Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday scoffed at sanctions imposed by the European Union and accused Brussels of doing US President Donald Trump's bidding.
"I don't care about the European Union sanctions, the sanctions of the European Union make us laugh," Maduro told a press conference, saying the EU was "sinking in the mud of Donald Trump's failed Venezuela policy."
The EU imposed sanctions on Friday on seven Venezuelan intelligence and security officials on charges they tortured to death Rafael Acosta, a naval officer accused of plotting a coup.
Europe's sanctions came a day after US President Donald Trump tightened American sanctions on Maduro's regime, suspending senior members of the Venezuelan government from entering the United States.
EU ambassadors approved the sanctions on Wednesday as the bloc seeks to keep up pressure on Maduro. The punitive measures impose European travel bans and asset freezes.
Venezuela is caught in an economic crisis and a political standoff .

Maduro scoffs at EU sanctions

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House Democratic leaders on Monday slapped Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani with a subpoena to turn over Ukraine-related documents as part of an accelerating formal presidential impeachment probe.
"Pursuant to the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry, we are hereby transmitting a subpoena that compels you to produce the documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by October 15, 2019," wrote House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff and the chairs of two other panels conducting investigations.
The chairmen are seeking all communications by Giuliani and three other attorneys related to Trump's effort -- now at the heart of impeachment proceedings -- to pressure Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch "politically-motivated investigations" against 2020 White House hopeful Joe Biden and his son.

House subpoenas Trump lawyer Giuliani for docs in impeachment probe

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said Monday that Caracas would not tolerate the presence of Colombian rebels on its territory, after Bogota gave the UN alleged evidence of its support for leftist guerrillas.
"We don't accept any armed groups, of any badge, on Venezuelan territory. This is an order I've given to the armed forces," Maduro told a news conference in Caracas.
He said the order was "fully" carried out during recent military exercises involving thousands of Venezuelan forces that heightened tensions with its neighbor.
Bogota has long accused Maduro's socialist regime of giving leftist rebels a refuge, and last week, Colombian President Ivan Duque said he gave the United Nations photographic evidence that Venezuela was sheltering ELN rebels and FARC dissidents.
However, some of the photos in the 128 page dossier -- including one purportedly showing guerrillas indoctrinating children in Venezuela's Tachira state -- were found to have been taken in Colombia.
"Duque was a ..

Venezuela's Maduro denies sheltering Colombian rebels

A woman was killed and dozens detained in a Kurdish-run camp in northeast Syria holding families of Islamic State group jihadists, a Kurdish official said.
Security incidents have been on the rise in the crowded camp of Al-Hol, which houses families of IS fighters among its 70,000 residents, with foreign women and their children separated from Syrian and Iraqi inhabitants.
"One woman was killed and six others were wounded in the sector reserved for foreign women," an official of the Kurdish administration in semi-autonomous northeast Syria told AFP, declining to be named.
He said security forces detained 40 women from the foreigners' section at the camp.
According to the source, IS women who had set up "courts" to try their peers had stabbed to death a woman whom the camp's security personnel had been trying to rescue.
But local Kurdish news agency Anha gave a different account.
It said that an intervention by the security forces in the foreigners' section triggered an exchange of ...

Woman killed, dozens detained in Syria camp: Kurd source

Sudan's prime minister has met a senior Darfur rebel leader living in France, President Emmanuel Macron said Monday, hailing an "essential step" for peace in the troubled east African nation.
"We facilitated talks that Prime Minister (Abdalla) Hamdok had yesterday with Abdulwahid Nur, who is in our country," Macron said at a press conference with Hamdok after discussions in Paris.
"I think the step taken yesterday is an essential step," he added.
"The Sudanese deserve to finally live in peace and security." Nur, who is exiled in France, leads the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA/AW), which does not recognise Hamdok's government, which is tasked with leading the country's transition to civilian rule.
Hamdok said that his meeting with Nur, which he had expected to last 30 minutes, went on for nearly three hours and involved "very profound exchanges".
"We discussed the roots of the Sudanese crisis and possibilities for a solution and... we are going to lay the first stones for this edifice .

