Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a major parliamentary defeat over his Brexit strategy on Tuesday, which could delay Britain's exit from the European Union next month and force an early election.
Just six weeks after taking office, the Conservative leader was hit by a huge rebellion among his own MPs that leaves him without a working majority in the House of Commons.
They joined with opposition MPs to begin the process of drafting legislation intended to stop Johnson taking Britain out of the EU on October 31 if he has not agreed a deal with Brussels.
The prime minister had warned that anyone who voted against him would be expelled from the party.
He is now expected to table a motion for an early election before parliament on Wednesday, with the poll date expected before a crucial EU summit on October 17 and 18.
However, it is not certain he will succeed as it requires the support of two-thirds of MPs -- and the opposition Labour party is deeply distrustful of Johnson's ...

British MPs defeat Johnson on Brexit, election looms

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Tunisia's judiciary on Tuesday rejected an appeal to release media mogul and presidential candidate Nabil Karoui, said his lawyers, who have requested that he be able to campaign.
Arrested on money laundering charges on August 23, Karoui was indicted in early July shortly after announcing he intended to run for the presidency in polls set for September 15.
After the rejection of Karoui's appeal on Tuesday, one of his lawyers, Mohamed Zaanouni, said his client was awaiting another appeal hearing.
"We hope to have an audience quickly, so that the rights of Mr Karoui with regard to his candidacy are respected." Karoui's candidacy has been confirmed by Tunisia's electoral commission (ISIE).
He was among 26 candidates given the green light on Saturday, with ISIE head Nabil Baffoun saying even convicted candidates could take part as long as the verdict against them does not specifically say they are banned from running in an election.
Tunisia's presidential election was brought forward from 

Tunisia judiciary rejects release of presidential runner

Several hundred government opponents rallied outside Britain's parliament Tuesday ahead of a Brexit vote in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to be defeated by rebels in his Conservative party.
Protesters held up signs reading "Stop The Coup" and "Defend Our Parliament" -- a reference to Johnson's decision last week to drastically reduce the number of days parliament can debate Brexit ahead of an October 31 deadline.
"It's quite disgusting really, what the government is doing. I don't think they are listening to the people," said Rachel Power, a self-employed woman who brought two dogs -- one draped in the EU flag and the other in the UK flag.
John Wetherall, a retired chemical engineer, said he hoped Brexit would be delayed to avoid Britain crashing out of the European Union on October 31 without an overall agreement.
"Coming out of the EU with no deal at all is the worst possible option," he told AFP, echoing some of the arguments being made inside the parliament ...

Rally outside parliament as crunch Brexit vote looms

The US is confident of a reset in transatlantic relations when a new EU leadership takes office later this year, Washington's top envoy to Brussels said on Tuesday.
US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told reporters that a series of meetings this week between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the EU's incoming top officials went "extraordinarily well".
US and Europe have been caught up in a series of feuds over trade, Brexit, ties with Iran and climate change that Europe blames on the go-it-alone diplomacy of President Donald Trump.  "The secretary made this trip solely and exclusively to see the four EU leaders with the objective of resetting our relationship," Sondland said after Pompeo's meetings.
"Our relationship had reached multiple impasses on multiple fronts and resulted in a lot of uncomfortable, cranky conversations," he said.
Pompeo met Ursula von der Leyen, who will become president of the Commission, the EU's incoming foreign policy supremo, Josep ...

US eyes 'reset' to EU ties, says envoy

Syrian regime defences Tuesday confronted drones headed towards a key airbase of government ally Russia in northwest Syria, state media said, on the fourth day of a ceasefire in the region.
"The sounds that were heard over the city of Latakia are the result of territorial defences confronting drones dispatched by the terrorists in the de-escalation area towards the Hmeimim base," state news agency SANA said, using its blanket term for rebels and jihadists.
A fragile ceasefire has held in northwest Syria since early Saturday after months of deadly bombardment by the regime and Russia on the jihadist-run region of Idlib.
The regime-held coastal city of Latakia and Russia's Hmeimim airbase lie to its west.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said there was no immediate report of casualties.
Regime and Russian bombardment have killed more than 960 civilians in Idlib since the end of April, according to the Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria for 

