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Singapore has reported more than 240 Zika cases since the first locally infected case was detected on Aug. 27 and neighboring Malaysia has reported one such case. Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly. In adults, Zika infections have also been linked to a rare neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre, as well as other neurological disorders. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes.[SEP]Twenty new patients in four provinces in Thailand have contracted the mosquito-borne Zika virus, but the situation remains under control, according to the public health ministry. The new patients have prompted health authorities to keep Chiang Mai, Phetchabun, Bung Kan and Chanthaburi—where new confirmed cases were reported to the ministry over the past week—under close watch, said permanent secretary for public health Sopon Mekthon on Monday. On average, four or five patients were found in each of the four provinces. He said health officials were aware of the situation although people should not be too concerned about the number of new cases. “I don’t want the cases to spark panic because they are sparse,” he added. More patients have been found due to better procedures to identify and screen those infected with Zika, according to Dr. Sopon. In the case of Zika, patients usually suffer mild effects and will recover within one week, he said. However, pregnant women who develop Zika have a chance of giving birth to babies with microcephaly and other brain defects. In Chiang Mai’s San Sai district, two infected women, who are six and eight months pregnant, are being closely monitored by medical staff, Chiang Mai public health official Phaisan Thanyawinitchakun said. Health officials are monitoring some 30 pregnant women living in high-risk Zika areas but who are not infected. Six of them have already delivered strong and healthy babies, Dr. Sopon said. Many Zika-control measures are being carried out in San Sai district, where several Zika patients have been found. Provincial officials have implemented steps to eradicate mosquitoes within a designated radius of the homes of Zika-infected patients and will follow up on the health of people who came in contact with the patients for at least 14 days. Health authorities in Malaysia and Singapore have also reported Zika patients with confirmed cases in Singapore already reaching 242.[SEP]Twenty new patients in four provinces in Thailand have contracted the mosquito-borne Zika virus, but the situation remains under control, according to the public health ministry. The new patients have prompted health authorities to keep Chiang Mai, Phetchabun, Bung Kan and Chanthaburi—where new confirmed cases were reported to the ministry over the past week—under close watch, said permanent secretary for public health Sopon Mekthon on Monday. On average, four or five patients were found in each of the four provinces. He said health officials were aware of the situation although people should not be too concerned about the number of new cases. “I don’t want the cases to spark panic because they are sparse,” he added. More patients have been found due to better procedures to identify and screen those infected with Zika, according to Dr. Sopon. In the case of Zika, patients usually suffer mild effects and will recover within one week, he said. However, pregnant women who develop Zika have a chance of giving birth to babies with microcephaly and other brain defects. In Chiang Mai’s San Sai district, two infected women, who are six and eight months pregnant, are being closely monitored by medical staff, Chiang Mai public health official Phaisan Thanyawinitchakun said. Health officials are monitoring some 30 pregnant women living in high-risk Zika areas but who are not infected. Six of them have already delivered strong and healthy babies, Dr. Sopon said. Many Zika-control measures are being carried out in San Sai district, where several Zika patients have been found. Provincial officials have implemented steps to eradicate mosquitoes within a designated radius of the homes of Zika-infected patients and will follow up on the health of people who came in contact with the patients for at least 14 days. Health authorities in Malaysia and Singapore have also reported Zika patients with confirmed cases in Singapore already reaching 242.[SEP]Singapore says will no longer isolate Zika patients SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Singapore will no longer isolate people who test positive for Zika or are suspected of carrying it as the number of cases of the mosquito-borne virus increases across the city-state, the health ministry said on Monday. Tropical Singapore, a global financial and transit hub, has reported just over 240 Zika cases since the first locally infected case was detected on Aug. 27, and media has quoted the deputy health minister as saying the virus was "here to stay". In a statement, the health ministry said the presence of the Aedes mosquitoes that carry the virus, as well as the fact that most people do not display symptoms, meant isolating patients already infected would have limited effect. "Over time, we expect Zika cases to emerge in more areas given the presence of the Aedes mosquitoes here," the ministry said. "As the cases of Zika in Singapore have been mild so far, confirmed cases will no longer need to be hospitalised unless medically indicated." The government will also pay for the cost of Zika tests for Singaporeans with symptoms of the virus, the ministry added. Most people who are infected with Zika have mild symptoms but infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly. In adults, Zika infections have also been linked to a rare neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre, as well as other neurological disorders. Neighbouring Malaysia has reported at least one case of locally transmitted Zika. Experts and officials say both countries will struggle to contain the virus because of the spread of the Aedes mosquitoes, which also carry dengue, a potentially fatal virus that Singapore and Malaysia have been battling for years.[SEP]People asked to stay vigilant and not ignore dengue or chikungunya-like symptoms with red eyes. With the city already battling a dengue, chikungunya and viral fever outbreak, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has issued a Zika alert in the country. The IMA, which is the largest association of allopathic doctors, has asked physicians and the people to be aware and vigilant. “Do not ignore dengue or chikungunya-like symptoms with red eyes,” the IMA has said. The association also said that local mosquito transmission of Zika virus infection has been reported in Singapore. Local mosquito transmission implies that mosquitoes in the area are infected with the Zika virus and are spreading it to humans. “Because the Zika virus is primarily spread through mosquitoes, the IMA recommends that travellers to Singapore protect themselves from mosquito bites. In fact, a pregnant woman can pass the Zika virus to her foetus and an infection during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects,” said Dr. S. S. Agarwal, national president of the IMA. “Pregnant women should not travel to Singapore. In case it is necessary to do so, talk to your doctor and strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites. If you have a partner who lives in or has travelled to Singapore, either use condoms or abstain from sex (vaginal, anal, or oral) during pregnancy. For couples trying to get pregnant, it is important to talk to your doctor about your plans and the risk of Zika virus infection. Since the virus can be sexually transmitted, travellers are encouraged to use condoms or not have sex,” says Dr. K. K. Aggarwal of the IMA. The association also noted that many people infected with the Zika virus may not feel sick. Among those who do develop symptoms, sickness is usually mild and lasts about a week. If a mosquito bites an infected human while the virus is still in that person’s blood, it can spread the virus when it bites another person. Even if they do not feel sick, travellers returning to the United States from Singapore should take measures to prevent mosquito bites for three weeks so that they do not spread the infection. The IMA has also asked people to be aware about the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a rare disorder that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis for a few weeks to several months. Though the syndrome is strongly associated with Zika, only a small proportion of people with the infection get GBS. Also, most people recover fully.[SEP]Both Zika, which is of particular risk to pregnant women, and the dengue virus are spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is common in tropical Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third largest economy, and across the region. Neighboring Singapore has reported more than 200 cases of Zika. Three days ago, Malaysia reported its first Zika infection - a woman living near Kuala Lumpur who contracted the virus during a visit to Singapore. On Saturday, Malaysian authorities said they had detected the first local infection: a 61-year-old man in the city of Kota Kinabalu, in the Malaysian part of Borneo island. "The confirmation of the second case of Zika in Kota Kinabalu suggests that the virus is already present within our communities," Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said. "Zika is present in our country. New cases will continue to emerge," he posted on his Facebook page. Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly. In adults, Zika infections have also been linked to a rare neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre, as well as other neurological disorders. Since reporting its first Zika infection, Malaysia has increased insecticide spraying to kill mosquitoes. It has also stepped up health checks at its main border with Singapore, through which 200,000 people pass daily. Malaysia, with a population of almost 30 million and a size 46 times bigger than Singapore, faces a much more challenging fight against Zika, doctors say. "Zika will spread even faster in Malaysia than Singapore because our Aedes volume is so much higher and the breeding grounds are enormous," said Amar Singh, head of the paediatric department at Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun in the Malaysian town of Ipoh. The World Health Organisation (WHO) ranks Malaysia's healthcare system as the world's 49th most developed. Singapore figures in the top 10. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, making it difficult for pregnant women to know whether they have been infected. The WHO has declared the Zika outbreak an international health emergency, and if Malaysia's fight against dengue is any indication, it will struggle with Zika. Malaysia recorded a total of 120,836 dengue cases last year, including 336 fatalities - the most since 1995, according to government data. This year, there have been 75,000 dengue cases and 166 fatalities. Malaysian authorities say dengue is a bigger problem than Zika. But regional health experts believe Zika is significantly under-reported in Southeast Asia as authorities fail to conduct adequate screening and also because of its usually mild symptoms. The WHO lists Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam as countries with "possible endemic transmission or evidence of local mosquito-borne Zika infections in 2016". The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 and was unknown in the Americas until 2014.[SEP]Nico Rosberg has asked Mercedes for medical advice ahead of the next grand prix in Singapore, where the risk of catching the Zika virus is rated ‘very high’ by the Foreign Office. The Mercedes man, who won in Italy on Sunday to narrow the gap behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton to two points, is concerned because he and his wife Vivian have recently started a family. The mosquito-borne virus causes birth defects, notably microcephaly, where babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains. Pregnant women have been warned not to travel to Zika-affected countries. The disease can also be passed on by sexual intercourse, and Greg Rutherford, the Olympic bronze medal long jumper, froze his sperm before travelling to Rio last month. Rosberg, who has a one-year-old daughter, Alaia, said: ‘As a family man now, I am very interested and am looking into it. I have started discussions about it already, actually.’ Five of the remaining seven race destinations have recorded instances of Zika. Singapore, Mexico and Brazil are all categorised as ‘high risk’, while Texas and Malaysia have also reported cases. The number of incidents in Singapore has gone from zero to 242 in the last week, with mosquitoes thriving in the humid air. While there is no sign yet of a mass boycott of the Singapore race on Sunday week, the FIA’s doctors have drawn up extensive medical advice to guard against infection. The teams have also issued their staff with guidelines. Eric Boullier, McLaren’s racing director, said: ‘We are supplying anti-mosquito products and long-sleeved outfits, and we have sent a briefing to everybody about how to take care and all the why, what and how about it. But everyone is going.’ Zika apart, Rosberg is putting talk of the drivers’ title to the back of his mind, despite successive victories in Spa and Monza. From being 19 points adrift, he is right on Hamilton’s tail at the end of the European season. ‘I am not thinking about the championship,’ said Rosberg. ‘It’s my best approach, so why would I change it? If I thought about my 43-point lead earlier in the season going to 19 behind I would lose sleep, so I am just enjoying winning races.’ Mercedes, the supreme team of the past three years, were surprisingly off the pace in Singapore last season. ‘We cannot go there with too much confidence because we were miles off last time — 1.8 seconds — and that is huge, so it is our most difficult race,’ added Rosberg, who finished fourth 12 months ago. ‘We think we have made progress but 1.8sec is not going to be easy to improve.’[SEP]Two more Indians have been infected with the Zika virus in Singapore, taking the total number of Indian nationals tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease in the city-state to 15, health officials said today. As Singapore grapples with rising number of the mosquito-borne disease, Indian High Commission here said they are in regular contact with Singapore Health Ministry which has confirmed 26 new cases of locally transmitted Zika virus as of yesterday noon, bringing the total cases to 215. Authorities are continuing with their efforts to bring the population of Aedes mosquitoes under control in affected areas. With the two new cases, total number of Indians infected with Zika virus reached 15 in Singapore, officials said. Community outreach activities are being conducted across the country over these two weekends to ask the people to join in the collective efforts in the fight against the mosquito-borne virus, a joint statement from ministry and the National Environment Agency said. The ministry is reviewing the practice of isolating potential Zika-infected patients, Senior Minister of State for Environment and Water Resources and Health, Amy Khor said. Currently, those who are suspected of having infected with Zika are isolated at the Communicable Disease Centre as they await their test results. Those found to be Zika-positive are isolated in hospitals. The Ministry is considering letting suspected Zika-infected patients rest at home while their blood and urine samples are tested, and sending confirmed cases home to recuperate, said Khor. “We are reviewing the practice of isolating Zika-positive patients who are actually clinically well and do not need to be hospitalised. They could be sent home to recuperate but take necessary precautions like applying repellent so they don’t get bitten,” The Straits Times quoted Khor as saying. Doctors have observed that Zika-positive patients admitted to hospitals are generally well and have very mild symptoms, and are discharged within one to two days after testing negative for the virus. Besides, four in five Zika-infected persons do not show any symptoms of the virus, Khor said. Another factor for reviewing the practice of isolating patients is that “there are people in the community who are infected but do not know they are”, so isolating the infected ones may not be effective, she added. In February, the World Health Organisation had declared Zika a public health emergency after women affected by it had given birth to children with microcephaly, a birth defect with small head size.[SEP]Malaysia expects more Zika cases as virus spreads in Southeast Asia KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Malaysia is bracing for more Zika cases, officials said on Sunday, after detecting the first locally infected patient, which could further stretch a health system struggling with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus that can be fatal. Both Zika, which is of particular risk to pregnant women, and the dengue virus are spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is common in tropical Malaysia, Southeast Asia's third largest economy, and across the region. Neighbouring Singapore has reported more than 200 cases of Zika. Three days ago, Malaysia reported its first Zika infection - a woman living near Kuala Lumpur who contracted the virus during a visit to Singapore. On Saturday, Malaysian authorities said they had detected the first local infection: a 61-year-old man in the city of Kota Kinabalu, in the Malaysian part of Borneo island. "The confirmation of the second case of Zika in Kota Kinabalu suggests that the virus is already present within our communities," Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said. "Zika is present in our country. New cases will continue to emerge," he posted on his Facebook page. Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly. In adults, Zika infections have also been linked to a rare neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre, as well as other neurological disorders. Since reporting its first Zika infection, Malaysia has increased insecticide spraying to kill mosquitoes. It has also stepped up health checks at its main border with Singapore, through which 200,000 people pass daily. Malaysia, with a population of almost 30 million and a size 46 times bigger than Singapore, faces a much more challenging fight against Zika, doctors say. "Zika will spread even faster in Malaysia than Singapore because our Aedes volume is so much higher and the breeding grounds are enormous," said Amar Singh, head of the paediatric department at Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun in the Malaysian town of Ipoh. The World Health Organisation (WHO) ranks Malaysia's healthcare system as the world's 49th most developed. Singapore figures in the top 10. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, making it difficult for pregnant women to know whether they have been infected. The WHO has declared the Zika outbreak an international health emergency, and if Malaysia's fight against dengue is any indication, it will struggle with Zika. Malaysia recorded a total of 120,836 dengue cases last year, including 336 fatalities - the most since 1995, according to government data. This year, there have been 75,000 dengue cases and 166 fatalities. Malaysian authorities say dengue is a bigger problem than Zika. But regional health experts believe Zika is significantly under-reported in Southeast Asia as authorities fail to conduct adequate screening and also because of its usually mild symptoms. The WHO lists Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam as countries with "possible endemic transmission or evidence of local mosquito-borne Zika infections in 2016". The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 and was unknown in the Americas until 2014. (Additional reporting by Joseph Sipalan; Editing by Miral Fahmy, Robert Birsel)

The Zika virus outbreak in Singapore which has infected over 200 people likely evolved from Southeast Asia.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Richmond-Times Dispatch is endorsing Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson for president. In a lengthy editorial posted late Saturday night, the newspaper said the former New Mexico governor is a man of “good integrity, apparently normal ego and sound ideas.” Johnson met with the newspaper’s editorial board last week. The Times-Dispatch added that Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton fail to meet the moral and professional standards Americans should expect. The editorial calls for the Commission on Presidential Debates to allow Johnson to join Trump and Clinton on stage. The debates are scheduled to begin Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Johnson served as New Mexico’s governor for two terms. He also owned a construction company that had more than 1,000 employees.[SEP]RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Richmond-Times Dispatch is endorsing Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson for president. In a lengthy editorial posted late Saturday night, the newspaper said the former New Mexico governor is a man of “good integrity, apparently normal ego and sound ideas.” Johnson met with the newspaper’s editorial board last week. The Times-Dispatch added that Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton fail to meet the moral and professional standards Americans should expect. The editorial calls for the Commission on Presidential Debates to allow Johnson to join Trump and Clinton on stage. The debates are scheduled to begin Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Johnson served as New Mexico’s governor for two terms. He also owned a construction company that had more than 1,000 employees.[SEP]A prominent Virginia newspaper has endorsed Libertarian Gary Johnson for president, giving a rebuke to the deeply unpopular major party candidates while trying to boost the third party contender's long-shot bid just weeks before the first presidential debate. Interested in 2020 Elections? Add 2020 Elections as an interest to stay up to date on the latest 2020 Elections news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest The Richmond Times-Dispatch's endorsement is the first from a major newspaper for the former New Mexico governor, who is running out of time to reach the polling threshold necessary to join Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the main debate stage this fall. "Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton meets the fundamental moral and professional standards we have every right to expect of an American president," the editorial begins. "Fortunately, there is a reasonable -- and formidable -- alternative." The paper, which has endorsed the Republican nominee for president every year for the last three decades, hailed Johnson's stances for limited government, social tolerance and individual freedom. "More important, he's a man of good integrity, apparently normal ego and sound ideas," the editorial reads. Still, Johnson must reach an average of 15 percent support in major polling in order to make the debate stage -- a threshold that Johnson himself has framed as make-or-break for landing his third-party candidacy in the White House. "If the Commission on Presidential Debates wants to perform a real service to its country, it will invite Gary Johnson onto the big stage," wrote the paper's editorial board. "Why not take this chance to reject the binary choice between Clinton and Trump that was created by our two-party system?" Johnson is currently polling around 10 percent in an average of polls that the debate commission will use. Johnson has the backing of only one sitting member of the U.S. House -- with no sitting senators or governors. Other potential supporters like former Republican nominee Mitt Romney have remained on the sidelines.[SEP]Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson won his first newspaper endorsement from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which labeled him a man of "integrity," "apparently normal ego" and of "trustworthy character." "Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton meets the fundamental moral and professional standards we have every right to expect of an American president," the paper's editorial board wrote. "Fortunately, there is a reasonable — and formidable — alternative." The Times-Dispatch supported Mitt Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008. But in this election, the editorial board urged voters to reject the two major-party nominees and support Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, and called on the commission overseeing presidential debates to include Johnson. "If given the opportunity to make his case, Gary Johnson will persuade millions of Americans that he is the most capable and ethical candidate running this year," the board wrote.[SEP]Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson received the endorsement of a prominent Virginia paper in an editorial posted Saturday night, notching a Labor Day weekend win for his third party bid. The glowing appraisal of Johnson's candidacy by the Richmond Times-Dispatch's editorial board contrasts the former New Mexico governor with Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton, both of whom lack the proper character traits to be president, the paper said. "Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton meets the fundamental moral and professional standards we have every right to expect of an American president," the editorial board writes. The editorial board's backing of Johnson is also a break in its partisan leanings, as it has endorsed Republican candidates in every presidential election for the past 36 years. Johnson performed poorly in Virginia during his 2012 effort, securing less than one percent of the state's vote . The ex-governor has said he hopes to break out this year due to the low favorability ratings for Trump and Clinton, and the paper followed that line of thinking. The editorial also called for Johnson to join the nationally-televised debates alongside Trump and Clinton. The former governor has said repeatedly that he needs to make the general election debates to have any realistic chance at the White House. The presidential debate commission requires a candidate to reach an average of 15 percent in the polls it has selected. Johnson must rapidly improve his position to meet this threshold. CNN's latest poll of polls found Johnson sitting at an average of 9 percent nationwide, and a Quinnipiac poll from mid-August had Johnson at 12 percent in Virginia.[SEP]If Hillary Clinton carries Arizona in November, there's a good chance it won't be because Democrats on their own have flipped a reliable GOP state they hope to win consistently someday. Instead, Clinton and Democrats may have Gary Johnson to thank. The Libertarian Party nominee's best chance to influence the presidential race may come in Arizona, where the former New Mexico governor appeals to a group of finicky conservatives who make up part of the GOP base. "It could happen," said GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. "Donald Trump has managed to make this an interesting state in terms of presidential politics, and not in the way that Republicans have wanted." Johnson "is an easy out for some people in our party," Flake told The Associated Press. About a dozen of the most contested states will help determine which candidate gets the 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. In Arizona, where the Republican nominee has carried the state in 11 of the past 12 presidential elections, Johnson could play the spoiler, potentially putting 11 electoral votes in Clinton's column. The GOP's recent struggle with independent-minded, small-government Libertarians was clear before Trump's speech Wednesday in Phoenix, when he reaffirmed a hard line on immigration. And his stance could alienate the roughly one-quarter of Hispanic voters in the state who usually align with Republicans. "I think that right now we're at a tipping point, where at any moment we are going to begin to see an outpouring of support," said Latino GOP strategist Juan Hernandez, who works for Johnson in Arizona. Sensing an opportunity herself, Clinton began airing television advertisements in the state Friday, and has reserved $500,000 in ad time through mid-September. Democratic strategist Andy Barr said Hispanic turnout was "the multimillion-dollar question." About one-third of the state's population identifies as Latino, but their share of the vote ranges between 12 percent and 16 percent, according to public and private polling. "This closer it gets to 20 percent, the more our chances of winning go up," Barr said. Johnson will appear on the ballot in every state this fall, while Green Party nominee Jill Stein is on track to make it in at least half. Neither is remotely within reach of carrying a state. Neither seems in a position to tip any state toward Trump. But Johnson could move a close race toward Clinton, in much the same way that Ralph Nader pulled enough votes away from Democrat Al Gore in 2000 to hand Florida to Republican George W. Bush. Four years ago, Libertarian candidates in Arizona drew enough votes away from Republicans that Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema won election to the U.S. House. Flake, who had endeared himself to many Libertarians while serving in the House, won his Senate race that year, too. "It's a really sore spot for the party," Arizona Republican Party spokesman Tim Sifert said of those 2012 results. "You could see people frustrated, throwing away their vote and going with a third-party candidate." The views of most Libertarians, focused on personal liberty and small government, overlap more with Republicans than Democrats. Johnson's call for dramatically lower business taxes and regulation to unburden entrepreneurs resonates with Matthew Sherman of Phoenix, who describes himself as more as a conservative than as a Republican. "I'm for whoever has the best plan on startup companies," said the 31-year-old who's working on a business networking app. "So far, that's Gary." Republican Dave Richins, a councilman in Mesa City, said Johnson is conservative on spending, but tolerant on social issues, which he calls "a pragmatic combination." "For me, a lifelong Republican, I don't agree with everything Johnson proposes," said Richins, a Johnson organizer. "But I find his pragmatism refreshing. That's how we get things done." Johnson's hands-off approach to government also includes decriminalizing marijuana, and he could benefit from a November ballot proposal in Arizona on that question. "That's another reason for Libertarians to vote in higher numbers," said Barr, who is running the decriminalization campaign. "We're inclined to believe that could increase Johnson's performance." At the beginning of August, Johnson's campaign had $1.2 million after raising $1.6 million in July, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Since Aug. 1, he's raised more than $3 million, according to his campaign. That's a paltry sum compared with Trump and Clinton, whose campaign said it raised a total of $143 million last month. Johnson is spending in a few competitive campaign states, including Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, and less competitive ones such as Oregon, New Mexico and Utah. Arizona is not on that list, but aides say it likely will be this fall. "As a New Mexican, he's fairly well known in Arizona," said Johnson's spokesman, Joe Hunter. "Arizona makes sense for us. We have a natural base of support there."

The Richmond Times-Dispatch of Virginia is first to endorse Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president and the first newspaper media endorsement of a third-party nominee in this election cycle.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats were beaten into third place by the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a north-eastern state election on Sunday, TV exit polls showed. In a stinging defeat for Merkel in her home district that could weaken her chances of a fourth term in next year’s federal elections, the upstart AfD took 21.9 percent of the vote behind the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) in their first election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by campaigning hard against the chancellor’s policies on refugees, according to a projection by ARD TV at 1.15 p.m. ET. “This isn’t pretty for us,” said Michael Grosse-Broemer, one of Merkel’s top deputies in parliament in Berlin in a ZDF TV interview. “Those who voted for the AfD were sending a message of protest.” Merkel’s approval rating has plunged to a five-year low of 45 percent, down from 67 percent a year ago, due to spreading disenchantment with her open-door policies on refugees. According to a Der Spiegel magazine report, Merkel wanted to announce her intention of running for a fourth term this year but put that on hold due to resistance from her Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. The arch-conservative CSU has demanded that Merkel put limits on the numbers of refugees. “This was a dark day for Merkel,” Thomas Jaeger, a political scientist at Cologne University, told Reuters. “Everyone knows that she lost this election. Her district in parliament is there, she campaigned there, and refugees are her issue.” The election took place exactly a year after Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees and the discontent in the state was palpable. “This is a slap in the face for Merkel — not only in Berlin but also in her home state,” said Frauke Petry, co-leader of the AfD. “The voters made a clear statement against Merkel’s disastrous immigration policies. This put her in her place.” The AfD’s win was cheered by the leader of France’s far-right National Front party, Marine Le Pen, who posted on Twitter: “What was impossible yesterday has become possible: the patriots of AfD sweep up the party of Ms Merkel. All my congratulations!” The SPD, which has ruled the rural state on the Baltic coast with the CDU as junior coalition partners since 2006, won 30.2 percent of the vote, down from 35.6 percent in the last election in 2011. The CDU won 19 percent, down from 23 percent in 2011, and its worst result ever in the state, ARD TV said. The Left Party won 12.7 percent, down from 18.4 percent five years ago, while the Greens won 4.9 percent, down from 8.7 percent, and fell out of the assembly. The far-right NPD was also knocked out of the state legislature, falling below the 5 percent threshold for the first time since 2006. Despite losing support, the SPD (26 seats) and the CDU (16) won enough seats to be able to continue their coalition in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with the AfD as the second-largest bloc in the 71-seat state assembly with 18 seats. The SPD, which could also form a coalition with the Left Party, said it was leaving its options open. Voters already punished Merkel in three state elections in March, voting in droves for the AfD and rejecting Merkel’s Christian Democrats. Founded in 2013, the AfD now has won seats in nine of the 16 state assemblies across the country. However, it has no chance of governing in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since the other parties have said they would not form a coalition with the party. Slideshow (15 Images) The AfD is also making gains nationwide, a new poll showed on Sunday. If the national election were held next week, the AfD would win 12 percent of the vote, making it the third-largest party in Germany, according to a poll conducted by the Emnid institute for the Bild newspaper and published on Sunday. Merkel had made a last-minute campaign appearance on Saturday in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, warning against the politics of “angst” offered by AfD with its virulent anti-refugee stance.[SEP]A year from now, Germany will be in the final stages of a general election that will shape European politics for the rest of this decade and beyond. With 12 months still to go, the question of whether Angela Merkel will lead her centre-right CDU party into that election is the great unknown. Mrs Merkel has been chancellor for 11 years and is nearing the end of her third term. She is globally respected and generally popular with voters, but she cannot go on forever. Her handling of the refugee question has shaken up German politics and damaged (though in some quarters burnished) her mystique, causing speculation that the Merkel era may be nearing its end. The weekend elections in Germany’s most north-eastern region, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, were the latest lightning-rod for post-Merkel speculation, given a special twist by the fact that the chancellor herself sits for the region. The results on Sunday were unquestionably bad for the CDU, whose vote fell by 4% from 23% to 19%, slipping into third place behind the centre-left SPD on 31% and the anti-migrant AfD on 21%. The region will continue to be governed by a “grand coalition” of SPD and CDU, similar to the one that Mrs Merkel leads at federal level. Yet the setback has triggered the once unmentionable subject of the CDU adopting a new leader in time for the general election. Objectively, there is not much basis for such speculation. The 4% fall in the CDU share in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern does not, on its own, justify real panic. All major parties lost vote share on Sunday. The AfD’s genuinely spectacular success has also been drawn from all parties, including from the Left party and the SPD. More enduringly, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is not typical of Germany as a whole. It is one of the poorest regions in the country and formerly part of communist East Germany. Markedly the strongest vote for the AfD, moreover, was in the extreme east, the poorest part of all. It has been a long time since the former DDR was the CDU stronghold that it was in the aftermath of German reunification. It is of course true that the results in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern illustrate political trends that can be seen all over Europe, including Germany. Anti-migrant feeling has risen everywhere, as has racial tension. Dissatisfaction with national governments is widespread and hostility to the European Union has grown. But these trends take different and nuanced forms in each country and in each region of each country. Mrs Merkel is admired as well as disliked for her handling of the migrant situation. It is misleading to see everything in European domestic politics through the single prism of Brexit – or any other preoccupation. Nevertheless there is absolutely no doubt that this result will be weighed alongside those in the upcoming regional contests in Lower Saxony and Berlin to form a general view of Mrs Merkel’s standing as the general election draws nearer. Nor is there much doubt that a politician who has dominated her country for so long will eventually and rightly come under pressure from a new generation. Mrs Merkel’s weaknesses are under the microscope at the moment. Yet the instinct for stability is strong in Germany and it would be foolish not to remember Mrs Merkel’s great strengths too, especially when there is little evidence yet that a different centre-right leader would win more support.[SEP]BERLIN, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The anti-immigrant Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party is expected by polls to make huge gains in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election on Sunday, reflecting a growing discontent with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her open-door refugee policy. The election, taking place exactly a year after Merkel's decision to open Germany's borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees will be followed by another key vote in Berlin in two weeks and national elections next September. Voters already punished Merkel in three state elections in March, voting in droves for the AfD and rejecting Merkel's Christian Democrats. If the national election were held next week, The AfD would win 12 percent of the vote, making it the third-largest party in Germany according to a new poll conducted by the Emnid institute for the Bild newspaper and published on Sunday. That would catapult the party into the German parliament for the first time since its creation in 2013. Merkel, mulling a bid for a fourth term as chancellor, made a last-minute campaign appearance on Saturday in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, her home state, warning against the politics of "angst" offered by AfD with its virulent anti-refugee stance. "Every vote counts," she said. "This election is about the future of this state." She urged voters to look beyond divisive campaign slogans and consider the policies of the current centre-right coalition that had halved unemployment and pumped up tourism in the northeastern coastal state. In an interview in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, Merkel defended her decision to welcome so many migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East, and denied that the influx had cut funding for the German public. Merkel's approval ratings have sunk to a five-year low of 45 percent over the past year, but the chancellor said she would act no differently if faced with the same situation today. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a fellow Christian Democrat, rejected criticism from some in the CDU's Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party that Merkel's refugee policy was responsible for the rise of the AfD party. The Emnid poll said 63 percent of Germans believed that too. "I consider that preposterous," he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "The refugee crisis is not the reason that far-right populist parties are now making gains here. That has more to do with the anxiety that some have about globalisation and modernity." A poll released by German broadcaster ZDF on Friday showed the AfD capturing 22 percent of the vote in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which has 1.3 million eligible voters. The CDU was seen winning the same amount, while the Social Democrats, senior partner in the ruling coalition, was seen as likely to win 28 percent. (Editing by Greg Mahlich)[SEP]A nationalist, anti-immigration party performed strongly in a German state election Sunday in the region where Chancellor Angela Merkel has her political base, overtaking her conservatives to take second place amid discontent with her migrant policies, projections indicated. The three-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 21 to 22 percent of votes in the election for the state legislature in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, according to projections for ARD and ZDF television based on exit polls and partial counting. They put support for Merkel's Christian Democrats between 19 and 20 percent, their worst result yet in the state. The center-left Social Democrats, who led the outgoing state government, were the strongest party with about 30-percent support. Economically weak Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in Germany's northeastern corner, is home to 1.6 million of the country's 80 million people and is a relative political lightweight. It is, however, the state where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency, and Sunday's regional vote was the first of five before a national election expected next September. National AfD leader Frauke Petry celebrated "a blow to Angela Merkel." Local AfD leader Leif-Erik Holm told supporters: "Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of Angela Merkel's chancellorship today." Merkel's refugee policies were a prominent issue in the campaign for Sunday's election, which came a year to the day after she decided to let migrants who were waiting in Hungary to travel to Germany — setting off the peak of last year's influx. Germany registered more than 1 million people as asylum-seekers last year. New arrivals in Germany have slowed drastically this year, policies have been tightened and Mecklenburg is home to few foreigners. Still, New Year's Eve robberies and sexual assaults in Germany blamed largely on foreigners, as well as two attacks in July carried out by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group, have fed tensions. Merkel has stuck to her insistence that "we will manage" the refugee crisis, and has also said that "sometimes you have to endure such controversies." "This result, and the strong performance of AfD, is bitter for many, for everyone in our party," said Peter Tauber, her Christian Democrats' general secretary. He said the state government's positive record took a back seat for many voters, "because among a recognizable part, there was an explicit wish to voice displeasure and protest, and we saw that particularly strongly in the discussion about refugees." Sunday's result could make it more difficult for Merkel to bury a festering dispute with the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian arm of her conservative bloc, which has long criticized her decision to open the borders and advocated an annual cap on migrants. CSU general secretary Andreas Scheuer said that "we feel vindicated in our course." Merkel has yet to say whether she will seek a fourth term next year, as is widely expected. While polls this year have shown her popularity slipping from stellar to merely solid, there is no obvious conservative alternative and her bloc is ahead nationally. "She is, in people's perception, personally responsible for the border opening, and she has to deal with that," political science professor Karl-Rudolf Korte told ZDF television. "But she can deal with it — she has a year." Mecklenburg was the only one of Germany's 16 states where the far-right National Democratic Party was represented in a state legislature, but it appeared to have lost its seats on Sunday. Its support dropped below the 5 percent needed to keep them, with many supporters apparently switching to AfD. The state has been run for the past decade by the parties that currently run Germany. Popular Social Democratic governor Erwin Sellering has governed withMerkel's party as his junior partner. Both parties lost support compared with the last state election in 2011, when they polled 35.6 and 23 percent, respectively. The opposition Left Party — once popular with protest voters — also lost support, slipping about six points to 12.5 percent. The left-leaning Greens were hovering around the 5 percent mark. AfD is now represented in nine of Germany's 16 state legislatures and hopes to enter the national Parliament next year. Still, it fell well short Sunday of its aim of becoming the strongest party in Mecklenburg, and also didn't match the 24.3 percent support it won in another eastern state, Saxony-Anhalt, in March. There's no realistic prospect at present of AfD going into government. Other parties won't deal with it. The next regional election is Sept. 18 in Berlin, where local issues are likely to play a stronger role.[SEP]BERLIN -- A nationalist anti-immigration party performed strongly in a German state election Sunday in the region where Chancellor Angela Merkel has her political base, overtaking her conservatives to take second place. The 3-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 20.8 percent of votes in the election for the state legislature in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Merkel's Christian Democrats polled 19 percent. The center-left Social Democrats, who led the outgoing state government in a coalition with the conservatives, remained the strongest party, with 30.6 percent support. Economically weak Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in Germany's northeastern corner, is home to 1.6 million people and is a relative political lightweight. It is, however, the state where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency, and Sunday's regional vote was the first of five before a national election expected next September. National Alternative for Germany leader Frauke Petry celebrated "a blow to Angela Merkel." Local party leader, Leif-Erik Holm told supporters: "Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of Angela Merkel's chancellorship today." Merkel's refugee policies were a prominent issue in the campaign for Sunday's election, which came a year to the day after she decided to let in migrants from Hungary. Germany registered more than 1 million people as asylum seekers last year. New arrivals in Germany have slowed drastically this year. Still, New Year's Eve robberies and sexual assaults in Germany blamed on foreigners, as well as two attacks in July carried out by asylum seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group, have fed tensions. Merkel has stuck to her insistence that "we will manage" the migrant crisis." "This result, and the strong performance of AfD, is bitter for many, for everyone in our party," said Peter Tauber, her Christian Democrats' general secretary. He said the state government's positive record took a back seat for many voters, "because among a recognizable part, there was an explicit wish to voice displeasure and protest, and we saw that particularly strongly in the discussion about refugees." Merkel has yet to say whether she will seek a fourth term next year. "She is, in people's perception, personally responsible for the border opening, and she has to deal with that," political science professor Karl-Rudolf Korte told ZDF television. The state has been run for the past decade by the parties that currently run Germany. Popular Social Democratic governor Erwin Sellering has governed with Merkel's party as his junior partner. Both parties lost support compared with the previous state election in 2011. Alternative for Germany is now represented in nine of Germany's 16 state legislatures and hopes to enter the national Parliament next year. Still, it fell short of its aim of becoming the strongest party in Mecklenburg, and also didn't match the 24.3 percent support it won in another eastern state, Saxony-Anhalt, in March. The next regional election is Sept. 18 in Berlin.[SEP]Voting began on Sunday in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where polls project the anti-immigrant Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party will make huge gains amid growing discontent with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her open-door refugee policy. The election, taking place exactly a year after Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees, will be followed by another key vote in Berlin in two weeks and national elections next September. Voters already punished Merkel in three state elections in March, voting in droves for the AfD and rejecting Merkel’s Christian Democrats. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a small coastal state in northeastern Germany with just 1.3 million eligible voters, but losses there would be humiliating for Merkel, who has her own electoral district in the state. The AfD, founded two years after the last election in the state, is expected to capture 22 percent of the vote, the same as Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), junior partner in the state’s ruling coalition, according to a poll by broadcaster ZDF. The Social Democrats, senior partners in the state’s ruling coalition, are expected to win 28 percent of the vote, compared with 35.6 percent in the last state-wide election in 2011. The AfD is also making gains nationwide, a new poll showed Sunday. If the national election were held next week, The AfD would win 12 percent of the vote, making it the third-largest party in Germany, according to a poll conducted by the Emnid institute for the Bild newspaper and published on Sunday. That would catapult the party into the German parliament for the first time since its creation in 2013. Merkel, mulling a bid for a fourth term as chancellor, made a last-minute campaign appearance on Saturday in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, warning against the politics of “angst” offered by AfD with its virulent anti-refugee stance. “Every vote counts,” she said. “This election is about the future of this state.” She urged voters to look beyond divisive campaign slogans and consider the policies of the current coalition that had halved unemployment and pumped up tourism in the northeastern coastal state. In an interview in the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, Merkel defended her decision to welcome so many migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East, and denied the influx had cut funding for the German public. Merkel’s approval ratings have sunk to a five-year low of 45 percent over the past year, but the chancellor said she would act no differently if faced with the same situation today. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a fellow Christian Democrat, rejected criticism from some in the CDU’s Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party that Merkel’s refugee policy was responsible for the rise of the AfD party. The Emnid poll said 63 percent of Germans believed that too. “I consider that preposterous,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “The refugee crisis is not the reason that far-right populist parties are now making gains here. That has more to do with the anxiety that some have about globalisation and modernity.”[SEP]BERLIN, Sept 3 (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Mario Draghi will address a German parliamentary committee on Sept. 28 to discuss monetary policy, a spokeswoman for the bank said on Saturday. Draghi will give a short speech to the European committee of the German Bundestag, followed by questions, the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung reported in its Sunday issue, quoting the head of the committee, Gunther Krichbaum. Krichbaum told the paper, which first reported the date for the meeting, that the finance and budget committees would also take part, but Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble would not attend. Relations between Europe's largest economy and the ECB have been tense due to criticisms made by German government officials, who argue that the ECB's ultra easy monetary policy is eroding the savings of thrifty Germans and eroding profit margins for banks. Schaeuble has also blamed the ECB's policies for the recent rise of a right-wing anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany, which is poised to make huge gains in Sunday's election in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The ECB's spokeswoman said Draghi had last spoken in the German parliament in 2012. He has also spoken to the Spanish, French, Italian and Finnish national parliaments, she said. German lawmakers had invited Draghi in the spring after he responded sharply to their criticism of monetary policy, and he quickly accepted the invitation. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal)[SEP]BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-left deputy is accusing her conservatives of being too slow to respond to the migrant crisis following a state election in which a nationalist, anti-immigration party beat Merkel's party into third place. Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel's Social Democrats won Sunday's election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency. It was the first of five regional votes before a national election expected next September. The three-year-old Alternative for Germany drew supporters from across the spectrum to finish second with 20.8 percent of votes. Merkel's welcome for refugees a year ago was a prominent issue. Social Democratic Party , SPD, chairman Sigmar Gabriel speaks about the results of the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Sunday Sept. 4, 2016. The center-left Social Democrats, who lead the outgoing state government, were expected to be the strongest party with about 30 percent support. ( Britta Pedersen/dpa via AP) Merkel has insisted that "we will manage" the crisis. Gabriel said Monday that "we have to do it too" and that "we have wasted a great deal of time with unnecessary arguments." Workers remove an election poster of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU top candidate Lorenz Caffier for the election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. The nationalist, anti-immigration party Alternative for Germnany, AfD, has performed strongly in the state election Sunday in the region where Merkel has her political base, overtaking her conservatives to take second place amid discontent with her migrant policies. (Christian Charisius/dpa via AP)[SEP]Immigrant men have groped and sexually assaulted a number of women in a German city in copycat attacks of the New Year's eve sex frenzy in Cologne. Police said the four women who filed complaints after the incidents in Essen late on Friday could be 'only the tip of the iceberg.' Women who may have been attacked at the Essen Original city party have been offered a confidential hotline by officers to contact them. The police presence at the festival was beefed up over the weekend as a result of the sexual assaults. All said that men came up to them in groups, danced around them, harassed and groped them. This mirrored the attacks in Cologne on December 31 when mobs of North African migrants assaulted hundreds of women in attacks which served to turn Germany against the open-door refugee policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Despite defending her record in a long interview on Saturday with the BILD newspaper, the chancellor is braced for a beating at the hustings on Sunday when the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is set to defeat her own CDU conservatives in a regional election in her home state. Police said the Essen victims were attacked in three parts of the city by North African men in groups of four and six 'who drove their victims into corners and groped them all over.' Most of the abusers are still being hunted but police apprehended several lone suspects shortly after the complaints were made. Two 16-year-olds and a 46-year-old man were questioned but later released. Police spokesman Peter Elke said: 'The heavy police presence on the ground meant we could promptly identify and arrest some suspected attackers.' All suspects are immigrants or of a migrant background. Elke added: 'The sequence of events has to be determined. Therefore we are looking for witnesses to the attacks as enquiries continue.' The festival continued on Sunday and will end on Monday night. Organisers have promised to work with police to provide greater security for women in the hours of darkness when bands play and people stroll among food stands, acrobats and street artists. The news could not have come at a worse time for the chancellor as the AfD is set to score a bigger percentage of the vote in her home state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday. Thousands of CDU supporters have defected to the AfD as a direct result of her immigration policy. The AfD wants an end to refugee immigration.[SEP]German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged on Monday that her pro-refugee policies led to her party’s state election rout on Sunday but said they would not be jettisoned even though her Bavarian ally is clamouring for change. In a rare, self-critical reflection over a state election defeat, Merkel insisted three times in the space of a four-minute statement in China that her decision to open the gate for refugees last year was right and would not be changed. “I’m also responsible, obviously,” Merkel said, breaking her rule against speaking on domestic issues while outside Germany as she was on a visit to China. “But I believe the fundamental decisions made in the past months are the right decisions.” The poor showing of Merkel’s Christian Democratic (CDU) party in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state vote has raised questions about her hopes of winning – or even running – for a fourth term in the 2017 general election. Her refusal to change course on refugees deepened a split with the arch-conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of the CDU. After Sunday’s vote, CSU leaders quickly renewed an internecine battle with calls for limits on refugees. The CDU suffered one of its worst electoral defeats when it fell to third place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern behind the centre-left Social Democrats and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). “I’m extremely dissatisfied with the election result,” she said, noting refugees had overwhelmed local issues in the rural north-eastern state that has been her home district since 1990. It was the first time the CDU lost to a far-right party in a state election, winning a paltry 19 per cent, according to preliminary final results. The SPD won with 30.6 per cent while the AfD scored a historic win over the CDU with 20.8 percent. The AfD played on the public’s angst that refugees, some 70 per cent of whom are Muslims, are overrunning Germany, siphoning away housing, resources and jobs from Germans. Merkel rejected that argument, saying no funds were taken away for refugees. Fears of terrorism run high among AfD supporters after two refugees carried out Islamic State-inspired attacks in July. “Everyone’s got a lot of thinking to do about winning voters back, and that means first of all me, of course,” said Merkel, who has won the last three federal elections since 2005 but has had to delay her announcement of a run for a fourth term because of CSU opposition, according to Der Spiegel newsmagazine. Her approval ratings fell 22 points to a five-year low at 45 per cent in the year since she opened the gates to more than a million refugees, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, drawn by Germany’s famed prosperity, order and stability. The CSU has been railing against Merkel’s steadfast opposition to putting limits on the number of refugees even though Germany took in more than the rest of Europe combined in 2015. Incoming refugee numbers have dropped sharply this year. There have been rumours that the powerful CSU leader, Bavaria state premier Horst Seehofer, is considering a run for chancellor in 2017 instead of supporting Merkel’s candidacy. That threat had always been thwarted in the past by CDU warnings that it would then run its own campaign in Bavaria. “We need a change of direction in Berlin,” Bavarian state Finance Minister Markus Soeder told the Bild daily. “The voice of the people can’t be ignored any longer.” CSU General Secretary Andreas Scheuer, Seehofer’s right-hand man, demanded Merkel drop her opposition to limits on refugees. “It’s obvious who’s to blame for this election – not the CSU.” Grumbling in CDU ranks is also growing as many fear a drubbing in next year’s federal election would cost it dozens of seats in parliament. The CDU/CSU has slid some eight points to 33 percent in the last year, Infratest Dimap said last week. “Peoples’ confidence in the chancellor has been badly shaken,” said Erika Steinbach, a CDU MP. “It’s hard to tell if that can be repaired by the election.”

Voters in the federal German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern head to the polls in a regional election to elect members to the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The latest polling indicates the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) are expected to gain strongly.

Tensions were high as pro-democracy parties sought to maintain a majority of democratically elected seats in the Legislative Council that allows them to block certain legislation. People were still voting at some polling stations at 2 a.m. local time Monday morning, three and half hours after the 10:30 p.m. deadline. The poll is the first major election since the financial center was rocked by pro-democracy street protests in 2014 -- also known as the "Umbrella Revolution." More than 2.2 million people voted, according to the Electoral Affairs Commission, with a turnout of 58% -- up from 53% in 2012. Hong Kong does not permit postal voting or early voting. suggest that a younger generation of more radical, pro-democracy politicians won a larger-than-expected share of votes. suggest that a younger generation of more radical, pro-democracy politicians won a larger-than-expected share of votes. Preliminary results suggest that a younger generation of more radical, pro-democracy politicians won a larger-than-expected share of votes. Nathan Law, one of the student leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, has been elected on Hong Kong Island, according to preliminary results. His constituency elects six seats and he is currently in second place, with 90% of votes counted. Law co-founded Demosisto with activist Joshua Wong , who was unable to run as he is not yet 21. Law, 23, will be Hong Kong's youngest ever lawmaker. Speaking Sunday before the results, Wong told CNN he hoped the election would prove to be "fair." He said Hong Kong has faced an uptick in "political censorship" and the "suppression or interference with autonomy" since the 2014 protests. Other young former Umbrella Movement protesters also look set to win seats. Including Youngspirations' Sixtus Baggio Leung, who was endorsed by pro-independence activist Edward Leung. The latter Leung was one of several candidates controversially blocked from standing in this year's election Another Youngspiration candidate, Yau Wai-ching, is in a tight contest in the Kowloon West constituency. Should she win, all six lawmakers elected there will be women. Voters defied early predictions that turnout would be lower, with 400,000 more people voting than in 2012. Lines stretched around the block in certain districts, as many complained online of poorly staffed polling stations. In Tai Koo, on Hong Kong Island, voters were still lining up as of 2 a.m. local time Monday. Others went out of their way to ensure they would be able to take part. Post-graduate student Deryck Chan, 25, flew back from the UK to cast his vote. "I made sure to book my leave to coincide with the elections," he told CNN.[SEP]HONG KONG (Reuters) - Several pro-independence candidates won seats in Hong Kong’s first major election since pro-democracy protests in 2014, prompting a robust warning from China that any independence would damage the city’s security and prosperity. In comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency, China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said it “resolutely opposed” any form of independence for Hong Kong, noting this would violate China’s constitution. The election of a new generation of pro-democracy activists in a record turnout in Chinese-controlled Hong Kong on Sunday underscores a deep divide in a city of more than 7 million people where tensions with Beijing are intensifying. China bristles at open dissent, especially over sensitive matters such as demands for universal suffrage, and many in Hong Kong are increasingly concerned about what they see as Beijing’s meddling in the city’s affairs. In the election, the pro-democracy opposition also kept its crucial one-third veto bloc in the 70-seat Legislative Council over major laws and public funding that has helped check China’s influence. The vote, which ushered in a new crop of legislators including a 23-year-old former protest leader who vowed to “fight” the Chinese Communist Party, underscores growing frustration with how Beijing has handled its “special administrative region” and marks a significant turning point. The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement that promised to maintain the global financial hub’s freedoms and separate laws for at least 50 years, but gave ultimate control to Beijing. Beijing officials have repeatedly warned Hong Kong not to stray too far. Despite the disqualification of six pro-democracy election candidates from the election in July on the grounds that they backed independence, at least five “localists” and younger democratic newcomers won seats, including Nathan Law, one of the leaders of mass democracy protests in 2014. Those protests posed one of the greatest challenges to Beijing’s rule in decades and were deemed illegal by the local government in Hong Kong and the central government in Beijing. Localists put the interests of Hong Kong before those of Beijing. Pro-democracy candidates Lam Cheuk-ting, Alvin Yeung, Raymond Chan, Cheung Chiu-hung and Leung Kwok-hung celebrate on the podium after winning their seats in the Legislative Council election in Hong Kong, China September 5, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip “I’m quite shocked,” said Law. “We inherit some spirit from the movement and I hope that can continue in the future... We still have to unite in order to have stronger power to fight the Chinese Communist Party.” “PEOPLE WANT CHANGE” Sunday’s vote was the first major election since the 2014 student-led “Umbrella Revolution” protests that blocked roads for 79 days. Since then, many disaffected youngsters have decried what they see as increasing Beijing interference stifling dissent and civil liberties, leading to a radicalisation of the political scene and occasional violent protests. Several veteran democrats lost their seats, as voters backed a new batch of younger candidates espousing self-determination and a more confrontational stance with China. “It’s a new era,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a democratic lawmaker who lost his seat after more than two decades in public office. “People want change, change meaning that they want new faces ... but the price is a further fragmentation (of the democracy camp). Ideologically they’re talking about independence and they want to assert themselves.” Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Raymond Tam said the government would do its best to “bring them around to a more centrist position”. “But it’s too early to say if this will be an issue,” he said. Pro-establishment lawmakers like Elizabeth Quat said she hoped the issue of splitting from China wouldn’t enter the legislature or it could damage Hong Kong’s economic interests. “Independence is not realistic at all,” she said. “Hopefully this will not be their main objective.” Slideshow (13 Images) Voters flocked to cast ballots in record numbers with some having to wait several hours after polls closed, leading to some delays in vote counting on Monday. “Hong Kong is really chaotic now. I want to do something to help,” said 28-year-old Maicy Leung, who was in a snaking queue of several hundred. “It’s to help the next generation and to help myself.” The Electoral Affairs Commission said 58 percent of an eligible 3.8 million voters had cast their ballot, up from 53 percent in 2012 and the highest legislative election turnout since 1997.[SEP]Student Nathan Law (centre) who helped lead the 2014 protests, celebrates after winning a seat at the legislative council elections in Hong Kong, on Monday (AP photo) HONG KONG — Several pro-independence candidates won seats in Hong Kong's first major election since pro-democracy protests in 2014, prompting a robust warning from China that any independence would damage the city's security and prosperity. In comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency, China's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said it "resolutely opposed" any form of independence for Hong Kong, noting this would violate China's constitution. The election of a new generation of pro-democracy activists in a record turnout in Chinese-controlled Hong Kong on Sunday underscores a deep divide in a city of more than 7 million people where tensions with Beijing are intensifying. China bristles at open dissent, especially over sensitive matters such as demands for universal suffrage, and many in Hong Kong are increasingly concerned about what they see as Beijing's meddling in the city's affairs. In the election, the pro-democracy opposition also kept its crucial one-third veto bloc in the 70-seat Legislative Council over major laws and public funding that has helped check China's influence. The vote, which ushered in a new crop of legislators including a 23-year-old former protest leader who vowed to "fight" the Chinese Communist Party, underscores growing frustration with how Beijing has handled its "special administrative region" and marks a significant turning point. The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement that promised to maintain the global financial hub's freedoms and separate laws for at least 50 years, but gave ultimate control to Beijing. Beijing officials have repeatedly warned Hong Kong not to stray too far. Despite the disqualification of six pro-democracy election candidates from the election in July on the grounds that they backed independence, at least five "localists" and younger democratic newcomers won seats, including Nathan Law, one of the leaders of mass democracy protests in 2014. Those protests posed one of the greatest challenges to Beijing's rule in decades and were deemed illegal by the local government in Hong Kong and the central government in Beijing. Localists put the interests of Hong Kong before those of Beijing. "I'm quite shocked," said Law. "We inherit some spirit from the movement and I hope that can continue in the future... We still have to unite in order to have stronger power to fight the Chinese Communist Party." Sunday's vote was the first major election since the 2014 student-led "Umbrella Revolution" protests that blocked roads for 79 days. Since then, many disaffected youngsters have decried what they see as increasing Beijing interference stifling dissent and civil liberties, leading to a radicalisation of the political scene and occasional violent protests. Several veteran democrats lost their seats, as voters backed a new batch of younger candidates espousing self-determination and a more confrontational stance with China. "It's a new era," said Lee Cheuk-yan, a democratic lawmaker who lost his seat after more than two decades in public office. "People want change, change meaning that they want new faces... but the price is a further fragmentation [of the democracy camp]. Ideologically they're talking about independence and they want to assert themselves." Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Raymond Tam said the government would do its best to "bring them around to a more centrist position". "But it's too early to say if this will be an issue," he said. Pro-establishment lawmakers like Elizabeth Quat said she hoped the issue of splitting from China wouldn't enter the legislature or it could damage Hong Kong's economic interests. "Independence is not realistic at all," she said. "Hopefully this will not be their main objective." Voters flocked to cast ballots in record numbers with some having to wait several hours after polls closed, leading to some delays in vote counting on Monday. "Hong Kong is really chaotic now. I want to do something to help," said 28-year-old Maicy Leung, who was in a snaking queue of several hundred. "It's to help the next generation and to help myself." The Electoral Affairs Commission said 58 per cent of an eligible 3.8 million voters had cast their ballot, up from 53 per cent in 2012 and the highest legislative election turnout since 1997.[SEP]Young radicals gain foothold in Hong Kong poll likely to rile China HONG KONG, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Several pro-independence candidates won seats in Hong Kong's legislative election which saw a record turnout in the Chinese-controlled city on Sunday, results likely to further strain ties with Communist Party rulers in Beijing. An initial count on Monday also suggested Hong Kong's pro-democracy opposition might retain its crucial one-third veto bloc in the 70-seat Legislative Council over major pieces of legislation and public funding that has helped check China's influence. Full results weren't due till later in the day. This was the first major election since the student-led, pro-democracy "Umbrella Revolution" protests in 2014 that blocked roads for 79-days as a turning point in the city's politics, even though Beijing gave no ground. Since then, many disaffected youngsters have decried what they see as increasing Beijing interference stifling dissent and civil liberties, leading to a radicalisation of the political scene and occasional violent protests. Several veteran democrats failed to retain their seats, as voters backed a new batch of younger democrats espousing self-determination and a more confrontational stance with China. "It's a new era," said Lee Cheuk-yan, a democratic lawmaker who lost his seat after nearly two decades in public office. "People want change, change meaning that they want new faces ... but the price is a further fragmentation (of the democracy camp). Ideologically they're talking about independence and they want to assert themselves." Voters flocked to cast ballots in record numbers with some having to wait several hours after the close of polling past midnight to cast ballots at congested voting booths, leading to some delays in vote counting on Monday. "Hong Kong is really chaotic now. I want to do something to help," said 28-year-old Maicy Leung, who was in a snaking queue of several hundred. "It's to help the next generation and to help myself." The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement that promised to maintain the global financial hub's freedoms and separate laws for at least 50 years, but gave ultimate control to Beijing. The Electoral Affairs Commission said 58 percent of the city's 3.8 million eligible voters had cast their ballot, up from 53 percent in 2012 and the highest turnout for any legislative election since 1997. Despite the disqualification of six pro-democracy election candidates from the election in July on the grounds that they supported independence, at least five "localists" and younger democrats won seats including one of the leaders from the mass democracy protests of 2014, Nathan Law. Localists put the interests of Hong Kong before those of Beijing. "I'm quite shocked," said the 23-year-old Law. "We inherit some spirit from the movement and I hope that can continue in the future ... We still have to unite in order to have stronger power to fight against the Chinese Communist Party."[SEP]Voters turn out in force for crucial Hong Kong election HONG KONG (AP) — Voters turned out in force Sunday for Hong Kong's most crucial election since the handover from Britain in 1997, the outcome of which could pave the way for a fresh round of political confrontations over Beijing's control of the city. The vote for Legislative Council lawmakers will test the unity of Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp, with a new generation of radical activists joining the race after emerging in the wake of 2014 pro-democracy street protests. They're hoping to ride a rising tide of anti-China sentiment as they challenge formidably resourced pro-Beijing rivals for seats. Many of the newcomers back the previously unthinkable idea of independence for Hong Kong, which has added to divisions with the broader pro-democracy movement and overshadowed the election. Last month, officials disqualified six pro-independence candidates in an attempt to tamp down the debate, though other candidates with similar views made the cut. Hong Kongers feel they have few other negotiating tactics left in their battle for genuine democracy as Beijing takes an increasingly hard-line stance. "It's bleak, but I think if China doesn't leave us to do what we want, I think the only way is to fight for independence," Aron Yuen, a 34-year-old college lecturer, said as he stood in line with about 100 other people to cast their ballots. "You can't negotiate with somebody who doesn't keep their promise." Yuen planned to vote for 23-year-old Nathan Law, who, along with teen activist Joshua Wong, helped lead the 2014 protests. Their party, Demosisto, advocates a referendum on "self-determination" of Hong Kong's future. Voters were choosing from among 84 lists of candidates to fill 35 seats in a complex system of geographic constituencies that makes results, expected Monday, hard to predict. At stake is the power to keep the city's widely unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, and his government in check. "Pan-democrat" lawmakers currently control 27 of 70 seats, compared with 43 held by lawmakers friendly to Beijing. The democrats are fighting to keep control of at least a third of the seats, which gives them veto power to block government attempts to enact unpopular legislation, including a renewed attempt to enact Beijing's controversial election revamp that triggered the 2014 street protests. The risk is that the pro-democracy vote will be split, allowing pro-Beijing candidates to take more seats and removing a major hurdle for the government's proposals, which in turn could lead to a new round of political confrontations. Turnout appeared to be higher than average, with long lines of people still waiting to cast ballots at some polling stations by the time voting was supposed to end. Some 52.6 percent of nearly 3.8 million registered voters had turned out an hour before polls closed, matching the total turnout for the previous election four years ago. Turnout in the 2008 election was 45.2 percent, according to the government's website. Earlier Sunday, a small group of protesters demanded Leung step down outside a polling station where he cast his vote. "The democracy in the election is reflected by the free choice of voters, they do not need to be told who to vote (for)," he said when asked his thoughts on how results would be affected after seven candidates with low support, most of them pro-democracy, suspended their campaigns at the last minute in a bid to consolidate votes for others. Hong Kong has been the scene of increasingly bitter political turmoil since the last legislative election in 2012. The growing calls for independence highlight frustration among residents, especially young people, who are chafing under Beijing's tightening hold. A spate of incidents, including the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers who later resurfaced in detention in mainland China, has aroused fears that Beijing is reneging on its promise of wide autonomy for Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" framework. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/kelvin-chan[SEP]Hong Kong (AP) — A group of young Hong Kong pro-democracy activists pulled off a stunning election victory, gaining a foothold in the southern Chinese city’s legislature and setting the stage for a new round of political confrontations with Beijing, official results showed Monday. The candidates, who helped lead massive 2014 pro-democracy street protests, will now seek a vote on changing the way the city is governed by China’s Communist leaders, but they’ll face resistance from Beijing, which rejects separatism. Final results showed that overall, pro-democracy candidates won 30 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council, three more than previously, which means they retain the power to block government attempts to enact unpopular or controversial legislation, such as a Beijing-backed revamp of how the city’s top leader is chosen that sparked the 2014 protests. Record turnout in Sunday’s vote helped sweep the newcomers into office, most notably Nathan Law, a 23-year-old former student protest leader, who garnered the second-highest number of votes in his six-seat Hong Kong Island constituency. Law’s party, Demosisto, founded earlier this year with teen protest leader Joshua Wong, advocates a referendum on “self-determination” on the future status of Hong Kong, which is in the middle of a 50-year transition period to Chinese rule. “It shows how Hong Kong people want to change,” Law told reporters when asked about his victory. “People are voting for a new way and new future of our democratic movement.” In another surprising result, Yau Wai-Ching, 25, and Sixtus “Baggio” Leung, 30, of Youngspiration also secured seats. Their group was formed during the 2014 protests and proposes a similar plan as Demosisto. The results are a sign “that Hong Kong people want to resist,” said Leung. “This is what Beijing should know. When we can’t trust ‘one country, two systems’ and the Basic Law to maintain the distinction between Hong Kong’s system and Beijing, then the next step, the answer is to cut things off.” Under the principle of “one country, two systems” and the Basic Law constitution, Beijing is supposed to let Hong Kong keep its capitalist economic and political system separate from mainland China’s until 2047. The newcomers pulled off their startling victories by riding a rising tide of anti-China sentiment as they challenged formidably resourced pro-Beijing rivals. They were part of a broader wave of radical activists who campaigned for Hong Kong’s complete autonomy or even independence from China, highlighting fears that Beijing is violating its promise to let the city mostly run itself, as well as frustration over the failure of the 2014 protests to win genuine elections for Hong Kong’s top leader. That represents a break with the established mainstream “pan-democrat” parties, who have demanded voters be able to elect more lawmakers as well as the city’s top leader, or chief executive — currently chosen by a panel of pro-Beijing elites — but never challenged the idea that Hong Kong is part of China. Leaders in Beijing and Hong Kong will have to reconsider their hard-line approach toward rising pro-democracy opposition after it backfired, “because now with the entry of a new generation of young democrats into the legislature, the politics inside the legislature will be very fierce,” said Sonny Lo, a political analyst at The Education University of Hong Kong. About 2.2 million people, or 58 percent of registered voters, cast ballots for the Legislative Council, the highest turnout since the city’s 1997 handover from Britain. Another rookie, 38-year-old land reform campaigner Eddie Chu, was the election’s biggest surprise, winning 84,121 votes, the highest number of votes received by any of the more than 200 candidates competing for 35 seats in geographic constituencies. “I hope to renew the democratic movement of Hong Kong,” Chu said. He too wants to focus on promoting a self-determination movement. “That is my political goal in Hong Kong.” Five “super seats” are chosen by voters citywide, and 30 are taken by members representing business and trade groups such as accounting, finance, medicine and fisheries, most of which support Beijing because their members have close ties to China’s Communist elite on the mainland.[SEP]HONG KONG: A new generation of young Hong Kong politicians advocating a break from Beijing looked set to become lawmakers for the first time Monday in the biggest poll since mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014. A record 2.2 million people voted in the city-wide legislative election which ended in the early hours of Monday and saw activists who support Hong Kong’s independence from China standing for the first time. It comes as fears grow that Beijing is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city in a range of areas, from politics to education and media. In a landmark victory, at least three of a handful of young campaigners calling for much more distance from Beijing were forecast to win seats with 90 percent of the vote counted. Among them is Nathan Law, 23, leader of the 2014 “Umbrella Movement” rallies, who is guaranteed a seat after coming second in his constituency behind a pro-Beijing candidate. Law and his new party Demosisto are calling for a referendum on independence, emphasising Hong Kongers’ right to choose. “I think Hong Kongers really wanted change,” Law said, celebrating his win. “Young people have a sense of urgency when it comes to the future.” Law will now take up a seat in the Legislative Council (LegCo), Hong Kong’s lawmaking body. Most established pro-democracy politicians do not support the notion of independence and there were concerns in the democratic camp that new activists would split the vote, triggering overall losses. If the democrats lose four seats, they will forfeit the one-third voting bloc they need to veto bills, stacking the already skewed legislature even more in favour of Beijing. However, early results showed the democrats are likely to hold on to that veto power. Beijing bias It is as good a result as the democrats could hope for, given that the framework of LegCo favours Beijing. The structure of the council makes it almost impossible for the democracy camp to take a majority as 30 of the council’s 70 seats are elected by special interest groups representing a range of businesses and social sectors. Those seats go predominantly to pro-Beijing candidates. Fears that Hong Kong’s freedoms are disappearing were fanned after five city booksellers known for salacious titles about Beijing politicians disappeared, resurfacing in detention on the mainland. That fuelled the fire of the “localist” movement, which grew out of the failure of the 2014 rallies to win political reform pushing for more distance from Beijing. It saw the emergence of young campaigners demanding outright independence for Hong Kong —a subject previously taboo. Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement intended to protect its freedoms and partial autonomy for 50 years. However, many young campaigners believe that deal has failed. Pro-democracy campaigners with megaphones urged voters to get to the polls Sunday to prevent the LegCo swinging further towards Beijing. At some polling stations there were snaking queues until until 2:30 am (1830 Sunday GMT) — four hours later than the scheduled cut-off time — with a turnout of almost 60 percent of 3.7 million voters. That compares with 53 percent in the last LegCo elections in 2012.[SEP]China warns new Hong Kong lawmakers not to back independence Beijing has warned new Hong Kong lawmakers not to back independence for the semi-autonomous city after young anti-China activists won seats for the first time in key weekend elections. Sunday's vote saw young activists pushing for more autonomy from Beijing secure a crucial foothold in the city's Legislative Council (LegCo), as fears grow that China is tightening its grip. It was the first major poll since pro-democracy rallies in 2014 failed to win concessions on political reform from Beijing. Some student protest leaders were among those winning seats in the landmark vote. Five candidates advocating independence or self-determination for Hong Kong are to sit in the 70-seat assembly. In a statement late Monday, China said that it would not tolerate any talk of independence "inside or outside" the legislature. "We firmly oppose any activity relating to Hong Kong independence in any form, inside or outside the Legislative Council, and firmly support the Hong Kong government to impose punishment in accordance with the law," state news agency Xinhua cited a spokesperson of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council -- China's cabinet -- as saying. It said some candidates had used the election as a platform to "openly promote" independence, adding that went against China's constitution, as well as Hong Kong's own mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law. "It is also against the fundamental interests of all Hong Kong residents," said the statement, which was posted on the website of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. The vote saw the highest turnout since Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" deal that protected the city's freedoms for 50 years. Fears that Beijing interference is now threatening those liberties in a range of areas, from politics to education and media, have sparked the birth of the independence movement. Lawmakers will take up their seats on October 1 and will have to swear an oath to uphold the constitution, which describes Hong Kong as part of China. It is not yet clear what may happen if they go on to advocate independence as an option for Hong Kong in the legislature. The government has already taken steps to deter the pro-independence camp. It introduced a controversial new form before the LegCo election which required candidates to verify they understood Hong Kong was an "inalienable part of China". Many refused to sign it. The government also banned the most strident independence activists from standing, causing widespread outrage. Hong Kong's unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying, seen by critics as a stooge of Beijing, said Tuesday that all lawmakers must abide by the Basic Law. However, he added that he wanted to cooperate with all legislators. "(I) hope we can all work for society together," Leung told reporters. Anti-establishment parties increased their share of the legislature, taking 30 of 70 seats. It is almost impossible for them to take a majority as 30 seats are appointed by special interest groups that tend to be pro-Beijing.[SEP]The movement for greater autonomy from mainland China gained momentum Sunday in the most important election since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain. Votes were still being tallied Monday morning, but it was already clear that five seats in the Legislative Council were won by young activists who entered politics after the pro-democracy street demonstrations of 2014 and campaigned on promises to stand up to Beijing. A total of 10 ran, not including six who were barred. Voters turned out in record numbers, with 2.2 million people, or 58% of the electorate, casting ballots. Some polling stations remained open a few hours past the 10:30 p.m. closing time to accommodate the crowds. They will decide 35 of the 70 seats in the legislature, though about a dozen of those seats were uncontested. The rest of the legislators are chosen by various business interest groups dominated by pro-Beijing loyalists. One winner was 23-year-old Nathan Law, who helped lead the 2014 protests — part of the so-called Umbrella Movement — with teenage activist Joshua Wong. Their party, Demosisto, calls for a referendum on Hong Kong’s future relationship with China, including the possibility of independence. The other young activists who won include a university lecturer who had been arrested in February street protests, an environmentalist who opposes high-speed rail links to the mainland and two members of the upstart political party Youngspiration, which also calls for a referendum. Before the elections, the legislature was divided between pro-Beijing loyalists and the so-called pan-Democratic bloc, whose 27 seats gave it veto power to block legislation. Some voters have turned to the new generation of activists because they believe that the pan-Democratic faction is inadequately defending Hong Kong’s interests and autonomy. The activists and pan-Democrats combined appear to have won far more votes than the pro-Beijing faction. “It matters less who got elected. This is the way for voters to show after Umbrella Movement they’re turning away from pro-Beijing loyalists,” said legislator Leung Kwok-hung of the pan-Democratic camp. Beijing-backed Hong Kong Chief Executive C.Y. Leung has said he’ll announce whether he’ll run for a second term after the elections. Under a mini-constitution known as Basic Law, Hong Kong enjoys freedoms that go far beyond those of mainland China. That arrangement is set to expire in 2047, when the former British colony reverts to full Chinese control. Legislators are limited to voting on bills and funding proposals put forth by the government and are not allowed to propose their own. There is no provision for a referendum of any sort. The ban of six pro-independence candidates was based on the notion that their advocacy for independence violated the Basic Law, which states that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China. “This is to show if you go down on the path of advocating independence, there is no return, and you’ll be blocked by the government,” said Ching Cheong, a local political commentator. “What the Chinese Communist Party wants is to nip it in the bud, even when pro-Beijing loyalists here know this is impossible in a pluralistic society like Hong Kong. “Even as they’re barred from running, their political demands cannot be ignored and their political appeal will only grow,” Ching said. One of the banned candidates, Edward Leung, said in July that he might file an election petition with the court to overturn the results. That now seems unlikely, because the candidate he supported, Sixtus Leung of the Youngspiration party, won a seat. There are other signs that their camp is gaining strength. A recent poll by the Chinese University of Hong Kong showed that 40% of people in Hong Kong under the age of 25 support independence, though most think it is impossible. In June 2015, the legislature rejected election rules drafted by Beijing that would have limited candidates for the 2017 election of Hong Kong’s high office to two or three Beijing loyalists. Crowds rally for end to racist violence in France after Chinese man's death Mother Teresa declared a saint as Pope Francis lauds her in Vatican ceremony Islamic State has lost all territory along the Syria-Turkey border, Turkish news agency says[SEP]Voters turn out in force for crucial Hong Kong election HONG KONG (AP) — Voters turned out in force Sunday for Hong Kong's most crucial election since the handover from Britain in 1997, the outcome of which could pave the way for a fresh round of political confrontations over Beijing's control of the city. The vote for Legislative Council lawmakers will test the unity of Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp, with a new generation of radical activists joining the race after emerging in the wake of 2014 pro-democracy street protests. They're hoping to ride a rising tide of anti-China sentiment as they challenge formidably resourced pro-Beijing rivals for seats. Many of the newcomers back the previously unthinkable idea of independence for Hong Kong, which has added to divisions with the broader pro-democracy movement and overshadowed the election. Last month, officials disqualified six pro-independence candidates in an attempt to tamp down the debate, though other candidates with similar views made the cut. Hong Kongers feel they have few other negotiating tactics left in their battle for genuine democracy as Beijing takes an increasingly hard-line stance. "It's bleak, but I think if China doesn't leave us to do what we want, I think the only way is to fight for independence," Aron Yuen, a 34-year-old college lecturer, said as he stood in line with about 100 other people to cast their ballots. "You can't negotiate with somebody who doesn't keep their promise." Yuen planned to vote for 23-year-old Nathan Law, who, along with teen activist Joshua Wong, helped lead the 2014 protests. Their party, Demosisto, advocates a referendum on "self-determination" of Hong Kong's future. Voters were choosing from among 84 lists of candidates to fill 35 seats in a complex system of geographic constituencies that makes results, expected Monday, hard to predict. At stake is the power to keep the city's widely unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, and his government in check. "Pan-democrat" lawmakers currently control 27 of 70 seats, compared with 43 held by lawmakers friendly to Beijing. The democrats are fighting to keep control of at least a third of the seats, which gives them veto power to block government attempts to enact unpopular legislation, including a renewed attempt to enact Beijing's controversial election revamp that triggered the 2014 street protests. The risk is that the pro-democracy vote will be split, allowing pro-Beijing candidates to take more seats and removing a major hurdle for the government's proposals, which in turn could lead to a new round of political confrontations. Turnout appeared to be higher than average, with long lines of people still waiting to cast ballots at some polling stations by the time voting was supposed to end. Some 52.6 percent of nearly 3.8 million registered voters had turned out an hour before polls closed, matching the total turnout for the previous election four years ago. Turnout in the 2008 election was 45.2 percent, according to the government's website. Earlier Sunday, a small group of protesters demanded Leung step down outside a polling station where he cast his vote. "The democracy in the election is reflected by the free choice of voters, they do not need to be told who to vote (for)," he said when asked his thoughts on how results would be affected after seven candidates with low support, most of them pro-democracy, suspended their campaigns at the last minute in a bid to consolidate votes for others. Hong Kong has been the scene of increasingly bitter political turmoil since the last legislative election in 2012. The growing calls for independence highlight frustration among residents, especially young people, who are chafing under Beijing's tightening hold. A spate of incidents, including the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers who later resurfaced in detention in mainland China, has aroused fears that Beijing is reneging on its promise of wide autonomy for Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" framework. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/kelvin-chan

Voters in Hong Kong go to the polls for a Legislative Council election, the first major election since the 2014 pro-democracy street protests. Several young pro-independence candidates win seats in the election.

KABUL, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Afghan security forces ended an 11-hour standoff in central Kabul on Tuesday, killing the last gunman holding out after an attack that began when a car bomber blew himself up in a prosperous business and residential area. Police sealed off the centre of the city as they battled three attackers who barricaded themselves inside an office of the aid group Care International. After hours of standoff, interrupted occasionally by sporadic gunfire, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Afghan special forces had killed all those involved in the attack in the Share Naw area of Kabul. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which took place just hours after Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 24 people near the Defence Ministry, including a number of senior security officials. Initial casualty reports suggested one person had been killed and six injured while more than 31 people were evacuated. The attacks highlighted the precarious security in the capital just a month before a conference in Brussels where international donors are expected to pledge continued financial support to Afghanistan. After several hours of quiet overnight, gunfire and explosions could be heard as day broke. Rafi Ullah, a security guard near the Care International office was walking in the area when the explosion occurred. "Right after the explosion, a huge flame rose and everything was covered with smoke, and then Afghan security forces arrived and blocked the area," he said. City traffic was blocked in several places and schools in the vicinity were closed. Hours before the attack in Share Naw late on Monday, at least 24 people were killed and 91 wounded when twin blasts in quick succession tore through an afternoon crowd in a bustling area close to the Defence Ministry. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for that attack, in which a suicide bomber caught security forces personnel and civilians who rushed to help victims of the first explosion. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defence Ministry official said. Another official said the deputy head of President Ashraf Ghani's personal protection force had also been killed. The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State. The Taliban's ability to conduct coordinated attacks in Kabul has piled pressure on the Western-backed government, which has struggled to reassure a war-weary population that it can guarantee security. Afghanistan's foreign partners, concerned about the ability of the security forces to withstand Taliban violence, are expected to pledge support over coming years at the Brussels conference, three months after NATO members reaffirmed their commitment at a meeting in Warsaw. Outside Kabul, the insurgents have stepped up their military campaign, threatening towns including Lashkar Gah, capital of the strategic southern province of Helmand, as well as Kunduz, the northern city they briefly took last year. (Additional reporting by Sayed Hassib; Writing by James Mackenzie, Rupam Jain; Editing by Nick Macfie, Robert Birsel)[SEP][SEP]KABUL (Reuters) - A car bomb hit the center of Kabul late on Monday, just hours after a Taliban suicide attack near the Defense Ministry killed at least 24 people including a number of senior security officials, and wounded 91 others, officials said. Gunmen who followed the initial attack appeared to have barricaded themselves into a building and security forces blocked off a large area in the city center. After several hours of quiet overnight, sporadic gunfire and explosions could be heard as day broke but there was no immediate comment on the operation from police and no claim of responsibility. Just a month before a conference in Brussels where international donors are expected to pledge continued financial support to Afghanistan, the attacks highlighted the precarious security climate in the capital. Earlier on Monday, twin blasts in quick succession tore through an afternoon crowd in a bustling area of the city close to the Defense Ministry. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, in which a suicide bomber caught security forces personnel and civilians who rushed to help victims of the first explosion. “When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people,” said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defense Ministry official said. Another official said the deputy head of President Ashraf Ghani’s personal protection force had also been killed. The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State. Slideshow (5 Images) The Taliban’s ability to conduct coordinated high profile attacks in the capital Kabul has piled pressure on the Western-backed government, which has struggled to reassure a war-weary population that it can guarantee security. Afghanistan’s foreign partners, concerned about the ability of the security forces to withstand Taliban violence, are expected to pledge support over coming years at the Brussels conference, three months after NATO members reaffirmed their commitment at a meeting in Warsaw. Outside Kabul, the insurgents have stepped up their military campaign, threatening Laskkar Gah, capital of the strategic southern province of Helmand as well as Kunduz, the northern city they briefly took last year.[SEP]Explosions in Afghan capital Kabul kill at least 24 KABUL, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A loud explosion hit the centre of Kabul late on Monday, just hours after a Taliban suicide attack near the Defence Ministry killed at least 24 people, including a number of senior security officials, and wounded 91 others, officials said. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in an area with many shops and businesses and initial reports suggested that a guesthouse had been targeted. Glass from shattered windows lay on the street near the explosion but police sealed off the area but there was no immediate claim of responsibility and no word on any casualties. Just a month before a conference in Brussels where international donors are expected to pledge continued financial support to Afghanistan, the attacks highlighted the precarious security climate in the capital. Earlier on Monday, twin blasts in quick succession tore through an afternoon crowd in a bustling area of the city close to the Defence Ministry. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, in which a suicide bomber caught security forces personnel and civilians who rushed to help victims of the first explosion. "When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people," said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defence Ministry official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said killed 58 officers and commanders. The militants have stepped up their campaign against the Western-backed government in recent weeks, following a brief lull after the death of their former leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour. The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State. Afghanistan's foreign partners, concerned about the ability of the security forces to withstand Taliban violence, are expected to pledge support over coming years at the Brussels conference, three months after NATO members reaffirmed their commitment at a meeting in Warsaw. (Additional reporting by Sayed Hassib; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Robert Birsel and Alison Williams)[SEP]The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. A loud explosion hit the centre of Kabul late on Monday, hours after a Taliban suicide attack near the Defence Ministry killed at least 24 people, including a number of senior security officials, and wounded 91 others, officials said. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in an area of the city near to embassies and government buildings, including the Interior Ministry but there was no immediate claim of responsibility and no word on any casualties. Earlier, twin blasts in quick succession tore through an afternoon crowd in a bustling area of the city close to the Defence Ministry. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, in which a suicide bomber caught security forces personnel and civilians who rushed to help victims of the first explosion. “When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people,” said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defence Ministry official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said killed 58 officers and commanders. The militants have stepped up their campaign against the Western-backed government in recent weeks, following a brief lull after the death of their former leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour. The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State. Government officials have been preparing for a conference in Brussels next month at which foreign donors, concerned about the ability of the Afghan security forces to withstand Taliban violence, are expected to pledge continuing support over coming years.[SEP]KABUL， Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants fighting the government to regain power have claimed responsibility for twin blasts that went off near the fortified defense ministry on Monday claiming 24 lives besides injuring 91 others including security personnel and civilians. In the deadly incidents， according to the spokesman for Public Health Ministry， Ismael Kawusi， two dozen people have lost their lives and more than 90 injured who have been taken to hospitals for medical treatment. "Based on the latest information collected from concerned sources and hospitals， 24 people including civilians and security personnel were killed and 91 others injured in the twin blasts that hit near defense ministry today afternoon，" Kawusi told Xinhua. However， eyewitnesses believed that the casualties might go higher than reported by officials. Meantime， Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi in talks with media has confirmed that one police officer is also among those killed in the deadly attacks. According to Sediqi， an explosive device went off in front of the second police district， which is next to defense ministry， causing casualties， and when security personnel rushed to the site of the blast to rescue the injured people， a suicide bomber blew himself up killing and injuring people at nearby. The twin blasts occurred at 03:30 p.m. local time when the employees of defense ministry were coming out from the gate after their duties. Defense Ministry is located next to the Finance Ministry， the Presidential Palace， and the Petroleum and Mines Ministry among other government buildings. A busy road is located in front of the Defense Ministry， where hundreds of civilian vehicles and pedestrians travel to the downtown city. This is the third terrorist attack conducted by militant groups on the same road against defense ministry over the past couple of years. Zabihullah Majahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit， in contact with media claimed responsibility for the twin attacks， insisting huge casualties inflicted to the personnel of defense ministry. President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in a statement released by his office blamed the "enemies of Afghanistan" for organizing the deadly bombings and condemned it with strongest term. Meantime， local observers blamed security lapse for the deadly double bombings， saying that security slips would enable Taliban and associated groups to conduct subversive activities even in the fortified capital city Kabul.[SEP]Attacks in Afghan capital kill at least 24 KABUL, Sept 6 (Reuters) - A car bomb hit the centre of Kabul late on Monday, just hours after a Taliban suicide attack near the Defence Ministry killed at least 24 people including a number of senior security officials, and wounded 91 others, officials said. Gunmen who followed the initial attack appeared to have barricaded themselves into a building and security forces blocked off a large area in the city centre. After several hours of quiet overnight, sporadic gunfire and explosions could be heard as day broke but there was no immediate comment on the operation from police and no claim of responsibility. Just a month before a conference in Brussels where international donors are expected to pledge continued financial support to Afghanistan, the attacks highlighted the precarious security climate in the capital. Earlier on Monday, twin blasts in quick succession tore through an afternoon crowd in a bustling area of the city close to the Defence Ministry. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, in which a suicide bomber caught security forces personnel and civilians who rushed to help victims of the first explosion. "When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people," said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defence Ministry official said. Another official said the deputy head of President Ashraf Ghani's personal protection force had also been killed. The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State. The Taliban's ability to conduct coordinated high profile attacks in the capital Kabul has piled pressure on the Western-backed government, which has struggled to reassure a war-weary population that it can guarantee security. Afghanistan's foreign partners, concerned about the ability of the security forces to withstand Taliban violence, are expected to pledge support over coming years at the Brussels conference, three months after NATO members reaffirmed their commitment at a meeting in Warsaw. Outside Kabul, the insurgents have stepped up their military campaign, threatening Laskkar Gah, capital of the strategic southern province of Helmand as well as Kunduz, the northern city they briefly took last year. (Additional reporting by Sayed Hassib; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Alison Williams, Sandra Maler and Michael Perry)[SEP]Image copyright Reuters Image caption The attack on Monday is the latest in a series of militant bombings of Kabul in recent months Twin bomb blasts in the Afghan capital Kabul have killed at least 24 people and injured 91 others near the defence ministry, officials say. The first bomb was detonated remotely while the second was triggered by a suicide bomber, local media reported. An army general and two senior police officers are among the dead, a ministry of defence spokesperson told the BBC. The Taliban, who have carried out frequent attacks in Kabul, claimed the blasts. Deputy defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish told the Associated Press news agency that the suicide attacker struck as security forces gathered near the ministry to deal with the first blast. As night fell, another loud explosion was heard in Kabul, followed by gunfire. There was no immediate word on the cause of the blast or details of any casualties. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police and the security services have now secured the area of the blasts Image copyright Reuters Image caption The emergency services rushed to treat numerous injured people Image copyright AP Image caption The area of the attack is now being cleared up by fire fighters Civilians, police and soldiers were all killed in the earlier blasts as ministry employees were leaving work at rush hour. President Ashraf Ghani condemned the attack saying it had been carried out by "the enemies of Afghanistan who have lost their ability to fight the security and defence forces". He said that "the aim of the terrorists is to spread fear". An Italian-run emergency hospital in Kabul tweeted that it was treating 21 injured people, four of whom died on arrival. The attack comes 11 days after 13 people, including seven students, died in an attack by gunmen on the American University in Kabul. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Scores of the injured were rushed to hospital in the aftermath of the blasts In August two foreign professors, one from the US and one from Australia, were kidnapped by armed men near the university. No group has admitted responsibility and their whereabouts are still unknown. Several other foreigners have been kidnapped in recent times. In July a suicide bomber from the self-styled Islamic State (IS) targeted a protest march by members of the Shia Hazara minority in Kabul, killing 80 people. Shia Muslims are reviled by IS. The upsurge in violence in the capital comes as the Taliban also strives to increase its presence nationally, making an already uncertain security situation even worse since Nato forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014. The militants are now threatening to capture Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand, in addition to the northern city of Kunduz - which they briefly captured last year in their biggest military offensive since the US-led 2001 invasion.[SEP]Afghan security forces sealed off the centre of Kabul on Tuesday as they battled gunmen who barricaded themselves inside the offices of an international aid group after a car bomb attack on Monday night. The attack in a prosperous business and residential area of the capital took place just hours after a Taliban suicide attack near the Defence Ministry killed at least 24 people, including a number of senior security officials. Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of the Kabul police Criminal Investigation Department, said one of the two gunmen who had entered an office of Care International in Kabul had been killed but another was holding out. “We have rescued several families from the area,” he said. The attacks highlighted the precarious security climate in the capital just a month before a conference in Brussels where international donors are expected to pledge continued financial support to Afghanistan. After several hours of quiet overnight, sporadic gunfire and explosions could be heard as day broke. Security officials evacuated terrified civilians from their offices and homes near the explosion site. An Interior Ministry official said initial reports indicated one person had been killed and six wounded in the attack, with 31 people rescued from the area. Kabul traffic was blocked in several parts of the city and schools in the area were closed. On Monday, 24 people were killed and 91 wounded when twin blasts in quick succession tore through an afternoon crowd in a bustling area of the city close to the Defence Ministry. The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for that attack, in which a suicide bomber caught security forces personnel and civilians who rushed to help victims of the first explosion. “When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people,” said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a Defence Ministry official said. Another official said the deputy head of President Ashraf Ghani’s personal protection force had also been killed. The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State. The Taliban’s ability to conduct coordinated high profile attacks in Kabul has piled pressure on the Western-backed government, which has struggled to reassure a war-weary population that it can guarantee security. Afghanistan’s foreign partners, concerned about the ability of the security forces to withstand Taliban violence, are expected to pledge support over coming years at the Brussels conference, three months after NATO members reaffirmed their commitment at a meeting in Warsaw. Outside Kabul, the insurgents have stepped up their military campaign, threatening Lashkar Gah, capital of the strategic southern province of Helmand, as well as Kunduz, the northern city they briefly took last year.[SEP]Dozens of people have been killed after a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul - with a second blast aimed at those helping the wounded. Two explosions in quick succession went off near the defence ministry in the Afghan capital, killing at least 24 people - including security officials - and wounding 91. A witness described how the second blast ripped through a crowd of troops, police and civilians who had rushed to the busy area, near a market and a main junction. 'When the first explosion happened people crowded to the site and then the second blast occurred, which was really powerful and killed lots of people,' said Samiullah Safi, who witnessed the attack. The casualty total may increase as more information becomes available, said Mohammad Ismail Kawousi, a spokesman for the public health ministry. An army general and two senior police commanders were among the dead, a defence ministry official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said killed 58 officers and commanders. The militants have stepped up their campaign against the Western-backed government in recent weeks, following a brief lull after the death of their former leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour. The double bombing came less than two weeks after gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 13 people. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since at least 80 people were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a demonstration on July 23. That assault was claimed by Islamic State. Government officials have been preparing for a conference in Brussels next month. This is expected to see foreign donors pledge continuing support over coming years in the light of Afghanistan's security forces to withstand terrorist violence.

Two successive suicide bombers on foot kill at least 24 people and injure 91 others, including senior security and police officials, after striking close to the Afghan Ministry of Defence in Kabul. The Taliban claims responsibility by disclosing the death of 58 officers and commanders. Another bombing took place not long after.

