Muslim scholars and environmental advocates from about 20 countries today called for a global phase-out of greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, joining a chorus of religious leaders urging the world to take strong action against global warming.
	Participants in a seminar in Istanbul said it was the first declaration of its kind from Islamic leaders, a voice many say has been missing from the debate on global warming.
	The move comes two months after Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change and other environmental issues and ahead of a key UN climate conference in Paris in December, where world leaders are supposed to adopt a landmark agreement to fight climate change.
	"I think this declaration will incentivise ambitious actions and spur the Muslim world, especially the oil producing countries," said Mohamed Adow, a Kenyan advocate for climate action who attended the seminar.
	Organisers said the declaration was "in harmony" with the pope's message and supported by the ...

Muslim scholars call for climate action

PTI Automatic

Six Syrian migrants, including an infant, drowned off the Turkish coast today as they tried to reach a Greek island, a rescuer said, underscoring the deadly risks taken by migrants making even short crossings to Europe in overcrowded smugglers' boats.
	Three more migrants survived for hours in the motorboat's overturned hull, breathing air trapped in a pocket, before being rescued by divers, the emergency worker said.
	Those who drowned were attempting perhaps the safest, shortest sea crossing in the risky journey to Europe, for the Greek island of Kos is only four kilometers from Turkey at its closest point.
	Turkish coast guards unloaded five body bags at the harbor in the western tourist town of Bodrum as the rescued migrants, one man clutching his head in his hands, sat on the wharf.
	A rescue team later found the drowned infant's body, said a member of the Bodrum Sea Rescue Association, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by coast guard officials to .

6 migrants drown off Turkish coast trying to reach Greece

The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City is launching a crowdfunding campaign to expand its Tibetan Buddhist shrine room.
	The museum says visitors can contribute to the "Find Your Focus" online campaign beginning September 1.
	The campaign will run through Oct. 23 on Razoo and the museum's website.
	A live fundraising event will be held at the museum September 9.
	The shrine room is dedicated to sacred Buddhist objects including textiles, sculptures and furniture.
	Under the expansion, the shrine room installation will be moved upstairs to the upcoming exhibition "Sacred Spaces."
	The Rubin focuses on the art of the Himalayas, India and surrounding regions.

NYC's Rubin Museum is crowdfunding to expand shrine room

France will reduce its search efforts for debris from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 after a 10-day search of the beaches and coastal waters off Reunion island in the Indian Ocean has turned up nothing new, authorities have said.
	A wing fragment found on the island last month was the first solid evidence of the fate of the plane that disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people aboard.
	Malaysian authorities say the piece is part of the plane, though French, US and Australian authorities haven't definitively identified it.
	Over the past 10 days, searchers scoured nearly 10,360 square kilometers of ocean using a plane, helicopters and a ship, but found "nothing suspected of having any connection to a plane," local authorities said in a statement.
	"In the absence of any new discovery of an object that could interest the ongoing investigation, it seems that the statistical chance of finding any debris from MH370 is extremely weak," the statement said.
	Searchers will now adopt a ..

France to reduce search efforts for MH370 debris off Reunion

A New York state man accused of trying to assemble a mobile X-ray device meant to kill people at a mosque and an Islamic center is on trial in federal court.
	Glendon Scott Crawford of Galway has pleaded not guilty to three charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. The trial began yesterday in Albany.
	His attorney says Crawford was targeted in an elaborate FBI plot, that no crime otherwise existed and the device was harmless.
	Eric Feight of Hudson was arrested in June 2013. He pleaded guilty six months later to providing material support to terrorists for building a remote control for the machine. His sentencing is scheduled for September.
	US authorities say Crawford, who has been jailed since his arrest, initiated the plot.

Trial for NY man in bid to make X-ray weapon, target Muslims

Five people have drowned off the Turkish coast as they tried to reach the Greek islands, underscoring the deadly risks of making even short crossings to Europe in overcrowded plastic dinghies.
	Early today, an Associated Press video and photo team saw the Turkish coast guard unload five body bags from a patrol boat as rescued migrants, one man with his head in his hands, sat on the wharf.
	A wailing young boy and a man were put into ambulances as survivors looked on.
	Details of the nationalities and identities of the dead were not immediately available.
	Bodrum coast guard declined comment. State-run Anadolu news agency also reported that five migrants drowned.

