North Macedonia police say a 20-year old migrant from Bangladesh was killed and 12 others injured when a van packed with migrants collided with a truck on the main highway in the south.
Police said Saturday that a van with 13 migrants hit the rear of the truck near the town of Demir Kapija late Friday and caught fire.
Ten migrants were Pakistanis and three were Bangladeshi. Four seriously injured migrants were transferred to clinics in the capital Skopje, while eight others are being treated at a hospital in the town of Kavadarci. The van driver ran away from the scene.
The migrants are believed to have entered illegally from Greece and to have paid smugglers to take them north through Serbia towards Europe's prosperous heartland.

North Macedonia van crash kills migrant; 12 others injured

PTI Automatic

The world economy is getting shakier by the day, the Amazon has burned its way to the center of the climate change debate, and the leaders of the world's leading democracies will sit around a single table, theoretically charged with coming up with solutions for the biggest problems of the day.
Except that US President Donald Trump is largely uninterested in international agreements, and other G-7 leaders are seriously hobbled at home by political scandal, low poll numbers or lame duck status.
Welcome to the annual Group of Seven summit, which begins Saturday in the southern French resort town of Biarritz.
French President Emmanuel Macron, the host, has already made clear that he has little expectation that Trump will join any statement on fighting climate change even as the issue shot to the top of the agenda with the widespread fires in the Amazon.
He already rejected Trump's request to let Russia rejoin the group five years after being expelled over its seizure of Crimea. And he is .

Major issues, minimal expectations for G-7 summit in France

Iraqi security officials say a motorcycle rigged with explosives went off near a Shiite mosque south of the capital Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 34.
The officials said Saturday that the blast occurred the previous evening on a commercial street in the village of Mussayyib. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted "gatherings of Shiites" near a Shiite mosque.
Iraq declared victory against IS in late 2017, but the group continues to carry out attacks through sleeper cells, particularly in the country's north.
Iraq's military announced it started a new operation early Saturday targeting IS hideouts and sleeper cells in the western Anbar province.

Explosion in Iraq near Shiite mosque kills 3, wounds dozens

An Iranian-flagged oil tanker pursued by the US amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington changed its listed destination to a port in Turkey early Saturday after Greece said it wouldn't risk its relations with America by aiding it.
The crew of the Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, updated its listed destination in its Automatic Identification System to Mersin, Turkey, a port city in the country's south and home to an oil terminal.
However, mariners can input any destination into the AIS, so Turkey may not be its true destination. Mersin is some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of a refinery in Baniyas, Syria, where authorities alleged the Adrian Darya had been heading before being seized off Gibraltar in early July.
Iranian state media and officials did not immediately acknowledge the new reported destination of the Adrian Darya, which carries 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil worth some $130 million. Nor was there any immediate reaction from ...

Iranian oil tanker pursued by US says it is going to Turkey

A white Florida man who told detectives he had a "pet peeve" about illegal parking in handicapped spots was convicted late Friday of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in a dispute over a handicapped spot.
Six jurors deliberated for six hours before convicting Michael Drejka for the July 19, 2018, death of Markeis McGlockton. Drejka, who could get 30 years, looked down after the verdict was read then wiped his brow with a blue handkerchief.
The 49-year-old Drejka was ordered held without bond until his sentencing in October. He stared straight ahead as he was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom. Members of McGlockton's family could be heard weeping behind him.
The verdict came about a half-hour after jurors sent out a note saying they were confused by the state's self-defense law. Circuit Judge Joseph Bulone told them all he could do is reread it for them.
The lengthy statute generally says a shooting is justified if a reasonable person under those ...

Florida man convicted in parking lot shooting of black man

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 600 points Friday after the latest escalation in the trade war between the US and China rattled investors. The broad sell-off sent the S&P 500 to its fourth straight weekly loss.
Stocks tumbled after President Donald Trump responded angrily on Twitter following China's announcement of new tariffs on USD 75 billion in US goods.
In one of his tweets he "hereby ordered" US companies with operations in China to consider moving them to other countries  including the US.
Trump also said he'd respond directly to the tariffs  and after the market closed he delivered, announcing that the US would increase existing tariffs on USD 250 billion in Chinese goods to 30 per cent from 25 per cent, and that new tariffs on another USD 300 billion of imports would be 15 per cent instead of 10 per cent.
Those announcements are likely to influence stock markets in Asia when trading opens there Monday.
Friday's developments mark the latest escalation of ...

