Russia on Friday announced that Syrian government forces would cease fire in the northwestern province of Idlib from Saturday morning.
An agreement was reached on "a unilateral ceasefire by Syrian government forces in the Idlib de-escalation zone, from 6:00 am on August 31," the Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria said in a statement.
The announcement came after Russian-backed regime forces advanced in the jihadist-held bastion, one of the last holdouts of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The statement said the ceasefire aimed "to stabilise the situation" in Idlib and urged anti-government fighters to "abandon armed provocations and join the peace process".
After months of intense bombardment, regime forces launched a ground offensive against Idlib earlier this month.
Syria's war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011.
Russia launched a military intervention in support of Assad's regime in 2015, helping his forces to ...

Russia announces ceasefire in Syria's Idlib from Saturday

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Taiwan officials demanded Friday that China disclose information about the disappearance of a Taiwanese man who had reportedly distributed photos of Chinese troops massing equipment just outside protest-racked Hong Kong.
Friends and family have been unable to reach Lee Meng-chu, a volunteer activity organiser with a small township in southern Taiwan, for 10 days, the Taiwan government's Mainland Affairs Council said after receiving pleas for help from Lee's family members.
Communist Party-ruled China often detains people over political matters and may hold them in an unknown location for several months if they are suspected of threatening national security.
"He was able to be contacted while in Hong Kong and then unreachable once he entered mainland China," council spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng told reporters. "The main thing now is we need to understand his movements and
whereabouts, then eventually how to get him safely back to Taiwan." Lee entered Hong Kong on August 18, Taiwan's ...

Taiwan demands China disclose whereabouts of missing citizen

Officials from India and Pakistan on Friday in a cordial atmosphere discussed the technical modalities like the level of the roads and bridge of proposed Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims, the first such meeting after New Delhi revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status leading to fresh tensions between the two countries.
The meeting at the Zero point, where the Indian and Pakistani side of the proposed corridor converge, was attended by 10 to 15 officials from each side, an official of the National Highways Authority of India, who attended the meeting, told PTI.
The meeting lasted for close to two hours during which various technical aspects pertaining to the corridor were discussed, chief engineer with NHAI, T S Chahal, said.
Officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, BSF, Land Port Authority of India, which is constructing a state-of-the-art passenger terminal building, also attended the meeting.
The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak 

India, Pak officials discuss technical details of Kartarpur Corridor

The leader of the main Arab faction in parliament has shaken up Israel's election campaign by offering to sit in a moderate coalition government  a development that would end decades of Arab political marginalisation and could potentially bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ayman Odeh's offer to back Netanyahu's chief opponent, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, for prime minister reflects the growing desire of Israel's large Arab minority to take a more active role in shaping the country.
It also challenges the longstanding norm that Arabs are out of bounds as political partners with the Jewish majority.
If Odeh can generate excitement and boost Arab turnout, it could be enough to tip the scales in Israel's fractured political landscape and finally topple Netanyahu, who has long incited against Arab political leaders and questioned their loyalty.
"The truth is we could be the real deciding factor in this election," Odeh told The Associated Press this week.
"Without us the 

Arab leader seeks to shake up Israeli election

Indian golfer Aman Raj signed for a three-under 69 in the second round to lie Tied-fourth at the halfway stage of the Bank BRI Indonesia Open here on Friday.
Aman, who is yet to win a title in his professional career, took his total to eight-under 136.
Aman, who is coming off a Top-10 on the ADT Tour, has had a best finish of Tied-fifth at Panasonic Open in India last year and has been a runner-up on the Indian domestic Tour.
"It will be nice to get that elusive win, but there is still lot of golf to come," said Aman, an Asian Tour Qualifying School graduate, who was ranked as India's No. 1 amateur in 2015.
S Chikkarangappa (70) and Ajeetesh Sandhu (72) were Tied-ninth alongside Shiv Kapur, who was going strong at four-under through 14 holes before dropping two shots in last four holes for a two-under 70.
They are all at six-under.
Overnight co-leader Viraj Madappa had a rough day with two-over 74 as he dropped to five-under to lie Tied-23rd with Om Prakash Chouhan (69).
Also making ..