Regime 'confronts' hostile drones in northwest Syria: state media

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso landed in Paris for environment talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday aboard a luxury private Boeing 787 Dreamliner, sources said.
Talks were focused on the fate of the Republic of Congo's basin forest, commonly referred to as the "second green lung" of the planet after the Amazon.
The aircraft, registered as 2-DEER, set off from Brazzaville Sunday evening and landed near Paris shortly after 0600 GMT, according to flight tracker websites FlightAware and Flightradar24.  Congolese authorities did not respond immediately to comments about the plane when contacted by AFP.
The plane is one of the most luxurious on the market.
It has a 220-square-metre (more than 2,300 square-foot) cabin, which includes a lounge-dining room, bedroom, bathroom and dozens of first-class seats.
Press reports say the plane costs $70,000 an hour to fly, meaning the one-way trip from Brazzaville to Paris would cost around $500,000 dollars.
France in .

Congo president flies to environment talks on huge jet: sources

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday met speaker of the Maldives Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed and discussed with him ways to work together on shared goals.
Jaishankar is in the Maldives to attend the 4th edition of the Indian Ocean Conference (IOC).
"Great to catch up with Speaker of Majlis @MohamedNasheed. Always full of ideas and infectious enthusiasm. Will work closely to realise our shared goals," Jaishankar tweeted after the meeting.
Nasheed, who also served as the fourth President of the Maldives from 2008 to 2012, was the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and one of the founders of the Maldivian Democratic Party.

Jaishankar meets Nasheed in Male

A Labor Day cookout ended in tragedy when a longboat ferrying seven family members capsized on a central Indiana river, killing a 6-year-old boy and a 73-year-old woman, and leaving three men missing, authorities said Tuesday.
It is unclear what caused the flat-bottomed boat to capsize Monday night on the White River near Martinsville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Indianapolis.
Two of the boat's occupants made it to shore, but the boy and woman pulled from the river by emergency responders were later pronounced dead, said Lt. Angela Goldman, a conservation officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
The search for three men, ages 63, 40 and 32, who were also on the boat was suspended overnight. That search resumed Tuesday morning with authorities using two boats, two airboats, drones and searchers to scour the riverbanks and shallows.
Goldman said life jackets were in the boat, but authorities believe none of the passengers were wearing the floatation devices .

2 dead, 3 missing after boat capsizes along Indiana riv

The Trump administration imposed sanctions Tuesday on Iran's space agency for the first time, accusing it of developing ballistic missiles under the cover of a civilian program to launch satellites into orbit.
The sanctions announced by the State and Treasury departments targeting the agency and two of its affiliates follow the explosion Thursday of a rocket at Iran's Imam Khomeini Space Center in what an Iranian official said was a technical malfunction during a test.
The explosion prompted President Donald Trump to tweet a surveillance image depicting the apparent aftermath of the incident and declare that the U.S. had nothing to do with what transpired at the launch site.
With the latest sanctions, the Trump administration can subject foreign companies and governments, including international space cooperation organizations, to significant penalties if they have any involvement with the Iranian space agency.
They would also freeze any of the agency's assets in U.S. jurisdictions, ..

US hits Iran space agency with sanctions over missile work

Fourteen bus passengers were killed Tuesday by a road mine in central Mali, the bus company said, in an attack bearing the hallmarks of jihadists who plague the region.
The vehicle was en route from the central town of Douentza to the northern town of Gao, Oumar Ould Mamoud of the Sonef bus company told AFP.
"The new toll is 14 dead and eight injured," he said.
Police earlier had given a toll of eight dead and 13 injured, and said the blast occurred 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Douentza.
Another police official said "terrorists" had set down the mine.  A Malian military unit by coincidence had been travelling on the same road and was able to provide assistance to the passengers, the source said, and Sonef said it had sent a second bus to pick up them up.
The number of people in the vehicle at the time of the blast was not immediately known.
Northern Mali fell into the hands of jihadists in 2012 before the militants were forced out by a French-led military intervention.
But much of ...

