An airliner carrying 54 people was missing after a short flight in bad weather in Indonesia's mountainous easternmost province of Papua, and rescuers were heading to an area where villagers reported seeing a plane crash into a mountain, officials have said.
	The Trigana Air Service plane was flying from Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura, to the Papua city of Oksibil when it lost contact with Oksibil's airport, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata.
	There was no indication that the pilot had made a distress call, he said.
	The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 49 passengers and five crew members on the scheduled 42-minute journey, Barata said. Five children, including two infants, were among the passengers.
	Local media reports said all the passengers are Indonesians. The airline did not immediately release a passenger manifest.
	Oksibil, which is about 280 kilometers (175 miles) south of Jayapura, was experiencing heavy rain, strong winds and fog when the .

Indonesia rescuers head to mountains in missing plane search

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Kuwait's public prosecutor has issued a gag order to media on information related to a police raid that uncovered a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives hidden deep underground at a farm.
	The official Kuwait News Agency says three Kuwaitis, all members of a terrorist cell, were arrested during the raid on the farmhouse and three other houses. Police say they found 204 hand grenades, 65 guns, 56 rocket-propelled grenades and 317 pounds (144 kilograms) of bomb-making material.
	Local newspapers quoting unnamed security officials linked the cell to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group.
	Public Prosecutor Dherar al-Asousi was quoted in the official Kuwait News Agency saying today that he ordered the media blackout because speculative reports "harm" national unity and could "negatively impact" the investigation.

Kuwait issues gag order after raid on suspected terror cell

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi today ordered his Cabinet reduced from 33 members to just 22, consolidating the body as part of a major reform push in response to mass protests against corruption and poor governance.
	The decision, announced by his office, would eliminate four ministries, including those of human rights and women's affairs, and consolidate others.
	The move follows a far-reaching reform plan approved by parliament last week that eliminated the country's three vice presidencies and three deputy prime ministers, as well as reducing the budget for the personal bodyguards of senior officials and transferring it to the interior and defense ministries.
	Iraqis have held massive protests in recent weeks against corruption and poor government services, focusing in particular on power outages that have made a recent heat wave even more unbearable.
	Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has lent his support to demands for reform, and parliament ...

Iraq PM reduces Cabinet by one-third in reform push

Yemeni hospital and security officials say a powerful explosion has hit a hospital in the southern city of Aden, setting off a fire and leading to evacuations of patients. At least three people were wounded.
	They say the explosion Sunday at the May 22 hospital in Mansoura district forced doctors to bring patients to a nearby mosque, while others lay on the ground in public squares.
	The fighting in Yemen pits Shiite Houthi rebels and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and troops loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is exiled in Saudi Arabia.
	All officials spoke under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Explosion hits hospital in Yemen's southern city of Aden

The governing body of track and field has denied accusations that it suppressed the publication of a study in which a third of top athletes surveyed admitted to using banned performance-enhancing techniques.
     British newspaper The Sunday Times claimed that the authors of the survey say the IAAF blocked publication of the study, conducted at the 2011 world championship in Daegu, South Korea. The newspaper says the survey concluded that 29-34 percent of 1,800 competitors at the championships had violated anti-doping rules in the previous 12 months.
     The IAAF says it has "never vetoed publication of this article" and that it had "serious reservations as to the interpretation of the results made by the research group," which was from the University of Tubingen in Germany.

IAAF denies claims it blocked publication of doping study

The United States is withdrawing its Patriot missile system deployed near Turkey's border with Syria when its mandate expires in October.
	A joint Turkish and US announcement today said that the air-defence units could be returned to Turkey within a week if the need arises.
	It said US navy ships would be present in the Mediterranean to support Turkey's defence.
	The US, Germany and others deployed the batteries in 2013 to protect NATO ally Turkey after shells fired from Syria landed in the country.
	The US decision comes a day after Germany said it would withdraw some 250 troops stationed in Turkey when the mandate for their air-defense mission ends next year.
	Germany said the main threat in the region came from the Islamic State group which doesn't possess missiles.

US to withdraw Patriot missile system from Turkey

Demonstrators are taking to the streets of cities and towns across Brazil for a day of nationwide anti-government protests.
	Today's protests, which were called mostly via social media by a variety of groups, are seen as a barometer of popular discontent with President Dilma Rousseff. Her second term in office has been shaken by a snowballing corruption scandal involving politicians from her Workers' Party, as well as a spluttering economy, spiraling currency and rising inflation.
	Thousands of people brandishing green and yellow Brazilian flags streamed onto Rio's Copacabana Beach, and smaller demonstrations were under way in the Amazonian city of Belem and the central city of Belo Horizonte.
	It was the third large-scale anti-government demonstration this year.
	Rousseff's popularity ratings are at historic lows.

