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 ...

Israel blamed for hit on Iran-backed militia depot in Iraq

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said South Korea's decision to cancel a deal to share military intelligence, mainly on North Korea, is damaging mutual trust and vowed Friday to work closely with the US for regional peace.
Abe also accused South Korea of not keeping past promises. The intelligence agreement started in 2016.
"We will continue to closely coordinate with the US to ensure regional peace and prosperity, as well as Japan's security," he said ahead of his departure for the Group of Seven summit of industrialised nations in France.
South Korea announced Thursday it would terminate the intelligence deal because Tokyo's decision to downgrade South Korea's preferential trade status had caused a "grave" change in the security cooperation between the countries.
Seoul says it will downgrade Tokyo's trade status as well, a change that would take effect in September.
Senior South Korean presidential official Kim Hyun-chong on Friday defended his government's decision.
He told ...

Japan leader says S Korea ending intel deal damages trust

Pakistani authorities have evacuated about 2,000 people from flood-affected areas after accusing India of opening a dam without warning earlier this week and swelling two rivers in Pakistan.
Pakistani rescue services deployed boats and with the help of the military, transported people to safety from the flooded areas around the Ravi and Indus Rivers.
They say the water, which had come from India's Sutlej River and Ladakh Dam, was receding Friday. The floodwaters entered Pakistan on Tuesday morning, damaging homes and crops in the region.
Pakistan says that under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty brokered by the World Bank, New Delhi is required to share information with Islamabad about rivers flowing into Pakistan.
Rains often trigger floods in Pakistan and India during monsoon season, which runs from June through September.

Pakistani authorities evacuate 2,000 from flood-hit areas

China on Friday criticised a decision by the government of Australia's New South Wales state to close Chinese-sponsored language programs in more than a dozen public schools over political concerns.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the 13 Confucius Institute programs operating in the schools had been "open, transparent and lawful" and a "win-win thing."
"But without communicating with China, the New South Wales state announced it was stopping this program. This shows no respect to the local people and students, it is not fair and not good for our people-to-people exchange," Geng said at a daily briefing.
"We hope Australia and the authorities in New South Wales can respect our cooperation and cherish the results of our cooperation, not politicise this normal exchange program and do more to contribute to our friendship and mutual trust," Geng said.
Confucius Institutes are run by a Chinese Education Ministry department known as Hanban and its teachers and curriculum are ...

China criticises Australian move to close language schools

Who knew a "peace park" could be so contentious? The Pacifist Memorial in the Boston suburb of Sherborn has been forced to take down a United Nations flag after residents objected.
Memorial founder Lewis Randa removed the flag and its flagpole last week because residents of the luxury townhome development where it's now located say the items violated their property agreement.
But Randa says he and others were simply restoring a flag, which he concedes was not part of the original memorial but had flown for decades on the grounds.
He said it's "inexcusable" that the UN flag isn't allowed when just next door, at the town's historic cemetery, a US flag flies beside a war memorial honouring the town's fallen soldiers.
"It is clear that the animosity felt by those who have long opposed the presence of the Pacifist Memorial in Sherborn is what is generating the opposition," Randa said.
"They claim it has nothing to do with the fact that it is a UN flag, but we all know if it was the US ...

'Peace park' removes United Nations flag after objections

Three people were missing Friday in southern Poland after a deadly thunderstorm with multiple lightning strikes hit the Tatra Mountains, killing five people and injuring over 150, rescuers said.
The thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon, which witnesses said came suddenly on a day that began with clear weather, produced an unimaginable emergency in the popular trekking region, said Jan Krzysztof, head of the TOPR Tatra emergency service.
"This is a situation that can be compared to a terrorist attack," Krzysztof said.
"A large group of random people has been hit. Many people, including children. Burnt, with broken legs, wounds all over their bodies."
He said rescuers on Friday were checking the slopes of the popular Giewont peak, which rises 1,894 meters (6,214 feet) high, for three people who have not returned to their accommodations following the storm and could not be reached by their families.
Two others thought missing were reached Friday morning.
Officials said the lightning storm .

Poland compares deadly lightning storm to terror attack

Malta says it will disembark 356 migrants aboard a humanitarian ship in the central Mediterranean Sea after six European countries agreed to accept all of them.
In a series of tweets Friday, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the migrants will be transferred from the Ocean Viking to vessels of the country's armed forces before taking them on shore.
The Norwegian-flagged rescue ship has been sailing between the island of Linosa and Malta.
It was stayed out of sight of land, fearing that could agitate the traumatised passengers.
Requests for a safe port were previously denied by Malta and ignored by Italy, according to Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee, the two charities running the ship.
The 356 will be distributed to France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Romania.