Near-simultaneous bombings claimed by the Islamic State group struck in and around strongholds of the Syrian government and Kurdish troops Monday, killing at least 48 people in a wave of attacks that came a day after the militants lost a vital link to the outside world along the Syrian-Turkish border. The IS-run Aamaq news agency said the attacks included six suicide bombings and one remotely detonated blast. Most targeted security forces. The Britain-based Observatory, which maintains a network of contacts in Syria, put the overall death toll at 53, although Syrian state TV said 48 were killed. Conflicting casualty figures are common in the 5-year-old Syria civil war. Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria expert with the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said it was too soon to say if the attacks by the IS group were a reaction to its recent defeats along the border. But she cautioned that setbacks for IS can lead to "a dangerous new phase" by the group, which sometimes resorts to "infiltration and spectacular attacks that exploit and widen rifts" between populations, groups and security forces in both western and northern Syria, Turkey's recent intervention in the north has exposed major rifts and encouraged anti-Kurdish activity, Cafarella said in emails to The Associated Press. She said it was likely that as IS militants are pushed out of territory, they will increasingly target government and Kurdish areas. "So it's a dangerous possibility that we're witnessing ISIS gear up for a campaign to expand westward into either or both regime and opposition territory as it loses to the anti-ISIS coalition," she said, using an acronym for the militant group. The territorial losses at the border were the biggest blow to the militant group that also has suffered a series of recent battlefield setbacks in Syria and Iraq. Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish warplanes and tanks, continued to push IS fighters out of the border strip Monday, securing their hold on an area seized a day earlier. In Hangzhou, China, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said the U.S. and Russia have not given up on negotiations to halt the bloodshed in Syria, but acknowledged that "gaps of trust" exist between the rival powers. Significant sticking points remain in negotiations over creating a U.S.-Russian military partnership focusing firepower on "common enemies" in Syria, Obama said. He acknowledged that a meeting Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin did not yield a breakthrough. A deal would depend on Moscow using its influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad to persuade him to ground planes and stop the assault on opposition forces. Monday's bombings came in rapid succession during the morning rush hour, targeting the central city of Homs; a highly guarded Damascus suburb; the government stronghold of Tartus, where Russia has a major naval base; and Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria. State TV showed massive damage at the Arzoneh bridge just outside Tartus along the international coastal highway. The report said the Tartus-Homs highway was closed briefly. Dozens of burned and mangled cars sat in pools of water mixed with blood after the blaze was extinguished. "My car caught fire and army soldiers pulled us out of the car," a survivor told state TV from al-Bassel Hospital. IS and the Observatory said the target was a checkpoint at Tartus' southern entrance. The militant group said it sent three suicide bombers to the area, the first of them in a car. Two followed after security and rescuers responded. State TV said at least 35 were killed. The Observatory put the figure at 38, including an army colonel. Dozens were wounded. The coastal city is a popular beach resort among Syrians, with many coming from government controlled areas, particularly ahead of a major Muslim holiday next week. The Islamic State group claimed suicide bombings in Tartus and neighboring Jableh that killed over 160 people in May. Areas controlled by Assad's forces have had several bombings and other attacks claimed by both IS and al-Qaida-linked militant groups. Another of Monday's bombings occurred in the Damascus suburb of Sabbourah, a major security breach in the heavily guarded area. The state-run SANA news agency said the attack killed one person, while the opposition-run Observatory said three were killed. IS said a suicide car bomb targeted a military checkpoint west of Damascus. "It's an area that houses officers and their families. Even before the revolution, it was carefully guarded," said opposition media activist Yousef al-Boustani, referring to the 2011 uprising against Assad that began with peaceful protests demanding reform. Police chief Maj. Gen. Jamal Bittar told state TV that three attackers were in the car that was seen by security forces. They fired at the car, forcing two passengers to get out and the driver to blow it up, Bittar said. Another bomber blew himself up as he was arrested, killing the security officer and wounding three civilians, he added. A car bomb struck a military checkpoint in the central provincial capital of Homs, killing three soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 10 others, according to the governor of Homs. The city, which is Syria's third-largest, is largely under government control, with only one neighborhood still held by rebels. The bomb exploded in the government-held Bab Tadmor district. The Observatory said four soldiers were killed. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle in the northeastern city of Hasakeh killed eight people, SANA said. The IS news agency said the attack targeted a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces. Government troops withdrew from Hasakeh in August after street battles with Kurdish forces, which took control of the city, although the police force stayed in place. The Observatory said the blast killed five Kurdish police, the Asayesh, and three civilians. IS said it also detonated a bomb in the northeastern city of Qamishli, targeting Kurdish fighters. The Observatory confirmed a bomb but had no casualty figures. ——— Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.[SEP]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption IS claims wave of bombings that kills dozens At least 40 people have been killed in bombings in mainly government-held areas of Syria, state media report. Four attacks took place within an hour in Tartous, Homs and in a suburb of Damascus, with one in Hassakeh, which is dominated by Kurdish forces. The deadliest incident was outside Tartous, home to a Russian naval base and in the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect. The Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attacks. The group made the claim in a statement carried by its affiliated news agency, Amaq. 'Crowd targeted' The attacks took place between 08:00 and 09:00 (05:00-06:00 GMT) on Monday. Syria's official Sana news agency reported that 30 civilians had been killed and 45 others injured in the Tartous countryside. First, a car bomb was detonated on the Arzoneh motorway bridge, a local police source told Sana. Then, as a crowd gathered at the scene to help the wounded, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt, the source added. Tartous had been relatively unscathed by Syria's five-year civil war until May, when a suicide bomb attack on a bus station by IS militants left dozens dead. In the central city of Homs, four people were killed and 10 injured when a car bomb exploded at the entrance to the Bab Tadmour district, Sana reported. Image copyright EPA Image caption The bomb in Homs targeted a military checkpoint, according to the provincial governor The governor of Homs province said the car bomb targeted a military checkpoint and that the casualties were soldiers. One person was killed in a bombing on a road in Saboura, a heavily-guarded western suburb of Damascus, a police source told Sana. Opposition activist Yousef al-Boustani said the area was home to security officers and their families and that the attack represented a major security breach. In Hassakeh, an explosives-packed motorcycle was blown up at the Marsho roundabout, killing five civilians and injuring two others, Sana said. Image copyright EPA Image caption The area targeted in Saboura is home to security officers and their families The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the conflict in Syria through a network of sources, said three of the dead were Kurdish security personnel, known as the Asayish. The Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) militia took near complete control of the north-eastern city last month after a week of clashes with government troops. The Syrian Observatory put the total death toll for Monday's attacks at 47. The attacks came as US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed a ceasefire deal for Syria on the sidelines of the G20 summit in China. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama have so far failed to reach a deal to ease fighting in Syria Mr Obama said he and Mr Putin had had "productive" discussions and had agreed to continue the search for a comprehensive truce. The US president said: "Given the gaps of trust that exist, that's a tough negotiation and we haven't yet closed the gaps in a way where we think it would actually work. "But my instructions to Secretary [of State John] Kerry and Mr Putin's instructions to [Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov were to keep working at it over the next several days." Mr Putin said the talks were "on the right track" and that there was "some alignment" with the US. It had been hoped a deal on a ceasefire and humanitarian deliveries would be announced jointly by Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov on Monday, but it was not forthcoming. The US is particularly concerned by the deteriorating conditions in and around Syria's second city, Aleppo, where rebel-held districts are once again under siege after government forces advanced on Sunday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also at the G20, said he had urged world powers to create a "safe zone" in Syria, with a "no-fly" element, that would help control the flow of migrants.[SEP]Blasts hit government-held and Kurdish parts of Syria, several killed BEIRUT, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Five explosions hit government-controlled areas and a city held by a Kurdish militia in Syria on Monday morning, killing several people, state media and a monitor said. It was not immediately clear if there was any link between the blasts reported along a road outside Damascus, in the state-held cities of Homs and Tartous - which hosts a Russian military base - and in northeastern city of Hasaka, which is controlled by Kurdish YPG fighters. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks which all took place between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. local time (0500-0600 GMT). More than five years of civil war have cut Syria into a patchwork of territories held by the state and an array of armed factions - including Islamic State which attacked the Mediterranean city of Tartous in May. Two explosions hit the Arzouna bridge area at the entrance to Tartous on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency SANA said. The Observatory put the death toll at 32, including members of the Syrian military, and said the number was likely to rise. The head of a Tartous hospital told SANA 35 people were killed and 45 wounded. Syrian state television said the first explosion was a car bomb and the second was a suicide belt detonated as rescue workers came to the scene of the first incident. The blasts hit during Tartous's Summer Festival. Its beaches recently featured in a government tourism video circulated on social media inviting people to visit Syria's Mediterranean coastline. A car bomb struck the city of Homs at the Bab Tadmur roundabout at the entrance to the al-Zahra neighbourhood, killing three people, state media said. The Observatory said the Homs explosion hit an army checkpoint and two officers were killed. There was an explosion near the town of al Saboura, along a road which leads onto the Beirut-Damascus highway, killing one person and injuring three, according to a police commander quoted on state television. A motorbike also exploded in the centre of the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia. The Observatory said the blast killed three members of the YPG-affiliated security force known as the Asayish, and injured others. The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the U.S.-backed campaign against Islamic State, took near complete control of Hasaka city in late August after a week of fighting with the government. The YPG already controls swathes of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syrian war in 2011. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Editing by Andrew Heavens)[SEP]The Latest: IS claims blast in northeastern Syria DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local): The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast that killed at least five people in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh. The extremist group's Aamaq media agency posted that the Monday morning suicide attack killed and wounded 15 people. Syrian state media said the attacker blew himself up on his motorcycle at a traffic circle. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said three Kurdish Syrian police officers were killed in the blast. At least 38 people were killed in a string of bomb blasts in government-controlled territories. The attacks were timed closely together, though the Islamic State group did not claim responsibility for the attacks in Homs, Tartus, and the Damascus suburb of Saboura. Syrian state media has increased the death toll from a string of bombings around the country up to at least 38. State news agency SANA reports that twin blasts at the entrance to coastal city of Tartus Monday morning killed at least 30 people. The agency also reported blasts in the central city of Homs, the suburbs of the capital Damascus, and the northeastern city of Hasakeh. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which maintains a network of contacts inside the country, put the toll at 47 dead. Conflicting casualty figures are common in the Syria war. Syrian state media is reporting that multiple bomb blasts have struck government and military targets around the country. State television Monday morning reported blasts in the coastal city of Tartus, the central city of Homs, the suburbs of the capital Damascus, and the northeastern city of Hassakeh. Casualty reports were still coming in. The governor of Homs province says a car bomb struck a military checkpoint in the provincial capital, Homs, killing two soldiers and injuring four others, one critically. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reports a blast in the northeastern city of Qamishli as well.[SEP]At least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of bombings across mostly government-controlled areas of Syria on Monday, state media reported. The blasts hit government-held Tartus and Homs, as well as Hasakeh, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces but where the regime maintains a presence. State media said at least 11 people had been killed and 45 injured in a double bomb attack just outside the city of Tartus, in the coastal province of the same name, which is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's government. "Two terrorist blasts on Arzuna bridge, the first a car bomb and the second a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded," state television said. State media also reported five people killed in Hasakeh, in the northeast of the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the blast hit a checkpoint belonging to the Kurdish Asayesh security forces. And state media also reported a car bomb at the entrance to the Al-Zahra neighbourhood in central Homs city, which is controlled by the government. It said at least two people were killed and four wounded in the bombing, which is the latest in a series of attacks targeting Al-Zahra neighbourhood, where most residents are Alawite, the sect to which Assad belongs. State media also reported another bomb attack on a road west of the capital Damascus, but gave no immediate toll in the blast. The Observatory said that attack targeted a checkpoint and gave a toll of three dead.[SEP]Explosions in government-controlled areas of Syria and a province held by Kurdish militia killed dozens on Monday, while the United States and Russia failed to make concrete progress towards a ceasefire. Six explosions hit west of the capital Damascus, in the government-held cities of Homs and Tartous – which hosts a Russian military base – and the Kurdish-controlled northeastern province of Hasaka between 8am and 9am, state media and a monitor said. It was not clear if the blasts were linked and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. More than five years of civil war have cut Syria into a patchwork of territories held by the government and an often competing array of armed factions, including Kurdish militia fighters, a loose coalition of rebels groups, and Islamic State. The United States and Russia have been trying to broker a new truce after a cessation of hostilities agreed in February unravelled within weeks, with Washington accusing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s forces of violating the pact. Their efforts were complicated on Sunday as government forces and their allies again laid siege to rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war which Mr Assad is determined to fully recapture. His gains have relied heavily on Russian air support since September last year. US president Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin had a longer-than-expected discussion of about 90 minutes on Monday about whether, and how, they could agree a deal, a senior US administration official said. Meeting at the G20 summit in China, they discussed getting humanitarian aid into the country, reducing violence, and co-operating on combating militant groups, the official said. But in talks earlier on Monday, US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to come to terms on a ceasefire for the second time in two weeks, with US officials stressing they would walk away if a pact could not be reached soon. “If an agreement can be reached, we want to do so urgently, because of the humanitarian situation. However, we must ensure that it is an effective agreement,” the official said. Russia says it cannot agree to a deal unless opposition fighters, backed by the United States and Middle East allies, are separated from al-Qaeda-linked militants they overlap with in some areas. Two of the explosions on Monday hit the Arzouna bridge area at the entrance to the Mediterranean city of Tartous, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency Sana said. Islamic State attacked Tartous in May. The observatory and a city hospital put the death toll at 35, including members of the Syrian military, and said the number was likely to rise. Syrian state television said the first explosion was a car bomb and the second a suicide belt detonated as rescue workers arrived. The blasts hit during a summer festival at Tartous, whose beaches recently featured in a government tourism video. A car bomb, meanwhile, struck Homs, a city about 80km east of Tartous, which has repeatedly been hit by bombings claimed by Islamic State. State media said three people were killed, while the observatory said the explosion hit an army checkpoint and four officers were killed. West of Damascus, there was an explosion near the town of al Saboura, killing one person and injuring three, according to a police commander quoted by state media. A motorbike also exploded in the centre of the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia. The observatory said the blast killed three members of a YPG-affiliated security force known as the Asayish, and injured others. It said a percussion bomb also went off in the province’s Qamishli city.[SEP]A string of bombings claimed by ISIS killed dozens across Syria, as Washington and Moscow failed to agree on a deal to stem the country's violence. The blasts killed at least 48 people and wounded dozens more, a day after the jihadist group lost the last stretch of the Syria-Turkey border under its control. In China, where world powers were gathered for the G20 meeting, US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin touted 'productive' talks and 'some alignment' on Syria. But the two powers failed to produce an expected deal to ease the violence in Syria, where more than 290,000 people have been killed and more than half the population displaced since March 2011. The latest carnage came in a series of blasts, the deadliest of which was a double bombing in the coastal province of Tartus, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's government and Russia's naval and air force base in the area. The bombings hit a bridge outside the provincial capital Tartus city, killing at least 35 people and wounding 43, state media said. The blasts targeted the Arzuna bridge, 'the first a car bomb and the second a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded,' according to state television. Tartus has been largely spared the worst violence of Syria's conflict since it began with anti-government protests, and has become a refuge for many Syrians fleeing the fighting. In the northeastern city of Hasakeh, a bomber on a motorbike killed six members of the Kurdish security forces and two civilians. The city is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces, though the regime is also present. In central Homs city, the target was the Al-Zahraa neighbourhood, whose residents mostly belong to the same Alawite sect as Assad and have regularly been targeted by devastating bombings. Four people were killed there on Monday, in a car bomb that hit a checkpoint at the district's entrance. State television broadcast images from the aftermath of the blast in Homs, showing rubble strewn on the streets and smoke rising from the charred remains of vehicles. An additional attack hit the Al-Sabura road west of the capital Damascus, with state media saying one person had been killed and three wounded. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said that attack targeted a checkpoint and gave a toll of three dead. The ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency carried a statement saying the jihadist group was behind a 'string of simultaneous suicide attacks'. They came a day after Turkish forces and allied rebels seized the last part of the Turkish-Syrian border under ISIS control. Turkey began an operation inside Syria on August 24, targeting both ISIS but also Syrian Kurdish forces that have been a key US partner in the fight against the jihadist group.[SEP]Blasts kill dozens in Syria as U.S.-Russia truce talks make little progress BEIRUT/HANGZHOU, China, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Explosions in government-controlled areas of Syria and a province held by Kurdish militia killed dozens on Monday, while the United States and Russia failed to make concrete progress towards a ceasefire. Six explosions hit west of the capital Damascus, in the government-held cities of Homs and Tartous - which hosts a Russian military base - and the Kurdish-controlled northeastern province of Hasaka between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. (0500-0600 GMT), state media and a monitor said. It was not clear if the blasts were linked and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. More than five years of civil war have cut Syria into a patchwork of territories held by the government and an often competing array of armed factions, including Kurdish militia fighters, a loose coalition of rebels groups, and Islamic State. The United States and Russia have been trying to broker a new truce after a cessation of hostilities agreed in February unravelled within weeks, with Washington accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of violating the pact. Their efforts were complicated on Sunday as government forces and their allies again laid siege to rebel-held eastern Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war which Assad is determined to fully recapture. His gains have relied heavily on Russian air support since September last year. U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a longer-than-expected discussion of about 90 minutes on Monday about whether, and how, they could agree a deal, a senior U.S. administration official said. Meeting at the G20 summit in China, they discussed getting humanitarian aid into the country, reducing violence, and cooperating on combating militant groups, the official said. But in talks earlier on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to come to terms on a ceasefire for the second time in two weeks, with U.S. officials stressing they would walk away if a pact could not be reached soon. "If an agreement can be reached, we want to do so urgently, because of the humanitarian situation. However, we must ensure that it is an effective agreement," the official said. Russia says it cannot agree to a deal unless opposition fighters, backed by the United States and Middle East allies, are separated from al Qaeda-linked militants they overlap with in some areas. For Washington, the priority is stabilising Syria so as to destroy Islamic State, which controls territory both there and in neighbouring Iraq. NATO Turkey ally on Sunday said rebels it was backing had gained control of all areas on its border that had been held by the jihadists, depriving the ultra-hardline Islamist group of its main route to the outside world. The announcement came some 10 days after Turkey launched its first major military incursion into Syria since the start of the war in 2011, an operation aimed as much at preventing further Kurdish territorial gains as at driving back Islamic State. Two of the explosions on Monday hit the Arzouna bridge area at the entrance to the Mediterranean city of Tartous, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency SANA said. Islamic State attacked Tartous in May. The Observatory and a city hospital put the death toll at 35, including members of the Syrian military, and said the number was likely to rise. Syrian state television said the first explosion was a car bomb and the second a suicide belt detonated as rescue workers arrived. The blasts hit during a summer festival at Tartous, whose beaches recently featured in a government tourism video. A car bomb meanwhile struck Homs, a city around 80 km (50 miles) east of Tartous which has repeatedly been hit by bombings claimed by Islamic State. State media said three people were killed, while the Observatory said the explosion hit an army checkpoint and four officers were killed. West of Damascus, there was an explosion near the town of al Saboura, killing one person and injuring three, according to a police commander quoted by state media. A motorbike also exploded in the centre of the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia. The Observatory said the blast killed three members of a YPG-affiliated security force known as the Asayish, and injured others. It said a percussion bomb also went off in the province's Qamishli city. The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the U.S.-backed campaign against Islamic State, took almost complete control of Hasaka city in late August after a week of fighting with the government. Islamic State confirmed that a blast in Hasaka took place but did not say whether its fighters were involved. The YPG already controls swathes of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syrian war in 2011, much to the alarm of neighbouring Turkey. Ankara sees the YPG as an extension of Kurdish militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey and fears the creation of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria would fuel their separatist ambitions. (Additional reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Giles Elgood)[SEP]BEIRUT (Reuters) - Five explosions hit government-controlled areas and a city held by a Kurdish militia in Syria on Monday morning, killing several people, state media and a monitor said. It was not immediately clear if there was any link between the blasts reported in the state-held cities of Tartous and Homs and along a road outside Damascus – and if they had been coordinated with the attack in Hasaka. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which all took place between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. local time. Two explosions hit the Arzouna Bridge area at the entrance to the northwestern coastal city of Tartous, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency SANA said. Those explosions killed at least 11 people and wounded 45, a source in the Tartous police told SANA. Syrian state media said the first explosion was a car bomb and the second was a suicide belt detonated as rescue workers came to the scene of the first incident. A car bomb struck the city of Homs at the entrance to the Bab Tadmur neighborhood, SANA said. Homs’ health director told SANA that hospitals had received two bodies and seven injured people. The Observatory said the Homs explosion hit an army checkpoint and two officers were killed. There was an explosion near the town of al Saboura, along a road which leads into the Beirut-Damascus highway, according to a police commander quoted on state media. A motor bike also exploded in the center of the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia. The Observatory said the blast killed three members of the YPG-affiliated security force known as the Asayish, and injured others.[SEP]Turkey’s cross-border incursions into Syria have achieved Ankara’s primary objective of preventing Syrian Kurds from uniting the eastern end of their enclave south of the border with the western sector. Turkish tanks, special forces and insurgent clients have seized a 91km belt of territory, 3-4km deep, running from Jarablus to Azaz. Turkish forces have also sent a probe at least 39km into Syrian territory, perhaps with the intention of taking al-Bab. Al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo, is a key objective of the US-backed, Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, which last month drove Islamic State out of the strategic town of Manbij after a hard-fought battle. As soon at they crossed the border, Turkish troops and planes attacked the Kurdish forces and ordered them to pull out of Manbij and withdraw to territory west of the Euphrates river. The Kurds, however, have local supporters in both Manbij and Jarablus. Turkey’s secondary aim was to drive Islamic State (also known as Isis) from the border zone and cut off its capital, Raqqa, as well as other towns and villages it holds, from the Turkish supply route that has kept the conflict going. It is significant that Islamic State’s fighters did not attempt to defend themselves from the Turkish onslaught, as they had during the Kurdish offensives. The Turkish occupation of this strip of territory could become an existential threat to the Islamists if the Turks cut off total access to fighters and supplies. Ankara’s belated decision to pivot away from Islamic State coincides with its loss of territory in both Syria and Iraq Turkish public opinion also compelled the government to act after last month’s major suicide bombing that killed 54 in Gaziantep. This operation was the latest in a series of deadly strikes in Turkey, demonstrating the terror group was not prepared to refrain from attacking a key sponsor. The beneficiaries of the Turkish pivot are Syrian clients from groups associated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and ethnic Turk (Turkmen) Sultan Murat brigades, both established by Ankara, as well as the moderate fundamentalist Faylaq al-Sham and hardline Ansar al-Sham and Nour al-Din al-Zenki. The latter two are allied closely with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), al-Qaeda’s official Syrian offshoot, the main component of the coalition ruling Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. Turkey seeks to unify these groups in a single force under the FSA logo. Most of their fighters are not “moderates” or jihadists but takfiris, Muslims of a radical persuasion who accuse Muslims who disagree with them of apostasy and people of other faiths of heresy. Like Islamic State, takfiris seek to impose their reactionary ideology, derived from Saudi Wahhabism, and conservative social controls over “Sham” – greater Syria comprising Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere. South of Aleppo city, government forces have taken territory lost to Ahrar al-Sham and allies in mid-August and have reimposed a full siege on eastern insurgent-held quarters. Government negotiators have also secured a truce in Muadamiya, suburb of Damascus, and are negotiating over the al-Waer suburb of Homs. These arrangements involve the departure of insurgents and the opening up of besieged areas. It is unlikely civilians, who number in tens of thousands in these townships, will be asked to leave, as were the 3,200 recently evacuated from Daraya. Talks between Washington and Moscow have stalled as the American plan, according to US sources, demands that Russia and the Syrian government halt attacks on insurgent areas without the certainty of reciprocity. The US has pledged to include Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (ex-Nusra) in bombings along with Islamic State once Russia persuades Damascus to agree.

Several bombings kill at least 40 people in government and Kurdish held territory across Syria, including Tartus, Homs, Al-Hasakah and Damascus. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility.

(CNN) It's not uncommon for Filipinos to have nicknames: sometimes holdovers from childhood; sometimes affectionately acquired as young adults. Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa's moniker -- "Bato," which translates to "the Rock," is one of the more apt -- an immovable, unbreakable object. Dela Rosa has shot to fame thanks to his close relationship with the country's new strongman leader Rodrigo Duterte. He's also made a name for himself as the man behind the President's controversial war on drugs, which has seen hundreds of alleged dealers killed in a matter of weeks. Ronald Dela Rosa was appointed head of the Philippines' national police in June. Dela Rosa got his nickname back in the early days of his career, just after graduating from the Philippine Military Academy. After completing his ranger training he was transferred to his hometown of Davao. "When I was (first) seen by my senior officers, my body was like a rock... rock solid. So they told me, 'Bato!' They start calling me 'Bato' because of my build. With his gleaming bald head and barrel chest, the well-built former military man even resembles one. "Later on they realized that I was born and raised in Barangay Bato, Santa Cruz, Davao Del Sur -- that's my birthplace, Barangay Bato." "So that was reinforced until now. They keep calling me 'Bato.' I cannot change it anymore," he laughs. It's been a long journey from that childhood neighborhood to the highest echelon of law enforcement in the country, and it's one that he's taken, in part, with Duterte. Bato was his police chief when the pair were in Davao, prior to their swift rise to national prominence. He says he doesn't like life in Manila -- "Davao is very disciplined; we have a low crime rate." He's enjoyed a stratospheric rise, from a one-star general as chief of police in Davao to the national top job in one fell swoop. Critics say that he's only achieved his position thanks to his long association with Duterte, but he counters naysayers, arguing it's within the President's remit to choose any general for the role. He's known Duterte for three decades, he says. He remains remarkably close to the tough-talking leader, and jokes to CNN that he has a telepathic connection with the man they call "the Punisher." "We trust each other, in a very long time association. He knows what I'm capable of doing and I know what he wants to be done. "So without saying any word we can communicate with each other, through mental telepathy," he says, mimicking their thoughts passing through the ether, before bursting into laughter. "He's the best leader in the universe for me. He's a no-nonsense leader." Tasked with transforming the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia into a "drugless society," he's approached the task with an admirable zeal, if somewhat questionable methods. He's expanded his "tokhan," or "knock and plead" operations, from a local experiment to national -- if unofficial -- police policy. The operations, his "brainchild," see heavy-handed groups of police tour local neighborhoods and politely ask suspected drug users to voluntarily surrender. The tactic has seen over 700,000 such surrenders in two months. But when confronted with a phalanx of heavily armed officers, it is hard to see who would refuse to comply. The President instructed him to replicate his successes from Davao across the country, but so far he hasn't issued any written guidelines for how local forces should proceed. "We don't need" a national strategy, he says. "We've been doing this for a long time." In 6,000 police operations, he said drugs worth 2.38 billion pesos ($51 million) had been seized. CNN could not independently verify the figures the government provided. But the impressive numbers have come at a very visible human cost. There have been 756 suspects killed in police operations since the war on drugs began, alongside 1,160 drug-related killings that have occurred, many of which have been attributed to vigilantes. In one breath he says he "hates extrajudical killings," but in the next he says there are benefits to the spate of deaths. He admits to "mixed emotions," when he sees images of suspected drug dealers gunned down. "I pity the guy for losing his life but at the same time I see that there is one less pusher." But what would he say to family members who have been killed? "Please do not be afraid of police. I guarantee we will protect you." He's given himself six months to prove his mettle -- "If I fail, I will surrender. I will tell (Duterte) to please relieve me from my post. (I'll tell him) I cannot win this war." Is ridding a country such as the Philippines of drugs in just six months a realistic goal? "No. But if you aim high you can achieve acceptable levels." But Bato says he's ordered his officers to investigate and make arrests. But he denies that he tolerated the gangs while police chief in his hometown. "Maybe. Maybe a coincidence. But please don't accuse me. I'm not the one bringing these death squads here in the Philippines," he says. "I have been challenging this death squads in Davao City to come and get me. Instead of killing these helpless people... they can face me in a gun duel. I am challenging these vigilantes. You can fight it out with me if you want to kill somebody." He points to the president's sky-high approval ratings as proof that the country is desperate for tough measures. "A lot of support. A lot of support. This is borne out of frustration," he says. "The past situation where drugs were being sold on the street like candies and innocent people are being killed, being raped by these drug crazed people, by the drug addicts... we are delivering his promise." But is it worth the bodies piling up in the trash-strewn streets of poor neighborhoods across the country? These aren't desperate measures, he says. "We just have to do our job."[SEP](CNN) It's not uncommon for Filipinos to have nicknames: sometimes holdovers from childhood; sometimes affectionately acquired as young adults. Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa's moniker -- "Bato," which translates to "the Rock," is one of the more apt -- an immovable, unbreakable object. Dela Rosa has shot to fame thanks to his close relationship with the country's new strongman leader Rodrigo Duterte. He's also made a name for himself as the man behind the President's controversial war on drugs, which has seen hundreds of alleged dealers killed in a matter of weeks. Ronald Dela Rosa was appointed head of the Philippines' national police in June. Dela Rosa got his nickname back in the early days of his career, just after graduating from the Philippine Military Academy. After completing his ranger training he was transferred to his hometown of Davao. "When I was (first) seen by my senior officers, my body was like a rock... rock solid. So they told me, 'Bato!' They start calling me 'Bato' because of my build. With his gleaming bald head and barrel chest, the well-built former military man even resembles one. "Later on they realized that I was born and raised in Barangay Bato, Santa Cruz, Davao Del Sur -- that's my birthplace, Barangay Bato." "So that was reinforced until now. They keep calling me 'Bato.' I cannot change it anymore," he laughs. It's been a long journey from that childhood neighborhood to the highest echelon of law enforcement in the country, and it's one that he's taken, in part, with Duterte. Bato was his police chief when the pair were in Davao, prior to their swift rise to national prominence. He says he doesn't like life in Manila -- "Davao is very disciplined; we have a low crime rate." He's enjoyed a stratospheric rise, from a one-star general as chief of police in Davao to the national top job in one fell swoop. Critics say that he's only achieved his position thanks to his long association with Duterte, but he counters naysayers, arguing it's within the President's remit to choose any general for the role. He's known Duterte for three decades, he says. He remains remarkably close to the tough-talking leader, and jokes to CNN that he has a telepathic connection with the man they call "the Punisher." "We trust each other, in a very long time association. He knows what I'm capable of doing and I know what he wants to be done. "So without saying any word we can communicate with each other, through mental telepathy," he says, mimicking their thoughts passing through the ether, before bursting into laughter. "He's the best leader in the universe for me. He's a no-nonsense leader." Tasked with transforming the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia into a "drugless society," he's approached the task with an admirable zeal, if somewhat questionable methods. He's expanded his "tokhan," or "knock and plead" operations, from a local experiment to national -- if unofficial -- police policy. The operations, his "brainchild," see heavy-handed groups of police tour local neighborhoods and politely ask suspected drug users to voluntarily surrender. The tactic has seen over 700,000 such surrenders in two months. But when confronted with a phalanx of heavily armed officers, it is hard to see who would refuse to comply. The President instructed him to replicate his successes from Davao across the country, but so far he hasn't issued any written guidelines for how local forces should proceed. "We don't need" a national strategy, he says. "We've been doing this for a long time." In 6,000 police operations, he said drugs worth 2.38 billion pesos ($51 million) had been seized. CNN could not independently verify the figures the government provided. But the impressive numbers have come at a very visible human cost. There have been 756 suspects killed in police operations since the war on drugs began, alongside 1,160 drug-related killings that have occurred, many of which have been attributed to vigilantes. In one breath he says he "hates extrajudical killings," but in the next he says there are benefits to the spate of deaths. He admits to "mixed emotions," when he sees images of suspected drug dealers gunned down. "I pity the guy for losing his life but at the same time I see that there is one less pusher." But what would he say to family members who have been killed? "Please do not be afraid of police. I guarantee we will protect you." He's given himself six months to prove his mettle -- "If I fail, I will surrender. I will tell (Duterte) to please relieve me from my post. (I'll tell him) I cannot win this war." Is ridding a country such as the Philippines of drugs in just six months a realistic goal? "No. But if you aim high you can achieve acceptable levels." But Bato says he's ordered his officers to investigate and make arrests. But he denies that he tolerated the gangs while police chief in his hometown. "Maybe. Maybe a coincidence. But please don't accuse me. I'm not the one bringing these death squads here in the Philippines," he says. "I have been challenging this death squads in Davao City to come and get me. Instead of killing these helpless people... they can face me in a gun duel. I am challenging these vigilantes. You can fight it out with me if you want to kill somebody." He points to the president's sky-high approval ratings as proof that the country is desperate for tough measures. "A lot of support. A lot of support. This is borne out of frustration," he says. "The past situation where drugs were being sold on the street like candies and innocent people are being killed, being raped by these drug crazed people, by the drug addicts... we are delivering his promise." But is it worth the bodies piling up in the trash-strewn streets of poor neighborhoods across the country? These aren't desperate measures, he says. "We just have to do our job."[SEP]Philippines' Duterte says "plenty will be killed" in anti-drugs drive DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday "plenty will be killed" before the end of his campaign against illegal drugs that has led to the death of about 2,400 people since he became president two months ago. Duterte will meet Barack Obama at a regional summit in Laos on Tuesday, although he has made it clear he will take no lecture on human rights from the U.S. president. "Plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue," Duterte told reporters before leaving for Laos. Police say about 900 of those killed died in police operations, and the rest were "deaths under investigation", a term human rights activists say is a euphemism for vigilante and extrajudicial killings. Duterte, a former crime-busting mayor of southern Davao city, won the presidency in May promising to suppress crime and wipe out drugs and drug dealers. While his campaign has won popular support, the killings have alarmed rights groups and brought expressions of concern from the United States, a former colonial power and a close Philippine ally, and the United Nations. "I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony," Duterte said, when asked about his meeting with Obama. "Who is he to confront me? As a matter of fact, America has one too many to answer for," he said. "Everybody has a terrible record of extrajudicial killings." He earlier lambasted the United Nations after it criticised the surge in killings and he turned down a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the summit in Laos. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Robert Birsel)[SEP](CNN) It's not uncommon for Filipinos to have nicknames: sometimes holdovers from childhood; sometimes affectionately acquired as young adults. Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa's moniker -- "Bato," which translates to "the Rock," is one of the more apt -- an immovable, unbreakable object. Dela Rosa has shot to fame thanks to his close relationship with the country's new strongman leader Rodrigo Duterte. He's also made a name for himself as the man behind the President's controversial war on drugs, which has seen hundreds of alleged dealers killed in a matter of weeks. Ronald Dela Rosa was appointed head of the Philippines' national police in June. Dela Rosa got his nickname back in the early days of his career, just after graduating from the Philippine Military Academy. After completing his ranger training he was transferred to his hometown of Davao. "When I was (first) seen by my senior officers, my body was like a rock... rock solid. So they told me, 'Bato!' They start calling me 'Bato' because of my build. With his gleaming bald head and barrel chest, the well-built former military man even resembles one. "Later on they realized that I was born and raised in Barangay Bato, Santa Cruz, Davao Del Sur -- that's my birthplace, Barangay Bato." "So that was reinforced until now. They keep calling me 'Bato.' I cannot change it anymore," he laughs. It's been a long journey from that childhood neighborhood to the highest echelon of law enforcement in the country, and it's one that he's taken, in part, with Duterte. Bato was his police chief when the pair were in Davao, prior to their swift rise to national prominence. He says he doesn't like life in Manila -- "Davao is very disciplined; we have a low crime rate." He's enjoyed a stratospheric rise, from a one-star general as chief of police in Davao to the national top job in one fell swoop. Critics say that he's only achieved his position thanks to his long association with Duterte, but he counters naysayers, arguing it's within the President's remit to choose any general for the role. He's known Duterte for three decades, he says. He remains remarkably close to the tough-talking leader, and jokes to CNN that he has a telepathic connection with the man they call "the Punisher." "We trust each other, in a very long time association. He knows what I'm capable of doing and I know what he wants to be done. "So without saying any word we can communicate with each other, through mental telepathy," he says, mimicking their thoughts passing through the ether, before bursting into laughter. "He's the best leader in the universe for me. He's a no-nonsense leader." Tasked with transforming the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia into a "drugless society," he's approached the task with an admirable zeal, if somewhat questionable methods. He's expanded his "tokhan," or "knock and plead" operations, from a local experiment to national -- if unofficial -- police policy. The operations, his "brainchild," see heavy-handed groups of police tour local neighborhoods and politely ask suspected drug users to voluntarily surrender. The tactic has seen over 700,000 such surrenders in two months. But when confronted with a phalanx of heavily armed officers, it is hard to see who would refuse to comply. The President instructed him to replicate his successes from Davao across the country, but so far he hasn't issued any written guidelines for how local forces should proceed. "We don't need" a national strategy, he says. "We've been doing this for a long time." In 6,000 police operations, he said drugs worth 2.38 billion pesos ($51 million) had been seized. CNN could not independently verify the figures the government provided. But the impressive numbers have come at a very visible human cost. There have been 756 suspects killed in police operations since the war on drugs began, alongside 1,160 drug-related killings that have occurred, many of which have been attributed to vigilantes. In one breath he says he "hates extrajudical killings," but in the next he says there are benefits to the spate of deaths. He admits to "mixed emotions," when he sees images of suspected drug dealers gunned down. "I pity the guy for losing his life but at the same time I see that there is one less pusher." But what would he say to family members who have been killed? "Please do not be afraid of police. I guarantee we will protect you." He's given himself six months to prove his mettle -- "If I fail, I will surrender. I will tell (Duterte) to please relieve me from my post. (I'll tell him) I cannot win this war." Is ridding a country such as the Philippines of drugs in just six months a realistic goal? "No. But if you aim high you can achieve acceptable levels." But Bato says he's ordered his officers to investigate and make arrests. But he denies that he tolerated the gangs while police chief in his hometown. "Maybe. Maybe a coincidence. But please don't accuse me. I'm not the one bringing these death squads here in the Philippines," he says. "I have been challenging this death squads in Davao City to come and get me. Instead of killing these helpless people... they can face me in a gun duel. I am challenging these vigilantes. You can fight it out with me if you want to kill somebody." He points to the president's sky-high approval ratings as proof that the country is desperate for tough measures. "A lot of support. A lot of support. This is borne out of frustration," he says. "The past situation where drugs were being sold on the street like candies and innocent people are being killed, being raped by these drug crazed people, by the drug addicts... we are delivering his promise." But is it worth the bodies piling up in the trash-strewn streets of poor neighborhoods across the country? These aren't desperate measures, he says. "We just have to do our job."[SEP]Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday "plenty will be killed" before the end of his campaign against illegal drugs that has led to the death of about 2,400 people since he became president two months ago. "Plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue," Duterte told reporters before leaving for a regional summit on Laos.[SEP]An average of 44 people are being killed each day in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on crime, according to police data released Tuesday that showed the death toll surging to nearly 3,000. The new figures came after Duterte vowed on Monday to defy a wave of international condemnation and continue killing until every drug trafficker in the Philippines was dead. "More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets," said Duterte, who scored a landslide election victory in May largely on his promise to fight crime. "Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed, we will continue and I will continue." Police have killed 1,033 people in anti-drug operations since Duterte was sworn into office just over two months ago, according to the national police update on Tuesday. Another 1,894 people have died in unexplained deaths, police said, which rights groups believe are largely due to out-of-control security forces and hired assassins. The total of 2,927 is more than 500 higher than the figure released by police on Sunday, and equates to an average of 44 a day since Duterte took office on June 30. US President Barack Obama was planning to raise concerns about the war on crime with Duterte at a meeting in Laos on Tuesday afternoon. But Obama cancelled the meeting after Duterte warned he would not be lectured to, and branded the US president a "son of a whore". Philippine police insist they are killing only in self defence. "They have guns, they are drug-crazed. Our policemen are just defending themselves," national police spokesman Dionardo Carlos told AFP. Police chief Ronald dela Rosa has also regularly said the unexplained deaths are due to drug syndicates waging war against each other, rather than extrajudicial killings by vigilantes and others. Still, Duterte has promised to protect police from prosecution if they are charged over the deaths and insisted human rights cannot get in the way of his war. He has also urged ordinary Filipinos to kill drug addicts in their communities. Dela Rosa last month called for drug addicts to kill traffickers and burn down their homes. The United Nations special rapporteur on summary executions has warned incitement to kill is a crime under international law. But Duterte has told the United Nations not to interfere and said he will use all means necessary to eradicate drugs in society, which he insists is the nation's biggest problem.[SEP]Cellphone video footage circulating on social media purports to capture the moment Sison was killed last month when, according to local officials, police were looking for drug pushers in the Pasay township of the Philippines' capital. A voice on the video, recorded by a neighbor according to newspaper reports, can be heard shouting "Don't do it, I'll surrender!". Then there is the sound of gunfire. A poster near the coffin, which lies beside a stinking canal cut between ramshackle homes, demands "Justice for Eric Quintinita Sison". A handpainted sign reads: "OVERKILL - JUSTICE 4 ERIC." These are rare tokens of protest against a surge of killings unleashed since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over two months ago and pledged to wage war on drug dealers and crush widespread addiction to methamphetamine. Very little stands in the way of his bloody juggernaut. Last week the number of people killed since July 1 reached 2,400: about 900 died in police operations, and the rest are "deaths under investigation", a term human rights activists say is a euphemism for vigilante and extrajudicial killings. Duterte's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this report. Reuters interviews reveal that the police's Internal Affairs Service (IAS) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) are so overwhelmed by the killings that they can investigate only a fraction, and there is scant hope of establishing many as unlawful because witnesses are too terrified to come forward. Meanwhile, the immense popularity of Duterte's crusade and a climate of fear whipped up by the bloodletting have together silenced dissent from civil society. Hardly anyone turned up at candlelight vigils in Manila recently to protest against extrajudicial killings. Even as the death toll rose, a July poll by Pulse Asia put Duterte's approval rating at 91 percent. Anxious reminders by the Catholic Church of the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' make few headlines in the predominantly Catholic country, with newspapers preferring to carry breathless accounts of the latest slayings. Duterte has delivered withering attacks on his chief critic, Senator Leila de Lima, accusing her of dealing in drugs herself and having an affair with her driver. "It's only the president who can stop this," de Lima told Reuters last week, deploring what she described as the "madness" that led in one case to a five-year-old girl being shot in the head. "How many more of these cases of collateral damage are we willing to bear before we can really start screaming about it?" she asked. As for critics abroad, Duterte pours scorn on them in language larded with curses. He lambasted the United Nations after it criticized the surge in killings and he turned down a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at a summit in Laos this week. Duterte will meet Barack Obama in Laos on Tuesday, although he has made it clear in advance that he will take no lecture on human rights from the U.S. president, when in the United States he alleged "black people are being shot even if they are already lying down". Duterte may intensify the crackdown after 14 people were killed on Friday in a bomb attack at a market in his hometown, Davao. Police blamed the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic State-linked group Duterte has vowed to destroy, but his war on the drug trade is making enemies elsewhere and the attack quickened rumors of a plot to kill him. Duterte has declared a nationwide "state of lawlessness" after the blast that authorizes troops to reinforce the police with checkpoints and patrols. He has managed with remarkable speed to nationalize a vicious model for fighting crime that he pioneered as mayor of Davao for 22 years. Rights groups documented hundreds of suspicious murders in Davao on Duterte's watch and say death squads operated with impunity there. "The Punisher", as some call him, denies ordering extrajudicial killings but he does not condemn them. Across the country now, lists of suspected drug pushers are being provided to police by neighborhood chiefs, adding to a sense of fear and distrust across communities. Politicians of all hues have gone quiet, and a Senate enquiry led by de Lima only has the power to propose legislation, not stop the killers in their tracks. Chief Superintendent Leo Angelo Leuterio, who heads the IAS, says it is his office's responsibility to investigate every discharge of firearms involving police. But with only about 170 investigators nationwide, the IAS is able to deal with just 30 percent of the roughly 30 cases coming in every day. "Our resources are breaking at the seams," said Leuterio. The IAS chief is supposed to be a civilian to ensure its independence but Leuterio is a policeman who spent 13 years of his career in Duterte's hometown, Davao. He says he is unbiased and has a track record of dismissing hundreds of officers for misconduct. The CHR, for its part, is looking at just 259 of the 2,000-plus killings since July 1. Its forensics team of 14 is swamped and in their cramped office investigators probing possible extrajudicial killings are handling just 12 dossiers. The commission says its biggest obstacle is that witnesses are hard to find. One person who did come forward is Harrah Kazuo, whose husband and father-in-law were severely beaten and shot dead in a police station, according to a CHR report. She told Reuters that when the police entered their home without a warrant they even removed her toddler's underwear to search for drugs. Police have not commented on what happened in the home, but two officers have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the case. Kazuo has been taken into witness protection by the CHR. She is a rare protesting voice in an environment where many are fearful. On Aug. 29, police told reporters they had opened fire that night on a drug suspect in Tondo, a dirt-poor and densely populated district of Manila. A Reuters reporter looked into the suspect's one-room home and saw a mattress splattered with blood. He asked a neighbor how many shots had been fired, but the man replied: "Sorry, my friend. I didn't hear a single shot," and walked away.[SEP]A four-year-old girl hugging her father on the back of a motorcycle while being taken to buy popcorn is among the latest victims of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's shoot-on-sight crackdown on drug pushers in the Philippines that has left 2400 people dead since July 1. Althea Barbon was shot by police in Guihulngan City on Negros Island. Duterte, 71, swept into office after the country's May elections promising a violent end to the nation's drug epidemic and often calls his critics "sons of bitches" or "sons of whores". Police said Althea's death was "collateral" damage in Duterte's war on drugs, which has been condemned by the US, the United Nations, the Catholic Church and many civil society organisations in the Philippines. READ MORE: * Girl, 5, latest victim in the Philippines' 'war on drugs' * Police in the Philippines get bounties for killing criminals * Rodrigo Duterte to work 'from 1pm to midnight every day' * Rise of Duterte stirs up uncertainty in the South China Sea Althea's father, Pim Alrick Barbon, had been put on a list of drug suspects and was carrying a gun and drugs when he took Althea shopping, said police. "We regret a lot that a child was killed when she was not the target," said Denila Katalbas, the police chief in Guihulngan City. "Had we seen the child we would not have pushed through with the operation. We would have cancelled. We policemen are humans, we are not animals," he added. Althea's death came only days after a five-year-old girl was shot dead by unidentified gunmen who attacked a home in Dagupan City, north of Manila. The bullet in that case was meant for her grandfather, who has also been put on a drug suspect list.[SEP]As bodies pile up in Philippines, many fear to talk about Duterte's war MANILA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - The body of 22-year-old pedicab driver Eric Sison lies in a coffin in a Manila slum with a chick pacing across his casket, placed there in keeping with a local tradition to symbolically peck at the conscience of his killers. Cellphone video footage circulating on social media purports to capture the moment Sison was killed last month when, according to local officials, police were looking for drug pushers in the Pasay township of the Philippines' capital. A voice on the video, recorded by a neighbour according to newspaper reports, can be heard shouting "Don't do it, I'll surrender!". Then there is the sound of gunfire. A poster near the coffin, which lies beside a stinking canal cut between ramshackle homes, demands "Justice for Eric Quintinita Sison". A handpainted sign reads: "OVERKILL - JUSTICE 4 ERIC." These are rare tokens of protest against a surge of killings unleashed since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over two months ago and pledged to wage war on drug dealers and crush widespread addiction to methamphetamine. Very little stands in the way of his campaign. Last week, the number of people killed since July 1 reached 2,400: about 900 died in police operations, and the rest are "deaths under investigation", a term human rights activists say is a euphemism for vigilante and extrajudicial killings. Duterte's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. But he told a news conference on Monday that "plenty will be killed" in his campaign. "Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue," Duterte told reporters before leaving for a regional summit in Laos, where he is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday. Reuters interviews reveal that the police's Internal Affairs Service (IAS) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) are so overwhelmed by the killings that they can investigate only a fraction, and there is scant hope of establishing many as unlawful because witnesses are too terrified to come forward. Meanwhile, the immense popularity of Duterte's crusade and a climate of fear it has engendered have severely restrained dissent from civil society. Hardly anyone turned up at candlelight vigils in Manila recently to protest against extrajudicial killings. Even as the death toll rose, a July poll by Pulse Asia put Duterte's approval rating at 91 percent. Anxious reminders by the Catholic Church of the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' make few headlines in the predominantly Catholic country, with newspapers preferring to carry breathless accounts of the latest slayings. Duterte has delivered withering attacks on his chief critic, Senator Leila de Lima, accusing her of dealing in drugs herself and having an affair with her driver. "It's only the president who can stop this," de Lima told Reuters last week, deploring what she described as the "madness" that led in one case to a five-year-old girl being shot in the head. "How many more of these cases of collateral damage are we willing to bear before we can really start screaming about it?" she asked. As for critics abroad, Duterte pours scorn on them in language larded with curses. He lambasted the United Nations after it criticised the surge in killings and he turned down a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at a summit in Laos this week. Duterte has also made it clear he will take no lecture on human rights from Obama, when in the United States he alleged "black people are being shot even if they are already lying down". Duterte may intensify the crackdown after 14 people were killed on Friday in a bomb attack at a market in his hometown, Davao. Police blamed the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic State-linked group Duterte has vowed to destroy, but his war on the drug trade is making enemies elsewhere and the attack quickened rumours of a plot to kill him. Duterte has declared a nationwide "state of lawlessness" after the blast that authorises troops to reinforce the police with checkpoints and patrols. He has managed with remarkable speed to nationalise a model for fighting crime that he pioneered as mayor of Davao for 22 years. Rights groups documented hundreds of suspicious murders in Davao on Duterte's watch and say death squads operated with impunity there. "The Punisher", as some call him, denies ordering extrajudicial killings but he does not condemn them. Across the country now, lists of suspected drug pushers are being provided to police by neighbourhood chiefs, adding to a sense of fear and distrust across communities. Politicians of all hues have gone quiet, and a Senate enquiry led by de Lima only has the power to propose legislation. Chief Superintendent Leo Angelo Leuterio, who heads the IAS, says it is his office's responsibility to investigate every discharge of firearms involving police. But with only about 170 investigators nationwide, the IAS is able to deal with just 30 percent of the roughly 30 cases coming in every day. "Our resources are breaking at the seams," said Leuterio. The IAS chief is supposed to be a civilian to ensure its independence but Leuterio is a policeman who spent 13 years of his career in Duterte's hometown, Davao. He says he is unbiased and has a track record of dismissing hundreds of officers for misconduct. The CHR, for its part, is looking at just 259 of the 2,000-plus killings since July 1. Its forensics team of 14 is swamped and in their cramped office investigators probing possible extrajudicial killings are handling just 12 dossiers. The commission says its biggest obstacle is that witnesses are hard to find. One person who did come forward is Harrah Kazuo, whose husband and father-in-law were severely beaten and shot dead in a police station, according to a CHR report. She told Reuters that when the police entered their home without a warrant they even removed her toddler's underwear to search for drugs. Police have declined comment on what happened in the home, but two officers have been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the case. Kazuo has been taken into witness protection by the CHR. She is a rare protesting voice in an environment where many are fearful. On Aug. 29, police told reporters they had opened fire that night on a drug suspect in Tondo, a dirt-poor and densely populated district of Manila. A Reuters reporter looked into the suspect's one-room home and saw a mattress splattered with blood. He asked a neighbour how many shots had been fired, but the man replied: "Sorry, my friend. I didn't hear a single shot," and walked away.[SEP](CNN) It's not uncommon for Filipinos to have nicknames: sometimes holdovers from childhood; sometimes affectionately acquired as young adults. Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald Dela Rosa's moniker -- "Bato," which translates to "the Rock," is one of the more apt -- an immovable, unbreakable object. Dela Rosa has shot to fame thanks to his close relationship with the country's new strongman leader Rodrigo Duterte. He's also made a name for himself as the man behind the President's controversial war on drugs, which has seen hundreds of alleged dealers killed in a matter of weeks. Ronald Dela Rosa was appointed head of the Philippines' national police in June. Dela Rosa got his nickname back in the early days of his career, just after graduating from the Philippine Military Academy. After completing his ranger training he was transferred to his hometown of Davao. "When I was (first) seen by my senior officers, my body was like a rock... rock solid. So they told me, 'Bato!' They start calling me 'Bato' because of my build. With his gleaming bald head and barrel chest, the well-built former military man even resembles one. "Later on they realized that I was born and raised in Barangay Bato, Santa Cruz, Davao Del Sur -- that's my birthplace, Barangay Bato." "So that was reinforced until now. They keep calling me 'Bato.' I cannot change it anymore," he laughs. It's been a long journey from that childhood neighborhood to the highest echelon of law enforcement in the country, and it's one that he's taken, in part, with Duterte. Bato was his police chief when the pair were in Davao, prior to their swift rise to national prominence. He says he doesn't like life in Manila -- "Davao is very disciplined; we have a low crime rate." He's enjoyed a stratospheric rise, from a one-star general as chief of police in Davao to the national top job in one fell swoop. Critics say that he's only achieved his position thanks to his long association with Duterte, but he counters naysayers, arguing it's within the President's remit to choose any general for the role. He's known Duterte for three decades, he says. He remains remarkably close to the tough-talking leader, and jokes to CNN that he has a telepathic connection with the man they call "the Punisher." "We trust each other, in a very long time association. He knows what I'm capable of doing and I know what he wants to be done. "So without saying any word we can communicate with each other, through mental telepathy," he says, mimicking their thoughts passing through the ether, before bursting into laughter. "He's the best leader in the universe for me. He's a no-nonsense leader." Tasked with transforming the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia into a "drugless society," he's approached the task with an admirable zeal, if somewhat questionable methods. He's expanded his "tokhan," or "knock and plead" operations, from a local experiment to national -- if unofficial -- police policy. The operations, his "brainchild," see heavy-handed groups of police tour local neighborhoods and politely ask suspected drug users to voluntarily surrender. The tactic has seen over 700,000 such surrenders in two months. But when confronted with a phalanx of heavily armed officers, it is hard to see who would refuse to comply. The President instructed him to replicate his successes from Davao across the country, but so far he hasn't issued any written guidelines for how local forces should proceed. "We don't need" a national strategy, he says. "We've been doing this for a long time." In 6,000 police operations, he said drugs worth 2.38 billion pesos ($51 million) had been seized. CNN could not independently verify the figures the government provided. But the impressive numbers have come at a very visible human cost. There have been 756 suspects killed in police operations since the war on drugs began, alongside 1,160 drug-related killings that have occurred, many of which have been attributed to vigilantes. In one breath he says he "hates extrajudical killings," but in the next he says there are benefits to the spate of deaths. He admits to "mixed emotions," when he sees images of suspected drug dealers gunned down. "I pity the guy for losing his life but at the same time I see that there is one less pusher." But what would he say to family members who have been killed? "Please do not be afraid of police. I guarantee we will protect you." He's given himself six months to prove his mettle -- "If I fail, I will surrender. I will tell (Duterte) to please relieve me from my post. (I'll tell him) I cannot win this war." Is ridding a country such as the Philippines of drugs in just six months a realistic goal? "No. But if you aim high you can achieve acceptable levels." But Bato says he's ordered his officers to investigate and make arrests. But he denies that he tolerated the gangs while police chief in his hometown. "Maybe. Maybe a coincidence. But please don't accuse me. I'm not the one bringing these death squads here in the Philippines," he says. "I have been challenging this death squads in Davao City to come and get me. Instead of killing these helpless people... they can face me in a gun duel. I am challenging these vigilantes. You can fight it out with me if you want to kill somebody." He points to the president's sky-high approval ratings as proof that the country is desperate for tough measures. "A lot of support. A lot of support. This is borne out of frustration," he says. "The past situation where drugs were being sold on the street like candies and innocent people are being killed, being raped by these drug crazed people, by the drug addicts... we are delivering his promise." But is it worth the bodies piling up in the trash-strewn streets of poor neighborhoods across the country? These aren't desperate measures, he says. "We just have to do our job."

With 2,400 people dead so far, Rodrigo Duterte, the President of the Philippines, says that "plenty will be killed" in the war against drugs.

To mark what would have been Freddie Mercury‘s 70th birthday, Queen guitarist and actual astrophysicist Brian May announced that an asteroid orbiting around Mars and Jupiter has been named after the singer. “I’m happy to be able to announce that the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center has today designated Asteroid 17473, discovered 1991, in Freddie’s name, timed to honor his 70th Birthday,” May said in a statement. “Henceforth this object will be known as Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.” Not content with the Queen singer sharing his last name with a planet, May teamed with the International Astronomical Union to reveal Mercury’s asteroid at a Montreux, Switzerland celebration for Mercury, who died in November 1991, roughly around the time Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne first discovered the asteroid. As The Guardian notes, Freddiemercury swings around the sun at 20 kilometers per second at a slightly elliptical orbit that never comes closer than 350 million kilometers to Earth; because of its course, Freddiemercury promises to never threaten Earth with impact. “Where is Freddie’s Asteroid? It’s in the main Asteroid Belt, out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and is about 3 and a half km across,” May continued. “It’s like a cinder in space as many of these asteroids are,” said May. “You need a pretty decent telescope to see it. It’s just a dot of light but it’s a very special dot of light and maybe one day we’ll get there.” May is also the recipient of his own Asteroid Brianmay. Southwest Research Institute Joel Parker added, “Singer Freddie Mercury sang, ‘I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky’ – and now that is even more true than ever before… Even if you can’t see Freddiemercury leaping through the sky, you can be sure he’s there – ‘floating around in ecstasy,’ as he might sing, for millennia to come.”[SEP]Freddie Mercury has had an asteroid named after him to mark what would be his 70th birthday. Asteroid 17473 - which was discovered in 1991, the same year that Mercury died - has been renamed Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury to honour the late Queen frontman. It is in the main Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is around 3.5km across. When viewed from the Earth it is more than 10,000 times fainter than you can see by eye. Brian May announced the news via a video message to a gathering of 1,250 fans at Montreux Casino in Switzerland for the Freddie For A Day 70th birthday party, and told fans that his bandmate would have been “happy” with the honour. “Happy birthday Freddie,” he said. “Thank you all you folks who have come here to celebrate the FFAD and to honour Freddie in this way, keeping his memory alive. I’m sure he would be very happy to see all of this.” The certificate was issued by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Minor Planet Centre. Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute said: "Freddie Mercury sang, 'I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky' - and now that is even more true than ever before. "But even if you can't see Freddie Mercury leaping through the sky, you can be sure he's there - 'floating around in ecstasy', as he might sing - for millennia to come." The asteroid naming comes days after May unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque at Mercury’s childhood home in Feltham, west London. Follow @StandardEnts and like us on Facebook for more entertainment news.[SEP]A shooting star leaping through the sky like a tiger has been named after the man who sang those very lyrics. Freddie Mercury would have celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday, and to mark the occasion a shooting star has been named after the Queen lead singer. Guitarist Brian May revealed the asteroid, which is in Jupiter's orbit, has been named 'Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.' Freddie Mercury was born on 5 Septemer in 1946. Mercury was only 45 when he died from bronchial pneumonia, a complication from his battle with AIDS. He wrote and performed hits including 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'We Are The Champions' with Queen, releasing over a dozen studio albums between 1973 and 1991. The asteroid was discovered in 1991, the year Mercury died. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre, part of Harvard University in Boston, has officially designated the asteroid 'Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.' May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Imperial College, London, says the newly named asteroid was 'just a dot of light, but it's a very special dot of light' and recognizes Mercury's musical and performing talents.' Queen guitarist Brian May says an asteroid in Jupiter's orbit has been named after the band's late frontman Freddie Mercury (pictured) on what would have been his 70th birthday. May said the honour marked 'Freddie's outstanding influence in the world' The asteroid was discovered in 1991, the year Mercury died. Asteroid names are governed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and published by the Minor Planet Center. When an asteroid is initially discovered it is given a ‘provisional designation’ until enough measurements have been made that its orbit is accurately determined. The asteroid in question was discovered in 1991 and was given the provisional designation ‘1991 FM3’. It has been observed and its position and orbit measured over 1,100 times, and it was given the number 17473. It is 2.2 miles (3.5km) across and has a low albedo, which means less than a third of the light that hits it is reflected. In a video announcement that was first shown at the Freddie Mercury 70th Birthday Party in Montreux, Switzerland, May explained the reasons behind the decision. May said the honour marked 'Freddie's outstanding influence in the world. 'And so - for its first appearance in public - Asteroid Freddiemercury - happy birthday Freddie!' The asteroid is 2.2 miles (3.5km) across and has a low albedo, 0.3, which means less than a third of the light that hits it is reflected. 'It's like a cinder in the sky, which many of these objects are,' May said. While issuing the certificate of designation, Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute said the asteroid was a celebration for a 'charismatic singer'. 'Freddie Mercury sang, "I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky" - and now that is even more true than ever before,' he said. 'But even if you can't see Freddie Mercury leaping through the sky, you can be sure he's there - 'floating around in ecstasy', as he might sing - for millennia to come.' Earlier this week May unveiled an English Heritage blue plaque at the childhood home of his former bandmate. Brian May also unveiled a British Heritage blue plaque at 22 Gladstone Avenue in Feltham, West London to honour Freddie Mercury earlier this week. Mercury died in 1991, but May said he could feel his presence when he revealed the memorial at the terraced house (pictured)[SEP]Brian May announces the news that an asteroid is to be named after his former Queen bandmate Freddie Mercury to mark the occasion of his 70th birthday on 5 September. Mercury died in 1991 at the age of 45 due to Aids complications, but remains a British rock icon. The asteroid is to be called ‘FreddieMercury 17473’ and was first discovered in the year of Mercury’s death[SEP]LONDON — Queen guitarist Brian May says an asteroid in Jupiter’s orbit has been named after the band’s late frontman Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 70th birthday. May says the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre has designated an asteroid discovered in 1991, the year of Mercury’s death, as “Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.” May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Imperial College, London, says the newly named asteroid is “just a dot of light, but it’s a very special dot of light” and recognizes Mercury’s musical and performing talents. Mercury, born Sept. 5, 1946, wrote and performed hits including “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are The Champions” with Queen, releasing over a dozen studio albums between 1973 and 1991.[SEP]An asteroid, originally discovered in 1991, was yesterday named in honour of Freddie Mercury to mark the 70th anniversary of the Queen singer’s birth. Brian May, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist, announced the honour at a celebration marking the flamboyant singer’s birthday in Montreux, Switzerland. Meanwhile Queen fans around the world, including Matt Lucas and James Bay, recreated his famous sing-alongs (sampled here). May said: “I’m happy to be able to announce that the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center has today designated Asteroid 17473, discovered 1991, in Freddie’s name, timed to honour his 70th birthday. “Henceforth this object will be known as Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury. This announcement is to recognise Freddie’s outstanding influence in the world.” May said the object, which has been awarded a formal certificate of adoption, could be found in “the main Asteroid Belt, out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and is about 3 and a half km across.” The musician added: “It has an albedo (measure of reflectivity) of about 0.3 – which means it only reflects about 30 per cent of the light that falls on it; like many asteroids, it’s a dark object – rather like a cinder in space. “Viewed from the Earth it is more than 10,000 times fainter than you can see by eye, so you need a fair-sized telescope to see it and that’s why it wasn’t discovered until 1991.” Issuing the Certificate of Designation, Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute, said: “Singer Freddie Mercury sang, ‘I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky’ – and now that is even more true than ever before. “In celebration of his 70th birthday, an asteroid has been named Freddiemercury in honor of the charismatic singer for the band Queen.” Asteroid names are governed by the International Astronomical Union and published by the Minor Planet Center. When an asteroid is initially discovered it is given a “provisional designation” until enough measurements have been made that its orbit is accurately determined. At that point, it is given a number and is eligible to receive a name. May, who attained a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007 and is a co-founder of the awareness campaign Asteroid Day, was previously honoured with his own rocky body. Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after the rock star in 2008, on the suggestion of the late Sir Patrick Moore. May, whose PhD was titled, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, asked earlier this year: “Why do we want to rendezvous with an asteroid? Well we need to know what would happen if one of those asteroids hit the earth.” Other famous figures to have asteroids named in their honour include Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Harry Potter author JK Rowling.[SEP]Late last night on Sunday, September 4th, Brian May from rock and roll band Queen unveiled ‘Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury’ designated in Freddie’s honor at the Freddie For A Day 70th birthday party held at Montreux Casino in aid of Mercury Phoenix Trust. Over 1,250 fans had gathered to celebrate. “Published in the September 4th announcements of the Minor Planet Center, operating out of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), this announcement is to recognize Freddie’s outstanding influence in the world. “I’m grateful to my dear friend Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute (active in the recent groundbreaking NASA Pluto mission and ESA’s Rosetta mission), for working on this idea, and making this happen. “Where is Freddie’s Asteroid? It’s in the main Asteroid Belt, out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and is about 3 and a half kilometers across. It has an albedo of about 0.3 – which means it only reflects about 30 per cent of the light that falls on it; like many asteroids, it’s a dark object – rather like a cinder in space. Viewed from the Earth, it is more than 10,000 times fainter than you can see by eye, so you need a fairly-sized telescope to see it… and that’s why it wasn’t discovered until 1991. “We have a nice certificate of ‘adoption’ issued by the International Astronomical Union and the Minor Planet Center, which says ‘This name is in honor of Freddie Mercury, with the following citation: “Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara, 1946-1991) was a British songwriter, and the lead singer for the legendary rock group Queen. His distinctive sound and large vocal range were hallmarks of his performance style, and he is regarded as one of the greatest rock singers of all time.’ MORE: Man Finds Heartfelt Note Inside Used Record: “Play It Loud For Mark” “Thanks to Marc Buie who provided the contact to the observer, and Brian Skiff from Lowell Observatory, and special thanks to Gareth Williams at the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. “And so – for its first appearance in public … Asteroid Freddiemercury! In issuing the Certificate of Designation, Joel Parker of the Southwest Research Institute said the following: “Singer Freddie Mercury sang, ‘I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky’ – and now that is even more true than ever before. Today in celebration of his 70th birthday, an asteroid has been named Freddiemercury in honor of the charismatic singer for the band Queen. Asteroid names are governed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and published by the Minor Planet Center. When an asteroid is initially discovered it is given a ‘provisional designation’ until enough measurements have been made that its orbit is accurately determined. At that point, it is given a number and is eligible to get a name as well. In this case, the asteroid in question was discovered in 1991 and was given the provisional designation ‘1991 FM3’. It has been observed and its position and orbit measured over 1,100 times, and it was given the number 17473. When a proposal to name an asteroid after Freddie Mercury was received by the Minor Planet Center, the IAU group selected this asteroid partly due to the ‘FM’ in the designation. VIDEO: Florence & the Machine Perform Surprise Concert for Teen in Hospice “The name approved by the IAU is the formal and official name forever to be associated with this asteroid; so, any scientific papers in the future that study this asteroid will refer to it as ‘17473 Freddiemercury’. “But even if you can’t see Freddiemercury leaping through the sky, you can be sure he’s there – ‘floating around in ecstasy’, as he might sing – for millennia to come.” Be A Champion: Click To Share The News – Photo by Queen[SEP]Queen guitarist Brian May says an asteroid in Jupiter's orbit has been named after the band's late frontman Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 70th birthday. May says the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre has designated an asteroid discovered in 1991, the year of Mercury's death, as "Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury". May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Imperial College, London, says the newly-named asteroid is "just a dot of light, but it's a very special dot of light" and recognises Mercury's "outstanding influence in the world". May announced the naming in a statement on his website. READ MORE: * Trump not authorised to use Queen hit * Brian May lashes Sacha Baron Cohen over Mercury film * Hear Bowie and Mercury sing Under Pressure May had a "nice certificate of 'adoption'" of the asteroid, which read: "Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara, 1946-1991) was a British songwriter, and the lead singer for the legendary rock group Queen. His distinctive sound and large vocal range were hallmarks of his performance style, and he is regarded as one of the greatest rock singers of all time." The asteroid, measuring about three and a half kilometres in diameter, sat between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and is about three and a half km across. It was discovered in 1991. The asteroid reflected only about 30 per cent of the light that hit it, and a "fair-sized telescope" was needed to view it from Earth. Mercury, born September 5, 1946, wrote and performed hits including Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are The Champions with Queen, releasing over a dozen studio albums between 1973 and 1991.[SEP]An asteroid has been named after Freddie Mercury to celebrate what would have been his 70th birthday. The space rock, previously named Asteroid 17473 upon its discovery in 1991, will now be known as Asteroid Freddiemercury 17473, Queen guitarist Brian May has announced . “I’m happy to be able to announce that the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center has today designated Asteroid 17473, discovered 1991, in Freddie’s name, timed to honour his 70th birthday," he said. It is located between Jupiter and Mars in a major Asteroid Belt, and only reflects around 30% of light falling on it. In order to see it, you'd need a pretty powerful telescope. It will honour the flamboyant singer's "outstanding influence in the world", May added. "It's just a dot of light," he said, "but it's a very special dot of light." Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5th 1946, is fondly remembered as one of music's most talented vocalists. • Amazing unreleased photos of Freddie Mercury to celebrate what would have been his 70th birthday During the '70s and '80s he thrilled the world with his glamorous outfits, extraordinary writing talent and four-octave vocal range. He died in 1991 aged 45 due to complications from AIDS. Queen's Greatest Hits , released in 1981 remains the best-selling album of all time in the UK, beating off competition from the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , and Michael Jackson's Thriller . In 2011 Google paid homage to the late singer with a lengthy Google Doodle on what would have been his 65th birthday. Controversial actor Sacha Baron Cohen was due to star as Mercury in a biopic of his life, but later walked away from the project citing a disagreement with an unidentified member of Queen as the reason. “I understand it, they are a band. They want to protect their legacy as a band. They want it to be about Queen, and I fully understand that," he said. “The problem is, and I think it's with any biopic, and I fully understand why Queen wanted to do this, if you're in control of your writer of your life story, why wouldn't you depict yourself as great as possible?'[SEP]Celebrations to mark Freddie Mercury’s 70th birthday received a cosmic boost on Sunday night as Brian May, Queen’s lead guitarist, announced that an asteroid nearly half a billion kilometres away had been named after the late singer. In a move that links one of the most dazzling stars in history to one of the darker rocks in the solar system the International Astronomical Union confirmed that asteroid 17473, a 3.5km-wide ball of black rubble on the other side of Mars, shall henceforth be known as “Freddiemercury” May, who has a PhD in astrophysics and an asteroid named after him already, revealed the name by video message to more than 1200 guests at the “Freddie for a Day” party at the Montreux Casino on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Behind the venue is the band’s former studio where Queen recorded a host of songs, from Under Pressure with David Bowie to Who Wants To Live Forever? Discovered in 1991 by the Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne, the freshly-named asteroid swings around the sun at 20km per second. Its slightly elliptical orbit never comes closer than 350 million kilometres to Earth, meaning that the heavenly body called Freddiemercury poses no imminent danger to the planet. The space rock reflects only one third of the sunlight that falls on it and at such distance can only be seen with a telescope. “It’s like a cinder in space as many of these asteroids are,” said May. “You need a pretty decent telescope to see it. It’s just a dot of light but it’s a very special dot of light and maybe one day we’ll get there.” Chris Lintott, professor of astrophysics at Oxford and presenter of The Sky at Night said: “I think it’s wonderful to name an asteroid after Freddie Mercury. He joins a list including all the Beatles, Frank Zappa, Bowie and, weirdly, the band Yes. Pleasingly, it’s on a slightly eccentric orbit about the sun, just as the man himself was.” The list of famous names given to asteroids goes on and on. Kurt Vonnegut, Vladimir Nabokov, Douglas Adams and Bruce Springsteen all have space rocks named after them, as do the characters Don Quixote, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Another member of the asteroid club is Monica Grady, the Open University professor of planetary science, who lends her name to asteroid 4731. “It’s very appropriate that the King of Rock (or Queen of rock?) is remembered this way, with his very own piece of rock memorabilia,” she said. Freddie’s sister, Kashmira Cooke, was due to attend the Montreux party hosted by his former personal assistant and cook Peter “Phoebe” Freestone. Guests were encouraged to wear yellow costumes for the night and dined on some of the star’s favourite dishes, including Louisianna chicken and onion tart. Addressing the party, May thanked Joel Parker, astronomer and director at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, for almost single-handedly ensuring the asteroid was named after the Queen singer in time for the celebrations. “I’m honoured to have been part of getting the name officially recognised in time for Freddie’s 70th birthday,” Parker told the Guardian. “It’s wonderful that Brian May is also an astronomer, connecting the Earth-based Freddie to the cosmos-based Freddie.” Parker said that anyone who wanted to catch a glimpse of Freddiemercury would need a telescope as it is only one ten thousandth of the brightness that the naked eye can see in a dark sky. “It’s not quite traveling at the speed of light,” Parker said. “But from an Earth perspective, this certainly has made a supersonic man out of him.”

An asteroid is named in honour of Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 70th birthday.

Phyllis Schlafly is interviewed while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, in Washington, Friday, Feb. 19, 2010. Associated Press[SEP]Phyllis Schlafly, the US conservative icon and grass-roots activist for traditional family roles who led the successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Monday. She was 92. "Today, Phyllis Schlafly passed away in the presence of her family at her home in St. Louis, Missouri," the Eagle Forum, the conservative interest group she founded, said in a statement posted on its website. A deeply polarizing figure for decades, the constitutional lawyer campaigned against communism, abortion rights and, most famously, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which died after it was already passed by both houses of Congress in 1972 and ratified by 35 of the required 38 states. "Phyllis Schlafly is a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement, and fearlessly battled globalism and the 'kingmakers' on behalf of America's workers and families," Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump -- whom she had endorsed -- said in a statement Monday night. The Eagle Forum called Schlafly an "iconic​ American​ leader​ whose love for America was surpassed only by her love of God and her family​​" whose focus "from her earliest days until her final ones was​ protecting ​the​ ​family, which she understood as the building block of life." Schlafly's critics liked to point out that being editor of a monthly newsletter, author of more than 20 books and a regular public speaker didn't exactly fit the self-described housewife's stated view that women's roles were as full-time mothers and wives. The Radcliffe graduate who married a member of a wealthy Illinois family came to prominence in the 1960s with her self-published book "A Choice, Not an Echo," supporting the presidential campaign of senator Barry Goldwater, who helped lay the future foundations of an increasingly hardline Republican Party. Schlafly's campaign against the ERA -- which would have expanded women's rights by outlawing gender-based distinctions in federal and state laws -- pitted her against Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and other feminist icons. "First of all, I want to thank my husband, Fred, for letting me come," she liked to announce at anti-ERA rallies. "I always like to say that, because it makes the liberals so mad." She argued the ERA would end women's privileges, including dependent benefits under Social Security, separate public bathrooms and exemption from the draft. "Since the women are the ones who bear the babies and there's nothing we can do about that," she argued in 1973, "our laws and customs then make it the financial obligation of the husband to provide the support." During one debate, Friedan said Schlafly should be burned at the stake for betraying her sex. Along the way, Schlafly helped lay the groundwork for a grassroots conservative movement that grew in opposition to the cultural changes of the 1960s and came into its own with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, mobilizing many thousands of volunteers. Schlafly's latest book, "The Conservative Case for Trump," with co-authors Ed Martin and Brett Decker, is set to be released on Tuesday, The Washington Times reported. She is survived by six children, 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.[SEP]Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group, has died. She was 92. Schlafly died of cancer Monday afternoon at her home in St Louis, surrounded by her family, her son John Schlafly said. Funeral arrangements are pending. She rose to national attention in 1964 with her self-published book, A Choice Not an Echo, that became a manifesto for the far right. The book, which sold three million copies, chronicled the history of the Republican National Convention. It is credited for helping conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona earn the GOP nomination in 1964. Schlafly later helped defeat the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, which would have outlawed gender discrimination. She graduated from college while working overnight at a factory during World War II and her newspaper column appeared in dozens of newspapers. Schlafly remained politically active into her 90s and was at every Republican convention since 1952. She attended this year's convention as a Donald Trump delegate. Yet she told The Associated Press in 2007 that her greatest legacy was perhaps the Eagle Forum. She founded the movement in 1972 in suburban St Louis, where she lived. The ultraconservative group has chapters in several states and claims 80,000 members. 'I've taught literally millions of people how to participate in self-government,' Schlafly said. 'I think I've built a wonderful organization of volunteers, mostly women but some men, willing to spend their time to get good laws and good politicians.' The Eagle Forum pushes for low taxes, a strong military and English-only education. The group is against efforts it says are pushed by radical feminists or encroach on US sovereignty, such as guest-worker visas, according to its website. The website describes the Equal Rights Amendment as having had a 'hidden agenda of tax-funded abortions and same-sex marriages'. The group said in statement on its website announcing Schlafly's death that her 'focus from her earliest days until her final ones was protecting the family, which she understood as the building block of life'. As momentum grew in the 1970s for the Equal Rights Amendment, Schlafly became its most outspoken critic — and was vilified by its supporters. She had a pie smashed into her face and pig's blood thrown on her, and feminist Betty Friedan once told Schlafly: 'I'd like to burn you at the stake.' Schlafly was criticized in a 1970s Doonesbury comic — a framed copy of which hung on her office wall. 'What I am defending is the real rights of women,' Schlafly said at the time. 'A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.' Thirty-five states ratified the amendment, three short of the necessary 38. Schlafly said amendment supporters couldn't prove it was needed. 'They were never able to show women would get any benefit out of it,' she told the AP in 2007. 'It [the US Constitution] is already sex-neutral. Women already have all the rights that men have.' Saint Louis University history professor Donald Critchlow, who profiled Schlafly in a 2005 book, said the defeat of the amendment revived conservatism and helped pave the way for Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. 'What the ERA [defeat] did was show the right, and especially Reagan strategists, that a new constituency could be tapped to revitalize the right. It allowed the right to take over the party,' Critchlow told the AP shortly after his book was written. Schlafly was born on August 15, 1924, and grew up in Depression-era St Louis. Her parents were Republican but not politically involved. Her own activism was born partly out of convenience. With the country involved in World War II during her college years, Schlafly worked the graveyard shift at the St Louis Ordnance Plant. Her job included testing ammunition by firing machine guns. She would get off work at 8 am, attend morning classes, then sleep in the middle of the day before doing it all over again. The schedule limited her options for a major. 'In order to pick classes to fit my schedule I picked political science,' Schlafly said in 2007. She graduated from Washington University in 1944, when she was 19. Her first taste of real politics came at age 22, when she guided the 1946 campaign of Republican congressional candidate Claude Bakewell, helping him to a major win. In 1952, with her young family living in nearby Alton, Illinois, Schlafly's husband, attorney John Schlafly Jr, was approached about running for Congress. He declined, but she ran and narrowly lost in a predominantly Democratic district. She also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970. Schlafly earned a master's degree in government from Harvard in 1945. She enrolled in Washington University School of Law in 1976, and at age 51, graduated 27th in a class of 204. Schlafly received an honorary degree at Washington University's commencement in 2008. Some students and faculty silently protested by getting up from their seats and turning their backs to the stage, but Schlafly called it 'a happy day', adding: I'm just sorry for those who tried to rain on a happy day.' Schlafly was an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and loosening US border restrictions. Citing Schlafly's views about homosexuals, women and immigrants, protesters said she went against the most fundamental principles for which the university stood. Schlafly remained active in conservative politics well into her later years, during which she kept writing her column that appeared in 100 newspapers. She also did radio commentaries on more than 460 stations and published a monthly newsletter. She endorsed Trump in early March and introduced the then-GOP front-runner at a St Louis rally. Trump praised Schlafly as 'a patriot, a champion for women and a symbol of strength' after the news of her death Monday. He called her 'a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement and fearlessly battled globalism and the "kingmakers" on behalf of America's workers and families'. Trump said in a statement released Monday night: 'She fought every day right to the end for America First.' She co-authored a book called The Conservative Case for Trump, to be released Tuesday. Trump said he was 'honored to spend time with her'. Schlafly's husband died in 1993. She is survived by six children, 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.[SEP]'Game of Thrones' ad: Vote for Cersei in 2016[SEP]WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Phyllis Schlafly, who became a "founding mother" of the modern U.S. conservative movement by battling feminists in the 1970s and working tirelessly to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Monday at the age of 92, her Eagle Forum group said. Schlafly, who lived in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Missouri, died at her home in the presence of her family, Eagle Forum said in a statement. The cause of death was not given. She was still a conservative force and popular speaker in her 90s, endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and praising his policy on immigration. She was a delegate to the Republicans' convention in Cleveland. Schlafly once called feminists "a bunch of bitter women seeking a constitutional cure for their personal problems," Time said, while insisting that "women find their greatest fulfillment at home with their family." Her political ardor did not fade with age and in 2014, as President Barack Obama pushed for pay equity for women, Schlafly sparked controversy with a column for the Christian Post saying a man's paycheck comes first. "The pay gap between men and women is not all bad because it helps to promote and sustain marriages," she said. "... The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap." Schlafly promoted traditional family values and once told a reporter that she always listed her occupation as "mother" when filling out applications. But she was hardly a typical stay-at-home housewife/mother. Shortly after marrying lawyer Fred Schlafly in 1949, she became active in Republican Party politics in Alton, Illinois, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice. She would go on to found the Eagle Forum grass-roots conservative group, write a newspaper column and newsletter and author some 20 books. Her crowning achievement was crusading to prevent the Equal Rights Amendment from being added to the U.S. Constitution and it made Schlafly a leader in the modern American conservative movement. "Phyllis Schlafly courageously and single-handedly took on the issue of the Equal Rights Amendment when no one else in the country was opposing it," said James C. Dobson, chairman and founder of Focus on the Family. "In so doing, she essentially launched the pro-family, pro-life movement." Biographer Donald T. Critchlow said defeating the ERA helped usher in a conservative era in American politics and boosted Ronald Reagan to the presidency. In her decade-long fight against the ERA, Schlafly traveled across the country to speak at rallies and persuade state legislators not to approve the ERA. Along the way she often debated feminist writer Betty Freidan, who called Schlafly "a traitor to her sex" and once told her: "I'd like to burn you at the stake." The intention of the ERA was to ensure women were treated the same as men under state and federal laws. Schlafly's attack on the proposed amendment was based on the premise that the rights of women already were well protected by the U.S. Constitution. She said the ERA actually would erode women's standing, leading to homosexual marriages, women in combat, government-funded abortions and loss of alimony. In 1972 she started the Eagle Forum, now located in Clayton, Missouri, along with Stop ERA, bringing in legions of supporters who had been regarded as non-political housewives. In a 1978 appearance at the Illinois capitol she was accompanied by backers bearing loaves of home-made bread. Described by Time magazine as "feminine but forceful" and with her hair always carefully styled, Schlafly said she attended 41 state hearings to testify against the Equal Rights Amendment. When the ERA's ratification deadline expired in 1982, having been approved by only 35 of the 38 states needed, Schlafly threw a party in Washington. Phyllis Stewart was born Aug. 15, 1924, in St. Louis and grew up in a home she described as Republican but not activist. She put herself through Washington University by firing weapons as an ammunition factory tester and later earned a master's degree in political science from Radcliffe. In 1978 she graduated from Washington University's law school. The left attacked Schlafly for promoting domestic life to her supporters while spending so much time pursuing her ambitious political agenda. She responded by saying she never told women they should not work. "I simply didn't believe we needed a constitutional amendment to protect women's rights," Schlafly told the New York Times. Schlafly first became a political presence with her 1964 self-published book "A Choice, Not an Echo," which championed the conservative politics of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. Schlafly also built a reputation as a strident anti-Communist and opponent of arms control treaties. After the ERA's defeat, she continued to preach conservative causes such as limited government, anti-abortion laws, traditional education, strong defense and keeping out illegal immigrants. She frequently criticized immigration reform and the Obama administration. She wrote more than 25 books, including "How the Republican Party Became Pro-Life"in 2016 and "No Higher Power: Obama's War on Religious Freedom" in 2012. Schlafly also was a critic of gay rights, which proved to be a sensitive topic in 1992 when the oldest of her six children, John, who worked for the Eagle Forum, acknowledged he was homosexual. Schlafly's husband died in 1993. (Writing and reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Diane Craft)[SEP]By Jim Salter, The Associated Press ST. LOUIS — Phyllis Schlafly, the outspoken conservative activist who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group, has died. She was 92. Schlafly died Monday afternoon of cancer at her home in St. Louis, her son John Schlafly said. Schlafly rose to national attention in 1964 with her self-published book, “A Choice Not an Echo,” that became a manifesto for the far right. The book, which sold three million copies, chronicled the history of the Republican National Convention and is credited for helping conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona earn the 1964 GOP nomination. She later helped lead efforts to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment that would have outlawed gender discrimination, galvanizing the party’s right. She’d graduated from college while working overnight at a factory during World War II, her newspaper column appeared in dozens of newspapers and she was politically active into her 90s — including attending every convention since her first in 1952. Yet she told The Associated Press in 2007 that perhaps her greatest legacy was the Eagle Forum, which she founded in 1972 in suburban St. Louis, where she lived. The ultraconservative group has chapters in several states and claims 80,000 members. “I’ve taught literally millions of people how to participate in self-government,” Schlafly said. “I think I’ve built a wonderful organization of volunteers, mostly women but some men, willing to spend their time to get good laws and good politicians.” The Eagle Forum pushes for low taxes, a strong military and English-only education. The group is against efforts it says are pushed by radical feminists or encroach on U.S. sovereignty, such as guest-worker visas, according to its website, which describes the Equal Rights Amendment as having had a “hidden agenda of tax-funded abortions and same-sex marriages.” As momentum grew in the 1970s for the amendment, Schlafly became its most outspoken critic — and was vilified by its supporters. She had a pie smashed into her face and pig’s blood thrown on her, and feminist Betty Friedan once told Schlafly: “I’d like to burn you at the stake.” She was chastised in a 1970s “Doonesbury” — a framed copy of which hung on her office wall. “What I am defending is the real rights of women,” Schlafly said at the time. “A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.” Thirty-five states ratified the amendment, three short of the necessary 38. Schlafly said amendment supporters couldn’t prove it was needed. “They were never able to show women would get any benefit out of it,” she told the AP in 2007. “It (the U.S. Constitution) is already sex-neutral. Women already have all the rights that men have.” Saint Louis University history professor Donald Critchlow, who profiled Schlafly in his 2005 book, “Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman’s Crusade,” said the defeat of the amendment helped revive conservatism and helped pave the way for Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980. “What the ERA (defeat) did was show the right, and especially Reagan strategists, that a new constituency could be tapped to revitalize the right. It allowed the right to take over the party,” Critchlow told the AP shortly after his book was written. Schlafly was born Aug. 15, 1924, and grew up in Depression-era St. Louis. Her parents were Republican but not politically involved. Her own activism was born partly out of convenience. With the country involved in World War II during her college years, Schlafly worked the graveyard shift at the St. Louis Ordnance Plant. Her job included testing ammunition by firing machine guns. She would get off work at 8 a.m., attend morning classes, then sleep in the middle of the day before doing it all over again. The schedule limited her options for a major. “In order to pick classes to fit my schedule I picked political science,” Schlafly recalled in the 2007 interview. She graduated from Washington University in 1944, when she was 19. Her first taste of real politics came at age 22, when she guided the 1946 campaign of Republican congressional candidate Claude Bakewell, helping him to a major upset win. In 1952, with her young family living in nearby Alton, Illinois, Schlafly’s husband, attorney John Schlafly Jr., was approached about running for Congress. He declined, but she ran and narrowly lost in a predominantly Democratic district. She also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970. Schlafly earned a master’s degree in government from Harvard in 1945. She enrolled in Washington University School of Law in 1976, and at age 51, graduated 27th in a class of 204. Schlafly received an honorary degree at Washington University’s commencement in 2008. Though some students and faculty silently protested by getting up from their seats and turning their backs to the stage, Schlafly called it “a happy day. I’m just sorry for those who tried to rain on a happy day.” Citing Schlafly’s views about homosexuals, women and immigrants — she was an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and loosening U.S. border restrictions — protesters said she went against the most fundamental principles for which the university stood. Schlafly remained active in conservative politics well into her 80s, when she was still writing a column that appeared in 100 newspapers, doing radio commentaries on more than 460 stations and publishing a monthly newsletter.[SEP]Schlafly, an outspoken voice against the liberalism of the 1960's and 1970's, was a towering figure in what emerged as the modern religious right. Her death was confirmed by the Eagle Forum, the Missouri-based advocacy organization she led. "Her focus from her earliest days until her final ones was protecting the family, which she understood as the building block of life. She recognized America as the greatest political embodiment of those values," the statement read. "From military superiority and defense to immigration and trade; from unborn life to the nuclear family and parenthood, Phyllis Schlafly was a courageous and articulate voice for common sense and traditional values." Schlafly was most well-known for her work fighting the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970's, emerging as one of the leading female critics of the feminist movement. Schlafly, until her death, remained in the political arena and recently made the case for electing Donald Trump president. On Monday night the Republican nominee eulogized Schlafly in a statement. "Phyllis Schlafly is a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement, and fearlessly battled globalism and the 'kingmakers' on behalf of America's workers and families," Trump said. "I was honored to spend time with her during this campaign as she waged one more great battle for national sovereignty." The new women's movement: Reviving the ERA fight In her final days, Schlafly caused consternation among some conservatives by backing Trump. She endorsed the billionaire at a rally in her home city of St. Louis, Missouri in March, despite the fact many of her fellow travelers in the movement don't see the Republican candidate as a true ideological conservative, likening him to Ronald Reagan. "I can remember 1980 when a lot of us didn't think Reagan was an authentic conservative," Schlafly told CNN in an interview in May. "Reagan turned out to be best president of the century," she said. She backed Trump partly because he was the only candidate talking about illegal immigration, which she said was "the most important issue in the country." Funeral arrangements are still being finalized, according to the Eagle Forum.

American Conservative icon Phyllis Schafly dies at the age of 92.