5 migrants trying to reach Greece drown off Turkish coast

Russian police say they have busted an international ring involved in producing contraband cheese worth about 2 billion rubles (USD 30 million), arresting six people.
	The Russian government a year ago banned imports of Western cheese and other agricultural products in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the US and European Union.
	In recent weeks, in tacit acknowledgment that the ban has been widely violated, the agricultural oversight agency has been publicising the destruction of tons of contraband food.
	Police announced today they broke up a ring that has been supplying "as cheese a product made from cheese rennet whose import into Russia is forbidden."
	The product was then fixed with counterfeit labels of known foreign cheese producers and sold in supermarket chains and distribution centers in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Russian police bust USD 30 million contraband cheese ring

Government-allied militia forces chased Tuareg separatists from a village in Mali's troubled north after days of fighting, the United Nations mission has said as it announced a safety parameter around a northern city to ensure civilian protection.
	At least 23 Tuareg separatists have been killed after three days of fighting with government-allied militias that broke a peace accord signed earlier this year, said Fahad Ag Mahmoud, a spokesman for the pro-government group GATIA.
	Mossa Ag Attaher, a spokesman for the main separatists Coordination of Azawad Movements, said some had been killed though he could not confirm the toll was that high.
	The UN said GATIA took over Anefis, a village that lies about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Kidal and is occupied by the separatist group, also known as CMA.
	This morning a security zone of 20 kilometers (12 miles) will go into effect, and the UN will act accordingly if any members of government-allied militias act within the area of safety, 

Pro-government fighters chase separatists from Mali village

The dental practice of a Minnesota man who killed a well-known lion in Zimbabwe has reopened.
	Walter Palmer's River Bluff Dental said in a tweet yesterday that it was beginning to see patients again. The tweet said Palmer wasn't at the office.
	Palmer's office in suburban Minneapolis had been closed since late July after a barrage of criticism for Palmer over the killing of a protected lion named Cecil.
	Palmer says he relied on his hunting guides to ensure a legal hunt in Zimbabwe.
	An Associated Press reporter saw people going in and out of River Bluff Dental. A security guard posted outside the building yesterday declined to answer questions and told the reporter he had to leave.
	Palmer has not returned repeated calls for comment.

Office of dentist who killed Cecil the lion reopens

Ecuadorean authorities have said that up to 325,000 people live in areas that could be threatened by fast-moving mud and rock flows if there is a major eruption of the Cotopaxi volcano.
	Top disaster official Maria del Pilar Cornejo briefed reporters as bad weather scrapped a planned flyover of the snow-capped 5,897-meter (19,600-foot) volcano, which is 50 kilometers south of Quito.
	Cotopaxi last rumbled Saturday, when it shot ash more than two miles high and spilled some lava. Four hundred people were evacuated briefly.
	The volcano began showing renewed activity in April. Its last major eruption was in 1877.
	President Rafael Correa decreed prior censorship Saturday on the volcano, worrying press freedom groups. All media are prohibited from publishing information about Cotopaxi that doesn't come from an official source.

About 325,000 live in shadow of Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano

Big wildfires burning near the central Washington resort town of Chelan were taking a toll on the region's main economic engines - tourism and the apple industry.
	Visitors stayed away and a big fruit warehouse filled with apples was destroyed by the fires, imperiling hundreds of jobs.
	Several large fires burning near Chelan have scorched more than 155 square miles, destroyed an estimated 50 homes Friday and Saturday and forced about 1,500 residents to flee.
	Scores of homes remain threatened, and mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for more than 2,700 people in the Chelan area.
	The Chelan fires were just some of the many destructive blazes burning throughout the Northwest. In northern Idaho, more than 40 homes were lost near the town of Kamiah, and in Oregon a lightning-sparked blaze on the Malheur National Forest has grown to more than 60 square miles and has destroyed at least 26 homes.
	So many fires are burning across the West that the National Interagency Fire ...