14 bus passengers killed by road mine in Mali

The European Space Agency said Tuesday it had altered the trajectory of one of its observation satellites to avoid a possible collision with a craft operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
"@ESA 's #Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired its thrusters, moving it off a collision course with a @SpaceX satellite in their #Starlink constellation," the agency's official Twitter account said.
It said its scientists decided that the safest plan of action was to boost the altitude of the craft, adding that the manoeuvre on Monday was "first time ever" it had acted to avoid an active satellite.
"The vast majority of ESA avoidance manoeuvres are the result of dead satellites or fragments from previous collisions," it said.
A SpaceX spokesperson said a bug in its on-call operating system prevented the team from seeing that the risk of a collision with the ESA craft may have increased.
"Had the Starlink operator seen the correspondence, we would have coordinated with ESA to determine best approach with 

ESA re-routes satellite to avoid SpaceX collision risk

The Israeli military says the Hezbollah militant group and Iran have built a precision-missile factory in Lebanon.
The army said Tuesday that "in fear of strikes" by Israel, Hezbollah moved key equipment from the site to "civilian locations in Beirut." It didn't specify when this happened.
The military says the factory was of "superior importance" to Hezbollah. An official, speaking anonymously under military rules, said the factory is operational but missing major components.
The announcement came days after Israel and Hezbollah traded fire for the first time in years.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006. Israel considers the group its most immediate threat. Israel has recently expressed concerns that Hezbollah and Iran are pursuing a missile-production industry in Lebanon, which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has denied.

Israel claims to uncover Hezbollah missile plant in Lebanon

Officials said Tuesday that 34 people died after a boat packed with scuba divers caught fire near an island off the Southern California coast and they have called off search efforts for survivors.
The Coast Guard and law enforcement said no one has been found alive after flames tore through the dive boat early Monday as passengers on a recreational scuba diving trip slept below deck.
The Conception carried 33 passengers and 6 crew members, and only five of the crew sleeping on the top deck were able to escape by jumping off and taking a small boat to safety. Investigators have not yet determined how the fire broke out.
Santa Barbara County Bill Brown said the bodies of 20 victims have been recovered and divers have seen between four and six others in the sunken wreckage. He said authorities are trying to stabilize the boat that sank in about 60 feet (18 meters) of water so divers can recover those remains.
Most need to be identified by DNA analysis and officials are collecting samples 

No one found alive after dive boat catches fire; 34 dead

Walmart announced Tuesday it will halt sales of ammunition for handguns and some military-style rifles used in some hunting rifles, calling the status quo on guns in the United States "unacceptable."
The moves came a month after a deadly shooting at a Texas Walmart claimed 22 lives, a calamity that has been followed by subsequent attacks, including another shooting over the weekend in West Texas that left seven dead.
Chief Executive Doug McMillon called on Congress and the White House to enact "common sense" measures, including stronger background checks for gun purchases.
"As we've seen before, these horrific events occur and then the spotlight fades. We should not allow that to happen," McMillon said in a statement.
"Congress and the administration should act." Walmart expects the changes on ammunition to lower its market share of bullets from around 20 percent to a range of six to nine percent.
The company plans to continue to sell long-barrel deer rifles and shotguns and much of ..

Walmart to halt some bullet sales, including for handguns

Thirty four people are presumed dead in the California dive boat fire and the search has been suspended.
Santa Barbara County Bill Brown said Tuesday that the bodies of 20 victims have been recovered and divers have seen between and four and six others in the sunken wreckage, which must be stabilized.
Brown says the recovered remains include 11 females and nine males and DNA will be used to identify them.
Thirty-nine people including six crew members were aboard the vessel Conception when it caught fire early Monday morning while anchored off Santa Cruz Island.
Five crew members jumped in the ocean and were rescued.
Authorities say divers are working in pairs at the site where a diving boat sank near a Southern California island after it was engulfed in flames.
Commander Jay Donovan of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that the divers from multiple law enforcement agencies are using their hands because of limited visibility and search in grids as they look for ..

34 presumed dead in boat fire, search suspended

A military tribunal in Burkina Faso on Tuesday handed down a sentence of 30 years to the wife of a general convicted of leading a deadly coup bid four years ago.
The prison term imposed on Fatoumata Diendere exceeds the 20-year sentence given to her husband Gilbert Diendere on Monday for masterminding the 2015 plot against the west African country's transitional government.
Instigated by soldiers from an elite army unit loyal to ousted president Blaise Compaore, the putsch failed after army-backed protesters stormed the rebels' barracks.
Dozens of defendants, including top generals and politicians, were put on trial over the coup, which killed 14 people and wounded 270.
Gilberte Diendere, who had been Compaore's right-hand man and a former head of the elite unit, the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP), was convicted on Monday on charges of murder and harming state security.  His wife was found guilty in absentia on Tuesday of similar charges, as well as assault and ...