Saudi formin says would go along with a freeze if oil producers agree one LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would go along with a freeze in oil output if other producers agreed one but cautioned that Iran could foil any attempt to limit output. "If there's a freeze, Saudi Arabia will go along with it and we are hoping there could be a meeting of the minds when this comes together," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in London. "I believe again the spoiler will be the Iranians. You can't expect other countries to freeze while you reserve the right to increase your production. The Russian position is more in line with our position than not," he said. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)[SEP]CLOSE Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) during the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 4, 2016. (Photo: Yuri Kochetkov, EPA) Oil prices rose Monday after Russia and Saudi Arabia announced they would cooperate on stabilizing oil output. The two top oil-producing countries plan to hold a Russia-Saudi Arabia task force on oil and gas next month, the Russian and Saudi energy ministers Alexander Novak and Minister Khalid al-Falih announced Monday in a joint statement at the G-20 summit in China. Their countries "recognized the need to restrain an excessive volatility of the oil market" and agreed to act together "in order to stabilize the oil market," they said in the statement. Neither offered specifics on what actions might be taken. Russia is not a member of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), but earlier this year supported a freeze in production. Saudi Arabia also supported a freeze, however OPEC members Iran and Iraq were non-committal. Russia is open to a freeze, Novak told BBC News, and called the agreement on a task force a "historical moment" between OPEC members and non-members. Some sort of compromise is needed to bring stability to oil, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a pre-G-20 interview with Bloomberg released Monday. "I would very much like to hope that every participant of this market that’s interested in maintaining stable and fair global energy prices will in the end make the necessary decision," he said. Oil prices have risen more than 30% so far this year after hitting historic lows of below-$40 per barrel prices. However, they remain far below the $100 or more fetched two years ago. Upon news of the Russia-Saudi Arabia statement, the price of Brent crude oil, used to price international oils, rose by 4% but then fell to 1% higher at $47.31 a barrel. Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2ctHeQe[SEP]The joint statement was signed by the country's energy ministers in China on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit and followed a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the two countries were moving toward a strategic energy partnership and that a high level of trust would allow them to address global challenges. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the agreement would also encourage other producers to cooperate. Oil prices LCOc1 soared almost 5 percent ahead of a news conference by the two ministers, but pared gains to trade up 2 percent by 6.30 a.m. ET as the agreement yielded no immediate action. "There is no need now to freeze production ... We have time to take this kind of decision," Falih said. "Freezing production is one of the preferred possibilities, but it does not have to happen specifically today." Even if the Monday statement was short on action, it marks a significant development in the Russia-Saudi relationship. The two countries have been effectively fighting a proxy war in Syria and Moscow also sees itself as a big ally of Iran - Riyadh's arch-rival in the Middle East. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold informal talks in Algeria later this month, and is next scheduled to meet officially in Vienna in November. Several OPEC producers have called for an output freeze to rein in the glut, which arose as supplies from high-cost producers such as the United States soared. The price collapse of the past two years has hit the budgets of major producers such as Russia and Saudi Arabia while leading to unrest and social tensions is smaller producing nations such as Venezuela and Nigeria. OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia has also signaled willingness to cooperate as it faces budget pressures and seeks to float a stake in state-owned producer Aramco. Venezuela, which has consistently pushed for a deal to boost prices, hailed the agreement as "an important step in coordinating joint action between the biggest OPEC member and one of the biggest non-OPEC producers". Venezuela has presented an "alternative proposal" to be considered at the upcoming Algeria meeting that would help "stabilize both the volume of supplies to markets and the fair price for producers," the Oil Ministry said in a statement. The statement did not offer further details on the proposal. Any deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producer Russia would be the first in 15 years since Moscow agreed to cut output in tandem with the cartel at the turn of the millennium, although Russia never followed through on that promise. Novak said he was open to ideas on what cut-off period to use if producer countries decided to freeze output. If production is frozen at early-2015 levels, it would effectively mean an output cut as most producers - including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq and Iran - have steeply boosted production since then. Novak said outright oil production cuts may also be discussed. In April, Russia was prepared to freeze output together with OPEC, but talks collapsed after Riyadh said it would agree to a deal only if Iran - OPEC's third-largest producer - participated. Iran has argued that it needs to regain market share lost during years of Western sanctions, which were lifted in January. Putin said last week that a new deal on oil output could involve some compromise on Iranian output. "We believe that the oil market rebalancing has been rather delayed ... And certainly joint actions which were considered at the beginning of the year, including a freeze, could have drawn much nearer the date of rebalancing of the respective markets," Novak said on Monday. "We are ready, if there is such a decision, to join" an oil output freeze, TASS news agency cited Novak as saying. Oil prices collapsed to as low as $27 per barrel earlier this year from as high as $115 in mid-2014, but have since recovered to around $50. "The market is getting better and we noticed that the prices reflect this (improvement)", said Falih. "A coordinated and appropriate, collective decision on production will help bring balance and reduce inventories in a more timely manner".[SEP]MOSCOW (AP) — The world's two largest oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, on Monday agreed to act together to stabilize global oil output, though it's unclear what that might entail. Energy ministers Alexander Novak and Minister Khalid al-Falih met Monday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 nations' summit in China. A joint statement released by Russia said both ministers "recognized the need to restrain an excessive volatility of the oil market" and agreed to act together "in order to stabilize the oil market." Novak and al-Fatih said they would chair the first Russia-Saudi task force on oil and gas in October. Russia, which is not a member of the oil producing nations' group OPEC, this year supported calls to freeze production, but the efforts fell through after OPEC member Iran opposed the plan. It was not clear from the joint statement what exactly Russia and Saudi Arabia would be prepared to do to help prop up the markets but the Russian minister mentioned a production freeze. "We believe that the market right now is taking too long to balance out, it's been two years, and joint steps which were considered earlier this year including a production freeze could be a great help in helping to balance the markets as soon as possible," Russian news agencies quoted Novak as saying. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, al-Falih, the Saudi minister, said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency that the freeze "is not the only solution" but refused to elaborate. The price of oil jumped on the countries' statement. The U.S. contract rose 2.2 percent, or 99 cents, to $45.43 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.[SEP]It looks like major oil producers might finally be ready to play nice. Saudi Arabia and Russia have signed an agreement aimed at stabilizing the oil market, according to state-owned Russian news agency TASS. The two countries have pledged to set up a working group, along with other measures aimed at supporting a market that has been rocked by an epic price collapse since 2014. Oil prices gained 3% early Monday. The agreement was announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China. It should help set the agenda for an informal meeting between OPEC and other producing nations later this month in Algeria. Closer collaboration between the world's top two exporters of crude oil may stoke hopes that OPEC and other big producers will agree to freeze production. The idea is that an output cap will help put a floor under prices, which have risen from $26 per barrel in February to $46 but are still down more than 50% since 2014. Related: Oklahoma earthquake and oil drilling: What we know Critics say any freeze would be mostly symbolic -- OPEC is pumping more oil than ever before, and freezing production at extremely high levels wouldn't really help fix an oversupplied market. Oil prices have bounced before on similar hopes, only for them to be dashed. The most recent attempt to freeze production in April failed spectacularly. The lack of cooperation in the face of a two-year price collapse reflects a schism within OPEC between its biggest member -- Saudi Arabia -- and Iran, which is increasing production after years of international sanctions. It was not immediately clear on Monday how Iran would react to the agreement between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Russia is not a member of OPEC, but it could send a representative to the meeting in Algeria later this month. Saudi Arabia has been leading the OPEC strategy of produce or bust to defend its market share. The kingdom pumped 10.5 million barrels per day in July, up by 30,000 from June and a new record. Iraq, Iran and the United Arab Emirates also boosted their output, compensating for shrinking production from embattled OPEC members Nigeria and Venezuela. Meanwhile, there are signs that U.S. shale companies are also drilling more. If prices rise further, that trend is likely to continue.[SEP]Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Saudi Arabia Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (left) meet during the G-20 Summit in Hangzhou, China on Sunday (Anadolu photo) HANGZHOU, China — The world's two biggest oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia said Monday they had agreed to "act together" to try to stabilise oil prices, but failed to make headway on a production freeze. The two nations "noted the particular importance of constructive dialogue and close cooperation between the largest oil-producing countries with the goal of supporting the stability of the oil market and ensuring a stable level of investment in the long term," the energy ministers from both countries said. Their comments came in a joint statement after a meeting at the G-20 summit in China. "To this end the ministers agreed to act together or in cooperation with other oil producers," the statement said, adding they had agreed to set up a "joint monitoring group" to offer recommendations aimed at preventing price fluctuations. Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak described the announcement as marking a "new era" in cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia and insisted it would have a "critical significance" for oil markets, news agency Interfax reported. But there were no details in the announcement on any elusive agreement to freeze oil output, just weeks before Moscow and OPEC meet in Algeria to discuss the crisis. The globe's major oil producers have been unable to strike a deal on freezing output, due mainly to a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Tehran's desire to raise production levels after the lifting of sanctions. Saudi Arabia's Energy Minsiter Khaled Al Faleh told Al Arabiya television channel there was "currently no need to freeze production" after meeting Novak. "A freeze is one of the preferred options but it is not needed for the moment," he said. President Vladimir Putin met Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the G-20 on Sunday and said they would work to address a global glut and overproduction that has hammered prices for the past two years. In an interview ahead of the meeting Putin — whose economy slumped into recession on the back of oil price falls — said that a freeze was "the right decision" and called for "compromise". The oil market has been plagued by a stubborn supply glut that saw prices plunge to near 13-year lows below $30 at the start of 2016. While it has recovered recently, it is still well off highs above $100 seen in mid-2014.[SEP]Russia, Saudi Arabia to set up task force to secure oil market stability BEIJING, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to set up a task force to review oil market fundamentals and to recommend measures and actions that will secure oil market stability, according to a joint statement issued on the sideline of G20 summit on Monday. Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement to seek cooperation in the oil market with Russia, Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said at a news conference at the G20 in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said at the news conference that cooperation with Saudi Arabia includes ways to stabilize global oil markets, including limiting oil output. Russia and Saudi Arabia are the world's first- and second-largest oil producers, respectively.[SEP]TOKYO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Oil prices inched lower on Wednesday as market participants remained sceptical that producers will reach an agreement to freeze output to rein in a global supply glut. London Brent crude for November delivery was down 4 cents at $47.22 a barrel by 0018 GMT, after settling down 37 cents on Tuesday. NYMEX crude for October delivery was down 8 cents at $44.75, after settling up 39 cents on Tuesday. Oil prices hit a one-week high on Monday after Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to cooperate on stabilising the oil market, but they have since fallen due to the mounting uncertainty over a deal. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC producers such as Russia will hold informal talks in Algeria on Sept. 26-28, but many in the market are sceptical a deal will happen. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday it would go along with a freeze in oil output if other producers agreed one but cautioned that Iran, which is aiming to raise output to pre-sanction levels, could foil any attempt to limit output. Iran, however, signalled on Tuesday it was prepared to work with Saudi Arabia and Russia to prop up oil prices as it began to bargain with OPEC on possible exemptions from output limits. On demand, traders said Genscape data showed a draw of some 700,000 barrels last week at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S. crude futures. U.S. commercial crude inventories likely fell by 100,000 barrels last week after rising for two straight weeks, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. Gasoline stocks likely fell by 500,000 barrels, while distillate stocks are forecast to have increased by 1 million barrels, the poll showed. The American Petroleum Institute is set to release the weekly oil data on Wednesday, delayed a day from usual due to the Labor Day holiday on Monday. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Richard Pullin)[SEP]Russia says discussing with S.Arabia parameters of output freeze deal MOSCOW, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Russia and Saudi Arabia are currently discussing concrete parameters of an oil output freeze deal, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in a statement on Monday after talks with his Saudi Arabia counterpart. "We have agreed with Saudi Arabia energy minister on joint actions aimed at stabilising situation on the oil market. We consider a production freeze the most efficient tool, concrete parameters are being discussed at the moment," Novak said. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)[SEP]The rise of fracking has reshaped the global energy landscape. It recently hit a new milestone in the U.S. Fracking now accounts for more than half of all U.S. oil output, according to the Energy Information Administration. It's a stunning feat considering fracking made up less than 2% of American oil production in 2000. Hydraulic fracturing technology, more commonly known as "fracking," paved the way for drilling into America's enormous shale deposits. It has fueled a dramatic boom in U.S. oil production. Back in 2000, there were just 23,000 fracking wells pumping about 102,000 barrels of oil a day. Now there are 300,000 fracking wells, churning out 4.3 million barrels per day. Fracking "has allowed the United States to increase its oil production faster than at any time in its history," the EIA said in recent report. U.S. output has nearly doubled over the past decade and America only trails Saudi Arabia and Russia globally. That surge in American crude is one of the main reasons why there is a global glut in oil that keeps getting worse. The excess supply caused oil prices to peak in mid-2014 and crash as much as 75% since then. "Prices are where they are because shale has been so phenomenally successful. It's changed the whole pricing paradigm," said Tamar Essner, director of Nasdaq's energy team. So how does fracking work? Fracking involves shooting a mixture of mostly water and sand under high pressure against a rock formation until it fractures. The sand fills the fracture, forcing crude oil out of the rock formation. Fracking has been criticized for its potential environmental consequences, including water contamination and earthquakes. These concerns were summed up in a 2010 HBO documentary called "Gasland" that focused on communities impacted by natural gas fracking. Shale oil is not a new discovery. It's actually been around for 60 years. What's new is that the technology has vastly improved in recent years. Innovation has made previously-expensive fracking much more efficient. High oil prices before and after the Great Recession lured tons of investment dollars into this space, fueling a technological revolution. Investors were also motivated by extremely low interest rates to borrow cheap and invest in this technology. The fracking revolution first hit the natural gas space, fueling a wave of production in giant shale fields such as the Barnett and Marcellus spread across Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. But a supply glut quickly formed in natural gas, causing prices to crater. Related: Saudis to take control of largest U.S. refinery Days of $100 oil gone for now thanks to fracking Fracking then spread to shale oil fields, led by the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin of Texas and the Bakken formation of North Dakota. This turned out to be a game changer because it brought about a ton of new supply that was cheaper to drill than deepwater projects or even the Canadian oil sands. "The incremental amount of new supply was really underestimated. I don't think any OPEC member took shale seriously until maybe two years ago," said Essner. The other game-changing characteristic of fracking shale oil is how fast the entire process is. While deepwater production in places like the Gulf of Mexico require tons of lead time, shale wells can be drilled and start pumping oil relatively quickly. The "fast-cycle" nature of shale is one of the reasons many believe the days of $100 oil are gone for now. Lately, shale drillers have dialed down pumping and U.S. oil output has declined a tad in recent months because oil prices fell as low as $25 a barrel. However, everyone expects some of these oil fields to be easily switched back on the minute oil prices hit levels where they can make money. For some shale oil fields that price can be as low as $40 a barrel. "It puts a ceiling on how far and how fast prices can go up," Essner said.

Russia and Saudi Arabia agree on a plan to manipulate oil output.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines will suspend more of the country’s mines for violating environmental regulations after already halting operations at 10 sites, the mining minister said on Monday, as the government wrapped up a seven-week review. The Southeast Asian nation, the world’s top nickel ore supplier, launched a review of the country’s 40 metallic mines on July 8. Eight of the 10 suspended so far produced nickel ore, and the closures and the risk of more mines being shuttered lifted nickel prices to a one-year high last month. Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez declined to say how many more mines will be suspended but told Reuters that “there will absolutely be more suspensions”. “All the suspensions are absolutely due to environmental reasons, and my particular interest is the wellbeing of the community, that’s my benchmark,” Lopez said in a text message. “There will be large-scale mines to be suspended,” she told reporters later at a congressional hearing, without disclosing any names. Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange was trading just above $10,000 a tonne on Monday, up about a third from February’s $7,550, its lowest since 2003. Instead of this week as she had said earlier, Lopez said the additional mine suspensions will be announced next week. “The audit is done. And it’s important to say that even as we suspend mines, we have put up an area development program. The commitment is in any suspended mines the people there will not lose work,” she said at the congressional hearing. ‘GAPING OPEN HOLES’ Lopez’s stance on mining is backed by President Rodrigo Duterte, who has previously warned miners to strictly follow tighter environmental rules or shut down, saying the nation could survive without a mining industry. “We have had mining in this country for over a hundred years. And until now we don’t even have one rehabilitated mine site, not one,” Lopez said in the text message. “Just gaping open holes, destroyed rivers, children with brain disease, so very sad,” she said, referring to sick children in the province of Marinduque, where a 1996 tailings leak at Canadian-owned Marcopper Mining Corp’s copper mine contaminated rivers. Miners have claimed that the government’s environmental crackdown is a “demolition campaign” against them and have sought a meeting with Duterte. The Philippines is the top nickel ore supplier to China, shipping 34 million tonnes in 2015.[SEP]The Southeast Asian nation, the world's top nickel ore supplier, launched a review of the country's 40 metallic mines on July 8 and has so far suspended 10, eight of them producing nickel ore. The closures and the risk of more mines being shuttered lifted nickel prices to a one-year high last month. Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez declined to say how many more mines will be suspended but told Reuters that "there will absolutely be more suspensions". "All the suspensions are absolutely due to environmental reasons, and my particular interest is the wellbeing of the community, that's my benchmark," Lopez said in a text message. Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange was trading just above $10,000 a tonne on Monday. "We have had mining in this country for over a hundred years. And until now we don't even have one rehabilitated mine site, not one," Lopez said in the text message. "Just gaping open holes, destroyed rivers, children with brain disease, so very sad," she said, referring to sick children in the province of Marinduque where a 1996 tailings leak at Canadian-owned Marcopper Mining Corp's copper mine contaminated rivers. Her stance on mining is backed by President Rodrigo Duterte who has previously warned miners to strictly follow tighter environmental rules or shut down, saying the nation could survive without a mining industry. Miners have claimed that the government's environmental crackdown is a "demolition campaign" against them and have sought a meeting with Duterte. The Philippines is the top nickel ore supplier to China, shipping 34 million tonnes in 2015.

The Duterte administration suspends more Philippine mines for violating environmental regulations.

A parking garage under construction in northern Tel Aviv collapsed on Monday morning, killing two people and injuring 23 others lightly to moderately, police said. At least five more people were reported missing and feared trapped inside the underground structure in the Ramat Hahayal neighborhood, on the corner of Habarzel Street and Nehoshet Street. Rescue services managed to make contact with two of them, but have since lost contact. Two others were rescued from the debris and rushed to hospitals with moderate injuries. The Foreign Ministry said that one of the dead was a foreign worker and four of the wounded were Israelis who hold citizenship in additional countries. skip - A video from the scene. תל אביב רחוב הנחושת, קריסה במבנה pic.twitter.com/Jz3jUMW3O8 — כל הזמן (@kolhazman) September 5, 2016 However, according to the Palestinian Labor Minister Mamoun Abu Shahla, both of the fatalities were Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shoafat. Several of the injured were also said to be Palestinian. Abu Shahla said that his ministry was following the incident closely, and that they see the Israeli government as responsible for the recent spate of construction site deaths. The IDF dispatched search and rescue teams to the site, to reinforce the more than 60 firefighters on hand. A high-ranking officer at the scene told reporters that it was estimated that up to 10 people were trapped inside. The officer added that the large size of the site complicated rescue efforts, which will likely last late into the night. Rescuers were using cellphone trackers in attempt to pinpoint the location of those trapped under the wreckage. Police have questioned several senior officials with the companies that operate the site, namely the construction firm Danya Cebus. About two months ago, a concrete beam collapsed at the same site, injuring two workers. Police believe that the state failed to send a supervisor to examine the site after the beam collapse, and thus work continued at the site. The Economy Ministry, which oversees construction sites, said it has received no report of the previous collapse. Rescue services at the site of a parking lot collapse in Tel Aviv, September 5, 2016. Moti Milrod Injured evacuated from the wreckage in Tel Aviv. Moti Milrod Danya Cebus said in a statement that the company shares the pain of the casualties and their families and offered its condolences. "At this difficult time, we focus on aiding the rescue services and we'll do everything we can to help the investigative authorities in their work," said the statement. Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he was cancelling his plans to attend an Israeli national soccer game against Italy in order to visit the destruction site in Tel Aviv. The initial report of the collapse was received at 11:24 A.M. The manager of the building site told Channel 2: "It started from a hole that opened up in the ceiling and stones and pieces of concrete block that fell. People began running away and yelling and running to places that looked secure," he said. "Usually there are 90 to 100 workers on the site. It could have turned out worse. There were people scattered all over the area on all of the levels," he added. A subcontractor at the site recounted that he spoke to one of his employees who was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. "But I had two workers who worked on Level -1, and we haven't managed to locate them. I am very concerned. No one is talking to us at the moment. I don't know what happened to them." skip - The map of the area. Moshe Levy, a volunteer for Hatzalah said: "When I arrived at the scene I encountered injured people who had extricated themselves from the construction site, where a roof apparently collapsed on top of a parking garage. While we were administering first aid we received reports there were still people trapped inside." Construction began in November 2014 on the 17,000 square meter lot being built on four levels, and the project was slated for completion by the beginning of 2017. Africa Israel won the tender to build the underground public parking garage next to Assuta Medical Center, but the project was carried out by the Danya Cebus company. The Knesset passed a law a month ago entitling authorities to shut any construction site for two days where an accident claims a life or a serious injury. An inspector can fine a developer up to 75,000 shekels for failing to rectify safety issues, and construction workers are entitled to full compensation for days of interrupted work. Lawmaker Eli Alalouf of Kulanu, chairman of the Knesset Labor Committee demanded that the government shut the site of Monday's site collapse immediately. "I am shocked at the reports of the difficult incident at the Tel Aviv construction site. We have cautioned against such nightmares as that unfolding before our eyes," Alalouf said.[SEP]TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A multilevel parking garage under construction in the city of Tel Aviv collapsed on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring about 17 others, Israeli police and rescuers said, as rescue teams worked all day and into the night to locate several people believed trapped under the rubble. The midday collapse sent a large plume of dust floating over the area. Those killed were not identified but they were likely workers at the construction zone. The cause of the collapse was under investigation. Israeli TV broadcast footage showing a large, crater-like hole in the ground, and twisted support beams as rescue teams, accompanied by search dogs, dug through the rubble. Police, fire and military teams were participating in the rescue. The military's Home Front Command sent about 150 members of its special search-and-rescue team to the scene. The unit is often sent to disaster zones around the world to help locate victims from earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters. Earlier in the day, Col. Golan Vach, a commander in the unit, said seven people were believed to be trapped in the rubble at several different locations. He described the scene as "very complicated" and said rescue efforts could continue for several days. The Israeli military later said soldiers and rescue forces managed to extract five civilians from the rubble and that efforts were underway to rescue another five. A construction worker from the site said he was underground in the garage when he began to feel vibrations. "All of a sudden everything collapsed," the man, Micha Lavine, identified by Channel 10 TV as a project manager at the site. "It was scary. You feel like everything is going to collapse, and you are going with it." Speaking to reporters at a hospital, he said he was blown backward by a blast and lightly injured. Israel's national rescue service said two people, including a 35-year-old man, were confirmed dead, and 22 people injured. "It is a very tough arena for rescue, it is really life threatening," Eli Bin, the head of Israel's rescue service MDA told Israeli media. "We are very worried if we will succeed in reaching those same people whose voices we can definitely hear." The construction site is located in Ramat Hahayal, a commercial area in northern Tel Aviv. The neighborhood is home to many high-tech businesses, restaurants and a hospital. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said Monday night that one of the fatalities has been identified as a foreign worker from the Ukraine. So far this year, 28 construction workers have died in work accidents on building sites in the country, Samri said.[SEP]TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A building collapsed at a Tel Aviv construction site on Monday, injuring at least 18 people and trapping several people in the rubble, according to media and police reports. The collapse sent a large plume of dust floating over the area. Officials were trying to determine the cause of the collapse as rescue crews and medical workers converged on the scene. The Israeli military dispatched search-and-rescue units to assist in the efforts. Lior Teherani, a fire official, told Channel 10 TV that the incident began with the collapse of a multi-level underground parking garage that was under construction. He said that brought down a crane, which then caused part of a building to collapse as well. Aerial images released by police and shown on Israeli TV showed a large, crater-like hole in the ground. Small teams of rescue workers, accompanied by search dogs, were digging through the rubble, and two people were taken away on stretchers. Channel 10 showed a team trying to extract a man who was believed to be in grave condition. Police official Moshe Edri said five people were believed to be still trapped. Mada, the national rescue service, reported 18 people injured, one in serious condition with head injuries. The incident occurred at a construction site in Ramat Hahayal, a commercial area in northern Tel Aviv. The neighborhood is home to many high-tech businesses, restaurants and a hospital.[SEP]A building collapsed in a Tel Aviv construction zone on Monday, injuring at least 18 people and trapping three people inside, according to police and media reports. The collapse sent a large plume of dust floating over the area. Officials were trying to determine the cause of the collapse as rescue crews and medical workers converged on the scene. The Israeli military dispatched search-and-rescue units to assist in the efforts. Lior Teherani, a fire official, told Channel 10 TV that the incident began with the collapse of a multi-level underground parking garage being built at the site. He said that brought down a crane, which then caused part of a building to collapse as well. Aerial images released by police and shown on Israeli TV showed a large, crater-like hole in the ground. Mada, the national rescue service, reported 18 people injured, one in serious condition with head injuries. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said contact had been made with two people trapped inside. She said a third person remained trapped and had not yet been contacted. The incident occurred at a construction site in Ramat Hahayal, a commercial area in northern Tel Aviv. The neighborhood is home to many high-tech businesses, restaurants and a hospital. Obama and Putin agree to continue seeking a deal on Syria Multiple bomb blasts in Syrian cities kill at least 13 Germany opened its doors to refugees a year ago, but some residents have had enough 3:07 a.m.: Updated with number injured and trapped inside This article was originally posted at 2:10 a.m.[SEP]YERUSHALAYIM - The best hotel in Israel, according to the people who claim to know these things, is the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. The hotel was named as such Monday in a gala awards ceremony at the annual World Travel Awards event. This is the sixth time the hotel has captured the award. The David was pitted in the Israel contest against worthies such as the Tel Aviv Hilton, Yerushalayim’s Waldorf Astoria, and the Renaissance Tel Aviv – all considered top of the line hotels for accommodations, food, and service. The best hotel for business travelers, on the other hand, was judged to be the Carlton Tel Aviv. The hotel has won that award numerous times, although in 2015 it was bested by the Sheraton Tel Aviv for the honor. The best spa hotel in Israel is the David Dead Sea, and the best suite hotel is the Ritz Carlton Herzliya. The awards are given out annually based on votes submitted by hotel guests, as well as professional reviews by agents of the World Travel Awards who stay in the hotels as guests.[SEP]Up to 30 people are missing and feared dead after a building under construction in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv collapsed sending a large plume of dust over the area. Officials are trying to determine the cause of the collapse as rescue crews and medical workers converged on the scene, fearing there were people trapped in the ruins. It is believed that the building came down after a crane fell on top of it following the collapse of a underground parking garage. The Israeli military said it was dispatching search-and-rescue forces to assist in the efforts. Israeli police said 18 people were injured, and Eli Bin, director of the national rescue service, said one was in serious condition with head injuries. Local media reported that up to 30 people are feared to be trapped inside the collapsed building. At least three others were trapped, and contact had been made with two of them, police said. The incident occurred at a construction site in Ramat Hahayil, a commercial area in northern Tel Aviv. The neighborhood is home to many high-tech businesses, restaurants and a hospital. United Hatzalah medical service said 'firefighters and rescue teams are working to extricate' those believed missing. 'It appeared to me that the roof of a parking garage had collapsed in the building site,' United Hatzalah quoted one of its medics as saying. 'While members of our ambu-cycle unit who arrived first on scene were treating the injured, reports came in of other people who were unaccounted for and likely still trapped inside.' Eran Yehuda, a spokesperson for the Yarkon District of Tel Aviv Police, told Channel 2: 'Several levels of the building collapsed. There's still a danger of further collapse. 'I'm asking the public and those curious to leave the place. Dozens of vehicles of MDA and police are trying to gain access.' Lior Teherani, a fire official, told Channel 10 TV that the incident began with the collapse of a multi-level underground parking garage being built at the site. He said that brought down a crane, which then caused part of a building to collapse as well. Aerial images released by police and shown on Israeli TV showed a large, crater-like hole in the ground.[SEP]The two killed were construction workers, Israeli emergency services spokesman Yonatan Yagodovsky said. They were found under the rubble, he added. Another person was critically injured. About five to seven people are still trapped in the debris hours after the collapse, Israeli emergency services said. The four-story parking garage was still under construction when it collapsed in a high-tech area of northern Tel Aviv. As rescue teams tried to find trapped construction workers, authorities feared another collapse of the incomplete, unstable structure.[SEP]TEL AVIV, Israel — A multilevel underground parking garage collapsed at a Tel Aviv construction site on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring some 17 others, according to police and rescue workers. The midday collapse sent a large plume of dust floating over the area. TV images showed a large, crater-like hole in the ground, and twisted support beams as rescue teams, accompanied by search dogs, dug through the rubble for survivors. The cause of the collapse was under investigation. A construction worker from the site said he was underground in the garage when he began to feel vibrations. “All of a sudden everything collapsed,” the man, identified only as Micha, told Channel 10 TV. “It was scary. You feel like everything is going to collapse, and you are going with it.” Speaking to reporters at a hospital, he said he was blown backward by the blast and lightly injured. Israel’s national rescue service said two people, including a 35-year-old man, were confirmed dead, and 22 people injured. Israeli media said four people were still missing. The incident occurred at a construction site in Ramat Hahayal, a commercial area in northern Tel Aviv. The neighbourhood is home to many high-tech businesses, restaurants and a hospital.[SEP]Hours after the collapse, as many as seven people were still trapped in the debris, Israeli emergency services said. Witness Sraya Listenberg said the implosion was so intense, it felt like an earthquake. "Everything fell down in one second," he said. The four-story, underground parking garage was still under construction when it collapsed in a high-tech area of northern Tel Aviv. The upper three floors imploded; it's unclear how many people may be trapped on the lowest floor, believed to be about 50 feet underground. As rescue teams tried to find trapped construction workers, authorities feared another collapse of the incomplete, unstable structure. The cause of the collapse remains unclear. Listenberg said the disaster could have been more tragic. The garage collapsed during a lunch hour, when some construction workers were eating outside. "They had lots of luck," Listenberg said.[SEP]A building collapse in Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv left 18 people wounded and at least three others trapped under rubble Monday, with emergency units working at the scene, officials said. Details were still emerging of the incident at the construction site in northeastern Tel Aviv where an underground car park collapsed. Police reported 18 wounded, including one seriously, one moderately and 16 lightly. At least three others were trapped, and contact had been made with two of them, police said. The army said it sent search and rescue forces to "extract civilians". United Hatzalah medical service also said "firefighters and rescue teams are working to extricate" those believed missing. "It appeared to me that the roof of a parking garage had collapsed in the building site," United Hatzalah quoted one of its medics as saying. "While members of our ambu-cycle unit who arrived first on scene were treating the injured, reports came in of other people who were unaccounted for and likely still trapped inside." Images of the scene showed an underground car park that had caved in and dozens of rescue workers and security forces at the site in Tel Aviv's Ramat Hahayal neighbourhood. Ramat Hahayal is home to a number of high-tech offices in Israel's booming technology industry.

A Tel Aviv, Israel, four story parking lot under construction collapses and kills at least two people and injures 18 others.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Political activists from the Oromo ethnic group are believed to be held in the jail At least 23 inmates have died after a fire at an Ethiopian prison where anti-government protesters are reportedly being held, the government has said. A government statement says 21 died of suffocation after a stampede while two others were killed as they tried to escape. Some local media have disputed the account, citing unnamed witnesses who say prisoners were shot by the wardens. There has been an unprecedented wave of protests in Ethiopia in recent months. The identity of the prisoners has not been made public. Sustained gunfire could be heard coming from Qilinto prison, on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, after the fire broke out on Saturday, local media reported. TV footage and photos posted on social media showed plumes of smoke rising from the prison compound. Image copyright ESAT Image caption A TV station based outside Ethiopia broadcast footage of the fire Reports that the fire was started deliberately as part of an attempted jailbreak have not been independently verified. There have been numerous protests in the Oromia region by members of the country's largest ethnic group since November 2015. Inside Qilinto prison by Tesfalem Waldyes Qilinto is a remand prison, where people can be held for three years or more as they await trial. The prison is divided in four zones made up of brick walls and tin-roofed cells. The prison hosts around 3,000 inmates at a time who are held in cells measuring 24m by 12m. Each cell holds between 90 and 130 inmates. It is a highly secured prison with surveillance cameras installed on many corners. All types of prisoners are held there but it is where political prisoners including bloggers, journalists and activists are usually sent. Political prisoners usually mix with other criminals but they are usually locked up in a designated "Kitat Bet" (punishment house) or "dark house" if they complain about mistreatment. Inmates can be exposed to communicable diseases due to overcrowding and get poor medical attention. Due to the bad quality of food provided by the prison administration, prisoners mainly depend on food brought by their families. Tesfalem Waldyes is an Ethiopian journalist who was held in Qilinto prison for a year before being released in July 2015. Many Oromo activists are being held at the Qilinto facility, according to pro-opposition media. New York-based Human Rights Watch says that more than 400 people have been killed in clashes with the security forces in Oromia, although the government disputes this figure. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has blamed "anti-peace forces" for the violence.[SEP]23 die in Ethiopia prison fire over weekend, government says ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Twenty-three people have died in a prison fire in Ethiopia over the weekend, a state-affiliated broadcaster reported Monday. The Kilinto prison on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa, is where many opposition figures and journalists are held. Activists first raised concerns about the fire on Saturday, and some local media reported that gunfire was heard. Fana Broadcasting Corporate cited a government statement as saying 21 inmates died from stampede and suffocation. The other two were killed while trying to escape. The government originally said only one person died in the fire. The latest government statement gives no details on how the fire began. It says an investigation has begun. This East African country has seen months of sometimes deadly protests calling for wider freedoms, while the government has been accused by opposition activists and rights groups of killings, beatings and internet blockages. The Oromia and Amhara regions have held protests in recent weeks that residents and rights groups say have left many dead. Regional concerns that sparked the demonstrations have broadened into anti-government protests. Ethiopia's government, a close security ally of the West, is often accused of silencing dissent. Recent video obtained by The Associated Press showed Ethiopian security forces beating, kicking and dragging several protesters during a rare demonstration in the capital. On Sunday, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said her country has raised "grave concerns" about what it calls excessive use of force against protesters in Ethiopia. Ambassador Samantha Power called the recent violence in Ethiopia "extremely serious" and called for a transparent and independent investigation. She said the U.S. has asked the government to allow people to protest peacefully.[SEP]At least 23 inmates have died after a fire at an Ethiopian prison where anti-government protesters are reportedly being held, the government has said. A government statement says 21 died of suffocation after a stampede while two others were killed as they tried to escape. Some local media have disputed the account, citing unnamed witnesses who say prisoners were shot by the wardens. There has been an unprecedented wave of protests in Ethiopia in recent months. The identity of the prisoners has not been made public. Sustained gunfire could be heard coming from Qilinto prison, on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, after the fire broke out on Saturday, local media reported. TV footage and photos posted on social media showed plumes of smoke rising from the prison compound. Reports that the fire was started deliberately as part of an attempted jailbreak have not been independently verified. There have been numerous protests in the Oromia region by members of the country's largest ethnic group since November 2015. any Oromo activists are being held at the Qilinto facility, according to pro-opposition media. New York-based Human Rights Watch says that more than 400 people have been killed in clashes with the security forces in Oromia, although the government disputes this figure.[SEP]Families and relatives of prisoners are desperate for answers after Ethiopia’s high-security prison, Kilinto, located on the outskirts, south of the capital Addis Ababa, caught fire on Saturday. The fire broke out at about 8.10am and lasted a “good two hours” before the fire brigade from the Addis Ababa Fire and Emergency Prevention and Rescue Agency arrived at the scene. State media, quoting an exclusive statement sent to it from the Government Communications Affairs Office (GCAO), said that 23 inmates had died, among which 21 from a stampede, burns and suffocation, while two were shot dead as they were apparently trying to escape. Though the cause of the blaze remains unknown, the government says it is still investigating. However, families are anxious to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. “I do not know where my son is. Is he shot dead or burnt alive or even is he alive? I have no idea. I rampaged everywhere in the prison compound, shouting and asking for him. I searched for him in hospitals, but no one tells me anything, and I could not find my son,” bemoaned Muchit Teka, the mother of Yonatan Tesfaye, a young senior opposition Blue Party member and prominent rights activist. Tesfaye, the spokesperson of the opposition Semayawi (Blue) party, was arrested in December 2015 and held in lengthy pretrial detention for comments he posted on Facebook. He was held without charge for months, and it was not until May 4 this year that he was charged with “incitement, planning, preparation, conspiracy and attempt” to commit a terrorist act. The government says his posts against a government plan to extend the capital’s administrative authority to the Oromia region were in pursuit of the objectives of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which it considers a terrorist organisation. “Even if they are dead they should let us know, as it is a customary and the right thing to do to rest the dead properly,” Teka cried. “How can they be silent about this? Don’t they have families? What if they were in our shoes?” Tesfaye’s mother was not the only one lamenting the silence of the government in the wake of the deadly blaze. The compound is being guarded by security forces but families are waiting on the streets around it for information, while others desperately search hospital records. “We searched for them in hospitals and the prison but they are not there and no one would tell us. The government has the responsibility to inform where our families are,” said Bontu Bekele – Son of Bekele Gerba, a prominent politician and deputy chairperson of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC). Local media reported that two buildings as well as recreational and other facilities that inmates used were damaged by the fire. According to reports, nine injured inmates and police members are receiving medical treatment. The remainder of the prison population were transferred to various other correctional facilities as large parts of the Kilinto facility was damaged. The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front is a multi-ethnic coalition made up of four parties. The opposition and political analysts, though, say it is dominated by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. This is the main cause for the unrest, which, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch group, has seen at least 500 people killed by security forces since the protests began in November. Though demonstrations first started among Ethiopian Muslim communities in 2012 demanding equal rights of people, it later spread to Ethiopia’s biggest ethnic group, the Oromo, and then to the Amhara, the second most populous group. The Ethiopian government, which is a close ally of many Western nations because of its strategic geographical location in the region, last month rejected a United Nations request that it send observers, saying it alone was responsible for the security of its citizens. Various international organisations have released statements expressing their “grave concern” at the deteriorating situation in the country. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democracy Front, which is often accused by rights groups of regularly cracking down on the opposition and jailing journalists, won every seat in the 547- seat parliament in elections last year.[SEP]ADDIS ABABA, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Ethiopian opposition activists have demanded news on the fate of six of their leaders and other inmates held in a high-security prison that was wrecked by a massive fire over the weekend. The government has said 21 inmates died in the blaze that ripped through the Qilinto complex on Saturday - but has not named any of the victims. Another two prisoners were shot dead as they tried to escape the compound on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, the government added in a brief statement two days after the fire, again stopping short of identifying them. The opposition Oromo Federalist Congress said on Tuesday it had received no news of six of its leaders, including Deputy Chairman Bekele Gerba and Assistant General Secretary Dejene Tafa, who were arrested in December on suspicion of inciting protests. "Our entire leadership is being held in that place and we have no idea what has happened to them," the OFC's Assistant Deputy Chairman, Mulatu Gemechu, told Reuters. "The government has a responsibility to explain to the public, no less their families. We have no idea why it is taking that long," he said. The government did not immediately respond to his statement. Dissidents say most recent inmates are ethnic Oromos held for taking part in demonstrations over land rights and alleged rights abuses that have rocked one of Africa's fastest growing economies since last year. The United States last week said it was gravely concerned about the use of excessive force against protesters. Human Rights Watch said in June at least 400 demonstrators had been killed by security forces. Ethiopia's government - a major ally of the United States in the fight against militants in neighbouring Somalia - disputes the death toll and says the protests are being staged illegally, stoked by rebel groups and dissidents based oveseas. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said last week his administration would carry out "deep-rooted" reforms and pledged to address grievances, though he warned of measures if protests escalated into violence. (Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

At least 23 inmates are killed in a fire and stampede at Kaliti Prison near Addis Ababa in Ethiopia during an attempted jailbreak.

A meeting between US president Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in China on Monday had a ‘businesslike tone’ and went on longer than anticipated, a senior US administration official said. Obama and Putin discussed core issues on both the Syria and Ukraine crises, the official added.[SEP]President Obama’s emissaries spent much of Sunday talking with Russian officials here about how to quell the violence in Syria, but the president all but shrugged his shoulders when asked about the prospects of a successful deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Given the previous failures of cessations of hostilities to hold, we approach it with some skepticism,” Obama said, “but it is worth trying.” Hours later, Obama engaged in delicate talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose military has recently clashed with U.S.-backed fighters in Syria, complicating the American strategy there and in Iraq. “We discussed ways in which we can further cooperate in that regard,” Obama said politely after his meeting with the unpredictable-yet-crucial NATO ally, whose country is still reeling from a failed military coup and a wide domestic crackdown on suspected instigators. Obama’s final presidential appearance at the Group of Twenty world leaders summit here has been a complicated waltz of diplomacy with an array of difficult partners. Despite the strained relationships, Obama is obligated by a long list of simmering world problems to engage with leaders from Erdogan to Putin, with whom White House officials say he is planning to meet in the next day or so. It is a signature feature of the foreign policy approach Obama promised when he ran for president — that he would talk even with the worst of the worst. “You don’t negotiate deals with your friends,” his oft-stated mantra goes, “you negotiate them with your enemies.” Seldom has that been truer, or more personal. The moment he set foot in China for this week’s summit, Obama got a reminder of just how many ways foreign leaders might insult him on this, his 10th and final presidential tour of Asia. As Air Force One taxied on the tarmac, Chinese officials were refusing to let the U.S. Secret Service wheel stairs to the plane so that Obama could make his usual grand entrance from the front door. Instead, they ended up wheeling short stairs to a side door, where the traveling White House press corps could barely see him to record the moment. An official of the Chinese delegation yelled at White House staff for allowing the press in the area at all and then physically blocked National Security Advisor Susan Rice and her deputy from moving closer to the arrival scene. “They did things that weren’t anticipated,” Rice said later. Much of the difficulty Obama is encountering this week was anticipated, however. The Turks, for example, repeatedly have tried to blame the U.S. in the weeks since the failed military-led coup against Erdogan. Erdogan’s government has complained about the U.S. failure thus far to extradite Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric and onetime ally of Erdogan’s who now lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Erdogan blames him for plotting the coup and a host of other ills in his country. In public, of course, Turkish officials have been saying all the things Americans want to hear, particularly when they are talking to U.S. officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, who visited the country recently. On Sunday, Erdogan was politely oblique. There should be no distinction between “good terrorists or bad,” he said, an indirect reference both to Gulen and to U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria whom the Turks regard as a threat to their national security. The U.S. and Turkey should adopt a “common attitude” against terrorism, he said. Obama, who has now dealt with Erdogan for nearly eight years, reassured the Turkish leader that the U.S. will work to make sure the parties responsible for the coup come to justice. He condemned the overthrow before quickly noting the need to “further cooperate.” U.S. officials say they are awaiting sufficient evidence to justify Turkey’s request for the extradition of Gulen, who is 75 and claims to be in ill health. In the same way, Obama’s White House aides maintained a sense of reserve as Secretary of State John F. Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an effort to work out a ceasefire between Syria’s government and at least some rebel groups as well as possible enhanced military cooperation between Russia and the U.S. in Syria. State Department officials were optimistic that a deal would come together. But as Obama spoke to reporters early in the day, the president was doubtful. Every experience he has had with Putin tells him to be skeptical about whether a deal is possible and whether Putin would stick to one, said a senior aide, speaking anonymously to comment on diplomatic talks. Kerry said he and Lavrov have worked out a number of technical issues, but not all of them. They plan to reconvene on Monday to try to reach a final agreement. Throughout his presidency, Obama has sought one-on-one and small-group meetings with leaders like Putin, Erdogan and China’s Xi Jinping, to try to form a sense of what motivates them and how they act. As he closes out his final year in office, that experience has largely been disappointing. Despite seemingly endless talks, for instance, efforts to get Russian cooperation in ending the Syrian civil war have gotten nowhere. With Xi, Obama and his staff have concluded that the only breakthrough they will achieve is the climate deal they worked out over the last year and ratified Saturday. Xi wants to clear the air in his smog-choked cities, and by signing onto the Paris climate accord he can get U.S. technical assistance in reaching that goal as well as a figurative global Good Citizen medal. The White House believes that on all the other important items on the Chinese-U.S. agenda – trade, cooperation on cyber-security, human rights – Xi has determined it is not in his interest to work with Obama. “You don’t develop real trust between the U.S. and China,” said Jeffrey Bader, a former China advisor to Obama. “What you can develop is transparency, where you can say, ‘I know what he thinks and I know where he’s going.’ That’s what the president has done.” One volatile leader Obama will meet with on this trip presents a new challenge for the president. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was elected earlier this summer despite charges that, as mayor of Davao, his government had death squads that targeted suspected criminals.[SEP]Hangzhou, China (CNN) US President Obama says an agreement with Russia on ending the violence in Syria is being hampered by "gaps of trust" between the two governments. Asked by CNN's Michelle Kosinski about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the President described it as "candid" and "blunt" focusing mainly on Syria and Ukraine. Mr. Obama called the discussion on Syria "productive" about what a real cessation of hostilities would actually look like. "We have had some productive conversations about what a real cessation of hostilities would look like that would allow us both... to focus our attention on common enemies." No Syria deal between US and Russia No Syria deal between US and Russia 01:48 No Syria deal between US and Russia Obama added that currently the gaps have not been closed in negotiations between Russia and the US in a way that they think would "actually work." Obama urged Kerry and Lavrov to work together in the coming days to get aid to those in need. Obama and his Russian counterpart Putin met Monday as talks between their governments on ending violence in Syria ended without an agreement. Meanwhile, Putin told reporters that a deal with the US to "ease tensions in Syria" may come "within a few days," according to Russia's state news agency TASS. "Against all odds we have a certain rapprochement and understanding of what we might do to ease tensions in Syria and achieve mutually acceptable solutions," TASS quoted Putin as saying. As for further details on the agreement, Putin said, "It is early now to speak of any parameters of our agreements, but I hope very much that the agreements will be reached, and I have the grounds to believe that this may happen within a few days," according to TASS. The two leaders conversed on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit here for ninety minutes, a senior US official said, and worked to clarify gaps in negotiations over on the Syrian crisis. The pair also discussed Ukraine and Russia's cyber intrusions, the official said. The exchange came after talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov failed to result in a Syria ceasefire agreement. They had been working to negotiate a plan that would have boosted military cooperation between the two nations in an effort to better target terrorists and prevent civilian deaths. JUST WATCHED G20 sees tension between China and the US press Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH G20 sees tension between China and the US press 01:20 Negotiators failed to work through differences, and the talks have ended for now. Following Obama's meeting with Putin, an official said the leaders indicated a desire for Kerry and Lavrov to reconvene deliberations in the coming days. "It was constructive," a US official said after the meeting, noting that all differences were not resolved. The official spoke anonymously to discuss a private conversation. "It's clear now what our respective positions are," the official said. "And we'll see in coming days whether on Syria we can reach a near-term agreement. If we cannot get the type of agreement we want, we will walk away from that effort." Differences between the two sides are technical, the official indicated, suggesting the divide was at a level that Obama and Putin wouldn't negotiate themselves. "President Obama and President Putin were not going to get down into the weeds of the language of an agreement and the implementation associated with the agreement," the official said. Photos of the session distributed by the Kremlin show the two leaders and aides, including Kerry and US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, seated around a table. The presidents appeared in congenial moods, with one photo showing Putin smiling broadly. JUST WATCHED U.S. allies fight each other, as well as ISIS Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH U.S. allies fight each other, as well as ISIS 02:50 Both Russian and US officials said the meeting -- which was held in a conference room at the G20 summit site here -- lasted longer than planned, and that leaders spent the bulk of their meeting discussing Syria. JUST WATCHED 'This is Hell': Clarissa Ward addresses U.N. on Syria Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'This is Hell': Clarissa Ward addresses U.N. on Syria 09:11 Cautious optimism On Sunday, cautious optimism prevailed that a deal could be struck between Washington and Moscow, long at odds over policy in Syria. Kerry and Lavrov had been working "around the clock" to come to an agreement, Obama told reporters. Russian forces have aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to target US-backed opposition fighters that Moscow and Damascus claim are terrorists. The campaign has spurred a humanitarian crisis and caused millions of Syrians to flee for Europe. The US hopes to align with Russia to identify terrorist targets, including ISIS and the Nusra Front, a group formerly tied to al-Qaeda. Officials hope a ceasefire will help advance talks on a political transition that would lead to the resignation of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Any deal to end widespread suffering in Syria was likely to be met with doubt after past settlements, including a ceasefire agreed to in February, failed -- a fact Obama acknowledged on Sunday. "Given the failure of previous cessations of hostilities to hold, we approach it with some skepticism," Obama said. But he insisted any work toward easing the deeply troubling humanitarian crisis was valuable. "It is worth trying," he said. "To the extent that there are children and women and innocent civilians who can get food and medical supplies and, you know, get some relief from the constant terror of bombings, that's worth the effort." Russia and the US A deal on Syria could place US-Russia ties in a firmer position as Obama prepares to leave office. Deep divides over Syria have marred Obama's relationship with Putin, adding to a litany of discord between the US and Russia that's driven relations to their lowest level since the Cold War. JUST WATCHED This is what the aftermath of a barrel bombing looks like Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH This is what the aftermath of a barrel bombing looks like 00:59 This week's interaction between the two men could be a final attempt to salvage what's become one of the most acrimonious relationships on the global stage. Putin's persistent support for the Syrian regime, Moscow's moves in Ukraine and the charge that Russia may be meddling in the US presidential contest have built a deeply antagonistic dynamic between the two leaders. Obama said on Sunday that Russian participation was essential. "Our conversations with the Russians are key because, if it were not for the Russians, then Assad and the regime would not be able to sustain its offensive," he said.[SEP]Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin have met for 'pull-aside' meetings at the G20 summit in China but failed to agree on a solution to the Syrian civil war. Washington and Moscow support opposing sides in the bloody five-year conflict, which has left 300,000 people dead and forced millions to flee. The two leaders discussed Syria at closed multilateral meetings but could not reach a deal to ease fighting in the war-torn region. But in their final face-to-face meeting before Obama leaves office in January next year, they agreed to keep up negotiations over a cease-fire agreement. It comes as Syrian government troops - backed by Russia - resumed their siege of the city of Aleppo. A deal to provide aid to Aleppo's ravaged civilians and at least partially stop Russian and Syrian bombardments had looked likely on Sunday, before talks collapsed. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had been trying to broker a deal for weeks that would curb the violence between Assad's government forces and rebel forces backed by the US. The agreement hinged on the two sides agreeing to closer militarily coordination against extremist groups operating in Syria. But Obama expressed skepticism that Russia would hold to its agreement and talks were overtaken by developments on the ground. State media said Syrian government troops had taken an area south of Aleppo, severing the last opposition-held route into its eastern neighbourhoods. Washington has repeatedly said that Assad must step down in order for a lasting peace deal. Turning up the heat in recent weeks, the White House has gone as far as to suggest Moscow is complicit in war crimes. 'You have the Assad regime which has been killing its own citizens with impunity, supported by the Russians and the Iranians,' Obama said on Sunday. He added: 'Our conversations with the Russians are key because if it were not for the Russians, then Assad and the regime would not be able to sustain its offensive. 'But it is worth trying. To the extent that there are children and women and innocent civilians who can get food and medical supplies and get some relief from the constant terror of bombings, that's worth the effort.' The failure to reach a deal is likely to heap pressure on Obama over his handling of the war in Syria. Obama came to office vowing not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor George Bush, who launched disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as he prepares to leave office, critics claim Obama's failure to intervene in Syria has had similarly bloody results, allowing the conflict to fester for years.[SEP]HANGZHOU, China — President Barack Obama said Monday the U.S. and Russia have not given up on negotiations that could stem the bloodshed in Syria but acknowledged that leaders are challenged by "gaps of trust" between the rival powers. Significant sticking points remain in the negotiations over creation of an unlikely U.S.-Russian military partnership focusing firepower on "common enemies" in Syria, Obama said. He acknowledged that a flurry of diplomacy at an economic summit and a 90-minute meeting earlier Monday with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, did not yield a breakthrough. "Given the gaps of trust that exist, that's a tough negotiation," Obama said at a news conference closing the Group of 20 summit. "We haven't yet closed the gaps." Obama didn't detail the trouble spots, although he suggested the U.S. has concerns about Russia holding up its end of the bargain and enforcing the terms. Any deal would depend on Moscow using its influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad to persuade him to ground planes and stop the assault on opposition forces. Obama said the aim was to reach "meaningful, serious, verifiable cessations of hostilities in Syria." Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov have for weeks been trying to broker a deal that would curb the violence between the Russian-ally Assad's government forces and moderate rebels backed by the U.S. Talks are expected to resume quickly, probably later this week. The deal depends on the two sides agreeing to closer military coordination against extremist groups operating in Syria, something the Russians have long sought and the U.S. resisted. Obama has expressed skepticism that Russia would hold to its agreement. The State Department has said it wants a nationwide cease-fire between Assad's military and the rebels, rather than another time-limited agreement like ones that failed before.[SEP]Top diplomats from the United States and Russia on Monday failed to reach a deal to ease fighting in Syria, US officials said, after government troops encircled rebel-held parts of Aleppo. A senior State Department official said a fresh round of crisis talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the margins of the G20 summit in China had ended without agreement. Washington and Moscow support opposing sides in the five-year conflict, which has killed around 300,000 people and forced millions to flee. A deal to provide aid to Aleppo's ravaged civilians and at least partially halt Russian and Syrian bombardments had looked likely on Sunday, before talks collapsed. US officials accused Russia of backtracking on already agreed issues which Washington refused to revisit, but the talks seemed to have been overtaken by developments on the ground. Syrian government troops renewed their siege of Aleppo on Sunday, with state media saying they had taken an area south of the city, severing the last opposition-held route into its eastern neighbourhoods. Once Syria's economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the war that began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government in March 2011. Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin also met Monday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, but it was far from clear that they would try to revive the talks. The White House has been reluctant to tether Obama personally to a deal that could well fail. Earlier truces in Syria have rapidly deteriorated, and Obama warned Sunday that the US was approaching the talks "with some scepticism". "Our conversations with the Russians are key because if it were not for the Russians, then Assad and the regime would not be able to sustain its offensive," he said, an acknowledgement that Putin, by sending troops and air assets to Syria, has made himself an indispensible player. "But it is worth trying," Obama went on. "To the extent that there are children and women and innocent civilians who can get food and medical supplies and get some relief from the constant terror of bombings, that's worth the effort." The White House is also highly reluctant to offer Putin a high-profile stage to gain international legitimacy after his backing for a regime that has used chemical weapons on civilians. Obama has steadfastly refused to meet Putin for official talks, instead talking with him in "pull-asides" at closed multilateral meetings. That was again the case at the G20. "The President is taking part in a pull-aside with President Putin of Russia," said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. "We expect to provide additional details of their discussion later today." US officials had hoped to build pressure on Moscow over its support for Assad's government during the Hangzhou summit and upcoming UN General Assembly. Washington has repeatedly said that Assad must step down in order for a lasting peace deal. Turning up the heat in recent weeks, the White House has gone as far as to suggest Moscow is complicit in war crimes. "You have the Assad regime which has been killing its own citizens with impunity, supported by the Russians and the Iranians," Obama said on Sunday. Both Putin and Obama are expected to give press conferences later Monday. The failure to reach a deal is likely to heap pressure on Obama over his handling of the war in Syria. Obama came to office vowing not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor George W. Bush, who launched disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as he prepares to leave office, critics say Obama's failure to intervene in Syria has had similarly bloody results, allowing the conflict to fester for years.[SEP]HANGZHOU, China (AP) — President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday failed to force a breakthrough in negotiations over a cease-fire for Syria, but agreed to keep looking for a path to provide humanitarian relief to thousands of besieged civilians in the civil war-ravaged country. After a 90-minute huddle on the sidelines of an economic summit, the two leaders directed their top diplomats to return to talks quickly, likely later this week, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the meeting. The official would not be named discussing the private discussion, which also covered U.S. concerns over cybersecurity and the situation in Ukraine. The official said the U.S. was eager to find an agreement quickly, mindful of the deteriorating conditions around the besieged city of Aleppo. But U.S. was wary of enter a deal that would not be effective. The two leaders used the talk to clarify sticking points, the official said. The conversation came hours after U.S. and Russian negotiators acknowledged that a recent round of intense talk had come up short. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov have for weeks been trying to broker a deal that would curb the violence between the Syrian President Bashar Assad's government forces and moderate rebels backed by the U.S. The strategy has hinged on the two sides agreeing to closer militarily coordination against extremist groups operating in Syria. But Obama has expressed skepticism that Russia would hold to its agreement. In recent days, the State Department has said it is seeking a nationwide cease-fire between Assad's military and the rebels, rather than another "cessation of hostilities" that is time-limited and only stops fighting in some cities and regions. Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this story.[SEP]HANGZHOU, China -- President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday failed to force a breakthrough in negotiations about a cease-fire for Syria, but agreed to keep looking for a path to provide humanitarian relief to thousands of besieged civilians in the civil war-ravaged country. After a 90-minute huddle on the sidelines of an economic summit, the two leaders directed their top diplomats to return to talks quickly, likely later this week, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the meeting. The official would not be named discussing the private discussion, which also covered U.S. concerns about cybersecurity and the situation in Ukraine. The official said the U.S. was eager to find an agreement quickly, mindful of the deteriorating conditions around the besieged city of Aleppo. But the U.S. was wary of enter a deal that would not be effective. The two leaders used the talk to clarify sticking points, the official said. The conversation came hours after U.S. and Russian negotiators acknowledged that a recent round of intense talk had come up short. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov have for weeks been trying to broker a deal that would curb the violence between the Russian-ally Syrian President Bashar Assad's government forces and moderate rebels backed by the U.S. The deal depends on the two sides agreeing to closer militarily coordination against extremist groups operating in Syria, something the Russians have long sought and the U.S. resisted. Obama has expressed skepticism that Russia would hold to its agreement. The State Department has said it wants a nationwide cease-fire between Assad's military and the rebels, rather than another limited "cessation of hostilities" that has repeated failed in the past. Obama's meeting with Putin comes as the Russia leader is playing a prominent role in the presidential campaign at home. U.S. officials blame Russian intelligence for a hack on the Democratic National Committee that resulted in a leak of emails damaging to its presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. Putin has denied his government was involved, but cheered the release of the information. The official said Obama raised concerns about cybersecurity issues with Putin, but would not detail the discussions. Obama and Putin also discussed the conflict in Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the government, and the implementation of the agreement to stop the violence, the official said. Obama met earlier with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the same issue. Josh Lederman of the Associated Press contributed to this story.[SEP]Putin says 'some alignment' with US on Syria after Obama talks Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that there had been some "alignment" with US counterpart Barack Obama over Syria after talks in China, insisting the two sides could reach a deal soon. "Despite everything, we have some alignment of positions and an understanding of what we could do to de-escalate the situation in Syria," he told a press conference following the G20 summit in China. "I believe that we are on the right track and could, at least for some period of time, agree to carry out mutual energetic attempts to make the situation in Syria more healthy," he said. Putin insisted he believed a deal with Washington could be firmed up in the "coming days" but refused to give concrete details, saying that US and Russian officials are still "working out some of our preliminary agreements." "We can say that our mutual work with the US in fighting terrorist organisations, including in Syria, will be significantly improved and intensified." Obama earlier called the talks with Putin on Syria, which lasted about 90 minutes, "productive". Moscow and Washington support different sides in Syria's festering conflict that has left 290,000 dead, with Russia backing President Bashar al-Assad while the United States supports rebel groups fighting him. "Both US and Russia are interested in fighting terrorism," Putin said at the conference. "The US President is absolutely sincere in striving for a resolution of the Syrian conflict," also calling the US a "key partner" on security issues. "I think we managed to get to an understanding of one another and to understanding of the problems that we are facing," Putin added.[SEP]HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a longer-than-expected discussion on Monday about whether, and how, they could agree on a ceasefire deal in war-torn Syria, a senior U.S. administration official said. Obama and Putin spent about 90 minutes in a "constructive" meeting about getting humanitarian aid into the country, reducing violence, and cooperating on combating militant groups, the official told reporters. In talks earlier on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to come to terms on a ceasefire for the second time in two weeks, with U.S. officials stressing they would walk away if a near-term pact could not be reached. Obama and Putin did not get into the finer details of a deal, but made progress to clarify "the remaining gaps" and directed Kerry and Lavrov to meet as early as this week to keep working on a deal, the official told reporters. "If an agreement can be reached, we want to do so urgently, because of the humanitarian situation. However, we must ensure that it is an effective agreement," the official said. "If we cannot get the type of agreement we want, we will walk away from that effort." A cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by Lavrov and Kerry in February unraveled within weeks, with Washington accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of violating the pact. State Department officials have declined to elaborate on what the sticking points are preventing a deal, though the U.S. official said the remaining differences revolved around how the plan would be implemented. Russia has insisted that it cannot agree to a deal unless opposition fighters, backed by the United States and Middle East allies, are separated from al-Qaeda linked militants they overlap with in some areas. Obama and Putin also discussed the conflict in Ukraine - a crisis that Obama had earlier discussed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. The White House wants to determine whether the Minsk ceasefire can be implemented beforeObama leaves office in January, or whether economic sanctions on Russia will need to be extended, the official said.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin fail to agree on a peace deal regarding the Syrian civil war.

VIENTIANE- Sept 6 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama canceled what would have been his first meeting with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, after Duterte described Obama in vulgar terms, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday. Obama, who is in Laos for meetings with South Asian leaders, instead will meet with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, said Ned Price, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defiantly reaffirmed his controversial campaign against illegal substances Tuesday and called for a redoubling of crime-fighting efforts across Southeast Asia as he prepared to face two prominent critics of his policy: President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “We shall not be cowed. We must press on,” he declared in a speech at a business and investment conference on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which he is attending. He called for increased use of intelligence gathering and more arrests. Duterte also threatened earlier to pull the Philippines out of the United Nations over criticism of his crackdown on illegal substances that has led to a wave of extrajudicial killings. More than 2,000 people have been killed since June 30, when he took office after winning election on a promise to fight crime and corruption. The summit has been overshadowed by Obama’s canceling of a meeting with Duterte after the latter warned him not to ask about the killings and used profane language when discussing Obama. On Wednesday, Duterte is to attend a gala dinner with both Obama and Ban, as well as join a meeting that the two leaders will have with ASEAN heads of state and government. Earlier Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over his remarks about Obama.[SEP]Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday expressed regret over his “son of a bitch” remark while referring to President Barack Obama. In a statement read out by his spokesman, Duterte said his “strong comments” to certain questions by a reporter “elicited concern and distress, we also regret it came across as a personal attack on the U.S. president.” Duterte made the remarks Monday before flying to Laos, where he will attend a regional summit. He had been scheduled to meet Obama separately. But Obama indicated that he was having second thoughts about that meeting. Duterte said both sides mutually agreed to postpone the meeting. Even though Duterte’s latest comment does not amount to an apology, the expression of regret is a rare instance when the tough-talking former mayor has expressed contrition for his remarks that often slide into profanity. “We look forward to ironing out differences arising out of national priorities and perceptions, and working in mutually responsible ways for both countries,” the statement said. The flap over Duterte’s remarks started when a reporter asked him how he intends to explain the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers to Obama. More than 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30. In his typical foul-mouthed style, Duterte responded: “I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina I will swear at you in that forum,” he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch.” Duterte has earlier cursed the pope and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “Who is he (Obama) to confront me?” Duterte said, adding the Philippines had not received an apology from the United States for misdeeds committed during its colonization of the Philippines. He pointed to the killing of Muslim Moros more than a century ago during a U.S. pacification campaign in the southern Philippines, blaming the wounds of the past as “the reason why (the south) continues to boil” with separatist insurgencies. Last week, Duterte said he was ready to defend his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, which has sparked concern from the U.S. and other countries. Duterte said he would demand that Obama allow him to first explain the context of his crackdown before engaging the U.S. president in a discussion of the deaths. Duterte had previously also branded the U.S. ambassador to Manila a “gay son of a whore,” and sought to taint the reputation of Pope Francis’s mother in similar fashion. Duterte was elected to office in a landslide this year after pledging to kill 100,000 people in an unprecedented war on crime. When faced with criticisms over an apparent spate of extrajudicial killings in his crime war by the United Nations, he responded with what has become familiar abuse. “Maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you,” he said last month. The setback in U.S.-Philippine relations comes at a crucial time in the region, with China seeking to cement control over the contested South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims to the strategically vital waters, but have watched China expand its presence by building artificial islands in key locations. An international tribunal ruled in July that China’s claims to the waters — through which $5 trillion in global shipping trade passes — had no legal basis. The verdict was widely seen as a sweeping victory for the Philippines, which filed the suit under the previous administration of President Benigno Aquino III. But China has vowed to ignore the ruling. And Duterte has sought to heal relations with China rather than inflame them by pressing the tribunal’s ruling. Under Aquino, the Philippines had forged closer military ties with the United States to deal with the China threat. But Duterte has cast doubt on that strategy. Obama’s aides had previously said he wanted to discuss the South China Sea issue with Duterte in Laos. Nevertheless, the South China Sea issue is expected to once again be discussed at the three days of meetings hosted by ASEAN, which will be attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The gathering will see the 10 ASEAN members meet by themselves, then with leaders from the U.S., China Japan, South Korea and China. Other leaders to come for an East Asia summit on Thursday include those from Australia, India and New Zealand. Laos is the final Asian visit of Obama’s eight-year presidency, during which he has sought to refocus American military, political and economic resources on the region.[SEP]The US president and his Philippines counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, were set to meet in Laos this week, where Obama is attending a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders. White House officials previously said Obama would confront the Philippines President about his country's handling of drug dealers, including extra-judicial killings , or government executions without the benefit of judicial proceedings or due process. But the Filipino leader did not take kindly to that notion. "Who does he think he is? I am no American puppet. I am the president of a sovereign country and I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people," Duterte scoffed in a speech Monday. "Son of a b****, I will swear at you." Duterte went on to blame the US for causing the unrest on the southern Philippines Island of Mindanao.[SEP]The president of the Philippines has escalated his campaign of obscene abuse at perceived opponents, foreign and domestic, by calling Barack Obama a “son of a whore”. Rodrigo Duterte warned the US president to keep off the subject of extrajudicial killings in his country’s brutal drug war when they meet on Tuesday at a regional summit in Laos, telling a press conference that Mr Obama “must be respectful”. Mr Duterte has faced condemnation from human rights campaigners, diplomats and the UN for inciting a war on drugs which, according to official figures published on Sunday, has led to 2,400 deaths in just two months. Mr Duterte was answering a reporter’s question on Monday about how he intended to explain the extrajudicial killings to Mr Obama, before boarding a plane to Laos for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Mr Duterte was quoted by as saying by Agence-France Presse. “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me.” The two leaders had been due to hold a meeting on Tuesday on the sidelines of the summit. However, after news of Mr Duterte’s remarks reached the Mr Obama, that appeared to be in doubt. Mr Obama said he was asking his staff to find out whether a meeting would be useful. “What I’ve instructed my team to do is to talk to their Philippine counterparts to find out is if this in fact a time where we can have some constructive, productive conversations,” Mr Obama said at a news conference at the end of the G20 summit in China. “Obviously the Filipino people are some of our closest friends and allies and the Philippines is a treaty ally of ours. But I always want to make sure that if I’m having a meeting that it’s actually productive and we’re getting something done.”[SEP]The U.S. State Department and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday stressed the need for ties with the Philippines to be based on mutual respect, after Manila's new leader raised worries about the future of the key alliance by calling President Barack Obama a "son of a bitch." Despite U.S. dismay over Duterte's remarks, though, current and former U.S. officials played down the impact, saying they did not expect any serious damage to ties at a time of high tensions over China's extensive territorial claims in Asia. The State Department said a planned first meeting between Obama and his counterpart Rodrigo Duterte on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos on Tuesday was canceled because the tone of the Philippine leader's rhetoric raised questions about the chances of productive talks. "Words matter, and we want to see an atmosphere that is cordial and open to strong cooperation," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told a regular news briefing in Washington. Clinton, who as secretary of state was an architect of Obama's policy of emphasizing the importance of the Asia Pacific to U.S. interests in the face of a rising China, said Obama was right to cancel the meeting. "When the president of the Philippines insulted our president, it was appropriate and a very low-key way to say: sorry, no meeting," she told reporters on her campaign plane. "We have a lot of ties between the United States and the Philippines. And I think it's very important that we have a relationship, but there has to be a certain level of respect that is expected on both sides," Clinton said. Duterte made the remark about Obama while explaining that he would not be lectured over extrajudicial killings in the war against drugs he has launched since taking two months ago and which has killed about 2,400 people. He has previously called the pope a "son of a whore" and the U.S. ambassador a "gay son of whore." The Philippines voiced regret for Duterte's comments after Obama canceled a formal bilateral meeting. The White House then said Obama might speak with Duterte informally. Duterte's volatile nature threatens to complicate Washington's ties with its closest ally in Southeast Asia as it tries to forge a united front in the region in response to China's extensive claims in the strategic South China Sea. The Philippines has been central in this effort due to an international court case it brought and won against Beijing. In March, the United States and the Philippines agreed on five locations for U.S. military facilities in the country under a new security deal. The deal grants Washington increased military presence in its former colony through rotation of ships and planes for humanitarian and maritime security operations. Asked about Duterte's comments, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the defense relationship with the Philippines was a "strong" and "longstanding" one. Speaking to reporters, Carter also described the Philippines' new defense minister, Delfin Lorenzana, as someone who was "very knowledgeable about all the things that we do together." An official of the U.S. State Department said "government to government" relations with Manila remained strong. "The areas that we believe we have robust, strong cooperation with them, we are not going to just simply throw that aside.” The official noted that Duterte was new to national leadership having served as a city mayor. "He is maybe feeling his way into the new job," the official said. Former U.S. officials said China would be pleased by the U.S.-Philippines friction. “Time will tell whether President Duterte steps back from this episode and realizes he needs to recalibrate his choice of words in engaging U.S. leaders,” said Amy Searight, a former senior Pentagon official now at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. Evan Medeiros, Obama’s former top Asia adviser and now a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group, saw the row as a “speed bump, not a road block” in U.S.-Philippines ties. “It's unfortunate, but doesn’t fundamentally derail the relationship,” he said.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte defiantly reaffirmed his controversial campaign against illegal substances Tuesday and called for a redoubling of crime-fighting efforts across Southeast Asia as he prepared to face two prominent critics of his policy: President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “We shall not be cowed. We must press on,” he declared in a speech at a business and investment conference on the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which he is attending. He called for increased use of intelligence gathering and more arrests. Duterte also threatened earlier to pull the Philippines out of the United Nations over criticism of his crackdown on illegal substances that has led to a wave of extrajudicial killings. More than 2,000 people have been killed since June 30, when he took office after winning election on a promise to fight crime and corruption. The summit has been overshadowed by Obama’s canceling of a meeting with Duterte after the latter warned him not to ask about the killings and used profane language when discussing Obama. On Wednesday, Duterte is to attend a gala dinner with both Obama and Ban, as well as join a meeting that the two leaders will have with ASEAN heads of state and government. Earlier Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over his remarks about Obama.[SEP]U.S. President Barack Obama canceled what would have been his first meeting with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday, after Duterte described Obama as a "son of a bitch". Duterte, a plain-spoken populist known for his colorful remarks and his campaign against illegal drugs in which thousands of people have died, used the term in front of reporters on Monday, a day ahead of the planned meeting in Laos, where Southeast Asian leaders are meeting for annual summits. Obama learned about the insult as he emerged from the Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou, China. At a news conference, he said he had told his aides to speak with Philippine officials "to find out is this, in fact, a time where we can have some constructive, productive conversations," signaling clearly that the meeting would not proceed as planned. "I always want to make sure that if I'm having a meeting, that it's actually productive and we're getting something done,” Obama told reporters. Instead, Obama now plans to meet South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday, said Ned Price, spokesman for the White House National Security Council - a meeting where the response to North Korea's latest missile tests is expected to be on the agenda. Obama arrived in Vientiane just before midnight on Monday, for the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to Laos, where he wants to begin to address the legacy of U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War. He was set to give an address on the importance he has placed on Southeast Asia in his foreign and economic policy during his two terms in office, which will end on Jan. 20, setting the stage for three days of meetings with regional leaders. The White House had earlier said Obama did not plan to pull any punches on his concerns about human rights abuses in the Philippines, its treaty ally, when meeting Duterte. Duterte won the presidency in May as he promised to suppress crime and wipe out drugs and drug dealers. At least 2,400 people have been killed since he took office on July 1, including 900 in police operations against drug pushers. The rest are "deaths under investigation", a term human rights activists in the Philippines say is a euphemism for vigilante and extrajudicial killings. Duterte said it would be "rude" for Obama to raise the human rights issue and told reporters such a conversation would prompt him to curse at Obama, using a Filipino phrase "putang ina" which can mean "son of a bitch" or "son of a whore". "Plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets. Until the (last) drug manufacturer is killed we will continue," he said. Duterte has poured scorn previously on critics, usually larded with curses. He lambasted the United Nations after it criticized the surge in killings and he turned down a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the Laos summit. In May, he called Pope Francis a "son of a whore", although he later apologized, and called U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg a "gay son of a whore." On Tuesday, Duterte is scheduled to hold meetings in Laos with the leaders of Singapore, Japan and Vietnam. The unusually open tensions between the United States and the Philippines, its former colony and long-term ally, threaten to overshadow the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia Summits in Laos from Tuesday to Thursday. The 10-member ASEAN will meet leaders of other regional powers: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Russia and the United States. The Philippines has been aligned with the United States in its dispute with China over the South China Sea, in which Washington blames Beijing for militarizing a vital global trade route and jeopardizing freedom of movement at sea and in the air. China rejects those accusations and in turn blames the United States for ratcheting up tensions unnecessarily. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have rival claims. An arbitration court in The Hague in July invalidated China's vast territorial claims to the waterway after a case was brought by the Philippines, a ruling that Beijing refuses to recognize. Duterte said last month he expected all ASEAN members to support the arbitration court's ruling, but that the Philippines would not raise the issue in Laos.[SEP](CNN) It's not just a runaway tongue that worries the United States about the volatile new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. It's what else he's thinking. A foul-mouthed outburst cost the new leader of Washington's key Pacific ally a chance to meet President Barack Obama in Laos on Tuesday. Duterte blasted Obama as a "son of a bitch" and warned he would not tolerate any violation of Philippines sovereignty he said such a question would entail, after which the White House canceled their planned parley. While the nasty spat is not yet likely to damage the enduring relationship between the United States and the Philippines, and the countries' strengthening military cooperation in the shadow of China's rise, there is reason for Washington to be concerned. The unpredictable new man in charge in Manila introduces an unwelcome element to an already tense region and is casting a late second-term cloud over painstaking effort by Obama to intensify relations between the allies. More broadly, Duterte's anti-Americanism and haphazard diplomacy is worrying Washington's allies in the region. He has pledged not to bring up South China Sea territorial disputes in multilateral summits, moving closer to the position of Beijing that all parties should hold one-on-one talks with China that exclude the United States. And that is likely to end up being a problem for the next US president. The new occupant of the Oval Office will face a regional policy challenge dominated by the assertive Chinese President Xi Jinping, who would leap at the chance to weaken US influence. Duterte and Obama had been due to meet on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos. But the Filipino leader lashed out when asked by reporters how he would respond if Obama asked about human rights violations committed in his fearsome war on drugs gangs. "I am a president of a sovereign state. And we have long ceased to be a colony of the United States," Duterte said, paraphrasing how he would address Obama. "Son of a bitch, I will swear at you." The new Philippines president did not just obliterate the rules of behavior of the international leader's club with his remarks. He aimed a vulgarity at the President, which the White House could not stand for. Hence the meeting's cancellation. "It was the right decision by President Obama. This was an offense against President Obama personally, but it was also an offense against the office of the Presidency of the United States," Nicholas Burns, the State Department's former third-highest official told CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday. Duterte has been dubbed by some commentators as the Donald Trump of the Philippines, but even the US billionaire's often fiery rhetoric pales in comparison to the statements that regularly escape the lips of the former mayor of the city of Davao, who was elected in a landslide in May. The White House clearly wanted to send a signal in its rebuke of Duterte that loose talk and bluster does not cut it on the international stage. Whether officials also had in mind someone closer to home who has made inflammatory statements on foreign policy -- the Republican presidential nominee -- was not clear. "I think it was our judgment that given the focus and attention on President Duterte's comments leading into the meetings here we felt that didn't create a constructive environment for a bilateral meeting," Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security advisor told reporters in Laos. Apparently prompted by the US move, Duterte quickly backtracked on Tuesday, saying he did not mean to insult Obama but was addressing a reporter. But this was not the first time he's directed offensive language at American officials. In August, he called US ambassador to Manila Philip Goldberg a "gay son of a b****" and said Secretary of State John Kerry was "crazy." Though Duterte's quick retreat after the White House reprimand showed that the US still can call shots in the relationship, it gave Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence an opportunity to attack Obama for squandering US "credibility" in the world. But the administration has more to worry about than the political impact of Duterte's diatribe. That's because it can never be quite sure what he will do next. "There has been a lot of concern primarily because I don't think there is a lot of understanding of the Philippine President or any way to predict what he is going to do," said Rodger Baker, vice president of strategic analysis at Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence company. "It is that uncertainty that is causing the concern." While the defense relationship, which is set to see US forces deploy to five bases in the Philippines to provide muscle to Obama's Asia pivot strategy, is not currently at risk, it could be seriously buffeted by a hostile president in Manila. Some analysts believe that Philippine leaders' remarks represent a long-present streak of anti-Americanism that is inseparable from his worldview -- a scenario that suggests this week's controversy will not be the last of the Duterte era. "This is a guy that came in already with a deep-seated suspicion of the United States," said Prashanth Parameswaran, associate editor of The Diplomat magazine and a Southeast Asia specialist. "He is trying to craft what he calls an independent foreign policy for the Philippines. That is a very different line from where the (previous) Aquino administration was in when they came in. The relationship with the US was seen as very significant." There are undertones in the US relationship with the Philippines that do not exist in other alliances Washington maintains in Asia. The United States claimed the archipelago from Spain following a war in 1898, so sovereignty issues are particularly acute. Even after independence, Washington kept a vast garrison in Subic Bay in the Philippines until being ordered to leave in 1992. Duterte's recent offer to hold bilateral talks with Beijing on South China Sea claims has also scrambled the geopolitical game in the region, since it may complicate Washington's efforts to build a united front of allies opposed to Beijing's position. These developments are especially dismaying to Washington since an international court in The Hague ruled against China's territorial claims in the South China Sea in July, saying Beijing had infringed the sovereignty of the Philippines. The case, which pre-dates the current administration in Manila, was seen as a turning point in the South China Sea controversy -- but Duterte's unilateral approach could water down its impact. Washington and Manila may also be on a collision course over human rights issues related to Duterte's war on drugs. Since he took office, more than 1,900 people have died, including at least 700 in police operations. The carnage has sparked alarm among human rights groups, which have complained about a wave of extrajudicial killings. Sooner or later, the situation is likely to cause trouble in Washington when members of Congress are asked to continue supporting US military aid to the country. The United States is also interested in ensuring that the current dispute does not harm anti-terror cooperation with the Philippines set up to hunt Al-Qaeda linked groups after the September 11 attacks in 2001 has been scaled back. While the direction of US-Asia policy remains in doubt in the new administration, the next White House will face a delicate task in managing Duterte. Manila is due to hold next year's ASEAN summit, and a festering showdown with the president -- and a continuing riot of death in the anti-drugs purge -- could make it difficult for a President Clinton or a President Trump to attend. "The more optimistic read would be, it's still early days, this is a president who is just over two months into his presidency," said Parameswaran. "It will take a while for Duterte to find his footing on foreign policy, so the expectations for the relationship need to be dampened a little bit."[SEP]Duterte tells Obama not to question him about killings MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned President Barack Obama not to question him about extrajudicial killings, or "son of a bitch I will swear at you" when they meet in Laos during a regional summit. Duterte said Monday before flying to Laos that he is a leader of a sovereign country and is answerable only to the Filipino people. He said Obama must be respectful and not just throw questions at him, or else, "son of a bitch, I will swear at you in that forum." Duterte was answering a reporter's question about how he intends to explain the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines to Obama. More than 2,000 suspected drug pushers and users have been killed since Duterte launched a war on drugs after taking office on June 30.

U.S. President Barack Obama cancels a scheduled meeting with the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, after Duterte referred to Obama as a "son of a whore", while adding "I am no American puppet", in response to Obama's recent criticism of his war on drugs.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast Monday, South Korea’s military said, in a show of force timed to the G-20 economic summit in China. North Korea regularly engages in missile and rocket tests, especially when international attention is turned to Northeast Asia. World leaders are gathering for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China. Beijing is the North’s only major ally, but ties between the neighbors have frayed amid a string of nuclear and missile tests and what many outsiders see as other provocations in recent years. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the three missiles, launched from the western North Korean town of Hwangju, flew across the country before splashing in the waters off its east coast, but officials did not describe the range of the missiles. Before the firing, on Monday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, South Korean President Park Geun-hye criticized the North for what she called provocations that are hurting Seoul-Beijing ties. The launch comes four days before the 68th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s government, and days after South Korean and U.S. troops ended annual joint summertime military drills, which North Korea regularly describes as a dress rehearsal for invasion. Last month, worries about the North’s weapons programs deepened after a missile from a North Korean submarine flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. The U.N. Security Council in late August strongly condemned four North Korean ballistic missile launches in July and August. It called them “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.[SEP]SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast Monday, South Korea's military said, in a show of force timed to the G-20 economic summit in China. North Korea regularly engages in missile and rocket tests, especially when international attention is turned to Northeast Asia. World leaders are gathering for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China. Beijing is the North's only major ally, but ties between the neighbors have frayed amid a string of nuclear and missile tests and what many outsiders see as other provocations in recent years. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the three missiles, launched from the western North Korean town of Hwangju, flew across the country before splashing in the waters off its east coast, but officials did not describe the range of the missiles. Before the firing, on Monday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, South Korean President Park Geun-hye criticized the North for what she called provocations that are hurting Seoul-Beijing ties. The launch comes four days before the 68th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's government, and days after South Korean and U.S. troops ended annual joint summertime military drills, which North Korea regularly describes as a dress rehearsal for invasion. Last month, worries about the North's weapons programs deepened after a missile from a North Korean submarine flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. The U.N. Security Council in late August strongly condemned four North Korean ballistic missile launches in July and August. It called them "grave violations" of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.[SEP]President Obama vowed Tuesday to toughen international sanctions against North Korea after its government conducted a test missile launch as world leaders gathered for summits in Asia. Speaking with reporters after a meeting here with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Obama said that the two agreed to work “diligently together” on the most recent United Nations sanctions against North Korea to close loopholes “and make them even more effective.” "The entire international community needs to implement these sanctions fully and hold North Korea accountable," Obama said on the sidelines of a summit of southeast Asian leaders in his last presidential trip to the continent. On Monday, North Korea launched three ballistic missiles – a test widely believed to be an effort to garner attention from international summits in Beijing and Vientiane. Park told reporters that North Korea’s acts were “fundamentally threatening” and that she and Obama had agreed to “respond resolutely” to the defiance of international demands that North Korea end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. In March, the U.N. Security Council imposed the toughest sanctions in decades on North Korea after it began a round of nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions subject all cargo in and out of North Korea to inspections, bans exports of natural resources including coal and gold, tightens a weapons embargo and ends relationships with outside banks. Obama believes the U.S. and Korea have to be vigilant in sanctions enforcement, aides said. “We want to make sure we’re cutting off all the lifelines that North Korea tries to grab onto,” said Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Obama also said the U.S. was still open to the possibility of talks with North Korea if it were to recognize its international obligations and work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. “The opportunities for us to dialogue with them are there," Obama said. The U.S. has no interest in an “offensive approach” to North Korea, he said. Obama had originally been scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon with the controversial new Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, but he canceled that meeting when Duterte threated to curse at him if he raised questions about Duterte’s human rights record. Obama insisted he would raise that issue, and thus canceled the meeting. Follow @cparsons for news about the White House. In China, Obama struggles for elusive deal with Russia on Syria Obama makes progress on climate change, the bright spot in his China policy Duterte expresses regret for his Obama insult. But he's always had a way with words[SEP]North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast Monday, South Korea's military said, in a show of force timed to the G-20 economic summit in China. North Korea regularly engages in missile and rocket tests, especially when international attention is turned to Northeast Asia. World leaders are gathering for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China. Beijing is the North's only major ally, but ties between the neighbors have frayed amid a string of nuclear and missile tests and what many outsiders see as other provocations in recent years. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the three missiles, launched from the western North Korean town of Hwangju, flew across the country before splashing in the waters off its east coast, but officials did not describe the range of the missiles. Before the firing, on Monday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, South Korean President Park Geun-hye criticized the North for what she called provocations that are hurting Seoul-Beijing ties. The launch comes four days before the 68th anniversary of the founding of North Korea's government, and days after South Korean and U.S. troops ended annual joint summertime military drills, which North Korea regularly describes as a dress rehearsal for invasion. Last month, worries about the North's weapons programs deepened after a missile from a North Korean submarine flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. The U.N. Security Council in late August strongly condemned four North Korean ballistic missile launches in July and August. It called them "grave violations" of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (Tribune Washington Bureau/TNS) - President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to toughen international sanctions against North Korea after its government conducted a test missile launch as world leaders gathered for summits in Asia. Speaking with reporters after a meeting here with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Obama said that the two agreed to work “diligently together” on the most recent United Nations sanctions against North Korea to close loopholes “and make them even more effective.” “The entire international community needs to implement these sanctions fully and hold North Korea accountable,” Obama said on the sidelines of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in his last presidential trip to the continent. On Monday, North Korea launched three ballistic missiles – a test widely believed to be an effort to garner attention from international summits in Beijing and Vientiane. Park told reporters that North Korea’s acts were “fundamentally threatening” and that she and Obama had agreed to “respond resolutely” to the defiance of international demands that North Korea end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. In March, the U.N. Security Council imposed the toughest sanctions in decades on North Korea after it began a round of nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions subject all cargo in and out of North Korea to inspections, ban exports of natural resources including coal and gold, tighten a weapons embargo and end relationships with outside banks. Obama believes the U.S. and Korea have to be vigilant in sanctions enforcement, aides said. “We want to make sure we’re cutting off all the lifelines that North Korea tries to grab onto,” said Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Obama also said the U.S. was still open to the possibility of talks with North Korea if it were to recognize its international obligations and work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. “The opportunities for us to dialogue with them are there,” Obama said. The U.S. has no interest in an “offensive approach” to North Korea, he said. Obama had originally been scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon with the controversial new Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, but he canceled that meeting when Duterte threatened to curse at him if he raised questions about Duterte’s human rights record. Obama insisted he would raise that issue, and thus canceled the meeting.[SEP]North Korea fires three ballistic missiles into sea, South Korea says Updated North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, says South Korea, as the leaders of the Group of 20 major economies held a summit in China, the North's main diplomatic ally. Key points: Pyongyang's latest missile launches violate UN Security Council resolutions Seoul has told Beijing Pyongyang's actions harm South Korea-China ties Beijing says it is committed to a denuclearised Korean peninsula The missiles were fired from a western region south of the capital Pyongyang, just after noon local time, South Korea's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The missiles were launched from a region called Hwangju and came just hours after the leaders of South Korea and China met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders' meeting in Hangzhou, China. No other details about the launch were immediately available. The missile launches were the latest in a series of launches by the isolated North this year in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. These latest tests have sparked strong protests from senior Japanese and US officials. The launches "are a grave security provocation and can never be permitted", Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said. "We have lodged a strong protest against North Korea." A senior US administration official at the G20 in Hangzhou also condemned the launches as a threat to its allies and to civilian air travel, and vowed diplomatic action against the Pyongyang regime. "Today's reckless launches by North Korea pose threats to civil aviation and maritime commerce in the region," the official said. Washington would try to "bolster international resolve to hold the DPRK (North Korea) accountable for its provocative actions". The South's military was trying to determine the type of missiles launched, a military official said. China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing hoped relevant parties avoid taking any actions that may escalate tensions. South Korean President Park Geun-hye told Chinese President Xi Jinping that the North's fourth nuclear test and its ballistic missile launches this year threatened regional peace and posed a challenge to South Korea's ties with China, Yonhap news agency reported earlier. During the meeting, Mr Xi reaffirmed China's commitment to realising the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, China's state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday. Ms Xi also told Ms Park that Beijing opposed the proposed deployment of a THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, which Seoul and the United States have said is designed to counter an increasing threat from North Korea. Ms Park said that a THAAD deployment would not threaten any other country's security interests and would not be needed if the North's nuclear issue was resolved, Yonhap news agency said. In July, the North launched three missiles in a single day from the western region that flew across the country and into the sea off its east coast, flying up to 600 kilometres. In 2014, the North fired two Rodong medium-range missiles just as Ms Park and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were sitting down with US President Barack Obama at the Hague to discuss responding to the North's arms programme. Reuters Topics: defence-and-national-security, world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of, korea-republic-of, asia First posted[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (Tribune Washington Bureau/TNS) - President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to toughen international sanctions against North Korea after its government conducted a test missile launch as world leaders gathered for summits in Asia. Speaking with reporters after a meeting here with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Obama said that the two agreed to work “diligently together” on the most recent United Nations sanctions against North Korea to close loopholes “and make them even more effective.” “The entire international community needs to implement these sanctions fully and hold North Korea accountable,” Obama said on the sidelines of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in his last presidential trip to the continent. On Monday, North Korea launched three ballistic missiles – a test widely believed to be an effort to garner attention from international summits in Beijing and Vientiane. Park told reporters that North Korea’s acts were “fundamentally threatening” and that she and Obama had agreed to “respond resolutely” to the defiance of international demands that North Korea end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. In March, the U.N. Security Council imposed the toughest sanctions in decades on North Korea after it began a round of nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The sanctions subject all cargo in and out of North Korea to inspections, ban exports of natural resources including coal and gold, tighten a weapons embargo and end relationships with outside banks. Obama believes the U.S. and Korea have to be vigilant in sanctions enforcement, aides said. “We want to make sure we’re cutting off all the lifelines that North Korea tries to grab onto,” said Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Obama also said the U.S. was still open to the possibility of talks with North Korea if it were to recognize its international obligations and work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. “The opportunities for us to dialogue with them are there,” Obama said. The U.S. has no interest in an “offensive approach” to North Korea, he said. Obama had originally been scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon with the controversial new Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, but he canceled that meeting when Duterte threatened to curse at him if he raised questions about Duterte’s human rights record. Obama insisted he would raise that issue, and thus canceled the meeting.[SEP]SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast Monday, South Korea’s military said, in a show of force timed to the G-20 economic summit in China. North Korea regularly engages in missile and rocket tests, especially when international attention is turned to Northeast Asia. World leaders are gathering for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China. Beijing is the North’s only major ally, but ties between the neighbors have frayed amid a string of nuclear and missile tests and what many outsiders see as other provocations in recent years. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the three missiles, launched from the western North Korean town of Hwangju, flew across the country before splashing in the waters off its east coast, but officials did not describe the range of the missiles. Before the firing, on Monday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, South Korean President Park Geun-hye criticized the North for what she called provocations that are hurting Seoul-Beijing ties. The launch comes four days before the 68th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s government, and days after South Korean and U.S. troops ended annual joint summertime military drills, which North Korea regularly describes as a dress rehearsal for invasion. Last month, worries about the North’s weapons programs deepened after a missile from a North Korean submarine flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. The U.N. Security Council in late August strongly condemned four North Korean ballistic missile launches in July and August. It called them “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.[SEP]South Korea says North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast in a show of force timed to the Group of 20 economic summit in China. North Korea regularly engages in missile and rocket tests, especially when the world’s eyes are turned to Northeast Asia. World leaders are gathering for the G-20 summit of advanced and emerging economies in the city of Hangzhou in eastern China, which is the North’s only major ally. On Monday on the sidelines of the summit, South Korean President Park Geun-hye criticized the North for what she called provocations that are hurting Seoul-Beijing ties. The launches came hours after the leaders of South Korea and China, the North’s main diplomatic ally, met on the sidelines of the summit in Hangzhou. The missiles were fired from a western region south of the capital Pyongyang, the South Korea’s Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement just after noon local time. No other details were immediately available. At their meeting earlier in the day, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his South Korean counterpart that China opposes the U.S. deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. China has repeatedly expressed anger since the United States and South Korea made a final decision in July to deploy the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in the South to counter missile and nuclear threats from North Korea. “Mishandling the issue is not conducive to strategic stability in the region and could intensify disputes,” Xinhua quoted Xi as telling Park. Beijing worries the system’s radar will be able to track its military capabilities. North Korea, which had threatened a “physical response” against the THAAD decision, has conducted a series of military technology tests this year, including a fourth nuclear test in January, in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions that were tightened in March. It fired a submarine-launched missile on August 24 that flew about 500 km (300 miles) toward Japan, a show of improving technological capability for the isolated country. “North Korea’s fourth nuclear test and ballistic missile provocations this year have gravely damaged peace on the Korean Peninsula and the region and posed a challenge to the development of South Korea-China ties,” Park told Xi, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Officials in South Korea and the U.S. have tried to assuage Chinese fears, insisting that the move is designed purely to counter growing missile threats from North Korea, and not to target China. Xi said China and South Korea shared “broad common interests” and should “cherish their existing cooperative foundation and overcome difficulties and challenges”, Xinhua reported. He also reaffirmed China’s commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Since the decision to deploy THAAD in South Korea, China’s Defence Ministry has since confirmed that it is pressing ahead with its own anti-missile system tests.[SEP](CNN) North Korea fired three ballistic missiles Monday morning, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles were fired from areas around Hwangju country, in North Hwanghae province, towards the Sea of Japan, the Joint Chiefs said in a statement. This comes just under two weeks after Pyongyang test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile . That missile entered Japan's air defense identification zone, the first time that has happened. It also comes at a potentially embarrassing time for North Korea's only real ally , China, which is currently hosting the Group of Nations summit in Hangzhou At the G20, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his South Korean counterpart on Monday that Beijing opposes the deployment of the United States' THAAD missile defense system to South Korea, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. "Mishandling the issue is not conducive to strategic stability in the region and could intensify disputes," Xinhua quoted Xi as telling Park Geun-hye. The stated purpose of the THAAD system is to defend South Korea from missile attack from the North.

South Korea reports that North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.