US stocks tumble as US-China trade war rattles investors

The Trump administration is planning to open a US consulate in Greenland for the first time in decades amid increased strategic and economic interest in the Danish territory.
The State Department says in a letter to Congress that re-establishing a consulate in Nuuk is part of a broader plan to increase the US presence in the arctic.
A copy of the letter was obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
The US has a "strategic interest in enhancing political, economic, and commercial relationships across the Arctic region," said the letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
President Donald Trump sparked a diplomatic dispute with US-ally Denmark this week after he proposed that the US buy Greenland and the Danish government rejected the idea.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen called it an "absurd discussion." Trump fired back that her comments were "nasty" and he cancelled a planned trip to Denmark.
A permanent diplomatic presence would allow the US to "protect essential ...

US to open Greenland consulate amid increased interest

President Donald Trump hasn't given up his fight to block critics from his Twitter feed.
Trump's lawyers Friday asked the full 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan to decide whether a three-judge appeals panel erred in ruling he could not.
The lawyers say the July ruling conflicts with prior court precedents and presents a question of "exceptional importance."
The appeals panel concluded Trump's daily pronouncements and observations were overwhelmingly official in nature. It said he thus violated the First Amendment whenever he blocked a critic to silence a viewpoint.
Trump's lawyers insisted in their latest filing that the president's @realDonaldTrump account is a personal account he created long before he became president. They say it should be treated like any personal property belonging to Trump.

Trump asks appeals court to reconsider Twitter-blocking case

A member of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar warned Friday that there will be no long-term peace in the country and no return of Rohingya refugees unless there is accountability for the "brutality" of Myanmar's military forces.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan lawyer who is one of the mission's three international experts, told an informal Security Council meeting on accountability in Myanmar that the commission believes a domestic judicial process is not possible at this time.
"There's danger to the victims and witnesses, as they have been threatened," she said, "and we feel that the Commission of Inquiry sent up by the Myanmar government may face the same challenge."
Coomeraswamy pointed to the release of seven soldiers sentenced to up to 10 years in prison with hard labour for the killings of 10 Rohingya villagers after just nine months "because of the national and political pressure."
The arrests followed an investigation by two Reuters ...

UN expert: No peace in Myanmar if no military prosecutions

President Donald Trump launched a furious and highly personal Twitter attack Friday against the Federal Reserve and chairman Jerome Powell, fuming that the Fed "did NOTHING!" and wondering who is "our bigger enemy"  Powell or China's leader.
The outburst came after Powell, speaking to central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gave vague assurances that the Fed "will act as appropriate" to sustain the nation's economic expansion.
While the phrasing was widely seen as meaning interest rate cuts, he offered no hint of whether or how many reductions might be coming the rest of the year.
Powell had barely finished speaking before Trump escalated his criticism of the Fed, which he has repeatedly accused of keeping rates too high.
For months, the president has in particular ridiculed Powell, who was his own choice to lead the Fed, an independent agency.
"As usual, the Fed did NOTHING!" Trump tweeted, adding, "We have a very strong dollar and a very weak Fed."
He went further by saying: "My ..