Malta to disembark 356 migrants en route to 6 EU countries

Marine resources officials in Thailand say an ailing 5-month-old dugong has died during surgery, just days after the much-publicised death of another dugong from what biologists believe was a combination of shock and ingesting plastic waste.
The latest dugong was found in July washed ashore in southern Thailand and put in a protected enclosure by marine experts.
It was found to have contracting stomach muscles and an X-ray showed a build-up of gas in its intestine together with seagrass clogging its stomach.
It died Thursday during surgery to have the seagrass removed.
Dugongs are listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and protected under Thai law.
There are about 250 in coastal waters. Experts say 17 have died this year, an abnormally high number.

Young dugong dies in Thailand in blow for vulnerable species

A man who says he has killed at least 90 women is expected to plead guilty to two Ohio slayings.
Samuel Little is scheduled Friday to appear via Skype from California state prison, where he's serving multiple life sentences.
Court documents show a Hamilton County Judge Melba Marsh will sentence the 80-year-old man after his pleads. A call seeking comment was left for Little's attorney.
Little is charged with the 1981 murder of 32-year-old Anna Stewart, last seen alive in Cincinnati. Her body was dumped in Grove City, near Columbus.
He's also charged with a second Cincinnati murder. That woman remains unidentified.
A Texas prosecutor says investigators have linked Little to more than 60 killings in at least 14 states.
Little claims at least 90 slayings across the country.

Man who claims serial killings to plead guilty in 2 deaths

Amid global concern about raging fires in the Amazon, Brazil's government complained Thursday that it is being targeted in smear campaign by critics who contend President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing enough to curb widespread deforestation.
The threat to what some call "the lungs of the planet" has ignited a bitter dispute about who is to blame during the tenure of a leader who has described Brazil's rainforest protections as an obstacle to economic development and who traded Twitter jabs on Thursday with France's president over the fires.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the wildfires an international crisis and said the leaders of the Group of 7 nations should hold urgent discussions about them at their summit in France this weekend.
"Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rain forest  the lungs which produces 20% of our planet's oxygen  is on fire," Macron tweeted.
Bolsonaro fired back with his own tweet: "I regret that Macron seeks to make personal political gains in an 

Global worry over Amazon fires escalates; Bolsonaro defiant

Australia and Vietnam on Friday expressed serious concern over tensions in the disputed South China Sea, where Hanoi says China's gas survey ship has infringed on its territory and has disrupted Vietnam's exploration activities.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met in Hanoi with his counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc and both leaders called for respect of international law and freedom of navigation.
Earlier the United States said it was deeply concerned that China is continuing to interfere with Vietnam's longstanding oil and gas activities in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone.
China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety and has deployed a survey vessel with armed escorts into waters off Vietnam, ignoring Hanoi's calls to leave the area.
"(We all need to uphold) principles that relate to freedom of navigation, freedom of overfly, ensuring that nations can pursuit and develop the opportunities that exist within their EEZ and within their sea boundaries, and they can go 

Australia, Vietnam concerned about China actions in sea row

As global leaders gather on two continents to take account of a darkening economic outlook, this is the picture they face: Factories are slumping, many businesses are paralyzed, global growth is sputtering and the world's two mightiest economies are in the grip of a dangerous trade war.
Barely a year after most of the world's major countries were enjoying an unusual moment of shared prosperity, the global economy may be at risk of returning to the rut it tumbled into after the financial crisis of 2007-2009.
Worse, solutions seem far from obvious. Central banks can't just slash interest rates. Rates are already ultra-low. And even if they did, the central banks would risk robbing themselves of the ammunition they would need later to fight a recession.
High government debts make it politically problematic to cut taxes or pour money into new bridges, roads and other public works projects.
"Our tools for fighting recession are no doubt more limited (than) in the past," said Karen Dynan, ..

As global economic picture dims, solutions seem out of reach

Yemeni security officials say forces loyal to the country's internationally recognised government have taken full control of a key southern city after overnight clashes with separatists.
The officials say the fighting over Etq, the capital of oil-rich Shabwa province, lasted until Friday morning.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter with reporters.
Etq was previously divided between President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government forces and a separatist militia trained by the United Arab Emirates.
The infighting between Hadi's forces and the separatists  ostensibly allies in Yemen's war against the Shiite Houthi rebels  erupted earlier this month.
At the time, the separatists, known as the Southern Transitional Council, launched an offensive to take strategic southern areas, including the city of Aden and the nearby Abyan province.

Yemeni government forces rout separatists from southern city

A UN special rapporteur on Friday challenged Malaysia's claim to have nearly ended poverty, saying there was "significant poverty" with an estimated one in six people in the Southeast Asian country considered poor.
Malaysia's official poverty rate fell from 49% in 1970 to just 0.4% in 2016.
Philip Alston, the U.N. rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said the rate was "extremely artificial," doesn't reflect the cost of living and excluded vulnerable populations.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government, which won a stunning election victory to oust a long-ruling coalition in 2018, has not commented on the report.
Alston said the national poverty line of 980 ringgit ($235) per household a month is "tragically low" as it would mean an urban family of four surviving on under USD 2 per person daily.
"While Malaysia has achieved undeniably impressive growth in reducing poverty in the last 50 years, the official claim that poverty has been eradicated or exists merely in small 