Aiming to restrain China's unilateral advances in the South China Sea, Japan has decided to provide two large patrol vessels to the Philippines to help strengthen that country's maritime security capabilities. Japan will provide 90-meter (295-foot) patrol vessels, the largest that Japan has ever provided to another nation. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled a plan to provide the patrol vessels to the Philippines during his first talks with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Laos on Tuesday afternoon. According to a Japanese government official, Japan will extend yen loans to the Philippines as part of its official development assistance. The funds raised will be used to build two patrol vessels in Japan that will be delivered to the Philippine Coast Guard. Japan has already decided to provide 10 40-meter patrol boats to the Philippines and has started to deliver some of them. It will be the first time for Japan to provide large patrol vessels to the country. During talks with Abe in November last year, then Philippine President Benigno Aquino asked Japan to provide large patrol vessels. Abe told Aquino that Japan would discuss the matter. Large patrol vessels have thick armor to protect against shells and therefore will likely be treated as weapons. The Japanese government plans to maintain cooperation with Duterte over the South China Sea issue, as it did with the administration of former President Aquino. However, Duterte's diplomatic strategies have yet to be formulated. He said he will respect the ruling handed down by an arbitration court that rejected China's claims over the South China Sea, but at the same time Duterte indicated his willingness to have bilateral negotiations with China. A meeting between President Barack Obama and Duterte was canceled on Tuesday after Duterte lashed out at Obama. Abe intended to build a relationship of trust with the Philippines during talks with Duterte on Tuesday and express again the need for cooperation between Japan, the United States and the Philippines. During the Abe-Duterte talks, Japan formally decided to lend the Maritime Self-Defense Force's TC-90 training aircraft to the Philippines. A plan to lend the training aircraft was agreed on between the two countries in May. It will be the first lending of defense equipment based on the agreement on defense equipment and technology transfer that Japan and the Philippines signed in February. In 1995, China occupied Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, which had been effectively controlled by the Philippines. In 2012, the Philippines saw the Scarborough Shoal taken under China's effective control. China is reportedly stepping up preparations to reclaim areas around the Scarborough Shoal. It is therefore an urgent task for the Philippines to strengthen its maritime security capabilities. Many Southeast Asia countries that have disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea are vulnerable in terms of maritime security capability. The government plans to help enhance their capabilities. Japan has already donated six used ships as patrol vessels to Vietnam.[SEP]Ahead of summit, Philippines shows images of Chinese boats at disputed shoal VIENTIANE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The Philippines' defence ministry released pictures on Wednesday showing what it said were Chinese boats near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just hours before Southeast Asian nations were due to meet China's premier at a summit in Laos. There was no explanation for the timing of the release, but it came two days after Manila expressed "grave concern" about the increasing number of Chinese vessels around the Scarborough Shoal and demanded an explanation from Beijing's ambassador. A Philippines official said the release of the photographs and a map was ordered by the defence minister, who is at the summit in Vientiane, Laos. China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts or all of the resource-rich South China Sea, making it a hotspot of regional tension. The last four are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The 10 images and map were sent by email to journalists, many of whom are in Vientiane for the ASEAN summit. The leaders were due to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday, although it was unclear if the row over the South China Sea would be openly addressed. The move by the Philippines comes after a spat with the United States, its main ally. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte criticised U.S. President Barack Obama, prompting the cancellation of a meeting between the two leaders in Laos. China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. The United States says it has no position on the territorial dispute, but has conducted freedom of navigation patrols close to Chinese-held islands, to Beijing's anger, while China has been bolstering its military presence there. Although the Scarborough Shoal is merely a few rocks poking above the sea, it is important to the Philippines because of its tranquil waters and rich stocks of fish. Manila says China's blockade of the shoal is a violation of international law. The dispute has become more significant since the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled on July 12 that no one country had sovereign rights over activity in the Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground for Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese. China has refused to recognise the ruling by the court in The Hague. Duterte wants China to abide by the ruling but he had pledged not to raise the issue during the meeting in Laos. He wants to smooth the way for bilateral negotiations and last month sent former President Fidel Ramos as his special envoy to meet Chinese representatives in Hong Kong. A draft ASEAN communique seen by Reuters on Monday listed eight points related to the South China Sea, but made no mention of the ruling. However, Duterte's defence minister said ahead of the summit that a Philippines air force plane had flown over the shoal and spotted more boats than usual in a flotilla China has maintained since seizing the shoal after a tense standoff in 2012. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the presence of six Chinese vessels in addition to coastguard ships in the area was "a cause of grave concern". A Philippine security official travelling with Duterte said it was a challenge for the government to explain why Filipino fishermen cannot go back and fish in the area when The Hague had ruled that Scarborough was a fishing ground for all. "We won in the arbitral court, but we could not enforce it, how can we explain that to our own fishermen?" said the official, who declined to be named. "So, we wanted to talk to China and resolve the issue, but the situation like this is making it more difficult. The president is asking what is China's intentions in the area?"[SEP]American officials had been waiting to see what China would do around Scarborough Shoal after the summit meeting, assuming that the Chinese would not act sooner in the interest of preserving a seamless conference. The appearance of ships while global leaders were still in Hangzhou was not expected. The meeting had already been rocked by a chaotic arrival when the Chinese did not provide a rolling staircase for President Obama to disembark from the main door of Air Force One on his arrival in Hangzhou on Saturday. Mr. Obama got off the plane by a staircase carried on board Air Force One and released from the belly of the aircraft. Scarborough Shoal has been the center of attention as one of the most desirable places in the South China Sea for the Chinese to convert into an artificial island. It is close to military bases in the Philippines where the United States military has access. In the last several years, the Chinese have built a group of artificial islands with military capabilities in the Spratly Archipelago, not far from Scarborough Shoal.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos — The Philippine government today released what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, in an apparent diplomatic gambit to publicize its concerns at a regional summit being attended by China's premier and Southeast Asian leaders. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to ask Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in the Laotian capital whether the vessels were on another island-making mission on the Scarborough Shoal. China has built seven such islands in the disputed, resource-rich sea, alarming neighbors and rival claimants. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China hadn't done anything to alter the circumstances in the waters surrounding the shoal. "What I can tell you is that the situation in waters near Huangyan Island remains unchanged and China hasn't made any new moves," Hua said in Beijing, using the shoal's Chinese name. "We should be highly alert against the mischief-making intentions of people who spread such groundless information in such situations." Asked how disturbed the Philippines was by the presence of the Chinese ships, Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella told a news conference: "Enough to announce it." He said that China and the Philippines were discussing the issue, but gave no details. "There are talks at this stage," Abella said. He refused to comment if the Philippine policy was to prevent any country from constructing at or transforming Scarborough, a coral reef, into an island. If the Chinese government confirms the photos, the Philippines will lodge an official protest, said Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. Duterte has taken a more reconciliatory track to rebuild relations with China ad has said he would not raise the long-simmering territorial disputes in an adversarial manner that might upset Beijing. Relations were severely strained under Duterte's predecessor because of the conflict. However, Duterte expressed alarm after a Philippine surveillance plane recently spotted four Chinese coast guard ships, four suspected barges, including one equipped with what appeared to be a crane. The government released the photos with a diagram showing the vessels' exact locations at the shoal, which the Chinese coast guard seized after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012. Hours after the Philippines released the pictures, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met with Li and his aides. The South China Sea dispute was tackled at the closed-door meeting with some of the leaders, including Duterte, who reiterated calls for the conflicts to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said. He quoted the Chinese premier as saying that there was now a "positive direction" in Beijing's relations with ASEAN and that the disputes should not affect overall relations. The U.S. military has also expressed concerns over the possibility that China might turn Scarborough into another island, something that would give Beijing's forces control over a swath of the South China Sea used as a passageway to the Taiwan Strait. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, citing historical reasons. It has rejected a July 12 international arbitration ruling that called its claims illegal. The tribunal ruling also rebuked China for its land reclamation activities.[SEP]Ahead of summit, Philippines shows images of Chinese boats at disputed shoal VIENTIANE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The Philippines' defence ministry released pictures on Wednesday showing what it said were Chinese boats near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just hours before Southeast Asian nations were due to meet China's premier at a summit in Laos. There was no explanation for the timing of the release, but it came two days after Manila expressed "grave concern" about the increasing number of Chinese vessels around the Scarborough Shoal and demanded an explanation from Beijing's ambassador. A Philippines official said the release of the photographs and a map was ordered by the defence minister, who is at the summit in Vientiane, Laos. China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts or all of the resource-rich South China Sea, making it a hotspot of regional tension. The last four are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The 10 images and map were sent by email to journalists, many of whom are in Vientiane for the ASEAN summit. The leaders were due to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday, although it was unclear if the row over the South China Sea would be openly addressed. The move by the Philippines comes after a spat with the United States, its main ally. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte criticised U.S. President Barack Obama, prompting the cancellation of a meeting between the two leaders in Laos. China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. The United States says it has no position on the territorial dispute, but has conducted freedom of navigation patrols close to Chinese-held islands, to Beijing's anger, while China has been bolstering its military presence there. Although the Scarborough Shoal is merely a few rocks poking above the sea, it is important to the Philippines because of its tranquil waters and rich stocks of fish. Manila says China's blockade of the shoal is a violation of international law. The dispute has become more significant since the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled on July 12 that no one country had sovereign rights over activity in the Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground for Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese. China has refused to recognise the ruling by the court in The Hague. Duterte wants China to abide by the ruling but he had pledged not to raise the issue during the meeting in Laos. He wants to smooth the way for bilateral negotiations and last month sent former President Fidel Ramos as his special envoy to meet Chinese representatives in Hong Kong. A draft ASEAN communique seen by Reuters on Monday listed eight points related to the South China Sea, but made no mention of the ruling. However, Duterte's defence minister said ahead of the summit that a Philippines air force plane had flown over the shoal and spotted more boats than usual in a flotilla China has maintained since seizing the shoal after a tense standoff in 2012. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the presence of six Chinese vessels in addition to coastguard ships in the area was "a cause of grave concern". A Philippine security official travelling with Duterte said it was a challenge for the government to explain why Filipino fishermen cannot go back and fish in the area when The Hague had ruled that Scarborough was a fishing ground for all. "We won in the arbitral court, but we could not enforce it, how can we explain that to our own fishermen?" said the official, who declined to be named. "So, we wanted to talk to China and resolve the issue, but the situation like this is making it more difficult. The president is asking what is China's intentions in the area?"[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos — The Philippine government today released what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, in an apparent diplomatic gambit to publicize its concerns at a regional summit being attended by China's premier and Southeast Asian leaders. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to ask Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in the Laotian capital whether the vessels were on another island-making mission on the Scarborough Shoal. China has built seven such islands in the disputed, resource-rich sea, alarming neighbors and rival claimants. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China hadn't done anything to alter the circumstances in the waters surrounding the shoal. "What I can tell you is that the situation in waters near Huangyan Island remains unchanged and China hasn't made any new moves," Hua said in Beijing, using the shoal's Chinese name. "We should be highly alert against the mischief-making intentions of people who spread such groundless information in such situations." Asked how disturbed the Philippines was by the presence of the Chinese ships, Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella told a news conference: "Enough to announce it." He said that China and the Philippines were discussing the issue, but gave no details. "There are talks at this stage," Abella said. He refused to comment if the Philippine policy was to prevent any country from constructing at or transforming Scarborough, a coral reef, into an island. If the Chinese government confirms the photos, the Philippines will lodge an official protest, said Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. Duterte has taken a more reconciliatory track to rebuild relations with China ad has said he would not raise the long-simmering territorial disputes in an adversarial manner that might upset Beijing. Relations were severely strained under Duterte's predecessor because of the conflict. However, Duterte expressed alarm after a Philippine surveillance plane recently spotted four Chinese coast guard ships, four suspected barges, including one equipped with what appeared to be a crane. The government released the photos with a diagram showing the vessels' exact locations at the shoal, which the Chinese coast guard seized after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012. Hours after the Philippines released the pictures, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met with Li and his aides. The South China Sea dispute was tackled at the closed-door meeting with some of the leaders, including Duterte, who reiterated calls for the conflicts to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said. He quoted the Chinese premier as saying that there was now a "positive direction" in Beijing's relations with ASEAN and that the disputes should not affect overall relations. The U.S. military has also expressed concerns over the possibility that China might turn Scarborough into another island, something that would give Beijing's forces control over a swath of the South China Sea used as a passageway to the Taiwan Strait. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, citing historical reasons. It has rejected a July 12 international arbitration ruling that called its claims illegal. The tribunal ruling also rebuked China for its land reclamation activities.[SEP]The Philippine government Wednesday released what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, in an apparent diplomatic gambit to publicize its concerns at a regional summit being attended by China's premier and Southeast Asian leaders. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to ask Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in the Laotian capital whether the vessels were on another island-making mission on the Scarborough Shoal. China has built seven such islands in the disputed, resource-rich sea, alarming neighbors and rival claimants. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that China hadn't done anything to alter the circumstances in the waters surrounding the shoal. "What I can tell you is that the situation in waters near Huangyan Island remains unchanged and China hasn't made any new moves," Hua said in Beijing, using the shoal's Chinese name. "We should be highly alert against the mischief-making intentions of people who spread such groundless information in such situations." Asked how disturbed the Philippines was by the presence of the Chinese ships, Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella told a news conference: "Enough to announce it." He said that China and the Philippines were discussing the issue, but gave no details. "There are talks at this stage," Abella said. He refused to comment if the Philippine policy was to prevent any country from constructing at or transforming Scarborough, a coral reef, into an island. If the Chinese government confirms the photos, the Philippines will lodge an official protest, said Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. Duterte has taken a more reconciliatory track to rebuild relations with China ad has said he would not raise the long-simmering territorial disputes in an adversarial manner that might upset Beijing. Relations were severely strained under Duterte's predecessor because of the conflict. However, Duterte expressed alarm after a Philippine surveillance plane recently spotted four Chinese coast guard ships, four suspected barges, including one equipped with what appeared to be a crane. The government released the photos with a diagram showing the vessels' exact locations at the shoal, which the Chinese coast guard seized after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012. Hours after the Philippines released the pictures, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met with Li and his aides. The South China Sea dispute was tackled at the closed-door meeting with some of the leaders, including Duterte, who reiterated calls for the conflicts to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said. He quoted the Chinese premier as saying that there was now a "positive direction" in Beijing's relations with ASEAN and that the disputes should not affect overall relations. The U.S. military has also expressed concerns over the possibility that China might turn Scarborough into another island, something that would give Beijing's forces control over a swath of the South China Sea used as a passageway to the Taiwan Strait. China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own, citing historical reasons. It has rejected a July 12 international arbitration ruling that called its claims illegal. The tribunal ruling also rebuked China for its land reclamation activities.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — The Philippine government has released what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea just hours before the Chinese premier attended a regional summit with Southeast Asian leaders. Officials say Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to ask Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in the Laotian capital on Wednesday whether the vessels were on another island-making mission on the Scarborough Shoal. China has built many such islands in the disputed, resource-rich sea, much to the alarm of governments in the region. If the Chinese government confirms the suspicion, the Philippines would lodge an official protest, according to Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. China has not commented on the presence of the ships.[SEP]China says no change to the situation around disputed Scarborough Shoal BEIJING, Sept 7 (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that there had been no change to the situation around Scarborough Shoal, after the Philippines said it was seeking clarification from China about an increase in ships near the disputed South China Sea shoal. "I can tell you that there has not been any change to the Huangyan Island situation. China has also not taken new actions," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing, using China's name for the shoal. "Given this situation, some people are hyping the situation by spreading that kind of information. I think it is worth everyone being vigilant of this kind of intent." (Reporting by Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — The Philippine government on Wednesday released what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, in an apparent diplomatic gambit to publicize its concerns at a regional summit being attended by China’s premier and Southeast Asian leaders. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to ask Premier Li Keqiang at the summit in the Laotian capital whether the vessels were on another island-making mission on the Scarborough Shoal. China has built many such islands in the disputed, resource-rich sea, much to the alarm of governments in the region. If the Chinese government confirms the suspicion, the Philippines would lodge an official protest, according to Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. China has not commented on the accusations. Duterte has taken a more reconciliatory track to rebuild relations with the Asian economic powerhouse and has said he would not raise the long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea in an adversarial manner that might upset the Chinese government. Relations were severely strained under Duterte’s predecessor because of the conflict. However, he expressed alarm after a Philippine surveillance plane recently spotted four Chinese coast guard ships, four suspected barges, including one equipped with what appeared to be a crane, and two people-carrying ferries at the Scarborough Shoal off his country’s northwestern coast. Duterte’s government released surveillance photos of the Chinese ships and barges along with a diagram showing the vessels’ exact locations at the Scarborough Shoal, which the Chinese coast guard seized after a tense standoff with Philippine vessels in 2012. Hours after the Philippines released the pictures, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, met with Li and his aides. The meeting was held behind closed doors and it is not immediately known if the South China Sea dispute was raised. The U.S. military has also expressed concerns over the possibility that China might turn Scarborough into another island, something that would give Beijing’s forces control over a swathe of the South China Sea used as a passageway to the Taiwan Strait. China claims the entire South China Sea as its own, citing historical reasons. It has rejected a July 12 international arbitration ruling that called its claims illegal. The tribunal ruling also rebuked China for its land reclamation activities in the resource-rich sea, where it has conflicting claims with Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei besides the Philippines. All of the countries are members of the 10-nation ASEAN, which treads a delicate path with the emerging superpower. They benefit greatly from its powerful economy – China is now the biggest source of tourists to the region – but its growing might also poses challenges. The issue of ownership of the South China Sea has come to dominate the annual ASEAN summit and the separate ASEAN-China summit in recent years. On Wednesday, the leaders of AESEAN and Li cut a cake before the beginning of the summit to celebrate 25 years of relations.

Chinese vessels are seen positioned near the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the coast of the Philippines.

Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, and an Associate Fellow of the Asia programme at Chatham House. The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author. (CNN) The Hong Kong elections for the city's Legislative Council held Sunday -- the parliament for Hong Kong's Special Administrative Region -- were always going to be significant: they are the first to have been held since the anti-Beijing Occupy Central protests that attracted international attention in 2014. Several members of the Umbrella Movement have been elected, including Nathan Law from the Demosisto Party , set up by activists as a direct result of the Occupy Central movement. Having formal representation by people previously regarded as anathema to the mainstream electorate in Hong Kong even a few years ago is a clear sign of how much confidence towards Beijing -- and the government it supports in Hong Kong -- has eroded in the last few years. But before predicting imminent revolution, a couple of things need to be considered. Hong Kong's politics has always been volatile. There were riots by sympathizers to the radical Maoist leadership during the Cultural Revolution half a century ago. In the final years of the British colonial era, strong divisions against the 1997 handover deal with Beijing appeared. That pro- and anti-mainland fault line exists to this day. All that's changed is that it has become deeper. Throughout the last 20 years, there have been massive protests against issues running from Chinese attempts to introduce patriotic education, to the attempts to impose anti-secession legislation a decade ago. What happened on Sunday is simply a further manifestation of this often contrarian local political atmosphere. The element that is new is the deeper role of Beijing and its ideas in local politics. The leadership of Xi Jinping has shown a hard edge towards the city. Officials in his administration have made it clear that the only option in Hong Kong is to work within the framework they supply. There can be dabbling around the edges, and some compromise. But on the main issues, Beijing's fiat rules. Activists in Hong Kong would be naïve in the extreme to believe that moves towards unilateral independence would ever be permitted by Beijing. It has reacted with extreme harshness to any such talk in Tibet and Xinjiang. Even over Taiwan, which enjoys de facto independence, it makes loud and intolerant noises when anyone so much as mentions the possibility of the island being a separate sovereign entity. For Hong Kong, therefore, the context in which it exists is set in stone. It is, and will remain part of the People's Republic. The question is under what terms. This is not to be dismissive of the clear sign offered by these elections that many people living in Hong Kong are frustrated, angry, and want a better political deal. For these people, the same challenges of stagnant wages, rising living costs, and constant economic pressure are shared with communities across the planet. So, too, is real anger at the very poor quality of leadership they have seen in the city's political elite in the last few years. They don't feel they have been represented well -- and they are probably right. C Y Leung has proved a weak and often ineffective chief executive. The possibility of his standing for a second term next year will only create even more frustration. The simple fact is that the people of Hong Kong have sent a message in supporting more radical parties. The authorities can either dismiss that, or try to work out a way of solving it. For Hong Kong's future, there are two stark issues that need to be addressed by the parties involved. Pursuing a more confrontational stance towards Beijing by local politicians creates the kind of uncertainty that risks weakening the principle assets the city has: a strong, global finance and services-based economy. But that does not mean that the government can simply ignore the clear evidence these elections give of a divided, unhappy electorate and do nothing about the underlying causes. The brutal fact remains that unless the government, which has a key role in all of this, can find a constructive way out of the current impasse, there is a real possibility that Hong Kong's best days will be behind it. And that is a lose-lose scenario for everyone.[SEP]Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, and an Associate Fellow of the Asia programme at Chatham House. The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author. (CNN) The Hong Kong elections for the city's Legislative Council held Sunday -- the parliament for Hong Kong's Special Administrative Region -- were always going to be significant: they are the first to have been held since the anti-Beijing Occupy Central protests that attracted international attention in 2014. Several members of the Umbrella Movement have been elected, including Nathan Law from the Demosisto Party , set up by activists as a direct result of the Occupy Central movement. Having formal representation by people previously regarded as anathema to the mainstream electorate in Hong Kong even a few years ago is a clear sign of how much confidence towards Beijing -- and the government it supports in Hong Kong -- has eroded in the last few years. But before predicting imminent revolution, a couple of things need to be considered. Hong Kong's politics has always been volatile. There were riots by sympathizers to the radical Maoist leadership during the Cultural Revolution half a century ago. In the final years of the British colonial era, strong divisions against the 1997 handover deal with Beijing appeared. That pro- and anti-mainland fault line exists to this day. All that's changed is that it has become deeper. Throughout the last 20 years, there have been massive protests against issues running from Chinese attempts to introduce patriotic education, to the attempts to impose anti-secession legislation a decade ago. What happened on Sunday is simply a further manifestation of this often contrarian local political atmosphere. The element that is new is the deeper role of Beijing and its ideas in local politics. The leadership of Xi Jinping has shown a hard edge towards the city. Officials in his administration have made it clear that the only option in Hong Kong is to work within the framework they supply. There can be dabbling around the edges, and some compromise. But on the main issues, Beijing's fiat rules. Activists in Hong Kong would be naïve in the extreme to believe that moves towards unilateral independence would ever be permitted by Beijing. It has reacted with extreme harshness to any such talk in Tibet and Xinjiang. Even over Taiwan, which enjoys de facto independence, it makes loud and intolerant noises when anyone so much as mentions the possibility of the island being a separate sovereign entity. For Hong Kong, therefore, the context in which it exists is set in stone. It is, and will remain part of the People's Republic. The question is under what terms. This is not to be dismissive of the clear sign offered by these elections that many people living in Hong Kong are frustrated, angry, and want a better political deal. For these people, the same challenges of stagnant wages, rising living costs, and constant economic pressure are shared with communities across the planet. So, too, is real anger at the very poor quality of leadership they have seen in the city's political elite in the last few years. They don't feel they have been represented well -- and they are probably right. C Y Leung has proved a weak and often ineffective chief executive. The possibility of his standing for a second term next year will only create even more frustration. The simple fact is that the people of Hong Kong have sent a message in supporting more radical parties. The authorities can either dismiss that, or try to work out a way of solving it. For Hong Kong's future, there are two stark issues that need to be addressed by the parties involved. Pursuing a more confrontational stance towards Beijing by local politicians creates the kind of uncertainty that risks weakening the principle assets the city has: a strong, global finance and services-based economy. But that does not mean that the government can simply ignore the clear evidence these elections give of a divided, unhappy electorate and do nothing about the underlying causes. The brutal fact remains that unless the government, which has a key role in all of this, can find a constructive way out of the current impasse, there is a real possibility that Hong Kong's best days will be behind it. And that is a lose-lose scenario for everyone.[SEP]Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, and an Associate Fellow of the Asia programme at Chatham House. The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author. (CNN) The Hong Kong elections for the city's Legislative Council held Sunday -- the parliament for Hong Kong's Special Administrative Region -- were always going to be significant: they are the first to have been held since the anti-Beijing Occupy Central protests that attracted international attention in 2014. Several members of the Umbrella Movement have been elected, including Nathan Law from the Demosisto Party , set up by activists as a direct result of the Occupy Central movement. Having formal representation by people previously regarded as anathema to the mainstream electorate in Hong Kong even a few years ago is a clear sign of how much confidence towards Beijing -- and the government it supports in Hong Kong -- has eroded in the last few years. But before predicting imminent revolution, a couple of things need to be considered. Hong Kong's politics has always been volatile. There were riots by sympathizers to the radical Maoist leadership during the Cultural Revolution half a century ago. In the final years of the British colonial era, strong divisions against the 1997 handover deal with Beijing appeared. That pro- and anti-mainland fault line exists to this day. All that's changed is that it has become deeper. Throughout the last 20 years, there have been massive protests against issues running from Chinese attempts to introduce patriotic education, to the attempts to impose anti-secession legislation a decade ago. What happened on Sunday is simply a further manifestation of this often contrarian local political atmosphere. The element that is new is the deeper role of Beijing and its ideas in local politics. The leadership of Xi Jinping has shown a hard edge towards the city. Officials in his administration have made it clear that the only option in Hong Kong is to work within the framework they supply. There can be dabbling around the edges, and some compromise. But on the main issues, Beijing's fiat rules. Activists in Hong Kong would be naïve in the extreme to believe that moves towards unilateral independence would ever be permitted by Beijing. It has reacted with extreme harshness to any such talk in Tibet and Xinjiang. Even over Taiwan, which enjoys de facto independence, it makes loud and intolerant noises when anyone so much as mentions the possibility of the island being a separate sovereign entity. For Hong Kong, therefore, the context in which it exists is set in stone. It is, and will remain part of the People's Republic. The question is under what terms. This is not to be dismissive of the clear sign offered by these elections that many people living in Hong Kong are frustrated, angry, and want a better political deal. For these people, the same challenges of stagnant wages, rising living costs, and constant economic pressure are shared with communities across the planet. So, too, is real anger at the very poor quality of leadership they have seen in the city's political elite in the last few years. They don't feel they have been represented well -- and they are probably right. C Y Leung has proved a weak and often ineffective chief executive. The possibility of his standing for a second term next year will only create even more frustration. The simple fact is that the people of Hong Kong have sent a message in supporting more radical parties. The authorities can either dismiss that, or try to work out a way of solving it. For Hong Kong's future, there are two stark issues that need to be addressed by the parties involved. Pursuing a more confrontational stance towards Beijing by local politicians creates the kind of uncertainty that risks weakening the principle assets the city has: a strong, global finance and services-based economy. But that does not mean that the government can simply ignore the clear evidence these elections give of a divided, unhappy electorate and do nothing about the underlying causes. The brutal fact remains that unless the government, which has a key role in all of this, can find a constructive way out of the current impasse, there is a real possibility that Hong Kong's best days will be behind it. And that is a lose-lose scenario for everyone.[SEP]Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, and an Associate Fellow of the Asia programme at Chatham House. The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author. (CNN) The Hong Kong elections for the city's Legislative Council held Sunday -- the parliament for Hong Kong's Special Administrative Region -- were always going to be significant: they are the first to have been held since the anti-Beijing Occupy Central protests that attracted international attention in 2014. Several members of the Umbrella Movement have been elected, including Nathan Law from the Demosisto Party , set up by activists as a direct result of the Occupy Central movement. Having formal representation by people previously regarded as anathema to the mainstream electorate in Hong Kong even a few years ago is a clear sign of how much confidence towards Beijing -- and the government it supports in Hong Kong -- has eroded in the last few years. But before predicting imminent revolution, a couple of things need to be considered. Hong Kong's politics has always been volatile. There were riots by sympathizers to the radical Maoist leadership during the Cultural Revolution half a century ago. In the final years of the British colonial era, strong divisions against the 1997 handover deal with Beijing appeared. That pro- and anti-mainland fault line exists to this day. All that's changed is that it has become deeper. Throughout the last 20 years, there have been massive protests against issues running from Chinese attempts to introduce patriotic education, to the attempts to impose anti-secession legislation a decade ago. What happened on Sunday is simply a further manifestation of this often contrarian local political atmosphere. The element that is new is the deeper role of Beijing and its ideas in local politics. The leadership of Xi Jinping has shown a hard edge towards the city. Officials in his administration have made it clear that the only option in Hong Kong is to work within the framework they supply. There can be dabbling around the edges, and some compromise. But on the main issues, Beijing's fiat rules. Activists in Hong Kong would be naïve in the extreme to believe that moves towards unilateral independence would ever be permitted by Beijing. It has reacted with extreme harshness to any such talk in Tibet and Xinjiang. Even over Taiwan, which enjoys de facto independence, it makes loud and intolerant noises when anyone so much as mentions the possibility of the island being a separate sovereign entity. For Hong Kong, therefore, the context in which it exists is set in stone. It is, and will remain part of the People's Republic. The question is under what terms. This is not to be dismissive of the clear sign offered by these elections that many people living in Hong Kong are frustrated, angry, and want a better political deal. For these people, the same challenges of stagnant wages, rising living costs, and constant economic pressure are shared with communities across the planet. So, too, is real anger at the very poor quality of leadership they have seen in the city's political elite in the last few years. They don't feel they have been represented well -- and they are probably right. C Y Leung has proved a weak and often ineffective chief executive. The possibility of his standing for a second term next year will only create even more frustration. The simple fact is that the people of Hong Kong have sent a message in supporting more radical parties. The authorities can either dismiss that, or try to work out a way of solving it. For Hong Kong's future, there are two stark issues that need to be addressed by the parties involved. Pursuing a more confrontational stance towards Beijing by local politicians creates the kind of uncertainty that risks weakening the principle assets the city has: a strong, global finance and services-based economy. But that does not mean that the government can simply ignore the clear evidence these elections give of a divided, unhappy electorate and do nothing about the underlying causes. The brutal fact remains that unless the government, which has a key role in all of this, can find a constructive way out of the current impasse, there is a real possibility that Hong Kong's best days will be behind it. And that is a lose-lose scenario for everyone.[SEP]Nearly two years ago, young students boycotted classes and began a mass civil disobedience movement in downtown Hong Kong to protest against a controversial electoral reform bill. For 79 days, thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets blocking roads and shutting down key areas of one of the world’s major financial centres. Protesters were beaten, pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed by police during what is known as Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, named after the way demonstrators used umbrellas to protect themselves from police pepper spray. The pro-democracy movement fizzled after the Hong Kong government and China refused to allow any real concessions for a full election in 2017. READ MORE: Hong Kong - At the heart of Occupy Central Nathan Law Kwun-chung, 23, was one of the student leaders of the Umbrella Revolution and a key figure in the 2014 pro-democracy movement. In April, he founded the Demosisto party with another prominent former protest leader Joshua Wong. His party is calling for independence from China and a referendum on Hong Kong's sovereignty in 2047. On Monday, in the first major, city-wide, legislative council election since the Umbrella Movement, several young, pro-independence candidates were elected. Law was one of them. Al Jazeera spoke to Law who has become the youngest legislator in Hong Kong's history. Al Jazeera: Tell us about your campaign and why you think you won? Law: I believe the people of Hong Kong were looking for a new voice in the electoral system who can uphold the different voices of the democratic movement. I think the elections reflect that. WATCH our three part series Hong Kong: Occupy Central Al Jazeera: You are Hong Kong's youngest politician. Do you think you have the experience to carry that voice? Law: For the past few months and few weeks during the campaigning I have performed well and have proved myself to those who were questioning my abilities. I have convinced them of what I can do. Age is a factor that is not affecting my performance. For the past two years, I have been fighting against the Communist Party as part of the Umbrella Movement. I was the core organiser of that protest. I will be one of the few in the legislative council with that kind of experience in terms of that framework. I am perfect for that. Al Jazeera: What will be your agenda? Law: The problem with the Hong Kong situation ... it is completely different to talk about it in daily life or during campaigning and putting it on the agenda. Talking about Hong Kong's self-determination is one of the main things I want to talk about and that will be at the core of my job. Al Jazeera: How are you going to be different from others? What can you bring to your constituency and the people? Law: For the past two years I have been involved in the citizen's movement. I am keen on continuing that. I would sacrifice myself to make my target happen. It is with that experience that I would bring changes to the system. I think ... during this election, because of our movement, people came to us and supported us, and that influence will continue in the future. READ MORE: Hong Kong votes in first major election since protests Al Jazeera: What does the road ahead for you and your party hold? Law: We need time to digest and assess first and see how we can bring changes and push for the self-determination movement. How can we arouse public debate and discussion? Al Jazeera: Is this a fantasy? Law: No, we have to accumulate our power. It is not difficult to understand what we want. There is always hope. People need to realise the desire for Hong Kong's residents to decide their own future. Al Jazeera: Will you be pushing for change in the current electoral system, and how? Law: Definitely, we want electoral change in our system. That is the basis of democracy. We want to change that and we should do it together. Al Jazeera: What kind of message do you think these elections have sent to Beijing? Law: I think Beijing is worried about what happened today, that we have a new voice of resistance. They are worried about that. Al Jazeera: How will you unite the fractured democratic camp? Law: I know there is a lot of fragmentation in the camp but I believe as individuals we need to search for cooperation. That is what I want to do. We recognise that there have been ups and downs in the movement. We understood that we need to have representation in the electoral system. We need to have steady political influence on the society. That is why we needed to involve ourselves in politics.[SEP]Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, and an Associate Fellow of the Asia programme at Chatham House. The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author. (CNN) The Hong Kong elections for the city's Legislative Council held Sunday -- the parliament for Hong Kong's Special Administrative Region -- were always going to be significant: they are the first to have been held since the anti-Beijing Occupy Central protests that attracted international attention in 2014. Several members of the Umbrella Movement have been elected, including Nathan Law from the Demosisto Party , set up by activists as a direct result of the Occupy Central movement. Having formal representation by people previously regarded as anathema to the mainstream electorate in Hong Kong even a few years ago is a clear sign of how much confidence towards Beijing -- and the government it supports in Hong Kong -- has eroded in the last few years. But before predicting imminent revolution, a couple of things need to be considered. Hong Kong's politics has always been volatile. There were riots by sympathizers to the radical Maoist leadership during the Cultural Revolution half a century ago. In the final years of the British colonial era, strong divisions against the 1997 handover deal with Beijing appeared. That pro- and anti-mainland fault line exists to this day. All that's changed is that it has become deeper. Throughout the last 20 years, there have been massive protests against issues running from Chinese attempts to introduce patriotic education, to the attempts to impose anti-secession legislation a decade ago. What happened on Sunday is simply a further manifestation of this often contrarian local political atmosphere. The element that is new is the deeper role of Beijing and its ideas in local politics. The leadership of Xi Jinping has shown a hard edge towards the city. Officials in his administration have made it clear that the only option in Hong Kong is to work within the framework they supply. There can be dabbling around the edges, and some compromise. But on the main issues, Beijing's fiat rules. Activists in Hong Kong would be naïve in the extreme to believe that moves towards unilateral independence would ever be permitted by Beijing. It has reacted with extreme harshness to any such talk in Tibet and Xinjiang. Even over Taiwan, which enjoys de facto independence, it makes loud and intolerant noises when anyone so much as mentions the possibility of the island being a separate sovereign entity. For Hong Kong, therefore, the context in which it exists is set in stone. It is, and will remain part of the People's Republic. The question is under what terms. This is not to be dismissive of the clear sign offered by these elections that many people living in Hong Kong are frustrated, angry, and want a better political deal. For these people, the same challenges of stagnant wages, rising living costs, and constant economic pressure are shared with communities across the planet. So, too, is real anger at the very poor quality of leadership they have seen in the city's political elite in the last few years. They don't feel they have been represented well -- and they are probably right. C Y Leung has proved a weak and often ineffective chief executive. The possibility of his standing for a second term next year will only create even more frustration. The simple fact is that the people of Hong Kong have sent a message in supporting more radical parties. The authorities can either dismiss that, or try to work out a way of solving it. For Hong Kong's future, there are two stark issues that need to be addressed by the parties involved. Pursuing a more confrontational stance towards Beijing by local politicians creates the kind of uncertainty that risks weakening the principle assets the city has: a strong, global finance and services-based economy. But that does not mean that the government can simply ignore the clear evidence these elections give of a divided, unhappy electorate and do nothing about the underlying causes. The brutal fact remains that unless the government, which has a key role in all of this, can find a constructive way out of the current impasse, there is a real possibility that Hong Kong's best days will be behind it. And that is a lose-lose scenario for everyone.[SEP]Nathan Law, a student leader of Hong Kong's mass 'Umbrella Revolution' democracy rallies two years ago, is now at the forefront of a new guard of young lawmakers pushing for autonomy from China. In the biggest polls since the 2014 protests made Law a household name in Hong Kong, the 23-year-old entered the legislature with a convincing victory, gaining more than 50,000 votes. He becomes the youngest lawmaker to win a seat in the Legislative Council (LegCo) in this year's vote. Law was representing new party Demosisto -- which he founded with fellow Umbrella Movement leader Joshua Wong -- calling for Hong Kong people to have the right to vote in a referendum on independence from Beijing. Britain in 1997 handed the city back to China under a "one country, two systems" agreement, with its rights and freedoms guaranteed for 50 years under a semi-autonomous system. But fears are growing that Beijing is tightening its grip and that those liberties are being eroded. Law has pledged to push his party's self-determination message from the start in LegCo, the city's lawmaking body. "People are voting (for) a new way and a new future for the democratic movement," he said after his win. "I'm bearing the trust and support of many people. It motivates me to do better." In an interview with AFP, Law cast himself as a bridge to unite the factions of the democratic camp, which is split between established parties wary of a pro-independence message and new activists who want more autonomy. University student Law, who is reading cultural studies, rose to prominence during the 2014 rallies, delivering speeches to tens of thousands who protested on the streets and meeting government officials in what were ultimately fruitless negotiations. After the failure of the Umbrella Movement to win political reform, morale in the pro-democracy camp waned, with Law and Wong in and out of court on protest-related charges. Law was last month convicted of inciting people to join an unlawful assembly, but escaped jail time with a community service sentence. His election is a validation of the 2014 rallies, says Law, one of at least four young campaigners who are calling for more distance from Beijing to win a LegCo seat. "There are a lot more people coming out to vote because they see new choice," Law said. "We inherited some spirit from the (Umbrella) Movement and I hope that that can continue in the future."

Nathan Law becomes the youngest-ever Hong Kong legislator at age 23.

What If: Could Gary Johnson get hot and play the spoiler? PHOENIX (AP) — Unpopular among many Americans, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have opened the door for a third-party spoiler in the presidential campaign — and just as Gary Johnson is starting to warm up. Voters like Carlos Moreno could help him catch fire. "I certainly don't want Trump to get in, but Clinton worries me," said Moreno, a registered Democrat who works as a process server in the Phoenix area. "I've thought about Johnson, but I haven't begun reading up on him. I better start." The folksy Libertarian, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, is on the ballot in 50 states. Green Party nominee Jill Stein is on the ballot in about half. Neither is remotely within reach of carrying a state. Nor do Johnson or Stein appear to be in a position to tip any states toward Trump. But there's a chance that Johnson could move a close race toward Clinton, in much the same way that Ralph Nader pulled enough votes away from Al Gore in 2000 to hand Florida to George W. Bush. Of the roughly dozen battleground states on the road to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, it's in Arizona where circumstances could align in just such a way that Johnson could play spoiler. While Trump naturally has an edge as the Republican nominee — the GOP has carried the state in 11 of the past 12 elections — Johnson could steal enough votes away to allow Clinton to snag the state's 11 Electoral College votes. In congressional elections in Arizona four years ago, Libertarian candidates drew enough votes away from GOP candidates to allow Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema to win a pair of U.S. House races. The state's junior senator, Jeff Flake, who had endeared himself to many Libertarians while serving in the House, won his bid for Senate that year, too. "It could happen," said Flake. "Donald Trump has managed to make this an interesting state in terms of presidential politics, and not in the way that Republicans have wanted." But the politics of third-party spoilers are complicated. In an August CNN poll conducted in Arizona, likely Republican voters were slightly more likely than Democrats to say they'll support Johnson if he's on the ballot, 10 percent to 4 percent. But Trump's advantage over Clinton in the poll actually widened slightly when Johnson was included, from 5 points to 7 points. That could indicate that Johnson gives a home to voters who feel closer to the Republican Party, but are not planning on supporting Trump even in a two-person race.[SEP]The headlines you want – delivered to your inbox daily.[SEP]If Hillary Clinton carries Arizona in November, there’s a good chance it won’t be because Democrats on their own have flipped a reliable GOP state they hope to win consistently someday. Instead, Clinton and Democrats may have Gary Johnson to thank. The Libertarian Party nominee’s best chance to influence the presidential race may come in Arizona, where the former New Mexico governor appeals to a group of finicky conservatives who make up part of the GOP base. “It could happen,” said GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. “Donald Trump has managed to make this an interesting state in terms of presidential politics, and not in the way that Republicans have wanted.” Johnson “is an easy out for some people in our party,” Flake told The Associated Press. About a dozen of the most contested states will help determine which candidate gets the 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. In Arizona, where the Republican nominee has carried the state in 11 of the past 12 presidential elections, Johnson could play the spoiler, potentially putting 11 electoral votes in Clinton’s column. The GOP’s recent struggle with independent-minded, small-government Libertarians was clear before Trump’s speech Wednesday in Phoenix, when he reaffirmed a hard line on immigration. And his stance could alienate the roughly one-quarter of Hispanic voters in the state who usually align with Republicans. “I think that right now we’re at a tipping point, where at any moment we are going to begin to see an outpouring of support,” said Latino GOP strategist Juan Hernandez, who works for Johnson in Arizona. Sensing an opportunity herself, Clinton began airing television advertisements in the state Friday, and has reserved $500,000 in ad time through mid-September. Democratic strategist Andy Barr said Hispanic turnout was “the multimillion-dollar question.” About one-third of the state’s population identifies as Latino, but their share of the vote ranges between 12 percent and 16 percent, according to public and private polling. “(The) closer it gets to 20 percent, the more our chances of winning go up,” Barr said. Johnson will appear on the ballot in every state this fall, while Green Party nominee Jill Stein is on track to make it in at least half. Neither is remotely within reach of carrying a state. Neither seems in a position to tip any state toward Trump. But Johnson could move a close race toward Clinton, in much the same way that Ralph Nader pulled enough votes away from Democrat Al Gore in 2000 to hand Florida to Republican George W. Bush. Four years ago, Libertarian candidates in Arizona drew enough votes away from Republicans that Democrats Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema won election to the U.S. House. Flake, who had endeared himself to many Libertarians while serving in the House, won his Senate race that year, too. “It’s a really sore spot for the party,” Arizona Republican Party spokesman Tim Sifert said of those 2012 results. “You could see people frustrated, throwing away their vote and going with a third-party candidate.” The views of most Libertarians, focused on personal liberty and small government, overlap more with Republicans than Democrats. Johnson’s call for dramatically lower business taxes and regulation to unburden entrepreneurs resonates with Matthew Sherman of Phoenix, who describes himself as more as a conservative than as a Republican. “I’m for whoever has the best plan on startup companies,” said the 31-year-old who’s working on a business networking app. “So far, that’s Gary.” Republican Dave Richins, a councilman in Mesa City, said Johnson is conservative on spending, but tolerant on social issues, which he calls “a pragmatic combination.” “For me, a lifelong Republican, I don’t agree with everything Johnson proposes,” said Richins, a Johnson organizer. “But I find his pragmatism refreshing. That’s how we get things done.” Johnson’s hands-off approach to government also includes decriminalizing marijuana, and he could benefit from a November ballot proposal in Arizona on that question. “That’s another reason for Libertarians to vote in higher numbers,” said Barr, who is running the decriminalization campaign. “We’re inclined to believe that could increase Johnson’s performance.” At the beginning of August, Johnson’s campaign had $1.2 million after raising $1.6 million in July, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Since Aug. 1, he’s raised more than $3 million, according to his campaign. That’s a paltry sum compared with Trump and Clinton, whose campaign said it raised a total of $143 million last month. Johnson is spending in a few competitive campaign states, including Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, and less competitive ones such as Oregon, New Mexico and Utah. Arizona is not on that list, but aides say it likely will be this fall. “As a New Mexican, he’s fairly well known in Arizona,” said Johnson’s spokesman, Joe Hunter. “Arizona makes sense for us. We have a natural base of support there.”[SEP]Purdue University President Mitch Daniels will have a public conversation with Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson on Sept. 13 on the university's campus in West Lafayette. Johnson is a former two-term Republican govenor of New Mexico, and Daniels is a former two-term Republican governor of Indiana. Johnson's campaign said in a news release that each "is a strong advocate for small government and personal freedom." Daniels has said he will not endorse a presidential candidate as part of his vow to avoid partisan political activity while he is president of Purdue. "Conversations with Gary Johnson" will be at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 13 at Loeb Hall. What the Johnson campaign described in a news release as an "arm chair forum" is co-sponsored by the Purdue chapter of Young Americans for Liberty. Event reservations may be made at www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-with-gary-johnson-at-purdue-tickets-27266302244. Results of a Washington Post-SurveyMonkey poll released Monday show that Johnson "is poised to garner significant support" in the Nov. 8 election, the Post reported. He is favored by at least 15 percent of registered voters in 15 states, the newspaper said. The poll found Johnson is preferred by 13 percent of Indiana voters, compared with 46 percent of Hoosier voters who favor Republican Donald Trump, 30 percent who favor Democrat Hillary Clinton, 5 percent who favor Green Party nominee Jill Stein and 6 percent who have no opinion.[SEP]The recent Richmond Times-Dispatch endorsement of Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president gives me a small measure of hope. Could it be that in an election where each major candidate is blackmailing us with the threat of the other, enough people might choose a better option? It's obvious that a major problem for Johnson is simple lack of public knowledge about him. In one recent Fox News poll, only about 50 percent of people had any opinion about him at all. However, Johnson still found a favorable rating of 33 percent. That approaches Donald Trump's and Hillary Clinton's favorable ratings of 42 percent and 45 percent respectively (in the same poll). It seems reasonable that if the other 50 percent of people knew enough to say whether they like Johnson, another 33 percent would bring him to practically tower over the “traditional” candidates at 66 percent favorable. Johnson's second problem is the standoff in which our major parties have placed us. I sincerely hope that we can de-escalate the election and not force each other to vote for candidates who are historically unpopular. Does Johnson have a chance to win this election? Maybe. I think that if all voters chose their most preferred candidate from all the available options, he could win. Only time will tell. Wherever one stands politically, I firmly believe that each of us needs to vote for the candidate we most prefer, whoever that may be, and not for a lesser evil. I trust that the Tribune Editorial Board, like the Richmond Times-Dispatch, will consider all of the candidates carefully and fully before endorsing.[SEP]Gary Johnson, struggling to move his poll numbers high enough to earn a spot in the presidential debates, is beginning his first television advertising of the 2016 campaign. Despite unprecedented discomfort with the Republican nominee, Johnson, the Libertarian candidate and a former Republican governor of New Mexico, has so far failed to sufficiently consolidate the support of Republicans opposed to Donald Trump. And he has said his campaign is doomed if he does not meet the 15% threshold needed to reach the debate stage and the national audience it provides. So after dedicating over $2 million to radio advertising, Johnson is headed to the big screen. "The difference between the two of us and the other candidates running for president is that we've been there," says Johnson in the low-tech, direct-to-camera spot "And done that," adds Johnson's running mate, former Republican Gov. Bill Weld of Massachusetts. Rather than running national advertisements aimed at lifting his numbers in the national polls used to assess viability for the debates, Johnson so far is airing the two weeks of television time mostly in western states where his campaign has expressed confidence: Washington, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and New Hampshire. A pro-Johnson super PAC aired over $550,000 in television advertisements last month, but is currently not on the air. "Give us one term, America. If, after four years, you decide you don't like peace, prosperity and freedom, you can always vote a Trump or a Hillary back into office again," Johnson says. The first presidential debate will be held September 26.

Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson qualifies in Connecticut giving him ballot access to 48 states.

(CNN) Philae, the little space robot that has captured hearts around the world, was thought to be forever lost. But delighted scientists announced Sunday that the European Space Agency's comet lander has come back from the cosmic dead. New images downloaded from the Rosetta probe in orbit around the awkwardly named Comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show the long-lost Philae wedged in a crack between some rocks. Rosetta captured the images in the nick of time, as its mission is ending in less than a month. "THE SEARCH IS OVER! I've found @Philae2014!!" announced the Rosetta Mission team on Twitter. The discovery is the latest twist in an amazing space odyssey. Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta probe sent an unexpected final image back to Earth shortly before it made a controlled impact onto the surface of Comet 67P last September. Hide Caption 1 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae has been found! – The Rosetta spacecraft's high-resolution camera took this image of the Philae lander on September 2, 2016. The lander is wedged into a dark crack on a comet, named 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko, hurtling through space. The discovery comes less than a month before the Rosetta mission's end. Hide Caption 2 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae is wedged in a dark corner of Rosetta – "We are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," says Cecilia Tubiana of the OSIRIS camera team. She was the first person to see the images when they were downlinked from the Rosetta probe, according to the European Space Agency. Hide Caption 3 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae found using images from Rosetta – The image is detailed enough that viewers can pick out features of Philae's 3-foot-wide (1 meter) body. Even two of its three legs can be seen. Hide Caption 4 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser One of the primary objectives of the Rosetta mission was to drop the Philae lander onto the comet. The probe was successfully deployed in November 2014, becoming the first probe to land on a comet. But Philae failed to grab onto the comet and bounced around. It fell silent a few days later. Then on June 13, 2015, Philae came out of hibernation and "spoke" to mission managers at the European Space Agency for 85 seconds. This photo above was taken by the lander's mothership, the Rosetta orbiter, after the lander started its descent to the comet. Hide Caption 5 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta spacecraft captured this image of a jet of white debris spraying from Comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko on July 29, 2015. Mission scientists said this was the brightest jet seen to date in the mission. The debris is mostly of ice coated with dark organic material. Hide Caption 6 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on July 8, 2015 as the spacecraft and comet headed toward their closest approach to the sun. Rosetta was about 125 miles (201 kilometers) from the comet when it took this image. Hide Caption 7 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae wakes up! Mission managers posted this cartoon of the lander yawning after it came out of hibernation on June 13, 2015. They also sent a series of tweets between the lander and its mothership, Rosetta. Hide Caption 8 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet. Its 6.5 year journey around the Sun takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter at its most distant, to between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its closest. The comet hails from the Kuiper Belt, but gravitational perturbations knocked it towards the Sun where interactions with Jupiter's gravity set it on its present-day orbit. Hide Caption 9 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on June 5, 2015, while the spacecraft was about 129 miles (208 kilometers) from the comet's center. Hide Caption 10 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's navigation camera took this image of the comet on June 1, 2015. Hide Caption 11 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta Mission is tracking Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its orbit around the sun. This image was taken on May 3, 2015 at a distance of about 84 miles (135 km) from the comet's center. Hide Caption 12 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on April 15, 2015. Hide Caption 13 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta snapped this wide-angle view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in September 2014. Rosetta was about 107 million miles (172 million kilometers) from Earth and about 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the sun when the photo was released. Hide Caption 14 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser A camera on Rosetta took this picture of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 22, 2014, from a distance of about 19 miles (31 kilometers). The nucleus is deliberately overexposed to reveal jets of material spewing from the comet. The 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) comet has shown a big increase in the amount of water its releasing, according to NASA. The space agency says about 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water was being sprayed into space every second at the end of August 2014. Hide Caption 15 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta took this picture of a section of the comet's two lobes from a distance of about 5 miles (8 kilometers) on October 14, 2014. Hide Caption 16 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander is shown sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after becoming the first space probe to land on a comet on November 12, 2014. The probe's harpoons failed to fire, and Philae bounced a few times. The lander was able to send back images and data for 57 hours before losing power. Hide Caption 17 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's lander, Philae, wasn't able to get a good grip on the comet after it touched down. This mosaic shows Philae's movements as it bounced across the comet. Hide Caption 18 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae snapped these images after landing, and mission scientists used them to create a panoramic view of the landing site. A graphic shows where the probe would be sitting in the photograph. Hide Caption 19 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by a camera on the Philae lander during its descent to the comet on November 12, 2014. The lander was about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) from the surface at the time. Philae touched down on the comet about seven hours later. Hide Caption 20 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's OSIRIS camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation. Hide Caption 21 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mother ship shortly after separation on November 12, 2014, as Philae headed for a landing on Comet 67P. While Philae is the first probe to land on a comet , Rosetta is the first to rendezvous with a comet and follow it around the sun. Hide Caption 22 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This mosaic is made of four individual images taken about 20 miles (31.8 kilometers ) from the center of the comet on November 4, 2014. Hide Caption 23 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 15, 2014. The box on the right shows where the lander was expected to touch down. Hide Caption 24 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The spacecraft sent this image as it approached the comet on August 6, 2014. From a distance of nearly 81 miles (130 kilometers), it reveals detail of the smooth region on the comet's "body" section. Hide Caption 25 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image, captured August 7, 2014, shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus. Hide Caption 26 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The comet's "head" can be seen in the left of the frame as it casts a shadow over the "body" in this image released August 6, 2014. Hide Caption 27 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of the comet was taken on August 1, 2014, as Rosetta closed in its target. Hide Caption 28 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's mission started on March 2, 2004, when it was launched on a European Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Hide Caption 29 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, the black basalt that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Scientists think the mission will give them new clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. The mission is spearheaded by the European Space Agency with key support from NASA. Hide Caption 30 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This photo shows Rosetta being tested before it was wrapped in insulating blankets and loaded on a rocket for launch. Hide Caption 31 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta has massive solar wings to power the spacecraft. They were unfurled and checked out at the European Space Agency's test facilities before being packed up for liftoff. Hide Caption 32 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser After its closest approach to Earth in November 2007, Rosetta captured this image of the planet. Hide Caption 33 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta snapped this image of Earth in November 2009. The spacecraft was 393,328 miles from Earth. Hide Caption 34 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta passed asteroid Steins in September 2008, giving scientists amazing close-ups of the asteroid's huge crater. The asteroid is about 3 miles in diameter. Hide Caption 35 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta took this image of Mars as it looped through the solar system. Hide Caption 36 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image was taken by an instrument on Rosetta's Philae lander just minutes before the spacecraft made its closest approach to Mars. Part of Rosetta and its solar arrays are visible. Hide Caption 37 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser On July 10, 2010, Rosetta flew about 1,864 miles from asteroid Lutetia, which is 10 times larger than asteroid Steins. Hide Caption 38 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Look closely at the top of this picture. See that dot? That's Saturn. Rosetta snapped the picture of asteroid Lutetia and captured Saturn in the background. Hide Caption 39 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser After taking pictures of Earth, Mars and asteroids, Rosetta was put into hibernation in May 2011 after it reached the outer part of the solar system. Mission managers woke it January 20, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 40 In November 2014, Philae completed a spectacular landing on the frozen surface of the comet, despite a harpoon system that did not function after its 10-year journey through space. The lander hopped across the comet's surface, and as people across the globe watched its progress, engineers and scientists announced that Philae was communicating with its ground stations, some 317 million miles (510 million kilometers) away on Earth. Google dedicated its search page to the lander, and instead of the second letter O in its logo, depicted Philae extending its three legs. Scientists carried out over 60 hours of research with Philae's instruments, acquiring images, sensing molecules and attempting to hammer the unexpectedly hard surface of the comet. Scientists describe the pictures as definitive: There's no doubt the object is Philae. Among the invaluable scientific data gathered was the dramatic discovery of 16 "carbon and nitrogen-rich" organic compounds, supporting the theory that the building blocks of life could have been brought to Earth by comets. But then the intrepid little probe ran out of juice. Unable to get the energy it needed from the sun to power its solar panels, its battery went flat and it fell into hibernation mode. As the comet came closer to the Sun in June and July 2015 , the lander briefly revived and communicated once again. When once again it fell silent, it was assumed Philae had stopped functioning due to the extremely cold environment. The three-legged probe even sent a heartbreaking farewell tweet in July. It's time for me to say goodbye. Tomorrow, the unit on @ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever... — Philae Lander (@Philae2014) July 26, 2016 "Unfortunately, the probability of Philae re-establishing contact with our team at the DLR Lander Control Center is almost zero, and we will no longer be sending any commands," Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager, announced in February this year. "It would be very surprising if we received a signal now." Philae seemed to be doomed to life lost and alone traveling through the solar system. But when analysis was completed of the latest pictures from Rosetta's Osiris camera, which were downlinked to Earth on Sunday night, there came a delightful surprise. Philae is wedged in a dark crack on the surface of the frozen comet. The photos show Philae wedged in a shadowy crack, with its boxy, one-meter-wide body and two of its three legs clearly visible. No wonder that #philae couldn't reestablish contact. It's practically stuck under a boulder l! https://t.co/33KNksfjH0 — Kevin Schawinski (@kevinschawinski) 5 September 2016 There has been an outpouring of delight at the remarkable news. "With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," said Cecilia Tubiana of the Osiris camera team. So happy to have seen @Philae2014 again before my mission ends later this month...more about my #CometLanding soon! pic.twitter.com/ErB0ROrgP6 — ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) September 5, 2016 Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta Mission Manager, said: "This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search. We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour." I love the fact that #PhilaeFound is trending on my feed. I love the fact that Philae was found. I just love this entire fact. — ☀️Rachelle Williams☾ (@AstroAnarchy) 5 September 2016 Philae: 10 years in transit Landed on comet Bounced (x2) Stuck in shade SCIENCED ANYWAY Lost power Waited One month to go FOUND BY ROSETTA — Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) September 5, 2016 Although there is no hope of reviving the lander, knowing exactly where it is resting will help scientists make better sense of the data it returned during its three days of operation back in 2014. Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist added: "This wonderful news means that we now have the missing 'ground-truth' information needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is." The discovery comes just a few weeks before the European Space Agency plans to crash Rosetta on the comet Sept 30 to bring its 12-year mission to an end. "Now that the lander search is finished we feel ready for Rosetta's landing, and look forward to capturing even closer images of Rosetta's touchdown site," said Holger Sierks, principal investigator of the Osiris camera.[SEP]Europe's Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a "dark crack" on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday. Rosetta's camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe's own mission ends, the agency said. The pictures showing the lander's body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 1.7 miles of the surface. After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet. Philae bounced after its initial touchdown and its precise location on the comet couldn't be pinned down until now, though its general vicinity was known. After sending data to Earth for three days its battery ran out and it went into hibernation, only to recharge enough as the comet came closer to the sun to communicate briefly with Rosetta in mid-2015. ESA plans to crash Rosetta into the comet Sept. 30, because the probe is unlikely to survive lengthy hibernation in orbit as the comet heads away from the sun. Data from Rosetta and Philae have already improved scientists' understanding of the nature of comets and the role they played in the early universe. Analyzing the data fully is expected to keep researchers busy for years. "We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever," said Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta mission manager. "It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour." Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said that locating Philae provides missing information "needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context."[SEP]BERLIN (AP) — Europe's Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a "dark crack" on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday. Rosetta's camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe's own mission ends, the agency said . The pictures showing the lander's body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) of the surface. After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet. The photo released by European Space Agency ESA on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 shows a photo of the comet lander Philae on photo taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2016 from a distance of 2.7 km of the Comet 67P/Churyumov¿Gerasimenko. Philae was last seen when it first touched down at Agilkia, bounced and then flew for another two hours before ending up at a location later named Abydos, on the comet¿s smaller lobe. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS via AP) Philae bounced after its initial touchdown and its precise location on the comet couldn't be pinned down until now, though its general vicinity was known. After sending data to Earth for three days its battery ran out and it went into hibernation, only to recharge enough as the comet came closer to the sun to communicate briefly with Rosetta in mid-2015. ESA plans to crash Rosetta into the comet Sept. 30, because the probe is unlikely to survive lengthy hibernation in orbit as the comet heads away from the sun. Data from Rosetta and Philae have already improved scientists' understanding of the nature of comets and the role they played in the early universe. Analyzing the data fully is expected to keep researchers busy for years. "We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever," said Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta mission manager. "It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour." Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said that locating Philae provides missing information "needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context." The photo released by European Space Agency ESA on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 shows a photo of the comet lander Philae in a crack on the right side of a photo taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2016 from a distance of 2.7 km of the Comet 67P/Churyumov¿Gerasimenko. Philae was last seen when it first touched down at Agilkia, bounced and then flew for another two hours before ending up at a location later named Abydos, on the comet¿s smaller lobe. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS via AP)[SEP]Europe’s Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a “dark crack” on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday.Rosetta’s camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe’s own mission ends, the agency said. The pictures showing the lander’s body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 1.7 miles of the surface.After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.(nypost.com)…[+][SEP](CNN) Philae, the little space robot that has captured hearts around the world, was thought to be forever lost. But delighted scientists announced Sunday that the European Space Agency's comet lander has come back from the cosmic dead. New images downloaded from the Rosetta probe in orbit around the awkwardly named Comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show the long-lost Philae wedged in a crack between some rocks. Rosetta captured the images in the nick of time, as its mission is ending in less than a month. "THE SEARCH IS OVER! I've found @Philae2014!!" announced the Rosetta Mission team on Twitter. The discovery is the latest twist in an amazing space odyssey. In November 2014, Philae completed a spectacular landing on the frozen surface of the comet, despite a harpoon system that did not function after its 10-year journey through space. The lander hopped across the comet's surface, and as people across the globe watched its progress, engineers and scientists announced that Philae was communicating with its ground stations, some 317 million miles (510 million kilometers) away on Earth. Google dedicated its search page to the lander, and instead of the second letter O in its logo, depicted Philae extending its three legs. Scientists carried out over 60 hours of research with Philae's instruments, acquiring images, sensing molecules and attempting to hammer the unexpectedly hard surface of the comet. Among the invaluable scientific data gathered was the dramatic discovery of 16 "carbon and nitrogen-rich" organic compounds, supporting the theory that the building blocks of life could have been brought to Earth by comets. But then the intrepid little probe ran out of juice. Unable to get the energy it needed from the sun to power its solar panels, its battery went flat and it fell into hibernation mode. When once again it fell silent, it was assumed Philae had stopped functioning due to the extremely cold environment. The three-legged probe even sent a heartbreaking farewell tweet in July. "Unfortunately, the probability of Philae re-establishing contact with our team at the DLR Lander Control Center is almost zero, and we will no longer be sending any commands," Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager, announced in February this year. "It would be very surprising if we received a signal now." But when analysis was completed of the latest pictures from Rosetta's Osiris camera, which were downlinked to Earth on Sunday night, there came a delightful surprise. The photos show Philae wedged in a shadowy crack, with its boxy, one-meter-wide body and two of its three legs clearly visible. There has been an outpouring of delight at the remarkable news. "With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," said Cecilia Tubiana of the Osiris camera team. Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta Mission Manager, said: "This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search. We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour." Although there is no hope of reviving the lander, knowing exactly where it is resting will help scientists make better sense of the data it returned during its three days of operation back in 2014. Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist added: "This wonderful news means that we now have the missing 'ground-truth' information needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is." The discovery comes just a few weeks before the European Space Agency plans to crash Rosetta on the comet Sept 30 to bring its 12-year mission to an end. "Now that the lander search is finished we feel ready for Rosetta's landing, and look forward to capturing even closer images of Rosetta's touchdown site," said Holger Sierks, principal investigator of the Osiris camera.[SEP]It has been careering through the solar system on the frozen, dark surface of a comet, completely alone for nearly two years. Now the Philae lander, which bumped messily down onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014, has finally been foundon the comet's surface. Cameras onboard Europe's comet orbiter Rosetta has spotted the tiny lander Philae for the first time since its crash-landing. The discovery comes a few weeks before the European Space Agency plans to crash Rosetta on to the comet end its mission. 'Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta's high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko,' it said in a statement. In July, Philae sent a final farewell tweet as it is to be abandoned to the blackness of space. Scientists announced they had turned off the communications system on the Rosetta space probe – the lander's mother ship that was designed to relay its messages back to Earth. Philae was the first spacecraft to land on the surface of a comet, but after its tethering system failed, it bounced uncontrollably until it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff face. Unable to get the energy it needed from sun to power its solar panels, the three foot wide lander's batteries quickly ran out and it was only able to beam back a snippet of the data that had been hoped for. Attempts to contact the lander since then were largely unsuccessful, although it managed to send sporadic messages to Rosetta in June and July 2015 as the comet drew closer to the sun. Since then, there has been no contact from Philae and researchers had given up hope of re-establishing contact with the stricken lander. Now, as it races away from Earth on the comet at a speed of 35,768 mph, scientists in charge of the mission will today turn off the Electrical Support System on Rosetta that communicates with Philae. A message posted on Philae's official Twitter feed – posted by officials at the lander's control centre in Cologne rather than the lander itself – said: 'It's time for me to say goodbye. The unit on the @ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever…' It added: 'Im far from Earth&Sun! I'd love to take memories of YOU with me. Please send me a postcard from home!' Philae is being turned off to save energy before Rosetta will be sent on a collision course with the comet it has been orbiting for the past two years. Rosetta's 12 year mission to explore the harsh, alien environment of comet 67P will then end when it crash lands on the rocky, icy surface. It will mean that after two years of being alone on the surface of the comet, Philae will be joined by the probe that carried it out into the solar system. A statement released by the European Space Agency said: 'No signal has been received by Rosetta from Philae since last July and earlier this year the lander was considered to be in a state of eternal hibernation. 'In spite of this, the ESS was kept on until now in the unlikely chance that Philae would re-gain contact. 'Although Rosetta has reached altitudes well below 10 km over the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, however, no signal from the lander was received since July 2015.' After a 10-year journey on board the Rosetta space probe, Philae was released to descend towards the comet in November 2014 in what was considered a remarkable feat of precision space travel. Sadly a failure of the probe's harpoon system saw it bounce three times before settling at an angle in a dark ditch. It managed to beam back a handful of pictures before its batteries ran out after 60 hours, thanks to its shady position, and could not be recharged. Scientists at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) have repeatedly tried to contact the doomed probe since it suffered a bumpy landing and bounced off target thanks to the failure of its harpoon system - with varying levels of success. In November 2014, controllers released a soundclip of the ominous 'crunch' from vibration sensors in the lander's legs upon from when it hit the comet's dusty surface. The probe woke up in June 2015 as the comet approached the sun, giving scientists hope that the lander could complete some experiments that it had not done before its solar-powered batteries ran out. However, its last signal was received on 9 July 2015 and since then it has been silent. In January, DLR scientists sent a command to Philae to spin its flywheel in the hope of knocking dust from its solar panels to see if they could rouse the lander once more. Scientists believe that one of the lander's two transmitters and one of its two receivers, have both failed and that the second transmitter and receiver are also no longer fully functional. While the DLR team believes that Philae is likely ice-free, the solar panels that recharge its batteries are probably covered with dust. In addition, night-time temperatures can now fall below -180°C (-292°F) as comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko moves away from the sun, which is much colder than Philae was designed to withstand. While Philae did not have as much time as initially hoped after landing for experiments, information it has collected is reshaping thinking about comets. Among the discoveries made were that the icy comet appears to carry some of the key building blocks of DNA and proteins – the amino acid glycine and the mineral phosphorus. ROSETTA'S 'MOST SURPRISING DISCOVERYSO FAR': RESEARCHERS STUNNED TO FIND COMET SURROUNDED BY OXYGEN Air surrounding the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko is rich with oxygen, The surprise discovery made last year may force a rethink of theories about the origins of the Solar System - but does not imply the presence of life. Experts controlling the ESA's Rosetta orbiter discovered that free oxygen is the fourth most common gas in the atmosphere around Comet 67P. Its other constituents are water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is highly reactive and according to current theories should not exist on its own in such quantities. Over vast amounts of time, most of Comet 67P's oxygen should by now have combined with hydrogen to form water, it was thought. Professor Kathrin Altwegg, project leader for Rosetta's Rosina mass spectrometer instrument, said: 'We had never thought that oxygen could 'survive' for billions of years without combining with other substances.' While microbes and plants are responsible for most of Earth's oxygen, the new discovery does not mean that Comet 67P is teeming with life. Instead, scientists believe the comet's oxygen originated very early, before the solar system had even finished forming. High energy particles are thought to have freed the oxygen by striking grains of ice in the cold and dense birthplace of the solar system, known as a 'dark nebula'. The oxygen was incorporated into the comet nucleus when it was created some 4.6 billion years ago and has remained ever since, according to the researchers writing in the journal Nature. Professor Altwegg added: 'This evidence of oxygen as an ancient substance will likely discredit some theoretical models of the formation of the Solar System.'[SEP]High-resolution cameras on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft have found space probe Philae, which landed on a comet nearly two years ago only to lose power because its solar-driven batteries were in the shade. Images taken from Rosetta at a distance of 2.7km showed Philae wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the ESA said on Monday. Philae landed on the comet in November 2014 in what was considered a remarkable feat of precision space travel but the metre-sized, 100kg probe bounced several times before getting stuck against a cliff wall. Scientists could tell its approximate whereabouts on the comet thanks to radio ranging data but not its precise location. This year they gave up hope of restoring contact with the probe. While Philae did not have as much time as was hoped for experiments, information it has collected is reshaping thinking about comets and the project has helped in designing future missions. “This wonderful news means that we now have the missing ‘ground-truth’ information needed to put Philae’s three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is,” ESA’s Rosetta project scientist, Matt Taylor, said in a statement. Scientists expect to get a final glimpse of Philae later this month, when Rosetta snaps some pictures during close fly-bys, before crash-landing on the comet itself on Sep 30, ending its 12-year space odyssey.[SEP]Almost two years after it touched down on the surface of comet 67P, the Philae lander has been found. In images taken just three days ago by a camera on board the Rosetta space probe, the lander can be seen nestled in a dark crack on the comet’s surface, with two of its three legs sticking out. “For many people it is a huge emotional closure, but for the scientists it is incredibly important because it now tells us where the measurements were taken that we made with Philae back in 2014 - that context is everything,” said Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific adviser at the European Space Agency (ESA). About the size of a washing machine and featuring a host of scientific instruments, ESA’s lander was released from the Rosetta space probe on 12 November 2014, touching down on the rubber-duck shaped comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a nail-biting, seven-hour descent. At the time the comet was 320m miles from Earth, and this was the first time a manmade object had landed on a comet. But there was a snag. Philae’s two harpoons, which were supposed to anchor the lander, did not fire and Philae bounced across the surface of the comet. The lander finally came to rest near a cliff, but the shady location meant that, except for a brief interlude in mid-2015, its solar panels were unable to catch the sun’s rays. Despite the bumpy ride, the lander was able to send back valuable data before its batteries ran out, offering insights into the comet’s make-up and properties of its surface. While researchers were able to narrow down its location to a few tens of metres, its precise location remained a mystery, until now. “We had some images from further away that looked a bit like the lander, but we really needed this unambiguous [image],” said Matt Taylor, the ESA’s Rosetta project scientist. “We needed that to say ‘yes, it is definitely Philae.’” News of the discovery, said Taylor, reached him late at night over the weekend. “It is a typical thing with Rosetta, things seem to occur at the weekends and usually on Sunday.” The discovery of the lander’s location, he said, would help scientists to interpret information that it gathered before its batteries ran out. “It allows us to go back to the data that Philae took to put it into context a little bit more,” he said. Among such measurements, are data collected by the Consert instrument, which fired radio signals between the lander and the Rosetta orbiter to probe the internal make-up of the comet. “Having the precise location of the lander allows you to refine those measurements and get much better resolution from those,” said Taylor. “It provides us with the ground truth.” The news comes just weeks after communication with the lander was severed. In July scientists said farewell to Philae after deeming it to be in a state of “eternal hibernation”. The voice of the lander tweeted: “It’s time for me to say goodbye.” The Rosetta mission itself is shortly to come to an end, with the probe due to be set on a collision course with the comet later this month. “What we are doing at the moment is actually more complicated than when we deployed Philae itself,” said Taylor, adding that Rosetta was being put in ever-closer orbits around the comet, yielding new data about 67P’s low atmosphere. Finding Philae, he says, was a timely discovery. “I think it is a nice prelude for the end of the mission,” said Taylor. “It’s bloody exciting.”[SEP]From aliens bursting forth from crew members’ chests to onboard computers developing a psychopathic mind of their own, waking from space hibernation rarely results in a happy ending. But a real-life space voyage has bucked the trend of science-fiction counterparts such as Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey, as one of humankind’s greatest achievements “woke up” to the great relief of its earthbound masters. Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, phoned home and made contact with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the first time in seven months on Saturday. In a series of whimsical messages, ESA scientists revealed contact had been re-established with the probe through the Philae lander and Rosetta mission’s Twitter accounts. Travelling at up to 84,000mph and more than 300m miles away from Earth, the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko seemed like an impossible target. ESA, however, pulled off a sensational feat of engineering and captured the imagination of space-travel enthusiasts across the world when it launched Philae from its orbiting mothership Rosetta and landed it on the duck-shaped comet’s surface on 12 November after a 10-year journey. With its solar panels in shadow, the dishwasher-sized probe was operational for just 60 hours before its batteries died on 15 November and it was placed into hibernation. Since then, ESA has been hoping there will be enough sunlight to allow the lander to wake up, re-establish a communication link and send back a “hello” signal. Now the wait is over. Signals were picked up at ESA’s operation centre in Darmstadt, Germany, at 10.30pm (9.30pm BST) on Saturday via Rosetta for just 85 seconds. “Philae is doing very well. It has an operating temperature of -35C and has 24 watts available,” said Philae’s project manager, Dr Stephan Ulamec. “The lander is ready for operations.” More than 300 data packets have been analysed and there are a further 8,000 in Philae’s memory, which will give the team information on what happened to the lander in the past few days. The Rosetta mission’s chief scientist, Matt Taylor, famous for tattoos that include Rosetta on one leg, said he felt “absolute elation”. The British scientist told the Guardian: “I heard last night. A message came up on my phone and I was like, ‘What?’ It was a surprise. It was difficult getting to sleep. It’s absolute elation.” While the probe had already returned enough data for scientists to address questions of where the comet might have come from and how old it is, the team may now be able to progress the mission further, Taylor said. Drilling into the surface to analyse samples of its composition would be among the next steps for ESA to take. “It means we can do even more science now if everything goes positively over the next few days,” Taylor said. But he warned it was early days as only a limited amount of contact had been established. It’s just pinged us a short signal. Things look good – better than expected. Things look promising, but we can’t see much more. This is just housekeeping – there’s no science going on yet. It’s a waiting game.” Reacting to the latest development, Prof Monica Grady, a key member of the Rosetta science team at the Open University, tweeted: The Rosetta team was unable to determine precisely where the lander touched down on the comet after it bounced twice on the icy surface when its anchoring system failed. Studies of images taken by the Rosetta orbiter revealed the probe had crossed a large depression before coming to rest at an angle, close to the wall of a crater or cliff. Data from one of the probe’s instruments suggested it was on a “landing strip” on the comet’s smaller lobe measuring 350 metres (1,148ft) by 30 metres (98 feet). When analysing the latest status data, ESA said it became clear that Philae must also have been awake earlier. With more than 2,000 people involved in its development, the Rosetta mission is one of the most complex and ambitious ever undertaken and the first to orbit and land on a comet. It was launched to aid understanding of the evolution of the solar system. The comet’s makeup reflects that of a cloud of gas out of which the sun itself was formed more than 4.6bn years ago.[SEP]Images taken from Rosetta at a distance of 2.7 km (1.7 miles) showed Philae wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the ESA said on Monday. Philae landed on the comet in November 2014 in what was considered a remarkable feat of precision space travel but the metre-sized, 100 kg (220 lb) probe bounced several times before getting stuck against a cliff wall. Scientists could tell its approximate whereabouts on the comet thanks to radio ranging data but not its precise location. This year they gave up hope of restoring contact with the probe. While Philae did not have as much time as was hoped for experiments, information it has collected is reshaping thinking about comets and the project has helped in designing future missions. "This wonderful news means that we now have the missing 'ground-truth' information needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is," ESA's Rosetta project scientist, Matt Taylor, said in a statement. Scientists expect to get a final glimpse of Philae later this month, when Rosetta snaps some pictures during close fly-bys, before crash-landing on the comet itself on Sept. 30, ending its 12-year space odyssey.

The European Space Agency's robotic lander Philae is discovered wedged in a crack between some rocks in the shadow of a cliff on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko by the Rosetta space probe after being lost since 2014.

VIENTIANE: US President Barack Obama urged Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte Thursday to conduct his crime war “the right way”, as the pair clashed at an Asian summit over the crackdown that has claimed 3,000 lives. The showdown was a fitting climax to a brutal few days of diplomacy that began with the famously acid-tongued Duterte branding Obama a “son of a whore”. After warnings from Duterte that he would not be lectured on his crime war—which is seeing police and shadowy assassins kill an average of 44 people a day—Obama urged the Philippine leader to respect the rule of law. “As despicable as these (crime) networks may be and as much damage as they do, it is important from our perspective to make sure that we do it the right way,” Obama told reporters when asked about his conversation with Duterte on the sidelines of Laos meetings. “Because the consequences of when you do it the wrong way are innocent people get hurt and you have a bunch of unintended consequences that don’t solve the problem.” Obama’s call came shortly after Duterte gave what diplomats said was a “fiery” address to leaders of the 18-nation East Asia group, including Obama. Veering off his prepared speech, Duterte launched into a tirade about US military killings in the Philippines when it was an American colony from 1898 to 1946, according to three diplomats Agence France-Presse spoke with who were in the room. “The Philippine president showed a picture of the killings of American soldiers in the past and the president said: ‘This is my ancestor they killed. Why now we are talking about human rights,” an Indonesian delegate said. Th delegate described the atmosphere in the room as “quiet and shocked”. Another diplomat described the speech as “normal Duterte”. Duterte set the tone for the week when, just before flying to Laos on Monday, he launched a barrage of insults at Obama in response to the US president’s plans to question him over his war on drugs. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte told reporters shortly before flying to Laos. At the press conference marking the end of his trip to Laos, Obama said he was unfazed by Duterte’s slur. “I don’t take these comments personally because it seems as if this is a phrase he’s used repeatedly including directed at the pope and others,” Obama said. He added that such choice words were “a habit, a way of speaking for him.” Duterte has branded Pope Francis, the US ambassador to Manila and the United Nations as “sons of whores.” However Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte scheduled for Tuesday because of the outburst. They met on Wednesday night before a leaders’ dinner in what Obama described as “not a long interaction”. Duterte has said the Philippines is in danger of becoming a “narco state”, and eliminating drugs in society is the top priority of his administration. Duterte was elected to office in a landslide this year after pledging to kill 100,000 people in an unprecedented war on crime. He vowed in the campaign that so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them. Duterte has also repeatedly promised to protect police from prosecution if they are charged over the deaths and insisted human rights cannot get in the way of his war. On the day he was sworn into office, June 30, Duterte urged people living in a Manila slum to kill drug addicts in their community. His handpicked police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, last month called for drug addicts to kill traffickers and burn down their homes. The United Nations special rapporteur on summary executions has warned incitement to kill is a crime under international law. “More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets,” Duterte said on Monday. AFP[SEP]Now it can be told. The list of officials allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade was given by former president Fidel Ramos to President Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte made the admission during his speech before the Filipino community in Laos Monday night. Duterte, in Laos for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit, said Ramos showed him the drug list when the latter was trying to convince him to run for president. “He was strongly urging me to run. He said only you can stop this. Then he showed me a list of generals into drugs,” he said. The President said the list is so thick and he has not finished validating all the names. He also named the country’s big-time drug lords, as well as local officials who are also in the drug trade. Duterte also released a matrix showing Sen. Leila De Lima on top of the drug trade at the national penitentiary.[SEP]Duterte, Obama shake hands and chat after rift over insult VIENTIANE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shook hands and had a brief chat on Wednesday, officials said, easing a standoff after Duterte called Obama a "son of a bitch" ahead of a summit of Asian leaders in Laos. The presidents of the two longtime allies were due to hold talks on Tuesday but the White House cancelled the meeting after Duterte's insult. "I'm very happy that it happened," Philippines' foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, said of their short meeting. "It all springs from the fact that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is firm, very strong." Duterte had his outburst on Monday when he was defending his war on drugs that has killed at least 2,400 Filipinos. Notorious for his tirades and for cursing during interviews and speeches, he later expressed regret for offending Obama. The two men shook hands and chatted for about two minutes as they waited to take their seats at a gala dinner ahead of Thursday's East Asia Summit, according to Yasay and several of Duterte's aides. Alan Cayetano, who was Duterte's vice-presidential running mate in this year's election, described the atmosphere as "warm and cordial", while a White House official said "the exchange consisted of pleasantries between the two". Tensions between the United States and the Philippines, its former colony, are unusual at high-level meetings. The two countries are treaty allies and Washington has strongly backed Manila's calls for China to abide by a recent ruling over the South China Sea, which the Philippines won. China is among the countries taking part in Thursday's summit, which includes the 10 Association of South East Asian Nations member states and Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Russia and the United States Philippines ambassador to Laos, Marciano Paynor, said the tiff with Obama was part of a learning curve for Duterte, who needed a chance to make the transition from being a city mayor to a head of state. "He has to experience it," he said. "If you don't experience it, you don't know how it's done, you'll be grappling." (Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Louise Ireland)[SEP]Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to personally tear apart and eat Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants, in a bloodthirsty vow of revenge for deadly attacks. "They will pay. When the time comes, I will eat you in front of people," Duterte told an audience of Filipinos late on Monday night while in Laos for a regional summit. "If you make me mad, in all honesty, I will eat you alive, raw." Duterte often hurls abusive insults at critics and is waging a brutal war on crime in which nearly 3,000 people have been killed since he took office on June 30. His aides often urge reporters against taking Duterte's comments literally, cautioning that the 71-year-old former lawyer speaks in a crude language of the people. During the election campaign earlier this year Duterte attracted widespread criticism for saying he had wanted to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who had been sexually assaulted and murdered in a Philippine prison riot. Duterte, 71, also claimed to keep two mistresses in cheap boarding houses who he took to short-stay hotels for sexual encounters. Duterte on Monday offered a particularly vivid description of how he would like to eat Abu Sayyaf militants, who killed 15 soldiers last month and are accused of a bombing in his home city last week that claimed 14 lives. "I will really carve your torso open. Give me vinegar and salt and I will eat you. I'm not kidding," Duterte said, according to an official video of his speech posted on Tuesday. "These guys are beyond redemption." The Abu Sayyaf are a small band of Islamic militants based on remote southern islands of the mainly Catholic Philippines and are listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation. They are notorious for kidnapping foreigners to extract ransoms, and this year beheaded two Canadian hostages. Duterte also on Monday caused a major diplomatic rift with the United States after branding President Barack Obama a "son of a whore" who would wallow like a pig. Duterte made the remarks in response to comments by Obama's aides that the US president would raise concerns about the Philippine war on crime when the pair met in Laos. Obama abruptly cancelled the meeting, which was scheduled for Tuesday, because of the tirade.[SEP]Obama tells Duterte to fight crime war 'the right way' US President Barack Obama urged Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday to conduct his crime war "the right way", after 3,000 people were killed in the crackdown in just over two months. "As despicable as these (crime) networks may be and as much damage as they do, it is important from our perspective to make sure that we do it the right way," Obama told reporters when asked about his conversation with Duterte on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos. "Because the consequences of when you do it the wrong way are innocent people get hurt and you have a bunch of unintended consequences that don't solve the problem." Relations between long time allies the US and the Philippines saw a spectacular setback this week after firebrand politician Duterte branded Obama a "son of a whore". The outburst on Monday was in response to being told Obama planned to raise concerns about his war of drugs. "You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum," Duterte told reporters shortly before flying to Laos. "We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me." At the press conference marking the end of his trip to Laos Obama said he was unfazed by Duterte's jibe. "I don't take these comments personally because it seems as if this is a phrase he's used repeatedly including directed at the pope and others," adding that such choice words were "a habit, a way of speaking for him". Duterte has branded Pope Francis, the US ambassador to Manila and the United Nations as "sons of whores". However Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte scheduled for Tuesday because of the outburst. They met briefly on Wednesday night before a leaders' dinner, but only exchanged "pleasantries", according to the White House. - 'More will be killed' - Duterte was elected to office in a landslide this year after pledging to kill 100,000 people in an unprecedented war on crime. He vowed in the campaign that so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish there would grow fat from feeding on them. Duterte has also repeatedly promised to protect police from prosecution if they are charged over the deaths and insisted human rights cannot get in the way of his war. Duterte has said the Philippines is in danger of becoming a "narco state", and eliminating drugs in society is the top priority of his administrations. On the day he was sworn into office, June 30, Duterte urged people living in a Manila slum to kill drug addicts in their community. His handpicked police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, last month called for drug addicts to kill traffickers and burn down their homes. The United Nations special rapporteur on summary executions has warned incitement to kill is a crime under international law. Despite growing condemnation of the comments and what rights groups say are rampant extrajudicial killings, Duterte has vowed to continue. "More people will be killed, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets," Duterte said on Monday.[SEP]COMMON THINKING OF MOST ANTI-DUTERTE GROUPS TO DUTERTE GOVT[SEP]VIENTIANE: Barack Obama met briefly with Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, their two governments said, days after the firebrand politician branded the US president a “son of a whore”. The encounter took place just before a dinner during a summit of regional leaders in Laos, officials indicated. “They met at the holding room and they were the last people to leave the holding room. I can’t say how long they met,” Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, travelling with Duterte, told reporters shortly afterwards. “I’m very happy that it happened.” In a terse statement, the White House said only that “Obama had a brief discussion with President Duterte before the ASEAN Gala Dinner in the leaders’ hold space.” “The exchange consisted of pleasantries between the two.” Obama cancelled Tuesday’s planned meeting with Duterte on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-hosted summit after the notoriously acid-tongued Philippine president launched a barrage of insults the previous day. His outburst was prompted by US assertions that Obama planned to raise the issue of Duterte’s war on crime that has claimed 3,000 lives in just over two months. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte told reporters when asked about his message for Obama. “We will be wallowing in the mud like pigs if you do that to me.” Obama initially responded by calling Duterte a “colourful guy”, but then called off the meeting after the international media reported heavily on the issue. The snub was a spectacular setback for relations between the United States and Philippines, which are longtime allies and are bound by a mutual defence treaty to help each other in times of war. The two countries also appeared to clash over the meaning of satellite imagery showing Chinese activity on a disputed reef off the coast of the Philippines. Releasing the images Duterte’s government said they had evidence China was taking steps to begin dredging — a major escalation. The White House tried to play down the claim, saying it believed Chinese activity in the area was at the same level as previous months. Yasay sought to characterise Wednesday’s meeting as proof the alliance was strong enough to withstand such hiccups. “It all springs from the fact that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is firm, very strong,” Yasay said. Nevertheless, Duterte’s office earlier Wednesday released a statement saying he would sit next to Obama at the gala dinner. “The media from all over the world, including from the Philippines, are up in excitement as each await the event where the two leaders will possibly say something positive,” the statement from the presidential palace said. However Obama did not sit next to Duterte. AFP[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — As bodies continue to pile up in his war on illegal drugs, the Philippine president is making waves at his first summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations where he joins a diverse cast of leaders, including some who have found themselves in the crosshairs of human rights watchdogs. Rodrigo Duterte would fit right in, critics say, and even steal the show. As president, Duterte brings a long-blemished rights record into the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, which has struggled with internal strife due to its unwieldy collective of dictatorships, authoritarian states, a monarchy and fledgling democracies since its founding nearly half a century ago as an Asian bulwark against communism. “For most ASEAN leaders, Duterte represents a throwback to an uglier and more brutal form of Asian state, which taints ASEAN efforts to market itself as an increasingly progressive, modernizing trade block with a focus on trade data, rather than daily police-killing body counts,” said Phelim Kine of New York-based Human Rights Watch. Once a government prosecutor who fought outlaws and insurgents, Duterte was a longtime mayor of southern Davao city, where he started to build a name for his deadly anti-crime campaign — he was nicknamed “Duterte Harry” after Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movie character. Since he took office as president on June 30, his crackdown on suspected drug dealers and users has left more than 2,000 people dead. More than 600,000 others, mostly drug addicts, have surrendered apparently for fear of being gunned down. “That dynamic means that Duterte can expect his most meaningful face-time in Laos with other ASEAN embarrassments such as Cambodia’s dictator Hun Sen, representatives of Thailand’s military junta and his authoritarian Laotian hosts,” Kine said. He can rely on these leaders to lend him a sympathetic ear for “his grotesque justifications of abuse of rule of law and state-sanctioned extrajudicial violence as the price of a ‘secure’ society,” he said. In a rare moment of diplomatic tumult ahead of an ASEAN summit, the 71-year-old Duterte cursed on Monday at President Barack Obama, warning the world’s most powerful man not to question him about the rising body count in his crackdown or “son of a bitch I will swear at you.” This was hours before they were supposed to meet in the Laotian capital. The next day Duterte expressed regret in a semi-apology aimed at mending fences. But it was too late. An evidently offended Obama had by then canceled Tuesday’s meeting, which was shaping up as the most-awaited, again because of Duterte — he had recently unleashed abuses at the U.S. ambassador to Manila, calling him gay in derogatory terms and railed against America’s security policies. Also, Obama was expected to raise the matter of extrajudicial killings, all contributing to growing antagonism between the two longtime allies. Given what Duterte said, “we felt that it wasn’t the right time to have a bilateral meeting with the U.S. president,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said. “Certainly the nature of those comments was not constructive.” Obama is only the latest victim of Duterte’s foul tongue. In the few months since the election campaign and more than two months into the presidency, Duterte has cursed the pope, the U.N. secretary-general and gotten into verbal tussles with the revered Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. Aside from his deadly record, Duterte’s disdain for statecraft, irreverence and bluntly frank and profane language would likely weigh on ASEAN, a conservative group steeped in tradition, protocol and nuanced rhetoric. ASEAN’s still in a flux. In an incredible reversal of roles, for example, the Philippines was the democracy champions just years ago and was pushing then military-ruled Myanmar to move toward democratic reforms. Myanmar is now led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who fought her country’s military junta while languishing in home detention for decades. ASEAN came into being during the Cold War era, and has long been hamstrung by the stark diversity of its member governments along with a bedrock rule of noninterference in each other’s affairs and a policy of making decision by consensus. That has allowed leaders like Hun Sen, Thailand’s coup leader-turned-premier Prayuth Chan-ocha, the faceless one-party communist rulers of Laos and Vietnam, and the general who once ruled Myanmar to occupy regional legitimacy and defy the West’s call for democratic governance. ASEAN says it’s best to keep dictators in its midst engaged, because dialogue helps to keep them in check. It takes credit for helping Myanmar’s generals give up power. It also says it is necessary to keep the diverse nations together so that they have a stable platform to resolve conflicts and integrate their economies as a counterweight to Asian powerhouses China and India. Duterte rejects any suggestion that he is a dictator. He sees himself as a leader with an extra tough approach on crime, especially on illegal drugs, because the problem has worsened into a pandemic, corrupting law enforcers and sparking heinous crimes. In ASEAN, he said he would assure the bloc and other countries that there would be no radical shifts in Philippine policies under him. While critics cringe, Duterte has been adored by a substantial electorate of followers who gave him a convincing election victory on a promise to eradicate crime, drug trafficking and corruption in six months. The tall promise was embraced by crime-weary Filipinos but abhorred by opponents and rights groups as a dangerous expansion of his rights record in Davao, where he was linked to killings with his tacit endorsements of vigilante extermination of alleged drug dealers by motorcycle-riding death squads. Anna Olarte, an English teacher at an international school in Vientiane, trooped to a convention center with more than 700 other Laos-based Filipinos to see and cheer the president she voted for. When Duterte walked up the stage and bowed deeply before her and others, Olarte said her heart melted. “It was like, my God, this is my president,” she said.[SEP]Turkey prototype coup may take place in Philippine by this Christmas to oust President Rodrigo Duterte. Hackers, casino owners, drug barons and corrupt civil-military officials, diplomats (stationed in Philippine mission abroad) and politicians reportedly are hatching a secret conspiracy of toppling-down President Duterte or bring an end to his rule by assassinating him. Plotters of the coup are planning to assassinate President Duterte either through suicide attack or by buying some of the key figures of his security force. It may be mentioned here that the annual sale of Yaba which also is known as Meth or Shabu stood at thirty billion dollars in 2015. The number of drug addicts in Philippine stands at 3.7 million plus with an increase of 5-10 percent a year. Pro-coup diplomats stationed at Philippine embassies in some countries already are secretly providing anti-Duterte propaganda materials to selected media outlets. Meanwhile, the evil nexus of drug barons, hackers, casino owners and politicians are hiring lobbyists and campaigners in the West to portray President’s efforts to improve the peace and order situation, especially towards eradicating the scourge of illicit drugs as ‘crime against humanity’. Petitions are being sent to the United Nations, European Union and the US by the hired lobbyists with appeals of ‘exerting pressure’ on President Duterte in ‘immediately halting’ killing of drug peddlers and addicts.[SEP]Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed regret Tuesday that his comments branding US leader Barack Obama a "son of a whore" came across as a personal attack. The insult on Monday was the latest offensive comment to raise questions about Duterte's diplomatic skills, leading Obama to cancel a planned meeting with him at a regional summit in Laos. Here are 10 of his most undiplomatic remarks from before and after his landslide election victory this year: "You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum." Duterte, who has launched a war on crime that has claimed more than 2,400 lives, warns Obama not to raise human rights issues with him in Laos. "I'm fighting with (US Secretary of State John Kerry's) ambassador. His gay ambassador, the son of a whore. He pissed me off." -- Duterte in an August speech smarting over US Ambassador to Manila Philip Goldberg's criticism of his comment about wanting to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary. "Fuck you, UN, you can't even solve the Middle East carnage... couldn't even lift a finger in Africa... shut up, all of you." -- Duterte in a June press conference, a seemingly unprovoked attack on the world body. "Maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United Nations. If you are that disrespectful, son of a whore, then I will just leave you." -- Duterte in an August news briefing after a UN human rights expert said orders in his anti-crime crackdown violated international law. He later said he was just joking. "Ban Ki-moon, he should write to me so that I will tell him: 'You did nothing. People are being massacred by the thousands. You can't stop (the war) in Turkey, Syria.' So one useless, inutile body." -- Duterte in an August press conference railing against the UN chief after Ban denounced his apparent endorsement of extrajudicial killings. "I will go there on my own with a jet ski, bringing with me a flag and a pole and once I disembark, I will plant the flag on the runway and tell the Chinese authorities, 'Kill me!'" -- Duterte in a February campaign speech explaining how he would handle Manila's row with Beijing over the South China Sea. He has since adopted a more cautious tone. "That's the invention of a woman who wants to commit suicide. You can think of genocide, suicide or what, side by side, upper side, whatever, what if upper side or even upside?" -- Duterte launches a rambling verbal assault on Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on summary executions, after she accused him of violating international law with his statements seen as inciting people to kill. "I burned the flag of Singapore. I said: 'Fuck you ... You are a garrison pretending to be a country.'" -- Duterte in a November speech, recalling how in 1995 he burned a Singapore flag to protest at the execution of a Filipina maid in the city-state. "You are not a warrior if you do that. We are not Arabs. That is not our culture. We are all Malay." -- Duterte in an August speech condemning how Philippine Islamic militants supposedly mutilated the bodies of slain soldiers. "It took us five hours to get from the hotel to the airport. I asked who was coming. They said it was the Pope. I wanted to call him: 'Pope, son of a whore, go home. Don't visit anymore.'" -- Duterte in a November 2015 speech recalling being stuck in Manila traffic when Pope Francis visited the Philippines.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte declares a state of emergency in the whole country. In a warning to Abu Sayyaf, Duterte says "I will eat you alive."