'Our bigger enemy': Trump escalates attack on Fed chief '

Some of the mystical blue-green lakes of the Lacandon jungle in southern Mexico are drying up this year, the result of what experts say is an extended drought and rising temperatures in the region.
The Metzabok lake, which normally covers 220 acres (89 hectares), dried up completely this month, leaving cracked mud where the translucent waters normally reflect the surrounding jungle and Lacandon Indians travel by canoe.
About 350 Lacandones, an indigenous group that still uses traditional dress of long hair and white cotton tunics, depend on tourism, fish and water from the lake and 20 other jungle lagoons nearby for their livelihood.
In recent days they worked with biologists to capture and transfer crocodiles, fish and turtles from the dried-up lake to those nearby that still have water.
The area is part of a nature preserve known as Naha-Metzabok, and the Lacandones have preserved the surrounding jungle for decades by avoiding the slash-and-burn agriculture and cattle ranching.
Some 

Mexico sees jungle lakes evaporate amid lower rainfall

Illinois health officials are reporting what could be United States' first death tied to vaping.
In a Friday news release, the Illinois Department of Public Health says a person who recently vaped died after being hospitalised with "severe respiratory illness."
The agency didn't give any other information about the patient, including a name or where the person lived.
Melaney Arnold, an agency spokeswoman, says the death is the first in the state that could be linked to vaping.
The release also says the number of people who have experienced respiratory illness after vaping doubled to 22 in the past week.
In a Wednesday news release announcing 149 cases of severe lung illness nationwide that may be tied to vaping, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said no deaths associated with vaping had been reported.

Illinois patient's death may be first in US tied to vaping

Authorities are investigating a crash that injured 27 people when Sacramento light rail commuter train struck a maintenance train.
Sacramento Regional Transit spokeswoman Devra Selenis says Friday that the maintenance train was not moving when the crash happened late Thursday.
Initial reports indicated the accident was a derailment.
Selenis says there were 24 people on the passenger train and three on the maintenance train.
Thirteen people were taken to hospitals, one with moderate injuries and 12 with minor injuries.
Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Keith Wade said late Thursday that 14 other people were treated at the scene and released.
Selenis says authorities are investigating to determine the cause.

Authorities probe Sacramento light rail crash, 27 injured

Fourteen-year-old Hussaini said he first heard screaming. Then people fired guns, shooting at and killing at least one of his teachers in his northern Burkina Faso village.
It's been more than a year since Hussaini has been to school.
"I used to love school, to read, to count and to play during recess," the boy, identified only by his first name, told the United Nations Children's Agency.
He is not alone.
More than 9,000 schools have closed and more than 1.9 million children in West and Central Africa have been forced out of school because of increasing violence in the region and attacks specifically targeting education facilities, UNICEF said Friday, saying it's triple the amount closed in 2017.
Attacks on schools in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where an Islamic extremist insurgency has grown, have doubled in the past two years, the agency said in its report, adding that those countries have seen a six-fold increase in school closures because of the violence.
"In many conflicts in ..

Report: West, Central Africa violence closes 9,000 schools

British royal documents including Queen Victoria's heart-wrenching, handwritten account of her husband Prince Albert's death have been put online, offering a firsthand account of her overwhelming grief.
Images of Victoria's leather-bound notebook have been uploaded as part of thousands of documents and photos on the website www.albert.rct.uk that went online Friday to mark next week's 200th anniversary of Albert's birth.
Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 until her death in 1901.
She and German-born Albert had nine children before he died of typhoid in 1861 at age 42.

Handwritten notes highlight British Queen Victoria's grief

Billionaire industrialist David H Koch, who with his older brother Charles was both celebrated and demonised for transforming American politics by pouring their riches into conservative causes, died Friday at 79.
The cause of death was not disclosed, but Koch Industries said Koch, who lived in New York City, had contended for years with various illnesses, including prostate cancer.
A chemical engineer by training, Koch was an executive in the family-run conglomerate, the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1980 and a major benefactor of educational, medical and cultural organisations.
But he and his brother became best known for building a political network dubbed the "Kochtopus" for its far-reaching support of conservative and libertarian causes and candidates.
The brothers in 2004 founded the anti-tax, small-government group Americans for Prosperity, which continues to be one of the most powerful conservative organizations in US politics.
"I was taught from a young ...