Burkina Faso coup leader's wife sentenced to 30 years

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tuesday that he considered a no-deal Brexit "the most likely scenario" as Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressed ahead with his quest to leave the EU on October 31, with or without a divorce agreement.
"It's the most likely scenario," Le Drian told reporters in Paris when asked about the prospect of Britain crashing out of the union without a deal on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Europe.
Le Drian said "there will be drawbacks, that's inevitable", citing fisheries as one of the issues that could cause tensions between Britain and France.  But even if Britain's 46-year membership of the EU does come to an abrupt halt next month, Le Drian said: "There will have to be discussions at some point, even if only about landing airplanes and the Eurostar (cross-Channel rail service)."
He also repeated France's opposition to any further postponement of Britain's departure date, barring a game-changing event in British politics ...

French foreign minister says no-deal Brexit 'most likely scenario

Former US ambassadors to Afghanistan on Tuesday warned against a major troop withdrawal without a comprehensive peace accord as an envoy said he had sealed a draft deal with the Taliban.
The nine former ambassadors or senior officials -- who served under presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump -- cautioned against any action that would undercut the government in Kabul.
"A major withdrawal of US forces should follow, not come in advance, of (a) real peace agreement," the former envoys, including James Dobbins, John Negroponte and Ryan Crocker, said in a joint statement.
"The initial US drawdown should not go so far or so fast that the Taliban believe that they can achieve military victory. In that case, they will not make compromises for peace with other Afghan political forces," they wrote in the statement released by the Atlantic Council think tank.
The Taliban have refused official talks with President Ashraf Ghani's government, believing it is illegitimate.
"Giving .

Former US envoys warn against hasty Afghan pullout

Five people have been killed in xenophobic violence in South Africa, police said on Tuesday, as President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to clamp down on the attacks and the African Union and Nigeria sounded their alarm.
Hordes of people -- some armed with axes and machetes -- gathered in Johannesburg's central business district (CBD) for a third day of unrest directed against foreigners, hours after mobs burned and looted shops in the township of Alexandra, prompting police to fire rubber bullets to disperse them.
Five deaths -- most of them South Africans -- have been reported, police said, adding that 189 people had been arrested.
In a video address diffused on Twitter, Ramaphosa said attacks on businesses run by "foreign nationals is something totally unacceptable, something that we cannot allow to happen in South Africa."
"I want it to stop immediately," said Ramaphosa, adding that the violence had "no justification."
Sporadic violence against foreign-owned stores and enterprises has a ...

South Africa vows crackdown on xenophobic attacks after five die

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tuesday that several issues were still hindering a French-led bid to save a landmark 2015 accord limiting Iran's nuclear programme.
"There is still lots to work out, it's still very fragile," Le Drian told journalists in Paris about the talks between Tehran and three European countries -- France, Britain and Germany -- to keep the nuclear deal alive after US President Donald Trump pulled out of it last year.
Trump later reimposed harsh sanctions that have pummelled the Iranian economy, prompting a defiant Tehran to ramp up its uranium enrichment to levels in breach of the 2015 deal.
Both sides appeared in more conciliatory form last month at the G7 in France, where Trump caused surprise by saying he would be prepared to meet his Iranian counterpart.
That came after the summit host, President Emmanuel Macron, invited Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to attend the talks, though he did not meet with Trump directly.
"The ...

French FM says 'still lots to work out' to save Iran nuclear deal

Pakistan's lawyer at the ICJ has said that the "high evidential threshhold" to prove genocide at the hands of a state is difficult to establish, amid efforts by Imran Khan government to take the Kashmir issue to the UN court.
Khawar Qureshi, who represented Pakistan at the ICJ during the high-profile case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, told a Pakistani channel that proving genocide is quite difficult.
"The most fundamental argument is the high evidential threshhold that you have to establish to prove genocide. And that is extremely difficult to prove genocide at the hands of the state," Qureshi said in response to a question.
Pakistan has threatened to approach the International Court of Justice over the Kashmir issue.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has reached out to several countries in the world, including the United States, on the matter.
Tensions between India and Pakistan have escalated after New Delhi on August 5 revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status and  bifurcated it into two union ...

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