Explosions and erratic gunfire rang out Tuesday in an ongoing militant attack on a Kabul charity, which erupted hours after a Taliban double bombing killed at least 24 people and left dozens of others wounded. At least one person died in the assault on a charity called Pamlarena, which means care in Pashto, but it was unclear if the target was the international charity CARE. A plume of smoke rose over the upscale neighbourhood of Shar-e Naw after the attack began when a third massive explosion jolted the Afghan capital late Monday. No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the raid on the charity, but it comes as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide offensive against the US-backed government. "We believe two attackers have entered the building. Unfortunately one civilian has been killed and six others wounded," Sediqqi told AFP. CARE International was not immediately reachable for comment. The assault came just hours after high-level officials, including an army general, were killed in the twin blasts near the defence ministry, in an attack apparently aimed at inflicting mass casualties. The second blast struck just as soldiers, policemen and civilians hurried to help the victims of the first explosion, which occurred on a bridge near the ministry. Ambulances rushed to the scene, littered with disfigured bodies and charred debris. But there were so many bodies that some had to be taken to hospitals in car boots and the back of police pickup trucks. Firemen, meanwhile, raced to retrieve some bodies thrown into the Kabul River by the intensity of the first blast on the bridge. Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said the double bombing left 24 people dead and 91 others wounded, some of them seriously, adding the casualties could rise still further. The violence highlights the deteriorating security situation in the country, which has taken a heavy toll on civilians. "The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the security and defence forces of the country," President Ashraf Ghani said on Monday, condemning the twin blasts. "That is why they are attacking highways, cities, mosques, schools and common people." Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that the defence ministry was the object of the first attack, while police were targeted in the second. The violence comes more than a week after 16 people were killed when militants stormed the American University in Kabul, in a nearly 10-hour raid that prompted anguished pleas for help from trapped students. Explosions and gunfire rocked the campus in that attack, which came just weeks after two university professors -- an American and an Australian -- were kidnapped at gunpoint near the school. Their whereabouts are still unknown and no group so far has publicly claimed responsibility for the abductions. The uptick in violence in the capital comes as the Taliban escalate nationwide attacks, underscoring the worsening security situation since NATO forces ended their combat mission at the end of 2014. Afghan forces backed by US troops are seeking to head off a potential Taliban takeover of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern opium-rich province of Helmand. The Taliban have also closed in on Kunduz -- the northern city they briefly seized last year in their biggest military victory since the 2001 US invasion -- leaving Afghan forces stretched on multiple fronts.[SEP]Image copyright EPA Image caption Smoke could be seen coming from the area of the attack in Shar-e-Naw An attack on the offices of an international charity in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, has left at least one civilian dead, officials say. Gunfire erupted when four armed men stormed the building of the aid group Care in the Shar-e-Naw area following a car bomb explosion. All attackers were killed. No group has admitted carrying out the attack, the fifth to hit the city in 24 hours. Taliban militants have increased their attacks in Kabul recently. On Monday, a series of blasts claimed by the group hit a busy part of the city, close to the defence ministry building. Officials now say 41 people were killed, including an army general and four senior police officers. Some 103 others were wounded, they added. Image copyright AFP Image caption Security forces blocked streets next to the building attacked in Kabul Image copyright AFP Image caption Explosion broke glasses in hotel next to charity hit by explosion The latest incident struck a prosperous business and residential area of Kabul, home to several guest houses and where many foreigners and diplomats live. A government spokesman told the BBC that six other civilians were injured in the hours-long standoff. Some 42 people were rescued during the operation, including 10 foreigners, he added. Traffic was blocked in several parts of the city and schools were closed. The recent attacks highlight the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, which has left dozens of civilians dead.[SEP]At least one person has been killed in an ongoing attack on a charity in central Kabul, the interior ministry said Tuesday, after a wave of explosions hit the Afghan capital. The attack on a charity called Pamlarena began late Monday, hours after a Taliban double bombing killed at least 24 people and left 91 others wounded, said ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi. Pamlarena means care in Pashto, but it was unclear if the assault was on the international charity, Care. "We believe two attackers have entered the building. Unfortunately one civilian has been killed and six others wounded," Sediqqi told AFP. Care International was not immediately reachable for comment. The attack began after a third massive explosion jolted Kabul late Monday, which was followed by erratic gunfire. That blast came just hours after high-level officials, including an army general, were killed in the twin blasts near the defence ministry, as the Taliban ramp up their nationwide offensive against the US-backed government. The violence highlights the deteriorating security situation in the country, which has taken a heavy toll on civilians.[SEP]The anti-government armed militant groups will likely plot attacks in capital Kabul as Afghanistan will observe the Martyrs Week, the security officials said Wednesday. Gul Nabi Ahmadzai, commander of Kabul Garrison, told reporters that the militants will use the opportunity more than any other time to stage attacks in the city. He urged organizers and youths of the country observing the Martyrs Week to remain vigilant and prevent from unnecessary movements in the city and main roads. Ahmadzai further added that the security forces will continue to step up security arrangements as the militant groups will concentrate to disrupt the security of the capital. The Martyrs Week is observed every year on 8th September to remember the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud who was conferred with the title of National Hero of Afghanistan following his assassination. The latest alert by the security institutions comes as Kabul witnessed some deadly attacks during the week with the Taliban group claiming responsibility for the back to back explosions. At least 42 people were killed and over 100 others were wounded in a series of explosions that rocked Kabul city on Monday afternoon and Monday night. The group initially targeted the security forces near the Ministry of Defense compound with an IED and suicide attack while another coordinated attack took place on the night of the same day. Follow Khaama Press (KP) | Afghan News Agency on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook. Stay updated via RSS[SEP]Global charity attacked in wave of violence in Kabul KABUL: Explosions rang out yesterday during an hours-long attack on an international charity in Kabul, the latest assault in a wave of violence in the Afghan capital that has killed at least 24 people and wounded dozens. The assault on CARE International began late Monday with a massive car bombing, just hours after the Taleban carried out a brazen double suicide attack near the defense ministry. A plume of smoke rose over the upscale neighborhood of Shar-e Naw after the raid on the charity, located next to the office of Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil. It remains unclear which compound was the intended target of the attack, which left piles of rubble and shards of broken glass strewn across the area. “An armed group launched an attack on what is believed to have been an Afghan government compound located close to the Kabul office of CARE,” the charity said, adding that its staff had been safely evacuated. “The incident continued through the yesterday morning with damages sustained to the CARE compound.” The interior ministry said 42 people including 10 foreigners were rescued and added that no one was killed in the attack, revising its earlier toll of one fatality. “Our new investigation shows… only six people were wounded,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that all three assailants had been gunned down by Afghan forces. No militant group has so far claimed responsibility for the raid on the charity, but it comes as the Taleban ramp up their nationwide offensive against the US-backed government. The attack had been preceded by twin Taleban blasts that killed at least 24 people during the city’s rush hour on Monday, including high-level officials, and left 91 others wounded. The second of the two explosions struck just as soldiers, policemen and civilians hurried to help the victims of the first blast, which occurred on a bridge near the ministry. High-level defense officials were among those killed, including a young military officer-and further compounding the tragedy, his mother also died as soon as she heard of his death. “Colonel Ahmed’s mother died of a heart attack after hearing of her son’s martyrdom,” former deputy interior minister Ayub Salangi tweeted. “She lost two other sons before him.” Ambulances rushed to the scene, littered with disfigured bodies and charred debris. But there were so many bodies that some had to be taken to hospitals in car boots and the back of police pickup trucks. Firemen raced to retrieve some bodies thrown into the Kabul River by the intensity of the first blast on the bridge. Rising insecurity Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said the casualties from the double bombing could rise still further as some of the wounded battled for their lives in hospital. “The enemies of Afghanistan have lost their ability to fight the security and defense forces of the country,” President Ashraf Ghani said on Monday, condemning the twin blasts. “That is why they are attacking highways, cities, mosques, schools and common people.” Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter the defense ministry was the object of the first attack, while police were targeted in the second. The violence comes more than a week after 16 people were killed when militants stormed the American University in Kabul. Earlier in August two professors from the university, an American and an Australian, were kidnapped at gunpoint near the campus. Their whereabouts are still unknown and no group has publicly claimed responsibility for the abductions. The uptick in violence in the capital comes as the Taleban escalate nationwide attacks, underscoring the worsening security situation and the heavy price paid by civilians since NATO forces ended their combat mission at the end of 2014. Afghan forces backed by US troops are trying to head off a potential Taleban takeover of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern opium-rich province of Helmand. The Taleban have also recently closed in on Kunduz-the northern city they briefly seized last year in their biggest military victory since the 2001 US invasion-leaving Afghan forces stretched on multiple fronts._ AFP

A suicide bomber attacks a charity in the Kabul suburb of Shāre Naw with the Taliban claiming responsibility.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A motorcycle bomb killed a father and daughter in front of a Thai elementary school as parents were dropping off their children on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks in the troubled south. The bomb went off in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in predominantly Buddhist Thailand where a separatist insurgency has been raging since 2004. The blast killed a man and his five year-old daughter, the army’s Internal Security Operations Command said. The motorcycle was parked opposite the school entrance. Eight people were wounded. “We suspect this to be the work of people who want to destabilize the situation and cause chaos,” the deputy spokesman of the ISOC, Yuthanam Petchmuang, told Reuters. The attack occurred less than a month after a wave of bombings in tourist towns, including Hua Hin, Phuket and Surat Thani, killed four people and injured dozens. Police say the tourist-town bombings were linked to the southern insurgency and arrested a suspect over the weekend in connection with the attacks. Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters on Tuesday that the military government, which took power in May 2014, were making security preparations ahead of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha on September 12. More than 6,500 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in the Muslim-majority provinces Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani Province since the conflict began, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the conflict. While the conflict has been largely confined to the three southern provinces, analysts say that the spread of violence to other provinces could affect Thailand’s tourism industry.[SEP]NARATHIWAT, Thailand: A four-year-old girl and her father were killed when a bomb hidden in a motorcycle was detonated outside a school in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued south, authorities said Tuesday. The device, packed in the fuel tank of the parked motorcycle, struck as pupils and teachers filed into the school in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province for the start of the day. “The two dead were father and daughter,” Noppdol Kingthong, a Tak Bai police detective, told Agence France-Presse. The bomb was set off by radio control as the pair were near the school gate on a motorbike, he added. A dozen other adults were wounded, according to a hospital worker who said the dead were Muslim. Ethnic Malay insurgents in the kingdom’s so-called “Deep South” have for years targeted schools and teachers, who are viewed as symbols of Thai state power over the culturally distinct Muslim-majority region. More than 6,500 people—the majority civilian—have been killed by rebels and Thai security forces since 2004 in the southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia. Debris from the blast was strewn across the area while an abandoned child’s school bag lay on the road, according to an Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene. Police and soldiers routinely accompany teachers and children to and from schools in the most dangerous “red zones.” Scores of teachers have been killed by rebels—some killed in front of pupils. The rebels appear to have returned to attacking “soft” civilian targets in recent weeks, following several months where violence was aimed at security officials. The bomb “aimed to kill… indiscriminately as shown by the four-year-old victim,” Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the Thai army in the south, said in social media statement. The under-reported conflict in Thailand’s southernmost provinces hit the headlines last month after rare bomb attacks in tourist hotspots inside the kingdom killed four people and wounded dozens, including foreigners. Those blasts carried the hallmarks of the southern rebels, who never claim their attacks. But Thai authorities have downplayed any possible expansion of the southern conflict— unrest that has so far remained highly localized for more than a decade. That is despite the identification of five suspects for those attacks—all Muslim men from the deep south, several of whom have a record of involvement in the insurgency. On Friday, the Thai junta held talks with a group that claims to represent the political aims of the shadowy rebels. The aim is to set the ground for formal peace talks, which stalled following Thailand’s 2014 coup. But it is unclear if the rebel representatives at the table have command-and-control over their foot soldiers. The military is also widely distrusted by Malay Muslims in the south. Rights groups says years of abuses by security forces including extra-judicial killings, have eroded faith in the Thai state, which is also accused of railroading the local culture. AFP[SEP]BANGKOK (AP) — Police say a bomb has exploded outside a school in southern Thailand, killing a man and his 4-year-old daughter. Eight people were also injured. Police Lieutenant Col. Noppadon Kingthong said the bombing happened early Tuesday in Tak Bai town of Narathiwat province. He said Mayeng Waba and his daughter, Mitra Waba, died of their injuries while being taken to a hospital. Mayeng was dropping his daughter off at the kindergarten in the Baan Ta Baa School when they were caught in the explosion. Among the injured, three were police personnel and one was from the military, Noppadon said. Southern Thailand is in the grip of a separatist insurgency led by Muslim militants, who complain of discrimination by the country’s Buddhist majority. They often attack government targets.

A motorcycle bomb kills a father and daughter outside an elementary school in Narathiwat province.

"In total there are less than a handful of URLs out of millions of proven piracy URLs reported for taking down by error," Wang said in an email. "None of the four URLs on legitimate sites were ever removed because it's an obvious error."[SEP]Warner Brothers has taken its piracy policing to the extreme by reporting its own website. The famously litigious movie studio put in requests for Google to remove its own website from search results, citing copyright law violation as the reason, reports copyright new site Torrent Freak. Warner also asked Google to remove links to film streaming sites run by Amazon and Sky, as well online film reference site IMDB. Warner regularly reports pirated content to the search engine company, but the latest round of take-down requests appears to be full of legitimate websites, including its own. The requests were made on behalf of Warner Bros by Vobile, a company that uses video tracking technology to help companies enforce copyright on their content. The official Warner Bros web page for 2008's The Dark Knight was among the URLs that Google was asked to remove. Several requests were also made in relation to the 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix, again including Warner's official site for the movie. 'Warner is inadvertently trying to make it harder for the public to find links to legitimate content, which runs counter to its intentions,' said Ernesto van der Sar from Torrent Freak. Google spotted the mistakes and decided not to remove links to Amazon, IMDB and Sky Cinema, though the Warner URLs still remain under review, reports Torrent Freak. A Google transparency report shows that Vobile has submitted more than 13 million requests for URLs to be removed . Along with Warner Bros., the company also works on behalf of Netflix, Paramount and MTV owner Viacom.

Warner Brothers is accused of self-censorship after it tagged its own websites for copyright infringement through the search engine Google.

Bayer AG BAYRY 1.19% raised its offer to buy Monsanto Co. and create a new global leader in seeds and pesticides, though the German firm said the higher price depended on achieving a “negotiated transaction.” Bayer, which has been discussing a deal with Monsanto since mid-May, said it would pay $127.50 a share for the St. Louis-based biotech seed giant, up from its previous offer of $125 a share. The higher offer values Monsanto at over $65 billion, including debt. Monsanto acknowledged the improved offer, and called the discussions with Bayer “constructive.” “Monsanto is continuing these conversations as it evaluates this proposal, as well as proposals from other parties and other strategic alternatives to enable its Board of Directors to determine if a transaction in the best interests of its shareowners can be realized,” officials for the company said. Executives of the pharmaceutical giant have said that acquiring Monsanto, the world’s largest supplier of crop seeds and genes, will create a global firm with a deep portfolio in pesticides, positioned to help farmers around the world produce food for a growing and more affluent population. Werner Baumann, who took over as Bayer’s chief executive just weeks before launching what would be the aspirin maker’s biggest-ever acquisition, is pursuing the deal as rivals in the $100 billion global market for seeds and pesticides seal their own mergers. Mr. Baumann has faced pushback from some Bayer shareholders, however, who have worried about Bayer shifting focus away from its pharma division. Monsanto has said it sees the virtues of combining its prowess in seeds with Bayer’s much broader range of pesticides, but Monsanto’s board in July unanimously rejected Bayer’s previous offer of $125 a share as too low and “insufficient to ensure deal certainty.” Analysts have said around $135 to $140 a share may be a more realistic price. Bayer said Monday that there was no assurance a deal would be struck, and if one was, it would remain subject to regulatory approvals. Monsanto shares settled Friday at $107.44. Bayer shares settled 0.7% lower Monday at €94.24 (about $105). Monsanto is weighing Bayer’s takeover proposal as the U.S. company’s own profits have come under pressure from the slumping farm economy, where bin-busting harvests have pushed down grain prices and forced farmers in the U.S. and elsewhere to reduce spending on everything from crop seeds to tractors and land. The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week projected that U.S. farm incomes this year will hit their lowest point since 2009, forcing more farmers to consider switching to generic weedkillers, put off buying new machinery, and trade down to cheaper seeds. Monsanto has responded to the downturn by laying off about 16% of its global workforce and curtailing some research projects, including a Brazilian sugar cane effort. While Bayer has touted its deal as offering Monsanto investors an attractive price for the company, some Monsanto shareholders have said that Monsanto should seek a higher figure based on the long-term potential of some of its investments, including a data analytics business that crunches weather, soil and crop information to formulate farming advice. Bayer and Monsanto have few alternative partners. DuPont Co. and Dow Chemical Co. , which both maintain big divisions focused on seeds and crop sprays, unveiled their own merger in December, a plan that eventually will lead to the spinoff of three independent companies, including one focused on agriculture. That deal’s closing now is likely to slip into early 2017 after European Union antitrust officials moved to open an in-depth probe of the deal, citing competitive concerns in herbicides and insecticides, among other product lines. Syngenta AG , another top seed and pesticide maker, is moving ahead with a planned sale to China National Chemical Corp. for $43 billion, in a deal that would broadly expand China’s heft in high-tech seed development as the country works to modernize its agricultural sector. That deal last month won a key nod from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com[SEP]The German pharmaceutical and chemicals group Bayer said it would sweeten its offer for US rival Monsanto. In a statement released late Monday, Bayer said it would raise its offer for the US seed giant to $127.50 per share from $125. That would bring the deal's total value to almost $66 billion including debt. Monsanto confirmed Bayer's improved bid for a friendly takeover and said it was evaluating the proposal, "as well as proposals from other parties and other strategic alternatives". It said there was no guarantee a deal would be struck. Monsanto rejected Bayer's previous offer in mid-July, saying it was "financially inadequate", but left the door open to further discussions. With its new offer, Bayer also said it has no intention of carrying out a hostile takeover. The German daily Handelsblatt reported in mid-August that Bayer was considering a hostile bid if faced with ongoing opposition from Monsanto. A deal would create a global leader in genetically modified seeds and pesticides. Monsanto pursued its own takeover of Swiss Syngenta for more than a year as well as BASF SE's agrochemicals unit, Bloomberg reported. Germany's BASF could still play the role of white knight helping Monsanto fend off Bayer's bid, Bloomberg said in mid-July. Bayer was down 0.20 percent in early trade on the Frankfurt stock exchange Tuesday.[SEP]The $63.5 billion offer on the table for U.S. seed giant Monsanto was already the biggest takeover bid this year. But in an effort to clinch a deal, Germany's Bayer says it's ready to go even bigger. Bayer (BAYRY) said Tuesday it's prepared to pay $65 billion in cash to create a huge conglomerate spanning pharmaceuticals, health products and pesticides. Monsanto (MON) shot down Bayer's two previous offers, but now the companies are in advanced talks, the German firm said. It's not the only one interested, though, according to Monsanto. The U.S. company said its weighing Bayer's sweetened offer along with "proposals from other parties and other strategic alternatives." Related: Monsanto takeover would be biggest deal of 2016 Bayer is now offering $127.50 per share, up from previous bids of $122 and $125. Monsanto shares in New York closed Friday at $107.44, suggesting investors were cautious about the prospects of a successful deal. The latest offer values Monsanto's equity at about $56 billion. Including debt, the deal would be worth $65 billion. If the two companies can reach an agreement, it would be the latest mega-merger struck in the agribusiness and chemical sectors. Last year, Dow and DuPont combined to form a new industrial giant worth $130 billion. In February of this year, ChemChina agreed to pay $43 billion for Syngenta (SYENF), a company that Monsanto had previously tried to buy. The ChemChina-Syngenta deal is currently the biggest announced worldwide so far this year. Bayer, which is strongest in Asia and Europe, stands to gain from Monsanto's expertise in agriculture and seeds. It would also benefit from Monsanto's regional strength in North America. Bayer has said the combining the companies -- which would need regulatory approval -- would generate synergies of $1.5 billion over three years. -- Charles Riley and Rob McClean contributed to this report.[SEP]Policy: Bhutan’s annual debt service obligations of total external debt will not exceed 25 percent of total exports of goods and services, according to the new public debt policy launched yesterday. The thresholds for non-hydro power debt stock is fixed at 35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) during the Five Year Plan period, while the general government debt should be less than 22 percent of domestic revenue in any given financial year. The policy stipulates that short-term external debt, including debt contracted by the Royal Monetary Authority shall not exceed 30 percent of surplus reserves in any given financial year. Sovereign guarantee issuance for public corporation borrowing is limited to five percent of the country’s GDP each year. The thresholds can be breached only in times of economic crisis and other times when the government has no means to raise additional debt to maintain socio-economic stability. It will have three years to stabilise the economy under such conditions. The hydropower related external debt has to maintain a ratio of debt service to hydropower export revenue of less than 40 percent. The debt to equity ratio of hydropower projects cannot exceed 70:30. The thresholds are to reduce the undue debt burden that might arise from indiscriminate borrowing for social projects, which do not necessarily generate financial returns. Other considerations are aimed at ensuring fiscal discipline and avoiding ad-hoc, short-term borrowing which are generally costly. The recent economic growth was coupled with increasing public debt, comprising largely of external debt for hydropower development. If the country continues with similar growth rates, it is expected to graduate to a middle-income country status in the next decade. If so, Bhutan will not be eligible to avail low-cost finance that has fuelled growth till date. With the increased GDP per capita, the present concessionary lending terms offered by the multilateral agencies are expected to change. This will mean that the government will have to seek new sources of finance for its capital expenditures. In view of the dwindling grants, external borrowing is expected to increase hereafter. The absence of a clear policy guideline on public debt management and borrowing poses risks due to unsustainable borrowings. From this perspective, a prudent debt management policy assumes high importance. Finance minister Namgay Dorji said that a well-articulated debt management policy will help to ensure that the government’s financing needs and that debt obligations are met at the lowest possible cost with a prudent degree of risk. “The policy leaves no opportunity in future to avail excessive borrowings, harming the long-term interests of the nation to meet their short-term party pledges,” he said. Effective debt management will be of paramount importantance in ensuring that debt financing is sustainable and contributes to the economic growth of the country, and ultimately in achieving the overarching development objective of Gross National Happiness, the minister said. The public debt policy provides a broad framework to guide decisions that will ensure sustainable debt levels and efficient portfolio management. It extends to all public and publicly guaranteed external and domestic debt of Bhutan. However, given the nascent stage of development of the domestic debt market, the thresholds in this policy shall apply only to external debt, until such time the thresholds for domestic debt can be determined to compliment this policy. “This policy will enable the government to proactively guide its investment plans and ensure that financing decisions are prudent and public debt is maintained at a sustainable level,” Lyonpo Namgay Dorji said. The debt management division of the finance ministry will be upgraded to a department. Until then a public debt advisory committee will be formed. The policy is governed by the Constitution, the Public Finance Act of Bhutan 2007, the Audit Act of Bhutan 2006 and the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan Act 2010, and amendments thereof. The Cabinet approved the policy, formulated by a committee from the National Statistical Bureau, Gross National Happiness Commission, finance ministry, Royal Monetary Authority, and hydropower and power systems department, in the past two years, in its 109th session on August 2 this year. The policy is effective from August 18.

Bayer reproposes to buy Monsanto at a new exchange of US$65 billion including debt.

Fox News prizes stability. But right now the proverbial ground there is shaking as a result of the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal. Greta Van Susteren's sudden departure from the network is just the latest aftershock. Uncertainty abounds -- not so much about the business, which remains rock solid, but about its broadcasters. Fox's parent company has settled with Gretchen Carlson and several other women who accused Ailes of harassment. But at least one lawsuit is still outstanding. The network has holes to patch at 2 p.m., Carlson's old time slot, and 7 p.m., Van Susteren's hour. Several other reporters and commentators are also heading for the exits. And the contracts of Fox's biggest stars are coming due soon. One of those stars, Megyn Kelly, just hired a personal publicist to help her navigate through a book launch and a contract negotiation. Kelly will surely be asked about Ailes during her book tour in November. That's just one of many reasons why the Ailes aftershocks will continue to be felt after the presidential election. This is the most tumultuous time in the history of the network, which turns 20 next month. Two longtime executives, Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, were named co-presidents last month. The two men, along with their boss Rupert Murdoch, are figuring out what a post-Ailes Fox News looks like. So far it's been mostly about subtraction. Van Susteren is just the highest profile departure; weekend "Fox & Friends" co-host Anna Kooiman said goodbye on Sunday, citing her husband's impending move to Australia. "Fox & Friends" meteorologist Maria Molina signed off on Tuesday, citing a move to Michigan to pursue her Ph.D. More than half a dozen Ailes lieutenants have also left since July 21, the day Ailes resigned under pressure. Such turnover, both on air and off air, is highly unusual at Fox. Some of the departures would have happened anyway -- political analyst Kirsten Powers, for instance, moved from Fox to CNN last month. But other talent changes are connected to the end of Ailes' tenure. Ailes' successors decided to let longtime contributor Bo Dietl's contract expire over the summer. Dietl, the founder of a private investigations firm, reportedly conducted P.I. work for Ailes. Other hosts and commentators who were especially close to Ailes are also likely to leave in the coming months. In a strange twist, lawyer and Fox News contributor Susan Estrich is one of Ailes' personal lawyers in the harassment suits. Estrich's bio is still listed on Fox's web site. Van Susteren's bio and blog were deleted just as soon as Fox announced her departure on Tuesday. The swift and bitter breakup was the result of a failed negotiation by Van Susteren and her husband John Coale. Coale said Tuesday that there is "possible litigation in the future" between Van Susteren and Fox. By removing her from the airwaves immediately, Fox News executives were sending a message: that no one host or commentator or reporter is bigger than Fox as a whole. "We have a deep bench" is a mantra among the bosses. And it is accurate. But the network faces a big challenge next year when the contracts for all three prime time hosts -- Kelly, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity -- are set to expire. Even before then, Shine and Abernethy have to find a new host for Van Susteren's pivotal time slot, which leads into O'Reilly and the rest of prime time. Veteran anchorman Brit Hume is taking over the time slot, but only through Election Day. On the bright side for Fox, the talent revolt by Ailes loyalists that was rumored back in July never actually transpired. Van Susteren is the only host known to have exercised the "key man clause" in her contract that allowed her to follow Ailes out the door. But many Fox hosts and reporters are still eager to find out what's going to change -- and what won't -- at the network. Fox's high ratings and even higher profits depend on a consistent editorial tone and a loyal audience. There was, at least, one bit of good news for Fox on Tuesday. Longtime 4 p.m. host Neil Cavuto, who had to take a medical leave in June for open heart surgery, returned to the airwaves.[SEP]Greta Van Susteren is out as a nighttime host on Fox News Channel, replaced temporarily by Brit Hume starting Tuesday. Fox did not publicly explain Van Susteren's abrupt exit after 14 years, although a person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity described it as a financial disagreement. Van Susteren was not immediately available for comment, and the news wasn't reflected on her popular blog or Twitter feed. The Washington-based lawyer came to Fox from CNN 14 years ago. For several years, her "On the Record" program aired at 10 p.m. ET, but moved to 7 p.m. when Fox gave a prime-time show to Megyn Kelly. Hume is a senior political commentator for Fox. He said he's taking on Van Susteren's show through the election. Fox's co-presidents, Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine, said in a statement that "we are grateful for Greta's many contributions over the years and wish her continued success."[SEP]Brit Hume, a veteran journalist who spent more than a decade as a senior news executive in Fox News' Washington bureau, will take over her 7 p.m. slot on the 21st Century Fox-owned cable-news network at least through the election. He will appear this evening, the network said Tuesday. Van Susteren could not be reached for immediate comment. Her husband, John Coale, an attorney who has worked as her agent in the past, could also not be reached for immediate comment." In a statement released on Twitter, Van Susteren said "Fox has not felt like home to me for a few years now, and I took advantage of a clause in my contract which allows me to leave now. The clause had a time limitation, meaning I could not wait." Van Susteren last revised her contract with Fox News in May of 2013. A person familiar with the situation came about as the result of a "financial disagreement." Her departure takes place as speculation rises that 21st Century Fox, the network's parent, is eager to distance the outlet from the culture instilled there by Roger Ailes, its former chief, who departed in the wake of an internal investigation spurred by charges of sexual harassment levied in a lawsuit by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson. Van Susteren was one of several Fox News anchors who initially rose to Ailes' defense, noting that she had not encountered any sort of harassment while working at the outlet. "Let's first get something straight: I did not sexually harass anyone (of course.). And second, I did not know about any sexual harassment and keep it secret (of course.)," she said on her Fox News blog, "Gretawire," in August. A Fox News report stated that Van Susteren had asked to renegotiate her contract with the network in the wake of Ailes' departure. Some on-air staffers have a "key man" clause that tied their employment with the network to Ailes' tenure there. Van Susteren's departure creates the first big programming challenge for Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, the network's new co-presidents, who were elevated to those roles after Ailes left. During Ailes' tenure, Fox News rarely made big shifts in its primetime lineup. One of the few involved launching Megyn Kelly at 9 p.m. in 2013. Van Susteren rose to prominence as a criminal defense attorney and civil trial lawyer who parlayed appearances as a legal analyst on CNN during the infamous trial of former football player and actor O.J. Simpson into a hosting stint. Van Susteren co-hosted the show "Burden of Proof" with Roger Cossack between 1995 and 2001. She also anchored a primetime program, "The Point," on CNN starting in 2001. She joined Fox News Channel in 2002, and began anchoring "On The Record." In 2013, her Washington D.C., based primetime program was moved to 7 p.m. in the wake of a primetime shuffle that welcomed the launch of Megyn Kelly's program in Van Susteren's original time slot. She held forth there ever since, until Tuesday's announcement. "We are grateful for Greta's many contributions over the years and wish her continued success," Abernethy and Shine said in a prepared statement. Hume is expected to focus on political coverage through November and the end of the current race for U.S. President. Hume previously served as the anchor of "Special Report," and stepped down in December 2008 after more than 10 years anchoring the program. Hume also served as the Washington managing editor and was responsible for overseeing news content for Fox News' Washington bureau. He anchored all network coverage for every presidential election from 1996 to 2008. Before joining FOX News in 1996, Hume was with ABC News for 23 years, serving as chief White House correspondent from 1989 through 1996. As for Van Susteren, she may have another stop to make in her career trajectory. "I hope to continue my career in broadcasting," she said.[SEP]Veteran Fox News anchor Greta van Susteren is leaving the network after more than 14 years. Van Susteren, who hosted shows for the network across different time-slots since 2002, will be replaced by senior political analyst Brit Hume immediately on On the Record, a statement read. The network's co-presidents Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine said in the statement: 'We are grateful for Greta's many contributions over the years and wish her continued success.' The statement went on to describe Hume, who will be at the helm of the show until the end of the election, as 'the ideal choice to host a nightly political program'. Van Susteren's abrupt departure is the result of a 'financial disagreement', Variety reports. A Fox News report says the host tried to renegotiate her contract with the network after disgraced former president Richard Ailes left the network, however they were deadlocked so van Susteren decided to depart. However, sources close to the situation told New York Magazine the hasty exit was due to van Susteren becoming 'troubled by the culture' Ailes created at the network. Yes, I have left the Fox News Channel. On Thursday night, I made my decision and informed Fox News of my decision that I was leaving Fox News Channel per my contract. Fox has not felt like home to me for a few years and I took advantage of the clause in my contract which allows me to leave now. The clause had a time limitation, meaning I could not wait. I love my staff, I love my colleagues, and I love the crews. That is the hardest part of this decision as they are wonderful people. And most of all? I love the viewers -- even the ones who have gotten mad at me over the years and taken swipes. I hope to continue my career in broadcasting. Van Susteren herself released a statement on Tuesday shortly before noon, explaining her exit. 'Yes, I have left the Fox News Channel,' it read. 'On Thursday night, I made my decision and informed Fox News of my decision that I was leaving Fox News Channel per my contract. 'Fox has not felt like home to me for a few years and I took advantage of the clause in my contract which allows me to leave now. 'The clause had a time limitation, meaning I could not wait. I love my staff, I love my colleagues, and I love the crews. That is the hardest part of this decision as they are wonderful people. 'And most of all? I love the viewers -- even the ones who have gotten mad at me over the years and taken swipes. 'I hope to continue my career in broadcasting.' The 62-year-old's departure was announced on Tuesday morning, the same day it was revealed Fox News will pay $20 million and issued a public apology to settle former Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson's lawsuit against Ailes. 'We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect that she and all our colleagues deserve,' the statement from 21st Century Fox read. Carlson issued a public statement through 21st Century Fox, saying she was 'gratified' with the 'decisive action' on Ailes. 'I’m ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace,' she said. FOX News Channel's (FNC) senior political analyst Brit Hume will take over as anchor of On the Record (7PM/ET) starting Tuesday, September 6th and running through the election, announced the network's co-presidents Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine. Current host Greta Van Susteren will depart the network after 14 years. In making the announcement, Abernethy and Shine said in a joint statement, 'As one of the best political analysts in the industry, Brit is the ideal choice to host a nightly political program while the most dynamic and captivating election in recent history unfolds. Having Brit at the helm of this show will enable FOX News to continue on track to have its highest-rated year ever as the network dominates the cable news landscape.' Commenting on Van Susteren's departure, Abernethy and Shine jointly said, 'We are grateful for Greta's many contributions over the years and wish her continued success.' Hume added, 'I am happy to take on this assignment for the balance of this extraordinary election. My FOX News colleagues have set a high standard for political coverage which I'll do my best to uphold. I'm honored to be asked.' As FNC's senior political analyst, Hume has provided in-depth coverage and analysis of all major political events and covered every presidential election since assuming the role in 2008. Previously serving as the anchor of Special Report, Hume stepped down in December 2008 after more than 10 years anchoring the program. Under his leadership, Special Report was the highest-rated political program on cable television. In this capacity, Hume also served as the Washington managing editor and was responsible for overseeing news content for FOX News' Washington bureau. He also anchored all network coverage for every presidential election from 1996-2008. Before joining FOX News in 1996, Hume was with ABC News for 23 years, serving as chief White House correspondent from 1989 through 1996. During his tenure, he contributed to World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline and This Week, as well as various specials for the news division. Hume joined ABC in 1973 as a consultant for the network's documentary division, moving on to the role of Washington correspondent in 1976, and later Capitol Hill correspondent and reported on Congress until 1988. Earlier, Hume reported for United Press International, beginning his career as a newspaper reporter with The Hartford Times and the Baltimore Evening Sun. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the 2003 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism from the National Press Foundation and a 1991 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Gulf War. The author of two books 'Inside Story' and 'Death and the Mines,' Hume was named 'The Best in the Business' by the American Journalism Review for his extensive news coverage of the White House. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. A top five cable network, FNC has been the most-watched news channel in the country for more than 14 years and according to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll, is the most trusted television news source in the country. Owned by 21st Century Fox, FNC is available in more than 90 million homes and dominates the cable news landscape, routinely notching the top ten programs in the genre. In exchange, Carlson has agreed to drop the lawsuit against Ailes and will not bring up any new suits against the company or any of its employees. The announcement of van Susteren's departure comes after the former host stood by comments she made about the ex-Fox News CEO in an interview shortly after he was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit, but denied ever defending the man. 'I did not defend Roger Ailes nor did I condemn him. I just stated what I knew or did not know. Period,' said Van Susteren in a statement posted to her personal website. However, Van Susteren had earlier discredited Carlson's claims in an interview with People. 'People come to me because I've been there so long,' said Van Susteren, speaking less than 24 hours after Carlson's lawsuit was filed in a New Jersey court. 'That's why this doesn't have any ring of truth to me. I would have heard it. People don't keep things silent.' Van Susteren also described Carlson as 'a disgruntled employee' and said that after seeing that Carlson's show had been cancelled she, as a lawyer, 'thought she got angry.' She then added: 'I deal with Roger Ailes often. I've often been alone with Roger Ailes in his office over the course of 15 years and I've never seen anything like what I'm reading about in the papers and the magazine.' Later in the interview Van Susteren paint Carlson as ungrateful, saying 'most people, man or woman, would give anything to have had the air time [Carlson] had on Fox & Friends.' Van Susteren closed out the interview by saying: 'If Roger Ailes were how he's described, there's no way I would've stuck around. I don't feel like putting up with that stuff and I wouldn't.' Her replacement as host of On the Record has also tweeted his support of Ailes in recent months. 'Here's another suggestion. Why didn't she quit & sue instead of suing only after she got fired?' Hume tweeted on July 7.[SEP]Fox News prizes stability. But right now the proverbial ground there is shaking as a result of the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal. Greta Van Susteren's sudden departure from the network is just the latest aftershock. Uncertainty abounds -- not so much about the business, which remains rock solid, but about its broadcasters. Fox's parent company has settled with Gretchen Carlson and several other women who accused Ailes of harassment. But at least one lawsuit is still outstanding. The network has holes to patch at 2 p.m., Carlson's old time slot, and 7 p.m., Van Susteren's hour. Several other reporters and commentators are also heading for the exits. And the contracts of Fox's biggest stars are coming due soon. One of those stars, Megyn Kelly, just hired a personal publicist to help her navigate through a book launch and a contract negotiation. Kelly will surely be asked about Ailes during her book tour in November. That's just one of many reasons why the Ailes aftershocks will continue to be felt after the presidential election. This is the most tumultuous time in the history of the network, which turns 20 next month. Two longtime executives, Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, were named co-presidents last month. The two men, along with their boss Rupert Murdoch, are figuring out what a post-Ailes Fox News looks like. So far it's been mostly about subtraction. Van Susteren is just the highest profile departure; weekend "Fox & Friends" co-host Anna Kooiman said goodbye on Sunday, citing her husband's impending move to Australia. "Fox & Friends" meteorologist Maria Molina signed off on Tuesday, citing a move to Michigan to pursue her Ph.D. More than half a dozen Ailes lieutenants have also left since July 21, the day Ailes resigned under pressure. Such turnover, both on air and off air, is highly unusual at Fox. Some of the departures would have happened anyway -- political analyst Kirsten Powers, for instance, moved from Fox to CNN last month. But other talent changes are connected to the end of Ailes' tenure. Ailes' successors decided to let longtime contributor Bo Dietl's contract expire over the summer. Dietl, the founder of a private investigations firm, reportedly conducted P.I. work for Ailes. Other hosts and commentators who were especially close to Ailes are also likely to leave in the coming months -- not necessarily by choice. In a strange twist, lawyer and Fox News contributor Susan Estrich is one of Ailes' personal lawyers in the harassment suits. Estrich's bio is still listed on Fox's web site. Van Susteren's bio and blog were deleted just as soon as Fox announced her departure on Tuesday. The swift and bitter breakup was the result of a failed negotiation by Van Susteren and her husband John Coale. Coale said Tuesday that there is "possible litigation in the future" between Van Susteren and Fox. By removing her from the airwaves immediately, Fox News executives were sending a message: that no one host or commentator or reporter is bigger than Fox as a whole. "We have a deep bench" is a mantra among the bosses. And it is accurate. But the network faces a big challenge next year when the contracts for two of its remaining prime time hosts -- Kelly and Bill O'Reilly -- are set to expire. Fox's 10 p.m. host, Sean Hannity, is under contract until 2020. More urgently, Shine and Abernethy have to find a new host for Van Susteren's pivotal time slot, which leads into O'Reilly and the rest of prime time. Veteran anchorman Brit Hume is taking over the time slot, but only through Election Day. On the bright side for Fox, the talent revolt by Ailes loyalists that was rumored back in July never actually transpired. Van Susteren is the only host known to have exercised the "key man clause" in her contract that allowed her to follow Ailes out the door. But many Fox hosts and reporters are still eager to find out what's going to change -- and what won't -- at the network. Fox's high ratings and even higher profits depend on a consistent editorial tone and a loyal audience. There was, at least, one bit of good news for Fox on Tuesday. Longtime 4 p.m. host Neil Cavuto, who had to take a medical leave in June for open heart surgery, returned to the airwaves. Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Sean Hannity's contract was set to expire in 2017. It actually extends through 2020.[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) — Greta Van Susteren is out as a nighttime host on Fox News Channel, replaced temporarily by Brit Hume starting Tuesday. Fox did not publicly explain Van Susteren's abrupt exit after 14 years, although a person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity described it as a financial disagreement. Van Susteren was not immediately available for comment, and the news wasn't reflected on her popular blog or Twitter feed. The Washington-based lawyer came to Fox from CNN 14 years ago. For several years, her "On the Record" program aired at 10 p.m. ET, but moved to 7 p.m. when Fox gave a prime-time show to Megyn Kelly. Hume is a senior political commentator for Fox. He said he's taking on Van Susteren's show through the election.[SEP]A sharp knock on the door signaled that Greta Van Susteren's time on Fox News Channel was over. A courier arrived at Van Susteren's Washington, D.C. home at 9 a.m. Tuesday, hand-delivering two letters that said that Van Susteren "was being taken off the air" immediately, according to her husband, John Coale, who is a high-profile Washington lawyer. Van Susteren was already planning to leave, but she thought she would be hosting her 7 p.m. program "On the Record" for a few more weeks. Yanking her off the air without a chance to say goodbye was "a bit immature," Coale remarked. It was also a message from Rupert Murdoch. Van Susteren has been one of the top anchors at Fox News for the past 14 years. Murdoch, the patriarch of Fox's parent company 21st Century Fox, disliked her recent attempt to renegotiate her contract, and the unusual courier visit was a result of that, said one of the sources interviewed for this story. The messy breakup is the latest sign of tension -- "chaos," according to Coale -- behind the scenes at Fox News. Coale said Tuesday afternoon that there's "possible litigation in the future" between Van Susteren and Fox. He declined to elaborate. The network announced her departure less than an hour after the courier arrived. Van Susteren was not quoted in the press release. Fox then deleted the "On the Record" web site, Van Susteren's biography, and her pioneering Gretawire blog -- essentially erasing her from FoxNews.com. So Van Susteren took to Facebook to explain her exit. Fox "has not felt like home to me for a few years and I took advantage of the clause in my contract which allows me to leave now," she wrote. That clause is known as a "key man clause." It was triggered by Fox News chief Roger Ailes' resignation in late July amid a sexual harassment scandal. Once Ailes left, Van Susteren had a chance to leave too. The sources said Van Susteren sought to renegotiate the terms of her contract -- and asked for a big bump in pay -- after Ailes resigned. Fox executives refused to negotiate, one of the sources said. There was a "financial disagreement," another one of the sources said. Van Susteren was motivated to leave in part because she had been unhappy and uncomfortable with the way Ailes ran the network the past few years, and with the way the network was perceived, two of the sources said. Even while vocally defending Fox in public, she had concerns in private. "It didn't appear it was getting better" after Ailes left, one of the sources said, so she looked to the exit. Van Susteren had a 60-day period of time to invoke the escape clause after Ailes resigned. With time running out, Van Susteren sent a letter to Fox last Thursday night, informing the network of her decision. The goal, Coale said, was to arrange a graceful exit. He said Van Susteren expected to continue hosting for weeks "to help them sort things out and have a smooth transition." Indeed, television hosts normally have some time on the air after it is known that they're leaving. But not this time. Brit Hume, the former 6 p.m. host who now serves as a Fox political analyst, is taking over Van Susteren's 7 p.m. time slot until election day. Van Susteren said on Facebook that she hopes "to continue my career in broadcasting." A former criminal defense and civil trial lawyer, she joined Fox News from CNN in 2002 and has hosted "On The Record" ever since. She cannot leap to a new network right away, however, due to the terms of her Fox contract. It is unclear how long the waiting period is supposed to last. Fox News announced Van Susteren's departure just a few minutes after the channel's parent company, 21st Century Fox, confirmed a $20 million settlement deal with Gretchen Carlson, the anchorwoman who sued Ailes in July, starting the chain of events that led to his ouster. Van Susteren was not quoted in the announcement. But Fox News co-presidents Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy jointly praised Van Susteren. "We are grateful for Greta's many contributions over the years and wish her continued success," the two executives said. Hume said, "I am happy to take on this assignment for the balance of this extraordinary election."[SEP]Greta Van Susteren is out as a nighttime host on Fox News Channel, replaced temporarily by Brit Hume starting Tuesday. Fox did not publicly explain Van Susteren's abrupt exit after 14 years, although a person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity described it as a financial disagreement. Van Susteren was not immediately available for comment, and the news wasn't reflected on her popular blog or Twitter feed. The Washington-based lawyer came to Fox from CNN 14 years ago. For several years, her "On the Record" program aired at 10 p.m. ET, but moved to 7 p.m. when Fox gave a prime-time show to Megyn Kelly. Hume is a senior political commentator for Fox. He said he's taking on Van Susteren's show through the election. Fox's co-presidents, Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine, said in a statement that "we are grateful for Greta's many contributions over the years and wish her continued success."[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) — Greta Van Susteren is out as a nighttime host on Fox News Channel, replaced temporarily by Brit Hume starting Tuesday. Fox did not publicly explain Van Susteren’s abrupt exit after 14 years, although a person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity described it as a financial disagreement. Van Susteren was not immediately available for comment, and the news wasn’t reflected on her popular blog or Twitter feed. The Washington-based lawyer came to Fox from CNN 14 years ago. For several years, her “On the Record” program aired at 10 p.m. ET, but moved to 7 p.m. when Fox gave a prime-time show to Megyn Kelly. Hume is a senior political commentator for Fox. He said he’s taking on Van Susteren’s show through the election.[SEP]Brit Hume, a veteran journalist who spent more than a decade as a senior news executive in Fox News' Washington bureau, will take over her 6 p.m. slot on the 21st Century Fox-owned cable-news network at least through the election. He will appear this evening, the network said Tuesday. Van Susteren could not be reached for immediate comment. Her husband, John Coale, an attorney who has worked as her agent in the past, could also not be reached for immediate comment." In a statement released on Twitter, Van Susteren said "Fox has not felt like home to me for a few years now, and I took advantage of a clause in my contract which allows me to leave now. The clause had a time limitation, meaning I could not wait." Van Susteren last revised her contract with Fox News in May of 2013. A person familiar with the situation came about as the result of a "financial disagreement." Her departure takes place as speculation rises that 21st Century Fox, the network's parent, is eager to distance the outlet from the culture instilled there by Roger Ailes, its former chief, who departed in the wake of an internal investigation spurred by charges of sexual harassment levied in a lawsuit by former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson. Van Susteren was one of several Fox News anchors who initially rose to Ailes' defense, noting that she had not encountered any sort of harassment while working at the outlet. "Let's first get something straight: I did not sexually harass anyone (of course.). And second, I did not know about any sexual harassment and keep it secret (of course.)," she said on her Fox News blog, "Gretawire," in August. A Fox News report stated that Van Susteren had asked to renegotiate her contract with the network in the wake of Ailes' departure. Some on-air staffers have a "key man" clause that tied their employment with the network to Ailes' tenure there. Van Susteren's departure creates the first bog programming challenge for Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, the network's new co-presidents, who were elevated to those roles after Ailes left. During Ailes' tenure, Fox News rarely made big shifts in its primetime lineup. One of the few involved launching Megyn Kelly at 8 p.m. in 2013. Van Susteren rose to prominence as a criminal defense attorney and civil trial lawyer who parlayed appearances as a legal analyst on CNN during the infamous trial of former football player and actor O.J. Simpson into a hosting stint. Van Susteren co-hosted the show "Burden of Proof" with Roger Cossack between 1995 and 2001. She also anchored a primetime program, "The Point," on CNN starting in 2001. She joined Fox News Channel in 2002, and began anchoring "On The Record." In 2013, her Washington D.C., based primetime program was moved to 6 p.m. in the wake of a primetime shuffle that welcomed the launch of Megyn Kelly's program in Van Susteren's original time slot. She held forth there ever since, until Tuesday's announcement. "We are grateful for Greta's many contributions over the years and wish her continued success," Abernethy and Shine said in a prepared statement. Hume is expected to focus on political coverage through November and the end of the current race for U.S. president. Hume previously served as the anchor of "Special Report," and stepped down in December 2008 after more than 10 years anchoring the program. Hume also served as the Washington managing editor and was responsible for overseeing news content for Fox News' Washington bureau. He anchored all network coverage for every presidential election from 1996 to 2008. Before joining FOX News in 1996, Hume was with ABC News for 23 years, serving as chief White House correspondent from 1989 through 1996. As for Van Susteren, she may have another stop to make in her career trajectory. "I hope to continue my career in broadcasting," she said.

Fox News On The Record host Greta Van Susteren leaves the channel after 14 years.

Tropical storm Newton, located 350 kilometers southeast of Cabo San Lucas, has reached hurricane strength, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said at 4:00pm CDT. The federal government has issued a hurricane warning for the west coast of Baja California Sur from north of Puerto Cortés to Cabo San Lázaro, and a tropical storm warning for the east coast of the Baja Peninsula from north of Mulege to Bahía San Juan Bautista and for mainland Mexico from north of Bahía Kino to Puerto Libertad. The NHC’s hurricane warning area extends from Cabo San Lázaro to San Evaristo and includes Cabo San Lucas. Newton has strengthened more rapidly than expected this afternoon. The NHC’s 1:00pm advisory, which reported maximum sustained winds of 105 km/h, predicted it would reach hurricane strength by tomorrow morning. Winds had reached 120 km/h by 4:00pm, when the storm was located 350 kilometers southeast of Cabo San Lucas, and further strengthening is forecast. A tropical storm warning is in effect for Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes, north of Cabo San Lázaro to Punta Abreojos, north of San Evaristo to Mulege and from Bahía Tempehuaya to Puerto Libertad. Newton is moving toward the northwest at 26 km/h, a track on which it is expected to remain through early tomorrow, followed by a turn toward the north-northwest and then to the north late Tuesday and Wednesday. Tropical storm strength winds are forecast for the Baja Peninsula late tonight and hurricane conditions early tomorrow. Tropical storm conditions from Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes are expected to end this evening. The National Meteorological Service has forecast torrential rainfall in Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán, intense rain in Sinaloa and Nayarit and heavy rain in Baja California Sur and Guerrero. The coasts of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán can expect swells two to three meters high. Mexico News Daily[SEP]CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Newton (all times local): Hurricane Newton has made landfall on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula near Cabo San Lucas. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Newton’s winds Tuesday morning were around 90 mph (150 kph) and the storm is expected to still be a hurricane when it makes its second landfall on the northwest coast of mainland Mexico early Wednesday. State Tourism Secretary Genaro Ruiz said about 14,000 tourists remained in Los Cabos as of Monday night as airlines canceled flights out as the storm approached. Ruiz said tourists had been advised to remain in their hotels. Newton is expected to move up the peninsula and enter the Gulf of California by Tuesday night. The hurricane center says the storm is likely to continue north and cross into southern Arizona as a tropical depression Wednesday night.[SEP]CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Newton (all times local): Hurricane Newton has made landfall on Mexico's Baja California peninsula near Cabo San Lucas. Drivers wait in line to fill up their gas tanks in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. Authorities at the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Newton's winds Tuesday morning were around 90 mph (150 kph) and the storm is expected to still be a hurricane when it makes its second landfall on the northwest coast of mainland Mexico early Wednesday. State Tourism Secretary Genaro Ruiz said about 14,000 tourists remained in Los Cabos as of Monday night as airlines canceled flights out as the storm approached. Ruiz said tourists had been advised to remain in their hotels. Newton is expected to move up the peninsula and enter the Gulf of California by Tuesday night. The hurricane center says the storm is likely to continue north and cross into southern Arizona as a tropical depression Wednesday night. Workers board over a store front in preparation for Hurricane Newton, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. Authorities at the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) People play on El Medano Beach before the arrival of Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. Authorities at the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Residents tow a boat out of the water as they prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. Authorities at the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Workers board over a store front in preparation for Hurricane Newton, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. Authorities at the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) Boats wait to be taken out of the water as they prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. Authorities at the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)[SEP]CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — The Latest on Newton as it moves over Mexico toward U.S. border (all times local): The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Newton has made landfall on Mexico's mainland and weakened to a tropical storm on its way to the U.S. border with potentially dangerous rains for Arizona and New Mexico. Two men shovel sand deposited by Hurricane Newton, from inside a restaurant in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 6 2016. Hurricane Newton shattered windows, downed trees and knocked out power in parts of the twin resorts of Los Cabos on Tuesday, but residents were spared the kind of extensive damage seen two years ago when they were walloped by a monster storm. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) The storm's maximum sustained winds early Wednesday are near 70 mph (110 kph) with rapid weakening expected as the center moves inland. The storm is centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southeast of Bahia Kino, Mexico, and is moving north near 17 mph (28 kph). The Hurricane Center says Newton's forecast track will take it into southeastern Arizona in the afternoon. It's the second landfall for Newton. The storm came ashore near Mexico's Los Cabos resorts Tuesday morning as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph (150 kph). People help a tourist move his car after it became stuck in the sand, after the passing of Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016. Hurricane Newton shattered windows, downed trees and knocked out power in parts of the twin resorts of Los Cabos on Tuesday, but residents were spared the kind of extensive damage seen two years ago when they were walloped by a monster storm. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) A couple walks next to an advertisement toppled by Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Tuesday Sept. 6, 2016. Hurricane Newton shattered windows, downed trees and knocked out power in parts of the twin resorts of Los Cabos on Tuesday, but residents were spared the kind of extensive damage seen two years ago when they were walloped by a monster storm. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) A couple of persons work on sweeping the debris left by Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Tuesday Sept. 6, 2016. Hurricane Newton shattered windows, downed trees and knocked out power in parts of the twin resorts of Los Cabos on Tuesday, but residents were spared the kind of extensive damage seen two years ago when they were walloped by a monster storm. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) A man shovels mud inside a restaurant damaged by Hurricane Newton in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Newton's winds Tuesday morning were around 90 mph (150 kph) and the storm is expected to still be a hurricane when it makes its second landfall on the northwest coast of mainland Mexico early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)[SEP]Hurricane Newton slammed into the twin resorts of Los Cabos on the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula Tuesday morning, knocking out power in some places as stranded tourists huddled in their hotels. Newton made landfall as a Category 1 storm with winds of 90 mph, pelting the area near Cabo San Lucas with heavy rain and blowing down at least half a dozen palm trees along the coastal boulevard. Some windows were also shattered, but there was calm in the city as firefighters cleaned the streets of refuse. Roberto Dominguez, a customer relations worker at the Fairfield Marriot in Cabo San Lucas said guests hunkered down in their rooms overnight. He said the hotel's windows and balconies had been sufficiently protected from the storm and tourists were fine in the morning, although without cellphone or internet service. Los Cabos suffered heavy damage to homes, shops and hotels two years ago when it was hammered by Hurricane Odile, which hit land as a Category 3 storm. After making landfall Newton moved inland and its center was located about 50 miles west of La Paz, the capital of Baja California state. It was moving northeast at around 17 mph. Maximum sustained winds had decreased to 80 mph. Mexico extended hurricane warnings for the peninsula and also a stretch of the mainland coast across the Gulf of California, also called the Sea of Cortez. The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Newton could cross the peninsula as a hurricane and re-enter the gulf. Newton was forecast to dump 8 to 12 inches of rain on Baja California Sur state with isolated maximums up to 18 inches, and heavy rains were also expected for five other states. Newton could even reach the U.S. border at Arizona as a tropical storm, according to the latest forecasts. About 14,000 tourists had remained in Los Cabos as of Monday night as airlines cancelled flights out as the storm approached, said Genaro Ruiz, the state tourism secretary. Ruiz said tourists had been advised to remain in their hotels. "The most important thing is to stay at home," said Carlos Godinez, a civil defense official for Baja California Sur. "If there is nothing that requires you to be outside, take shelter with your family." Officials evacuated low-lying areas and opened 18 shelters at schools in the two resorts and 38 more in other parts of the state, while warning people against panic buying. "There is no need for mass buying," Los Cabos Mayor Arturo de la Rosa Escalante said. "There is enough food and fuel for the next 20 days." Los Cabos police were stationed at shopping malls to guard against the kind of looting that occurred after Hurricane Odile. On Monday, torrential rains from then-Tropical Storm Newton prompted some 100 people to evacuate their homes and damaged residences in Uruapan in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, the city government reported. Some roads were blocked by flooding and mudslides in the neighboring state of Guerrero, where some people were evacuated by helicopter. No deaths were reported in either state. Newton was expected to move up the peninsula and enter the Gulf of California by Tuesday night. The hurricane center said the storm could dump 1 to 3 inches of rain over parts of Arizona and New Mexico through Thursday, threatening flash floods and landslides.[SEP]CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Newton slammed into the twin resorts of Los Cabos on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Tuesday morning. Newton began making landfall with winds of 90 mph (150 kph) early Tuesday, pelting the area near Cabo San Lucas with heavy rain and strong winds. Mexico extended hurricane warnings for the peninsula and even a stretch of mainland Pacific coast across the Sea of Cortez. The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Newton could cross the peninsula as a hurricane and re-enter the Gulf of California with hurricane force winds. Newton could even reach the U.S. border at Arizona as a tropical storm, according tot he latest forecasts, which put the center of the storm just south of Cabo San Lucas. Boat owners pulled fishing craft in from the water and business owners nailed boards and sheets of plywood over windows in Cabo San Lucas, the resort that was hammered by Category 3 Hurricane Odile in 2014. Officials warned that Newton might cause torrential rainfalls. About 14,000 tourists remained in Los Cabos as of Monday night as airlines cancelled flights out as the storm approached, said Genaro Ruiz, the state tourism secretary. Ruiz said tourists had been advised to remain in their hotels. “The most important thing is to stay at home,” said Carlos Godinez, a civil defense official for Baja California Sur state. “If there is nothing that requires you to be outside, take shelter with your family.” Newton’s maximum sustained winds increased to 90 mph (150 kph) by Monday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The Category 1 storm was centered about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo and was moving northwest at 16 mph (26 kph) on a forecast path that would bring it near or over the area Tuesday morning. Officials began evacuating residents from low-lying areas and opened 18 shelters at schools in the two resorts and 38 more in other parts of the state, while warning people against panic buying. “There is no need for mass buying,” Los Cabos Mayor Arturo de la Rosa Escalante said. “There is enough food and fuel for the next 20 days.” Los Cabos police were stationed at shopping malls to guard against the kind of looting that occurred after Hurricane Odile. Foreign tourists were still strolling around in Cabo San Lucas on Monday as workers began boarding over windows of businesses. Some boat owners took their small fishing boats out of the water. Earlier Monday, as a tropical storm, Newton dumped torrential rains that prompted some 100 people to evacuate their homes and damaged residences in Uruapan in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, the city government reported. Some roads were blocked by flooding and mudslides in the neighboring state of Guerrero, where some people were evacuated by helicopter. No deaths were reported in either state. A hurricane warning was in effect for Cabo San Lucas and the nearby coastline. Coastal portions of five Mexican states could see 5 to 10 inches of rain, with isolated maximums of 15 inches, the hurricane center said. Newton was expected to move up the peninsula and enter the Gulf of California by Tuesday night. The hurricane center said the storm was likely to continue north and cross into southern Arizona as a tropical depression Wednesday night.[SEP]CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico — Hurricane Newton slammed into the twin resorts of Los Cabos on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula Tuesday morning, knocking out power in some places as stranded tourists huddled in their hotels. Newton made landfall as a Category 1 storm with winds of 90 mph (150 kph), pelting the area near Cabo San Lucas with heavy rain and blowing down at least half a dozen palm trees along the coastal boulevard. It then moved inland, retaining its winds almost unabated, and by early Tuesday was located about 50 miles (85 kilometers) northwest of Cabo San Lucas. Mexico extended hurricane warnings for the peninsula and also a stretch of the mainland coast across the Gulf of California, also called the Sea of Cortez. The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Newton could cross the peninsula as a hurricane and re-enter the gulf. Newton was forecast to dump 8 to 12 inches of rain on Baja California Sur state with isolated maximums up to 18 inches, and heavy rains were also expected for five other states. Newton could even reach the U.S. border at Arizona as a tropical storm, according to the latest forecasts. Boat owners pulled fishing craft in from the water ahead of the storm’s arrival and business owners nailed boards and sheets of plywood over windows in Cabo San Lucas, which was hammered by Category 3 Hurricane Odile in 2014. About 14,000 tourists remained in Los Cabos as of Monday night as airlines cancelled flights out as the storm approached, said Genaro Ruiz, the state tourism secretary. Ruiz said tourists had been advised to remain in their hotels. “The most important thing is to stay at home,” said Carlos Godinez, a civil defense official for Baja California Sur. “If there is nothing that requires you to be outside, take shelter with your family.” Officials evacuated low-lying areas and opened 18 shelters at schools in the two resorts and 38 more in other parts of the state, while warning people against panic buying. “There is no need for mass buying,” Los Cabos Mayor Arturo de la Rosa Escalante said. “There is enough food and fuel for the next 20 days.” Los Cabos police were stationed at shopping malls to guard against the kind of looting that occurred after Hurricane Odile. Earlier Monday, torrential rains from then-Tropical Storm Newton prompted some 100 people to evacuate their homes and damaged residences in Uruapan in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, the city government reported. Some roads were blocked by flooding and mudslides in the neighboring state of Guerrero, where some people were evacuated by helicopter. No deaths were reported in either state. Newton was expected to move up the peninsula and enter the Gulf of California by Tuesday night. The hurricane center said the storm could dump 1 to 3 inches of rain over parts of Arizona and New Mexico through Thursday, threatening flash floods and landslides.[SEP]LA PAZ, Mexico: Hurricane Newton battered Mexico’s northwestern resort of Los Cabos on Tuesday, tearing down trees and blowing away tin roofs as thousands of tourists and locals hunkered down. The powerful storm packed 90 mile (145 kilometer) per hour winds when it made landfall before dawn at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, two years after Hurricane Odile ravaged the region. The US National Hurricane Center said Newton was “pounding Baja California Sur with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains.” “The winds are very strong,” Los Cabos civil protection director Marco Antonio Vazquez told AFP by telephone. “We don’t have light right now.” “For now the damage includes a lot of branches, a lot of fallen plants, many trees,” Vazquez said, adding that he also saw telephone cables as well as tin roofs from poorer neighborhoods on the streets. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Some 14,000 tourists are in Los Cabos and about 1,000 elsewhere in the region. There was no immediate information about the situation at hotels. Some 1,500 people took refuge in shelters in Los Cabos, Vazquez said.[SEP]Workers board over a store front in preparation for Hurricane Newton, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Monday Sept. 5, 2016. Authorities at the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Authorities in the southern portion of Mexico's Baja California peninsula ordered schools closed and set up emergency shelters as Hurricane Newton gained strength while bearing down on the twin resorts of Los Cabos for a predicted arrival Tuesday morning. Boat owners pulled fishing craft in from the water and business owners nailed boards and sheets of plywood over windows in Cabo San Lucas, the resort that was hammered by Category 3 Hurricane Odile in 2014. Officials warned that Newton might cause torrential rainfalls. About 14,000 tourists remained in Los Cabos as of Monday night as airlines cancelled flights out as the storm approached, said Genaro Ruiz, the state tourism secretary. Ruiz said tourists had been advised to remain in their hotels. "The most important thing is to stay at home," said Carlos Godinez, a civil defense official for Baja California Sur state. "If there is nothing that requires you to be outside, take shelter with your family." Newton's maximum sustained winds increased to 90 mph (150 kph) by Monday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The Category 1 storm was centered about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo and was moving northwest at 16 mph (26 kph) on a forecast path that would bring it near or over the area Tuesday morning. Officials began evacuating residents from low-lying areas and opened 18 shelters at schools in the two resorts and 38 more in other parts of the state, while warning people against panic buying. "There is no need for mass buying," Los Cabos Mayor Arturo de la Rosa Escalante said. "There is enough food and fuel for the next 20 days." Los Cabos police were stationed at shopping malls to guard against the kind of looting that occurred after Hurricane Odile. Foreign tourists were still strolling around in Cabo San Lucas on Monday as workers began boarding over windows of businesses. Some boat owners took their small fishing boats out of the water. Earlier Monday, as a tropical storm, Newton dumped torrential rains that prompted some 100 people to evacuate their homes and damaged residences in Uruapan in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan, the city government reported. Some roads were blocked by flooding and mudslides in the neighboring state of Guerrero, where some people were evacuated by helicopter. No deaths were reported in either state. A hurricane warning was in effect for Cabo San Lucas and the nearby coastline. Coastal portions of five Mexican states could see 5 to 10 inches of rain, with isolated maximums of 15 inches, the hurricane center said. Newton was expected to move up the peninsula and enter the Gulf of California by Tuesday night. The hurricane center said the storm was likely to continue north and cross into southern Arizona as a tropical depression Wednesday night.[SEP]Hurricane Newton on path toward Mexico's border with Arizona CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Newton swept onto the Gulf of California after slamming the resorts of southern Baja and headed on a path expected to take it to the Mexican mainland by Wednesday morning and then on to the U.S. border with potentially dangerous rains for Arizona and New Mexico. Newton came ashore near the Los Cabos resorts Tuesday morning as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph (150 kph), pelting the area with torrential rain as residents sheltered at home and tourists huddled in hotels. The storm broke windows, downed trees and knocked out power, but the area was spared the kind of extensive damage seen two years ago when they were walloped by a stronger storm. A shrimp boat capsized in rough seas in the Gulf of California, killing two people and leaving three others missing, authorities said. The boat had set out from the port of Ensenada and was bound for Mazatlan. After passing over the resort area, Newton headed northward up the sparsely populated interior of the peninsula and then sput out over the gulf during the night. Late Tuesday, its center was about 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Santa Rosalia, and it was moving north at around 17 mph (28 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph). The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted the storm would make landfall in Sonora state still a hurricane. After passing over relatively little populated areas in Sonora, Newton could push into southeastern Arizona as a tropical storm at midday Wednesday, and drop 1 to 3 inches of rain over parts of Arizona and New Mexico through Thursday, forecasters said. "Heavy rain could cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides, especially in mountainous terrain," the center said. About 14,000 tourists were in Los Cabos during the storm, tourism officials said, and visitors began venturing out after Newton passed. "Just trying to make it through the day, with a little help," Mark Hernandez, a visitor from California, said as he raised a can of beer at one of the few bars open in Cabo San Lucas. "We pray for the city of Cabo San Lucas. It was a rough one as you can see." Palm trees were toppled along the town's coastal boulevard and some windows were broken. But there was calm in the city as firefighters cleaned refuse from the streets during the day. In 2014, Los Cabos suffered heavy damage to homes, shops and hotels when it was hammered by Hurricane Odile, which hit land as a Category 3 storm. "You know, it could have been a lot worse and I think we are very fortunate that it wasn't as bad as Odile," said Darlene Savord, another tourist from California. "I think that we are very fortunate and blessed."

Hurricane Newton makes its way towards the resort town of Los Cabos, Mexico.

Flooding following heavy rain has killed 60 people and left over 44,000 homeless in North Korea, the United Nations said on Tuesday, after the country reported that a northeastern river suffered its worst-ever flood. Advertising Pyongyang said the Tumen river, which partially marks the border with China and Russia, experienced the biggest flood ever recorded due to a rainstorm that began four days earlier. Nearby areas including Musan and Hoeryong were hard hit, with 60 dead and five percent of the population homeless, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement. It cited data from the North’s government. “Communication with and access to affected areas remains a challenge… immediate needs have been identified as emergency shelter, food, medication, water and sanitary items,” it said. Advertising Nearly 9,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged with 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) of farmland flooded, it said, adding joint relief efforts involving the UN and the North were underway. The North’s state media said Friday that 15 people were missing after over 17,000 houses were destroyed or damaged. The impoverished nation is vulnerable to natural disasters, especially floods. At least 169 were killed by a massive rainstorm in the summer of 2012. Its territory is largely composed of mountains and hills that have long been deforested for fuel or turned into terraced rice fields. This allows rainwater to flow downhill unchecked. A series of floods and droughts was partially responsible for a famine that killed hundreds of thousands between 1994-98, with economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support exacerbating the situation.

The death toll rises to at least 114 as 60 more people are killed in floods after the typhoon hits North Korea, displacing over 44,000 people. Fifteen people are also missing.

The average time it takes to test and develop a new drug takes about 12 years – but when a virus without any known treatment starts to cause fetal development complications in pregnant mothers, that development process is 12 years and 9 months too late However, according to the work of a diverse research team at Florida State University, the components of our figurative bug swatter may already exist. Through a testing and selection process called “repurposing screening,” researchers sifted through over 6,000 compounds that were already FDA approved or in their clinical trial stages – this way, the drug can quickly start to be administered to those affected without having to go through testing trials. “We teamed up to look for small molecule compounds that can inhibit Zika virus replication,” said Hengli Tang, Professor of Biological Science at FSU. “We [also] hope[d] of finding drugs to treat Zika virus infection.” MORE: FDA Finally Bans Antibacterial Soaps Containing Triclosan and 18 Other Chemicals After testing each compound on lab grown human cells, Tang and his team discovered two trait distinctive compound classes that could be used to treat the Zika virus: one class inhibited the virus from multiplying; and the other was neuroprotective against Zika induced cell-damage to the precursor brain cells of fetal development. Because both compound classes were already FDA approved or in their clinical trial stages, different compounds from each class could be combined to create a new drugs that would already be close to the testing stage of development. CHECK OUT: Scientists Just Deleted HIV in Mice Using Gene-Editing Technique “We live in Florida, and we know there are cases in Florida,” said Tang. “So [Zika] is something that is very close to home. I think that [our research] counts for something: the ability to perhaps affect people’s lives in a positive way.” This Story Is All Abuzz With Interest: Click To Share – Photo by Aedes Albopictus[SEP]No Zika cases have so far been detected among athletes, spectators or other participants in last month’s Olympic Games in Brazil, says the World Health Organisation (WHO). “We don’t have any confirmed cases of Zika amongst travellers or amongst … the athletes,” Peter Salama, the WHO’s chief on outbreaks and health emergencies, told reporters. He pointed to data presented by Brazilian experts to the UN health agency’s emergency committee on Thursday detailing the situation in the country, which has been the hardest-hit by far. The experts provided “very convincing data” showing that among all Olympic athletes and spectators who sought medical attention during the Games, not a single case of acute Zika infection had been detected, emergency committee chair David Heymann said. Nor have any such cases been reported in people who returned back to their own countries following the games, he said. Ahead of the Olympics there was widespread concern that international travellers flocking to the Games would help the virus to spread further and faster. The WHO had, however, stressed that since the Games were held during the Brazilian winter, risk of transmission of the mosquito-borne virus was “minimal”. “The data to date has really validated that assessment,” Salama said, adding that he remained “optimistic that the same risk assessment will hold” for the upcoming Paralympic Games in Brazil. He acknowledged that there could still be “a few cases that come up, either now or after the Paralympics”. “But certainly, we feel fairly confident that the risk assessment that there [would] be no significant increase in transmission due to the Olympics is fairly much on track,” he said. The WHO has said Zika was still a public health emergency, reiterating its February position. Seventy countries and territories have reported local mosquito-borne Zika transmission, with Brazil by far the hardest hit. Since the outbreak began last year, more than 1.5 million people have been infected with Zika in Brazil and more than 1 600 babies born with abnormally small heads and brains. Benign in most people, Zika has been linked to a form of severe birth defect called microcephaly which causes newborns’ heads to be abnormally small. It can also cause rare adult-onset neurological problems, such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis.[SEP]With The Bahamas having eight confirmed cases of Zika Virus and 83 suspected cases pending, officials from the Ministry of Tourism in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the Department of Environment Health Services held an informational session yesterday at the British Colonial Hilton. Key stakeholders, as well as members of the public, were present at the session and posed questions to the officials from the various ministries. The government’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Glen Beneby spoke to reporters after the meeting and revealed how much the government is spending to combat this issue. “The current budget is $2.5 million a month, so an annual budget of $30 million a year; the dynamics of public health require you to have a budget to deal with whatever changes occur. “In addition when situations like this occur, they go beyond what you expect, after it was made known to the Ministry of Health that we would have potential Zika cases we began to look at upgrading our services in the public health sector, once we got our first case, we realized that we would have to do additional spending,” Dr. Beneby said. Zika is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes. People with Zika virus disease can have symptoms including mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. One of the more concerning aspects around the Zika virus is the fact that samples have to be flown out of the country to a reference lab and then officials have to wait two to three weeks for these results to be confirmed. However, Dr. Beneby did confirm that plans are in progress to rectify the lab situation here in the country. “It’s going to cost us in the region of $50,000 to $100,000 to modify the lab situation and have the lab ready. Fortunately, we have people in the country who could do the testing, so we had to purchase the equipment and upgrade the space which will be done very soon. “I’m very optimistic at this pivotal moment as we look towards universal healthcare coverage it becomes very clear to the Bahamian people how important it is to work together as a community. Testing time should be reduced by more than 50 percent but that turnaround time will be determine by the number of tests but it will be less than a week. “We have decided that we will have weekly updates and I see that remaining for the time being but if it’s an increasing number of cases we will make it more frequent,” Dr. Beneby said. A question posed by a citizen at the session was concerning the screening process surrounding blood donors seeing that the lab tests take two to three weeks. Dr. Beneby said that an in depth questionnaire is currently the primary screening process. “The Bahamas has been for many years compliant to the international standard for blood testing obviously this Zika requirement is something that has occurred to us fairly quickly, now that the CDC is recommending a similar screening process in testing for blood donation we will fall in line. In regards to the disease and prevention itself, Dr. Beneby lamented on the fact that over 80 per cent of persons with Zika do not display any clinical symptoms. “This is a significant point because there is always the real possibility that somebody can get the virus and don’t know they have the virus and this is why we recommend that if you go to an area where the virus in endemic, where it’s actually happening that you pay particular attention when you return to The Bahamas,” Dr. Beneby said. Health officials are also stressing the importance of safe sex practices and the use of condoms, particularly married couples as the virus lives in semen for up to 60 days.[SEP]WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats on Tuesday for the third time in two months blocked a $1.1 billion legislative package to help fight the Zika virus, but lawmakers in both parties said they now hope negotiations will begin in earnest to quickly come up with a bipartisan deal to address the potential public health crisis. Congress is under intense pressure to pass a funding agreement before the end of September when Centers for Disease Control director Tom Frieden estimates his agency will run out of money to continue its efforts to combat the spread of Zika, which can cause birth defects. After months of bickering over the details of a deal, many in Congress expect that lawmakers now back in Washington after a seven-week break will feel a renewed urgency to find a solution this month before heading home for the elections. "It is certainly a moral imperative for the Congress of the United States to pass legislation which will meet a very critical health challenge to its citizens," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday. Before those negotiations begin in earnest, however, Senate Republicans on Tuesday were eager to make a political point by forcing Democrats to once more block Zika legislation that passed the House earlier this year. "Today we'll give Senate Democrats another opportunity to follow through on their own calls for action on Zika," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the Senate floor. The vote was 52 to 46 and 60 votes were needed for the legislation to advance. The Zika funding is part of a broader bill funding the Pentagon and veterans programs. Democrats are blocking the legislation over objections to what they charge are politically-motivated provisions added to the bill by Republicans, including language preventing the Zika funds from being used by Planned Parenthood and provisions relaxing use of certain pesticides. But there is near universal agreement in Congress that lawmakers must do something ahead of the elections to show they are taking steps to help prevent the spread of mosquito-borne virus. The CDC reports that there were 35 cases of locally-transmitted cases of Zika in the United States as of August 31. An additional 2,686 were reported as travel-related transmissions. At least 16 babies have been born in the United States with birth defects linked to the virus. Mosquito season typically lasts through October and transmission could continue through that time period. Frieden told reporters in July that the agency "might not have the resources" to send teams to support local and state officials if the virus spreads after the money runs out in September. "Basically, we're out of money, and we need Congress to act to allow us to respond effectively," he said. This time pressure has many, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., preparing to link Zika talks with negotiations to pass a short-term spending bill before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Tuesday that he thinks it would make sense to combine the budget and Zika talks. "We can't neglect that any longer," Cornyn said. "I think trying to find some path forward in a year-end appropriations bill would make sense." He said it is likely that Congress will have to pass a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open until sometime after the election in November. Cornyn said that while he would prefer to avoid reopening spending talks in November or December, it is clear Democrats and President Barack Obama will only accept a short-term extension of current spending. If Zika and the broader spending talks are linked, Democrats insist Republicans will likely be forced to return to a bipartisan deal the Senate approved in May. That bipartisan compromise legislation would have provided $1.1 billion in Zika funding through September 2017 and it did not include the added provisions objected to by Democrats. The House rejected that proposal after conservatives objected to the amount of funding. The two sides attempted to overcome the disagreement, but Republicans decided to craft their own bill after talks dragged on for weeks. The result was a $1.1 billion Zika package that included restrictions on Planned Parenthood and cuts to other federal health programs to offset the cost of the bill. Democrats continue to object to that measure and hope to revive the earlier bipartisan Senate agreement. "We passed something here with 89 votes. It went to the House and they sent it back with all of this strange, weird stuff in it," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday. "It is time to move forward." Hoyer said Republicans intentionally added "poison pill" measures that would force Democrats to reject the bill so that they could spend the summer blaming them for blocking the legislation. He said he now expects the two sides to come together to negotiate a deal before the end of the month so long as GOP leaders drop the objectionable elements. "If $1.1 billion is passed by the Senate on a bipartisan basis and it were put on the floor I think it would pass," Hoyer said.[SEP]The Florida Republican never opened the jar, but said on the House floor: "I brought these mosquitoes here today to convey that fear and that anxiety of millions of Americans -- Floridians." "Can you imagine, colleagues, the anxiety in this chamber if these 100 mosquitoes were outside this jar, not inside this jar? Members of Congress would run down the hall to the physician's office to be tested. They would spray themselves before coming down here." Jolly said that anxiety "is the fear of Floridians, right here." "It is not good enough to work on a compromise for months and months and months with no solution. The time for politics of Zika is over. The politics of Zika are garbage right now. The fact that candidates are going to spend money on commercials about Zika instead of responding together in a bipartisan, bicameral way in a divided government to a public health crisis -- Americans understand that we are wasting time." Jolly, who dropped a long-shot Senate bid earlier this year, has incentive to push for action on the Zika virus: He faces a tough re-election fight against Democratic challenger Charlie Crist. During the seven-week August recess Congress just completed, Jolly said cases of Zika in the United States climbed from 4,000 to "by some estimates more than 16,000." He represents Pinellas County, the home of St. Petersburg and Clearwater with nearly 1 million residents, and said his constituents "are scared." "In that fear, they are demanding action and they are seeing inaction. And in that inaction they are angry -- angry," Jolly said. It wasn't the only Zika-related prop used Wednesday. A 5-month-old baby, Jackie, and her mother, Emily Holumbowich, the executive director of the Coalition for Health Funding, attended news conferences with House and Senate Democrats. Funding to combat the Zika virus has been a political football since Congress returned Tuesday. In the Senate, on Tuesday night Democrats blocked a Zika funding bill, complaining that it included a provision to prevent funding for Planned Parenthood and no longer included a provision in the House bill banning Confederate flags from veterans' cemeteries. "Republicans were more interested in attacking Planned Parenthood and flying the Confederate flag -- can't make this stuff up, that's really the truth -- than protecting women and babies from this awful virus," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said. Republicans, meanwhile, blamed Democrats for the continued stalemate. "It's hard to explain why -- despite their own calls for funding -- Senate Democrats decided to block a bill that could help keep pregnant women and babies safer from Zika," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor.[SEP]HEALTH authorities on Monday announced that a woman from Iloilo had tested positive for the mosquito-borne Zika virus that causes microcephaly in newborns, the first such case recorded this year. This brought to six the total number of cases registered in the country since 2012, Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag told reporters in a news conference. Tayag described the first Zika case for the year as a 45-year-old female, married and not pregnant, from Iloilo province. The virus most likely came from local transmission because the woman had no history of travel to any affected country in the past two weeks, Tayag said. Tayag said the woman reported to doctors on August 31, and was found to have skin rashes and joint pains, but without fever. She was confined in a local hospital where urine and blood samples were collected. The 45-year-old tested positive for Zika in both urine and blood samples. The tests were done at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine In Muntinlupa. The woman is at home recovering from a mild illness. Tayag said the DOH had sent a team to do follow-up tests in the area where the woman is residing. Dr. Gundo Weiler, World Health Organization country representative, lauded the Philippines for its ability to control the virus, noting that out of 37 Western Pacific countries, the Philippines has reported only six cases since 2012. Zika is primarily transmitted through the bite of the Aedes mosquito. Sexual transmission has been reported in other countries like Brazil and Singapore. The Zika virus results in mild illness but has caused neurologic defects (microcephaly) in babies born of infected mothers. The DOH has coordinated with the local officials to intensify mosquito control efforts including targeted fogging. Tayag reminded everyone to be “good citizens” by avoiding mosquito bites and cleaning up mosquito-breeding areas. Tayag said people, especially pregnant women, with skin rashes and with symptoms like fever, red eyes and joint pains should consult any government health facility immediately. “The key to Zika prevention is heightened vigilance and stronger community efforts of every household,” Tayag said.[SEP]GENEVA — The United Nations health agency is changing its advice to travelers returning from areas facing a Zika virus outbreak, saying men and women should now practice safe sex or abstinence for six months. The World Health Organization’s guidance applies to all travelers, regardless of whether they show symptoms of the virus. The organization’s previous guidance in early June was only for men who showed no symptoms to use condoms or abstain from sex for eight weeks after returning from areas with epidemics. The disease is mostly transmitted by mosquitoes but can also be spread via sex.[SEP]With The Bahamas having eight confirmed cases of Zika Virus and 83 suspected cases pending, officials from the Ministry of Tourism in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the Department of Environment Health Services held an informational session yesterday at the British Colonial Hilton. Key stakeholders, as well as members of the public, were present at the session and posed questions to the officials from the various ministries. The government’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Glen Beneby spoke to reporters after the meeting and revealed how much the government is spending to combat this issue. “The current budget is $2.5 million a month, so an annual budget of $30 million a year; the dynamics of public health require you to have a budget to deal with whatever changes occur. “In addition when situations like this occur, they go beyond what you expect, after it was made known to the Ministry of Health that we would have potential Zika cases we began to look at upgrading our services in the public health sector, once we got our first case, we realized that we would have to do additional spending,” Dr. Beneby said. Zika is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes. People with Zika virus disease can have symptoms including mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. One of the more concerning aspects around the Zika virus is the fact that samples have to be flown out of the country to a reference lab and then officials have to wait two to three weeks for these results to be confirmed. However, Dr. Beneby did confirm that plans are in progress to rectify the lab situation here in the country. “It’s going to cost us in the region of $50,000 to $100,000 to modify the lab situation and have the lab ready. Fortunately, we have people in the country who could do the testing, so we had to purchase the equipment and upgrade the space which will be done very soon. “I’m very optimistic at this pivotal moment as we look towards universal healthcare coverage it becomes very clear to the Bahamian people how important it is to work together as a community. Testing time should be reduced by more than 50 percent but that turnaround time will be determine by the number of tests but it will be less than a week. “We have decided that we will have weekly updates and I see that remaining for the time being but if it’s an increasing number of cases we will make it more frequent,” Dr. Beneby said. A question posed by a citizen at the session was concerning the screening process surrounding blood donors seeing that the lab tests take two to three weeks. Dr. Beneby said that an in depth questionnaire is currently the primary screening process. “The Bahamas has been for many years compliant to the international standard for blood testing obviously this Zika requirement is something that has occurred to us fairly quickly, now that the CDC is recommending a similar screening process in testing for blood donation we will fall in line. In regards to the disease and prevention itself, Dr. Beneby lamented on the fact that over 80 per cent of persons with Zika do not display any clinical symptoms. “This is a significant point because there is always the real possibility that somebody can get the virus and don’t know they have the virus and this is why we recommend that if you go to an area where the virus in endemic, where it’s actually happening that you pay particular attention when you return to The Bahamas,” Dr. Beneby said. Health officials are also stressing the importance of safe sex practices and the use of condoms, particularly married couples as the virus lives in semen for up to 60 days.[SEP]Zika virus: Philippines confirms first case this year as Indonesia rules out thorough testing Posted The Philippines has confirmed its first case of the Zika virus this year and says it is "highly likely" it has been locally transmitted, and it expects more cases after stepping up surveillance. Key points: Woman who tested positive in the Philippines is not pregnant Singapore to no longer isolate people who have virus Indonesia says it cannot afford thorough testing for virus A 45-year-old woman who lives in Iloilo city in the central Philippines has the virus, Dr Eric Tayag, spokesman at the Health Ministry, told a media briefing. The woman is not pregnant, he said, and was recovering at her home. It was considered "highly likely" she had contracted the virus locally as she had no history of travel to any affected country in the past two weeks, Dr Tayag said. The Philippines reported its first case of Zika in 2012, that of a teenaged boy in Cebu island in the central Philippines. Four subsequent cases were foreigners. A Zika outbreak is affecting large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, with Brazil the hardest hit, but cases have been cropping up in Asia. Singapore has reported more than 240 Zika cases since the first locally infected case was detected on August 27 and neighbouring Malaysia has reported one such case. Singapore's said on Monday it would no longer isolate people who test positive for Zika or are suspected of carrying it. In a statement, the Health Ministry said the presence of Aedes mosquitoes that carry the virus, as well as the fact that most people do not display symptoms, meant isolating patients already infected would have limited effect. "Over time, we expect Zika cases to emerge in more areas given the presence of the Aedes mosquitoes here," it said. "As the cases of Zika in Singapore have been mild so far, confirmed cases will no longer need to be hospitalised unless medically indicated." The Government will also pay for the cost of Zika tests for Singaporeans with symptoms of the virus, the Ministry added. Zika testing too costly for Indonesia Meanwhile, an Indonesian Health Ministry official said his country could not afford to thoroughly check for a possible Zika outbreak. The World Health Organisation lists Indonesia among Asian countries with possible endemic transmission of, or evidence of, local Zika infections, but authorities in the sprawling nation of 250 million people have yet to report any recent infections. "At the moment we cannot go out there and test everybody or every suspected case for Zika because it is too costly," Muhamad Subuh, director general for disease prevention and control at Indonesia's Health Ministry, said. "There are other priorities like dengue fever, which is more prevalent and more dangerous, and we have to allocate our resources accordingly." Like many of its neighbours, Indonesia records thousands of dengue infections a year. Indonesia is South-East Asia's biggest economy but the World Bank estimates the government spends 5.7 per cent of its gross domestic product on public health, which works out to $US99 ($131) per person per year, compared with $606 in Malaysia, the region's third largest economy. Mr Subuh said the Ministry was actively monitoring for Zika, but experts said authorities would struggle to identify patients as few hospitals offer Zika testing, and those that did expected patients to pay more than $198 for a test, putting it out of reach of many ordinary Indonesians. Reuters Topics: diseases-and-disorders, health, philippines, singapore, indonesia, asia[SEP]WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers returning to Washington after a seven-week break picked up right where they left off -- feuding about legislation to battle the mosquito-borne Zika virus and deadlocked over the defense budget. In its first vote Tuesday, Senate Democrats for the third time blocked a $1.1 billion Zika funding package and an accompanying Veterans Affairs spending bill over restrictions on Planned Parenthood. They were set to vote to prevent the Senate from turning to a $576 billion Pentagon spending measure. "It's hard to explain why -- despite their own calls for funding -- Senate Democrats decided to block a bill that could help keep pregnant women and babies safer from Zika," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "It's also hard to explain why -- despite the array of terror attacks we've seen across the world -- Senate Democrats decided to block a bill that could help keep the American people safer from threats." Democrats oppose the Zika measure as it bars Planned Parenthood clinics in Zika-suffering Puerto Rico from receiving new money to treat the disease and curb its spread. The legislation also would ease, over the objections of environmentalists, permitting requirements for pesticide spraying to kill the mosquitoes that can spread the virus. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans had "loaded it up with poison-pill riders to assuage the hard right." Republicans added those provisions to the measure in June, along with spending cuts to help pay for the Zika bill, saying they are reasonable priorities that reflect their control of the House and Senate. The Zika threat hasn't gripped the public as Ebola did two years ago, but pressure is building as dozens of mosquito-transmitted Zika cases have been confirmed in the political battleground state of Florida since lawmakers left Washington in July. Last month, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden announced the agency would run out of funding for programs to combat the virus by the end of this month. "The cupboard is bare," he said. The defense bill, meanwhile, is caught in a furious battle sparked by a Republican move to use emergency war funds to try to artificially increase the basic Pentagon budget by $16 billion next year. President Barack Obama's administration and its Democratic allies on Capitol Hill are dead set against the idea, which breaks with a hard-won budget deal that's less than a year old; they say that if Republicans want more money for defense, domestic programs will have to receive an equal boost. The defense battle won't be resolved until after Election Day, but Tuesday's vote on Zika should send the warring parties back to the drawing board, and it appears likely that the provision targeting Planned Parenthood -- and perhaps the underlying $95 million worth of social services grants -- will have to be dropped from the measure. "We're going to work through these issues and I'm sure we'll have a successful outcome to make sure just that the trains are running on time," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told hometown radio host Stan Milam of AM 1380 in Janesville on Tuesday. On the Zika virus, which has spread over the summer and is linked to birth defects, Ryan said, "I do believe we'll find some kind of resolution." "Despite Senate Democrats' obstruction of the House-passed $1.1 billion bill to fight Zika, we are confident resources will get approved in September," Ryan spokesman AshLee Strong said. For his part, Ryan has to navigate some tricky waters on the underlying stopgap spending bill, known in Washington-speak as a continuing resolution. Some conservatives want to block any postelection session and are pressing for a continuing resolution that keeps the government open until March or so. But Obama and Senate Democrats are against the idea -- they want a full-year spending agreement completed this year -- and Ryan said he wants to keep negotiating on the full-year spending bills through the fall. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, on Tuesday said an extension of current spending "should be in my view be passed as soon as possible, it should go to sometime in December" and budget work should be finished by the end of the year. But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters last week that "we are not going to agree to a long-term [continuing resolution]." He added, "We are not doing anything into next year. Republicans should be aware of that right now." As the inauguration of the next president looms in January, a multiyear restoration of the Capitol Dome is nearing completion, and the Rotunda reopened for visitors on Tuesday, free of scaffolding and safety netting that prevented visitors from a full view of its artwork. Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press and by Kelsey Snell of The Washington Post.

