landing was made at the request of the captain.
	LOT spokeswoman Barbara Pijanowska-Kuras said the emergency landing was required according to safety procedure after the crew received a warning from the firefighting system in the luggage compartment.
	The airport declared a full emergency as a precautionary measure. However, officials said there was no smoke reported, making it possible to have the aircraft taxi to the main terminal building.
	The airport remains open as normal. Pijanowska-Kuras said all passengers remain on board the aircraft as technicians check for a problem.

Polish plane makes emergency landing in Scotland

The head of Interpol says the organisation has vastly expanded its database of foreign fighters traveling to join extremists in Iraq and Syria and is testing ways to let banks, hotels and cruise lines access a separate database of lost and stolen passports.
	AirAsia is already testing a system of cross-checks, and Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said Friday a small pilot project is operating in France to see if the idea could apply to banks.
	He said 43 people have been flagged with stolen passports since the AirAsia program began in May.
	Noble also said the Interpol database of would-be jihadis started in April 2013 with three countries and now involves 33 countries and 1,300 names.

Interpol expanding foreign fighter database

For the fourth time in less than five months the clocks have changed in Egypt.
	The switch between summer and winter time was abandoned after the 2011 uprising toppled long-ruling autocrat Hosni Mubarak, but then was abruptly revived this past May, when clocks sprung forward in a move aimed at alleviating rolling power blackouts.
	But just weeks later the clocks fell back again at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- which this year fell at the hottest point of the summer -- to shorten the daily dawn-to-dusk fast.
	The clocks returned to summer time when Ramadan ended in July, but now winter has come again, despite the fact that daytime temperatures still hover around 85 (30C).
	As of midnight last night Egypt is two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
	The initial switch in May caused widespread disruptions, particularly at the airport, when local flight times were changed at the last minute.
	There were no reports of major ...

Egypt changes clocks for 4th time in 5 months

A Somali police officer says three people have been killed as pirates clash in a central Somali town over a ransom paid for the freedom of a German-American journalist who was released this week after two years and eight months of captivity.
	Mohamed Hassan today said that gunfire broke out in Galkayo late yesterday as some of the pirates who held Michael Scott Moore attacked their comrades, accusing them of conducting a secret deal with negotiators.
	Hassan said a top pirate commander was among three people killed after Moore was freed on Tuesday.
	Bile Hussein, a pirate commander in the coastal town of Hobyo, said earlier that a ransom of USD 1.6 million was paid by Somali intermediaries acting on behalf of Germany.
	Germany's Foreign Ministry hasn't confirmed money was paid.

3 killed as Somali pirates fight over ransom

Russia and Ukraine are holding talks to solve their long-running gas dispute as pressure mounts for a solution to head off a winter supply crisis in Ukraine and beyond.
	Today's meeting in Berlin between the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers, brokered by EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger, comes more than three months after Moscow cut off gas supplies to Kiev.
	The dispute, part of a wider conflict over Ukraine's relations with Russia and the West, involves the price of Russian gas supplies and Kiev's historic gas debts.
	A sense of urgency is beginning to mount. Much of the Russian gas supplied to EU countries passes through pipelines that cross Ukraine.
	"European and Ukrainian energy and gas supplies are very closely connected with each other," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week. "Winter is nearing, so time is pressing."
	Russia shut off supplies to Ukraine this summer but still allows gas to transit through its pipeline network to customers in the rest of ..

Russia, Ukraine in talks on gas as winter looms

US-led coalition warplanes bombed oil installations and other facilities in territory controlled by Islamic State militants in eastern Syria today, taking aim for a second consecutive day at a key source of financing that has swelled the extremist group's coffers, activists said.
	The strikes hit two oil areas in Deir el-Zour province a day after the United States and its Arab allies pummelled a dozen makeshift oil producing facilities in the same area near Syria's border with Iraq. The raids aim to cripple one of the militants' primary sources of cash, black market oil sales that the US says earn up to USD 2 million a day.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes overnight and early today hit the Tink oil field as well as the Qouriyeh oil-producing area in Deir el-Zour. It said air raids also targeted the headquarters of the Islamic State group in the town of Mayadeen.
	The Observatory said the strikes were believed to have been carried out by the ...

US-led strikes hit IS group oil sites for 2nd day

An Afghan official says Taliban insurgents have beheaded 12 civilians and torched some 60 homes in an assault on security forces in the eastern Ghazni province.
	The province's deputy police chief Asadullah Ensafi says the Taliban have attacked several villages over the past week in the Arjistan district.
	He says that last night they captured and beheaded 12 family members of local and national police and burned down 60 homes. He added that the battle was still raging.
	Ensafi says the Taliban also detonated a car bomb in front of an encampment where some 40 police were posted. He said it was not immediately possible to reach the area to ascertain casualties because the insurgents had mined the roads.

