Turkey's president threatened Saturday to launch a unilateral offensive into northeastern Syria if plans to establish a so-called safe zone along Turkey's border fail to meet his expectations, including a demand that Turkish soldiers control the corridor.
Speaking to graduates of a military academy in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the US had up to three weeks to satisfy Turkish demands.
Earlier in August, Turkish and US officials agreed to set up the zone east of the Euphrates River.
Ankara wants US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters, considered terrorists by Turkey, to pull back from the border.
"If our soldiers do not start to control the area actively, we will have no choice but to activate our own operational plans," Erdogan said.
Turkey has been pressing to control  in coordination with the US  a 19-25 mile (30-40 kilometer) deep zone within civil war-ravaged Syria, running east of the Euphrates all the way to the border with Iraq.
On Friday, Erdogan said Turkish officials had .

Erdogan vows Syria operation if US falls short in safe zone

PTI Automatic

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's provocative decision to suspend the British Parliament for a time before the country's deadline for leaving the European Union came under fire Saturday in London and other cities where protesters took to the streets.
The demonstrations were called ahead of what is expected to be a pitched debate in Parliament this week as Johnson's opponents scramble to try to pass legislation that would block him from carrying out Brexit on October 31 without an approved withdrawal agreement.
An estimated 10,000 people gathered in central London, while others protested in in Belfast, York and others cities to show determination to block a "no deal" Brexit.
Protesters in London briefly blocked traffic on a downtown bridge and in Trafalgar Square.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had urged his supporters to come out in large numbers, told thousands of people at a rally in Glasgow, Scotland that the message to Johnson was simple: "No way. It's our Parliament."
Corbyn 

Parliament's suspension before Brexit protested across UK

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is partially backtracking on a decree that banned most fires for land-clearing for 60 days, now saying the ban will only apply to the Amazon region.
The government on Friday published a decree saying fires for agriculture outside the Amazon region would be allowed with authorization from state environmental authorities.
A day earlier, it published a ban on such fires nationwide in response to an international outcry over fires in the Amazon.
Brazil's National Space Research Institute says fires have increased about 80% in Brazil this year when compared to the same period last year.
A little over half those fires are in the Amazon.
The European Space Agency's Copernicus satellite program showed smoke from the Amazon fires reaching Brazil's southeast coast, thousands of kilometers away.

Bolsonaro limits ban on fires in Brazil to Amazon only

Italian bodybuilder, boxer and actor Franco Columbu, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's closest friends, has died aged 78.
Columbu died in a hospital in his native Sardinia on Friday afternoon after being taken ill while he was swimming in the sea.
His longtime friend Schwarzenegger tweeted: "I love you Franco. I will always remember the joy you brought to my life, the advices you gave me, and the twinkle in your eye that never disappeared."
After starting his career as a boxer, Columbu progressed into Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and later bodybuilding, winning the prestigious title of Mr Olympia in 1976 and 1981.
Besides his athletic career, Columbu also acted in popular TV series and movies. He appeared in Schwarzenegger's films "The Terminator," ''The Running Man" and "Conan the Barbarian." Columbu was Schwarzenegger's best man at his marriage to Maria Schriver in 1986.

Italian bodybuilder, actor Franco Columbu dies aged 78

Crowds are gathering in London and other major British cities to protest Prime Minister Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament for part of the period before the Brexit deadline in two months.
Several thousand protesters gathered near Johnson's residence at 10 Downing Street in central London, while others protested in in Belfast, York and others cities to show determination to block a "no deal" Brexit.
The crowds were galvanized by Johnson's decision to shutter Parliament for several weeks when a debate about Brexit plans had been expected.
In London, they chanted: "Boris Johnson, shame on you." Some carried signs saying: "Stop the Coup" in reference to what they say is a move that threatens democracy.
The protests have been organized by the anti-Brexit group Another Europe Is Possible and by Momentum, which is allied with the opposition Labour Party. The group is urging its membership to "occupy bridges and blockade roads."
Organizers say protests are planned in more than 30 ...