Anti-government protests sweep Brazil

Islamic State militants launched an attack against government troops today outside the militant- held city of Fallujah, killing at least 17 troops, officials said.
	Four suicide attackers drove explosives-laden military vehicles into government forces' barricades outside Fallujah, west of Baghdad, the officials, a police officer and an army officer, said. Clashes broke out afterward. The officials said 15 other troops were wounded.
	Both officers spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorisd to release information.
	The fall of Fallujah in January 2014 started the Islamic State group's dramatic blitz across Iraq. Since then, Islamic State group fighters have been advancing in Anbar province, the heartland of Iraq's Sunni minority. Iraqi troops lost the provincial capital, Ramadi, in May after more than a year of fierce clashes. Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the province amid continued fighting.
	Iraq's prime minister Haider al-Abadi said today he will launch an 

Iraq: Suicide attacks, clashes kill 17 troops near Fallujah

The African Union's top official says Burundi's recent violence shows there is a risk the country can slide into chaos with catastrophic consequences for the country and the surrounding region.
	Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairwoman of the African Union Commission, reacted today to the assassination the day before of former military chief Jean Bikomagu, which came days after the assassination of the president's security advisor Lieutenant General Adolphe Nshimirimana. In a statement Dlamini- Zuma stressed the need for dialogue.
	Burundi has been rocked by violence since April when President Pierre Nkurunziza launched his re-election bid for a third term in office. Nearly 100 people died in street protests against Nkurunziza's third term. Nkurunziza won widely disputed elections last month. In recent weeks, opposition and government officials have been victims of targeted killings.

African Union: Burundi at risk of sliding further into chaos

Syrian government warplanes attacked a busy market in a rebel-held suburb of the capital Damascus today, killing at least 82 people and wounding more than 200 in one of the deadliest single incidents involving government airstrikes since the crisis began nearly five years ago, activists said.
	Syrian government air raids on rebel-held areas throughout the country have killed thousands over the past few years.
	The air raids on the market in Douma occurred during rush hour when people were out shopping on the first working day of the week in Syria, the activists said.
	"This is an official massacre that was carried out deliberately," said Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said warplanes fired the first missile and minutes later when people gathered in the aftermath, another missile hit the same area.
	Abdurrahman, whose group has a network of activists around the country, said a total of four missiles were fired on the market, killing 

Air raids near Syrian capital kill more than 80

An Indonesian airliner carrying 54 people went missing today after losing contact with ground control during a short flight in bad weather in the country's mountainous easternmost province of Papua, officials said.
	Local villagers told authorities that they saw a plane crash into a mountain, and scores of rescuers were heading to the remote area and will begin searching there at daybreak tomorrow. An air search for the missing plane was suspended and will resume tomorrow as well.
	The Trigana Air Service plane was flying from Papua's provincial capital, Jayapura, to the Papua city of Oksibil when it lost contact with Oksibil's airport, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Julius Barata. There was no indication that the pilot had made a distress call, he said.
	The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 49 passengers and five crew members on the scheduled 42-minute journey, Barata said. Five children, including three infants, were among the passengers.
	The weather was poor ...

Indonesian airliner carrying 54 goes missing over Papua

Julian Bond, a US civil rights activist and longtime board chairman of the NAACP, a group that fights discrimination against black people, has died at age 75.
	Bond died last night in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, after a brief illness, the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement today.
	The Nashville, Tennessee native was considered a symbol and icon of the 1960s US civil rights movement. As a Morehouse College student, Bond helped found the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and as its communications director, he was on the front lines of protests that led to the nation's landmark civil rights laws.
	Bond later served as board chairman of the 500,000-member NAACP for 10 years but declined to run again in 2010. Bond also served in the Georgia state legislature and was a professor at American University and the University of Virginia.
	The SPLC called Bond a "visionary" and "tireless champion" for civil and human rights.
	"With Julian's passing, the country has lost one .

Longtime US civil rights activist Julian Bond dead at 75

Libya's internationally recognised government has appealed to Arab countries to carry out airstrikes against the local Islamic State affiliate which is expanding its hold on the coastal central city of Sirte.
	The statement late yesterday came after the IS affiliate seized control of a new neighborhood in Sirte. The affiliate shelled the area, killed a senior cleric and hung the bodies of prisoners they killed over bridges.
	The government also called for an end to the arms embargo imposed since 2011.
	The Arab League said today it will hold an emergency meeting on Libya Tuesday.
	Egypt, which is lobbying for a more active international role in Libya against IS, has carried out multiple airstrikes inside Libya against IS, including some after the group killed 21 Egyptian hostages held in Libya.