UN envoy challenges Malaysia's claim to near zero poverty

US officials have confirmed that Israel was responsible for the bombing of an Iranian weapons depot in Iraq last month, 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 Mobilization 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 destabilizing for Iraq and its 

US officials confirm Israeli strike in Iraq

The World Health Organization says it's theoretically possible to wipe out malaria, but probably not with the flawed vaccine and other control methods being used at the moment.
Dr. Pedro Alonso, the U.N. health agency's global malaria director, said WHO is "unequivocally in favor" of eradication, but that major questions about its feasibility remain.
In a press briefing on Thursday, Alonso acknowledged that "with the tools we have today, it is most unlikely eradication will be achieved."
Alonso was presenting the results of a WHO-commissioned report evaluating if eradicating malaria should be pursued. He said the experts concluded lingering uncertainties meant they were unable to formulate a clear strategy and thus, couldn't propose a definitive timeline or cost estimate for eradication.
WHO has long grappled with the idea of erasing malaria from the planet. An eradication campaign was first attempted in 1955 before being abandoned more than a dozen years later.
For decades, health ...

UN: Possible to eradicate malaria, but probably not soon

The Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong said Friday local staff aren't allowed to travel outside the city including to mainland China, in a move that comes days after a British Consulate worker was detained there.
The Chinese government's announcement this week that the British Consulate employee has been detained in neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen has stoked tensions in Hong Kong, which has been gripped by months of antigovernment protests.
"At present, locally engaged staff will not undertake official business travel outside of Hong Kong," the Canadian Consulate said in a statement.
It didn't say whether the travel restriction was directly related to the detention of the British Consulate staffer, Simon Cheng Man-kit, who went missing two weeks ago after he went on a business trip to the mainland city from Hong Kong's high-speed cross-border rail terminal.
China said this week Cheng had been placed in administrative detention for 15 days for violating public order regulations. It .

Canada halts Hong Kong consulate staff travel after UK case

He is a feared former defence official accused of condoning rape, torture and shadowy disappearances of critics, but to many Sri Lankans, the opposition's presidential candidate is the best choice to protect the South Asian island nation after attacks that killed over 250 people this year.
The younger brother and powerful right hand of a former strongman, Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa is seen as a hero by supporters for bringing a bloody end to a decadeslong civil war in 2009 and has cast himself as Sri Lanka's protector.
"I will accept responsibility for your safety, and the safety of your children and your loved ones," Gotabaya said as he launched his campaign this month. "I will never allow extremist terrorism in this country."
His message, met with thundering applause from supporters, resonates as the government faces blistering criticism for a high-level intelligence lapse that President Maithripala Sirisena has acknowledged allowed a group of radicalized Sri Lankans to carry out .

Sri Lanka attacks boost feared ex-official's bid for power

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said South Korea's decision to cancel a deal to share military intelligence is damaging mutual trust, and he vowed to work closely with the US for regional peace.
Abe also accused Seoul of not keeping past promises. The military agreement started in 2016.
"We will continue to closely coordinate with the U.S. to ensure regional peace and prosperity, as well as Japan's security," he said, ahead of his departure for the Group of Seven summit of industrialized nations in France.
South Korea said it made the decision because Tokyo downgraded South Korea's preferential trade status, which it said changed the security cooperation between the countries. Seoul says it will downgrade Tokyo as well, a change that would take effect in September.
South Korea accuses Japan of weaponizing trade to punish it over a separate dispute linked to Japan's brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Japan denies any retaliation.
Japan has long 

Japan leader says SKorea cancelling intel deal damages trust

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging the world to "stamp out anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim hatred, the persecution of Christians and other religious groups" on the first international day to remember people targeted for their religion and beliefs.
He said that "Jews have been murdered in synagogues, their gravestones defaced with swastikas; Muslims gunned down in mosques, their religious sites vandalized; Christians killed at prayer, their churches torched."
Guterres said Thursday's International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion and Belief was an opportunity to demonstrate support "by doing all in our power to prevent such attacks and demanding that those responsible are held accountable."
He urged rejection of those who "falsely and maliciously invoke religion" to spread fear and hatred.

UN chief urges world to stamp out religious persecution

Maldives' ex-vice president has testified in open court to have been an accomplice to his former president in corrupt dealings and says that he knew that a sum of laundered money was transferred to his former boss' bank account.
Ahmed Adeeb has told a criminal court Thursday that he has done illegal things on the advice of former president Yameen Abdul Gayoom, one of which was to facilitate laundering USD 1 million obtained through a corrupt deal leasing out an island for tourist resort development.
The company later transferred the money to Abdul Gayoom's account, Adeeb has claimed.
Adeeb has said that he has agreed to be a state witness and disclose all information.
Adeeb was a trusted confidante to Abdul Gayoom before being jailed in 2016 for allegedly trying to assassinate him.

AP

AP

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