Afghanistan: Taliban behead 12 civilians

Authorities say three young Gypsy children have died in a fire in a small wooden shack that has been their home on the outskirts of Belgrade.
	The Serbian capital's emergency service says the children aged five, seven and nine died in the blaze that broke out in the Gypsy settlement today. It did not identify the children or say what caused the fire.
	There are an estimated 500,000 Gypsies many resettled during the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s living in Serbia, or about 7 per cent of the population.
	Gypsies, or Roma, who mostly live in segregated, makeshift settlements throughout Serbia, have often faced harassment by far-right groups.

3 children die in fire in Serbia

Malaysian police have detained three Muslim men suspected of wanting to go to Syria to join the militant Islamic State group, a senior police official said today.
	The three were detained yesterday at the Kuala Lumpur international airport while waiting for a flight to Turkey, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, who heads the national police counter-terrorism unit.
	"From Turkey, the men were planning to make their way to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group," Ayob Khan said.
	He said police believed the men an architect and a technician, both aged 26, and a 46-year-old shopkeeper were recruited through Facebook and other social media sites and were in contact with Malaysians fighting in Syria.
	The men were held under the Security Offenses Act, which allows police to hold suspects for up to 28 days before they must be brought to court.
	Ayob Khan said authorities have identified at least 22 Malaysians fighting in Syria, including three men who had died.
	He said police are still ...

Malaysia detains 3 militants heading to Syria

A US-Russian space crew has blasted off successfully for the International Space Station.
	The Russian Soyuz-TMA14M spacecraft lifted off as scheduled at 2:25 am (local time) today from the Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. It's carrying NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore along with Russians Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova for a six-month stint at the station.
	The Soyuz entered a designated orbit in about 10 minutes after the launch. It is set to dock at the orbiting outpost in about six hours after the launch, joining an international crew of three currently manning the station.
	Serova is making her first space mission, while Wilmore and Samokutyaev have already flown to space.
	Serova is the first Russian woman to fly to space since 1997, and the fourth woman in the history of the Soviet and Russian space programs. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963.
	Since the retirement of the US space shuttle fleet in 2011, Russian Soyuz ...

US-Russian space crew lifts off for space station

An Arab-backed resolution singling out Israel for special attention over its alleged nuclear arsenal was defeated today at an annual conference of the UN atomic agency.
	Nations meeting at the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) general conference voted 58-45 against the resolution, while 27 abstained.
	Backed by 18 Arab states, including Syria, the resolution expressed concern "about the Israeli nuclear capabilities," urging Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and put its nuclear facilities under international oversight. Israel has never acknowledged that it possesses nuclear weapons.
	Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the outcome of the vote, calling the resolution an effort "to harm Israel."
	Separately, the conference voted 117-0, with 13 abstentions, in favor of a resolution submitted by Egypt that called on "all states in the region" to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Arab resolution on Israel defeated at IAEA meeting

Iraq's Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said today that captive Islamic State militants told his intelligence agents of an alleged plot to attack subways in the United States and Paris.
	A senior Obama administration official said no one in the US government is aware of such a plot, adding that the claim was never brought up in meetings with Iraqi officials this week in New York. US President Barack Obama had met with al-Abadi yesterday.
	The administration official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
	There was no immediate comment from France. A half-dozen French officials contacted by The Associated Press said they knew of no plot.
	Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said he was told of the purported plot by officials in Baghdad, and that it was the work of foreign fighters who had joined the Islamic State group in Iraqi, including French and US nationals.
	Asked if the attacks were imminent, he said, "I'm not sure." Asked if the 

Iraqi PM: Plot to attack US, Paris Subways

A powerful earthquake shook up a large swath of Alaska, including the state's largest city.
	The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning center says the quake had a 6.1 magnitude.
	The quake occurred at 9:51 am today, 80 miles (130 kilometres) northwest of Anchorage, where it was strongly felt, and lingered for at least one minute.
	There are no immediate reports of damage or injury. The Tsunami Warning Center says no tsunami is expected.

Strong earthquake rattles Alaska

US President Barack Obama, in a chilling assessment of international efforts to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak, said the world has not done enough to respond to a health crisis that poses a growing threat to regional and global security.
	"There is still a significant gap between where we are and where we need to be," Obama said today in remarks to a high-level United Nations meeting on Ebola.
	The crisis in West Africa is the largest ever outbreak of Ebola, with more than 6,200 people believed to have been sickened, almost half of whom have died.
	US health officials have warned that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January, though they have also cautioned that the totals could peak well below that if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.
	Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organization, addressed the Ebola meeting ahead of Obama and warned that the outbreak will likely get worse before it gets better. The virus, she said, is .

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