A new infection of the Zika virus spreads to the Philippines.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In 2006, Isabelle Dinoire described the moment she saw her disfigured face The first-ever person to have a face transplant, Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire, has died, French doctors say. In 2005, surgeons gave her a new nose and mouth after she was disfigured by her pet dog. But heavy use of immunosuppressant drugs weakened her and she succumbed to cancer in April at the age of 49, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says. News of her death, announced by a hospital in Amiens, was delayed to respect her family's privacy. She told the BBC in 2009 that when she looked in the mirror she saw a mixture of herself and the donor. "The donor is always with me," she said. Figaro newspaper said she had suffered another transplant rejection. The strong anti-rejection treatment she was receiving led to two cancers, it added. In her BBC interview she said her disfigurement by her dog had come as a result of an attempt to end her life. After taking an overdose of sleeping pills, she awoke lying beside a pool of blood, with her pet Labrador at her side. The dog had apparently found her unconscious, and desperate to rouse her, had gnawed away at her face. The injuries to her mouth, nose and chin were so extreme that doctors ruled out a routine face reconstruction. Instead they proposed a ground-breaking face transplant. She was happy with the surgery but expressed distress at the attention from the media and passers-by that the operation brought her. In recent years, face transplants have been performed in several countries, including the US, Spain, Turkey, China and Poland.[SEP]In this February 6, 2006 file photo, Isabelle Dinoire, the woman who received the world's first partial face transplant with a new nose, chin and mouth, in an operation on Nov. 27, 2005, addresses reporters during her first press conference since the transplant at the Amiens hospital, northern France. After being severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in 2005. Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world’s first partial face transplant, has died more than a decade after a complex and daring operation that set the stage for dozens of similar transplants worldwide. She was 49. The hospital said Dinoire died in April, but didn’t announce it until Tuesday because the family wanted to mourn privately. After being severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in a groundbreaking, 15-hour operation in 2005 led by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard in the Amiens hospital. When she first appeared in public with her new face four months later, her speech was slurred and a scar clearly visible but the fact that she could speak to reporters of having a “face like everyone else” and almost smile was seen as a medical breakthrough. Soon afterward, doctors discovered a malign tumour, according to Tuesday’s statement. Independent doctors who followed her case said she had lung cancer that might have been linked to her treatment, or to her lifetime of smoking. The operation changed Dinoire’s life and drew international attention. There have been 36 face transplant surgeries around the world since 2005, including one last year in New York that was the first to include a scalp and functioning eyelids. Of the 36, six have died, the Amiens hospital noted. “Facial transplants remain extremely complex surgery with high risk,” it said. “It’s important to remember that face transplants are still in the evaluation stage. They ... cannot be considered a routine activity.” Dinoire, a divorced mother of two teenage daughters, said she was wrestling with personal problems at the time of the 2005 dog attack and “took some drugs to forget.” She said she was passed out when the dog bit her. Disabled by her disfigurement, she welcomed the opportunity for a transplant from a brain-dead woman. Her doctors said they repeatedly warned her of the risks involved. Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, director of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, met with Dinoire in 2008 as his team was preparing its first face transplant, and called it a “really profound experience.” “She seemed to be speaking perfectly fine, she ate with us. Like a normal person,” he said. Pomahac noted that face transplant recipients are about twice as likely to reject the new tissue as hand transplant patients. But he remains convinced that transplants are right for some patients who “have no other options.” Dr. Vijay Gorantla, administrative medical director of the Reconstructive Transplant Program at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said Dinoire never regretted the transplant publicly, and her quality of life improved. “She didn’t want to be a recluse ... or a monster in public.” Gorantla said surgeons should not be in a race to perform transplants but should carefully weigh the risks and benefits. “We are still learning” with each new case, he said. Meningaud, who has been involved in seven of France’s 10 face transplants, is now arguing for suspending the procedures altogether so that the medical community can take stock of whether the long—term benefits are worth the physical and psychological toll they take on patients. In Dinoire’s case, “the results were very good in the medium term, but the long-term results were not so good,” Meningaud said. “It’s a rather high price to pay for the patient. It’s time to mark a pause,” he said. A year after the surgery, doctors said Dinoire was gaining more and more sensitivity and facial mobility, and she got herself a new dog. “I can open my mouth and eat. I feel my lips, my nose and my mouth,” Dinoire said at a news conference in 2006. “I have a face like everyone else,” she said. “A door to the future is opening.”[SEP]A woman who underwent the world's first face transplant has died almost eleven years since the groundbreaking operation. Isabelle Dinoire, 49, succumbed to two types of cancer earlier this summer after a decade taking powerful immunosuppressant drugs. These were designed to prevent her body rejecting new tissues, but they always threatened to make Ms Dinoire seriously ill. Miss Dinoire, from Valenciennes, northern France, captured the imagination of the world in November 2005 when she was given a new nose, mouth and chin at the nearby Amiens Hospital. She was rushed to hospital after her pet dog apparently ripped off the vital features, but she had no memory of what happened. After taking sleeping pills, all the divorced mother of two could remember was waking up with blood on the floor of her flat. When she tried to light up a cigarette, Miss Dinoire had realised her facial features were missing. It took a team of med led by Professor Bernard Duvauchelle, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, 15 hours to perform the medical breakthrough. A triangle of face tissue from a brain-dead woman's nose and mouth were grafted onto Miss Dinoire. Three years on, Miss Dinoire admitted that she remained uncertain as to whose face she looked at in the mirror every day. Referring to the dead donor, she said in 2008: 'It's not hers, it's not mine, it's somebody else's. 'Before the operation, I expected my new face would look like me but it turned out after the operation that it was half me and half her.' Miss Dinoire said she had not yet worked out her new identity, adding: 'It takes an awful lot of time to get used to someone else's face. It's a peculiar type of transplant.' Miss Dinoire soon regained sensation back in the transplanted face, but regularly suffered graft rejection. It was in November last year that Miss Dinoire's lips appeared to freeze up, reported Le Figaro newspaper. A report in the news outlet's health pages today reads: 'Isabelle Dinoire died this summer. She was the first patient in the world to benefit from a face transplant in 2005.' Surgeons have been transplanting livers, kidneys and hearts for many years, but faces have always been different, because they are seen as a sacred, untouchable parts of a person's identity. Unlike other organs, face transplants are not life-saving operations. As a result, ethical committees frequently blocked them from going ahead. But Professor Dubernard, said after carrying out the operation: 'Once I had seen Isabelle's disfigured face, no more needed to be said. 'I was convinced something had to be done for this patient.' Some 15 similar procedures have taken place since 2005, with the world's first 'full' face transplant taking place in Spain in 2010, when a man injured in a shooting accident received completely new set of features. In 2006, surgeon Peter Butler, of the Royal Free Hospital in London, was given permission by the NHS ethics board to carry out full face transplants in Britain.[SEP]A Frenchwoman who became the first-ever patient to undergo a face transplant has died. Isabelle Dinoire underwent pioneering surgery in 2005 to have a new nose, chin and lips after she was left severely disfigured following an attack from her dog. Ms Dinoire died in April but the announcement was delayed until today to respect her family’s wishes. She was 49. The BBC reported she died from cancer. It is understood she took strong medication after being treated for a transplant rejection. In 2009 she told the BBC in an interview she was attacked by her Labrador after an attempt to end her life. She said the dog had gnawed at her face in a desperate attempt to wake her after she took an overdose of sleeping pills. The injuries she suffered were so severe doctors opted against a facial reconstruction and decided to perform a face transplant. Ms Dinoire said she was happy with the transplant but expressed unhappiness at the level of interest in her following the operation. Her face transplant paved the way for dozens of other procedures across the world.[SEP]A French woman who received the world’s first partial face transplant has died, 11 years after the surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants worldwide. The Amiens University Hospital in northern France announced Isabelle Dinoire’s death on Tuesday. It said she died aged 49 in April after a long illness, but her family wanted her death kept private. The hospital went public with the death after Le Figaro reported on it. The hospital did not release any further details and it was not clear if her illness was related to the transplant. Ms Dinoire was severely disfigured by her pet Labrador — and was given a new nose, chin and lips in 2005 by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard. Medications that patients must take to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organs can cause other illnesses and have severe side effects. Le Figaro said she had suffered two cancers linked to the transplant and lost partial use of her transplanted lips last year. The operation changed Ms Dinoire’s life and drew international attention. There have been nearly 40 face transplant surgeries around the world since 2005, including one last year in New York that was the first to include a scalp and functioning eyelids. Ms Dinoire, a divorced mother of two teenage daughters, said she was wrestling with personal problems at the time of the 2005 dog attack and “took some drugs to forget”. She said she had passed out when the dog bit her. Disabled by her disfigurement, she welcomed the opportunity for a transplant from a brain-dead woman. Her doctors said they repeatedly warned her of the risks involved. Her operation was “an unquestionable surgical success” and the medical community learned from her experience, said Dr Jean-Paul Meningaud, who heads the reconstructive surgery department at the Henri Mondor Hospital south of Paris and was not involved in treating Ms Dinoire. But Dr Meningaud, who has been involved in seven of France’s 10 face transplants, is now arguing for suspending the procedures so that the medical community can take stock of whether the long-term benefits are worth the physical and psychological toll they take on patients. In Ms Dinoire’s case, “the results were very good in the medium term, but the long-term results were not so good,” Dr Meningaud said. He said that face transplant recipients are having more difficulty with anti-rejection medication than doctors initially predicted, and are requiring more follow-up surgery. “It’s a rather high price to pay for the patient. It’s time to mark a pause,” he said. Her immune system nearly rejected the transplant twice. A year later, doctors said she was gaining more and more sensitivity and facial mobility, and she got herself a new dog. “I can open my mouth and eat. I feel my lips, my nose and my mouth,” Ms Dinoire said at a news conference in 2006. “I have a face like everyone else,” she said. “A door to the future is opening.” – PA[SEP]Lille (France) (AFP) - The world's first face transplant recipient, Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire, died in April "after a long illness", a hospital said Tuesday. In 2005, at the age of 38, Dinoire received a graft comprising the nose, lips and chin of a brain-dead donor to replace parts of her face that had been mauled by her dog. The hospital in Amiens, northern France, confirmed the death of "Mrs D., the first patient in the world to receive a face transplant". The hospital said her death had been kept quiet to protect her family's privacy. The ground-breaking operation had raised hopes around the world for victims with faces disfigured in accidents or assaults, with surgeons in the United States, Spain, China, Belgium, Poland and Turkey performing partial or full transplants since the ground-breaking surgery on Dinoire. But the initial enthusiasm over the procedure has been tempered by a daunting risk that the patient's body will eventually reject the donor's tissue. Le Figaro newspaper reported that Dinoire's body had rejected the transplant last year "and she had lost part of the use of her lips". The drugs that she had to take to prevent her body from rejecting the transplant left her susceptible to cancer, and two forms of cancer had developed, the report said. Jean-Pierre Meningaud, of a team at a Paris hospital that has performed seven face transplants, told AFP: "All the patients we operated on have had reactions of rejection, which leads to higher doses of drugs, and with them, the risks." He added that in addition to the risk of rejection a number of other problems can crop up including "grafts that age a little faster than (the patient), problems of (skin) colour, high blood pressure (and) mood." Meningaud said that with Dinoire's death, "we should put these transplants on hold pending advances in immunology". Dinoire gave a remarkable news conference in February 2006, just three months after the operation, when the blonde, blue-eyed mother of two appeared before a scrum of TV cameras. She appeared to be wearing thick makeup to disguise the scars of the procedure and lips that were heavy and inflexible. She spoke with a pronounced lisp but was otherwise comprehensible as she recounted how she had fainted after "taking medicines to forget" personal problems. "When I woke up, I tried to light a cigarette and I couldn't understand why it didn't stay between my lips. Then I saw the pool of blood and the dog next to me," she said. "I went to look in the mirror and was horrified." But the ground-breaking operation gave her a new lease of life. "Since my operation I have a face, like everyone... I will be able to resume a normal life," the divorcee said. The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a world-renowned surgeon at Edouard Herriot hospital in the eastern city of Lyon, and Bernard Devauchelle, a professor of facial surgery. Dubernard had performed the world's first hand transplant in September 1998, followed by the first double hand and forearm transplant in January 2000. The transplant team came under fire from within the French medical profession for releasing post-operation pictures of the patient. At the time, a specialist in reconstructive surgery, Maurice Mimoun, recognised the emotional nature of the debate, noting the face's "relationship with the soul". The first full face transplant was performed by a Spanish team in March 2010 on a man whose face was disfigured in an accident.[SEP]A Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant has died, 11 years after the surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants worldwide. The Amiens University Hospital in northern France announced Isabelle Dinoire's death on Tuesday. It said she died in April after a long illness, but her family wanted her death kept private. She was 49. The hospital didn't release any further details and it wasn't clear if her illness was related to the transplant. Dinoire was severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, and was given a new nose, chin and lips in 2005 by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard. Medications that patients must take to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organs can cause other illnesses and have severe side effects.[SEP]Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world’s first partial face transplant, has died more than a decade after a complex and daring operation that set the stage for dozens of similar transplants worldwide. She was 49. Her life with a new face was a miracle to many, but was also marred by infections, kidney trouble and hypertension linked to her treatment. In announcing her death on Tuesday, the Amiens University Hospital in northern France said Dinoire’s experience “illustrates perfectly the high stakes of face transplants”. The hospital said Dinoire died in April, but they did not announce the news until Tuesday because the family wanted to mourn privately. After being severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in a ground-breaking, 15-hour operation in 2005 led by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard in the Amiens hospital. When she first appeared in public with her new face four months later, her speech was slurred and a scar clearly visible – but the fact that she could speak to reporters of having a “face like everyone else” and almost smile was seen as a medical breakthrough. However, despite what the hospital described as a “remarkable” transplant, Dinoire had health issues for years linked to the medication she took to keep her body from rejecting the new face, and she underwent further surgery in January. Soon afterward, doctors discovered a malign tumor, according to Tuesday’s statement. Independent doctors who followed her case said she had lung cancer that might have been linked to her treatment, or to her lifetime of smoking. The operation changed Dinoire’s life and drew international attention. There have been 36 face transplant surgeries around the world since 2005, including one last year in New York that was the first to include a scalp and functioning eyelids. Of the 36 patients, six have died, the Amiens hospital noted. “Facial transplants remain extremely complex surgery with high risk,” it said. “It’s important to remember that face transplants are still in the evaluation stage. They cannot be considered a routine activity.” Dinoire, a divorced mother of two teenage daughters, said she was wrestling with personal problems at the time of the 2005 dog attack and “took some drugs to forget”. She said she was unconscious when the dog bit her. Disabled by her disfigurement, she welcomed the opportunity for a transplant from a brain-dead woman. Her doctors said they repeatedly warned her of the risks involved. Her operation was “an unquestionable surgical success” and the medical community learned from her experience, said Dr Jean-Paul Meningaud, who heads the reconstructive surgery department at the Henri Mondor Hospital south of Paris and was not involved in treating Dinoire. Dr Bohdan Pomahac, director of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, met Dinoire in 2008 as his team was preparing its first face transplant, and called it a “really profound experience”. “She seemed to be speaking perfectly fine, she ate with us. Like a normal person,” he said. Dr Pomahac noted that face transplant recipients are about twice as likely to reject the new tissue as hand transplant patients. But he remains convinced that transplants are right for some patients who “have no other options”. Dr Vijay Gorantla, administrative medical director of the Reconstructive Transplant Programme at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said Dinoire never regretted the transplant publicly, and her quality of life improved. “She didn’t want to be a recluse… or a monster in public,” he said, Dr Gorantla said surgeons should not be in a race to perform transplants but should carefully weigh the risks and benefits. “We are still learning” with each new case, he said. Dr Meningaud, who has been involved in seven of France’s ten face transplants, is now arguing for suspending the procedures altogether so that the medical community can take stock of whether the long-term benefits are worth the physical and psychological toll they take on patients. In Dinoire’s case, “the results were very good in the medium term, but the long-term results were not so good,” Dr Meningaud said. He said that face transplant recipients are having more difficulty with anti-rejection medication than doctors initially predicted, and are requiring more follow-up surgery. “It’s a rather high price to pay for the patient. It’s time to mark a pause,” he said. A year after the surgery, doctors said Dinoire was gaining more and more sensitivity and facial mobility, and she had even got herself a new dog. “I can open my mouth and eat. I feel my lips, my nose and my mouth,” Dinoire said at a news conference in 2006. I have a face like everyone else. A door to the future is opening.”[SEP]A French woman who received the world's first face transplant died of a cancer that was not related to the anti-rejection drugs she was taking, doctors have revealed. It was announced yesterday that Isabelle Dinoire, 49, who underwent the historic operation in 2005 after being maimed by her dog, had died in April following a long illness that was thought to be linked to the medication. Following the surgery, Ms Dinoire, from Valenciennes, northern France, suffered from many complications related to the strong immunosupressant drugs all transplant patients have to take, to stop her body from rejecting the graft. She battled cancer, infection, diminished kidney function and high blood pressure at the Amien-Picardie University Hospital where she received the transplant. However, doctors have today said that in January of this year, they discovered a rare malignant tumour, which was beyond the remedy of any available treatment, which caused her death. But in a statement, the hospital said that the tumour 'cannot be scientifically linked to immunosupressant treatment.' It also added that she died on April 'surrounded by her loved ones and medical team.' Ms Dinoire, a divorced seamstress, was left disfigured with her face nothing more than bloody shreds of flesh when her beloved pet Labrador, Tania, mauled her in an attack at her flat. A degree of mystery still surrounds the events of May 2005, of which Ms Dinoire had no memory. Last year she admitted she was depressed and had taken sleeping pills to help her rest after a tough week. Media reports later suggested she had tried to kill herself. After taking the medication, she became ill and collapsed, and while she was unconscious her beloved pet attacked her, causing facial injuries of almost unimaginable horror. Ms Dinoire, who didn't feel the attack, said Tania had never bitten anyone before the incident, and believed that she was trying to save her. Writing in her diary, which was published in France as an autobiography called Le Baiser d'Isabelle, or Isabelle's Kiss, she recalled: 'When I woke up I tried to light a cigarette and I could not understand why I couldn't put the cigarette between my lips - it was then that I saw a pool of blood and the dog beside it. 'I went to look at myself in the mirror, and there I could not believe what I saw - it was horrible.' Hours later at Valenciennes Hospital she looked at her reflection, describing what she saw as 'the face of a monster'. On the advice of specialists at Amiens Hospital, where she was transferred, she was advised to wear a surgical mask that covered her face. The cover made her an easy target for strangers who thought she was obsessed with germs. It was a month after the attack, in June 2005, that Ms Dinoire approached by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard, who proposed making medical history by performing a face transplant. Professor Dubernard and Professor Bernard Duvauchelle, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, led the team during the groundbreaking 15-hour surgery. A triangle of face tissue from the donor's nose and mouth were grafted on to Ms Dinoire. But Professor Dubernard said after carrying out the operation: 'Once I had seen Isabelle's disfigured face, no more needed to be said. 'I was convinced something had to be done for this patient.' After the transplant Ms Dinoire said she was determined to make a success of her life, learning to eat and speak and also wanting to be able to kiss. But soon after the operation there were signs that her body had rejected the new tissue. Doctors controlled the problem by increasing the doses of the immuno-suppressants which she had to take for life. Ms Dinoire soon regained sensation back in the transplanted face, learning to smile a year after the surgery. But she regularly suffered graft rejection. In November 2014, Ms Dinoire's immune system started rejecting the graft and she reportedly lost partial control of her lips, despite the anti-rejection medicine. She had a new operation in January this year which was able to fix some of the damage However, she continued to battle with psychological problems connected to the surgery. Speaking three years after the transplant, she admitted that she remained uncertain as to whose face she looked at in the mirror every day. She said: 'It's not hers, it's not mine, it's somebody else's. 'Before the operation, I expected my new face would look like me but it turned out after the operation that it was half me and half her.' While doubts might now be cast over the lasting personal effects of the transplant, the operation was 'an unquestionable surgical success', said Dr. Jean-Paul Meningaud, who heads the reconstructive surgery department at the Henri Mondor Hospital south of Paris. Some 15 similar procedures have taken place since 2005. In 2006, surgeon Peter Butler, of the Royal Free Hospital in London, was given permission by the NHS ethics board to carry out full face transplants in Britain. But Dr Meningaud, who has been involved in seven of France's 10 face transplants, is now arguing for suspending the procedures so that the medical community can take stock of whether the long-term benefits are worth the physical and psychological toll they take on patients. Speaking of Ms Dinoire, he said: 'The results were very good in the medium term, but the long-term results were not so good.' He said that face transplant recipients were having more difficulty with anti-rejection medication than doctors initially predicted, and are requiring more follow-up surgery. 'It's a rather high price to pay for the patient. It's time to mark a pause.'[SEP]Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant, has died 11 years after the surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants worldwide. She was 49. The Amiens University Hospital in northern France said in a statement that Dinoire died in April after a long illness. The hospital didn't release any further details and it wasn't clear if her illness was related to the transplant. SOME IMAGES IN THIS STORY MAY BE UPSETTING TO SOME READERS. Her family wanted her death kept private. But the hospital went public with the death after Le Figaro reported on it. After being severely disfigured by her pet labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in a ground-breaking, 15-hour operation in 2005 led by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard in the Amiens hospital. When she first appeared in public with her new face four months later, her speech was slurred and a scar clearly visible - but the fact that she could speak to reporters of having a "face like everyone else" and almost smile was seen as a medical breakthrough. READ MORE: * Face transplant patient 'has hope now' * US firefighter gets world's most extensive face transplant * Surgeons perform US' first successful uterus transplant * First US face transplant patient revealed The operation changed Dinoire's life and drew international attention. There have been nearly 40 face transplant surgeries around the world since 2005, including one last year in New York that was the first to include a scalp and functioning eyelids. However, medications that patients must take to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organs can cause other illnesses and have severe side effects. Le Figaro newspaper, which first reported Dinoire's death Tuesday, said she had suffered two cancers linked to the transplant and lost partial use of her transplanted lips last year. Dinoire, a divorced mother of two teenage daughters, said she was wrestling with personal problems at the time of the 2005 dog attack and "took some drugs to forget." She said she was passed out when the dog bit her. Disabled by her disfigurement, she welcomed the opportunity for a transplant from a brain-dead woman. Her doctors said they repeatedly warned her of the risks involved. Her operation was "an unquestionable surgical success" and the medical community learned from her experience, said Dr Jean-Paul Meningaud, who heads the reconstructive surgery department at the Henri Mondor Hospital south of Paris and wasn't involved in treating Dinoire. But Meningaud, who has been involved in seven of France's 10 face transplants, is now arguing for suspending the procedures so that the medical community can take stock of whether the long-term benefits are worth the physical and psychological toll they take on patients. In Dinoire's case, "The results were very good in the medium term, but the long-term results were not so good," Meningaud said. He said that face transplant recipients are having more difficulty with anti-rejection medication than doctors initially predicted, and are requiring more follow-up surgery. "It's a rather high price to pay for the patient. It's time to mark a pause,"' he said. Her immune system nearly rejected the transplant twice. A year later, doctors said she was gaining more and more sensitivity and facial mobility, and she got herself a new dog. "I can open my mouth and eat. I feel my lips, my nose and my mouth," Dinoire said at a news conference in 2006. "I have a face like everyone else,"' she said. "A door to the future is opening."

Isabelle Dinoire, who received the world's first face transplant, is reported to have died from cancer at the age of 49 in April 2016.

Xieng Khoung, Laos (CNN) For two years after the accident, Yei Yang refused to leave his home. "I couldn't farm, I couldn't go to see friends, as they might be afraid of me," Yang tells CNN. "I didn't want to live." Yang was just 22 and burning rubbish near his village in the province of Xieng Khoung in north-eastern Laos, when a bomb blast tore off one of his eyelids, his top lip and an ear, mutilated one of his arms, and left him with severe scarring from the waist up. "I remembered I burned the garbage, but after the explosion I was unconscious for two weeks," Yang says. "I felt extreme pain...all over my body. I still feel pain always." His wounds were not caused by a modern day conflict, but by the remnants of a war that was waged more than 40 years ago, and is still destroying lives in this small Southeast Asian nation. Some 80 million unexploded bombs are scattered across the country -- the deadly legacy of what became known as America's "secret war" in Laos -- a CIA-led mission during the Vietnam War. 2 million tons of explosive The operation was aimed at blocking Vietnam's supply lines on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the south of Laos, and also to support the Laos government loyalists in a civil war against communist forces in the north. In total, between 1964 and 1973, the US dropped more than two million tons of bombs -- one of the heaviest aerial bombardments in history. Most of the munitions dropped were cluster bombs, which splinter before impact, spreading hundreds of smaller bomblets -- known locally as "bombies." To this day, less than 1% of the bombs have been removed, according to US-based NGO Legacies of War, which is spearheading the campaign to clear them. "We were all but forgotten here," says the Laos-born founder of Legacies of War, Channapha Khamvongsa. But the people of Laos can't forget, as the "secret war" is still claiming victims. Photos: Clearing unexploded bombs in Laos The HALO Trust is the world's largest humanitarian mine clearance organization. It works in Laos to clear unexploded ordnance. Here, two HALO technicians use a Large Loop Detector to clear a hazardous area. Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Clearing unexploded bombs in Laos HALO prioritizes land which will be used for community development projects and agricultural land. Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Clearing unexploded bombs in Laos A HALO team walks through a paddy field to get to work. Dense vegetation and a very wet rainy season can make the job difficult. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Clearing unexploded bombs in Laos A HALO Technician uses a detector during the clearance of a Confirmed Hazardous Area (CHA). Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Clearing unexploded bombs in Laos Ms Toyota, one of HALO's team leaders, prepares what she needs to conduct the demolition of a cluster munitions. Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Clearing unexploded bombs in Laos A HALO supervisor shows where the organization has found items of unexploded ordnance -- the yellow sticks indicate how close they are to one village house. Hide Caption 6 of 6 Bombs mistaken for toys More than 20,000 people have been killed or maimed by the unexploded ordnance (UXOs) since the war ended, and currently, 50 people are maimed or killed every year. Around 40% of those are children. "(The bombies) are tennis ball sized weapons," Khamvongsa says. "The children often mistake the bombs for toys, and pick them up and throw them around. This is often the cause of an explosion." Farmers are also among the worst affected, as the poorest are forced to toil the mine-laden fields to feed their families. "Eighty percent of people rely on their land to grow food in Laos," Khamvongsa says. "So they still use their land even at the risk of their own lives." visit to Laos, by announcing President Barack Obama, who arrived in Vientiane late Monday, addressed the US wartime legacy during his three-dayvisit to Laos, by announcing $90 million in funding for bomb clearance As the first US president to step foot inside the country, everything he says will be closely watched by the people of Laos. "People are just anxious to hear what an American president has to say about it and to acknowledge what the US did here," Khamvongsa says. "This will bring greater visibility to what has happened." Land that can't be farmed It's not just the loss of life that has scarred the country. With a quarter of villages in Laos contaminated with UXOs, it makes vast swathes of the Laos countryside unfarmable. This contributes to widespread malnutrition and poverty, holding back economic development in a country that is already one of the poorest in Southeast Asia. It's the young people of Laos -- 70% of the population is under 30 -- that bear the brunt of this deprivation. Laos has the highest level of stunted growth linked to malnutrition in the region, with 40% of children affected, says Bernie Chaves, the Laos Country Representative for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which runs a US-funded school meals program. "You often see 14-year olds who look more like 10-year olds," he says. "We are going to address directly this challenge of hunger," Kerry said. U.S. aid to Laos has been rising steadily for years, and in 2016, Congress allocated $19.5 million for the removal of the bombs -- the highest level it has ever been. Yei Yang with two of his three children. I don't want my children to be victims Khamvongsa says the problem will not be solved with short-term projects. What's needed, she says, "is a larger increase in funding, as well as a long-term sustained US commitment." The hope is that the funds won't dry up after Obama leaves office. "I personally believe that the U.S. has a moral responsibility to do this," Chaves says. "And increase in funding should be a priority of the next government coming in." This sustained commitment is crucial to the country's future generations -- a huge concern for Yang, now aged 30 and a father of three young children. He was engaged to be married and had a job as a laborer when the accident happened. Now, he's only able to do occasional work. His family depends on his wife's income and the support of a non-profit group World Education. "I am worried that my children could become victims," he says. "(And) about how I will be able to raise my children."[SEP]PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday left for Laos to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summits, aiming to gather support from regional leaders and allies in addressing illegal drugs and terrorism following the weekend bombing in his home city of Davao. Duterte will be joining his counterparts during the 28th and 29th Asean Summits and Related Summits, his first international engagement since he assumed office on June 30. In his departure speech at the Davao airport, Duterte said he would take the opportunity to discuss during the meeting issues that affect peace, security, stability and the economy of the region. “Recent events have shown that there are elements out there who seek to sow terror and wreak havoc in our society. We remain firm in our resolve, to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” Duterte said. “I will use the opportunity for meeting with other Asean leaders and Asean dialogue partners to seek better support to regional efforts to address terrorism and extreme violent extremism,” he added. A blast in the Duterte’s home city of Davao that killed 14 people and wounded dozens nearly made him cancel his attendance to the Asean summits in Laos. Duterte was supposed to leave for Brunei and meet Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on September 4, but chose to stay in the Philippines after the Davao City attack. In Laos, Duterte said he and Asean leaders would also discuss the way forward in realizing the “Asean Community Vision 2025” of a “rules-based, people oriented, people centered Asean.” “The security of our region hinges at the cooperation of Asean member states as well as our dialogue partners. Consistent with the Philippines’ cornerstone programs, we will call for renewed cooperation for a drug-free Asean Community,” he said. The President also said the Philippines would continue to engage with other countries to promote and protect migrant workers and build capacity to improve emergency response and disaster management. While in Laos, the President is expected to participate in at least a dozen meetings, not counting his bilateral meetings with other leaders. The President will join the opening ceremony of the Asean summits on Tuesday afternoon in the Laos National Convention Center and join the rest of the Asean leaders for their first plenary meeting. Asean leaders are expected to issue the “Asean Declaration on One Asean, One Response: Asean Responding to Disasters as One in the Region and Outside the Region,” that will emphasize “Asean’s commitment to respond to disasters as a collective outfit.” At the end of the summits on Thursday, Laos will hand over the Asean chairmanship to the Philippines. “I have the honor to accept in behalf of the Philippines the Chairmanship of Asean in 2017 from Laos. This will formally mark an important leadership role for the Philippines in the region as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Association next year,” Duterte said. From Laos, Duterte will proceed to a working visit to Indonesia, where he will meet President Joko Widodo.[SEP]A draft communique of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) seen by Reuters on Monday listed eight points related to the South China Sea, but made no mention of a high-profile July ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which invalidated Beijing's territorial claims. The decision to exclude reference to the ruling represents a diplomatic victory for China, following ASEAN's decision at its last meeting in July to turn down a U.S.-backed proposal to include the landmark ruling in the text. China refuses to recognize the case brought by the Philippines in 2013. Its outrage over the verdict has created regional concerns that Beijing might take a tougher line in future disputes. Soon after the ruling in The Hague, the Philippines lobbied strongly at an ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting for the verdict to be included in the text of the communique, only for Cambodia, a China ally, to oppose it. China has been accused of pressuring some countries in the consensus-led, 10-nation bloc to stymie what it sees as unfavorable proposals. ASEAN does not include China, but leaders and senior representatives from China, the United States and other regional powers are attending the Laos summit. Experts say that China's approach makes it harder for Southeast Asian states to form a unified front to counter Beijing's assertiveness over the strategic waterway. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte wants to negotiate with Beijing, and has pledged not to rock the boat by discussing the ruling at this week's ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Laos. But a few days before the meetings, the outspoken leader vowed to make no concessions towards China over the ruling, and demanded that Beijing explain why it had increased its boat presence around the disputed Scarborough Shoal. Sek Wannamethee, a spokesman for Thailand's foreign ministry, said it was unclear from Senior Officials Meetings (SOM) if Manila would bring its concerns about China to the Laos forum. "There is no indication at the preparatory ASEAN SOM yet as to what, if anything, the Philippines would raise at the summit regarding the South China Sea," Sek said. The draft communique contained one new element on the South China Sea, welcoming the adoption of emergency hotlines and rules among ASEAN states and China to prevent military mishaps, known as the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea.[SEP]VIENTIANE: North Korea’s defiant missile testing and the South China Sea territorial row were among a barrage of security threats in focus on Thursday as US President Barack Obama gathered with East Asian leaders in Laos. The annual event this year comes at a time of heightened tensions on a wide range of fronts across the region, with terrorism also a concern after deadly bomb blasts in Thailand and the Philippines in recent weeks. Obama was due to meet on Thursday morning with the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc, pitting him against firebrand Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte who this week branded him a “son of a whore.” The expanded East Asia summit will then take place, which involves members of the long-running and increasingly fraught six-nation talks aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. Defying the international community and United Nations sanctions, North Korea on Monday conducted the latest in a series of ballistic missile tests that have rattled nerves across the region. Obama warned on Monday shortly after arriving in Laos that Kim Jong-Un’s regime was dooming itself to further isolation, and the UN Security Council condemned the tests. But North Korea responded in typically bellicose fashion, threatening on Wednesday to take “further significant measures.” ‘Serious concern’ The 18 East Asia summit nations will voice “serious concern” over the latest North Korean tests, according to a draft of their end-of-meeting statement obtained by Agence-France Presse. “We reaffirmed the importance of peace and security in this region and reiterated support for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner,” the statement said. The statement will also emphasize the importance of maintaining peace in the South China Sea, the other major regional flashpoint. China came under pressure at Asean’s standalone summit on Tuesday and Wednesday over its land reclamation efforts in the sea, which are aimed at cementing control over the strategically vital waters. An international tribunal ruled in July that Beijing’s claims to nearly all of the sea had no legal basis, and its artificial island-building activities were illegal. Muted statement expected China insists it has sovereign rights to most of the sea — through which $5 trillion in global shipping trade passes annually — even waters close to Southeast Asian nations. But it has vowed to ignore the ruling and the Philippines released photos on Wednesday claiming to show that Beijing was continuing with its island-building campaign. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has been in Laos this week and faced questioning over the issue, with Asean leaders voicing alarm. “We remain seriously concerned over recent and ongoing developments and took note of the concerns expressed by some leaders on the land reclamations,” said a joint statement at the end of their summit on Wednesday. Nevertheless, intensive Chinese lobbying helped to ensure there was no mention of the July ruling in the Asean statement. The East Asia bloc was expected to urge all parties to follow international law, but otherwise release a muted statement on the South China Sea. “We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security and freedom of navigation in and over-flight in the South China Sea,” the draft of its post-summit statement said. A spectacular sideshow to this week’s diplomacy in Laos has been the spat between the acid-tongued Duterte and Obama, leaders of nations that have been longtime allies. Duterte launched a barrage of insults against Obama after being told the US president planned to raise concerns about a war on crime in the Philippines that has claimed 3,000 lives in just over two months. “You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte told reporters. Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte scheduled for Tuesday because of the outburst. They met briefly on Wednesday night before a leaders’ dinner, but only exchanged “pleasantries,” according to the White House.[SEP]DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 05 Sept) — President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to seek “better support to address terrorism and violent extremism” during his first meeting with foreign leaders in the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) and its dialogue partners this week. “We remain firm in our resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” Duterte said in a statement he read before departing for Vientiane, Laos on Monday afternoon. He said he will discuss with ASEAN leaders and the region’s dialogue partners such as Australia, China, India, japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States regional and international issues that “impact on peace, security, stability, and prosperity.” He said recent events ”have shown that there are elements out there who seek to sow terror and wreak havoc in our society,” apparently referring to Friday’s blast along Roxas Avenue where 14 people were killed and 70 others were injured. “We remain committed to our duty to protect our citizens, I ask every Filipino to do his and her part for the sake of the country,” he said. Duterte said he would take the opportunity at the ASEAN Summits to seek better regional support to address terrorism and extreme violent extremism that he said is a global concern that the a small country like Philippines must help address. “Terrorism and violent extremism is a global concern, and the Philippines will do its part as a member of the international community,” he said. “He said security in the region hinders the cooperation of the ASEAN region member states as well as the dialogue partners,” he added. Known for his anti-drugs campaign, Duterte said he will call on state leaders to renew cooperation for a drug-free ASEAN community. The President said the ASEAN meet will be an “excellent opportunity to underscore the importance of the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes.” “The interest of our people are at the heart of the ASEAN community building. And we shall work with our neighbors in addressing transnational issues such as trafficking of persons and terrorism and violent extremism,” he said. On economic side, he said he wants to discuss how to make a more inclusive economy that would benefit more Filipino citizens by increasing connectivity in the region, improving trade, highlighting the importance of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and conserving and sustaining the environment. He also said he will engage ASEAN neighbors on upholding the rights of migrant workers and pushing for capacity-building to improve disaster response management. Duterte will receive the chairmanship from Laos to host ASEAN summits in 2017, the 50th anniversary of the association next year. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos — A summit of Southeast Asian leaders to discuss issues ranging from terrorism to South China Sea tensions opened Tuesday, overshadowed by the Philippine president’s intemperate comments in his debut appearance at the annual meeting. The insult was made more egregious because of who the target was — President Barack Obama. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte occupied center stage on the eve of the summit Monday when he made comments about Obama that included a “son of a bitch” remark. He was again in the spotlight Tuesday when he trooped into a conference hall in the Laotian capital of Vientiane wearing a traditional Filipino shirt with sleeves rolled up, and hands in pant pockets. The other male Southeast Asian leaders were dressed in dark business suits. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi wore a mauve traditional dress. Filipinos wear the “barong” shirt on formal occasions too, but with sleeves buttoned down at the wrists. Rolled-up sleeves are considered too casual for any formal setting, let alone an Asean summit. Duterte rolled his sleeves down and buttoned them when Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachith gave a speech to open the summit. “Multifaceted security challenges have occurred in many parts of the world, such as terrorism and extremism, natural disasters, climate change, migration crisis, trafficking in people, territorial disputes and armed conflicts,” Bounnhang said. “At the same time, although the global economy has gradually recovered, growth remains slow and fragile.” “There is a need for us to closely follow these developments and continue to enhance Asean cooperation and collaboration with the international community,” he said. The 10-nation Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The summit will be followed by a series of other meetings on Wednesday and a summit Thursday between leaders from Asean and other countries, including the United States, China, Russia, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Obama arrived in Vientiane on Monday night and will attend Thursday’s summit. Duterte also arrived Monday night. But hours before his arrival, Duterte dropped a diplomatic bombshell by saying he doesn’t want Obama to ask him questions about extrajudicial killings that have occurred amid an ongoing crackdown on drug dealers in the Philippines. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since he took office on June 30. In his typical loose-tongued style, Duterte said: “I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum,” he said, using the Tagalog phrase for “son of a bitch.” Obama later canceled a bilateral meeting he was scheduled to have with Duterte in Vientiane. On Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over the remarks, but the damage was already done. Duterte is also planning to ask China’s premier at the Vientiane meetings whether China is trying to develop a disputed reef, Scarborough Shoal, off the Philippines’ northwestern coast, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said. The shoal is part of the larger dispute in the South China Sea between China and some Asean countries. An international arbitration panel recently ruled that China’s expansive claims in the sea are illegal. Beijing has rejected the ruling as a sham. Although Asean has the power of the ruling behind it, its summit is unlikely to mention it in its final declaration, a reflection of Beijing’s diplomatic clout. But according to a draft of the final statement Asean is scheduled to release on Thursday, the region’s leaders will express strong concern about Beijing’s construction of man-made islands in the South China Sea, which Southeast Asian countries fear could destabilize the region. Duterte said last week that the Philippine coast guard has sighted Chinese barges at Scarborough, which he said could presage the transformation of the Chinese-held reef into another man-made island. One of the Chinese vessels had what appeared to be a crane, according to a Philippine official who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss classified intelligence. China sparked widespread alarm when it converted seven reefs in the Spratly Islands into islands that the United States says could be transformed into military bases to reinforce Beijing’s territorial claims and intimidate rival claimant countries. Duterte has taken a more conciliatory stance toward China than his predecessor. But a confirmation of Chinese reclamation activities at Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground where Filipino fishermen have been forced away by Beijing’s coast guard, could impede relations. US officials have also expressed deep concern over the possibility of China developing Scarborough into an island or starting to erect concrete structures there, which could reinforce Beijing’s control over a swath of the South China Sea.[SEP]Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed deep concern at the rising “export of terror”, in an apparent reference to Pakistan, saying it is a common security threat to the region as he sought a coordinated response from ASEAN member nations to combat the menace. While addressing the 14th ASEAN-India summit here, the Prime Minister also noted that growing radicalism through the ideology of hatred and spread of extreme violence are the other security threats. “Export of terror, growing radicalisation and spread of extreme violence are common security threats to our societies,” he said in his second attack on Pakistan in two days amid escalating war of words between New Delhi and Islamabad. “The threat is local, regional, and transitional at the same time. Our partnership with ASEAN seeks to craft a response through coordination, cooperation at multiple levels,” Mr. Modi said. He said that in the face of growing traditional and non traditional challenges, political cooperation has emerged as key in relations. “We are willing to take concrete steps to enhance cooperation in cyber security, de-radicalisation and counterterrorism,” he added. On Monday, Mr. Modi made a sharp attack on Pakistan at the G20 summit, saying “one single nation” in South Asia is spreading “agents of terror” as he asserted that those who sponsor the menace must be sanctioned and isolated, not rewarded. In his remarks on Thursday, the Prime Minister said that ASEAN is central to India’s Act East policy. “Our engagement driven by common priorities bringing peace, stability and prosperity to the region,” he told the 10-member grouping attended by Heads of state. He said enhancing connectivity was central to India’s partnership with ASEAN. “Seamless digital connectivity between India and Southeast Asia is a shared objective. India committed to Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity,” Mr. Modi said. Securing seas was a shared responsibility, he said, adding that sea lanes are “life lines of global trade.” India supports freedom of navigation based on United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), he added. He thanked the member countries for sharing their views on “nature, direction and priorities of our engagement.” “All three pillars of our partnership — security, economic and socio-cultural have registered good progress,” he said, adding that engagement of India-ASEAN is of “economic optimism.” “We continue to expand and deepen our economic engagements,” Mr. Modi said. Laos premier Thongloun Sisoulith complimented India’s Act East policy and its contribution to ASEAN and hoped the summit will provide future direction.[SEP]The Prime Minister has urged investors to be confident in his government’s commitment to supporting trade and business on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit. Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, in Vientiane of Lao PDR for the 28th and 29th ASEAN Leader Summits being hosted by the Laotian government, has met with his Lao counterpart Thonglun Sisoulith to congratulate him on his country’s work as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He affirmed to the Lao premier that Thailand is ready to support its neighbor in all areas both bilaterally and multilaterally. Gen Prayuth also used the opportunity of their meeting to invite PM Thonglun to the Asia Cooperation Dialogue taking place in Bangkok on October 9-10. The Thai prime minister then jointed in witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Thailand and Lao PDR on joint energy development, which will see Thailand increase its purchase of power from Lao from 7,000 Megawatts to 9,000. He affirmed to PM Thonglun that he would support infrastructural developments such as more connecting bridges in the future. After the ceremony, the premier joined his fellow ASEAN leaders in meeting with the ASEAN Business Advisory Council to exchange views on trade and investment in the region. At the discussion, Gen Prayuth assured Thailand is ready to support public-private connections and exchanges of electronic information. He played up the Kingdom’s focus on small and medium enterprises and start-ups and its Thailand 4.0 model. He affirmed to the council that Thailand is ready to facilitate trade and investment to help drive the region’s economy.[SEP]Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and several other world leaders on the sidelines of two back-to-back international summits in the capital of Laos. After his visit to the US, it was Mr Modi’s first bilateral meeting with Mr Obama. Both the leaders had also met informally during the G-20 summit at Hangzhou, the eastern city of China on September 4-5. During the 14th India-ASEAN Summit and the 11th East Asia Summit, Mr Modi also had bilateral talks with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and Premier of host of the summits Thongloun Sisolith. Myanmar’s foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi also called on him. This was also the first meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Obama after the countries inked a landmark agreement on sharing each other’s military logistics.

Laos prepares to host the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summit.

He walked near the river of Mekong where women sell coconut drinks and tasted the local refreshment, posing for photographs and conversing with locals. Obama arrived in Laos Tuesday morning (September 6), becoming the first sitting U.S. president to visit landlocked Laos, where the United States waged a "secret war" while fighting in Vietnam, dropping an estimated two million tonnes of bombs on the country. Obama's visit follows his attendance at the G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. He is also due to attend an annual international gathering in the Southeast Asian region.[SEP]U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos, the White House said on Wednesday. “In the afternoon, the President will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India,” the White House said in its daily guidance released to the press. The two leaders are expected to make brief remarks at the top of the meeting. This would be the eighth meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Obama in two years. They met for the first time at the White House in September 2014, when Mr. Modi travelled to Washington DC at the invitation of Mr. Obama. Prime Minister Mr. Modi exchanged views with Mr. Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit in China’s Hangzhou on Sunday, with the U.S. president praising the “bold policy” move on GST reform in a “difficult” global economic scenario. Mr. Obama is scheduled to address a news conference in Laos immediately after his meeting with Mr. Modi. He would depart for the U.S. via Yokota, Japan for fuelling, soon after his news conference.[SEP]VIENTIANE, LAOS — Decades after U.S. planes conducted hundreds of thousands of bombing runs over Laos, President Obama acknowledged that secret war and pledged $90 million in additional aid Tuesday to help clear unexploded bombs still strewn across the country. “Given our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal,” said Obama, the first U.S. president to visit this struggling Southeast Asian nation. “And this spirit of reconciliation is what brings me here today.” From 1964 to 1973, the United States carried out 580,000 bombing missions in Laos, dropping more than 270 million cluster bombs in a CIA-led campaign as part of the expanding regional battles from neighboring Vietnam, according to the National Regulatory Authority for UXO/Mine Action in Laos. UXO refers to unexploded ordnance. Many of the bombings sought to cut off supplies to Vietnam, even though, officially, Laos was neutral in the Vietnam War. Today, roughly 80 million unexploded bombs remain and continue killing and maiming dozens each year — many of them children. In recent years, U.S. aid toward removing those bombs has slowly increased, and deaths have decreased from 300 a year to fewer than 50. Tuesday’s announcement doubled the current U.S. funding. • September 6, 2016 Obama vows to work to tighten sanctions on North Korea • September 5, 2016 Obama and Putin meet in China amid struggle for Syria deal • September 5, 2016 Barack Obama lands in Laos for first U.S. presidential visit “We feel an urgency . . . to do our part to accelerate the clearance process,” Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, told reporters in Vientiane. In return, leaders in Laos said they would step up efforts to recover remains and missing American service members. Obama was just one of many leaders in the Laotian capital for the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose members take turns hosting. As this year’s chair at the three-day gathering, Laos has been thrust into the spotlight — a still relatively undeveloped nation whose nominally communist government struggles with corruption, repression and economic growth. Landlocked Laos is surrounded on all sides by more powerful neighbors that have long exploited its resources and vied for influence. In the north, China has staked its claims on land and business. In the east, Vietnam has been razing forests for years for lumber. And in the west, Thai leaders often take a paternalistic attitude to their Laotian counterparts and have been pushing for control over the Mekong River that divides them. Laos’s economy remains fledgling and relies heavily on foreign aid. Corruption runs rampant in the government and private sector, and rights groups have complained about hard-line government policies. Many activists have been detained or have disappeared, including renowned agricultural activist Sombath Somphone, who was dragged from his car in December 2012 in Vientiane. Sombath has not been seen since, and Laotian officials have said only that an investigation is underway. But rights groups suspect he was taken by police. “Pretty quickly, those talking about it and working to free him were told, ‘Shut up.’ They were told, ‘If you talk about this, you will have problems,’ ” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. Sombath had spent his career in rural development, teaching farmers new ways to eke out a living. And he was outspoken on inequitable land-grab deals, which have angered villagers throughout the country. Last week at a public conference in Bangkok, Sombath’s wife, Ng Shui Meng, pleaded for Obama and other leaders visiting Laos to raise her husband’s case and the issue of human rights with Laotian leaders. “Will the Lao leaders brush off the queries by resorting to the standard response that the police are still investigating?” she said. “I don’t know, but I hope not.” On Tuesday, Rhodes said White House officials did raise Sombath’s case but heard back the standard response that the government is investigating and does not know where he is. The case, Rhodes said, is “something we will continue to raise” with Laotian officials. He said the topic of human rights as a U.S.-Laos issue is in its nascent phase. “We understand and have to be mindful of the fact that we’re building a new relationship here,” he said. “We’re just beginning to have these types of conversations.” Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.[SEP]Aiming for closer ties to Laos, Obama honors its culture LUANG PRABANG, Laos (AP) — Aiming to cement closer ties to Laos and its people, President Barack Obama toured a Buddhist temple Wednesday and paid tribute to Lao culture after pledging the U.S. would fulfill its "profound moral and humanitarian obligation" to clean up millions of unexploded bombs. Obama's visit to Luang Prabang in mountainous northern Laos showcased a rich cultural and religious heritage that many in the West know little about. A UNESCO World Heritage List site along the Mekong River, the city was a hub for Buddhist faith during the Lan Xang kingdom starting in the 14th century. Obama received a low-key reception after stepping off of Air Force One and as his motorcade snaked along a dusty, paved road through town. A small cluster of people waved from shops and open air cafes, recording the spectacle on their cellphones. His first stop was Wat Xieng Thong, a 16th century complex of ornate gold buildings known as the "Temple of the Golden City." In shirt sleeves and black socks, Obama looked in awe at a large golden ship adorned at the bow with dragons, staring straight at the dragon's mouth. "It's gorgeous," he said as he examined a line of golden statues. Greeting the temple monks, Obama tried to shake hands with about 20 boys in bright orange robes, but was informed by his guide they weren't supposed to shake hands. Instead, he posed for a group photo before heading to a shop to buy gifts for daughters Sasha and Malia. After emerging with three bags, Obama went to a nearby coconut stand and drank from one of the fruits through a straw. Obama also planned to take questions from young Southeast Asians at a town hall-style event, in what's become a staple of his overseas travels. For Obama, the visit serves as a capstone to his yearslong effort to bolster relations with Southeast Asian countries long overlooked by the United States. The outreach is a core element of his attempt to shift U.S. diplomatic and military resources away from the Middle East and to Asia in order to counter China in the region and ensure a U.S. foothold in growing markets. On this visit — the first by a sitting American president — Obama has placed a particular emphasis on trying to heal wounds inflicted by the secret war the U.S. waged here as part of the broader Vietnam War. Acknowledging the dark aftershocks of the U.S. aerial bombardment, Obama paid tribute Wednesday to survivors maimed by some 80 million unexploded bombs America dropped, and said the U.S. will do more to help to finally clean them up. Touring a rehabilitation center in Vientiane, the capital, Obama touted his administration's move to double spending on ordinance cleanup to roughly $90 million over three years. "For the last four decades, Laotians have continued to live under the shadow of war," Obama said. "The war did not end when the bombs stopped falling." Some 20,000 people have been killed or wounded since the war ended, Obama said after viewing displays of small rusted grenades and photos of a child missing his foot. He insisted those were "not just statistics," but reminders of the heavy toll inflicted by war — "some of them unintended." "I'm inspired by you," he told one survivor, Thoummy Silamphan, who uses a prosthetic after losing a hand to one of the bombs. The president did not come to apologize. Instead, he said he hoped the strengthened partnership on clearing the bombs could mark a "decisive step forward" between the U.S. and this landlocked communist nation. Thanks to global cleanup efforts, casualties from tennis ball-sized "bombies" that still litter the Laotian countryside have plummeted from hundreds to dozens per year. But aid groups say far more help is needed. Of all the provinces in landlocked Laos, only one has a comprehensive system to care for bomb survivors. The punishing air campaign on Laos was an effort to cut off communist forces in neighboring Vietnam. American warplanes dropped more explosives on this Southeast Asian nation than on Germany and Japan combined in World War II, a stunning statistic that Obama noted during his first day in Vientiane. Obama was one of several world leaders visiting Laos to attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Taking its turn as chair of the regional forum, Laos' communist government is seizing a rare moment in the spotlight. Lederman reported from Vientiane, Laos. Daniel Malloy in Luang Prabang contributed to this report.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in the isolated Southeast Asian nation of Laos, opening a three-day visit meant to rebuild trust and close a dark chapter in the shared history between the two countries. Obama is one of several world leaders coming to the country of nearly 7 million people, where the one-party communist state tightly controls public expression but is using its moment in the spotlight as host of the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to open up to outsiders. Under a steady, tropical rain, Obama arrived late Monday and began a full day of ceremony and diplomacy Tuesday morning with a meeting with Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachit. The president was greeted by a military band and a display of the troops at the presidential palace. The visit comes during what is probably Obama’s final trip as president to Southeast Asia, a region that has enjoyed intense attention from the U.S. during his tenure. Obama’s frequent visits to oft-ignored corners of the Asia Pacific have been central to his strategy for countering China’s growing dominance in the region. By bolstering diplomatic ties in Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, the Obama administration has declared it wants to compete for influence and market access in China’s backyard. In Laos, Obama will wrestle with the ghosts of past U.S. policies. In the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. rained bombs on Laotian villages and the countryside as America’s war with Vietnam spilled across the border. The Laotian government estimates that more than 2 million tons of ordnance were released during more than 500,000 missions — one bomb every eight minutes for nine years. An estimated 80 million cluster bombs did not explode, leaving tennis ball-sized “bombies” littering the impoverished countryside to wound and kill unsuspecting people. In his meeting with Vorachit, Obama quickly acknowledged the “challenging history.” He is expected to announce additional aid to clean up unexploded ordnance, while the Laotian government is expected to offer help in accounting for missing and dead U.S. service members. Obama said Monday in China, before he departed for Laos, that diplomatic work on war legacy issues will be “a show of good faith on the part of the country and a way for us to move into a next phase of a relationship.” He cited Vietnam as the model. Aides said Obama’s visit will probably echo a stop in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May, when the president declared he was “mindful of the past, mindful of our difficult history, but focused on the future.” In both countries, Obama benefits from not carrying baggage that might have complicated his message. Too young to have served in the Vietnam war, Obama serves as a generational page turner — eager to speak directly to those too young to remember the troubled past. In Laos, as he has across Southeast Asia, he’ll hold a town-hall-style event for young people. The White House said he’ll encourage Laos’ slow political opening and budding entrepreneurial culture. Obama will be speaking to people like 33-year-old Anysay Keola, who remembers his mother’s stories of running and hiding from the bombs and of memorizing a phrase roughly translating to: “The U.S. dropped the bomb on us.” But Keola, an entrepreneur and filmmaker and part of Vientiane’s growing creative class, also grew up on American music and fashion. The war’s ill will faded long ago, and his friends are excited about Obama’s arrival but not necessarily for political reasons. “He is perceived as like a celebrity,” Keola said. “It’s just on the surface: ‘Ooh, Obama’s coming. Ooh, big plane.’ Or things like that. Or his Cadillac car is here. Those are the things that people share and talk about.” While the U.S. is known as a rich country with an outsized cultural influence, China, by contrast, is seen as the huge neighbor helping to spur this small nation’s robust growth. Massive Vientiane construction sites come adorned with Mandarin script. China has committed to financing a $7 billion high-speed railroad to bisect the country. Though Vorachit is seen as edging closer to Vietnam than to China, the country has managed a diplomatic two-step this year. As chair of the Southeast Asian nations’ group, it has projected neutrality in other countries’ disputes with China over the South China Sea. Associated Press writer Daniel Malloy in Luang Prabang, Laos, contributed to this report.[SEP]During an address to the Lao people in the country's capital, Obama pledged $90 million in a joint three-year project with the country's government to clear tens of millions of unexploded US bombs. "Villages and entire valleys were obliterated," during US bombardments, Obama said. "Ancient plains were devastated. Countless civilians were killed. That conflict was another reminder whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts a terrible toll, especially on innocent men, women and children." Obama is beginning a three-day stop in Laos. He's the first US president to visit to country. "The remnants of war continue to shatter lives here in Laos," Obama said. "Many of the bombs dropped never exploded. Over the years thousands of Laotians have been killed or injured, farmers tending fields, children playing. The wounds, a missing leg or arm, last a lifetime. That's why I've dramatically increased or funding to remove these unexploded bombs." The move was welcomed by Laos President Bounnhang Vorachit as a way of strengthening mutual trust after the devastating campaign, that still maims or kills 50 people who stumble upon unexploded mines each year. In return, the Lao government pledged to ramp up assistance in locating and returning of Americans missing in war. Efforts to find the bombs will be aided the Pentagon, who will supply records of where they were dropped. Between 1964 and 1973, US warplanes rained more than two million tons of bombs on Laotian villages and countryside to try and cut off the Vietnamese army's supply trail. To this day, less than 1% of the bombs have been cleared, according to US-based non-government organization Legacies of War. US funding for clearance of unexploded ordnance and victims' assistance has steadily grown since 2010, when Congress mandated that the US government give at least $5 million for unexploded ordnance removal. This year, Congress allotted $19.5 million, but now, for the first time, an American president has publicly recognized that the US has a responsibility to do more. "That conflict was another reminder that whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts terrible toll, especially on innocent men, women and children," Obama said. "Today I stand with you in acknowledging the sacrifices on all sides of that conflict. From the anguish of war, there came an unlikely bond between our two peoples." The HALO Trust is the world's largest humanitarian mine clearance organization. It works in Laos to clear unexploded ordnance. Here, two HALO technicians use a Large Loop Detector to clear a hazardous area. HALO prioritizes land which will be used for community development projects and agricultural land. A HALO team walks through a paddy field to get to work. Dense vegetation and a very wet rainy season can make the job difficult. A HALO Technician uses a detector during the clearance of a Confirmed Hazardous Area (CHA). Ms Toyota, one of HALO's team leaders, prepares what she needs to conduct the demolition of a cluster munitions. A HALO supervisor shows where the organization has found items of unexploded ordnance -- the yellow sticks indicate how close they are to one village house.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Laos -- President Barack Obama on Monday became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, opening a three-day visit meant to rebuild trust and close a dark chapter in two nations' shared history. Obama is one of several world leaders going to Laos, where the one-party communist state tightly controls public expression among the country's nearly 7 million people and is using its moment in the spotlight as host of the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to open up to outsiders. Obama canceled a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines scheduled for today in Laos, after the Philippine president directed an expletive at Obama on Monday. Duterte warned Obama not to ask him about extrajudicial killings related to his crackdown on drug dealers, a campaign pledge that helped sweep him to victory in the country's presidential election in May. "I am a president of a sovereign state, and we have long ceased to be a colony," Duterte told reporters before he left his country for Laos. "I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody," he said. Apparently addressing Obama, he added: "You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions." Then, using a curse in Tagalog that can be translated as "son of a b****," he added, "I will swear at you in that forum." Obama had planned to meet Duterte in Laos, but the White House said early today that the meeting had been canceled. "Clearly, he's a colorful guy," Obama said Monday. "I always want to make sure if I'm having a meeting that it's productive." Duterte has been under intense global scrutiny over the more than 2,000 suspected drug dealers and users killed since he took office. Obama had said he planned to raise the matter in his first meeting with Duterte, but the Philippine leader insisted he was only listening to his own country's people. The visit to Laos comes during what is probably Obama's final trip as president to Southeast Asia, a region that has enjoyed intense attention from the U.S. during his tenure. Obama's frequent visits to often-ignored corners of the Asian Pacific region have been central to his strategy for countering China's growing dominance in the region. By bolstering diplomatic ties in Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma, the Obama administration has declared it wants to compete for influence and market access in China's backyard. In Laos, Obama will wrestle with the ghosts of past U.S. policies. In the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. rained bombs on Laotian villages and the countryside as America's war with Vietnam spilled across the border. The Laotian government estimates that more than 2 million tons of ordnance were released during more than 500,000 missions -- one bomb every eight minutes for nine years. An estimated 80 million cluster bombs did not explode, leaving tennis ball-size "bombies" littering the impoverished countryside to wound and kill unsuspecting people. Obama planned to acknowledge this history and its damaging effect on Laos' development, tourism and agriculture. He is expected to announce additional aid to clean up undetonated ordnance, while the Laotian government is expected to offer help in accounting for missing and dead U.S. service members. Obama said Monday in China, before he departed for Laos, that diplomatic work on war legacy issues will be "a show of good faith on the part of the country and a way for us to move into a next phase of a relationship." He cited Vietnam as the model. Aides said Obama's visit will probably echo a stop in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May, when the president declared he was "mindful of the past, mindful of our difficult history, but focused on the future." In Laos, as he has across Southeast Asia, he'll hold a town-hall-style event for young people. The White House said he'll encourage Laos' slow political opening and budding entrepreneurial culture.Though Laos' new president, Bounnhang Vorachit, is seen as edging closer to Vietnam than to China, the country has managed a diplomatic two-step this year. As chair of the Southeast Asian nations' group, it has projected neutrality in other countries' disputes with China over the South China Sea. Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Hennessey, Josh Lederman, Daniel Malloy and Teresa Cerojano of The Associated Press; and by Christine Hauser of The New York Times.[SEP]Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet U.S. President Barack Obama for an unscheduled bilateral meeting on Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN summits they are attending in Laos. The White House said the meeting would take place on Thursday afternoon after they both attend the East Asian summit, and would be followed by a press conference by Mr. Obama. The two leaders had already met in Washington in June this year, in what was meant to have been a “farewell call” ahead of the U.S. elections. However several substantive bilateral issues remain to be discussed, said officials, including India’s NSG membership bid, and the U.S. administration’s hope that India will ratify the Climate Change agreement from Paris by the end of 2016.[SEP]Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachit and President Barack Obama inspect an honor guard at the Presidential Palace in Vientiane, Laos on Tuesday. Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP[SEP]Laos temple town excited it's on world map with Obama visit LUANG PRABANG, Laos (AP) — Growing up in Wisconsin, Son Inthachith's classmates in school had no idea where his native Laos was. Thanks to President Barack Obama, not only is the little landlocked country on the world map but so is Inthachith's sleepy hometown of Luang Prabang. The town of about 50,000 people, known to a relatively small number of international tourists for its stunning temples and quaint streets, welcomed Obama on Wednesday as he made a side trip from the capital, Vientiane, where he is attending a regional summit on Thursday. "President Obama is giving Laos the highlight it needs," Inthachith, 42, said, choking up with emotion. "I think it's going to bring more investment, more people interested." Inthachith left Laos as a boy and ended up in Madison, Wisconsin, part of a post-Vietnam War refugee exodus from the communist nation. But he returned to Luang Prabang in 2006 to start a company that connects visiting students with volunteer rural development projects. During the war the U.S. secretly bombed Laos in an attempt to destroy communist trails from neighboring Vietnam. More bombs were dropped on the country than on Germany and Japan combined in World War II. Obama visited Wat Xieng Thong, or Temple of the Golden City, a tourist destination because of its architecture, history and artwork. Construction of the temple began in the 16th century, when Luang Prabang was the seat of Lao royalty. It remained under royal patronage until 1975, when the monarchy was abolished. Inside the temple grounds is a large golden barge, adorned with golden dragons at the bow. Obama looked in awe at the structure, staring straight at the dragon's mouth. Then he walked to the back wall of the temple to look at a line of large golden statues. "It's gorgeous," he said. Obama also held a town-hall meeting with 350 young leaders from the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which is hosting him at Thursday's summit. The hour-long question and answer session that followed was remarkable for Laos, where top officials in the one-party state are inaccessible and not answerable to the common people. Even the open expression of opinions and free questioning of leaders is unheard of. Chan Ti Da, 22, was excited at being in the same room as Obama, even though she didn't get called on to ask a question. The Vientiane resident said Obama's emphasis on youth was striking. "I am so very proud that he is the president of the USA but he also cares about youth to be the priority to develop the country," she said. Ret Thaung, 28, of Cambodia was inspired by hearing Obama address how to balance environmental and economic concerns — an ongoing fight for her and a conservation group she belongs to, Fauna & Flora International. Biodiversity conservation can be a tough slog, but Thaung said "the U.S. could influence my government to be way more eco-friendly." Thaung's work involves protecting endangered Asian elephants. When she was told that Obama joked about riding an elephant — a practice some consider abusive — during his Vientiane speech Tuesday, she replied, "We're trying to (create) awareness (among) people not to ride elephants."

Barack Obama pledges US$90 million to clear Laos of unexploded ordnance dropped by the United States during the Vietnam War.

Nearly 27 Years After Abduction, Jacob Wetterling's Remains Have Been Found Enlarge this image toggle caption Craig Lassig/AP Craig Lassig/AP Nearly 27 years ago, Jacob Wetterling was abducted at gunpoint while out for a bike ride with his brother and a friend in St. Joseph, Minn. The masked assailant let the others go unharmed, provided they flee; the 11-year-old Wetterling, however, the assailant held onto. To this day, Wetterling's 1989 abduction remains unsolved despite decades of national attention. But on Saturday, Minnesota officials offered some measure of closure nevertheless, announcing that the boy's remains had been identified. In a statement released to the media, the Stearns County Sheriff's Office confirmed the news, noting that it plans additional DNA testing. The office added that authorities are "currently in the process of reviewing and evaluating new evidence in the Jacob Wetterling investigation." As Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter Jenna Ross tells NPR's Audie Cornish, the abduction captured headlines in Central Minnesota — and continues to reverberate well beyond the state's borders. "It's a story that is seared into the memory of most Minnesotans and beyond," Ross says. "People were shocked that such a thing could happen in such a small, seemingly safe town." U.S. Missing Boy's Remains Found Nearly 27 Years After Abduction Missing Boy's Remains Found Nearly 27 Years After Abduction Listen · 2:24 2:24 That national attention helped boost his mother Patty's fight for legislation that bore Jacob Wetterling's name, which required states to track sex offenders and helped lead to a national sex offender registry. The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act was passed in 1994. Shortly after the abduction, law enforcement launched a highly publicized investigation, which drew more than 50,000 leads and an initial reward of more than $100,000, according to Minnesota Public Radio — all to no avail. But that long-running investigation found a break recently, when a "person of interest in Jacob's abduction took authorities to a field in central Minnesota," according to The Associated Press. The news service, citing an anonymous law enforcement official, reports that the remains were discovered buried in the field. It was Daniel Heinrich, 53, who told the FBI where Wetterling's remains were located, "as part of an ongoing plea agreement," CBS News reports. "Authorities expect to be in a position to provide more detailed information early next week," the Stearns County Sheriff's Office says. For now, Jacob Wetterling's mother, Patty, tweeted that the Wetterling family is "drawing strength from all your love & support." "We are in deep grief. We didn't want Jacob's story to end this way," the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center announced in a statement. "The Wetterlings had a choice to walk into bitterness and anger or to walk into a light of what could be, a light of hope. Their choice changed the world."[SEP]A timeline of events related to the abduction of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling of St. Joseph, Minnesota: Oct. 22, 1989: Jacob Wetterling is abducted from a rural road by a masked gunman as he rides bikes with his brother and a friend near his home about 80 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Oct. 26, 1989: Deputies on horseback and hundreds of people search for Jacob, but find nothing. Oct. 29, 1989: About 225 National Guard troops and 80 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources workers unsuccessfully search for clues. Supporters of the boy's family release more than 1,000 white balloons after a church service. December 1989: Investigators are deluged with tips after they release a new sketch of a suspect. Authorities also say they believe the man who kidnapped Jacob was responsible for the January 1989 abduction and sexual assault of a boy in nearby Cold Spring. 1990: Jacob's parents, Patty and Jerry Wetterling, set up the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, which works to help communities and families prevent child exploitation. Patty Wetterling becomes a national advocate for missing children. October 1990: An FBI spokesman says about 2,000 people have been interviewed. More than 700 people attend an anniversary vigil less than two miles from where Jacob was taken. 1994: Congress passes the Jacob Wetterling Act, legislation for a sex offender registry. 2004: Patty Wetterling runs as a Democrat against Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy in Minnesota's 6th District. She loses by 30,000 votes in her first political campaign but does not rule out a future run. 2006: Patty Wetterling again runs for Congress but loses to Republican Michele Bachmann. 2010: Investigators spend two days searching and digging at a farm near where Jacob Wetterling was last seen. The sheriff later says forensic tests on items taken from the farm show no link to the crime. Oct. 29, 2015: Federal authorities say a Minnesota man is a "person of interest." Danny Heinrich, of Annandale, is arrested on unrelated child pornography charges. Heinrich denies involvement in Jacob's disappearance and is not charged in the case. Sept. 3, 2016: Authorities confirm that Jacob's remains have been found and positively identified. Additional DNA testing will be conducted. Sept. 6, 2016: Heinrich confesses in detail to abducting and killing Wetterling in court while pleading guilty to federal child pornography charges.[SEP]MINNEAPOLIS -- Danny Heinrich, the man who led authorities to the remains of Jacob Wetterling, admitted in U.S. District Court Tuesday, Sept. 6, that he abducted and killed the 11-year-old boy some 27 years ago. Heinrich described during a court hearing what happened the night of Oct. 22, 1989, the last night Jacob was seen alive. Asked whether he abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered Jacob, Heinrich said: “Yes, I did.” The 53-year-old Annandale, Minn., man made the admission after pleading guilty to one federal count of receiving child pornography that could send him to prison for 20 years. He will not be charged in Jacob’s death due to a plea deal made with prosecutors and agreed to by the Wetterling family. He recalled handcuffing the young boy and putting him in the backseat of his car after he stopped the 11-year-old at gunpoint as he rode his bike home along a rural road in St. Joseph, Minn., with his brother and best friend. “What did I do wrong,” he said Jacob asked him, before crying and begging Heinrich to take him home. He later told the court how he impulsively shot and killed the 11-year-old with a revolver in a panic after he said he saw a police car drive by without any lights on. He used a Bobcat to dig a grave and bury him. He took the machine from a nearby construction company. When he returned to the grave site a year later, Heinrich said he could see Jacob’s red jacket. He took the coat and Jacob’s remains and reburied them across the highway, Heinrich said. Jacob’s mother, Patty Wetterling, sobbed as Heinrich recounted the details of the night that has for so long remained a mystery. Heinrich had been charged with 25 counts of possessing and receiving child pornography; he pleaded not guilty to those charges in February and was set to go to trial in October. Heinrich last year was named as a “person of interest” in the Jacob’s abduction. The 11-year-old St. Joseph boy was taken from his bicycle on a rural road near his house while he, his brother, and his best friend were riding home after renting a movie. He was never seen again. Heinrich has not been charged in that case. But last summer authorities searched his house for ties to the boy’s disappearance. Heinrich had been under increasing scrutiny as authorities have revisited Jacob’s abduction and investigated a string of sexual assaults on preteen and teen boys near Paynesville in the mid- to late 1980s. Jacob was taken less than a mile from his home in St. Joseph, which is about 20 miles from Paynesville. Heinrich lived in Paynesville with his father at the time of the abduction. Retested DNA evidence last year linked Heinrich to the 1989 kidnapping and sexual assault of Jared Scheierl in Cold Spring, nine months before Jacob’s abduction. The Pioneer Press typically doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case. Authorities have long suspected a link between Jared and Jacob’s cases, leading them to circle back to Heinrich. Heinrich also admitted in court Tuesday to abducting and sexually assaulting Scheierl. Last week Heinrich led a team of FBI agents and state and county investigators to a pasture near Paynesville where Wetterling’s skeletal remains were buried, according to a source with direct knowledge of the search. Investigators revisited the site again Friday for crime-scene purposes.[SEP]MINNEAPOLIS — Danny Heinrich, the man who led authorities to the remains of Jacob Wetterling, admitted in U.S. District Court today that he abducted and killed the 11-year-old boy some 27 years ago, according to The Associated Press. The 53-year-old Annandale man also reportedly pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography. Heinrich had been charged with 25 counts of possessing and receiving child pornography; he pleaded not guilty to those charges in February and was set to go to trial in October. Heinrich last year was named as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, the 11-year-old St. Joseph, Minn., boy who was abducted from a rural road near his house on Oct. 22, 1989, and never seen again. Heinrich has not been charged in that case, but authorities last summer searched his house for ties to the boy’s disappearance. Heinrich had been under increasing scrutiny as authorities have revisited Jacob’s abduction and investigated a string of sexual assaults on preteen and teen boys near Paynesville, Minn., in the mid- to late 1980s; Jacob was taken less than a mile from his home in St. Joseph, which is about 20 miles from Paynesville. Heinrich lived in Paynesville with his father at the time of the abduction. On Wednesday, Heinrich led a team of FBI agents and state and county investigators to a pasture near Paynesville where Wetterling’s skeletal remains were buried, according to a source with direct knowledge of the search. Investigators revisited the site again Friday for crime-scene purposes.[SEP]Heinrich was instructed to describe during the court hearing what happened the night of Oct. 22, 1989, the last night Wetterling was seen alive. Asked whether he abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered Jacob, Heinrich said: “Yes, I did.” The 53-year-old Annandale man made the admission after pleading guilty to federal child pornography charges that could send him to prison for decades. Heinrich had been charged with 25 counts of possessing and receiving child pornography; he pleaded not guilty to those charges in February and was set to go to trial in October. Heinrich last year was named as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, the 11-year-old St. Joseph, Minn., boy who was abducted from a rural road near his house on Oct. 22, 1989, and never seen again. Heinrich has not been charged in that case, but authorities last summer searched his house for ties to the boy’s disappearance. Heinrich had been under increasing scrutiny as authorities have revisited Jacob’s abduction and investigated a string of sexual assaults on preteen and teen boys near Paynesville, Minn., in the mid- to late 1980s; Jacob was taken less than a mile from his home in St. Joseph, which is about 20 miles from Paynesville. Heinrich lived in Paynesville with his father at the time of the abduction. On Wednesday, Heinrich led a team of FBI agents and state and county investigators to a pasture near Paynesville where Wetterling’s skeletal remains were buried, according to a source with direct knowledge of the search. Investigators revisited the site again Friday for crime-scene purposes. The Stearns County sheriff’s office said Jacob’s remains were identified Saturday. Authorities expect to provide more details this week. The Pioneer Press is a media partner with Forum Communications Company, which includes the Echo Press.[SEP]PAYNESVILLE - The 27-year-old mystery surrounding the abduction and disappearance of Jacob Wetterling ended this weekend in the way that nobody hoped but everybody feared - his remains were found near Paynesville. The 11-year-old Wetterling was abducted on a dirt road in 1989 near the home of his parents, Patty and Jerry Wetterling, in rural St. Joseph, about 25 miles from Paynesville. The remains were identified as Wetterling's by the Ramsey County Medical examiner and a forensic odontologist, Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner said in a news release Saturday evening. Additional DNA testing will be performed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. On Oct. 22, 1989, a masked gunman stepped out of the woods on a rural road in St. Joseph, just west of St. Cloud, and stopped three boys. The gunman told two boys to run into the woods and then took Jacob. The boy hasn't been seen since. Jacob's abduction shocked and changed Minnesota and its children for a generation. His parent's never stopped their search for their son and inspired a new national advocacy for missing and abused children. In recent years, New London blogger Joy Baker began researching and writing about the Wetterling case and a series of sexual assaults in the Paynesville area in the mid- to late-1980s and a Cold Spring case from 1989. Authorities last year took another look at the case and were led to Danny Heinrich, a man who had been questioned at the time of Jacob's kidnapping. When Heinrich, 53, of Annandale, was arrested in October on charges of child pornography, law enforcement officials called him a "person of interest" in Jacob's kidnapping. There were reports Saturday morning, first from KSTP-TV, that Heinrich began cooperating in the investigation and led authorities to the remains. The St. Cloud Times reported Monday in an online report that Heinrich could be back in federal court as early as Tuesday, the deadline for a federal judge to rule on several motions in the child pornography case. The Times report said Heinrich led authorities to Wetterling's remains during negotiations to resolve the child pornography case. Heinrich denied any involvement in Jacob's abduction at the time of his arrest in October and so far has not been charged with that crime. He has pleaded not guilty to 25 federal child-pornography charges. Heinrich had been under increasing scrutiny as authorities revisited Jacob's abduction and investigated a string of sexual assaults on pre-teen and teen boys near Paynesville in the mid- to late 1980s. Heinrich lived in Paynesville at the time of the Wetterling abduction. Court documents filed earlier this summer in the Heinrich case detailed the similarities between Jacob's kidnapping on Oct. 22, 1989; the Jan. 13, 1989, abduction and sexual assault of a 13-year-old Cold Spring boy; and "a string of sexually motivated assaults of young boys in the Paynesville, Minn., area in the mid- to late 1980s." "It has long been believed that the Cold Spring and Wetterling abductions were likely to have been committed by the same person," according to the memorandum, which was filed in U.S. District Court. "The abductions were committed in the same geographic area, involved similarly aged boys, were committed by a lone male suspect and occurred within months of each other." New testing of DNA evidence last year linked Heinrich to the 1989 kidnapping and sexual assault of Jared Scheierl in Cold Spring, nine months before Wetterling's abduction. Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case. Heinrich cannot be charged in connection with the Scheierl case because the statute of limitations in place at the time has expired. The St. Paul Pioneer Press contributed to this report.[SEP]MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man confessed Tuesday to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago, recounting a crime that long haunted the state with details that included Jacob asking right after he was taken: "What did I do wrong?" Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale, made the admission as he pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge that could keep him locked up for at least 20 years, with civil commitment possible after that. Asked whether he abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered Jacob, Heinrich said: "Yes, I did." In the years after Jacob's disappearance, his mother Patty became a nationally known advocate for missing children. A 1994 federal law named for Jacob requires states to establish sex offender registries. With Patty and Jacob's father, Jerry Wetterling, in a packed courtroom, Heinrich described donning a mask and confronting Jacob and two friends with a revolver near Jacob's central Minnesota home of St. Joseph on Oct. 22, 1989. Heinrich said he told the two friends to run, handcuffed Jacob and drove him to a gravel pit near Paynesville, where he assaulted him. Afterward, Jacob asked whether he was taking him home. "I said I can't take you all the way home," Heinrich said. "He started to cry. I said, 'Don't cry.'" Heinrich said at some point a patrol car with siren and lights passing nearby caused him to panic. He said he pulled out his revolver, which had not been loaded, and put two rounds in the gun. He said he told Jacob to turn around. He held the gun to the boy's head and pulled the trigger. The gun didn't fire. Heinrich said he pulled the trigger a second time, the gun fired and Jacob fell to the ground. He said he buried Jacob about 100 yards away. He said he returned to the site about a year later and saw that Jacob's jacket and some bones had become exposed. "I gathered up as much as I could and put it in the bag and transported it across the highway" to a field, and reburied the remains, he said. Sobbing could be heard in the courtroom as Heinrich described the crime. Heinrich led authorities to Jacob's buried remains in a central Minnesota field last week. His remains were identified Saturday. "It's incredibly painful to know his last days, last hours, last minutes," Patty Wetterling said. "To us Jacob was alive, until they found him." Prosecutors said the Wetterling family was consulted on and approved the plea agreement, which required Heinrich to give a detailed confession and tell them where to find Jacob. Authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest in Jacob's disappearance last October when they announced the child pornography charges. Heinrich had long been under investigators' scrutiny. They first questioned him shortly after Jacob's abduction, but he maintained his innocence and they never had enough evidence to charge him. They turned a renewed spotlight on him as part of a fresh look into Jacob's abduction around its 25th anniversary. As part of that effort, investigators took another look at the sexual assault of 12-year-old Jared Scheierl, of Cold Spring, nine months before Jacob's disappearance. Investigators had long suspected the two cases were connected. Using technology that wasn't available in 1989, investigators found Heinrich's DNA on Scheierl's sweatshirt, and used that evidence to get a search warrant for Heinrich's home, where they found a large collection of child pornography. The statute of limitations had expired for charging him in the assault on Scheierl, but a grand jury indicted him on 25 child pornography counts. The AP typically doesn't identify victims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case, saying it helped him cope with the trauma and that he hoped it could help investigators find his attacker and Jacob's kidnapper. Jacob's abduction shattered childhood innocence for many rural Minnesotans, changing the way parents let their kids roam. His smiling face was burned into Minnesota's psyche, appearing on countless posters and billboards over the years. His mother, Patty Wetterling, always kept hope her son would be found alive. She became a national advocate for missing children, and with her husband, Jerry Wetterling, founded the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center, which works to help communities and families prevent child exploitation. In 1994, Congress passed a law named after Jacob that requires states to establish sex offender registries. Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti . More of her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/amy-forliti[SEP]MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man confessed Tuesday to abducting and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago, recounting a crime that long haunted the state in chilling detail that included a handcuffed Jacob asking him: “What did I do wrong?” Danny Heinrich, 53, of Annandale, made the admission as he pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge that will likely keep him locked up for 20 years, with civil commitment possible after that, meaning he could spend the rest of his life in custody. Asked whether he abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered Jacob, Heinrich said: “Yes, I did.” As part of the plea agreement, Heinrich will not face state murder charges in Jacob’s death. U.S. Attorney Andy Luger said it was the only way to get Heinrich, whom he described as a volatile man, to show authorities where they could find the boy’s remains. “He’s not getting away with anything. We got the truth. The Wetterling family will bring him home,” Luger said. Prosecutors said the family was consulted on and approved the plea agreement, which required Heinrich to give a detailed confession and tell investigators where to find Jacob. In the years after Jacob’s disappearance, his mother, Patty, became a nationally known advocate for missing children. A 1994 federal law named for Jacob requires states to establish sex offender registries. With Patty and Jacob’s father, Jerry Wetterling, in a packed courtroom, Heinrich described seeing Jacob, Jacob’s brother, and a friend bicycling down a rural road near Jacob’s central Minnesota home in St. Joseph the night of Oct. 22, 1989. Heinrich laid in wait for the three boys to return, and when they did, he put on a mask and confronted them with a revolver. He said he ordered them into a ditch and asked their names and ages. Heinrich said he told the two other boys to run and not look back or he’d shoot. He said he then handcuffed Jacob and drove him to a gravel pit near Paynesville, where he molested him. Afterward, Jacob said he was cold, and Heinrich let him get dressed. Jacob then asked whether he was taking him home. “I said, ‘I can’t take you all the way home,'” Heinrich said. “He started to cry. I said, ‘Don’t cry.'” Heinrich said at some point a patrol car with siren and lights passing nearby caused him to panic. He said he pulled out his revolver, which had not been loaded, and put two rounds in the gun. He said he told Jacob to turn around. He held the gun to the boy’s head and pulled the trigger. The gun didn’t fire. Heinrich then fired two shots. After the second, Jacob fell to the ground. Some of Jacob’s family members cried openly as Heinrich calmly described the crime. Heinrich said he went home for a couple of hours, then went back to the gravel pit and buried Jacob about 100 yards away. He said he returned to the site about a year later and saw that Jacob’s jacket and some bones had become exposed. “I gathered up as much as I could and put it in the bag and transported it across the highway” to a field, and reburied the remains, he said. Heinrich led authorities to Jacob’s buried remains in a central Minnesota field last week. The remains were identified Saturday. “It’s incredibly painful to know his last days, last hours, last minutes,” Patty Wetterling said after the guilty plea. “To us, Jacob was alive, until we found him.” Heinrich’s attorneys declined to comment after the hearing. Authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest in Jacob’s disappearance last October when they announced the child pornography charges. Heinrich had long been under investigators’ scrutiny. They first questioned him shortly after Jacob’s abduction, but he maintained his innocence and they never had enough evidence to charge him. They turned a renewed spotlight on him as part of a fresh look into Jacob’s abduction around its 25th anniversary. As part of that effort, investigators took another look at the sexual assault of 12-year-old Jared Scheierl, of Cold Spring, nine months before Jacob’s disappearance. Investigators had long suspected the two cases were connected. Using technology that wasn’t available in 1989, investigators found Heinrich’s DNA on Scheierl’s sweatshirt, and used that evidence to get a search warrant for Heinrich’s home, where they found a large collection of child pornography. The statute of limitations had expired for charging him in the assault on Scheierl, but a grand jury indicted him on 25 child pornography counts. As part of Tuesday’s plea deal, Heinrich also admitted to assaulting Scheierl. The AP typically doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault, but Scheierl has spoken publicly for years about his case, saying it helped him cope with the trauma and that he hoped it could help investigators find his attacker and Jacob’s kidnapper. Jacob’s abduction shattered childhood innocence for many rural Minnesotans, changing the way parents let their kids roam. His smiling face was burned into Minnesota’s psyche, appearing on countless posters and billboards over the years. Heinrich is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 21. Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti . More of her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/amy-forliti[SEP]MINNEAPOLIS — Danny Heinrich, the man who led authorities to the remains of Jacob Wetterling, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6. A status conference in the child-pornography case against Heinich, 53, of Annandale, is set before Chief Judge John Tunheim. Heinrich has been charged with 25 counts of possessing and receiving child pornography; he pleaded not guilty to those charges in February and is to go to trial in October. Heinrich last year was named as a "person of interest" in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, the 11-year-old St. Joseph boy who was abducted from a rural road near his house on Oct. 22, 1989, and never seen again. Heinrich has not been charged in that case, but authorities last summer searched his house for ties to the boy's disappearance. Heinrich had been under increasing scrutiny as authorities have revisited Jacob's abduction and investigated a string of sexual assaults on preteen and teen boys near Paynesville in the mid- to late 1980s; Jacob was taken less than a mile from his home in St. Joseph, which is about 20 miles from Paynesville. Heinrich lived in Paynesville with his father at the time of the abduction. Last Wednesday, Heinrich led a team of FBI agents and state and county investigators to a pasture near Paynesville where Wetterling's skeletal remains were buried, according to a source with direct knowledge of the search. Investigators revisited the site again Friday for crime-scene purposes. The Stearns County Sheriff's Office said Jacob's remains were identified Saturday. Authorities expect to provide more details this week. • Remains confirmed to be that of Jacob Wetterling[SEP]MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Latest on the abduction and killing of Jacob Wetterling (all times local): The man who killed 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling more than a quarter-century ago is detailing how he carried out the crime. Danny Heinrich admitted in federal court Tuesday that he killed the boy whose 1989 disappearance has transfixed Minnesota in the years since. The 53-year-old Andover man described donning a mask and confronting three children with a revolver near Jacob’s central Minnesota home. He says he took Jacob, handcuffed him and assaulted him in a grove of trees. Afterward, he shot Jacob and later buried him in a gravel pit, and reburied him a year later. Heinrich says when he took Jacob, the boy asked, “What did I do wrong?” A Minnesota man has confessed to kidnapping and killing 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling nearly 27 years ago. Danny Heinrich made the admission Tuesday as he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in federal court in Minneapolis. Heinrich led authorities to Jacob’s remains last week, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing case. He admitted abducting Jacob near the boy’s home in the central Minnesota community of St. Joseph on Oct. 22, 1989. Authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest last October when they announced the child pornography charges. A Minnesota man who led authorities to the remains of an 11-year-old boy who was abducted in 1989 is expected to appear in federal court in a child pornography case. Danny Heinrich’s status conference is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. Last year, authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling, who was snatched from a rural Minnesota road on Oct. 22, 1989. Heinrich was never charged in that case. But he led authorities to Jacob’s remains last week, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing case. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said Jacob’s remains were identified Saturday. Authorities expect to provide more details this week. Associated Press writer Amy Forliti contributed to this report.

About 27 years after his abduction, the remains of Jacob Wetterling are discovered.

NEW YORK – (BUSINESS WIRE) – 21st Century Fox today issued the following statement announcing it has settled Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit. “21st Century Fox is pleased to announce that it has settled Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit. During her tenure at Fox News, Gretchen exhibited the highest standards of journalism and professionalism. She developed a loyal audience and was a daily source of information for many Americans. We are proud that she was part of the Fox News team. We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.” “I am gratified that 21st Century Fox took decisive action after I filed my Complaint. I’m ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace. I want to thank all the brave women who came forward to tell their own stories and the many people across the country who embraced and supported me in their #StandWithGretchen. All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace in which talent, hard work and loyalty are recognized, revered and rewarded.” 21st Century Fox is the world's premier portfolio of cable, broadcast, film, pay TV and satellite assets spanning six continents across the globe. Reaching more than 1.8 billion subscribers in approximately 50 local languages every day, 21st Century Fox is home to a global portfolio of cable and broadcasting networks and properties, including FOX, FX, FXX, FXM, FS1, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FOX Sports, Fox Sports Network, National Geographic Channels, STAR India, 28 local television stations in the U.S. and more than 300 international channels; film studio Twentieth Century Fox Film; and television production studios Twentieth Century Fox Television and a 50% ownership interest in Endemol Shine Group. The Company also holds a 39.1% ownership interest in Sky, Europe’s leading entertainment company, which serves 22 million customers across five countries. For more information about 21st Century Fox, please visit www.21CF.com.[SEP]21st Century Fox has reached a $20 million settlement deal with Gretchen Carlson, the anchorwoman who sued Roger Ailes alleging harassment and retaliation in July. The eight-figure deal is likely to have consequences across corporate America. Fox also apologized to Carlson in a highly unusual public statement on Tuesday morning. "We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect that she and all our colleagues deserve," 21st Century Fox said. Vanity Fair magazine was the first to report the settlement on Tuesday. A source close to Fox confirmed the $20 million total to CNNMoney. Ailes will pay an unknown portion of the settlement. Ailes, the powerful Fox News CEO and chairman, resigned in the wake of the harassment allegations, which he has continuously denied. Now out of his Fox job, Ailes is informally advising GOP nominee Donald Trump ahead of the presidential debates this fall. Lawyers for Ailes had no immediate comment on the Carlson settlement. According to Vanity Fair, Fox has also reached settlements with two other women who alleged harassment by the executive. After Carlson sued, 21st Century Fox -- which is run by Rupert Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan -- brought in an outside law firm to investigate the allegations. More than 20 women reportedly spoke with the lawyers about inappropriate behavior by Ailes. Ex-host Andrea Tantaros filed suit against Ailes and Fox last month. It is unclear whether Fox is vulnerable to any other lawsuits at the present time. Settling with Carlson, at least, is part of the Murdochs' effort to move past the scandal. Related: Gabriel Sherman: Murdochs looked the other way at Roger Ailes' behavior The settlement means that Carlson will not testify against Ailes or share any evidence of harassment. Several news outlets have reported that Carlson recorded some of her meetings with Ailes. "I am gratified that 21st Century Fox took decisive action after I filed my complaint," Carlson said Tuesday. "I'm ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace." She also expressed thanks to the people who supported her when she filed the suit. "I want to thank all the brave women who came forward to tell their own stories and the many people across the country who embraced and supported me in their #StandWithGretchen," she said. "All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace in which talent, hard work and loyalty are recognized, revered and rewarded." Separately, Fox News announced the departure of 7 p.m. host Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday morning. Van Susteren reportedly tried to renegotiate her contract after Ailes resigned, and opted to leave when the negotiations failed.[SEP]LOS ANGELES—Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson has reached a detente of sorts with the network's parent over charges she was sexually harassed by Roger Ailes, the cable-news network's former leader and guiding light. The media conglomerate, controlled by the Murdoch family, said it had reached a settlement with Carlson, who anchored such programs as "Fox & Friends" and "The Real Story" during her time at the outlet. A report in Vanity Fair suggested the amount could total as much as $20 million, and a person familiar with the matter said the report was accurate. A spokesman for Carlson's attorneys, declined to comment. "21st Century Fox is pleased to announce that it has settled Gretchen Carlson's lawsuit. During her tenure at Fox News, Gretchen exhibited the highest standards of journalism and professionalism. She developed a loyal audience and was a daily source of information for many Americans. We are proud that she was part of the Fox News team," the company said in a statement. "We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve." The settlement would appear to close at least one of the many storylines related to the behavior of Ailes, who was the subject of a lawsuit Carlson filed in July alleging the executive had subjected her to sexual come-one and other inappropriate behavior. Her suit sparked an internal investigation at the news outlet, which is the most-watched cable-news network and which has a significant influence on the news cycle. Other women are said to have come forward at Fox News alleging sexual harassment by Ailes, and there is speculation the parent company will bring in a new executive to lead the network. Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, has stepped in to lead Fox News on an interim basis and Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy, two veteran Fox TV executives were recently named co-presidents and will lead Fox News and Fox Business. "I am gratified that 21st Century Fox took decisive action after I filed my complaint," Carlson said in a statement. "I'm ready to move on to the next chapter of my life." In taking legal action and speaking out about her treatment at the network, Carlson has put into place a massive shift at what is arguably the financial engine of 21st Century Fox. Fox News contributes approximately 20% of the company's annual cash flow. Ailes had a strong hand in transforming the network from a start-up in 1996 that had to push for carriage on Time Warner Cable into an influential organization that can be as controversial and polarizing as it is populist and broadly appealing. In her lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of New Jersey, Carlson alleged she was removed from "Fox & Friends" in 2013 after she complained about behavior by co-host Steve Doocy, and then moved to an afternoon program as a way to diminish her presence at the network. Carlson alleged she was terminated on June 23 after her current contract elapsed.[SEP]Fox News will pay $20million to settle Gretchen Carlson's lawsuit against disgraced former network president Roger Ailes, the network's parent company announced on Tuesday. The network is eager to get the lawsuit behind them as the presidential race enters enters its final stretch, and it seeks to resign major anchors' contracts, including Megyn Kelly. In addition to writing a multi-million-dollar check to former Fox & Friends co-host Carlson, the network also issued public apology. 'We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect that she and all our colleagues deserve,' the statement from 21st Century Fox, Fox News' parent company, reads. Carlson issued a public statement through 21st Century Fox, saying she was 'gratified' with the 'decisive action' on Ailes. 'I’m ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace,' she said. In exchange, Carlson has agreed to drop the lawsuit against Ailes and will not bring up any new suits against the company or any of its employees. Reuters confirmed Tuesday that Carlson had voluntarily dropped the lawsuit against her former boss in a new court filing. 21st Century Fox is pleased to announce that it has settled Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit. During her tenure at Fox News, Gretchen exhibited the highest standards of journalism and professionalism. She developed a loyal audience and was a daily source of information for many Americans. We are proud that she was part of the Fox News team. We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.” “I am gratified that 21st Century Fox took decisive action after I filed my Complaint. I’m ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace. I want to thank all the brave women who came forward to tell their own stories and the many people across the country who embraced and supported me in their #StandWithGretchen. All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace in which talent, hard work and loyalty are recognized, revered and rewarded.” In addition to the settlement, New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman reports that longtime Fox News anchor Greta Van Sustern is leaving the network. Van Sustern was a noted supported for Ailes during the scandal. Her hour-long spot on the network will be filled by Brit Hume, Fox News senior political analyst. Fox News is settling the lawsuit on behalf of Ailes, just two months after the longtime CEO and president of the network was forced to resign in the wake of the allegations. Ailes has reportedly agreed to pay part of the settlement, according to sources who spoke with New York Magazine. Vanity Fair also reported that the company has reached settlement agreements with two other women in regards to Ailes. After Carlson went public with her claims against Ailes in July, several other women spoke to outside lawyers hired by Fox News with similar stories of sexual harassment. Carlson, co-anchored Fox & Friends for seven years before she left to anchor her own one-hour program for the network. That show, The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson, was cancelled this year. She tweeted on July 6 that she was no longer with the network, and that day she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes. In the lawsuit, Carlson claimed she was fired from her own program for refusing Ailes' sexual advances. According to pictures posted to her Twitter account on Monday, she is currently on vacation in Croatia.[SEP]21st Century Fox has reached a $20 million settlement deal with Gretchen Carlson, the anchorwoman who sued Roger Ailes alleging harassment and retaliation in July. The eight-figure deal is likely to have consequences across corporate America. Fox also apologized to Carlson in a highly unusual public statement on Tuesday morning. "We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect that she and all our colleagues deserve," 21st Century Fox said. Vanity Fair magazine was the first to report the settlement on Tuesday. A source close to Fox confirmed the $20 million total to CNNMoney. Ailes will pay an unknown portion of the settlement. Ailes, the powerful Fox News CEO and chairman, resigned in the wake of the harassment allegations, which he has continuously denied. Now out of his Fox job, Ailes is informally advising GOP nominee Donald Trump ahead of the presidential debates this fall. Lawyers for Ailes had no immediate comment on the Carlson settlement. According to Vanity Fair, Fox has also reached settlements with two other women who alleged harassment by the executive. After Carlson sued, 21st Century Fox -- which is run by Rupert Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan -- brought in an outside law firm to investigate the allegations. More than 20 women reportedly spoke with the lawyers about inappropriate behavior by Ailes. Ex-host Andrea Tantaros filed suit against Ailes and Fox last month. It is unclear whether Fox is vulnerable to any other lawsuits at the present time. Settling with Carlson, at least, is part of the Murdochs' effort to move past the scandal. Related: Gabriel Sherman: Murdochs looked the other way at Roger Ailes' behavior The settlement means that Carlson will not testify against Ailes or share any evidence of harassment. Several news outlets have reported that Carlson recorded some of her meetings with Ailes. "I am gratified that 21st Century Fox took decisive action after I filed my complaint," Carlson said Tuesday. "I'm ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace." She also expressed thanks to the people who supported her when she filed the suit. "I want to thank all the brave women who came forward to tell their own stories and the many people across the country who embraced and supported me in their #StandWithGretchen," she said. "All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace in which talent, hard work and loyalty are recognized, revered and rewarded." Separately, Fox News announced the departure of 7 p.m. host Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday morning. Van Susteren reportedly tried to renegotiate her contract after Ailes resigned, and opted to leave when the negotiations failed.[SEP]NEW YORK — Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson settled her sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes for a reported $20 million and a public apology Tuesday, ending the case that triggered the downfall of Fox’s chief executive. Filed two months ago, Carlson’s lawsuit alleged that she was demoted and let go at Fox because she rejected Ailes’ sexual advances and complained about workplace harassment. In a statement, Fox parent company 21st Century Fox said, “We regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.” Carlson was paid $20 million, according to a person familiar with the settlement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms of the agreement were confidential. The former Miss America spent several years on the “Fox & Friends” morning show before being shifted to the afternoon and told in June that her contract wasn’t being renewed. Carlson said she is ready to move on to the next chapter in her life and promised to work to help women in the workplace. She thanked “all the brave women” who came forward to tell their own stories and others who supported her. “All women deserve a dignified and respectful workplace,” she said. Ailes, who denied Carlson’s allegations when the lawsuit was filed, had no statement Tuesday, his lawyer said. Carlson’s case led 21st Century Fox to launch its own investigation, and other women came forward with stories of being harassed by Ailes, including Fox News star Megyn Kelly. A few women told their stories publicly. Two weeks later, Ailes was gone, reportedly with a $40 million payout, and is said to be informally advising Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Ailes was hired by Rupert Murdoch to build Fox News from scratch in 1996. He built it into a dominant news network and a force in Republican politics. Murdoch recently named veteran Fox executives Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine as the network’s new co-presidents. NEW YORK — Greta Van Susteren has abruptly quit after 14 years as a prime-time anchor at Fox News Channel, saying that Fox “has not felt like home to me for a few years.” Starting Tuesday, she’s being temporarily replaced in her 7 p.m. ET time slot by Fox veteran Brit Hume, at least through the election. Word of the surprise shake-up in what has been cable TV news’ most stable and successful lineup was announced only minutes after the settlement of former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson’s harassment lawsuit against deposed Fox News chief Roger Ailes. Van Susteren, in a Facebook post, did not say what she meant by Fox News not feeling like home anymore. She had defended Ailes in an interview with The Daily Beast in the immediate aftermath of Carlson’s lawsuit, saying she had known nothing of the alleged behavior. The Washington-based lawyer said Tuesday that she took advantage of a contractual clause allowing her to leave and since it had a time limitation, she could not wait. Fox did not explain Van Susteren’s exit, although a person close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity described it as a financial disagreement. Van Susteren, who came to Fox from CNN after establishing herself among the commentators on the O.J. Simpson trial, said on Facebook that she hoped to continue her career in broadcasting. She held down the 10 p.m. time slot at Fox for many years, but her “On the Record” show was switched to 7 p.m. when Fox wanted to make room in prime time for Megyn Kelly. Kelly took over at 9 p.m. and Sean Hannity was moved to 10 p.m. Van Susteren’s departure came at a time many Fox watchers were focused on other potential changes at the network. Fox mainstay Bill O’Reilly, who turns 67 on Saturday, has mused publicly about the idea of retirement, and it’s unclear how Ailes’ departure will affect him. Kelly’s contract expires later this year, and Fox dearly wants to keep her. Hannity’s vocal support of Donald Trump has made him a controversial figure in the conservative media. Hume, 73, is a senior political commentator for Fox and had been the network’s primary news anchor before stepping aside in 2008. He said he’s taking on Van Susteren’s show through the election. Fox’s co-presidents, Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine, said in a statement that “we are grateful for Greta’s many contributions over the years and wish her continued success.”[SEP]Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson has settled her sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the case that led to the downfall of Fox's chief executive with stunning swiftness this summer. In a statement Tuesday, Fox parent company 21st Century said that "we regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve." Carlson was paid $20 million, according to someone familiar with the confidential settlement who spoke under condition of anonymity. Carlson alleged that she was demoted and let go from Fox after she refused Ailes' sexual advances and complained about workplace harassment. Ailes denied the charges, but 21st Century launched an investigation and Ailes resigned after other women made allegations.[SEP]Fox News has reached a $20 million (€18 million) settlement of former anchor Gretchen Carlson’s sexual harassment lawsuit against the network’s former chief Roger Ailes, Vanity Fair said on Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the settlement. Fox News parent, 21st Century Fox Inc, confirmed the settlement, but did not announce the terms and offered Carlson a public apology. “We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve,” the media company said in a statement. It is unclear how much Ailes himself might pay, but Fox News, part of 21st Century Fox, essentially insures Ailes against any settlement, the magazine said, citing two people familiar with the arrangement. Carlson has voluntarily dismissed her federal lawsuit in New Jersey against Ailes, a court filing shows.[SEP]Fox News said Tuesday it settled a sexual harassment lawsuit by former news host Gretchen Carlson against cable channel boss Roger Ailes for a reported $20 million, and apologized for her treatment on the job. A statement offered no details on the settlement, but the magazine Vanity Fair, citing sources familiar with the case, said Fox would pay the multi-million-dollar sum to the journalist and former Miss America. A statement by the parent firm 21st Century Fox said, "We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve." The lawsuit led to the resignation of the politically powerful Ailes, a confidante of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch who helped build Fox into a leader in cable news. In the statement, Carlson said she was "gratified" with the settlement and added, "I'm ready to move on to the next chapter of my life in which I will redouble my efforts to empower women in the workplace." Ailes had denied allegations that he had sought to pressure Carlson into a sexual relationship, but the lawsuit led to reports of other women coming forward to support Carlson's allegations of a hostile work environment. Carlson, a top Fox personality, had been with the network for more than a decade. According to the lawsuit, Ailes "unlawfully retaliated against Carlson and sabotaged her career because she refused his sexual advances and complained about severe and pervasive sexual harassment." Ailes fired Carlson, the complaint said, on June 23 after "ostracizing, marginalizing and shunning her" and making it clear that "these 'problems' would not have existed, and could be solved if she had a sexual relationship with him."[SEP]FILE - In this Jan. 30, 1996 file photo, Roger Ailes, left, speaks at a news conference as Rupert Murdoch looks on after it was announced that Ailes will be chairman and CEO of Fox News. Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros has charged in a lawsuit filed Monday, Aug. 22, 2016, she was sexually harassed by former network chief Roger Ailes and other top executives. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) NEW YORK — Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson has settled her sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, the case that led to the downfall of Fox's chief executive with stunning swiftness this summer. In a statement Tuesday, Fox parent company 21st Century said that "we regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve." Carlson was paid $20 million, according to someone familiar with the confidential settlement who spoke under condition of anonymity. Carlson alleged that she was demoted and let go from Fox after she refused Ailes' sexual advances and complained about workplace harassment. Ailes denied the charges, but 21st Century launched an investigation and Ailes resigned after other women made allegations.