Crowds gather in UK cities to protest Johnson's Brexit plans

Hurricane Dorian has gained fearsome new muscle as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm, bearing down on the northwestern Bahamas early Saturday en route to the US Southeast coast.
Millions of people in Florida, along with the state's Walt Disney World and President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, are in the potential crosshairs of the hurricane.
Forecasters say Dorian, which had top sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) Saturday morning, will hover along Florida's east coast Tuesday and Wednesday.
But the National Hurricane Center in Miami cautioned that its meteorologists remain uncertain whether Dorian would make a devastating direct strike on the state's east coast or inflict a glancing blow.
Some of the more reliable computer models predicted a late turn northward that would have Dorian skirt the Florida coast.
"There is hope," Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters said.
Forecasters now expect ever-strengthening Dorian to dance up the Southeast coastline, ...

Fierce Category 4 Dorian strengthens en route to Bahamas

Spain's former monarch Juan Carlos I says he's feeling "phenomenal" with "new plumbing" after a successful triple bypass heart surgery.
"It feels like a truck ran me over, but now it's about getting rid of the truck and looking ahead," the 81-year-old king emeritus said Sunday as he was driven out of a hospital in the outskirts of Madrid.
"New pipes, new plumbing, (it feels) phenomenal," he added.
Quirn Salud Hospitals Managing Director Luca Alonso said the former king was discharged one week after the operation because he is "clinically stable."
The operation was Juan Carlos' 17th surgical procedure and had been scheduled two months ago.
The king emeritus abdicated in 2014 in favour of his son, Felipe, ending a near 39-year reign. He retired from public duties last May.

Spain: ex-king says feeling "phenomenal" after heart surgery

Denmark's Queen Margrethe II has unveiled a statue of a Dane who is credited with rescuing thousands of Chinese people in December 1937 when Imperial Japanese troops invaded Nanjing, the capital of China at the time.
The three-meter (10-foot) bronze statue of Bernhard Arp Sindberg was revealed at a park in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, where he was born in 1911.
Sindberg worked in Nanjing for a Danish cement company, F L Smidth, as a security guard. He turned the factory into a refugee camp and a shelter for Chinese people during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Danish historians estimate Sindberg's actions saved some 6,000-10,000 Chinese lives, while Chinese authorities credit him with rescuing up to 20,000 people during a rampage by the Japanese military that later became known as the Nanjing Massacre.

Denmark honours saviour of Chinese during Nanjing Massacre

Gaza's Health Ministry says a Palestinian man has died of his wounds sustained from Israeli gunfire the previous day at protests along the perimeter fence.
The ministry said Saturday that Badr Abu Moussa, 25, was being treated at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, after a bullet hit him in the head.
He was among 6,000 Palestinians who participated in the weekly protests along Gaza-Israel perimeter fence.
The ministry said 42 protesters were wounded by live fire. The Israeli military said a soldier was lightly injured and an army vehicle was damaged as the demonstrators threw grenades at the fence.
Gaza's Hamas rulers launched the marches last year, which aim to break a 12-year-old Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the territory.

Officials say Gaza man dies of wounds from Israeli gunfire

A court notice shows the federal lawsuit filed by a Muslim aerospace engineer has been settled days before the trial over allegations of discrimination stemming from a party at a Kansas lake.
The filing Friday in US District Court does not detail settlement terms between Munir Zanial and the Spirit Boeing Employees Association. The trial that had been scheduled for Tuesday is cancelled.
The Malaysian national of Indian ancestry rented a pavilion at the group's lake in 2017 to celebrate Malaysian Independence Day. The lawsuit alleges the association suspended his rental privileges and reported him to authorities.
It alleged an American flag had been desecrated by Islamic State group symbols. But the flag was actually a Malaysian flag and the guests included people of Malaysian Indian ancestry, some wearing hijabs.