Billionaire conservative donor David Koch dies at 79

Australia moved into a strong position to retain the Ashes after skittling out England for 67 before pushing their lead to 194 runs on a wicket-tumbling second day of the third Test on Friday.
Holding a first-innings advantage of 112 runs, the Australians were 82-3 by tea with Marnus Labuschagne on 13 and Travis Head on 17.
One big partnership for Australia could push victory out of reach for England, who are 1-0 behind in the five-match series and cannot regain the urn if they lose at Headingley.
England posted their second-lowest Test total against Australia since 1904  beating only a score of 52 in 1948  and their 12th lowest in Test history. It is the fourth time since the start of 2018 that England has scored less than 100 in an innings.  By scoring 12, Joe Denly was the top scorer in England's capitulation  the lowest highest score ever in a test innings by the team.
Josh Hazlewood led the Australian attack with figures of 5-30, with fellow pacemen Pat Cummins (3-23) and James ..

Australia in strong position to retain Ashes in 3rd Test

A Moscow court has ruled to keep an American man suspected of spying in prison for two more months.
The court ruled on Friday to keep Paul Whelan behind bars at least until late October.
Whelan, who is reportedly kept in cramped conditions at a Moscow detention facility, felt unwell, and the court called an ambulance.
Paramedics, however, said he doesn't require hospitalisation.
The US Embassy last month said Whelan's condition has worsened.
Whelan, who also holds British, Irish and Canadian citizenship, was arrested in a hotel room in Moscow in December last year and charged with espionage, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
He has publicly complained of poor prison conditions and has said his life is in danger.

Moscow court extends arrest for American charged with spying

Rarely have French President Emmanuel Macron and superstar soccer players including Cristiano Ronaldo been on the same page, but when it comes to the fires that are devastating the Amazon, they're uniting in sounding the alarm.
Five-time world player of the year Ronaldo beat Macron to the punch with his tweet urging action on the Amazon that, by Friday morning, had already racked up more than a quarter-million likes.
Ronaldo tweeted: "The Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20 per cent of the world's oxygen and it's been burning for the past 3 weeks. It's our responsibility to help to save our planet."
Macron's tweet later was similarly urgent, saying "Our house is burning. Literally."
Macron put the Amazon fires on the agenda for the G-7 summit of world leaders that France is hosting this weekend.
Other soccer stars chimed in, too  unusual in the sport whose professionals are often reluctant to express views about off-pitch issues.
Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe, a World Cup ...

France's Macron, soccer stars unite against Amazon fires

Israel was responsible for the bombing of an Iranian weapons depot in Iraq lost month, US officials have confirmed, an attack that would mark a significant escalation in Israel's years-long campaign against Iranian military entrenchment across the region.
The confirmation comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is strongly hinting that his country is behind recent airstrikes that have hit bases and munitions depot belonging to Iran-backed paramilitary forces operating in Iraq.
The mystery attacks have not been claimed by any side and have left Iraqi officials scrambling for a response, amid strong speculation that Israel may have been behind them.
Earlier this week, the deputy head of the Iraqi Shiite militias, known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, openly accused Israeli drones of carrying out the attacks, but ultimately blamed Washington and threatened strong retaliation for any future attack.
Such attacks are potentially destabilising for Iraq and its ...

AP

AP

Page 1443 - Ap/pti

North Macedonia van crash kills migrant; 12 others injured

Major issues, minimal expectations for G-7 summit in France

Explosion in Iraq near Shiite mosque kills 3, wounds dozens

Iranian oil tanker pursued by US says it is going to Turkey

Florida man convicted in parking lot shooting of black man

US stocks tumble as US-China trade war rattles investors

US to open Greenland consulate amid increased interest

Trump asks appeals court to reconsider Twitter-blocking case

Trump asks appeals court to reconsider Twitter-blocking case

UN expert: No peace in Myanmar if no military prosecutions

'Our bigger enemy': Trump escalates attack on Fed chief '

Mexico sees jungle lakes evaporate amid lower rainfall

Illinois patient's death may be first in US tied to vaping

Authorities probe Sacramento light rail crash, 27 injured

Report: West, Central Africa violence closes 9,000 schools

Handwritten notes highlight British Queen Victoria's grief

Billionaire conservative donor David Koch dies at 79

Australia in strong position to retain Ashes in 3rd Test

Moscow court extends arrest for American charged with spying

France's Macron, soccer stars unite against Amazon fires