Aman Raj lying fourth at Indonesia Open; Kapur,Chikka, Ajeetsh 9th

The Chinese government has not renewed the press credentials of a foreign journalist who wrote an article about one of President Xi Jinping's cousins, the news organisation said Friday.
It amounts to the effective expulsion of Chun Han Wong, a Singaporean national who has worked for the Wall Street Journal's Beijing bureau since 2014.
"We can confirm that Chinese authorities have declined to renew Chun Han's press credentials. We continue to look into the matter," a Dow Jones spokesperson told AFP.
Wong - together with fellow journalist Philip Wen - published a story in July detailing how Australian law-enforcement and intelligence agencies were probing the activities of Ming Chai, one of Xi's cousins.
The article was part of a wider investigation into organised crime, money-laundering and alleged Chinese influence-peddling.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying rejected the allegations at the time the report was published, saying, "I don't know where these journalists go .

China expels WSJ reporter who wrote about Xi's cousin

The British Museum said Friday it had returned to Iraq a collection of 156 cuneiform tablets believed to have been looted following the US-led invasion of the country.
The items mostly dated from between 2,100 BC and 1,800 BC, the London museum said in a statement.
They were impounded by customs officials at a freight company near London Heathrow Airport in 2011.
The tablets are mostly economic documents but also include letters, legal and school texts and a mathematical document.
Many of them come from Irisagrig, an area that was heavily looted in the aftermath of the war.
The tablets were handed over to the Iraqi ambassador Saleh Altamimi and will be sent on to the Iraq Museum.
"The protection of Iraqi heritage is the responsibility of the international society which we hope to continue for future generations," Altamimi said in the statement.

British Museum hands looted ancient tablets to Iraq

Student mobility and employability will be on the agenda of a high-profile delegation of university vice-chancellors and chief executives from around 20 leading UK institutions during their visit to India from Monday.
The delegation is being hosted by the British Council - the UK government's international organisation for educational and cultural exchange - as part of the higher education focused bilateral programme UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI).
It will cover a wide range of subjects, including internationalisation of higher education institutions and research collaborations during nearly week-long talks in New Delhi and Hyderabad.
"Education and research cooperation is an important pillar of our bilateral relationship, and strengthening and diversifying links with India is a priority for UK universities," said Vivienne Stern, Director of Universities UK International (UUKi) - the UK's university representative body.
"UUKi is delighted to have recently launched 

Student mobility, employability on agenda for India-UK education meet

Tim Ryan, US Congressman and a 2020 presidential hopeful, whose fund-raising merchandise includes a T-shirt with 'Namaste America' written on it, has vowed to keep his White House bid going despite failing to qualify for the televised Democratic presidential debate.
Ryan's presidential campaign issued a statement on Thursday, saying his presidential effort would continue to build momentum despite not qualifying for the September 12 Democratic Party debate.
The 46-year-old Ohio Democrat, who has two separate campaigns for the 2020 elections, is inviting lobbyists and others to a September 25 fund raising reception to benefit his congressional reelection bid.
"Obviously, you want on, but we're moving forward," Ryan was quoted as saying by a local website.
He said the metrics determining who is on the debate stage are "artificial" and his presidential campaign had been picking up recent endorsements, including from religious leaders in early primary states such as South Carolina.
Ryan, ..

US Democrat lawmaker pledges to keep his WH bid going despite failing to qualify next debate

China plans to launch 27 new projects in Pakistan under the second phase of the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) this year, a media report on Friday quoted a senior Chinese diplomat as saying.
The ambitious CPEC links China's Kashgar city in Xinjiang province with Pakistan's Gwadar port in Baluchistan through a network of roads, railways and highways.
"There will be 27 new projects in the second phase of the CPEC," said Consul General of China in Karachi, Wang Yu during a meeting organised by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday.
Following the signing of the memorandum of understanding between China and Pakistan for the second phase of CPEC earlier this year, work on these 27 new projects was expected to begin by the end of the year, the Dawn newspaper quoted Wang as saying.
"Agriculture, education, vocational training, industry, increase in water supply, etc, are all part of our plans for the next phase," he said.
Replying to a question about ...