21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, settles a sexual harassment case by Gretchen Carlson for US$20 million.

Image copyright AP Image caption Mr Cosby (R) at Wednesday's hearing A judge in Pennsylvania has set a trial date for Bill Cosby, who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Former Temple University employee Andrea Constand alleges the 79-year-old entertainer drugged and molested her. The trial is tentatively set to begin on 5 June next year near Mr Cosby's home. At least 50 women have accused Mr Cosby of sexual assault, and prosecutors want 13 of them to testify. The former star of The Cosby Show faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. A lawyer for Mr Cosby welcomed the trial date, saying: "The time has come to shine a spotlight on the trampling of Mr Cosby's civil rights." Once fondly known as America's Dad, Mr Cosby was the first African-American to host a primetime television programme. Although many women have accused him of rape, he is only facing charges in this one case due to statutes of limitations. Image copyright AP Image caption Andrea Constand, 43, says she was assaulted by Mr Cosby in 2004 Thirteen of his accusers may be allowed by the judge to take the stand because the state of Pennsylvania allows witnesses to give evidence of past acts that might display a "common scheme, plan, or design". Prosecuting lawyers say these women could demonstrate Mr Cosby shows a pattern of behaviour that is consistent with Ms Constand's accusations. In 2004 Ms Constand was 31 when she visited Mr Cosby's home seeking career advice after befriending him through Temple University, where he served on the board of trustees. She said Mr Cosby gave her three blue pills which made her legs feel "like jelly" and that he then began to touch her inappropriately. "I told him, 'I can't talk, Mr Cosby.' I started to panic," she said in a criminal complaint in December last year. Mr Cosby has maintained all of his sexual encounters with women were consensual, and that Ms Constand never asked him to stop. In 2006 Mr Cosby settled with Ms Constand after providing an undisclosed cash sum to her. A criminal case opened this year following the election of a new county prosecutor who had made it a campaign promise to bring charges against the comedian.[SEP]Bill Cosby's defense team will have a new look when the actor returns to court Tuesday for a hearing in his sexual assault case. Cosby has streamlined his legal team as the felony case heads to trial, and has dropped his media handler, Washington lawyer Monique Pressley. Cosby’s defense team will push Tuesday to keep key evidence out of the case. They hope to suppress several days of testimony Cosby gave in the accuser's civil lawsuit a decade ago. Cosby acknowledged giving Andrea Constand several pills before what he calls a consensual sexual encounter. She later said she was in and out of consciousness. "I don't hear her say anything. And I don't feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped," Cosby testified in the 2005 lawsuit. Veteran Philadelphia defense lawyer Brian McMonagle is expected to lead the courtroom fight as the case moves forward. The judge in the suburban Philadelphia case could set a trial date Tuesday. Cosby has also replaced one top-tier Los Angeles law firm with another on his defense team, the second such switch in about a year. Angela Agrusa of Liner LLP also will handle the civil defamation suits filed in several states by accusers who say they were defamed when Cosby or his agents denied their accounts. Cosby had countersued some of them. But he has since abandoned that strategy in Philadelphia, where he dropped the lawsuit filed against Constand, her lawyers and her mother. Cosby had accused them of violating the confidentiality of their 2006 settlement, in part by cooperating with police last year. The defense also hopes to suppress a secretly recorded 2005 phone call Cosby had with Gianna Constand, when he described his sexual encounter with her daughter. Dist. Atty. Kevin Steele will fight to use both the phone call and his deposition at trial. Cosby has so far lost his efforts to have the charges thrown out. And so the long-beloved comedian known as "America's Dad" for his top-rated show on family life that ran from 1984 to 1992 finds himself spending his time and fortune in his waning days in a Pennsylvania courtroom. The women who accuse him of similar misconduct say the charges were a long time coming. Cosby's defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity. "None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim. But the question should be asked — who is the victim?" his wife, Camille, asked as more accusers came forward in 2014. Bill Cosby's accuser does not have to testify before trial, judge rules[SEP]Bill Cosby returned to a suburban Pennsylvania courtroom laughing as he entered the court with his streamlined defense team Tuesday for a hearing in his sexual assault case. The 79-year-old arrived to the Montgomery County Courthouse with a wide smile on his face as he was pictured getting out of a black SUV with assistance from his legal team. Sporting a light blue seersucker jacket, Cosby held onto an aide's arm as supporters cheered for him from the sidewalks as he entered the Montgomery County Courthouse. Cosby dropped his media handler, Washington lawyer Monique Pressley, ahead of the hearing, where a judge could set a trial date. The defense also will push on Tuesday to keep key evidence out of the case. They hope to suppress several days of testimony Cosby gave in the accuser's lawsuit a decade ago. Cosby acknowledged giving Andrea Constand several pills before what he calls a consensual sexual encounter. She later said she was in and out of consciousness. 'I don't hear her say anything. And I don't feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped,' Cosby testified in the 2005 lawsuit. Veteran Philadelphia defense lawyer Brian McMonagle is expected to lead the courtroom fight as the case moves forward. Cosby also replaced one top-tier Los Angeles law firm with another on his defense team, the second such switch in about a year. Angela Agrusa of Liner LLP also will handle the defamation lawsuits filed in several states by women who say they were defamed when Cosby or his agents denied their accounts. Cosby had countersued some of them. But he has since abandoned that strategy in Philadelphia, where he dropped the lawsuit filed against Constand, her lawyers and her mother. Cosby had accused them of violating the confidentiality of their 2006 settlement, in part by cooperating with police last year. The defense also hopes to suppress a secretly recorded 2005 phone call Cosby had with Gianna Constand, when he described his sexual encounter with her daughter. District Attorney Kevin Steele will fight to use both the phone call and his deposition at trial. Cosby has so far lost his efforts to have the charges thrown out. And so the once-beloved comedian known as 'America's Dad' for his top-rated show on family life that ran from 1984 to 1992 finds himself spending his time and fortune in his waning days in a Pennsylvania courtroom. The women who accuse him of similar misconduct say the charges were a long time coming. Cosby's defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity. 'None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim. But the question should be asked — who is the victim?' his wife, Camille, asked as more accusers came forward in 2014.[SEP]Comedian Bill Cosby is scheduled to return to a Pennsylvania state court on Tuesday, two months after a judge rejected his latest bid to have criminal sexual assault charges dismissed. The 79-year-old entertainer is accused of drugging and then assaulting Andrea Constand, a former basketball coach at his alma mater Temple University, at his home in 2004. Cosby is facing similar allegations from about 60 women stretching back decades, though the Constand case is the only one to result in criminal charges, mostly because the other alleged attacks are too old for prosecution. The former star of the hit 1980s TV series “The Cosby Show,” who built a long career on family-friendly comedy, has denied assaulting anyone and portrayed his sexual relationships with the women, including Constand, as consensual. The hearing is expected to focus on scheduling matters. A trial date has not yet been set. Cosby, who is free on $1 million bail, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill in July rejected Cosby’s claim that his rights were violated at a May preliminary hearing because prosecutors declined to put Constand on the stand. Cosby’s legal team on Tuesday will not include Monique Pressley, a Washington-based attorney who had become the public face of his defense through frequent appearances in the media on his behalf. Pressley has left the case, according to court filings. Cosby’s lawyers are seeking to prevent prosecutors from using a 2005 deposition taken during Constand’s civil lawsuit as evidence against him at trial. Cosby acknowledged in the deposition that he had given Quaaludes to various women with whom he had consensual sexual encounters, though he also denied assaulting Constand.[SEP]Disgraced US megastar Bill Cosby will stand trial June 5, 2017 for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman at his Philadelphia home more than a decade ago, a judge ruled Tuesday. The pioneering black comedian faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He had returned to court on Tuesday in Pennsylvania as part of multiple attempts to avoid standing trial for the alleged 2004 assault. But Judge Steven O’Neill set the June trial date regardless, and said proceedings could begin earlier if schedules permit. Up to 13 other women may testify at the trial if Montgomery County prosecutor Kevin Steele gets his way, although Cosby’s legal team will likely put up fierce resistance to any such attempt. Dressed in a pinstripe jacket and gray pants, Cosby had appeared animated and engaged in conversation with his lawyers before Tuesday’s hearing at Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, northwest of Philadelphia. Cosby allegedly plied Andrea Constand with pills and wine, then sat her down on a couch, where the actor allegedly assaulted her in 2004. Constand, who worked for the Temple University basketball team, now lives in Canada. Going to trial cements a brutal fall from grace for the once treasured father figure, apparent model citizen and award-winning comedian who smashed through racial barriers and delighted audiences with his gentle, self-deprecating humor. Cosby’s legal team said Tuesday their client was “not giving up the fight for his rights” and accused a lawyer representing other alleged sexual assault victims of waging a campaign built “on racial bias and prejudice.” “When the media repeats her accusations — with no evidence, no trial and no jury — we are moved backwards as a country and away from the America that our civil rights leaders sacrificed so much to create,” they said. More than 50 women have publicly painted Cosby as a serial sexual predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol to have sex and make them unable to resist his advances over four decades. Those allegations have seen celebrity pals and millions more malign the legend who attained his greatest fame for his role as a lovable obstetrician and family man in the hit 1980s television sitcom “The Cosby Show.” The vast majority of the alleged abuses happened too long ago to prosecute, making the Constand case the only criminal charge brought against Cosby. The former star posted bail at $1 million in the case last December, but has yet to enter a plea. If he pleads guilty, he could avoid the enormous publicity that will come with one of America’s most famous entertainers going on trial. Cosby has become a pariah since an avalanche of women accused him of feeding them pills and having sex with them. In the Constand case, Cosby has admitted giving her a pill but accuses her of lying about the assault. The case was initially settled by a civil suit in 2006 but prosecutors reopened it by saying that new evidence came to light in July. Cosby’s most famous role was as Cliff Huxtable, the affable father of an upper middle class black family in New York, in “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992. It was one of the most popular TV series of all time and jettisoned the actor into a life of fame and millions, following a humble childhood during which he was raised by a maid and a US Navy cook. Cosby served in the Navy himself and won an athletic scholarship to Temple, before moving into standup comedy. In addition to television, he wrote books and appeared in movies. His wife Camille has stood by his side. The couple have five children. Their son Ennis was shot dead in 1997 while changing a flat tire in California.[SEP]Disgraced US megastar Bill Cosby is due to stand trial for sexual assault on June 5, 2017 in what could see up to 13 other alleged victims testify against the award-winning comedian turned pariah. Judge Steven O’Neill set the date after the 79-year-old pioneering black comedian made multiple attempts to head off the possibility of a trial stemming from one alleged incident at his Philadelphia home in 2004. But O’Neill advised lawyers that the trial could start even earlier if schedules permit. He also said that given the defence assertion that Cosby is blind, the defendant may require special assistance in court. Andrea Constand, who worked for the Temple University basketball team at the time, alleges that Cosby plied her with pills and wine, then sat her down on a couch at his Philadelphia home where he assaulted her. Cosby says he gave her a pill, but insists their relations with consensual. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine if convicted. Dressed in a pinstripe jacket and gray pants, Cosby had appeared animated and engaged in conversation with his lawyers before Tuesday’s hearing at Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, northwest of Philadelphia. But the prospective trial cements a brutal fall from grace for the once treasured father figure and apparent model citizen who smashed through racial barriers and delighted audiences with his gentle, self-deprecating humor. In recent years, more than 50 women have publicly accused him of being a sexual predator spanning four decades, making remarkably similar allegations that he fed them sedatives and alcohol that made them unable to resist his advances. The vast majority of the alleged abuses happened too long ago to prosecute, making the Constand case the only criminal charge brought against Cosby. Montgomery County prosecutor Kevin Steele told the court that he wants up to 13 other alleged victims to testify at trial. The judge has yet to agree and Cosby‘s legal team will likely put up fierce resistance. The defense vowed their client would continue “the fight for his rights” and accused a lawyer representing other alleged sexual assault victims of waging a campaign built “on racial bias and prejudice.” “When the media repeats her accusations — with no evidence, no trial and no jury — we are moved backwards as a country and away from the America that our civil rights leaders sacrificed so much to create,” they said. Those allegations have seen celebrity pals and millions more malign the legend who attained his greatest fame for his role as a lovable obstetrician and family man in the hit 1980s television sitcom “The Cosby Show.” The Constand case was initially settled by a civil suit in 2006 but prosecutors reopened claiming that new evidence had come to light. The former star posted bail at $1 million in the case last December, but has yet to enter a plea. If he pleads guilty, Cosby could avoid the enormous publicity that will come with one of America’s most famous entertainers going on trial. In her original deposition in January 2005, Constand said Cosby plied her with pills and wine, then sat her down on a couch, where the actor allegedly fondled her breasts, put his fingers in her vagina and put her hand on his erect penis. Cosby‘s legal team mock Constand’s credibility, saying she chopped and changed her evidence, and omitted from the final version lying down on a bed next to the actor and later visiting his home for dinner. Constand, who now lives in Canada, has yet to appear at any public hearing. Cosby‘s most famous role was as Cliff Huxtable, the affable father of an upper middle class black family in New York, in “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992. It was one of the most popular TV series of all time and jettisoned the actor into a life of fame and millions, following a humble childhood during which he was raised by a maid and a US Navy cook. Cosby served in the Navy himself and won an athletic scholarship to Temple, before moving into comedy. In addition to television, he wrote books and appeared in movies. His wife Camille has stood by his side. The couple have five children. Their son Ennis was shot dead in 1997 while changing a flat tire in California.[SEP]In January 2004, Andrea Constand, then a 31-year-old staffer for the women's basketball team at Temple University -- Cosby's alma mater -- was at the comedian's Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, home when Cosby provided her medication that made her dizzy, she alleged the next year. She later woke up to find her bra undone and her clothes in disarray, she further alleged to police in her home province of Ontario, Canada, in January 2005. She was the first person to publicly allege sexual assault by Cosby. The comedian settled a civil suit with Constand that alleged 13 Jane Does had similar stories of sexual abuse. On December 30, 2015, Cosby was charged with sexual assault in relation to the 2004 accusation, Costand's attorney Dolores Troiani confirmed to CNN. Janice Dickinson alleged she and Cosby had dinner in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 1982 and he gave her a glass of red wine and a pill she believed was for menstrual cramps. "The last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain," she told "Entertainment Tonight." Cosby's attorney said in a statement that Dickinson's allegation was a "fabricated lie" that contradicted what she wrote in her autobiography and what she said during a 2002 New York Observer interview. Kristina Ruehli was a secretary for a talent agency in 1965 that had Cosby as a client. She said she was invited to a party to celebrate a taping of "Hollywood Palace." Ruehli said she and an actress were the only attendees at the party. She said she became unconscious after consuming drinks and later woke up to find Cosby attempting to force her mouth onto his pubic area. She said she pulled away to vomit and drove herself home. It was the last time she would see Cosby, she told CNN. Linda Brown was a 21-year-old model in 1969 when, she alleges, Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in Canada near her hometown. She says she was introduced to the comedian by her then-manager, had dinner with Cosby and was later served a soft drink by Cosby at an apartment. "I took a sip and blacked out," Brown said at a press conference with her attorney in February. "When I awakened, I was naked in the bed beside him." Joan Tarshis was a 19-year-old actress in 1969 when, she said, she met Cosby in Los Angeles. The two became friendly. One night after taping his sitcom, he invited her back to his bungalow and fixed her a "redeye" (a Bloody Mary topped with beer), she alleged. "The next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed," she told Hollywood Elsewhere. "I was sickened by what was happening to me and shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no one." It was the first of two similar incidents, said Tarshis, who is now a journalist and publicist. Linda Joy Traitz said Cosby offered her a ride home while she was working as a waitress at a restaurant in Los Angeles that he co-owned in 1969. On the way, they detoured to the beach. They parked and he offered her drugs "to relax," she alleged. After refusing "he kept offering me the pills," she alleged, and it made her feel uncomfortable. She claimed he then groped her chest, pushing her down in the seat and toward the door, and tried to lie on top of her. She got out of the car and ran, she said. She added that she was "absolutely not" raped. He tried to calm her, she said, then drove her home in silence. Traitz has a criminal record in Florida and spent time in prison on a conviction for drug trafficking, according to state records. Cosby's lawyer passed on her lengthy rap sheet. Traitz spoke openly about her record to CNN. Playboy bunny Victoria Valentino said her friend Francesca Emerson first introduced her to Cosby hoping to help her get work on his show "I Spy" in the late '60s. Valentino said after an interview in his trailer, Cosby invited her and a different friend to dinner, where they drank red wine and Cosby offered her pills to "cheer up," she said. She said she felt "stoned," slurring her words. They then went with him to what she described as a "ballers pad," an office-like space in an apartment building, with two loveseats and no working phone. Valentino said she was feeling "totally out of it" when she saw Cosby attempting to advance on her passed-out friend. She said she began reaching out to Cosby to pull him off her friend when he pushed her down, first pushing himself near her mouth, before turning her around and raping her. Famed model Beverly Johnson alleged that Bill Cosby drugged her in the 1980s at his Manhattan brownstone, where she'd gone to rehearse lines. During the meeting, Johnson said, Cosby was "very insistent" she drink a cup of cappuccino he had made for her. "After that second sip, I knew I had been drugged," she alleged. "It was very powerful, it came on very quickly." Johnson said she then confronted and cursed at the comedian, claiming, "I wanted him to know he had drugged me." She alleged that Cosby got angry, grabbed her, took her outside and flagged down a taxi for her. Cosby's attorney didn't immediately return a CNN call for comment on Johnson's allegation, which she first made in a Vanity Fair article. In 1970, Tamara Green was an aspiring model in her early 20s. She alleged an incident occurred during a working lunch with Cosby and others. Green told Matt Lauer of the "Today" show that at the lunch, she was suffering from the flu and Cosby "produced two capsules." She said they made her feel "great" at first, but then left her "almost literally face down on the table of this restaurant." Cosby took her to her apartment and started "groping me and kissing me and touching me and handling me and you know, taking off my clothes," Green said. Green further detailed her allegations in a defamation lawsuit against Cosby filed in December. Judy Huth has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress during an incident at the Playboy Mansion, according to court documents. The alleged sexual assault took place in 1974 when Huth was 15 years old. According to court documents, Huth and a 16-year-old friend met with Cosby and eventually went to the Playboy Mansion with him. "He then proceeded to sexually molest her by attempting to put his hand down her pants and then taking her hand in his hand and performing a sex act on himself without her consent," according to the documents. Cosby's lawyer said Huth's claims are "absolutely false" and he accused her of engaging in extortion after Cosby rejected her "outrageous demand for money in order not to make her allegations public." P.J. Masten was a Playboy bunny in her 20s and met Cosby while working as a server at one of Playboy's establishments. He asked her to lunch one afternoon in Chicago, then later called to invite her to dinner, she told CNN. Before the dinner, attended by four other men at the Whitehall Hotel, Masten said, Cosby poured her a drink. "And the next thing I know, it was 4 o'clock in the morning," Masten said. "I woke up in a bed naked, bruised. He was lying next to me, and I slithered out of the bed, my clothes all over the floor. ... I got myself together, I went downstairs, I got in a cab and I went home." Masten recalled "hurting really bad." As to why, she alleged: "There were bruise marks all over me. I knew I was raped by him." In a statement released through lawyer Gloria Allred's office, Helen Hayes alleged that Cosby followed her and two friends "around all day" at a summer 1973 celebrity tennis tournament in Pebble Beach, California, hosted by actor Clint Eastwood. Hayes claimed she and her friends tried to avoid Cosby, but he caught up with them in a restaurant, "approached me from behind and reached over my shoulder and grabbed my right breast." "I was stunned and angry, because he had no right to do that and I did not know why he would behave that way," Hayes said. "His behavior was like that of a predator." Donna Motsinger, 73, one of the Jane Does in the civil suit with Constand, said she met Cosby while working in a restaurant in Sausalito, California. According to Motsinger, Cosby invited her to join him for his show and she accepted. On the way, they stopped for gas and had a drink. After becoming ill, Motsinger said Cosby gave her what she thought was an aspirin. "After that there was some conversation and laughing and stuff, but then the next thing I remember ... he's next to me, he's got his hands on me and I look up I see the lights of the city. I could see it clear as a bell in my mind right now, the lights of the city coming back and it was all blurry, kind of the lights, and I passed out again," she said. Florida nurse Therese Serignese, 57, told ABC's "20/20" that she was a 19-year-old model visiting Las Vegas when Cosby handed her pills in a private dressing room after a performance. "Take these," Cosby told her, according to Serignese. After consuming the pills, she remembered "feeling drugged, and I was kind of leaning forward, and he was behind me having sex with me. And I -- I remember it because it was not good." Jewel Allison was a model and aspiring actress in her late 20s when she met Cosby in the late 1980s. She said he offered to help her, inviting her to his home. When she arrived, no one else was there besides Cosby, Allison said. At one point, after taking a few sips of wine, she began to feel "out of it." "I realized that something sexual was going on, but I was unable to stop it," Allison told CNN. Barbara Bowman was a 17-year-old model and actress who met Cosby in Denver in 1985. Bowman told Newsweek that Cosby visited her numerous times, giving her acting lessons and "flying me around to major cities to events." After she turned 18, Cosby "assaulted (me) a number of times," she said. In an incident in New York, Bowman "had one glass of wine and then I blacked out. I woke up throwing up in the toilet. ... I was wearing a white T-shirt that wasn't mine, and he was in a white robe." Identifying herself only by a first name during a news conference with lawyer Gloria Allred, Chelan said she was a 17-year-old aspiring model who worked at the Las Vegas Hilton when her father's wife sent pictures of her to Cosby. She said Cosby arranged to meet her at the Vegas Hilton "to introduce me to someone from the Ford modeling agency." During that meeting, she said, Cosby gave her "a blue pill, which he said was an antihistamine, with a double shot of Amaretto." She alleged that Cosby lay down next to her on the bed and began touching her sexually and grunting. Helen Gumpel, a model and actress known as Helen Selby professionally, appeared in a bit part in a late-1980s "Cosby Show" episode. A short time later, her agent got a call that Cosby wanted to meet with her. In a statement, Gumpel said that, after Cosby hugged and kissed her in front of onlookers at a New York studio, she was asked back to his dressing room. There, she found Cosby "wearing a loosely tied robe" and then -- with the robe still on -- he put "his crotch area in my face," Gumpel alleged. The comedian touched her shoulders then tried repeatedly to get Gumpel to have a drink he'd made, she said. After her refusals, Gumpel said, "Cosby turned his back to me and walked to the door. Cosby looked at me and his face clouded up, as if he was frustrated and angry, and he told me to leave." Beth Ferrier told media outlets in 2005 that she met Cosby in Denver in the mid-'80s. He mentored her for a time, but one night, she said, he gave her a drugged cappuccino. "I woke up in my car in the parking lot with my clothes all a mess," she said. "I wondered, I still wonder, 'What did he do with me? Why was my bra unhooked?'" The two later conducted an "on-and-off consensual affair" that lasted several years, she alleged to People magazine. "He kept luring me in," Ferrier told the magazine. "I felt like I couldn't say no." At the time, Cosby's publicist told People he had no comment.[SEP]Prosecutors said on Tuesday they intend to call more than a dozen accusers as witnesses against comedian Bill Cosby at his sexual assault trial. During a hearing on Tuesday, Court of Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill in Norristown tentatively scheduled Cosby's trial for June 5, 2017, giving both sides months to pursue what will likely be a fiercely fought series of legal battles over the scope of evidence allowed at trial. The Montgomery County District Attorney's office asked O'Neill's permission to introduce the testimony of 13 women who claim the 78-year-old entertainer assaulted them. The names of the women were not disclosed in court filings on Tuesday. Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004 at his Pennsylvania home. Approximately 60 women have accused Cosby of attacking them over several decades, though the Constand case is the only one to result in a criminal prosecution thus far. The former star of the 1980s TV series The Cosby Show, who built a long career on family-friendly comedy, has denied assaulting anyone and has portrayed his sexual relationships with the women, including Constand, as consensual. In general, a defendant's prior bad acts are not admissible as evidence that he or she committed a particular crime. Prosecutors, however, are sometimes allowed to use evidence or witnesses to prove a defendant committed a crime as part of along standing pattern of behavior. Numerous women have accused Cosby of strikingly similar sexual assaults, claiming that he plied them with alcohol and drugs before taking advantage of their altered mental state. Judges typically weigh the value of such evidence against the possibility that it will unfairly prejudice a jury. Cosby's lawyers, meanwhile, have made their own motions seeking to limit the evidence. They have asked O'Neill to bar the district attorney's office from introducing a telephone conversation between Cosby and Constand's mother that was secretly recorded, as well as a deposition from Constand's civil lawsuit against Cosby in which the comedian admitted giving Quaaludes to women before sexual encounters. In addition, Brian McMonagle, the lead defense lawyer, said on Tuesday he planned to request that the trial be movedelsewhere. He suggested the pool of potential jurors in Montgomery County had been tainted because the Constand case became a major campaign issue when District Attorney KevinSteele ran for office last year. Cosby, who is free on $1 million bail, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison if convicted.[SEP]Prosecutors hoping to paint actor Bill Cosby as a serial predator at his upcoming sexual assault trial sought Tuesday to put on testimony from 13 other women who say Cosby gave them quaaludes, other drugs or alcohol before molesting them. The criminal case against the 79-year-old entertainer involves a single 2004 encounter at his home near Philadelphia with former Temple University employee Andrea Constand. The presiding judge at a hearing Tuesday vowed to start the trial by June 5. However, Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill did not immediately rule on any of the pretrial disputes over evidence, including the prosecution effort to call other women as witnesses. Under Pennsylvania law, they could be allowed to testify to show an alleged pattern of behavior, even if no charges were ever filed. Prosecutors said they reviewed accusations made by 50 Cosby accusers and concluded that 13 said they were also drugged or intoxicated and then molested by Cosby. One woman said she declined his offer of quaaludes but accepted Champagne that she believed was spiked. She later woke up naked in a hotel room and said she had been sexually assaulted. Another said she took quaaludes from him, while a third said she believed her drink was spiked with the powerful, now-banned sedative. The defense is expected to oppose any testimony from other accusers. The defense will also ask to have the trial moved to another county, given that the decision over whether Cosby should be arrested became a flashpoint in last fall's election for district attorney. Cosby was arrested on Dec. 30, as incoming prosecutor Kevin Steele eyed the approaching 12-year deadline to file felony charges. Constand told police that Cosby gave her three unmarked pills and then molested her as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Cosby's lawyers meanwhile asked the judge Tuesday to suppress a 2005 telephone conversation recorded by Constand's mother in Toronto. Cosby had called her from California. The defense said the call violated Pennsylvania's two-party consent law on wiretaps. But prosecutors who played the tape in court argued that Cosby said he heard beeps on the call and asked if he was being taped. Gianna Constand denied it. Cosby in the conversation described the sex act as "digital penetration" but refused to say what pills he had given her daughter. In his deposition, he later said he feared sounding like "a dirty old man" on the call. Steele will fight to use both the phone call and Cosby's potentially damaging deposition from Constand's sexual battery lawsuit. Cosby settled the suit after four days of questioning. He acknowledged having a sexual encounter with Constand, but said it was consensual. He also admitted to a string of extramarital affairs and sexual "rendezvous," some with women in their late teens and early 20s. Cosby was arrested in December after the investigation into the allegation Constand first brought in 2005 was reopened, following disclosure of the entertainer's deposition and a stream of new allegations by women going back decades. Cosby looked noticeably healthier Tuesday than he has at earlier hearings, although his lawyers told the judge that he is blind. O'Neill offered whatever accommodations he might need at trial, but the defense didn't immediately ask for any. Cosby clutched an aide's arm as he walked, but his eyes appeared less milky and he seemed more engaged and animated as he spoke with his legal team. As O'Neill pushed for a trial date, lead defense lawyer Brian McMonagle of Philadelphia said he has other trials booked until June. Cosby has replaced one top-tier Los Angeles law firm with another on his defense team, the second such switch in about a year. Cosby has so far lost his efforts to have the charges thrown out. Cosby became known as "America's Dad" for his top-rated show on family life that ran from 1984 to 1992. He had been in the limelight since the early 1960s, when the Philadelphian was tapped to star in "I Spy," becoming the rare black actor to star in a network TV show at the time. The women who accuse him of sexual misconduct for nearly that long say the charges were a long time coming. Cosby's defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity. Defense lawyer Angela Agrusa told reporters after the hearing that the accusers have been "paraded" before the press by lawyer Gloria Allred and others, without their accounts of abuse being investigated. "We have seen a barrage of new accusers claiming, 'Me too,'" Agrusa said. Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt brought race into the equation, saying Allred and others have trampled on Cosby's civil rights. Many of the accusers, including Constand, are white. "Mr. Cosby is no stranger to discrimination and racial hatred, and throughout his career Mr. Cosby has always used his voice and his celebrity to highlight the commonalities and has portrayed the differences that are not negative — no matter the race, gender and religion of a person," he said in a statement.[SEP]PHILADELPHIA — The shape of Bill Cosby’s felony sexual assault trial could become clearer at a hearing Tuesday when his lawyers fight to keep out key evidence, including nearly 1,000 pages of damaging testimony he gave in the accuser’s lawsuit. Cosby, 79, is charged with drugging and molesting a woman he mentored at Temple University in 2004. His lawyers will ask a suburban Philadelphia judge to suppress testimony from the 2005 lawsuit, when accuser Andrea Constand said she was left semi-conscious and Cosby said he was “not stopped.” And they want to bar jurors from hearing a taped phone call between Cosby and Constand’s mother, when the long-beloved celebrity and morals champion fears he will sound like “a dirty old man with a young girl.” The criminal charges were filed in December, months after Cosby’s testimony in the woman’s lawsuit was unsealed and a new prosecutor reopened the case. Cosby, in the deposition, admitted to a series of extramarital affairs and described giving numerous women drugs and alcohol before what he called romantic “rendezvous.” Some were in their teens or early 20s. Defense lawyers argue that Cosby was promised he would never be charged, so he felt free to testify in Constand’s lawsuit. However, a judge this year found he was never granted immunity. The comedian known as America’s Dad for the top-rated “The Cosby Show” — which captured the amusing travails of fatherhood and painted a warm picture of black family life during its 1984 to 1992 run — now finds himself spending his time and fortune defending tawdry accusations. Dozens of women who accuse him of similar conduct say his arrest was a long time coming. Cosby’s defenders instead suggest he is a wealthy target for the many women he met during five decades as an A-list celebrity. “None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim. But the question should be asked — who is the victim?” his wife, Camille, asked as more accusers came forward in 2014. In his deposition, Cosby said he developed a crush on Constand “probably the first time I saw her” at Temple’s arena. He was a university trustee while she managed the women’s basketball team. When she visited his home one night in early 2004 to discuss a career change, Cosby found her stressed and gave her three unmarked pills. Constand thought it was an herbal product. Cosby later said it was Benadryl, though Constand’s lawyer doesn’t buy that. Cosby described the sexual encounter that followed, when Constand said she was floating in and out of consciousness: “I got her skin and … it’s just above where you can go under the pants,” he said in the deposition. “I don’t hear her say anything. And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection. I am not stopped.” Cosby was also asked about the phone call a year later with Constand’s mother in Toronto. Cosby said he dodged her questions because he feared he was being recorded. “I didn’t want to talk about, ‘What did you give her?’” he said in the deposition. “And I’m apologizing because I’m thinking this is a dirty old man with a young girl. I apologized. I said to the mother it was digital penetration.” Cosby now wants both the deposition and the tape of the phone call suppressed. District Attorney Kevin Steele will fight to use them at trial. Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven O’Neill is expected to hear arguments on one or both issues Tuesday, and perhaps set a trial date. Cosby has so far lost his motions to have the charges thrown out.

A judge in Pennsylvania schedules the dates for the trial of accused U.S. comedian Bill Cosby.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended her government's handling of the refugee crisis, but said the poor election result showed there was work to be done to win back voter confidence. "I am very unsatisfied with the outcome of the election," Merkel told reporters on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in China. "Obviously it has something to do with the refugee question. But I nevertheless believe the decisions made were right and we have to continue to work on them." Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was relegated to third place behind the right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in weekend polls in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The CDU garnered 19 percent of the vote - its worst ever score in the ex-communist state, which is also where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency. The AfD managed to draw supporters from across the spectrum to finish in second place with 20.8 percent of the vote. The CDU's coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), remained the strongest party with 30.6 percent, but it too lost part of its voter base to the AfD. Watch video 01:47 Chancellor Merkel on election setback 'Work to be done' Merkel told reporters that, as chancellor and CDU party chief, "of course I am also responsible," but she insisted that opening Germany's borders to more than 1 million asylum seekers in 2015 was the right thing to do. She added that the numbers of refugees entering the country had since declined, and that the government was working to integrate the migrants already in Germany. "There is much to be done to win back trust, and the topic of integration will play a huge role, as well the repatriation of those who don't gain residency rights," Merkel said. The right-wing AfD has enjoyed a surge in support among voters concerned about the influx of migrants to Europe over the past year. Despite being only three years old, the party is already represented in nine out of Germany's 16 regional parliaments. Leif-Erik Holm, who heads the AfD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said the election result should act as a warning to the government to rethink its refugee policies and that "today could mark the beginning of the end of the chancellery of Angela Merkel." The Sunday poll was the first of five regional votes before a national election due to take place next September. nm/rc (AP, dpa, Reuters, AFP)[SEP]Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel hit back at critics of her open-door migrant policy on Wednesday after her conservative CDU party was humiliated in a regional vote, urging all parties to fight the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) with facts. In a combative speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Ms Merkel directly addressed the outcome of Sunday’s election in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the AfD pushed her Christian Democrats into third place. “All of us should realise the AfD is a challenge not only for the Christian Democrats ... but that they are a challenge for everyone in this house,” she said, suggesting that the AfD’s anti-immigration policies were a threat to the values of society. In the weekend vote, the AfD, which has fed on fears about the influx of around a million migrants to Germany last year, stole voters from all parties and mobilised many people who had previously not voted. It is now represented in nine of Germany’s 16 states and looks poised to enter the Bundestag next year. Ms Merkel, who is expected to stand for a fourth term in next year’s federal election, said much had already been achieved since the height of the migrant crisis a year ago. “We have behind us a year full of decisions ... to reduce the number of migrants,” she said. She added her government had taken steps to help local authorities pay for refugees, passed an integration law and accelerated repatriations of migrants denied asylum and boosted security. “The situation today is much better than it was a year ago. But there is still much to do,” she said. “Change is not a bad thing ... Germany will remain Germany with everything that we love and treasure,” she said. In a swipe at her conservative partners in Bavaria who have criticised her for failing to respond to voters’ worries about migrants, she said politicians should tone down their rhetoric. If parties tried to win a quick advantage after “a black eye” from a regional election, “the winners will be those who reach for slogans and seemingly simple answers,” she said. Ms Merkel said politicians must learn the lessons by taking peoples’ worries seriously and explaining the facts. “I am sure that if we stick to the truth, we will win back what we need – peoples’ trust,” she said. The AfD is also expected to perform well in an election in the city of Berlin on September 18th. An Insa poll on Tuesday put them at 15 per cent nationally, compared to 30.5 per cent for Ms Merkel’s conservative bloc which shares power with the Social Democrats. Ms Merkel also defended the EU’s migrant deal with Turkey and her relationship with Ankara. Critics have accused the chancellor of cosying up to Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan despite his patchy human rights record, especially after a July coup attempt. “The deal with Turkey is a model for further similar agreements,” she said, naming Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.[SEP]Even a month ago, it seemed merely a matter of time before Angela Merkel announced she was running for a fourth term in next year’s election. But after her party’s humiliating defeat in a regional election in the north east, which was seen by many as a damning indictment of her management of the refugee crisis, things are suddenly a lot less clear. It is important to put Sunday’s result in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – where Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came third behind the centre-left Social Democrats and rightwing populists Alternative für Deutschland – into perspective. In the power dynamics of German federal politics, “Meck-Pomm” is a sparsely populated, relatively unimportant state, home to only 2 per cent of the overall population. A deep-dive into the final result reveals the Social Democrats, who came out top, actually lost a higher share of support than Merkel’s party, as did left wing Die Linke. The municipalities that tacked overwhelmingly to the right were all on the Polish border, while the western half of the state, where wages are higher due to the proximity of wealthy Hamburg, stuck to the centrist parties. On top of all this, in a state where voters have historically had less of a problem casting their vote for far-right parties, almost 70 per cent of voters opted for parties that had backed the chancellor during the refugee crisis. Süddeutsche Zeitung called for the result, which was described as a debacle for Merkel by many, to be considered in light of these factors. “Modern German democracy has survived several supposed nightmares,” it wrote. “The AfD likes to spread fear. We don’t have [to] automatically allow ourselves to be infected.” Sometimes, however, symbolism can trump psephological nuance. Coming exactly a year after the German government decided to keep open its borders to thousands of refugees stranded in Budapest, and taking place in the state of Merkel’s own constituency, the election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has several troubling implications for the chancellor. Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, had traditionally always ensured there was no room on the right of the political spectrum for any other party. That it has been outflanked by the AfD is seen by many as complacency with potentially historic consequences. Figures on the right of the CDU, such as the popular outgoing MP Wolfgang Bosbach and finance ministry deputy Jens Spahn, maintain that while Merkel made the right call on refugees last September, she should have been quicker to clarify that Germany’s open borders were a temporary emergency measure. This analysis glosses over the situation on Germany’s southern borders, where by gradually restricting the list of countries who can apply for asylum, Berlin has quietly shifted some of the burden of unwanted migration to Austria. Yet Sunday’s election has shown that even in a state like Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, largely insulated from the refugee crisis and whose CDU-run interior ministry is known for efficient asylum processing, many voters are unwilling to forget about the temporary loss of political control personified by the chancellor. That 20.8 per cent of the vote went for the AfD, Die Welt newspaper wrote on Monday, “makes it clear that the ghosts of the past have nowhere near been banished… The attempt to historicise the refugee crisis, as many speeches at the start of the election campaign in early July implied, fails to register with the electorate. On the refugee question, it is key to answer what lies ahead. But that alone is not enough. It will also be about assessing and engaging with the decisions of the past.” After more than a decade at the top of German politics, Merkel has successfully weathered crisis after crisis by gently applying the brakes when others would have stepped on the gas, containing conflicts by pragmatic compromise rather than dramatic intervention. The metaphor frequently employed – as the chancellor did after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union – was of limiting the “centrifugal forces” inherent in a crisis. That is precisely why the turbulent weeks of September last year, when the German state seemed to have temporarily lost control of the political situation in Europe, has done such lasting damage to her appeal. If the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s election is anything to go by, more and more German politicians will try to make the refugee issue central to Merkel’s persona – with unknowable consequences for a putative fourth term bid. The CSU has – unusually – said it would not confirm its backing of the CDU’s candidate (presumably Merkel) until next spring. According to a poll published last Friday, just 44 per cent of the German public believed Merkel would win a fourth term; though tellingly, none of her potential rivals, in her own party or the opposition, scored any better. Even the broadly liberal news weekly Der Spiegel, often a staunch defender of the chancellor’s course throughout the crisis, is suggesting that Merkel may want to “do a Schweini”. The footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger recently took his bow from a glittering international career in a tearful testimonial match, during which the crowds chanted the Germany captain’s name. “If he had stayed longer, he would have done neither himself nor his country a favour.” Maybe, the magazine wrote in an editorial, the time had come for the chancellor to learn a lesson from her favourite footballer.[SEP](CNN) Could the success of a far-right party in Germany's local elections be a harbinger of things to come? The Sunday contest was viewed by many as a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration policy, and her party suffered a significant defeat on her home turf. Merkel admitted Monday that decisions on immigration played a role in the result, but insisted that she has made the right ones. Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, defeated the Christian Democratic Union -- Merkel's party -- in local elections in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, coming in second behind the Social Democratic Party, according to exit polls. AfD was only formally founded in April 2013, yet it defeated the CDU in the German chancellor's home state. Although AfD has performed strongly in several other regional elections, most notably coming in second with 24% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt in March, it's an unprecedented moment in modern German politics that the CDU is set to finish behind a party so far to its right on most issues. The preliminary results indicate the Social Democratic Party won 30.6%, Alternative für Deutschland took 20.8% and the Christian Democratic Union got 19%. In an interview with CNN Monday, AfD party leader Frauke Petry interpreted the party's success in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as a personal defeat for Merkel. Petry suggested that with her party gaining across the country, the Christian Democratic Union is "falling apart" and said it's time for Germany to close its borders. "We see the political climate changes towards AfD and against the established parties, especially the Christian Democrats, Angela Merkel's party -- 21 percent in the northeast of Germany is an absolutely brilliant result," Petry told CNN. "The CDU is falling apart, but not only up there," she added. "We see that in many regions of Germany where the CDU bases, the party bases, don't agree with Merkel's policy anymore. "We want that the German government closes German borders to illegal migration... We don't want a new border in Germany. But we need controlled borders. We need a change of legislation on a German level, but also an EU level, to avoid illegal migration." Merkel has stood firm on Germany's position of accepting nearly all asylum seekers found to be legitimate refugees. Germany took in more than 1 million refugees in 2015, making it the most open country in Europe to asylum seekers. Merkel admits there's a lot to do Responding to the preliminary results from the weekend vote, Merkel -- who is in China at the G20 summit -- told reporters she was "dissatisfied with the outcome of the elections." She admitted that "many people do not have our confidence regarding the refugee question." After a series of terrorist attacks in July, Merkel refused to back down on her immigration policy, which she has termed a moral responsibility, especially to people fleeing the horror of civil war in Syria. Monday the Chancellor insisted the decisions made on how to handle the refugee crises were correct, but acknowledged: "We still have to do a lot to regain our (party's) confidence." Not a disaster, but of concern Experts say the results don't mean there's a looming disaster for Merkel in next year's election if she chooses to run -- the AfD would likely have trouble forming a coalition with more traditional political parties -- but they do signal some concerns for Merkel. Politico's senior European Union correspondent, Ryan Heath, said analysts believe Merkel still has an overwhelming likelihood of winning the national elections in 2017. However, these predictions are based largely on the national weakness of the Social Democrats, currently the junior partner in the coalition government. Rise of the right Formally founded in April 2013, AfD was set up by academics disgruntled by Merkel's eurozone crisis management -- most notably the Greek bailouts. However, AfD mutated into a more nationalist party that strongly opposed rising immigration levels -- particularly of people from Muslim countries.[SEP]BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel took responsibility for her party’s election defeat in the German state where she has her political base, but strongly defended her migrant policy on Monday even as she vowed to win back voters’ trust. A year before an expected national election, a nationalist, anti-immigration party’s second-place finish Sunday ahead of Merkel’s conservatives was a jolt that will likely increase tensions in Germany’s governing coalition. However, the result didn’t pose any immediate threat to Merkel, 62, Germany’s leader since 2005. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union finished third in the election for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s state legislature, behind the three-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD. It was held exactly a year after she decided to let in migrants stuck in Hungary, triggering the peak of last year’s influx. Merkel conceded the outcome was “almost entirely about federal political issues.” The center-left Social Democrats, Merkel’s partners in Germany’s national government, remained the strongest party in Mecklenburg. They have led the regional government for a decade with the CDU as junior partner, a coalition they can continue if they choose. The region is sparsely populated, but the vote was symbolically significant because Merkel’s parliamentary constituency is there. It was the first of five regional ballots before a national election a year away. The next is Sept. 18 in Berlin, where local issues are likely to feature more strongly. Mecklenburg is home to few foreigners, but Merkel acknowledged that migrant policy was a dominant theme. New arrivals have slowed drastically after more than 1 million people were registered as asylum-seekers in 2015, and asylum policies have been tightened. Still, New Year’s Eve robberies and sexual assaults blamed largely on foreigners, and two attacks in July carried out by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group, have fed tensions. “We must all consider how we can now win back trust, me first and foremost,” Merkel told reporters on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in China. “I am the party leader, I am the chancellor — you can’t separate those in people’s eyes, so I am of course responsible too” for the result, Merkel said. “However, I believe the decisions that have been made were right, and now we must continue working.” She added that “the issue of integration will play a huge role in that, and the question of the repatriation of refugees who have no residence permit here.” Merkel’s critics have faulted her for sticking to her mantra that “we will manage” the refugee crisis. Sunday’s result may make it tougher to smooth over a dispute with the Christian Social Union, her conservative Union bloc’s Bavarian arm, which criticized her welcoming approach from the start and wants an annual migrant cap. CSU leader Horst Seehofer, Bavaria’s governor, told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the situation for the conservatives is “highly threatening.” He was quoted as complaining that his “repeated demand for a change of course” on migrant policy hadn’t been heeded and said Sunday’s “disastrous” result was a consequence. Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrats’ leader and a likely challenger to Merkel next year, underlined his party’s increasing distance from the chancellor as it eyes the national election. He accused her conservatives of being too slow to respond to the migrant crisis. “We have wasted a great deal of time with unnecessary arguments,” he said, arguing that Merkel had been guilty of “simply repeating ‘we will manage it’ without doing it as well.” Although Merkel already adjusted migrant policies over the past year, she can’t make a clean break from her overall approach because “that wouldn’t be credible,” political science professor Klaus Schroeder told N24 television. “So the quarrels between the CDU and CSU will continue, and the Social Democrats will turn even more strongly against the Union to have a chance in the national election campaign.” Merkel’s bloc leads national polls, although her own popularity ratings have dropped from stellar to respectable. She hasn’t yet declared whether she will seek a fourth term next year, but there’s no obvious alternative. AfD polls between 11 and 14 percent nationally and appears strongest in the ex-communist east. It basked Monday in its latest success. Leader Frauke Petry attacked Merkel’s party for saying that “they haven’t done anything wrong. They just didn’t explain their policies.” “This ignorance is exemplary,” she said. “It is not just ignorance. What we see here is the continuing arrogance of power.” Petry, whose party has no prospect of going into government in the foreseeable future, complained that its rivals “still think they can label AfD as an undemocratic party.” On Sunday, AfD won support from across the spectrum to take 20.8 percent of votes, its second-best result yet. That helped push the far-right National Democratic Party out of its last state legislature. Germany’s Central Council of Jews voiced satisfaction at that development, but also concern about AfD. AfD “was unfortunately successful with its tactic of feeding prejudice against minorities and offering slogans instead of solutions,” said the council’s head, Josef Schuster. “Apparently it is not clear to many voters, or they accept this, that AfD doesn’t distance itself clearly from the far-right spectrum either in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or nationally.”[SEP]Merkel: Migrant situation in Germany 'many times better' BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday defended her government's handling of the flood of migrants that crossed into Germany last year, but conceded that more still needs to be done and that concerns that have led to increasing support for an anti-immigrant nationalist party need to be taken seriously. Merkel told lawmakers that since she addressed them at this time last year, Germany has managed to come a long way in dealing with the hundreds of thousands of migrants that flooded in to the country. "The situation is many times better than a year ago, but there remains a lot to do," she said. On the weekend, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union suffered an embarrassing election performance in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency, when it was beaten into third place by the nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, known as AfD. The state is home to few migrants, but Merkel after the election conceded that the result was more about dissatisfaction with national issues rather than local matters. She told Parliament, where AfD is not represented, that the election was a "black eye" inflicted by "those who rely on slogans and seemingly simple answers." She said that voters' concerns "whether founded or unfounded, should be taken seriously" by "all of us in this house," noting that the party had taken away support from all other main parties. "I am quite sure that if we resist this and stick to the truth, then we will win," she said. "And that way we will win back the most important thing that we need — the trust of the people." In the past year, Merkel said, Germany has implemented policies speeding up integration measures for migrants with good prospects of staying, increased school funding to help their educations, and worked with cities and states to find solutions to local problems. Merkel also stressed that the country managed to drastically reduce the influx of new migrants coming to Germany. But she said the country still needs to improve the mechanism for quickly processing and returning home migrants who have little chance of being given asylum. She said Germany has also beefed up police and security forces to fight terrorism, but emphasized that "terrorism is not a new problem that came here with the refugees." "We serve our country in these times of globalization best if we are guided by our values of freedom, security, justice and solidarity," she said.[SEP]BERLIN (AP) — A senior aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging unity in the German leader's conservative bloc amid recriminations over an embarrassing state election performance. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union was beaten into third place by the nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany in Sunday's vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency. The Bavarian branch of Merkel's Union bloc, the Christian Social Union, has long criticized her approach to the migrant crisis. CSU leader Horst Seehofer complained Monday his "repeated demand for a change of course" wasn't heeded and sought a "clarification" of policies by October. FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2011 file picture Bavarian State Governor and Chairman of German Christian Social Union party, CSU, Horst Seehofer, looks on during a party convention of the German Christian Social Union, CSU, in Nuremberg, southern Germany. A senior aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging unity in the German leader¿s conservative bloc amid recriminations over an embarrassing state election performance. The Bavarian branch of Merkel¿s Union bloc, the Christian Social Union, has long criticized her approach to the migrant crisis. CSU leader Horst Seehofer complained Monday Sept. 6, 2016 his "repeated demand for a change of course" wasn¿t heeded and sought a ¿clarification¿ of policies by October. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader,file) CDU general secretary Peter Tauber pointed to forthcoming votes including a state election in Berlin Sept. 18. He said Tuesday: "Our supporters and members ... expect one thing above all of the Union: unity."[SEP]BERLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The leader of the state of Bavaria warned German conservatives on Tuesday that they faced an "extremely threatening" situation after a "disastrous" state election on Sunday which he blamed squarely on Angela Merkel's open-door migrant policy. Exposing deep rifts within Chancellor Merkel's conservative bloc, Horst Seehofer, the combative premier of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), said the chancellor had failed to respond to voters' worries about the migrant crisis. "The situation for the conservatives is extremely threatening," Seehofer told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, adding voters were fed up with "Berlin politics". Merkel's conservatives suffered heavy losses in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday, coming third behind the centre-left Social Democrats and, more surprisingly, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). With a federal election just a year away, Merkel's ratings have fallen to a five-year low since opening German borders to about a million migrants last year and then championing a disputed EU-Turkey deal to solve the crisis. Amid the post-election row, Seehofer has also cancelled a trip to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said the state election disaster was a result of failing to draw the right conclusions after losses in other regional votes this year. Some CSU members have renewed calls for Merkel to put a limit on the number of migrants entering Germany. The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Merkel's right-left coalition, have seized on speculation about whether she may decide not to run in next year's election, although there are no obvious rival conservative candidates. Deputy SPD chairman, Ralf Stegner, told Spiegel Online: "Mrs Merkel has clearly passed her zenith. The question is whether she still has her party behind her." Merkel, chancellor for nearly 11 years, on Monday took responsibility for the state election result but stood by her migrant policy.. She wants the blessing of Seehofer's CSU before declaring she will stand for the chancellorship again. With her party facing losses in a state election in the city of Berlin in two weeks, an INSA poll in Bild on Tuesday showed the conservative bloc unchanged on 30.5 percent at a national level, with the AfD up half a percentage point at 15 percent. "Merkel can only hope that sanity - her sanity - works with voters. It's not certain," wrote top-selling Bild in an editorial. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Catherine Evans)[SEP]BERLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The leader of the state of Bavaria warned German conservatives on Tuesday that they faced an "extremely threatening" situation after a "disastrous" state election on Sunday which he blamed squarely on Angela Merkel's open-door migrant policy. Exposing deep rifts within Chancellor Merkel's conservative bloc, Horst Seehofer, the combative premier of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), said the chancellor had failed to respond to voters' worries about the migrant crisis. "The situation for the conservatives is extremely threatening," Seehofer told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, adding voters were fed up with "Berlin politics". Merkel's conservatives suffered heavy losses in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday, coming third behind the centre-left Social Democrats and, more surprisingly, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). Thorbjorn Jagland, general secretary of the Council of Europe rights body, told a conference hosted by the foreign ministry that he was shocked about the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric used by AfD during the German election. He said statements like "Islam has no place in Europe" were "the beginning of a very, very dangerous development" that contained echoes of the anti-Semitic sentiment of the last century and suggested some effort to push out millions of Muslims who had been living in Europe for years. "What was (considered) extreme five years ago has become more mainstream," he said. "We have had it in the past. We should not allow it to develop again." With a federal election just a year away, Merkel's ratings have fallen to a five-year low since opening German borders to about a million migrants last year and then championing a disputed EU-Turkey deal to solve the crisis. Amid the post-election row, Seehofer has also cancelled a trip to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said the state election disaster was a result of failing to draw the right conclusions after losses in other regional votes this year. Some CSU members have renewed calls for Merkel to put a limit on the number of migrants entering Germany. The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Merkel's right-left coalition, have seized on speculation about whether she may decide not to run in next year's election, although there are no obvious rival conservative candidates. Deputy SPD chairman, Ralf Stegner, told Spiegel Online: "Mrs Merkel has clearly passed her zenith. The question is whether she still has her party behind her." Merkel, chancellor for nearly 11 years, on Monday took responsibility for the state election result but stood by her migrant policy.. She wants the blessing of Seehofer's CSU before declaring she will stand for the chancellorship again. With her party facing losses in a state election in the city of Berlin in two weeks, an INSA poll in Bild on Tuesday showed the conservative bloc unchanged on 30.5 percent at a national level, with the AfD up half a percentage point at 15 percent. "Merkel can only hope that sanity - her sanity - works with voters. It's not certain," wrote top-selling Bild in an editorial. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Catherine Evans and Hugh Lawson)[SEP]Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday vowed to continue efforts to strengthen security at home and speed up repatriations of migrants who were denied asylum in Germany, but insisted the overall situation was much better now than a year ago. Merkel, whose conservative party lost significant ground to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a regional election on Sunday, struck a defiant tone in a speech to parliament, denying that the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants would cut benefits for Germans as some have feared. She also defended her handling of German-Turkish relations and said a European Union deal with Ankara to curb the flow of migrants was necessary and could serve as a model for agreements with other countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel defends her stance regarding the European migrant crisis despite her party losing in the key election.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption John Pienaar looks back at Keith Vaz's political career Labour MP Keith Vaz has stepped down as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee. It follows newspaper claims he paid for the services of two male sex workers. He said: "It is in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee that its important work can be conducted without any distractions whatsoever. "I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain chair. " At the weekend, the Sunday Mirror published pictures it said showed Mr Vaz with male sex workers in a flat in north London that he owns. Illegal drugs were mentioned during a secretly recorded conversation. Another Labour MP will now be elected to replace him, with Conservative MP Tim Loughton taking over as interim chairman. Speaking after Mr Vaz had informed committee colleagues of his intention to resign, Mr Loughton said a new chairman should be in place in October. He said Mr Vaz had given a "very frank account of what had happened" and that the committee had accepted his resignation "with sadness". Image caption Home Affairs Committee members held a press conference after Mr Vaz informed them of his resignation Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has said he would refer the matter to the Commons Standards commissioner and may also report Mr Vaz to police. Married father-of-two Mr Vaz said he was referring the paper's allegations to his solicitor. Keith Vaz biography Born in 1956 to Goan parents in Aden in what is now Yemen, he went to Cambridge University where he studied law and then became a solicitor The Labour Party politician has been MP for Leicester East since 1987 He is Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP and has chaired the influential Home Affairs Select Committee since 2007 He was Britain's Minister for Europe under Tony Blair and said the vote to leave the EU was a "catastrophe" His sister Valerie is Labour MP for Walsall South Keith Vaz - the 'Teflon politician' In his statement announcing his resignation from the chairman role he has held for nine years, Mr Vaz said: "The integrity of the select committee system matters to me. Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable. "I am immeasurably proud of the work the Committee has undertaken over the last nine years, and I am privileged to have been the longest serving Chair of this Committee. "This work has included the publication of 120 reports, hearing evidence from Ministers 113 times, and hearing from a total of 1379 witnesses. I am very pleased that so many Members of the Committee have gone onto high office and Ministerial positions. "This is my decision, and mine alone, and my first consideration has been the effect of recent events on my family." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A member of the home affairs committee says Keith Vaz's resignation was inevitable. He added: "I would like to thank my fellow members of the Committee, past and present, for their tremendous support. I would also like to thank the Clerks of the House for the amazing work they have done to strengthen the Select Committee system, we are not quite on par with the United States, but we are getting there." Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who sits on the Home Affairs committee, said Mr Vaz had done a "fine job" as chairman, but said he had made the right decision in stepping down. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Vaz's future on the party's ruling National Executive would be discussed when it meets. He said: "He's made his decision because he felt that to carry on in the circumstances that he is now involved in would detract from the work of the Home Affairs committee and so he has made that decision for himself."[SEP]Keith Vaz finally quit as chair of a powerful Commons committee - but it was a resignation full of self-pity not remorse. The married father-of-two was last night clinging to the remains of his high-profile political career as he refused to give up a string of other Westminster jobs. Labour MP Mr Vaz finally admitted he could no longer lead the Home Affairs panel after bombshell Sunday Mirror revelations about his use of prostitutes . He said: “Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable.” But his resignation statement only said sorry for “recent events” - and failed to mention the behaviour which triggered his spectacular downfall, making no apology for the shame he has brought on his family, the committee and the House of Commons. Mr Vaz, 59, could have tried to ride out the storm having survived previous sleaze allegations. But committee members distanced themselves from the former Europe Minister after the Sunday Mirror revealed he paid two East European escorts for romps and offered to reimburse someone for cocaine, though he did not want to take the Class A drug himself. • Keith Vaz tapes that prove he was NOT set up, NOT drugged and is NOT fit to chair vice review The committee has held investigations into prostitution, immigration and Government drugs policy under Mr Vaz’s nine-year leadership. But critics warned the scandal rocking Westminster created a conflict of interest which made it impossible for him to continue. Standing down from his high-profile role, Mr Vaz moaned how he was “genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain chair”, whining: “It is in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee that its important work can be conducted without any distractions whatsoever.” He boasted about the number of reports pumped out during his tenure. But there was no mention in the statement of how he met male prostitutes or discussed buying Class A drugs. Nor was there any apology for his actions. There are growing calls for Mr Vaz to quit his positions on other parliamentary committees. He sits on the 22-strong Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, which scrutinises the National Security Council and National Security Adviser. He is also on the 11-strong Commons Administration Committee, which looks at services provided by Westminster authorities for MPs and the public. He is also a member of the Privy Council, which advises the Queen and is made up of 600 MPs and peers as well as bishops, judges and members of the Royal Family. The last person to be expelled from the Privy Council was Labour MP Elliot Morley who was kicked out in 2011 after being jailed for fiddling his expenses. Several former politicians have resigned from the Council in disgrace including former Tory Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, who was jailed for perjury, and former Tory Defence Secretary John Profumo. • Brazen MP Keith Vaz greeted by silence in Commons as pressure mounts over prostitutes scandal The Council meets about once a month in the presence of the Queen but not every member is invited. Usually the meetings are confined to a select group of serving ministers. Urging Mr Vaz to give up all his roles, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: “The Security Committee is far more sensitive than the Home Affairs Committee. “In the spirit of consistency, absolutely he should go from them all.” Mr Bridgen also demanded Mr Vaz stand down as MP for Leicester East, saying he was “not fit to be an MP”. Outgoing select committee chairmen are often handed knighthoods for their service. • Sex shame politician Keith Vaz told quit now: 'He's not fit to be an MP, call in cops' But Mr Bridgen warned that creating Sir Keith Vaz was “completely out of the question”, saying: “It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious.” It is understood Mr Vaz hopes to carry on serving on Labour’s ruling national executive committee. He has not been suspended from the party - despite facing up to three separate investigations from the police, Westminster sleaze busters and the Charity Commission. Mr Vaz arrived at today's crunch Home Affairs Committee with an aide who was clutching a big bouquet of flowers. His humiliation and looming resignation descended into farce when he first tried to enter the Grimond Room by the wrong door. Moments later Commons officials evacuated Westminster’s Portcullis House after a small fire was discovered. MPs, researchers and reporters were ordered to leave - forcing Mr Vaz to walk out alongside journalists camped outside the committee room. The brazen backbencher beamed and joked with some reporters as they filed out. But he told one TV newsman: “Why would I talk to you all on camera when you say such nice things about me?” He declined to comment when approached by the Mirror. But his temporary successor as Home Affairs Committee chairman, Tory Tim Loughton, revealed MPs listened in “sadness” as Mr Vaz confirmed he was standing down. Mr Loughton said: “Keith Vaz was exceedingly frank and open with the committee, as he has always been in all his time that I have been on the committee – and I am the longest serving Conservative member. “He was genuinely sad about what has happened. “He apologised to the committee for the trouble this has caused and obviously acknowledges that, and these are private matters he will have to deal with. “But absolutely what was paramount to him, characteristically, is the reputation and the work of the committee going forward.” The acting chairman said the attention focused on Mr Vaz could jeopardise the integrity of the committee’s work if he tried to struggle on. • Married MP Keith Vaz tells prostitutes in his flat: 'Bring poppers' ... 'We need to get this party started' “Clearly that could be ongoing and that could undermine the very important work and very important studies that we need to carry out,” Mr Loughton said. “And on that basis he has taken that decision and the committee agreed with him that that was the rightful selection for him to take with regret.” The Conservative MP said: “I think he has done the right and honourable thing. “It was the inevitable thing, I think, given the nature of the allegations and his role as chairman of the committee.” Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith told the BBC: “I don’t think he could have continued in that role. “I’m pleased he’s done what I think we all expected he would do and has stood down.” Asked whether Prime Minister Theresa May backed his resignation, a spokeswoman said: “It is a decision for him.” A new chairman is set to be elected next month, with Labour’s Chuka Umunna tipped to take over. The former Shadow Business Secretary was staying tight-lippedtoday, claiming it was “premature to start declaring what one is going to do or not going to do”. Mr Umunna added: “I don’t think now is the appropriate time to start talking about who is going to be the new chair of the select committee.”[SEP]Keith Vaz has stood down as chair of the home affairs select committee following three days of allegations involving sex workers and drugs. The MP for Leicester East told committee members on Tuesday morning and consulted with the office of Jeremy Corbyn before announcing the decision. It means that a new chair will be chosen within weeks. The position will be hotly contested. In nine years in the post, Vaz has made the role one of the most high-profile and effective in parliament outside government. But he said he had to leave it because of the effects of the intense publicity upon his wife and children. In a sombre statement, Vaz said he was “genuinely sorry” that he could not continue in the role. “It is in the best interest of the home affairs select committee that its important work can be conducted without any distractions whatsoever. I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain chair,” he said. He conceded that as chair he was accountable for his actions. “I have always been passionate about select committees,” he said, “having served as either chair or member for half of my time in parliament. The integrity of the select committee system matters to me. Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable. “I told the committee today of my decision to stand aside immediately from committee business, and my intention to resign. This is my decision, and mine alone, and my first consideration has been the effect of recent events on my family. I have recommended that in the interim, Tim Loughton MP, the senior Conservative member, should chair proceedings. “After speaking to the house authorities, I will formally tender my resignation to Mr Speaker so that it coincides with the timetable for the election of other committee chairs, such as the Brexit committee, culture, media and sport, and science and technology, so that the elections can take place together.” Vaz faced a string of claims against him after a Sunday Mirror sting. The newspaper accused him of paying for male escorts, discussing the use of recreational drugs such as cocaine, and encouraging others to use poppers. On Monday, Theresa May increased the pressure on Vaz by calling for MPs to maintain the public’s confidence in them or consider their positions. Speaking at the G20 summit in China, the prime minister said: “What has been clear throughout my political career, and what is important for people, is that they feel they are able to have confidence in their politicians, and that is what we have a duty to apply for those who elect us. “What Keith does is for Keith and any decisions he wishes to make are for him. But overall, what people want is confidence in their politicians.” The Sunday Mirror reported that Vaz had paid for the services of male sex workers and had asked one of them to bring along poppers, a sex-enhancing drug that the government nearly banned earlier this year. Vaz has apologised to his family, but condemned the tactics of the newspaper reporters. On Monday, he appeared in the House of Commons chamber to take part in questions to the home secretary, Amber Rudd. He welcomed Rudd to her role and asked about terrorism suspects who had fled Britain while on police bail to join Islamic State. Vaz made no mention of the newspaper reports. Vaz could face an investigation by the commissioner for standards over the newspaper claims. It was alleged that he met male eastern European sex workers at a flat he owns in north London. According to the paper, Vaz asked one of the men in a text message sent before the encounter to bring poppers. Vaz had argued in parliament that poppers should not be included in a list of substances banned by the 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act. In the Sunday Mirror, he is quoted as telling the escorts that he did not use poppers himself. Vaz reportedly told the men that his name was Jim and he was a washing machine salesman. He was quoted discussing with the men the possibility of obtaining cocaine for the next time they met, although Vaz reportedly said he would not want to take the drug himself. Following claims by Vaz’s friends that the MP may have been drugged during the sting, the Daily Mirror released new details on Monday night of the alleged encounter, which the paper claims was the second meeting between Vaz and the two sex workers. It included a transcript of him allegedly ordering them to take up sexual positions. The Mirror claims it is proof that he was in control of the situation.[SEP]British Labour MP Keith Vaz is to quit as head of one of the most influential House of Commons committees after he was embroiled in rent boy revelations. Announcing his resignation, the Labour MP said: “Those who hold others to account must themselves be accountable.” Mr Vaz’s departure as chairman of the home affairs committee comes days after reports emerged claiming that he paid two male escorts he met at a flat he owns near his family home in north London last month. The 59-year-old Leicester East MP has said he has referred the allegations to his solicitor. His chairmanship of the committee has come under intense scrutiny and in a statement on Tuesday Mr Vaz confirmed he would be standing down. He said: “It is in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee that its important work can be conducted without any distractions whatsoever. I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain Chair. “I have always been passionate about select committees, having served as either chair or member for half of my time in Parliament. The integrity of the Select Committee system matters to me. Those who hold others to account, must themselves be accountable.” He insisted he was “immeasurably proud” of the work the committee has carried out over the last nine years, adding that he is “privileged to have been the longest serving chair of this committee”. Mr Vaz said the decision to resign and stand aside immediately from the committee’s business was “my decision, and mine alone” and “my first consideration has been the effect of recent events on my family”. He has recommended that, in the interim, Conservative MP Tim Loughton should chair proceedings. Mr Vaz thanked fellow committee members past and present “for their tremendous support”, as well as Commons and committee clerks. Conservative Home Affairs Committee member David Burrowes told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “I think he has done the right and honourable thing. It was the inevitable thing, I think, given the nature of the allegations and his role as chairman of the committee. “It wasn’t a party political view ... It would have been a cross-party view that would have been given to Keith and he has taken the right view for the good of the committee.” Mr Burrowes said Mr Vaz was “an excellent chair” but his position was “untenable”. His continued occupancy of the chair would have led the committee’s integrity “being called into question”, he said. The committee’s inquiries into issues like prostitution or drugs “demand an objective view and one that isn’t likely to be conflicted and isn’t liable to be undermined or compromised”, said Mr Burrowes. “What has been exposed through the papers meant he was fatally compromised to continue as chair.” Mr Vaz said nothing to waiting reporters as he arrived for the meeting, which was being held behind closed doors in a Commons committee room. The MP was accompanied by an aide carrying a large bouquet of flowers. The meeting broke up after around 10 minutes as MPs went to take part in a Commons vote. A smiling Mr Vaz made no comment to the press as he left. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Vaz’s future on the party’s ruling National Executive would be discussed when it meets. He said: “He’s made his decision because he felt that to carry on in the circumstances that he is now involved in would detract from the work of the Home Affairs Committee and so he has made that decision for himself.” – PA[SEP]Keith Vaz is expected to stand down as chair of a parliamentary select committee after the reporting of allegations involving sex workers and drugs. An informed source told the Guardian the Labour MP will tell the home affairs select committee that he will step down as chair at a meeting in parliament on Tuesday. Vaz has faced a string of claims against him after a Sunday Mirror sting accused him of paying for male prostitutes, discussing the use of recreational drugs, such as cocaine, and encouraging others to use poppers. It remains unclear, however, whether he will step down permanently or try to leave the door open for a possible return in the future. A source said: “He will let them know his decision late today. He needs to let the committee continue its work.” The committee is due to question the immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, from 3.30pm. On Monday, Theresa May increased the pressure on Vaz by calling for MPs to maintain the public’s confidence in them or consider their positions. Speaking at the G20 summit in China, the prime minister said: “What has been clear throughout my political career, and what is important for people, is that they feel they are able to have confidence in their politicians, and that is what we have a duty to apply for those who elect us. “What Keith does is for Keith and any decisions he wishes to make are for him. But overall, what people want is confidence in their politicians.” The Sunday Mirror reported that Vaz had paid for the services of male prostitutes and had asked one of them to bring along poppers, a sex-enhancing drug that the government nearly banned earlier this year. Vaz has apologised to his family, but condemned the tactics of the newspaper reporters. On Monday, he appeared in the House of Commons chamber to take part in questions to the home secretary, Amber Rudd. He welcomed Rudd to her role and asked about terrorist suspects who had fled Britain while on police bail to join Islamic State. Vaz made no mention of the newspaper reports. The MP for Leicester East could face an investigation by the commissioner for standards over the newspaper claims. It was alleged that he met male eastern European sex workers at a flat he owns in north London. According to the paper, Vaz asked one of the men in a text message sent before the encounter to bring poppers. Vaz had argued in parliament that poppers should not be included in a list of substances banned by the 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act. In the Sunday Mirror, he is quoted as telling the escorts that he did not use poppers himself. Vaz reportedly told the men that his name was Jim and he was a washing machine salesman. He was quoted discussing with the men the possibility of obtaining cocaine for the next time they met, although Vaz reportedly said he would not want to take the drug himself. Following claims by Vaz’s friends that the MP may have been drugged during the sting, the Daily Mirror released new details on Monday night of the alleged encounter, which the paper claims was the second meeting between Vaz and the two sex workers. It included a transcript of him allegedly ordering them to take up sexual positions. The Mirror claims it is proof that he was in control of the situation.[SEP]East Worthing and Shoreham’s MP has taken over a committee chairmanship vacated by scandal-hit Labour MP Keith Vaz. Tim Loughton will serve as interim chair of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, until a permanent successor is chosen. Mr Vaz resigned as chair today (Tuesday September 6) following allegations first printed in a Sunday newspaper. Mr Loughton, who is currently the longest serving Conservative on the committee, said: “Keith Vaz came to the meeting of the select committee. He gave a very frank account of what had happened and he told us of his intention to resign as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee. “He has issued a statement and he is writing to the speaker of the House of Commons to signal his resignation and in due course an election will be held for a new Labour member to take over as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee. “In the interim the committee has nominated me to be the acting chair for the next few weeks until that election takes place. “Now I think the committee listened in sadness to what Keith had to say with a good deal of respect. “He has clearly acted in the best interests of the Home Affairs Select Committee and the important work that we do and with sadness we all accepted that was the appropriate course of action that he has taken and we also appreciate the many challenges facing him personally and his family. “Notwithstanding the press stories all members of the Home Affairs Select Committee across all the parties paid very fulsome tributes to the work that Keith has done. “It is remarkable that he’s been chairman of the select committee for nine years, the longest serving select committee chair.” Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live. 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She said: "19 yrs an MP, nearly half as a backbencher, served on 3 Select Cttes, former HO Minister - I am standing to be Chair of @CommonsHomeAffs." Mr Vaz will be replaced in his role as Chair by another Labour MP through an election. Every MP will get a vote in the election, which is expected to take place next month. Keith Vaz stepped down as chairman on Tuesday, following newspaper claims the Labour MP paid for the services of two male sex workers. At the weekend, the Sunday Mirror published pictures which it said showed Mr Vaz with male sex workers in a flat in north London that he owns. Illegal drugs were also mentioned during a secretly recorded conversation. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has said he would refer the matter to the Commons Standards commissioner and may also report Mr Vaz to police. Married father-of-two Mr Vaz said he was referring the paper's allegations to his solicitor.[SEP]BELEAGUERED MP Keith Vaz has quit as chairman of an influential House of Commons committee just days after becoming embroiled in a scandal involving male escorts. He has given up his chairmanship of the Home Affairs Committee following the allegations. The Mirror newspaper published new transcripts of a recording of the MP talking with the two escorts, which it said scotched suggestions that he was the victim of a “press sting”. According to the paper, the tape showed Mr Vaz telling one of the men to treat the other as his “bitch” and discussing having sex. READ MORE: Keith Vaz returns to work a day after male escort scandal Following reports in the Sunday Mirror at the weekend that he had paid escorts and discussed the use of legal and illegal drugs, the Leicester East MP initially told reporters he planned to stand aside as chairman “with immediate effect”. But he later said publicly that he wanted to discuss the situation with committee members before deciding how to proceed. Prime Minister Theresa May stepped up pressure when she said that voters must be able to have confidence in their politicians. Speaking during a visit to China, Mrs May said: “What Keith does is for Keith and any decisions he wishes to make are for him.” But she added: “I have always been clear throughout my political career that what is important for people is that they feel that they are able to have confidence in their politicians. That is what I think we all have a duty to provide for those who elect us.” Asked whether he expected Mr Vaz to step down, former Labour minister Ed Balls told ITV1’s Good Morning Britain: “I think he will. I think in the end, yes.” Mr Vaz, who has publicly apologised to his wife and children for causing them “hurt and distress”, is facing a possible investigation by Commons’ sleaze watchdogs. READ MORE: Vaz to quit influential committee role after male escort allegations The Sunday Mirror claimed that money was paid into an account used by one of the escorts by a man linked to a charity set up by the MP, though there was no suggestion that the charity’s money was used. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn indicated there was no need for Mr Vaz to stand down from the party, stating: “Well, he hasn’t committed any crime that I know of. As far as I’m aware it is a private matter, and I will obviously be talking to Keith.” ’Like’ The Scotsman on Facebook for regular updates DOWNLOAD THE SCOTSMAN APP ON ITUNES OR GOOGLE PLAY[SEP]Keith Vaz is to quit as chairman of the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee after he was embroiled in rent boy revelations. Announcing his resignation, the Labour MP said: "Those who hold others to account must themselves be accountable." Mr Vaz's statement had been circulated to media under an embargo until later on Tuesday but it was widely reported on social media. Mr Vaz said: "It is in the best interest of the Home Affairs Select Committee that its important work can be conducted without any distractions whatsoever. "I am genuinely sorry that recent events make it impossible for this to happen if I remain chair. "I have always been passionate about select committees, having served as either chair or member for half of my time in Parliament. The integrity of the select committee system matters to me. "Those who hold others to account must themselves be accountable." He insisted he was "immeasurably proud" of the work the committee has undertaken over the last nine years, adding that he is "privileged to have been the longest serving chair of this committee". Mr Vaz said: "This work has included the publication of 120 reports, hearing evidence from ministers 113 times, and hearing from a total of 1,379 witnesses." He said the decision to resign and stand aside immediately from the committee's business was "my decision, and mine alone" and "my first consideration has been the effect of recent events on my family". Mr Vaz has recommended that, in the interim, Conservative MP Tim Loughton should chair proceedings. He said: "After speaking to the House authorities, I will formally tender my resignation to Mr Speaker so that it coincides with the timetable for the election of other committee chairs, such as the Brexit Committee, Culture, Media and Sport, and Science and Technology, so that the elections can take place together." He thanked fellow committee members past and present "for their tremendous support", as well as Commons and committee clerks. Conservative Home Affairs Committee member David Burrowes told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "I think he has done the right and honourable thing. It was the inevitable thing, I think, given the nature of the allegations and his role as chairman of the committee. "It wasn't a party political view ... It would have been a cross-party view that would have been given to Keith and he has taken the right view for the good of the committee." Mr Burrowes said Mr Vaz was "an excellent chair" but his position was "untenable". His continued occupancy of the chair would have led the committee's integrity "being called into question", he said. The committee's inquiries into issues like prostitution or drugs "demand an objective view and one that isn't likely to be conflicted and isn't liable to be undermined or compromised", said Mr Burrowes. "What has been exposed through the papers meant he was fatally compromised to continue as chair."[SEP]Keith Vaz is a wily and slippery politician who has triumphantly navigated his way through a succession of scandals only to emerge with an even broader grin on his self-satisfied face. Now the Sunday Mirror has made what appear to be cast-iron allegations that the married Labour magnifico paid two male escorts for sex, this master escapologist would seem to have his work cut out if he is to survive his latest embarrassment. Nonetheless, the Houdini of modern politics is attempting to turn the tables by putting the paper in the dock, where most fair-minded people would say he should be standing. After the Sunday Mirror’s revelations, Vaz pompously declared that ‘it was deeply troubling that a national newspaper should have paid individuals who have acted in this way’. Note he failed to specify the exact nature of the newspaper’s supposedly heinous behaviour. He simply sought to smear it in general terms in the hope that public opinion will regard him as a casualty of tabloid dirty tricks, even though no evidence has been produced that there were any. His approach may be working. On Sunday, BBC1’s News At Ten introduced the story in this manner: ‘One of Labour’s most high-profile MPs, Keith Vaz, has criticised a national newspaper after it publicised claims that he hired male escorts.’ How cock-a-hoop Vaz must have been. The BBC inverted the story by first shining the spotlight not on Vaz but on the Sunday Mirror, which had ‘publicised claims’. The implication was the newspaper had a case to answer for choosing to circulate unsubstantiated allegations. There was surely a more honest way of presenting this story. The Sunday Mirror has produced extensive evidence that the Labour chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee paid two male Eastern European prostitutes for sex. And although Vaz has criticised the paper, he has not denied its story is true. Over the coming days, I expect the sinuous MP to cultivate the notion that he is a hapless victim of Press intrusion into his private life. He hopes, following the phone-hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry into Press ethics, that public opinion will side with him against the supposedly rapacious tabloids. A tragic picture of St Keith the martyr will be assiduously assembled by his supporters in the Commons and the media. We will be offered an image of a wronged man who was blamelessly pursing his private tastes with two consenting adults. Before this orgy of self-righteousness gets much further, let me examine the allegations against Vaz in more detail, and explain why I believe the Sunday Mirror (a Labour-supporting title with no political animus against Vaz) was serving the public interest by exposing him. I am taking on trust that throughout its investigations the Sunday Mirror acted entirely lawfully, and in accordance with the Press code of conduct. At the very centre of this story is the issue of whether the Press has any business to write about the aberrational sexual behaviour of public figures. Jeremy Corbyn has already produced the usual argument that what such people get up to in private should be their own affair so long as it is legal. But is this really true? Imagine that Keith Vaz, or any other politician for that matter, used male prostitutes all the time. Even Jeremy Corbyn might concede that in such a case it was permissible to run a story. In other words, the legality of an act need be no defence against publication. It is a matter of judgment where you draw the line. In my opinion, the Sunday Mirror had every right to put Vaz’s alleged payment to two male escorts (and the suggestion he had used others) into the public domain. It is obviously significant that the MP is married, and a professed heterosexual. It’s also undeniable that paying young men for sex is a form of exploitation. The newspaper correctly judged that even in an age of ever increasing sexual licence, most people will be shocked by Mr Vaz’s reported conduct. If he did not know that it would be widely considered reprehensible, he would not have bothered to conceal it. Of course, politicians have a right to a private life, but they are not quite in the position of almost everyone else by virtue of the enormous power they can wield. If their private behaviour diverges in a dysfunctional way from their carefully contrived public personae, I want to be told. Moreover, there are special considerations in this instance which further vindicate the Sunday Mirror’s story. Vaz was recorded asking the East Europeans to bring ‘poppers’ — sex-enhancing drugs — to a liaison, and admitted to having taken some himself. Vaz has argued in the Commons against banning these drugs, and they were later removed from a list of substances outlawed by a new Bill. Had he used poppers when he spoke in their partial defence, and, if so, shouldn’t he have said so? His Commons committee is carrying out an inquiry into prostitution, focusing on whether ‘the balance in the burden of criminality should shift to those who pay for sex rather than sell it’. I suppose Vaz’s bizarre experiences might afford him special insights, but until now they have remained undisclosed, and he can hardly have been an even-handed chairman. Vaz in the past has also deplored the use of cocaine. And yet, according to the Sunday Mirror, he offered to buy some for one East European prostitute, though he said he did not want any of the drug himself. Isn’t this a disturbing contradiction? For my money, the Sunday Mirror would have been justified in running its story even without these additional damning details since he is a powerful man who, by the by, holds others to account in the most overbearing way in his Commons committee. As it is, I can’t see any decent argument against publication — as long, I repeat, as the Sunday Mirror behaved lawfully — and Mr Vaz’s slurs against the paper, and his attempt to paint himself as a victim, are breathtaking. Yesterday afternoon, the MP attempted to brazen it out, asking a question in the Commons in his most lordly manner about Britons going off to fight for Syria as though nothing had happened. Meanwhile, his lawyers have sent a letter to Tory MP, Andrew Bridgen — one of Vaz’s most outspoken critics over the past couple of days, and previously — accusing him of spreading ‘false and highly defamatory scuttlebutt’ about him. They had the gall to threaten to sue him ‘if this shabby behaviour continues’. Shabby behaviour! I can think of one MP who is guilty of that — and worse. Vaz really is shameless. He has blustered and evaded his way through previous scandals, and faced with accusations of sexual misconduct he now resorts to well-tried techniques. It’s time he was finally dealt with. He won’t voluntarily fall on his sword. If the members of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee wish to retain public respect, they must give this sleazy old rogue the heave-ho. The electors of Leicester East can then decide what to do with him. Keith Vaz is neither a victim nor a martyr. He, and he alone, is responsible for what he did. I’m glad there are still newspapers brave enough to stand up to such a man.

British MP Keith Vaz quits the Home Affairs Select Committee following allegations that he had engaged in sexual activity with male prostitutes.