Lawsuit by Muslim engineer settled days before Kansas trial

Commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II in Poland this weekend come as the war has become a messy battleground of memory.
In Poland and across Eastern Europe, many feel that their people's suffering has never been adequately recognized, or that they have been unfairly tarnished for their behaviour at that time  grievances politicians have been exploiting in a new era of nationalism.
For Americans and others, World War II might seem a black-and-white story of good defeating evil, with the Allies fighting far from home to defeat Adolf Hitler's genocidal regime and open a new era of peace and liberty.
But from the Baltics and Poland to Hungary and Russia, where fighting, deportations and mass executions happened, there are many shades of gray: heroic resistance and martyrdom but also collaboration  and a liberation by Soviet forces that spelled the start of decades of occupation and oppression for those behind the Iron Curtain.
That leaves a lot of room ..

WWII: A memory battleground on the 80th anniversary

The Taliban have launched a new largescale attack on one of Afghanistan's main cities, Kunduz, and taken hospital patients as hostages, the government said Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the United States on ending America's longest war.
The militants, who have demanded that all foreign forces leave Afghanistan, now control or hold sway over roughly half of the country and are at their strongest since their 2001 defeat by a U.S.-led invasion.
Presidential spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said Afghan security forces were repelling the attack in parts of the city, a strategic crossroads with easy access to much of northern Afghanistan as well as the capital, Kabul, about 200 miles (335 kilometers) away.
The Taliban were in control of the Kunduz hospital and both sides in the fighting had casualties, provincial council member Ghulam Rabani Rabani told The Associated Press. He could not give an exact number.
The militants had taken hospital patients as hostages, .

Taliban launch 'massive attack' on Afghan city of Kunduz

The IOC has detailed a "fair and transparent pathway to the Olympic Games" for male and female boxers trying to qualify for Tokyo.
Four continental qualification tournaments have been confirmed as expected in China, Senegal, Argentina and Britain in a two-month spell from February to April.
A final global qualifying tournament will now be held in Paris, and not Tokyo as previously believed, from May 13-24.
The International Olympic Committee took over organizing the boxing competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games after stripping governing body AIBA of the right in June.
An IOC panel investigated AIBA's leadership, governance, finances and long-standing doubts over the integrity of Olympic bouts.
The IOC says it is finalizing appointing an independent review of "selecting and evaluating boxing referees and judges."
Boxing in Tokyo will have eight men's weight classes and five women's weight classes.

IOC details boxing qualifying events for Tokyo Olympics

A 19-year-old New York City man accused of plotting a knife attack on behalf of the Islamic State group told undercover agents he wanted to record the bloodshed on video in hopes of inspiring others to commit attacks, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Awais Chudhary was arrested Thursday as he tried to pick up a tactical knife, mask and cellphone rigging that he had ordered online as his plot escalated quickly from the planning states to the verge of being carried out, prosecutors said.
The arrest "almost certainly saved lives," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said.
Chudhary, a naturalized US citizen born in Pakistan and living in Queens, was arraigned Friday and order jailed without bail on federal charges of attempting to provide material support to the terrorist organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
A message seeking comment was left with a public defender appointed to represent Chudhary, who is due back in court Sept. 13.
The New York Police Department ...

Feds: Man plotted NYC knife attack in name of Islamic State

Afghanistan's government says the Taliban have again attacked one of the country's largest cities, Kunduz.
Presidential spokesman Sediq Seddiqi says Afghan security forces are repelling the attack in some parts of the city, a strategic crossroads with easy access to much of northern Afghanistan as well as the capital, Kabul.
The spokesman says the insurgent group has taken positions in civilian areas. Officials in Kunduz cannot be reached by phone.
The attack comes as the Taliban and a United States envoy continue negotiations in Qatar on ending America's longest war. Both sides in recent weeks signaled they are close to an agreement.
Kunduz fell to the Taliban in 2015 and has come under attack several times since then.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a Twitter post calls this attack "large-scale.