Sudan PM meets Darfur rebel chief in 'essential' step to peace: Macron

Suspected jihadists staged twin attacks Monday on two Malian military posts near the border with Burkina Faso, killing two civilians and burning 22 vehicles, local officials and the army said.
The camps at Mondoro and Boulkessy in central Mali "were attacked this morning... by terrorists", the Malian armed forces said in a tweet.
"Armed jihadists came at night to Mondoro. They went to the command post of the camp... and fired. The army withdrew. The jihadists' fire killed two civilians and wounded three," a local official said.
"The assailants made off with two vans filled with ammunition, two camels and 12 cows," the official added.
The other camp at Boulkessy -- run by the Malian army and G5 Sahel, a five-nation joint taskforce created in 2014 to try to tackle jihadist violence in the region -- was attacked by suspected members of the Ansarul Islam outfit, the G5 said in a statement.
They came on "several vehicles loaded with heavy arms and on motorbikes," it said, without giving ...

Two killed as jihadists attack Mali military posts

- S House Republican Chris Collins, President Donald Trump's first supporter in Congress, is resigning his seat, a leadership spokesman said Monday ahead of the lawmaker's expected guilty plea to federal securities fraud.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office is "in receipt of a letter of resignation," a senior Democratic aide told AFP. The resignation takes effect Tuesday.
Collins was indicted last year for using privileged information about an Australian biotech firm, on whose board he sat, to help his son avoid major financial losses before the company's stock plunged in value.
The 69-year-old lawmaker representing western New York narrowly won re-election in November 2018 despite the indictment hanging over him.
Collins, his son Cameron Collins and a third man were to be tried next February, and all were to plead not guilty.
But a document filed Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan showed that a change of plea would occur for all three men at a hearing Tuesday, The New York 

Republican Collins, early Trump backer, resigns from Congress

The Spanish government does not need a building permit to remove the remains of late dictator Francisco Franco from a grandiose mausoleum near Madrid, Spain's Supreme Court said in a ruling made public Monday rejecting an appeal against the exhumation by the late dictator's descendants.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist government has made moving Franco's remains from a basilica at the Valley of the Fallen near Madrid to a more discreet location a priority since it took office in June 2018, arguing the country could not "continue to glorify" the dictator who died in 1975.
It had initially planned to move his remains to a family tomb on June 10 but just days beforehand the Supreme Court suspended the exhumation pending the outcome of an appeal by Franco's heirs.
In addition, an administrative judge in February 2019 had suspended the building permit to begin work to remove the remains from the basilica.
But in a unanimous decision issued last Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided to 

No building permit needed for Franco exhumation, Spain's Supreme court rules

Russia on Monday said it was "bewildered" by fresh US sanctions and vowed to retaliate following what it called an "anti-Russian attack".
The foreign ministry said the new sanctions on several Russians  -- including a businessman tied to President Vladimir Putin and a disinformation operation accused of conspiring to manipulate the US 2018 midterm election -- "will not go unanswered."
"We urge American politicians to stop this useless sanctions game, the result of which is zero, and to return to the position of common sense," the ministry said in a statement.
The financial sanctions, which target Russian financier Evgeny Prigozhin, some of his assets and the so-called Internet Research Agency, are the first to be taken under an executive order signed last year President Donald Trump seeking to punish foreign actors accused of interfering in US elections.
The US Treasury announced the sanctions on Monday.
The foreign ministry said the sanctions were part of an "internal political ...

Moscow vows to retaliate over new 'anti-Russian' US sanctions

Canada is in talks with the United States to seek ways for both to reduce their dependance on China for rare earth elements, key minerals for high-tech products, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.
He said that in his last meeting with US President Donald Trump, "I highlighted that Canada has many of the rare earth minerals that are so necessary for modern technology."
Trudeau emphasized that Canada "is a solid ally" and can offer "a reliable supply" of rare earth minerals, many of which currently "come from China."
It is in Canada's interest, Trudeau said, "to ensure that we have reliable supplies of these important minerals for technologies and it is a conversation that our government is leading on."
The remarks followed a report in the Globe and Mail newspaper that Canada and the United States are drafting plans to reduce their mutual dependance on China for rare earth minerals such as lithium, uranium, cesium and cobalt.
China controls more than 90 percent of the world's ...