China set to start work on 27 new CPEC projects this year: diplomat

A gas mask lovingly adjusted, a hand squeezed before approaching police lines and a frantic search through swirls of tear gas - Abby and Nick's relationship has blossomed on the barricades during Hong Kong's long summer of protest.
Most of the frontline protesters driving the months-long pro-democracy demonstrations are students -- so-called "braves" facing pepper spray, rubber bullets and arrest in defence of their city's values.
Like Abby and Nick -- who are keeping their real names under wraps -- many are young, bookish and should be on the fast-track to well-paying jobs in the city's financial services sector.
Instead a political awakening has thrust them onto the frontlines.
For endless weeks they have fended off tear gas and run from police baton charges, an unlikely band of rebels -- labelled "rioters" by Hong Kong police and "terrorists" by China -- who have forged tight bonds over a long holiday of demonstrations.
Nick, 20, met Abby, a year his junior, at university in June ..

Love in a time of tear gas: politics and romance on Hong Kong's barricades

The discovery of a new drug by a team of scientists in the UK has offered hope in preventing the spread of malaria by killing the parasite at all stages of its life cycle and also treat people suffering
from the deadly disease.
The findings were released by an international team of scientists led by Professor Andrew Tobin of the University of Glasgow and published in the journal Science on Friday.
The drug can kill the Plasmodium mosquito, responsible for causing the disease, at all three stages of its life cycle in the human body - when it is in the liver, in red blood cells, as well as preventing breeding of the parasite.
The disease is spread among humans through the bite of a mosquito. The parasite then grows in the liver and in red blood cells.
The parasites can also change in the blood to take on a male and female form, which can re-infect mosquitoes when they bite and suck blood from infected people.
We are tremendously excited about these new findings, and hope they pave the ..

Drug discovery offers new hope to halt spread of malaria

Three separatist fighters were killed Friday in a suicide bombing in Aden, the first such attack since Yemeni government forces were expelled from the southern city on August 10, security sources said.
"A suicide bomber crashed his bomb-laden motorbike into a vehicle of the Southern Transitional Council on a roundabout in the Sheikh Saad district" of northern Aden, one of the sources told AFP.
Three of those on board the vehicle were killed and an unknown number wounded.

Suicide attack kills 3 separatists in Yemen's Aden: security

As China prepares to take a leap in cellular technology with the launch of 5G network, the number of internet users in the country has reached 854 million, the state media reported on Friday.
According to a report issued by the China Internet Network Information Centre, the number of internet users saw a hike by 25.98 million from the end of last year, with the internet availability rate up by 1.6 per cent.
A total of 847 million Chinese people use mobile phones to surf the internet, an increase of 29.84 million from the end of last year.
Mobile phone users accounted for 99.1 per cent of the total netizens, up by 0.5 percentage points.
Faster internet service at lower costs has greatly boosted usage growth, with the average monthly mobile data usage per user reaching 7.2 gigabytes (GB), 1.2 times the global average, the report said, adding the internet availability rate in the country reached 61.2 per cent.
The average download speed of mobile broadband has increased by about six ...

China's internet users reach 854 million

India's Divij Sharan made a first-round exit from the US Open with partner Hugo Nys after losing in straight sets to Robert Carballes Baena and Federico Delbonis, here.
The Indian and his French partner lost 4-6 4-6 to the players, who are both ranked outside top-100 bracket.
Sharan and Nys did not get any break-point in the 72-minute clash while their rivals broke them once each in both the sets to move to the next round.
This is the second time this season that left-handed Sharan has made a first-round exit from a Grand Slam, losing at the same stage at the Australian Open also. The result means that he is likely to drop a rung to 48 when the new rankings will be issued after the conclusion of the last Grand Slam of the season.
Reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2018 remains his best show at the Majors.
Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes are also in the men's doubles draw with their respective partners.
Bopanna and his Canadian partner Denis Shapovalov are up against French fourth .

Sharan-Nys pair makes early US Open exit

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday called on President of the European Parliament David Maria Sassoli and discussed the India-EU strategic partnership on regional, global and multilateral issues.
Jaishankar arrived in Belgium from Poland where he held talks with his Polish counterpart Jacek Czaputowicz on many subjects of bilateral, regional and multilateral importance. The two countries agreed to confront terrorism in all its forms, particularly cross-border terrorism.
"A meeting between natural partners and large democracies! EAM S Jaishankar called on H E David Maria Sassoli, President of European Parliament and leaders discussed the India-EU Strategic Partnership on regional, global and multilateral issues," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.
"It was a pleasure to call on H E David Maria Sassoli, President of European Parliament today. The European Parliament and the Indian Parliament together represent the two largest functioning ..