Big wildfires threaten resort town in Washington

A woman who was believed to be the oldest US veteran at 110 has died, about a month after meeting President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
	Emma Didlake died Sunday in Michigan, northwest of Detroit, according to a medical examiner's office.
	Didlake was a 38-year-old wife and mother of five when she signed up in 1943 for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. She served about seven months stateside during the war, as a private and driver.
	She spent time with the president in July during a trip to Washington that was arranged by Talons Out Honor Flight, a southwest Michigan chapter of a nonprofit that provides free, one-day trips for veterans to visit monuments and memorials in the US capital.
	"Emma Didlake served her country with distinction and honor, a true trailblazer for generations of Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country," Obama said yesterday in a statement.
	"I was humbled and grateful to welcome Emma to the White House last month, and Michelle and I send our 

Woman believed to be oldest US veteran dies at age 110

An archaeological dig at an 18th-century military site has uncovered large sections of stone walls that are believed to have been constructed within a larger British fortification that was never completed more than 250 years ago.
	The excavations at Lake George Battlefield Park wrapped up on Friday after digging numerous pits in an area that was occupied by thousands of British and Colonial American soldiers during the French and Indian War.
	Musket balls, gun flints and pottery pieces were among the artifacts found.
	David Starbuck, the archaeologist who led the dig, said the most significant find was the intact stone walls buried in a bastion of Fort George, which the British never finished building.
	In 1759, the commander of British forces in North America, Jeffery Amherst, ordered the construction of a large fort on rising ground near the lake's southern end, the site of two previous battles.
	With the British capture of the French fort at Ticonderoga in the summer of 1759, ...

US battleground dig uncovers British fort's stone walls

Washington drew a record 20.2 million visitors last year, with increases in international and domestic visitors, tourism officials announced today.
	The tourism bureau Destination DC said the city drew an all-time high number of tourists in 2014. The group released data on international visitors showing a 16 percent increase in overseas visitors, totaling 1.9 million international tourists.
	China, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, India, South Korea, Brazil, Japan and Italy were the top 10 markets for overseas visitors to Washington.
	International visitors are a small portion of total visitation but represent 27 percent of visitor spending with an average of USD 518 per stay, according to the data.
	For the fifth year, Washington also saw an increase in domestic visitors. In 2014, there were 18.3 million domestic tourists who visited the nation's capital, an increase of 5.7 percent over 2013.
	Overall visitor spending increased by USD 100 million from 2013 for a total .

Tourism officials say Washington had a record year in 2014

Pakistani airstrikes killed 65 militants today in two tribal regions along the Afghan border, the army said, part of a yearlong campaign against insurgents in rugged areas where they have long sheltered.
	Strikes in two areas of North Waziristan killed 50 militants and destroyed an ammunition cache, while strikes in the Khyber tribal region killed another 15, an army statement said.
	Militants who carry out attacks on both sides of the border have long been based in Pakistan's remote western tribal regions.
	The government launched a massive military operation in North Waziristan in June 2014 and vowed to step up its efforts in the wake of a Taliban attack on a school in December that killed some 150 people, mostly children.
	The airstrikes came a day after a twin suicide attack at the residence of Punjab provincial home minister Shuja Khanzada killed him and 17 others in the country's east.
	Khanzada was a vocal supporter of harsh government tactics against the militants. Last month, 

Pakistan: Airstrikes kill 65 militants near Afghan border

A 12-year-old girl who says she was raped by a UN peacekeeper in Central African Republic went through "a most brutal ordeal," the UN children's agency said, and the United Nations pledged again today to fully investigate all allegations of sexual misconduct and hold perpetrators accountable.
	Amnesty International last week accused peacekeepers of the rape, and of the indiscriminate killing of a 16-year-old boy and his father, in separate incidents Aug. 2 and Aug. 3.
	Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon then fired the head of the peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic, an unprecedented action.
	A spokeswoman for Ban, Vannina Maestracci, said investigations by U.N. Human rights and child protection officials and U.N. Police are continuing, and information has been handed to the U.N.'s internal watchdog. Preliminary findings will not be published to protect the confidentiality of victims and witnesses, she said.
	Maestracci said the investigations are "complicated by the large ...