Canada, US seek to reduce dependency on China for rare earth minerals

US government officials say they have charged an American citizen living in California with acting as a spy for China.
US Attorney David L Anderson says the charges involving national security against 56-year-old Xuehua (Edward) Peng were unsealed Monday.
He's accused of being an illegal foreign agent and delivering classified United States national security information to officials in the People's Republic of China.
Anderson says Peng is charged with using secret locations to deliver information, delivering payments, and personally carrying to Beijing secure digital cards containing classified information related to US national security.
The complaint says the Hayward, California, resident acted at the direction and under the control of officials in China in retrieving classified information passed to him by a confidential human source from 2015 to 2018.

US citizen accused of spying on behalf of Chinese government

Pakistan marked the return of ODI cricket in Karachi after 10 years with a 67-run victory over Sri Lanka in the second one-day international on Monday.
Babar Azam formed the backbone of Pakistan's strong total of 305-7 as he smashed 115 off 105 balls. Babar also became the fastest Pakistani batsman to complete 1,000 ODI runs in a calendar year in 19 matches.
In the absence of some key players who pulled out of the tour due to security concerns, Sri Lanka was bowled out for 238 in 46.5 overs.
Shehan Jayasuriya (96) missed out on a maiden ODI hundred and Dasun Shanaka made a career-best 68 before both fell in successive overs after sharing a century partnership.
Left-arm fast bowler Usman Shinwari rattled Sri Lanka's inexperienced top order and reduced the visitors to 28-5 before Jayasuriya and Shanaka shared a 177-run sixth-wicket stand.
Shinwari returned and broke the partnership by having Jayasuriya caught behind and finished with 5-51. Shanaka was brilliantly snapped at midwicket by 

Pakistan marks return of ODIs in Karachi with 67-run win

Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni was sentenced in a Rabat court Monday to one year in jail for having had an "illegal abortion" and sexual relations outside marriage.
Her gynaecologist was given two years and her Sudanese fiance one year in prison, while an anaesthetist was handed a one-year suspended sentence and a medical assistant eight months, also suspended.
Lawyers for 28-year-old Raissouni had called for her acquittal during the trial, denying she had had an abortion.
"This trial had no foundation -- the accusations were baseless," said defence lawyer Abdelmoula El Marouri after the verdict.
A journalist for Akhbar Al-Yaoum -- an Arabic-language newspaper which has a history of run-ins with the authorities -- Raissouni was sentenced under Article 490 of the legal code of the Muslim kingdom.
That article punishes sexual relations out of wedlock, while the law also forbids all abortions unless the mother's life is in danger.
Meriem Moulay Rachid, lawyer for the convicted ...

Morocco journalist gets 1-year jail for 'illegal abortion'

Former US Army chief General Mark Milley became the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Monday, taking on the sensitive role as President Donald Trump's top military advisor.
"You can rest assured that I will always provide you informed, candid and impartial military advice," he said after being sworn in in Trump's presence.
In concluding remarks, Trump responded: "You're my friend, you're my advisor and you deserve this position. I never had a doubt."
A former ice hockey player, the 61-year-old Milley served in Iraq and Afghanistan and held major commands before becoming chief of staff of the army in 2015.
He is a graduate of Princeton University, earned a masters in international studies from Columbia University and attended MIT's National Security Studies Program.
He succeeds Marine General Joe Dunford, who was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs by former president Barack Obama in 2015 but kept by Trump for a second two-year term.
Milley benefits from a change in the law ..

General Mark Milley sworn in as Trump's top military advisor

In a major reshuffle of diplomats, Pakistan on Monday removed Maleeha Lodhi and appointed Munir Akram as the country's permanent representative to the United Nations.
The development came merely a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan returned from the US, where he raised the Kashmir issue in his maiden address to the UN General Assembly last week.
"Ambassador Munir Akram has been appointed as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in New York, in place of Dr Maleeha Lodhi," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
However, it gave no reason for her removal.
In his speech that went on for about 50 minutes, far exceeding the 15-minute limit for UN speeches during the General Debate, Khan devoted half of his address to the Kashmir issue, warning that if there's face-off between two nuclear-armed neighbours, the consequences would be far beyond their borders.
His war rhetoric was in sharp contrast to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's peace message from the same podium ..