EAM Jaishankar calls on European Parliament Prez David Sassoli

Draft international guidance on how industry measures its efforts to fight global warming will not include untested geoengineering technology, the body compiling the advice said Friday.
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), a global, industry-driven non-profit comprising more than 160 member states, is currently working on guidance for business over how to quantify their climate impact.
AFP last week reported on the draft, which uses a concept known as "radiative forcing" -- how much energy from the sun remains in the atmosphere after some is bounced back into space -- and the substances that effect it.
These include greenhouse gases, water vapour and particulate matter, the ISO said.
Environmental groups and climate scientists raised concerns over the draft guidance, which appeared to allow for businesses to employ techniques such as solar radiation management and carbon dioxide-removal as part of their climate action.
Solar radiation management (SRM) entails ...

Untested tech not part of climate fix guidance: industry group

The WHO announced Thursday it will create a global registry to track research into human genetic manipulation, after a call to halt all work on germline genome editing -- used in China last year to genetically modify twin baby girls.
"New genome editing technologies hold great promise and hope for those who suffer from diseases we once thought untreatable," the World Health Organization's Director General for told the body's genome editing oversight committee meeting in Geneva.
"But some uses of these technologies also pose unique and unprecedented challenges -- ethical, social, regulatory and technical," he added.
Chinese scientist He Jiankui's announcement last November that he had altered the DNA of twins girls in southern China by using molecular scissors -- ostensibly to prevent them from contracting HIV.
He was then fired from his university, put under police investigation and ordered to halt his work.
But his announcement provoked a global backlash from scientists saying the ...

WHO launches genetic research register after designer-baby scandal

Hollywood veteran Morgan Freeman and actor Frank Grillo are set to star in historical action movie "Panama".
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be directed by Daniel Adams.
In the movie Grillo will play a decorated ex-Marine in 1989 Panama who is sent undercover by his former commander Stark (Freeman) to execute a high-value deal with untrustworthy adversaries.
"While navigating through the chaos of the local civil war, Becker must fight assassins, court femmes fatales and negotiate with the enemy in order to complete his mission," the film's plot synopsis read.
"Panama", which is inspired by true events, is penned by Adams and William R. Barber.
Production on the project is set to being in November.

Morgan Freeman, Frank Grillo join action film 'Panama'

European countries will step up diplomatic efforts to save the beleaguered Iran nuclear deal, Germany's foreign minister said Friday after talks with Britain and France.
Tensions have spiked recently in the Gulf, where Iran has seized Western tankers as Tehran and Washington have locked horns over the 2015 deal.
US President Donald Trump last year unilaterally pulled out of the accord that handed Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its atomic programme.
The move alarmed European powers, which see the deal as the best way to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, and infuriated the Islamic republic.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany -- the three European parties to the deal -- were joined by EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini for talks on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Helsinki.
Germany's Heiko Maas said the trio wanted to build on momentum from last weekend's G7 summit, where Trump indicated willingness to talk to Iran.
"Our priority is to open ...

Europe to step up diplomatic efforts on Iran crisis: Germany

Opponents of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's move to suspend parliament in the final weeks before Brexit lost the first of several legal bids to stop him on Friday.
Scottish judge Raymond Doherty rejected the request for a temporary injunction pending a full hearing in the case on September 6.
"I'm not satisfied that there's a need for an interim suspension or an interim interdict to be granted at this stage," Doherty said in his ruling.
Queen Elizabeth II has already given the go-ahead to shutter parliament between mid-September and October 14 -- just two weeks before the Brexit date of October 31.
The move was widely seen as limiting the time for parliamentarians to move against Johnson, who has said Britain must leave the EU with or without a deal.
Legal bids to halt the suspension have also been launched in Belfast and London.
Former prime minister John Major, a strong supporter of EU membership, has said he will seek to join the London legal action.
Johnson announced the surprise .

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