UN: 12-year-old girl had 'brutal ordeal' in Africa attack

The United Nations humanitarian chief said today he is "horrified" by the attacks on civilians taking place in Syria, singling out in particular government airstrikes the previous day that killed nearly 100 people in a Damascus suburb.
	The protracted conflict not only "severely affects" the lives of millions of people in Syria but also threatens the stability of the entire region, Stephen O'Brien said at a press conference in Damascus.
	The stark warning comes amid a surge in violence as Syrian government troops, Islamic militants and rebels carried out attacks that killed and wounded dozens Monday, including in President Bashar Assad's coastal stronghold of Latakia.
	"Attacks on civilians are unlawful, unacceptable and must stop," O'Brien said, speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Syria, during which he met senior officials and visited the central province of Homs.
	Government air raids on Sunday killed at least 96 people in the eastern Damascus suburb of Douma, making it one 

UN official 'horrified' by attacks on Syria's civilians

Federal regulators have uncovered new violations by the manufacturer of medical scopes recently linked to outbreaks of deadly "superbug" bacteria at US hospitals.
	Olympus Corp. Failed to alert regulators to a cluster of 16 infections in patients who underwent procedures with the company's scope in 2012, according to a warning letter posted online today by the Food and Drug Administration. Olympus did not report the problems to the FDA until 2015, when the company was already under scrutiny for a more recent series of outbreaks.
	Medical device manufacturers are required to report serious device problems to the FDA within 30 days of learning about them. The infections reported to the company involved a bacterial strain called pseudomonas, which can cause pneumonia, severe sickness and death in hospital patients.
	Additionally, FDA inspectors found that the company has no standard procedure for promptly reporting serious problems with its devices, a requirement for medical device ...

FDA: scope manufacturer waited years to report problems

Two Citigroup Inc. Affiliates have agreed to pay USD 179.5 million to resolve federal regulators' charges of misleading investors in hedge funds that later collapsed.
	The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday the settlement with Citigroup Alternative Investments, a subsidiary of the bank, and Citigroup Global Markets, an affiliated company. The amount they are paying will be returned to investors in two hedge funds managed by the firms.
	The two firms neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing but did agree to refrain from future violations of securities laws.
	The SEC said the firms sold securities in two hedge funds from 2002 to 2007, raising nearly USD 3 billion from mostly wealthy investors or institutions. The agency says the fund managers falsely told prospective investors they were low-risk.

2 Citigroup affiliates paying USD 179.5M to resolve SEC case

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is taking a break from courting voters to go to court as a potential juror. He shook hands and fist-bumped bystanders as he reported for jury duty today at a Manhattan court.
	He arrived in a limousine and walked up the courthouse steps, waving. The Republican front-runner said last week he was "looking forward to appearing."
	The 75 or more potential jurors greeted him with murmurs. A court officer escorted him to a seat in the front row. Trump later took a 20-minute break to talk on his phone in the hall.
	While returning to the jury assembly room, he took a selfie with an attorney he encountered and signed a sketch artist's drawing.
	"Beautiful," he said.
	In celebrity-studded New York City, it's not unusual for famous names to be picked to show up in potential jury pools.
	Among them have been Caroline Kennedy, Woody Allen, Spike Lee and Madonna.
	Jury assembly supervisor Irene Laracuenta told the possible jurors that their commitment 

US presidential candidate Trump reports for jury duty in NYC

Iraq's judicial authority today rejected calls for the country's most senior Supreme Court judge to resign from his post, even though it was among the demands of protesters who took to the streets last week calling for widespread government reforms.
	The development comes as Iraq's Shiite-led government is mired in a war against the Islamic State group, which has captured a third of both Iraq and neighboring Syria.
	The Iraqi forces and their Sunni and Shiite allies have struggled to claw back territory from the Sunni militant group despite US-led coalition airstrikes targeting the extremists.
	Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, the spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council, said council members rejected calls for Judge Medhat Mahmoud "to retire." The council is Iraq's highest legal authority, composed of experts in civil law and Islamic law, or Sharia, and it appoints Supreme Court judges. "The public interest and justice at this stage require him to stay in his duties," Bayrkdar's statement ...

AP

AP

Page 2126 - Ap/pti