Libya government calls for Arab airstrikes against IS

Activists say that air raids on a suburb of the Syrian capital have killed more than 50 and wounded scores.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the attack on a busy market in Douma killed 58 and wounded more than 200.
	A Douma-based activist who goes by the name of Mazen al-Shami said the air raids struck the main market today, adding that more than 60 have been killed.
	Al-Shami said hundreds of people were in the busy market when the first missile struck the area, inflicting heavy casualties.
	Syria's civil war, now in its 5th year, has killed more than 250,000 people and wounded at least a million.

Air raids near Syrian capital kill more than 50

Iran's official IRNA news agency is reporting around 50 hard-line students and activists have staged a rally, calling on the parliament to reject the landmark nuclear deal reached with world powers last month.
	Today's report said the protesters carried signs outside the parliament building decrying the agreement as an "injustice to our nation."
	Lawmaker Zohre Tayebzadeh addressed the crowds, claiming the deal crosses "red lines" by allowing the US to supervise Iran's uranium enrichment program.
	Iran's parliament and the Supreme National Security Council, the country's highest security decision-making body, are to consider the agreement in the coming days.

Iranian hardliners call for rejection of nuclear deal

President Rafael Correa has declared a state of emergency over increasing activity in the Cotopaxi volcano near the capital of Quito, and officials evacuated a few hundred people as a precaution.
	The decree gives authorities more flexibility in using government funds to deal with any problems.
	Eruptions beginning Friday have shot ash more than two miles (five kilometres) into the sky, spreading fine gray powder over roads, homes and cars in the region as far as the capital 30 miles (50 kilometres) to the north.
	Presidential legal secretary Alexis Mera said further ash explosions and some pyroclastic flows on the volcano's western slopes yesterday led officials to evacuate some nearby villages.
	Cotopaxi is considered one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes due to a glacial cover that makes it prone to fast-moving volcanic rock and mud flows, known as lahares. The 19,600-foot (5,987-meter) snow-capped volcano also is close to the heavily populated area around Quito. It last had .

Ecuador declares emergency as volcano near capital spews ash

An Indonesian airliner carrying 54 people has lost contact over the country's easternmost province of Papua, an official said today

Indonesian airliner carrying 54 loses contact over Papua

Indonesian officials: Airliner with 54 people loses

Malaysia's prime minister has a problem: He can't explain away a USD 700 million bank account to a skeptical public.
	His response? A crackdown on critics and the press that has kept him in power but doesn't address a deep reservoir of dissatisfaction with his leadership.
	Less than a month after leaked documents suggested that USD 700 million from entities linked to debt-ridden state investment fund 1MDB was funneled into Prime Minister Najib Razak's accounts, he has expelled critics in his government, sacked the attorney-general probing him, suspended two newspapers, blocked a UK-based website and stalled investigations over the scandal.
	It is the first time a Malaysian leader has faced criminal allegations, and news of possible graft at the top level has gripped the country. It is also the biggest political crisis for Najib since he took power in 2009. Concerns over 1MDB also contributed to the Malaysian currency plunging to a 17-year low beyond 4 ringgit to the dollar on ...

Malaysian leader silences critics, media to survive scandal

Vice President Joe Biden has called the slaying of four Marines and a sailor at a Chattanooga reserve center the act of a "perverted jihadist."
	Biden's comments came at a memorial to the five servicemen killed in a shooting rampage by Kuwait-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.
	"These perverse ideologues, warped theocrats, they may be able to inspire a single lone wolf to commit a savage act, but they can never, never threaten who we are," Biden said. "When this perverted jihadist struck, everyone responded."
	The vice president's strong words contrast with the official comments of investigators who have not yet been able to determine a motive behind the attack.
	The FBI has said it has not been able to determine whether the 24-year-old Abdulazeez was "radicalized" before the July 16 attacks and has been treating him as a homegrown violent extremist.
	Speaking before Biden, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said officials may never know "what combination of disturbed mind, violent ...

Biden calls Chattanooga shooter a 'perverted jihadist'

Two parachutists were seriously injured Saturday during the Chicago Air & Water Show, fire officials said, and witnesses reported seeing one of the performers clip a building.
	The two men were taken in serious-to-critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Saturday morning, Fire Department spokesman Juan Hernandez said.
	He said witnesses told first responders that at least one of the parachutists collided with a building in the lakefront Gold Coast neighborhood, but the Fire Department had not confirmed whether that was the case.
	Spectator Heather Mendenhall told the Chicago Tribune she was watching the show from a rooftop and saw one of the parachutists clip the roof next door with his feet and fall, with his parachute trailing behind him.
	"His legs caught the tip of the roof, and then he fell over. It was horrible," she told the newspaper.
	She said he looked unconscious as he hit the roof. A maintenance worker on the same roof called paramedics, she said.
	"If ...

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