Afghan government says Taliban attacking city of Kunduz

A senior North Korean diplomat on Saturday berated US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over his comments describing North Korean behaviour as "rogue" and said Pyongyang's hopes for talks with Washington are fading.
In a statement carried by state media, North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Pompeo's "thoughtless" comments increased North Korean people's animosity toward Americans and made it harder for working-level nuclear negotiations between the countries to resume.
"Our expectations of dialogue with the U.S. are gradually disappearing and we are being pushed to reexamine all the measures we have taken so far," Choe said.
"We are very curious about the background of the American top diplomat's thoughtless remarks and we will watch what calculations he has.
The US had better not put any longer our patience to the test with such remarks irritating us if it doesn't want to have bitter regrets afterward."
Pompeo in speech to US veterans in Indiana on Tuesday said the 

North Korea berates Pompeo, says hopes for talks fading

Hurricane Dorian powered toward Florida with increasing fury Friday, becoming an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm but leaving forecasters uncertain whether it would make a direct hit on the state's east coast or inflict a glancing blow.
The storm's winds rose to a howling 130 mph (215 kph) as Dorian gained new strength while crossing warm Atlantic waters. The hurricane could wallop the state with even higher winds and torrential rains late Monday or early Tuesday, with millions of people in the crosshairs, along with Walt Disney World and President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Though Dorian is growing in intensity, some of the more reliable computer models predicted a late turn northward that would have Dorian hug the coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
"There is hope," Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters said.
The faint hope came on a day in which Dorian seemed to get scarier with each forecast update. And there were fears it could prove to be the .

Dorian becomes a Category 4 monster powering toward Florida

Attorneys asked a judge Friday to reject Trump administration plans to detain migrant families longer than they're currently permitted and to remove court oversight of how children are treated in government custody.
The lawyers want U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee to block the government from implementing the rules, saying prolonged detention causes life-long trauma and that children in government custody are sometimes held in deplorable conditions.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it would issue new regulations on how migrant children are treated.
A legal settlement overseen by the federal courts and known widely as the Flores agreement requires the government to keep children in the least restrictive setting and to release them as quickly as possible, generally after 20 days in detention.
The new rules "would eviscerate the settlement's crucial protections for vulnerable children," the attorneys argue.
Homeland Security officials say they are adopting ...

Attorneys want judge to stop Trump plan on migrant families

President Donald Trump's prized Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida could be directly in the path of Hurricane Dorian, which is forecast to become an extremely destructive storm.
The National Hurricane Center's most recent track for Dorian places Mar-a-Lago in the crosshairs of a possible Category 4 storm with winds of almost 140 mph (225 kph). The center's forecasters warn the hurricane poses a menace to millions, particularly along Florida's heavily populated eastern coast, though they say some of the more reliable computer models are predicting a turn northward that would have Dorian hug the coast, delivering a glancing blow to the state.
The resort, currently closed for the summer, is on the wealthy barrier island of Palm Beach. No activity could be seen there Friday afternoon and the Trump Organization did not return a call seeking comment.
On Friday, Trump was asked how concerned he was about the hurricane threat to his resort and responded: "Well, you know I haven't even thought about 

Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago resort in Hurricane Dorian's path

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers can now create fictitious social media accounts to monitor social media information on foreigners seeking visas, green cards and citizenship.
An updated Homeland Security Department review of potential privacy issues dated July 2019 that was posted online on Friday essentially reversed a prior ban on officers creating fake profiles.
A USCIS statement explaining the change says fake accounts and identities will make it easier for investigators to search for potential evidence of fraud or security concerns as they decide whether to allow someone entry into the U.S.
The change in policy was preceded by other steps taken by the State Department, which began requiring applicants for U.S. visas to submit their social media usernames this past June, a vast expansion of the Trump administration's enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors.
It's unclear exactly how the creation of fake social media accounts would work given ...

US to use fake social media to check people entering country

A woman tossed a lit Molotov cocktail into the lobby of a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Oakland Park, Florida. But no major injuries were reported, according to a report of the incident sent to administration officials and viewed by The Associated Press.
The woman walked into the office Friday afternoon and hurled a bottle filled with gasoline and a lit fuse. But the fuse disconnected from the bottle and didn't ignite, according to the report. Law enforcement officials believe she intended to cause harm but the incident wasn't related to other incidents where Homeland Security agencies were targeted.
The incident comes amid federal investigators' growing concerns about attacks on immigration agencies during a time of heightened emotion and scrutiny. The issue remains a political powder keg for both Democrats and Republicans as Trump continues to push for major changes on his signature issue and tries to energize his base by delivering on campaign ...

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