Pakistan removes Lodhi, appoints Akram as UN envoy

Iraq and Syria on Monday opened a key border crossing between the two neighbouring countries, seven years after it was closed during Syria's civil war and the battle against the Islamic State group.
The opening of the crossing linking the Iraqi town of Qaim and Syria's Boukamal is expected to strengthen trade between the two Arab countries.
But it is also a boost to Iran's influence in the region, allowing Iran-backed militias in Iraq easier access to eastern Syria at a time of soaring tensions in the region between Tehran and Washington following the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers.
The area has been a point of friction between US-backed Kurdish fighters, and Syrian government troops and their Iranian-backed allies.
In a symbolic gesture, Syrian Interior Minister Major General Mohammed Khaled Rahmoun, accompanied by Syrian troops, crossed onto the Iraqi side of the border, where troops from both countries hugged and took selfies.
Scores of Iraqis and Syrians who ...

Iraq and Syria open border crossing closed since 2012

A picture of a small parrot "locked up" in a Dutch police cell is giving new meaning to jailbird -- and on Monday attracted a flurry of chirpy comments on social media.
When police arrested the bird's owner on suspicion of shoplifting in the central Dutch city of Utrecht on Thursday, they found the little bird nestled on the suspect's shoulder.
Local law enforcement did not have a bird cage on hand while processing the man, so the feathered felon was promptly put in a Dutch police cell with a sandwich and water.
Police posted the picture of the lonely bird on Instagram. It was then reworked by a local news station which placed a black bar over its eyes "to protect its identity." "We recently arrested a suspect in shoplifting case," police said in the post.
"During the arrest we found a secret witness with feathers and a beak on the suspect's shoulder," police said.
"We then realised to our shock that we did not have a bird cell or cage," the police said tongue-in-cheek, adding that ...

Picture of Dutch 'jailbird' sparks social media storm

North Korea decried the stalled state of its nuclear standoff with the United States and told the international community Monday that the fault lies with Washington's "political and military provocations".
"It depends on the US," North Korean Ambassador Kim Song said, whether the negotiations "will become a window of opportunity or an occasion that will hasten the crisis".
Speaking at the UN General Assembly's major annual gathering, he complained that the US and South Korea are failing to follow through on separate summit pledges.
"The situation on the Korean peninsula has not come out of the vicious cycle of increased tension, which is entirely attributable to the political and military provocations perpetrated by the US," the ambassador said.
Negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang have apparently been frozen since a summit between Trump and leader Kim Jong Un broke down in February, though Trump and Kim met in June at the Korean border in an effort to push things ...

North Korea complains at UN about US 'provocations'

Pakistan's police say a suicide bombing has killed a policeman and wounded three others in the country's restive southwest.
Local police chief Mohammad Zaman says Monday's attack took place in the town of Loralai in the Baluchistan province.
Zaman said the bomber rode his motorcycle into a police vehicle, killing himself in the blast.
No group immediately claimed the attack.
Baluchistan is the scene of a low-level insurgency by separatists demanding more autonomy and a greater share in the region's natural resources such as gas and oil.
The province also has a strong presence of militants, sharing a border with war-torn Afghanistan.

Suicide bomber kills policeman in Pakistan's southwest

Russia says transcripts of calls between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin can only be published on mutual accord.
The White House has severely restricted the distribution of memos detailing Trump's calls with foreign leaders, including Putin.
Asked about Congress' push for the publication of Putin-Trump calls, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that "the publication is possible only on mutual accord".
Peskov noted that "diplomatic practice doesn't envisage such publications," but added "if we receive some signals from the US, we will consider it."
The rough transcript of Trump's call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which was released by the White House, is now the focus of a US impeachment probe.
It showed Trump urging Ukraine to "look into" his Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

Russia: Our approval is needed to publish Trump-Putin calls

Qatar confidently promised there would be "no empty seats" when it first bid for the World Athletics Championships -- three days into the 2019 championships that promise rings as hollow as the Doha stadium.
One of the greatest athletes of all time, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, won a record fourth 100 metres title in front of a sparse crowd on Sunday with officials and friends and family of the athletes making up a large proportion of the spectators.
Although Doha hosts a Diamond League meeting, athletics has no real roots in Qatar and the decision to take the World Championships to the Gulf raised eyebrows.
Fans even left before local medal hope Abderrahman Samba had run his heat on Friday in the men's 400 metres hurdles.
It is not the image the International Association of Athletics Federations and its newly re-elected president Sebastian Coe -- who normally has a sure political touch -- would have wished for in the first championships since the sport's huge drawcard Usain Bolt retired ..

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