Giant storms that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines have grown 50% stronger in the past 40 years due to warming seas The destructive power of the typhoons that wreak havoc across China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines has intensified by 50% in the past 40 years due to warming seas, a new study has found. The researchers warn that global warming will lead the giant storms to become even stronger in the future, threatening the large and growing coastal populations of those nations. “It is a very, very substantial increase,” said Prof Wei Mei, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who led the new work. “We believe the results are very important for east Asian countries because of the huge populations in these areas. People should be aware of the increase in typhoon intensity because when they make landfall these can cause much more damage.” Typhoons can have devastating impacts in east Asia. In 2013, typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, killing at least 6,300 people and affecting 11 million. Typhoon Nina struck China in 1975, dumping 100cm of rain in a day and leading to 229,000 deaths and 6m destroyed buildings. Last week typhoon Lionrock left 11 people dead in northern Japan and caused power blackouts and property damage, while in July typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan and China, killing at least nine people and leaving a trail of destruction. In the new research, published in Nature Geoscience, the scientists took data collected independently by centres in Japan and Hawaii and, after accounting for differences in the way it had been collected, showed that typhoons in the north-west Pacific had intensified by 12–15% on average since 1977. The proportion of the most violent storms - categories 4 and 5 - doubled and even tripled in some regions over that time and the intensification was most marked for those storms which hit land. The intensity of a typhoon is measured by the maximum sustained wind speed, but the damage caused by its high winds, storm surges, intense rains and floods increases disproportionately, meaning a 15% rise in intensity leads to a 50% rise in destructive power. Facebook Twitter Pinterest People take cover under a tree after strong winds brought by typhoon Rammasun, locally called Glenda, battered Manila in the Philippines, July 2014. Photograph: Romeo Ranoco/REUTERS The researchers showed that the intensification of typhoons making landfall occurred because warmer coastal seas provided more energy to growing storms, enabling their wind speeds to increase more rapidly. Scientists are not yet able to determine whether manmade climate change or natural cycles are to blame for the warming seas in the region because 40 years is a relatively short time span for such phenomena. But Wei is clear that the future global warming, as projected by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, would heat the oceans in the region and lead to even more intense typhoons. Mei said: “We want to give the message that typhoon intensity has increased and will increase in the future because of the warming climate.” He said action was needed to both prepare for future typhoons and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to curb warming: “Understanding intensity change is very important for disaster preparation.” Prof Kerry Emanuel, an expert on tropical cyclones at MIT and not involved in the new research said: “The results leave little doubt that there are more high intensity events affecting south-east Asia and China, and these are also intensifying more rapidly.” “This is significant for these nations because what matters, in the end, is landfall size and intensity,” he said. “Stronger storms cause higher storm surges, which often cause the most destruction and loss of life.” Previous work by Emanuel showed tropical cyclones are likely to become more frequent and stronger if climate change is not curbed.[SEP]Intensity changes in landfalling typhoons are of great concern to East and Southeast Asian countries1. Regional changes in typhoon intensity, however, are poorly known owing to inconsistencies among different data sets2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Here, we apply cluster analysis to bias-corrected data and show that, over the past 37 years, typhoons that strike East and Southeast Asia have intensified by 12–15%, with the proportion of storms of categories 4 and 5 having doubled or even tripled. In contrast, typhoons that stay over the open ocean have experienced only modest changes. These regional changes are consistent between operational data sets. To identify the physical mechanisms, we decompose intensity changes into contributions from intensification rate and intensification duration. We find that the increased intensity of landfalling typhoons is due to strengthened intensification rates, which in turn are tied to locally enhanced ocean surface warming on the rim of East and Southeast Asia. The projected ocean surface warming pattern under increasing greenhouse gas forcing suggests that typhoons striking eastern mainland China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan will intensify further. Given disproportionate damages by intense typhoons1, this represents a heightened threat to people and properties in the region.[SEP]Study: Typhoons that slam Asia getting much stronger WASHINGTON (AP) — Typhoons that slam into land in the northwestern Pacific — especially the biggest tropical cyclones of the bunch — have gotten considerably stronger since the 1970s, a new study concludes. Overall, landfalling Asian typhoon intensity has increased by about 12 percent in nearly four decades. But the change is most noticeable for storms with winds of 209 kilometers per hour or more (130 mph), those in categories 4 and 5. Since 1977, they've gone from a once-a-year occurrence to four times a year, according to a study Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience. These are storms like Lionrock that in August killed at least 17 people, about half of them elderly residents of a Japanese nursing home, and Haiyan — one of the strongest storms on record, killing more than 6,000 people in the Philippines in 2013. Study lead author Wei Mei, a climate scientist at the University of North Carolina, connects the strengthening of these storms to warmer seawater near the coasts. That provides more fuel for the typhoons. Along much of the Asian coast, water has warmed by nearly 0.8 degrees (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1970s. Mei didn't study why the water is warming, but says it is probably due to a combination of natural local weather phenomena and warming from the burning of fossil fuels. Mei and two other outside scientists say it is too early to say precisely that the increased intensity is from man-made climate change. But as the world warms more in the future, stronger storms are likely to get even more intense, especially north of 10 degrees North latitude, where China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan are located, Mei says. Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach says the study makes sense and raises interesting questions, but adds that some of the storms before 1987 might have had their wind speeds under-estimated. Mei said he thinks that time period actually had better measurements because planes were then flying into storms to gauge their strength. Mei didn't study tropical cyclone intensification in other parts of the world. Follow Seth Borenstein at http://twitter.com/borenbears and his work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/seth-borenstein[SEP]Typhoons that slam into Japan, China, Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula have gotten considerably stronger since the 1970s, a new study concludes. Overall, Asian typhoon intensity has increased by about 12 percent in the last four decades, according to a study released Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience. But the change is most noticeable for category 4 and 5 storms with winds of 209 kph or more. Since 1977, they’ve gone from a once-a-year occurrence to four times a year. These are storms like Typhoon Lionrock, which in August killed at least 17 people, about half of them elderly residents of a Japanese nursing home, and Haiyan — one of the strongest storms on record, killing more than 6,000 people in the Philippines in 2013. Study lead author Wei Mei, a climate scientist at the University of North Carolina, connects the strengthening of these storms to warmer seawater near coasts. This provides more fuel for the typhoons. Along much of the Asian coast, water has warmed by nearly 0.8 degree (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1970s. Mei didn’t study why the water is warming but says it is probably due to a combination of natural local weather phenomena and warming from the burning of fossil fuels. He and two other outside scientists say it is too early to say precisely that the increased intensity is from man-made climate change. But as the world warms more in the future, stronger storms are likely to get even more intense, especially north of 20 degrees north latitude, where eastern China, Taiwan the Korean Peninsula and Japan are located, Mei says. Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach says the study makes sense and raises interesting questions but adds that some of the storms before 1987 might have had their wind speeds underestimated. Mei said he thinks that time period actually had better measurements because planes would fly into storms to gauge their strength. Mei didn’t study tropical cyclone intensification in other parts of the world. A week after Typhoon Lionrock hit the Tohoku region, hundreds of residents remained isolated in Iwate Prefecture as of Tuesday with roads still cut off. In the town of Iwaizumi, an estimated 321 residents were believed to be still isolated, with another 167 people facing the same situation in the city of Kuji. Authorities on Monday lifted an evacuation order in Iwaizumi that was issued in preparation for approaching Typhoon Namtheun, the 12th typhoon this year. The storm weakened Monday and was redesignated as a tropical depression. Some elementary schools in the town reopened for classes Tuesday. Volunteer activities, which had been suspended, were also resumed. “All of our 141 children are safe. But some have seen their houses damaged as well as their relatives affected (by the storm),” Kazue Takahashi, principal of one of the reopened elementary schools in Iwaizumi, told a schoolwide assembly. “I know it’s hard, but please remember that you can return to normal life when in school.” Iwaizumi was one of the hardest-hit areas in Iwate. Nine residents of a group home for the elderly were killed when the facility was flooded. On Tuesday morning, some 30 Iwaizumi officials, including Mayor Katsumi Date, observed a moment of silence where prayers were offered for the victims of the typhoon at the start of a meeting of the town’s disaster response committee. “It doesn’t feel real to me that one week has passed,” Date said after the meeting. “I feel truly sorry and filled with regret.” At the prefectural government office in Morioka, Iwate Gov. Takuya Tasso and other officials also prayed for the disaster victims. Typhoon Lionrock left 16 people dead and seven missing in Iwate, and two dead and two missing in Hokkaido.[SEP]The most destructive categories of tropical storms to strike the heavily populated regions of east Asia are becoming more intense and increasing as much as four-fold in frequency because of climate change, according to new research by US-based scientists. Since the late 1970s, typhoons making land in a region stretching from Vietnam and the Philippines to Korea and Japan have become 12 per cent to 15 per cent more intense. Those hitting south-east Asia with a category 4 or 5 strength have more than doubled in number, with the increase even more for China and Taiwan and regions north, the paper published in Nature Geoscience on Tuesday found. The increase in sea-surface temperature is key to providing extra energy to tropical storms, with the outcome for the megacities of the region looking grimmer. READ MORE: * Eleven dead in Japanese typhoon * Typhoon hits site of 2011 tsunami in Japan * Typhoon too big for space camera For eastern Asia, the strongest storms are now as many as four or more a year compared with about one a year three decades ago, the researchers found. "The intensification is strongest for typhoons that tend to make landfall because of the stronger warming of the coastal waters near east and south-east Asia," said Wei Mei, a researcher in the department of marine sciences at the University of South Carolina and co-author of the paper. Additional warming is expected to intensify the storms, particularly in some of east Asia's main economic centres, Mei said: "The typhoons striking mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea will intensify further because of the faster warming of waters of 20 degrees north." The paper's release comes just days after China and the United States used the backdrop of the G20 leaders summit in east China's Hangzhou city to announce the world's two biggest carbon emitters would formally ratify the Paris climate agreement. "Our response to climate change bears on the future of our people and the wellbeing of mankind," Xi Jinping, China's president, said. This year is well on course to becoming the hottest year on record with preliminary data for August revealing yet another month with record-breaking warmth in a row. The north-west Pacific basin has both the largest data set of super typhoon-strength storms and the clearest trend towards intensification as the planet warms, Steve Turton, an adjunct professor at the Central Queensland University, said. This year has also been an active one for the region. By contrast, the trends are not being replicated so far in the south-west Pacific, northeast of New Zealand and Australia. "In the Australian region, it's pretty flat," Turton said. "We are not seeing any trends at all." That outcome, though, is expected to change. "With global warming of the oceans and atmosphere, we can expect tropical cyclones to increase in frequency and intensity in all the basins," Turton said. Apart from the social and economic consequences of more intense storms, ecosystems such as forests are likely to suffer more destruction and take longer to recover or favour species more able to cope with disruption, he said. For hilly regions, such as Hong Kong or elsewhere in the storm tracks, populated areas may become more exposed to landslides from the intensifying storms, he said.[SEP]China, Taiwan, Japan and the Koreas will experience more violent typhoons under climate change, said researchers Monday, presenting evidence for a recent rise in storm intensity caused by ocean warming. Scientists have struggled to identify changes in the intensity and frequency of typhoons over the northwest Pacific ocean -- never mind trying to pinpoint a role for global warming. Contradictory trends emerge from records such as the Joint Typhoon Warming Center and the Japan Meteorological Agency -- the two most widely-used data sets in typhoon research, according to the US-based study authors Wei Mei and Shang-Ping Xie. They have now corrected the available data for differences in methodology and discovered a single, clear trend. "Over the past 37 years, typhoons that strike east and southeast Asia have intensified by 12-15 percent," they wrote in the journal Nature Geoscience. And the data showed this intensification, in turn, was linked to ocean surface warming -- possibly caused by climate change, though this is yet to be proven. Projections for ocean warming if humans continue to emit planet-harming greenhouse gases, said the team, "suggest that typhoons striking eastern mainland China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan will intensify further. "Given disproportionate damages by intense typhoons, this represents a heightened threat to people and properties in the region." The human population in these coastal areas was growing fast, they pointed out, and sea levels were rising. The world's nations concluded a pact in Paris last December to halt the march of climate change, which threatens stronger storms, longer droughts and land-gobbling sea-level rise. This would be achieved by curbing the emission of heat-trapping gases from the use of fossil fuels.

A study concludes that typhoons in Asia are becoming stronger.

(CNN) There's mixed news in the animal kingdom, as one beloved species celebrates increased numbers and another slips closer to extinction. These developments come from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species , which assesses a species' conservation status. First, the good news: The giant panda is no longer an endangered species Thanks to an increase in available habitat, the population of the giant panda rose 17% from 2004 to 2014, leading the IUCN to downgrade it from endangered to vulnerable. A nationwide census in 2014 found 1,864 giant pandas in the wild in China, up from 1,596 in 2004, the IUCN said in its report on the animal. Revered in Chinese culture, the giant panda was once widespread throughout southern China. Since the 1970s, it has been the focus of one of the most intensive, high-profile campaigns to recover an endangered species, after a census by the Chinese government found around 2,459 pandas in the world -- proof of its precarious position, according to the World Wildlife Fund Giant panda cub Nuan Nuan lives at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur. China banned trading panda skins in 1981, and the enactment of the 1988 Wildlife Protection Law banned poaching and conferred the highest protected status to the animal. The creation of a panda reserve system in 1992 increased available habitats; today, there are 67 reserves in the country that protect 67% of the population and nearly 1.4 million hectares of habitat. Meanwhile, partnerships between the Chinese government and international conservation nongovernmental organizations and zoos have spread research, conservation and breeding efforts. Zoo Atlanta announced Saturday that 19-year-old Lun Lun, originally from China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, had given birth to twins The improved status confirms that the Chinese government's reforestation and forest protection efforts are working, the IUCN said. But climate change still threatens to eliminate more than 35% of the panda's bamboo habitat in the next 80 years; hence the "vulnerable" designation, which means it's still at risk of extinction. "The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity," said WWF Director General Marco Lambertini. Now, the bad news: The eastern gorilla is critically endangered Eastern gorillas populate the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, northwest Rwanda and southwest Uganda, making them another victim of the region's civil wars. Hunting of eastern gorillas, fueled by the spread of firearms, has led to a population decline of more than 70% in the past 20 years for the world's largest living primate, the IUCN said. The eastern gorilla population, made up of two subspecies, is estimated to be fewer than 5,000, bumping it from endangered to critically endangered. One of those subspecies, Grauer's gorilla, lost 77% of its population since 1994, declining from 16,900 individuals to just 3,800 in 2015, the IUCN said. The second subspecies, the mountain gorilla, is faring better, increasing its number to around 880 individuals, reversing a decline that began in 1996. The mountain gorilla, seen here, is doing better than its counterpart, the Grauer's gorilla. The change in status means four of six great apes are critically endangered, the eastern gorilla, western gorilla, Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan. The chimpanzee and bonobo are considered endangered. In the past 20 years, Grauer's gorillas have been severely affected by human activities, the victim of poaching for bushmeat for those working in mining camps and for commercial trade, the IUCN said. "This illegal hunting has been facilitated by a proliferation of firearms resulting from widespread insecurity in the region," said the IUCN in a report on the animal . "This rate of population loss is almost three times above that which qualifies a species as critically endangered." Additional threats include habitat loss and degradation through agricultural and pastoral activities in DRC, along with extraction of resources, which puts added stress on natural habitats. Illegal mining has decimated the lowlands of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a Grauer's gorilla habitat. Destruction of forest for timber, charcoal production and agriculture continues to threaten isolated gorilla populations in North Kivu and the Itombwe Massif.[SEP]… but iconic species still at risk Wildlife: In a welcome piece of news for the world’s threatened wildlife, the giant panda has just been downgraded from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Vulnerable’ on the global list of species at risk of extinction, demonstrating how an integrated approach can help save the planet’s vanishing biodiversity, states a press release from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced the positive change to the giant panda’s official status in the Red List of Threatened Species, pointing to the 17 percent rise in the population in the decade up to 2014, when a nationwide census found 1,864 giant pandas in the wild in China. “For over fifty years, the giant panda has been the globe’s most beloved conservation icon as well as the symbol of WWF. Knowing that the panda is now a step further from extinction is an exciting moment for everyone committed to conserving the world’s wildlife and their habitats,” said Marco Lambertini, WWF director general. “The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity,” added Lambertini. While the panda’s status has improved, other species are under increasing threat, including the Eastern gorilla that is now listed as critically endangered, just one step away from extinction, due primarily to poaching. WWF’s panda logo was designed by the organisation’s founding chairman, the naturalist and painter Sir Peter Scott in 1961. Twenty years later, WWF became the first international organisation to work in China. Ever since, WWF has been working with the government on initiatives to save giant pandas and their habitat, including helping to establish an integrated network of giant panda reserves and wildlife corridors to connect isolated panda populations as well as working with local communities to develop sustainable livelihoods and minimise their impact on the forests. These efforts have seen the number of panda reserves jump to 67, which now protect nearly two-thirds of all wild pandas. They have also helped to safeguard large swathes of mountainous bamboo forests, which shelter countless other species and provide natural services to vast numbers of people, including tens of millions who live alongside rivers downstream of panda habitats. “This reclassification recognises decades of successful conservation efforts led by the Chinese government and demonstrates that investment in the conservation of iconic species like giant pandas does pay off – and benefits our society as well as species,” said Lo Sze Ping, CEO WWF-China. “Everyone should celebrate this achievement but pandas remain scattered and vulnerable, and much of their habitat is threatened by poorly-planned infrastructure projects – and remember: there are still only 1,864 left in the wild.” After decades of work, it is clear that only a broad approach will be able to secure the long term survival of China’s giant pandas and their unique habitat, made even harder by climate change impacts. It will require even greater government investment, stronger partnerships with local communities and a wider understanding of the importance for people of conserving wildlife and the landscapes in which they live.[SEP]The panda is now classified as a "vulnerable" instead of "endangered" species, reflecting its growing numbers in the wild. A leading international group has taken the giant panda off its endangered list thanks to decades of conservation efforts, but China’s government discounted the move on Monday, saying it did not view the status of the country’s beloved symbol as any less serious. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a report released Sunday that the panda is now classified as a “vulnerable” instead of “endangered” species, reflecting its growing numbers in the wild in southern China. It said the wild panda population jumped to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 in 2004, the result of work by Chinese agencies to enforce poaching bans and expand forest reserves. The report warned, however, that although better forest protection has helped increase panda numbers, climate change is predicted to eliminate more than 35 per cent of its natural bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, potentially leading to another decline. In a statement to The Associated Press, China’s State Forestry Administration said on Monday that it disputed the classification change because pandas’ natural habitats have been splintered by natural and human causes. The animals live in small, isolated groups of as few as 10 pandas that struggle to reproduce and face the risk of disappearing altogether, the agency said. “If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost,” the forestry administration said. “Therefore, we’re not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species’ endangered status.” Still, animal groups hailed the recovery of the bamboo-gobbling, black-and-white bear that has long been a symbol of China and the global conservation movement. The panda population reached an estimated low of less than 1,000 in the 1980s due to poaching and deforestation until Beijing threw its full weight behind preserving the animal, which has been sent to zoos around the world as a gesture of Chinese diplomatic goodwill. The Chinese government and the World Wildlife Fund first established the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan province in 1980. Wild panda numbers have slowly rebounded as China cracked down on the skin trade and gradually expanded its protected forest areas to now cover 1.4 million hectares. International groups and the Chinese government have worked to save wild pandas and breed them at enormous cost, attracting criticism that the money could be better spent saving other animals facing extinction. The IUCN drew attention on Sunday to the 70 per cent decline in the eastern gorilla population over the past 20 years. But the WWF, whose logo has been a panda since 1961, celebrated the panda’s re-classification, saying it proved that aggressive investment does pay off “when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together.”[SEP]Humpbacks also taken off list HONOLULU – Federal authorities took most humpback whales off the endangered species list Tuesday, saying their numbers have recovered through international efforts to protect the giant mammals. The move applies to nine of the 14 distinct populations of humpback whales. Their numbers have steadily grown since a global ban on commercial whaling started nearly 50 years ago, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. The moratorium remains in effect. However, four distinct populations remain endangered and one is now listed as threatened, some of which inhabit U.S. waters. The Central America population, which feeds off the West Coast, and the Western North Pacific population, which inhabits the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, are still endangered. The Mexico population, which feeds off the West Coast and Alaska, is threatened. If you ask some wildlife conservationists, it’s time to break out the celebratory bamboo and digest the chunks for 14 hours at a go. Giant pandas are no longer endangered, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, the non-governmental organization that maintains the authoritative list of the world’s rarest species. Officially, the panda is now “vulnerable” – a species still at risk, but a step back from the brink of extinction. But the Chinese government is not yet ready to agree with the new classification. The IUCN announced the panda’s status change in Hawaii on Sunday, in an update to the organization’s Red List. That list contains nearly 83,000 species, of which nearly 3 in 10 are threatened with extinction. The panda was not the only animal to get a status update. A sharp decrease in an Eastern gorilla subspecies, as the Washington Post reported, lead to a classification of “critically endangered.” Species are classified on a spectrum from “least concern” to “extinct,” a system the IUCN uses to inform and influence government wildlife policies. “The improved status confirms that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective,” the IUCN said in a news release. When the IUCN first classified pandas in 1965, the organization listed the species as “very rare.” Pandas would remain rare – or, in newer terminology, endangered – until the animal’s most recent update. Marco Lambertini, the director general of the WWF, said in a statement, “The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity.” The panda is particularly dear to the WWF, as the wildlife conservation organization has used the large black-and-white mammal as its symbol for more than five decades. But is difficult to count the animals with absolute confidence – a widely used method relies on identifying individuals from tooth marks in bamboo, extracted from scat. China has surveyed wild pandas four times since 1974. In the third survey, completed in 2004, China found bite-mark evidence for 1,596 animals; a decade later, the most recent survey documented 1,864 pandas in an effort that required 60,000 person-days and took place across some 17,000 wooded square miles. Complicating the matter is the fact that biologists have criticized the accuracy of comparing those surveys. As Nature magazine pointed out in 2015, the latest survey took place over a larger area. And although DNA testing can give more accurate panda counts, fecal samples collected in the fourth survey were “not sufficiently fresh” to provide genetic material, according to the IUCN. This uncertainty is why some experts and Chinese officials are not celebrating the IUCN update. Marc Brody, an adviser to China’s Wolong Nature Reserve, told National Geographic that “it is too early to conclude that pandas are actually increasing in the wild – perhaps we are simply getting better at counting wild pandas.” China will continue to keep the panda under first class protection; the country has made the panda a particular conservation focus, far more so than river dolphins, pangolins and other rare species. “If we downgrade their conservation status, or neglect or relax our conservation work, the populations and habitats of giant pandas could still suffer irreversible loss and our achievements would be quickly lost,” China’s State Forestry Administration, which spearheads the giant panda survey, said in a statement to the Associated Press on Monday. “Therefore, we’re not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species’ endangered status.”[SEP]After years of conservation work on behalf of the iconic species, the giant panda has just been downgraded from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Vulnerable’ on the global list of species at risk of extinction, The surprising piece of good news demonstrates how an integrated approach between governments and environmental groups can save our planet’s endangered species. “Knowing that the panda is now a step further from extinction is an exciting moment for everyone committed to conserving the world’s wildlife and their habitats,” said WWF Director General Marco Lambertini. “The recovery shows that when science, political will and local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity.” WWF’s panda logo was designed by the organization’s founding chairman, the naturalist and painter Sir Peter Scott in 1961. Twenty years later, WWF became the first international organization to work in China. WATCH: Panda Cub Plays in the Snow for the First Time Ever since, WWF has been working with the government on initiatives to save giant pandas, including helping to establish an integrated network of giant panda reserves and wildlife corridors to connect isolated panda populations as well as working with local communities to develop sustainable livelihoods and minimize their impact on the forests. MORE: Blue Parrot Considered Extinct in the Wild Caught on Video in Brazil These efforts have seen the number of panda reserves jump to 67, which now protect nearly two-thirds of the 1,864 wild pandas in China. They have also helped to safeguard large swathes of mountainous bamboo forests, which shelter countless other species and provide natural services to vast numbers of people, including tens of millions who live alongside rivers downstream of panda habitat.[SEP]"Too soon" to take giant panda off the endangered list BEIJING, Sept 7 (Reuters) - It is too soon to downgrade the conservation status of China's giant pandas as they still face severe threats, a leading conservationist said, after the International Union for Conservation of Nature took the species off its endangered list. The giant panda has emerged as a success story for conservation in China whose cause has been championed right up to the highest levels in Beijing, where leaders often give the animal to other countries as a sign of friendship. As of the end of 2015, China had 1,864 giant pandas in the wild, up from about 1,100 in 2000, with 422 in captivity, according to the government. But on Sunday, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified the species as "vulnerable" rather than "endangered", citing growing numbers in the wild due to decades of protection efforts. Zhang Hemin, of the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, known in China as the "father of pandas", told the official Xinhua news agency that this was a hasty move. "A severely fragmented natural habitat still threatens the lives of pandas; genetic transfer between different populations will improve, but is still not satisfactory," Zhang said in a report late on Tuesday. "Climate change is widely expected to have an adverse effect on the bamboo forests which provide both their food and their home. And there is still a lot to be done in both protection and management terms." The wild giant panda population faced a lack of genetic diversity as it was broken up into 33 isolated groups, some of which had fewer than 10 individuals, Zhang said. Of those 18 sub-populations with fewer than 10 pandas, all faced "a high risk of collapse", he added. Only when the wild population could grow steadily without the addition of captive-bred pandas could the species be called less endangered, Zhang said. "If the conservation status is downgraded, protection work might slacken off and both the panda population and their habitat are more likely to suffer irreversible loss," he added. "The present protection achievements will be lost and some small sub-populations may die out." Shi Xiaogang, of the Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwestern Sichuan province, China's main panda conservation centre, said pandas still needed continuous protection, according to Xinhua. It was good China's efforts had been recognised. "But as conservators, we know that the situation of the wild panda is still very risky," Shi said. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)[SEP](CNN) There's mixed news in the animal kingdom, as one beloved species celebrates increased numbers and another slips closer to extinction. These developments come from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species , which assesses a species' conservation status. The giant panda is no longer an endangered species Thanks to an increase in available habitat, the population of the giant panda rose 17% from 2004 to 2014, leading the IUCN to downgrade it from endangered to vulnerable. Revered in Chinese culture, the giant panda was once widespread throughout southern China. China banned trading panda skins in 1981, and the enactment of the 1988 Wildlife Protection Law banned poaching and conferred the highest protected status to the animal. The creation of a panda reserve system in 1992 increased available habitats; today, there are 67 reserves in the country that protect 67% of the population and nearly 1.4 million hectares of habitat. The improved status confirms that the Chinese government's reforestation and forest protection efforts are working, the IUCN said. But climate change still threatens to eliminate more than 35% of the panda's bamboo habitat in the next 80 years; hence the "vulnerable" designation, which means it's still at risk of extinction. "The recovery of the panda shows that when science, political will and engagement of local communities come together, we can save wildlife and also improve biodiversity," said WWF Director General Marco Lambertini. Eastern gorillas populate the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, northwest Rwanda and southwest Uganda, making them another victim of the region's civil wars. Hunting of eastern gorillas, fueled by the spread of firearms, has led to a population decline of more than 70% in the past 20 years for the world's largest living primate, the IUCN said. The eastern gorilla population, made up of two subspecies, is estimated to be fewer than 5,000, bumping it from endangered to critically endangered. One of those subspecies, Grauer's gorilla, lost 77% of its population since 1994, declining from 16,900 individuals to just 3,800 in 2015, the IUCN said. The second subspecies, the mountain gorilla, is faring better, increasing its number to around 880 individuals, reversing a decline that began in 1996. The change in status means four of six great apes are critically endangered, the eastern gorilla, western gorilla, Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan. The chimpanzee and bonobo are considered endangered. In the past 20 years, Grauer's gorillas have been severely affected by human activities, the victim of poaching for bushmeat for those working in mining camps and for commercial trade, the IUCN said. Additional threats include habitat loss and degradation through agricultural and pastoral activities in DRC, along with extraction of resources, which puts added stress on natural habitats. Illegal mining has decimated the lowlands of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a Grauer's gorilla habitat. Destruction of forest for timber, charcoal production and agriculture continues to threaten isolated gorilla populations in North Kivu and the Itombwe Massif.[SEP]A giant panda has amused thousands of web users after it was filmed sneezing non-stop while lying in its enclosure. The popular video was shared by People's Daily Online on its Facebook page and quickly gathered some 27,000 views. The black-and-white bear sneezes 11 times in less than 20 seconds. The 56-second-clip captured the priceless reactions of the animal when it couldn't stop sneezing. The bear was seen trying to use its paws to cover its mouth when it sneezed - just like a human being. Although it remains unknown when or where the video was shot, it has delighted thousands of social media users. The panda's name and gender also remain unknown. It seems the video has been widely shared on Chinese media by panda-specific accounts, such as 'Pandapia' and 'April Da Tian Jiang'. This adorable bear is not the first panda that rose to fame due to its powerful sneezes. In 2009, a video footage showing a mother panda's shocked look as her cub sneezes in front of her became an internet sensation. The clip shows a baby panda named Chi Chi sneezing at a panda breeding centre in China’s Sichuan province. It gathered more than 250 million views online in total and has spawned numerous spoofs – including one on the American cartoon show South Park. The popular video was also reimagined in a US$5.7 million mockumentary, Sneezing Baby Panda, in 2014. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a report released on Sunday that the animal is now classified as a 'vulnerable' instead of 'endangered' species, reflecting its growing numbers in the wild in southern China. It said the wild panda population jumped to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 in 2004, the result of work by Chinese agencies to enforce poaching bans and expand forest reserves. The IUCN report warned that although better forest protection has helped increase panda numbers, climate change is predicted to eliminate more than 35 per cent of its natural bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, potentially leading to another decline. Animal groups hailed the recovery of the bamboo-munching, black-and-white bear that has long been a symbol of China and the global conservation movement. The panda population reached an estimated low of less than 1,000 in the 1980s due to poaching and deforestation until Beijing threw its full weight behind preserving the animal.[SEP]Zookeepers at Longleat are celebrating the birth of this gorgeous pair of fluffy red panda twins. It is only the second time the species, which is endangered in the wild in Asia, has bred successfully at the safari park in Wiltshire. Twin red panda births are extremely rare and so staff there were doubly delighted when the sisters were born seven weeks ago. These gorgeous twin red panda sisters were born at Longleat Safari Park seven weeks ago, and the first pictures of them have just been released. The shy and solitary red panda is endangered in the wild and it's only the second time babies have been born in captivity at Longleat The babies' mother is Rufina - whose name means 'red haired'. She came to Longleat from Italy in 2013. In the wild, red pandas live in Nepal, Bhutan and China - but the species is under threat. Sam Allworthy, a zookeeper at Longleat, said: 'We're delighted with how well Rufina is looking after the young cubs and both mother and babies are doing brilliantly. 'Cubs don't tend to start venturing out on their own for the first three months and Rufina, like all red panda mums, regularly moves the cubs to different nesting areas. 'This is perfectly natural behaviour but makes keeping track of the babies, or even confirming what sex they are, somewhat problematic for us, although we are pretty sure both babies are female.' The father of the panda babies is Ajenda, which means 'King of the mountain'. He came to Longleat from Germany in 2012. The species, which isn't related to the giant panda, as been recently re-classified as 'endangered' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The new arrivals are doubly welcome as their parents are a key factor in the ongoing success of the European Endangered Species Programme for the red panda due to their diverse genetics.[SEP]HONOLULU – The world’s largest living primate has been listed as critically endangered, making four of the six great ape species only one step away from extinction, according to a report released Sunday at the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, cited illegal hunting in downgrading the status of the eastern gorilla on its Red List of Endangered Species. The list contains more than 80,000 species, and almost 24,000 of those are threatened with extinction. “To see the eastern gorilla – one of our closest cousins – slide toward extinction is truly distressing,” Inger Andersen, IUCN director general, said in a statement. “Conservation action does work and we have increasing evidence of it. It is our responsibility to enhance our efforts to turn the tide and protect the future of our planet.” The organization said an estimated 5,000 eastern gorillas remain in the wild, a decline of about 70 percent over the past 20 years. Of all the great ape species – the eastern gorilla, western gorilla, Bornean orangutan, Sumatran orangutan, chimpanzee and bonobo – only the chimpanzee and bonobo are not considered critically endangered. But they are listed as endangered. For the gorillas of the Congo, where the majority of the population lives, conservation will be a struggle because of political instability, said primatologist Russell Mittermeier, executive vice chairman of the Conservation International environmental group and chairman of IUCN’s primates specialist group. “There are no simple solutions right now, other than a much greater investment in on-the-ground protection until the region stabilizes, at which time major ecotourism, as is happening in the neighboring countries of Uganda and Rwanda, can take place,” Mittermeier said in an email to The Associated Press. In an interview, Catherine Novelli, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, called the gorilla numbers a man-made tragedy. The research by the Wildlife Conservation Society was accepted by the IUCN, which is made up of private and government entities and is hosting the World Conservation Congress. More than 9,000 delegates from over 180 countries are attending this week’s conference in Honolulu, including several heads of state. “Critical endangered status will raise the profile of this gorilla subspecies and bring attention to its plight. It has tended to be the neglected ape in Africa, despite being the largest ape in the world,” the study’s lead scientist, Andrew Plumptre, said in an email. The IUCN compiles its peer-reviewed Red List alongside partners such as universities and environmental groups within animals’ natural habitat. It is the most comprehensive analysis of endangered species and guides government policy around the world, said Cristian Samper, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Other animals on the list fared better than the apes, including the giant panda, which was previously on the endangered list. It is now listed as “vulnerable” after conservation efforts helped protect its habitat. “For over 50 years, the giant panda has been the globe’s most beloved conservation icon,” said Marco Lambertini, director general of the environmental group World Wildlife Fund. “Knowing that the panda is now a step further from extinction is an exciting moment for everyone committed to conserving the world’s wildlife.” Hunting and habitat destruction are taking a toll on animals and plants in variety of areas, the report said. In Hawaii, about 90 percent of native plants are threatened with extinction because of invasive species like rats, pigs and non-native plants, the IUCN said. In Africa, the plains zebra population has declined by a quarter since 2002, according to the group’s statement. Find more stories by AP’s Caleb Jones at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/caleb-jones. Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CalebAP.

The giant panda is removed from IUCN's endangered species list but is replaced by the Eastern gorilla.

San Francisco 49ers fullback Bruce Miller has been arrested for assault, reports KTVU, Fox's local affiliate in San Francisco. Following reports of Miller's arrest, the team announced on Monday that the five-year veteran had been released. Miller, 29, reportedly tried to check into the Fisherman's Wharf Marriott Hotel on Sunday night but was told all rooms were occupied. He knocked on the door of a guest and was told that he had the wrong room before he proceeded to attack the guest. The guest's father tried to help his son, but was also punched by Miller. The 70-year old father reportedly sustained broken bones after being punched in the face. Both guests were taken to the hospital. • Obama weighs in on Kaepernick anthem protest Miller left the hotel but was apprehended and arrested. A video obtained by KTVU showed Miller making his way around the hotel with a bloodied face and appearing disoriented. Miller was drafted by San Francisco in the seventh round of the 2011 NFL draft. He finished last season with 14 yards and one touchdown. Earlier in the year, Miller pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. Miller had been arrested in March on suspicion of spousal battery. He was accused of pushing his then-fiancée to the ground and breaking her phone. Prosecutors decided in March not to charge him with spousal battery and instead charged him with one count of misdemeanor vandalism, which was later changed to disturbing the peace.[SEP]SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers released tight end Bruce Miller on Monday, just hours after he was arrested for assaulting two men. Miller was charged with aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats and battery after an early-morning fight at a San Francisco hotel, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Miller was booked into county jail. The police said they were called to the hotel at approximately 2:45 a.m. after Miller tried to enter a hotel room occupied by an elderly couple. The couple’s 29-year-old son, staying in the next room, then told Miller he was at the wrong room. Miller, who was intoxicated at the time, attacked the son and his 70-year-old father, who came to his son’s defense, police said. The father was punched by Miller and both men were taken to the hospital for their injuries, police said. The Niners initially said they were investigating the situation, then released Miller. This is the second time Miller had a run-in with the law. In March 2015, Miller was arrested after he was accused of shoving his ex-fiancee and destroying her cellphone during an argument in Santa Clara. Miller pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, and was required to attend a 16-week anti-domestic-violence counseling course. Miller joined the 49ers in 2011 as a fullback after playing defensive end in college. He was a key part of San Francisco’s teams that went to three straight NFC title games and one Super Bowl in his first three years. In 77 games over five seasons, has 62 yards rushing on 28 carries, adding 76 catches for 734 yards. He moved to tight end this season under new coach Chip Kelly, who does not use a fullback in his offense. Miller made the team as the fourth tight end behind Vance McDonald, Garrett Celek and Blake Bell. Miller’s agent and lawyer, Jack Reale, said he was still gathering information Monday. Miller also did not respond immediately to a text message seeking comment. Earlier Monday, the 49ers signed running back DuJuan Harris to a one-year contract and placed cornerback Will Redmond on injured reserve. The move gives the Niners a fourth running back as insurance with starter Carlos Hyde still in the concussion protocol after getting hurt in the third preseason game. Harris had 27 carries for 140 yards and nine catches for 97 yards in two games with San Francisco last season. He was cut Saturday. Redmond was drafted in the third round out of Mississippi State despite tearing his ACL in practice in October. He played in the final two exhibition games this summer. He will be eligible to return after sitting out at least six weeks and then practicing for two weeks.[SEP]Hours before fired 49er Bruce Miller was arrested for assault, a manager at a San Francisco restaurant says he had to kick him out after the player got in a fight over a sandwich. The manager of Tommy's Joynt, Eddie Martin, said Miller had no money and wanted sandwiches from guests and started a fight at the restaurant, though no one was hurt. 'I believe he wanted their sandwiches. The guests were great. They were very calm and amused by the situation,': Martin told The San Francisco Chronicle. Later Monday police were called to a hotel after Miller tried to enter the room of an elderly couple, attacking the 70-year-old man who was staying there and his son, who came to his father's aid. Surveillance footage emerged Tuesday showing Miller stumbling from the drunken fight. He was later arrested and subsequently kicked off the team. Police said the tight end went to the Fisherman's Wharf Marriott on Columbus Avenue about 2:45 a.m. and tried to get a room, but was told there were none available. He then went and knocked on a random room. Inside the room was an elderly couple, who told Miller he was in the wrong room. Miller then allegedly attacked the 70-year-old man and his 29-year-old son, who was staying in the next room and ran out when he heard the commotion. CCTV footage taken from the hotel across the street, where Miller stumbled following the fight, show the 248-pound player bleeding from the head. He was wearing jogging pants and a tank top. Both the son and father were sent to a hospital for their injuries. At least one of the men hit Miller, causing an injury to his forehead. Police were called to the Marriott but Miller had left by the time cops had arrived. According to the owner of the hotel across the street, Miller walked around aimlessly for some time, clearly intoxicated. 'He went back there, and he was trying to throw up over there,' the owner told KRON4. 'He couldn't, and he came outside this way, and he sat down here and he started vomiting over here.' The responding officers then found him at the Travelodge hotel across the street and arrested Miller, who was highly intoxicated. He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats, and battery. He was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Miller was booked into San Francisco County Jail, however was released on Monday after posting $78,000 bail. However, even before he was released, the San Francisco 49ers announced they were cutting ties with the five-year veteran. Miller had spent Sunday with friends at the Palm House restaurant, where he posted a photo to his Instagram with the caption: 'Sunday's are for the boys.' In 2015, Miller underwent a court-mandated course on domestic violence after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disturbing the peace. He was accused of shoving his then-fiancee during an argument. Miller was a seventh-round draft pick for the 49ers in 2011.[SEP]San Francisco 49ers fullback Bruce Miller was arrested Monday morning after allegedly assaulting a man, according to television station KTVU in San Francisco. Miller tried to check into the Fisherman’s Wharf Marriott Hotel on Sunday evening, but the hotel had no rooms available. Miller returned early Monday morning and knocked on the door of one of the hotel’s rooms. When the guest told him he had the wrong room, Miller allegedly punched him and also punched the man’s 70-year-old father. The father suffered broken bones in his face. The two men were taken to the hospital and Miller was arrested. The 49ers said they are aware of Miller’s arrest and are investigating the issue.[SEP]Ex 49er was in sandwich fight before later assault arrest SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hours before former 49er Bruce Miller was arrested for assault, a manager at a San Francisco restaurant says he had to kick him out after the player got in a fight over a sandwich. The San Francisco Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/2cbShwL) no one was hurt in the fight early Monday. Tommy's Joynt Manager Eddie Martin says Miller had no money and wanted sandwiches from guests. A booking photo provided by the San Francisco Police Department shows San Francisco 49ers fullback Bruce Miller. The 49ers released Miller on Monday, just hours after he was arrested for assaulting two men. Miller was charged with aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats and battery after an early-morning fight at a San Francisco hotel, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Miller was booked into county jail. (San Francisco Police Department via AP) Later Monday police were called to a hotel after Miller tried to enter the room of an elderly couple. The couple's adult son, staying in the next room, told Miller he was at the wrong room. Police say an intoxicated Miller attacked the son and punched his 70-year-old father. Both men were taken to the hospital. Later that afternoon, the 49ers released Miller from the team. FILE - This Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015, file photo shows San Francisco 49ers fullback Bruce Miller (49) following an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Detroit. The San Francisco 49ers released Miller on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, just hours after reports emerged he was arrested for assaulting two men. Miller was arrested in San Francisco after a fight at a hotel, citing unidentified people at the police department. The Niners initially said they were investigating the situation, then released Miller. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson,File)[SEP]San Francisco 49er Bruce Miller has been released from the team after he was arrested for allegedly punching a 70-year-old hotel guest and his son. The tight end reportedly attacked the two men at a Marriott Hotel in San Francisco, California, on Monday after he randomly knocked on their door. Both men were hospitalized and Miller faces charges of elder abuse, assault, battery and making criminal threats according to ABC. Miller was told the hotel was full when he tried to check into the hotel at Fisherman's Wharf on Sunday night. He returned hours later and knocked on the wrong door, allegedly attacking a father and son who were staying inside, according to sources cited by KTVU. The 70-year-old was punched in the face and broke several bones after he tried to help his son, the news station reported. They were both hospitalized. Miller, who posted a photo of himself and two friends at a bar on his Instagram on Sunday afternoon, reportedly fled the scene. He was arrested and charged with elder abuse, battery, assault, and making criminal threats, according to ABC. The 49ers acknowledged 'the media report regarding Bruce Miller' before issuing a tweet that announced his release. In 2015, Miller underwent a court-mandated course on domestic violence after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disturbing the peace. He was accused of shoving his then-fiancee during an argument. Miller was a seventh-round draft pick for the 49ers in 2011.[SEP]SAN FRANCISCO — Hours before former 49er Bruce Miller was arrested for assault, a manager at a San Francisco restaurant says he had to kick him out after the player got in a fight over a sandwich. The San Francisco Chronicle reports no one was hurt in the fight early Monday. Tommy's Joynt Manager Eddie Martin says Miller had no money and wanted sandwiches from guests. Later Monday police were called to a hotel after Miller tried to enter the room of an elderly couple. The couple's adult son, staying in the next room, told Miller he was at the wrong room. Police say an intoxicated Miller attacked the son and punched his 70-year-old father. Both men were taken to the hospital. Later that afternoon, the 49ers released Miller from the team.[SEP]The San Francisco 49ers released tight end Bruce Miller on Monday, just hours after he was arrested for assaulting two men. Miller was charged with aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats and battery after an early-morning fight at a San Francisco hotel, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Miller was booked into county jail. The police said they were called to the hotel at approximately 2:45 a.m. after Miller tried to enter a hotel room occupied by an elderly couple. The couple’s 29-year-old son, staying in the next room, then told Miller he was at the wrong room. Miller, who was intoxicated at the time, attacked the son and his 70-year-old father, who came to his son’s defense, police said. The father was punched by Miller and both men were taken to the hospital for their injuries, police said. The Niners initially said they were investigating the situation, then released Miller. This is the second time Miller had a run-in with the law. In March 2015, Miller was arrested after he was accused of shoving his ex-fiancee and destroying her cellphone during an argument in Santa Clara. Miller pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, and was required to attend a 16-week anti-domestic-violence counseling course. Miller joined the 49ers in 2011 as a fullback after playing defensive end in college. He was a key part of San Francisco’s teams that went to three straight NFC title games and one Super Bowl in his first three years. In 77 games over five seasons, has 62 yards rushing on 28 carries, adding 76 catches for 734 yards. Miller’s agent and lawyer, Jack Reale, said he was still gathering information Monday. Miller also did not respond immediately to a text message seeking comment. While Mark Sanchez has a new offense to learn in Dallas, the veteran quarterback sees another important element of his role in his first week as the backup with Dak Prescott preparing for the opener against the New York Giants. After all, Sanchez was a rookie starter once, too. “You don’t want to bombard the guy, especially as a rookie,” Sanchez said after his first practice with the Cowboys on Monday. “And I know from experience that’s really important. You don’t need a million people telling you how to throw a slant route. You just need to go with what you know, be as comfortable as you can, and I’m here to help.” Sanchez signed with Dallas on Sunday, a day after he was released in Denver when he lost a battle for the starting job to second-year player Trevor Siemian.[SEP]Surveillance footage has emerged showing showing former San Francisco 49er Bruce Miller stumbling from a drunken fight that had him kicked off the team at the weekend. Police said the tight end went to the Fisherman's Wharf Marriott on Columbus Avenue about 2:45 a.m. and tried to get a room, but when he was told there were none available he knocked on a random room. Inside the room was an elderly couple and their 29-year-old son, who told Miller he was in the wrong room. However Miller then allegedly attacked the man. CCTV footage taken from the hotel across the street, where Miller stumbled following the fight, show the 248-pound bleeding from the head and vomiting, wearing jogging pants and a tank top. Officials say that after Miller hit the 29-year-old man in the room, the victim's 70-year-old father came to his aid, but was also attacked by Miller. Both the son and father were sent to a hospital for their injuries. Police were called to the Marriott but Miller had left by the time they had arrived. According to the owner of the hotel across the street, Miller walked around aimlessly. 'He went back there, and he was trying to throw up over there,' the owner told KRON4. 'He couldn't, and he came outside this way, and he sat down here and he started vomiting over here.' The responding officers then found him at the Travelodge hotel across the street and arrested Miller, who was highly intoxicated. He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, elder abuse, threats, and battery. He was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Miller was booked into San Francisco County Jail, however was released on Monday after posting $78,000 bail. However, even before he was released, the San Francisco 49ers announced they were cutting ties with the five-year veteran. Miller had spent Sunday with friends at the Palm House restaurant, where he posted a photo to his Instagram with the caption: 'Sunday's are for the boys.' Miller was told the hotel was full when he tried to check into the hotel at Fisherman's Wharf on Sunday night. He returned hours later and knocked on the wrong door, allegedly attacking a father and son who were staying inside, according to sources cited by KTVU. The 70-year-old was punched in the face and broke several bones after he tried to help his son, the news station reported. They were both hospitalized. He was arrested and charged with elder abuse, battery, assault, and making criminal threats, according to ABC. The 49ers acknowledged 'the media report regarding Bruce Miller' before issuing a tweet that announced his release. In 2015, Miller underwent a court-mandated course on domestic violence after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disturbing the peace. He was accused of shoving his then-fiancee during an argument. Miller was a seventh-round draft pick for the 49ers in 2011.[SEP]Sept 5 (The Sports Xchange) - The San Francisco 49ers released fullback Bruce Miller on Monday just hours after he was arrested on suspicion of assault charges. According to the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, Miller is facing felony assault with a deadly weapon, a battery charge and two charges of making criminal threats. He is suspected of assaulting a 70-year-old man and his son at the Fisherman's Wharf Marriott Hotel in San Francisco. Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson announced that rookie quarterback Carson Wentz will start against the Cleveland Browns in the season opener. Wentz, the No. 2 overall pick, will get the start over veteran quarterback Chase Daniel on Sunday after the Eagles traded Sam Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday. Wentz played just one preseason game before suffering a hairline rib fracture during the first preseason game Aug. 11. The Baltimore Ravens re-signed running back Justin Forsett two days after he was cut in a move that could save the team money. Forsett was originally set to make $3 million this season. Financial terms of his new deal have not been announced. Forsett, who made the Pro Bowl in 2014, will rejoin what has become a crowded group of Baltimore runners that includes Terrance West, Javorius (Buck) Allen and rookie Kenneth Dixon who is currently injured. (Editing by Jahmal Corner)

San Francisco 49ers football player Bruce Miller is charged with assault.

This story contains graphic images, including some of child victims. (CNN) Fresh airstrikes rained down Wednesday on a rebel-held neighborhood in Syria's east Aleppo, killing two people at a market where an alleged chlorine gas attack injured more than 100 people a day earlier, an activist told CNN. The two at the market were among at least seven people killed and 40 injured in the latest strikes on the Sukkari neighborhood, the activist with the Aleppo Media Center said. The center is a group of opposition-affiliated activists documenting the conflict in the city. In Tuesday's alleged chemical attack, more than 100 people -- including dozens of children -- were admitted to the hospital after barrels suspected of containing chlorine gas were dropped, medical group activists say. Wednesday's airstrikes struck the market, a mosque, a street and a roundabout in the rebel-occupied neighborhood, the activist said. He described scenes of terror at the market as he arrived in the aftermath. "People were very afraid," he said. He told of a boy and a girl crying as they searched for their father, a sandwich seller, and emergency vehicles speeding in fear of further strikes from military jets overhead. There were desperate scenes at a hospital where a team of two doctors and two nurses tended to people's injuries. "It was another massacre," the activist said. Children injured in alleged chlorine attack Chlorine gas allegedly was dropped about 1 p.m. local time Tuesday in barrel bombs from a helicopter, according to another Aleppo Media Center activist who attended the aftermath of the blast. The drop was followed by four rockets fired by military jets, he said. JUST WATCHED Monitors: Victims struggle to breathe after gas attack Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Monitors: Victims struggle to breathe after gas attack 00:55 "When I arrived at the market, I started seeing the injured people and noticed that something was unusual," he said. "The injured did not have any signs of injuries or blood," he said, but instead were coughing loudly and had red, teary eyes. "From 300 meters from the center of the barrel bomb, I started smelling chlorine, and I realized it was a chlorine bomb," he said. One person was killed by the blast of the barrel bomb, according to the US-based Syrian American Medical Society , which supports one of three hospitals in Aleppo where the victims were taken. In this still from a video, a girl is treated at a makeshift hospital after the suspected chemical attack. At least 37 children and 10 women were among those hospitalized, the Aleppo Free Doctors Committee said in a statement. The victims were struggling to breathe, coughing harshly, and they had the smell of chlorine on their clothes, the statement said. Most were discharged after several hours, but 10 people remained in intensive care, including a pregnant woman in her last trimester whose unborn child was showing a weak pulse, the committee said. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of these reports. Another reported use of chlorine gas in besieged eastern #Aleppo City. Casualties include many children. pic.twitter.com/HTQ2jcL0kJ — SAMS (@sams_usa) September 6, 2016 Medical sources point to regime Harrowing footage distributed by the Syrian Civil Defense -- a volunteer group also known as the White Helmets -- showed young children and others being rushed to the hospital in the arms of rescuers, gasping desperately for air while being given oxygen masks. Footage purporting to be of the blast site moments afterward showed barrels lying on top of what's left of destroyed buildings. In the video, rescuers washed a boy with a hose after he was pulled from the rubble as sirens wail around him. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the attack, saying that medical sources accused regime warplanes of pounding the Sukkari neighborhood with barrel bombs "laden with poison gas." The Syrian government has denied using chlorine gas for military purposes in the past. Expert sees resurgence in chemical weapons Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert who is an adviser to nongovernmental organizations in Syria and Iraq, said chlorine gas could be deadly, and was a powerful psychological weapon. What happens when chlorine is used as a chemical weapon? Chlorine, element 17 on the periodic table, is a so-called dual-use chemical with a number of industrial uses. Fatal in high concentrations and harmful in lower doses, chlorine gas can also be used as a crude weapon. The chemical was widely used in the First World War. When inhaled, it reacts with water in the body to produce corrosive hydrochloric acid that damages human cells. The effects can begin within seconds to minutes, causing victims to experience difficulty breathing, chest tightness, coughing and eye and skin irritation. Inhaling high levels of chlorine can cause pulmonary edema -- when fluid builds up in the lungs. In conflict situations, delivery methods include dropping chlorine gas onto civilian areas from aircraft via improvised barrel bombs. The use of the widely available chemical in warfare was a war crime, he said. "It's not nearly as toxic as nerve agents like sarin. It's a choking agent, and if you breathe enough of it, it creates hydrochloric acid," he said. "Children's lungs are much more susceptible. That's one of the reasons you see much more child casualties than adults." He said the Syrian conflict has seen a resurgence in chemical weapons, which had not been widely used since the Iran-Iraq War and Saddam Hussein's campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s. The international community took no military action in response, although a multinational deal was struck under which the majority of Syria's chemical arsenal was removed. However, the deal did not remove stocks of chlorine, a dual-use chemical that has industrial applications but can also be used as a crude chemical weapon, delivered by improvised barrel bomb. "The barrel bombs are basically liquid cylinders of chlorine that they throw out a helicopter," de Bretton-Gordon said. "You don't even need a very big explosive -- just enough to split the barrel." Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die Two children walk past a "White Helmet" soon after an airstrike hits the Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo. Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die Members of the "White Helmets" civil defense volunteers carry the body of a man killed in a Russian airstrike in Andan town in the countryside north of of Aleppo. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die Buses piled one on top of the other offer some protection from enemy fire. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die Keeping the lights on: The electricity "operations room" in a neighborhood of rebel-held Aleppo. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die Two men and their donkey navigate the bombed alleyways of Almarja district in eastern Aleppo. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die A mother watches over her children as they return from school; the massive sheet hanging in the street is to deter government snipers. Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die A street that is monitored by regime snipers. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die A stall holder waits for customers; there are reports of some hoarding of rice and flour as the regime's siege tightens. Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die A street market in Aleppo that is still open despite constant airstrikes -- and the huge slab of concrete hanging over it. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: Aleppo photographer watches city die There is still fresh produce in the market stalls but it is more difficult to bring into the city, and much more expensive than even a few weeks ago. Hide Caption 10 of 10 Since the Ghouta attack, he estimated that chemical weapons had been used more than 100 times in the conflict, and their effectiveness when deployed by the regime against ISIS had encouraged the terror group to use them in turn. "Nothing happened after Ghouta. He used chemical weapons, he didn't fall and he's still there," he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "The fact the international community did nothing has encouraged him and encouraged Islamic State to do the same." UN confirms previous chlorine attacks The Assad regime has been repeatedly accused of using chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, and a UN investigation in August found that regime forces had twice carried out chlorine attacks. JUST WATCHED Chemical weapons, 'the poor man's atom bomb' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Chemical weapons, 'the poor man's atom bomb' 01:18 Syria and its ally Russia have accused Islamist militants of using chlorine in the past. UN investigators also said last month it had found that ISIS had used mustard gas in the battlefield. "The systematic use of chemical weapons in Syria with impunity for perpetrators has become the 'new normal,'" the Syrian American Medical Society said in a statement Tuesday. Aleppo, prewar Syria's largest city and commercial hub, has been divided for years into areas under rebel and regime control. The city has been heavily hit by intensifying violence in recent months following the failure of an American- and Russian-brokered "cessation of hostilities."[SEP]The US-based Syrian American Medical Society, which supports one of three hospitals in Aleppo where the victims were taken, said one person was killed by the barrel bombs dropped during the alleged chemical attack on the Sukkari neighborhood Tuesday. At least 37 children and ten women were among those hospitalized, the Aleppo Free Doctors Committee said. The victims were struggling to breathe, coughing harshly and had the smell of chlorine on their clothes, the Aleppo Free Doctor's Committee said. Most were discharged after several hours, but ten people remained in intensive care, including a pregnant woman in her last trimester whose unborn child was showing a weak pulse, the committee claimed. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the reports. Harrowing footage distributed by the Syrian Civil Defense -- also known as the White Helmets -- showed young children and other victims being rushed to the hospital in the arms of rescuers, gasping desperately for air as they are given oxygen masks. Footage purporting to be of the blast site moments after the attack showed barrels lying on top of what's left of destroyed buildings. The video also shows a boy being washed with a hose by rescuers after being pulled from the rubble as the sirens of ambulances wail around him. Another video by the Aleppo Media Center shows a man laying almost lifeless at the same hospital as medics try to pump oxygen into his lungs. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the attack, saying that medical sources accused regime warplanes of pounding the Sukkari neighborhood with barrel bombs "laden with poison gas." The Syrian government has denied using chlorine gas for military purposes in the past. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was stripped of the majority of his chemical arsenal in 2013 after the U.S. threatened an attack due to their alleged use in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, leading to a multinational deal under which the weapons were removed. However the deal did not remove stocks of chlorine, a dual-use chemical which has industrial applications, but can also be used as a crude chemical weapon, delivered by improvised barrel bomb. What happens when chlorine is used as a chemical weapon? Chlorine, element 17 on the periodic table, is a so-called dual-use chemical with a number of industrial uses. Fatal in high concentrations and harmful in lower doses, chlorine gas can also be used as a crude weapon. The chemical was widely used in the First World War. When inhaled, it reacts with water in the body to produce corrosive hydrochloric acid that damages human cells. The effects can begin within seconds to minutes, causing victims to experience difficulty breathing, chest tightness, coughing and eye and skin irritation. Inhaling high levels of chlorine can cause pulmonary edema -- when fluid builds up in the lungs. In conflict situations, delivery methods include dropping chlorine gas onto civilian areas from aircraft via improvised barrel bombs. The Assad regime has been repeatedly accused of using chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, and a UN investigation determined in late August found that regime forces had twice carried out chlorine attacks. Secretary of State John Kerry said last year that he was "absolutely certain" that the Syrian government had attacked its own people with chlorine -- an accusation the Syrian regime has denied. Syria and its ally Russia have accused Islamist militants of using chlorine in the past. UN investigators also said last month that it had found that ISIS had used mustard gas in the battlefield. CNN's Clarissa Ward: 'There are no winners in Aleppo' This still from a video shows a girl treated at a makeshift hospital after what a rescue group called a chemical attack on her Aleppo neighborhood. "The systematic use of chemical weapons in Syria with impunity for perpetrators has become the 'new normal,'" the Syrian American Medial Society said in a statement Tuesday. Aleppo, pre-war Syria's largest city and commercial hub, has been divided for years into areas under rebel and regime control. The city has been heavily hit by intensifying violence in recent months following the failure of a American- and Russian-brokered "cessation of hostilities" earlier this year.[SEP]BEIRUT -- The Syrian government dropped a bomb containing chlorine on a besieged neighborhood in the city of Aleppo on Tuesday, according to residents and hospitals in the area. The reports could not be independently verified, and it was not clear how it was determined that chlorine gas was released. A medical report from the al-Quds hospital in the besieged eastern rebel-held part of Aleppo was shared with journalists via text messages. It said at least 71 people, including 37 children and 10 women, were treated for breathing difficulties and dry cough, and that "a strong smell of chlorine emanated from their clothes." The report said 10 of the patients were in critical care, including a pregnant woman. Ibrahem Alhaj, a member of the Syria Civil Defense first responders' team, also known as the White Helmets, said he got to the scene in the crowded al-Sukkari neighborhood shortly after a helicopter dropped barrels containing what he said were four chlorine cylinders. He said he himself had difficulty breathing and used a mask soaked in saltwater to prevent irritation. At least 80 civilians were taken to hospitals and treated for breathing difficulties, he said. A video by the rescuers shows children crying and men coughing. "Most of those injured where women and children," he said in a telephone interview. "It is a crowded neighborhood." The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 70 people suffered from breathing difficulties after the barrel bomb attack in al-Sukkari. The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said he could not ascertain whether it was chlorine gas attack. Chlorine gas is a crude weapon that can be fatal in high concentrations. In lower doses, it can damage lungs or cause severe breathing difficulties and other symptoms, including causing a person to throw up and experience nausea. The attack came as Syrian government loyalists battled to consolidate their hold over what had been the last rebel supply line into the opposition-held east of the city, after the capture of the route on Sunday. Witnesses in Aleppo said the chlorine was apparently contained in a barrel bomb dropped on the al-Sukkari neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon. Aref al-Aref, a resident and activist, said he rushed to the area as soon as he heard the explosion and found people prostrate on the ground, without immediate evidence of injuries. "There was no trace of shrapnel or gaping wounds or anything like that, which I thought was odd," he said. "They were just coughing intensely and having trouble breathing, and there was this smell as if a swimming pool had exploded in the area." The use of chlorine as a weapon of war is banned under international conventions. A team of international inspectors determined in late August that the Syrian government and Islamic State militants were responsible for chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015. But the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on whether to impose sanctions on the government in line with a September 2013 resolution authorizing sanctions that can be militarily enforced for any use of chemical weapons in Syria. This was the second reported chlorine attack in a month in rebel-held Aleppo, and though chlorine attacks kill fewer people than the conventional bombings that claim dozens of lives on a daily basis, they deepen the fears of people trapped by the war. "I saw the horror of all the people. Everyone was scared," said Abdulkafi Hamdo, an Aleppo activist who arrived in the area shortly after the attack. "They were shocked. They don't know what to do. 'It's chlorine,' they were saying. 'What will they use after this?'" U.S.-Russian negotiations have focused on securing a cease-fire around Aleppo and the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians along the route that was captured by the government on Sunday. A Turkish spokesman said Turkey was pushing for the cease-fire, which would extend through the Muslim religious holiday of Eid al-Adha, due to begin Monday. Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to his U.S. and Russian counterparts during the Group of 20 meeting in China about the cease-fire. Kalin told private broadcaster NTV on Tuesday that the initial plan was for a 48-hour ceasefire. U.S. officials have said they plan to keep talking to Russia and are still hopeful they can secure a deal. But now that the Syrian government has succeeded in surrounding Aleppo entirely, it is unclear whether the forces loyal to Assad would be prepared to accept terms that would impede their ability to continue to attack the rebels, even if the United States and Russia were to agree. Also Tuesday, the Turkish government said two Turkish soldiers were killed and five were injured in an attack by the Islamic State on two Turkish tanks in northern Syria. They were the first casualties inflicted by the Islamic State since Turkey dispatched troops and tanks to the area recently. Information for this article was contributed by Liz Sly of The Washington Post and by Sarah El Deeb and Zeynep Bilginsoy of The Associated Press.[SEP]Syrian activists and rescue workers in the rebel-held part of the contested city of Aleppo said that government warplanes dropped suspected chlorine bombs Tuesday on a crowded neighborhood, injuring dozens. The report could not be independently verified and it was not clear how it was determined that chlorine gas was released. Accusations involving use of chlorine and other poisonous gases are not uncommon in Syria's civil war, and both sides have denied using them while blaming the other for using it as a weapon of war. Last month, there were at least two reports of suspected chlorine attacks in Aleppo also, while the Syrian government also blamed the opposition for using the gas. In Tuesday's attack, a medical report from one of the hospitals in the besieged eastern rebel-held part of Aleppo was shared with journalists via text messages. It said at least 71 persons, including 37 children and 10 women, were treated for breathing difficulties, dry cough, and that their clothes smelled of chlorine. The report said 10 of the patients are in critical care, including a pregnant woman. Ibrahem Alhaj, a member of the Syria Civil Defense first responders' team, said he got to the scene in the crowded al-Sukkari neighborhood shortly after a helicopter dropped barrels containing what he said were four chlorine cylinders. He said he himself had difficulty breathing and used a mask soaked in salt water to prevent irritation. At least 80 civilians were taken to hospitals and treated for breathing difficulties, he said. A video by the rescuers shows children crying and men coughing. "Most of those injured where women and children," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It is a crowded neighborhood." The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 70 people suffered from breathing difficulties after a barrel bomb attack in al-Sukkari on Tuesday. The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said he could not ascertain if it was chlorine gas attack. Chlorine gas is a crude weapon that can be fatal in high concentrations. In lower doses, it can damage lungs or cause severe breathing difficulties and other symptoms, including vomiting and nausea. A team of international inspectors determined in late August that the Syrian government and Islamic State militants were responsible for chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015. But the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on whether to impose sanctions on the government in line with a September 2013 resolution authorizing sanctions that can be militarily enforced for any use of chemical weapons in Syria. The resolution followed Syria's approval of a Russian proposal to relinquish its chemical weapons stockpile and join the Chemical Weapons Convention. That averted a U.S. military strike in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta. Fighting in the deeply contested city of Aleppo has not let up despite international efforts to establish a cease-fire. On Sunday, Syrian pro-government forces backed by airstrikes launched a wide offensive in the city, capturing areas they lost last month and besieging rebel-held neighborhoods once more after a breach in the siege a month earlier. On Tuesday, a Turkish spokesman said Turkey was pushing for a ceasefire in Aleppo that would extend through the Muslim religious holiday of Eid al-Adha, due to begin Monday. Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to his U.S. and Russian counterparts during the G20 meeting in China about the ceasefire. Kalin told private broadcaster NTV Tuesday that the initial plan was for a 48-hour ceasefire. Erdogan also repeated calls for a safe-zone to be established between the Syrian towns of Azaz and Jarablus in Aleppo province, to protect civilians. Turkey has pushed for a safe zone in Syria since at least 2014. Turkey sent tanks into Syria last month to support rebel forces against the Islamic State group in the town of Jarablus. It expanded its operation into nearby al-Rai over the weekend.[SEP]This story contains graphic images, including some of child victims. (CNN) Fresh airstrikes rained down Wednesday on a rebel-held neighborhood in Syria's east Aleppo, killing two people at a market where an alleged chlorine gas attack injured more than 100 people a day earlier, an activist told CNN. The two at the market were among at least seven people killed and 40 injured in the latest strikes on the Sukkari neighborhood, the activist with the Aleppo Media Center said. The center is a group of opposition-affiliated activists documenting the conflict in the city. In Tuesday's alleged chemical attack, more than 100 people -- including dozens of children -- were admitted to the hospital after barrels suspected of containing chlorine gas were dropped, medical group activists say. Wednesday's airstrikes struck the market, a mosque, a street and a roundabout in the rebel-occupied neighborhood, the activist said. He described scenes of terror at the market as he arrived in the aftermath. "People were very afraid," he said. He told of a boy and a girl crying as they searched for their father, a sandwich seller, and emergency vehicles speeding in fear of further strikes from military jets overhead. There were desperate scenes at a hospital where a team of two doctors and two nurses tended to people's injuries. "It was another massacre," the activist said. Chlorine gas allegedly was dropped about 1 p.m. local time Tuesday in barrel bombs from a helicopter, according to another Aleppo Media Center activist who attended the aftermath of the blast. The drop was followed by four rockets fired by military jets, he said. "When I arrived at the market, I started seeing the injured people and noticed that something was unusual," he said. "The injured did not have any signs of injuries or blood," he said, but instead were coughing loudly and had red, teary eyes. "From 300 meters from the center of the barrel bomb, I started smelling chlorine, and I realized it was a chlorine bomb," he said. At least 37 children and 10 women were among those hospitalized, the Aleppo Free Doctors Committee said in a statement. The victims were struggling to breathe, coughing harshly, and they had the smell of chlorine on their clothes, the statement said. Most were discharged after several hours, but 10 people remained in intensive care, including a pregnant woman in her last trimester whose unborn child was showing a weak pulse, the committee said. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of these reports. Harrowing footage distributed by the Syrian Civil Defense -- a volunteer group also known as the White Helmets -- showed young children and others being rushed to the hospital in the arms of rescuers, gasping desperately for air while being given oxygen masks. Footage purporting to be of the blast site moments afterward showed barrels lying on top of what's left of destroyed buildings. In the video, rescuers washed a boy with a hose after he was pulled from the rubble as sirens wail around him. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the attack, saying that medical sources accused regime warplanes of pounding the Sukkari neighborhood with barrel bombs "laden with poison gas." Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert who is an adviser to nongovernmental organizations in Syria and Iraq, said chlorine gas could be deadly, and was a powerful psychological weapon. The use of the widely available chemical in warfare was a war crime, he said. "It's not nearly as toxic as nerve agents like sarin. It's a choking agent, and if you breathe enough of it, it creates hydrochloric acid," he said. "Children's lungs are much more susceptible. That's one of the reasons you see much more child casualties than adults." He said the Syrian conflict has seen a resurgence in chemical weapons, which had not been widely used since the Iran-Iraq War and Saddam Hussein's campaign against the Kurds in the late 1980s. The international community took no military action in response, although a multinational deal was struck under which the majority of Syria's chemical arsenal was removed. However, the deal did not remove stocks of chlorine, a dual-use chemical that has industrial applications but can also be used as a crude chemical weapon, delivered by improvised barrel bomb. "The barrel bombs are basically liquid cylinders of chlorine that they throw out a helicopter," de Bretton-Gordon said. "You don't even need a very big explosive -- just enough to split the barrel." Since the Ghouta attack, he estimated that chemical weapons had been used more than 100 times in the conflict, and their effectiveness when deployed by the regime against ISIS had encouraged the terror group to use them in turn. "Nothing happened after Ghouta. He used chemical weapons, he didn't fall and he's still there," he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "The fact the international community did nothing has encouraged him and encouraged Islamic State to do the same." Syria and its ally Russia have accused Islamist militants of using chlorine in the past. UN investigators also said last month it had found that ISIS had used mustard gas in the battlefield. "The systematic use of chemical weapons in Syria with impunity for perpetrators has become the 'new normal,'" the Syrian American Medical Society said in a statement Tuesday. Aleppo, prewar Syria's largest city and commercial hub, has been divided for years into areas under rebel and regime control. The city has been heavily hit by intensifying violence in recent months following the failure of an American- and Russian-brokered "cessation of hostilities."[SEP]BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists and rescue workers in the rebel-held part of the contested city of Aleppo are saying that government warplanes have dropped suspected chlorine bombs on a crowded neighborhood, injuring dozens. Ibrahem Alhaj, a member of the Syria Civil Defense first responders team, says he got to the scene of the suspected chlorine attack shortly after a helicopter dropped barrels containing what he said were four chlorine cylinders. He says the cylinders fell in the crowded al-Sukkari neighborhood on Tuesday and that at least 80 civilians were transported to hospitals and treated for breathing difficulties. A video by the rescuers shows children crying and men coughing. The report could not be independently verified and it was not clear how the activists determined that chlorine gas was released.[SEP](CNN) Medical groups and activists in Syria frequently allege that the Assad regime uses chlorine gas in barrel bombs against rebel-held areas . Those claims have been supported by the United Nations and international human rights groups that have studied chemical attacks in Syria. But why would the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- which is backed by Russian air power and has an extensive conventional arsenal -- turn to such crude and outlawed weapons? The answer, to many analysts, is simple: to spread terror among the civilian populations in rebel-held areas such as Aleppo and Idlib, to drive them from their homes and neighborhoods. Chlorine barrel bombs are cheap to manufacture and simple to deliver. The gas is contained in cylinders inside the barrels, which are dropped from helicopters and burst on impact. Witnesses have reported finding containers "typically used for refrigerants in refrigerators and air-conditioners," according to Human Rights Watch To experts such as Dr. Zaher Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society , the weapons are a crude but brutally effective way to spread fear. They are the "poor man's chemical weapon." Sahloul visited the town of Sarmin in Idlib last year soon after an attack that bore all the hallmarks of chlorine use. Many people had already left the area, terrified of another attack. Often, Sahloul told CNN, the chlorine barrel bombs would be dropped at night. Residents would hear a helicopter approach but there would be no explosion, just a creeping and intensifying vapor. Barrel bombs containing chlorine don't kill large numbers of people. A United Nations envoy said about 400,000 people have been killed in the five-year conflict, but according to human rights groups, scarcely 1,500 of them have been killed by chemical weapons, and the majority of those casualties were inflicted by the use of sarin gas near Damascus in 2013. But chlorine bombs do spread panic and overwhelm medical facilities. For parents, the horror and the threat it might be repeated the next night is enough to make them flee. The effects of chlorine persist long after the attack, according to SAMS, which has documented dozens of chemical attacks in Syria. "Exposure victims and medical personnel often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, flashbacks and depression," SAMS said. Sahloul said he believes the use of chemical weapons is part of a strategy to displace Syrians in opposition-held territories. Others suggest chlorine barrel-bombs are sometimes used as punishment in areas where regime forces are under attack. Human Rights Watch observed that a sequence of alleged chlorine attacks in Idlib province in March last year coincided with a major and ultimately successful rebel push to capture the capital of the province. When the Assad regime agreed to surrender its chemical weapons stocks in 2013, chlorine was not on the list, in part because it's a widely used industrial chemical. But its use as a weapon is explicitly banned by the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria has ratified. The Syrian regime has repeatedly denied the use of chlorine, but a UN inquiry concluded last month after a yearlong investigation that the government had used chlorine gas in attacks in Idlib province in 2014 and 2015. The White House subsequently said there was "irrefutable evidence" the regime had used weaponized chlorine. Last year, Dr. Annie Sparrow, an assistant professor of global health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, told a congressional committee the regime's use of chlorine gas was "emblematic of its war-crime strategy." Sparrow, who spent time working in northern Syria, said: "The Assad regime has transformed a principal element of public health into a tool of disease and terror." "The regime has found very cheap ways to kill people and drive them from their homes," said Sahloul. "A barrel costs less than $200, and you can't ban the import of chlorine, which is used in water purification, for example." Human rights groups said that despite UN Security Council resolutions, the use of chlorine-filled bombs has not been punished. In a way, Sahloul said, their continued use by the regime "is one way that it sticks its finger in the eyes of the international community." For the regime, the potential gain -- driving civilians from opposition-held areas and leaving rebel groups exposed to attack -- is worth the price, he said.[SEP]Syrian government aircraft have dropped suspected chlorine bombs on a crowded district of Aleppo, injuring dozens, activists and rescue workers said. The report could not be independently verified. Accusations involving the use of chlorine and other poisonous gases are not uncommon in Syria’s civil war, and both sides have denied using them. Last month, there were at least two reports of suspected chlorine attacks in Aleppo, while the Syrian government also blamed the opposition for using the gas. In the latest attack, a medical report from one of the hospitals in the besieged eastern rebel-held part of Aleppo was shared with journalists. It said at least 71 people including 37 children and 10 women were treated for breathing difficulties, dry cough, and that their clothes smelled of chlorine. The report said 10 of the patients are in critical care, including a pregnant woman. Ibrahem Alhaj, a member of the Syria Civil Defence first responders’ team, said he got to the scene in the crowded al-Sukkari area shortly after a helicopter dropped barrels containing what he said were four chlorine cylinders. He said he had difficulty breathing himself, and used a mask soaked in salt water to prevent irritation. At least 80 civilians were taken to hospitals and treated for breathing difficulties, he said. A video by the rescuers shows children crying and men coughing. “Most of those injured were women and children,” he said. “It is a crowded neighbourhood.” The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 70 people suffered from breathing difficulties after a barrel bomb attack in al-Sukkari on Tuesday. The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said he could not ascertain if it was chlorine gas attack. Chlorine gas is a crude weapon that can be fatal in high concentrations. In lower doses, it can damage lungs or cause severe breathing difficulties and other symptoms, including vomiting and nausea. A team of international inspectors determined in late August that the Syrian government and Islamic State militants were responsible for chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015. But the UN Security Council failed to agree on whether to impose sanctions on the government in line with a September 2013 resolution authorising sanctions that can be militarily enforced for any use of chemical weapons in Syria. The resolution followed Syria’s approval of a Russian proposal to relinquish its chemical weapons stockpile and join the Chemical Weapons Convention. That averted a US military strike in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta. Fighting in the deeply contested city of Aleppo has not let up despite international efforts to establish a ceasefire. On Sunday, Syrian pro-government forces backed by air strikes launched a wide offensive in the city, capturing areas they lost last month and besieging rebel-held neighbourhoods once more after a breach in the siege a month earlier. On Tuesday, a Turkish spokesman said Turkey was pushing for a ceasefire in Aleppo that would extend through the Muslim religious holiday of Eid al-Adha, due to begin on Monday. Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to his US and Russian counterparts during the G20 meeting in China about the ceasefire.[SEP]Syrian government forces have been accused of dropping barrel bombs containing chlorine from helicopters on a suburb of Aleppo, injuring 80 people. Volunteer emergency workers say people suffered breathing difficulties after an attack on the Sukari area. The reports could not be independently verified. An UN-led investigation in August found the government had used chlorine on at least two occasions. The Syrian government has always denied using chemical weapons. Ibrahem Alhaj, a Syrian Civil Defence rescue worker, said he had reached the scene of the attack shortly after a helicopter dropped barrels containing what he said were four chlorine cylinders. Syrian civil defence, a volunteer emergency response team that operates in opposition-held areas, posted video on its Facebook page showing distressed children using oxygen masks to breathe. The group accused the government of another chlorine attack in August. Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, has accused rebels of firing shells containing ‘toxic gas’ at government-held areas in Aleppo. Chlorine is a common industrial chemical, but its use in weapons is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. The UN said on Tuesday that a brief period of relief early this year for civilians caught up in the war in Syria had been replaced by an even more brutal resumption in fighting. In its 12th report on Syria, it said the cessation of hostilities in February had allowed some towns to receive their first aid in years but it only lasted a few weeks. The report says 600,000 Syrians now live under siege with a further 300,000 trapped in the city of Aleppo. On Sunday, Syrian government forces were reported to have recaptured parts of Aleppo city which were lost to rebels last month, placing rebel-held districts in the city’s east once again under siege. Monitors said government troops had recaptured two military academy sites in the Ramouseh district south of the city and severed a recently established rebel supply line.[SEP]BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suspected chlorine gas attack on an opposition-held neighborhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo caused dozens of cases of suffocation on Tuesday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said. The Syrian Civil Defense, a rescue workers’ organisation that operates in rebel-held areas, said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs containing chlorine on the Sukari neighborhood in eastern Aleppo. The Syrian government has denied previous accusations it used chemical weapons during the five-year-old civil war. The Syrian army could not be immediately reached for comment on the latest allegations. The Civil Defense said on its social media page that 80 people had suffocated. It reported no deaths. It posted a video showing wheezing children doused in water using oxygen masks to breathe. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syrian violence using sources on the ground, said medical sources had reported 70 cases of suffocation. A United Nations and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inquiry seen by Reuters last month found that Syrian government forces were responsible for two toxic gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 involving chlorine. The Civil Defense accused the government of two other suspected chlorine gas attacks in August . The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria said it was investigating an August incident. “Unimaginable crimes are occurring in Aleppo … pro-government aerial bombardments cause mass civilian casualties,” Commission Chairman Paulo Pinheiro told reporters in Geneva. “In government-held areas, indiscriminate ground shelling (by) armed groups … is also killing scores of civilians,” he added. Aleppo has been one of the areas hardest hit by escalating violence in recent months after the collapse of a partial truce brokered by the United States and Russia in February. Government forces put eastern Aleppo under siege on Sunday for a second time since July after advancing against terrorists on the city’s outskirts. The city has long been divided between government and opposition areas of control. The Syrian conflict has killed more than 250,000 people and forced more than 11 million from their homes.

A chlorine attack in Aleppo on Tuesday injures more than 100 people. The blast from barrel bombs dropped kills one person.

A gang brought down a helicopter during a police operation in Mexico's troubled western state of Michoacan on Tuesday, killing the pilot and three officers, the governor said. The aircraft was backing an operation to arrest leaders of criminal groups when the "official helicopter was downed" in an area with rough terrain, Governor Silvano Aureoles wrote on Twitter. Another officer was injured in the crash. Mr Aureoles did not say how the helicopter was shot down in the region of Apatzingan, a city located in Tierra Caliente (Hot Land), a region that has been beset by drug violence and vigilante justice for years. "In accordance to the responsibility to protect citizens, the state and federation won't give up in the frontal fight against crime," the governor wrote.[SEP]MEXICO CITY, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Suspected gang members shot down a helicopter in a clash with police in restive western Mexico on Tuesday, killing four people, the governor of the state of Michoacan said. Silvano Aureoles said on Twitter that the operation took place near the violent city of Apatzingan, in Michoacan, and was aimed at detaining "leaders of criminal cells". It was not immediately clear which gang was responsible. "During the operation, an official helicopter which was supporting the patrol in area of difficult access was shot down," he said. "We lament the death of the pilot, three police officers and a police officer who was injured." Last year, members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which operates in Michoacan and in the neighboring state of Jalisco, shot down an army helicopter, killing six soldiers. Michoacan has one of the highest murder rates in Mexico after being overrun with drug gangs and armed vigilante groups. (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Adriana Barrera and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Simon Gardner)[SEP]MEXICO CITY, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Suspected gang members shot down a helicopter in a clash with police in the dangerous western Mexico state of Sinaloa on Tuesday, killing four people, the state's governor said. Silvano Aureoles, the governor of Michoacan state, said on Twitter that the operation took place near the violent city of Apatzingan, and was aimed at detaining "leaders of criminal cells". It was not immediately which gang was responsible. "During the operation, an official helicopter which was supporting the patrol in area of difficult access was shot down," he said. "We lament the death of the pilot, three police officers and a police officer who was injured." (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Adriana Barrera and Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Simon Gardner)[SEP]Silvano Aureoles said on Twitter that the operation took place near the violent city of Apatzingan, in Michoacan, and was aimed at detaining "leaders of criminal cells". It was not immediately clear which gang was responsible. "During the operation, an official helicopter which was supporting the patrol in area of difficult access was shot down," he said. "We lament the death of the pilot, three police officers and a police officer who was injured." Last year, members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which operates in Michoacan and in the neighboring state of Jalisco, shot down an army helicopter, killing six soldiers. Michoacan has one of the highest murder rates in Mexico after being overrun with drug gangs and armed vigilante groups.

A gang shoots down a police helicopter near Apatzingán, Michoacán, killing four people. The police had been conducting an operation against criminal groups and drug cartels.

Image copyright PA Image caption Madonna and Ritchie married in 2000 and divorced eight years later Madonna and ex-husband Guy Ritchie have settled a court dispute over the custody of their 16-year-old son Rocco. A spokesman for the New York State court system said the pair had reached an agreement, but did not reveal with which parent the teenager would live. Ritchie's lawyer Peter Bronstein said Rocco would continue to live with his father in London. The dispute arose in December when Rocco ignored a court order to fly back to live with his mother in New York. He has since stayed with his father in the UK capital and enrolled in a school there. Madonna's lawyers have not commented on the settlement. In December, a judge ruled that Rocco should return to his mother. But she decided not to issue a warrant to enforce the order, urging the pair to reach an agreement. New York State Supreme Court Justice Deborah Kaplan said: "No-one is disrupting his household other than the inability of the parents to reach a resolution. "If they cannot resolve this matter then eventually the court will." Ellen Sigal, Rocco's court-appointed lawyer, said in March that the dispute was causing him stress. "It's been a very difficult time for him," she said in court. "We hope to put an end to this as soon as possible without exposing him to more litigation, press innuendo, any of that kind of thing." Madonna and Ritchie married in 2000 and divorced eight years later. Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or if you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.[SEP]Madonna has shared an upbeat message about family after settling her bitter custody dispute with ex husband Guy Ritchie. The Queen of Pop took to Instagram after it was reported her 16-year-old son Rocco would remain with his dad in London. Sharing a picture of daughter Lourdes, 19, 10-year-olds David Banda and Mercy James, and Rocco, Madonna penned a defiant comment. She wrote: "We are family! No matter where we are in the world." Madonna has not directly commented on the reports but has shared a number of messages on social media appearing to reference the end of the eight-month dispute. The mum-of-four posted a picture of herself in a black hoodie with the word "b****" emblazoned across it. She captioned the snap: "Because sometimes soccer Mom's need to be a ..." Madonna and former husband Guy have been locked in a legal battle since December, after Rocco defied a court order to fly to New York to be with his mother. In March the exes were urged by a judge to seek an amicable resolution for the sake of their son. Hours before they were due to appear in court on Wednesday, the pair are said to have submitted documents saying they had worked things out. • Madonna's son Rocco can't stop smiling after mum 'makes deal with Guy Ritchie in custody dispute' TMZ reports that terms of the settlement are confidential, but it's likely that Rocco will return to school in London and see his mother frequently. Rocco was pictured enjoying a birthday break in Havana, Cuba, with Madonna in August. Pictures shared on social media showed Rocco presenting his mum with a birthday cake, as she tenderly kissed him on the cheek. They were also seen dancing in a club, with Madonna beaming with pride as her son twirled her around the dancefloor. It was previously claimed the singer had sought advice from a specialist in teenage psychology in a bid to improve her bond with Rocco. We have reached out to representatives for Madonna and Ritchie for comment.[SEP]Madonna and her ex-husband, Guy Ritchie, have resolved a custody dispute over their teenage son, Rocco. A court spokesman in New York said on Wednesday that Madonna and Ritchie had reached a settlement. Details have not been released, although Ritchie’s lawyer has said that Rocco will continue to live with his father in London. The dispute began when Rocco, 16, remained in London with his father after visiting the UK on Madonna’s world tour. He refused to return to the US with his mother for Christmas. Litigation was opened in New York and London. In December a judge ruled that Rocco should be returned to his mother’s custody, but decided not to issue a warrant to enforce the order. Rocco has since remained in London with his father and enrolled in a school in the capital. During a hearing in Manhattan this year, the state supreme court justice Deborah Kaplan implored Madonna, 58, and Ritchie, 47, to settle the matter privately. “No one is disrupting his [Rocco’s] household other than the inability of the parents to reach a resolution,” Kaplan said. “If they cannot resolve this matter then eventually the court will.” Ellen Sigal, a court-appointed lawyer for Rocco, said in March that the dispute was causing the teenager stress. “It’s been a very difficult time for him,” she said in court. “We hope to put an end to this as soon as possible without exposing him to more litigation, press innuendo, any of that kind of thing.” Ritchie and Madonna divorced in 2008. They also have a 10-year-old son, David, whom they adopted from Malawi.[SEP]Madonna and Guy Ritchie have settled their custody battle over 16-year-old son Rocco, according to reports. Court documents obtained by TMZ claim that the duo were scheduled to attend another hearing on Wednesday but resolved their differences 'hours before'. The disagreement began in December 2015 during a falling out between Rocco and his musician mother, 58, when he abandoned her tour to live with his Hollywood filmmaker father, 47, in London. The website claims that Madonna thought Guy 'had poisoned her son against her' and, 'as the disciplinarian [parent], she felt guy was way too permissive'. The terms of their agreement remain confidential, but it is understood that Rocco will be schooled in London, with regular visits from his mother. The parents entered into a legal battle at the end of 2015, when the teenager ignored a court order to fly back from Ritchie's London home to live with her in New York. News that the pair were nearing a deal broke in June, when the New York hearing was delayed for a second time. The Material Girl singer and her ex-husband Guy were due to appear before a judge at Manhattan Supreme Court but it was similarly adjourned hours before. During the last hearing in New York, Madonna's lawyers claimed that Ritchie taught his son to disrespect the law by refusing to return him to his mother. Judge Deborah Kaplan scolded both parties and told them to resolve their differences for the sake of Rocco. In March, at the High Court in London, Mr Justice MacDonald told the former couple that they risked ruining what was left of Rocco's childhood if they carried on feuding. The judge also ruled that the English proceedings could be halted, paving the way for a potential agreement in the New York court. The ugly transatlantic custody row has reopened old wounds from their divorce and put Madonna at the center of a painful and public battle. Madonna and Guy - who is now remarried to English model Jacqui Ainsley with three of their own children under five - divorced in 2008 after eight years of marriage. Though Madonna has a daughter, Lourdes Leon with ex Carlos Leon, and two adoptive children, David and Mercy; Rocco was their only child. During the most recent dispute, Madonna reportedly hired private detectives to spy on Rocco, while Ritchie launched a parallel legal action in London's High Court. The row began when Rocco left his mother's Rebel Heart world tour when she reportedly confiscated his mobile phone, and he subsequently refused to return home with her to the States. Rocco spent Christmas in London with his father, who is the director of films including Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and has largely been living with him ever since. In March, Madonna told an audience in Auckland that accepted that she had ‘lost the battle,’ breaking down as she told them: 'There’s no love stronger than a mother for her son.' As soon as the Material Girl singer's worldwide tour concluded that month, she hopped straight on a plane to the UK to patch things up with her eldest son. As the row unfolded Madonna made a series of swipes at her former husband in public and on social media. Ritchie's second wife also posted a picture on Christmas day of Rocco at their wedding, in what was seen as a veiled swipe at Madonna. Though more recently, in April, Guy was seen to put in the time to repairing his bond with Madonna and was spotted taking wine around to her London home as a peace offering. Madonna has also invested time into proving to Rocco that she can be a more relaxed parent. Later that month, after pictures of the teenager claimed to show Rocco 'drinking and smoking under a bridge' she treated him to a late-night, sold out performance of stage show You Me Bum Bum Train in London. He also bonded with his half-sister Lourdes Leon at a performance of off-Broadway show Sleep No More. She also took him away on a special trip to Milawi in Africa, where David and Mercy were born, this July to bring the whole family together. In August, Madonna made sure that Rocco was sufficiently spoiled on his 16th birthday, too. The Mail On Sunday revealed that Madonna had spent £50,000 on a private jet to fly Rocco and some pals to New York to celebrate his sweet 16.[SEP]Pop diva Madonna has settled a bitter custody dispute with former husband Guy Ritchie, agreeing for their teenage son to stay in Britain with his filmmaker father, a US court says. "Their custody case is resolved," Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for the New York court where the divorced couple had fought for custody of their son Rocco, told AFP on Thursday. The custody agreement reached Wednesday stipulates that the 16-year-old is to remain with his British father, according to US media reports citing Ritchie's lawyer, Peter Bronstein. Bronstein was not immediately available to comment. Madonna, who wanted her son to live with her in the United States, reacted enigmatically on social media. The pop star posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing a black hoodie with the word "bitch" scrawled across it in red. Madonna and Ritchie had battled for months for custody of Rocco in US and British courts. Judges heard that Rocco remained in London with his father after a visit in December last year. Madonna wanted the teen to return to live with her in the State of New York. The celebrity couple divorced in 2008 after eight years of marriage. Madonna aired her feelings about the painful end to their relation in her album "MDNA", released in March 2012. The two also have a 10-year-old adopted son, David Banda.[SEP]NEW YORK, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Singer Madonna and her ex-husband, director Guy Ritchie, have settled a custody dispute over their 16-year-old son Rocco, a court official in New York said on Wednesday. It was not immediately announced with which parent the teenager would live. Madonna, 58, and Ritchie, 47, have been in a legal battle over their son since December, when the teenager ignored a court order to fly back from Ritchie's London home to live with his mother in New York. The "Material Girl" singer and the director of 2009 film "Sherlock Holmes" married in 2000. After they divorced in 2008, they agreed that Rocco would live with Madonna. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the New York State court system, confirmed the case was officially settled on Wednesday but did not immediately provide further information. Details of the settlement also were not revealed in online court records. Attorneys for Madonna and Ritchie did not immediately return calls for comment. (Reporting by Laila Kearney and Joseph Ax; Editing by Bill Trott)[SEP]NEW YORK, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Singer Madonna and her ex-husband, director Guy Ritchie, have settled a custody dispute over their 16-year-old son Rocco, a court official in New York said on Wednesday. It was not immediately announced with which parent the teenager would live. Madonna, 58, and Ritchie, 47, have been in a legal battle over their son since December, when the teenager ignored a court order to fly back from Ritchie's London home to live with his mother in New York. The "Material Girl" singer, who concluded her worldwide "Rebel Heart" tour in March, and Ritchie, director of 2009 film "Sherlock Holmes," married in 2000. After they divorced in 2008, they agreed that Rocco would live with Madonna. In March, a New York judge and a British judge both separately urged the former spouses to find an amicable resolution for Rocco's sake. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the New York State court system, confirmed the case was officially settled on Wednesday but did not immediately provide further information. Details of the settlement also were not revealed in online court records. Attorneys for Ritchie did not immediately return calls for comment and a representative for Madonna's lawyers said they do not comment on cases involving children. Madonna and Ritchie also have an adopted son who was born in Malawi. Ritchie is now married to British model Jacqui Ainsley, with whom he has three children. (Reporting by Laila Kearney and Joseph Ax; Editing by Bill Trott)[SEP]She may have recently lost the custody battle with ex Guy Ritchie over their son Rocco. But regardless of the ruling, Madonna insists there is still unity in the fractured family. The 58-year-old singer took to her Instagram on Thursday to share a family photo including her 16-year-old son. Also included in the photo are her other three kids Lourdes, 19, and 10-year-olds David Banda and Mercy James. Along with the photo Madonna wrote: 'We are family! [arrow through heart emoji] no matter where we are in the [three globe emojis and one blue heart emoji]! @stevenkleinstudio.' The post came just hours after her son Rocco looked ecstatic while making his way to school on Thursday morning. The teenager emerged just hours after London based father Guy Ritchie won a protracted nine-month custody battle with his mother, US pop icon Madonna, who lives in New York. The decision means Rocco will remain in the UK with director Guy, and the teenager looked delighted with the outcome as he raced across the street sporting a wide grin. Guy reached a settlement with ex-wife Madonna hours before they were due in court in New York on Wednesday. Speaking outside the court Guy's lawyer, Peter Bronstein, said the teenager would continue to live with his father in London. According to Page Six, Bronstein said: 'The case is settled and everyone agrees that Rocco’s needs changed and he’s going to be living with dad. 'Everyone’s agreed to that and there’s no further need for any kind of a court case.' Court spokesman Lucian Chalfen confirmed Madonna and Guy had reached a settlement, which was filed on Tuesday. Madonna's attorney declined to comment on the matter at the time. MailOnline has contacted representatives for both the British director and the American pop star for comment on the matter. Though court documents obtained by TMZ claimed the exes were scheduled to attend another hearing on Wednesday but did indeed resolve their differences 'hours before' the hearing. The custody disagreement began in December 2015 during a falling out between Rocco and his musician mother when he abandoned her Rebel Hearts tour. Heading to London after fleeing the European leg of his mother's tour, the teenager spent Christmas with Guy and his wife Jacqui - later refusing to return to America to star the school term in January. The website claims that Madonna thought Guy 'had poisoned her son against her' and, 'as the disciplinarian [parent], she felt guy was way too permissive'. The terms of their agreement remain confidential, but it is understood that Rocco will be schooled in London, with regular visits from his mother. The parents entered into a legal battle at the end of 2015, when the teenager ignored a court order to fly back from Ritchie's London home to live with her in New York. News that the pair were nearing a deal broke in June when the New York hearing was delayed for a second time. The Material Girl singer and her ex-husband were due to appear before a judge at Manhattan Supreme Court but it was similarly adjourned hours before. During the last hearing in New York, Madonna's lawyers claimed that Ritchie taught his son to disrespect the law by refusing to return him to his mother. Judge Deborah Kaplan scolded both parties and told them to resolve their differences for the sake of Rocco. In March, at the High Court in London, Mr Justice MacDonald told the former couple that they risked ruining what was left of Rocco's childhood if they carried on feuding. The judge also ruled that the English proceedings could be halted, paving the way for a potential agreement in the New York court. The transatlantic custody row has reopened old wounds from their divorce and put Madonna at the center of a public battle. Madonna and Guy - who remarried in 2015 has three of children under five with Jacqui - divorced in 2008 after eight years of marriage. Though Madonna has a daughter, Lourdes Leon with ex Carlos Leon, and two adoptive children, David and Mercy; Rocco was their only child. During the most recent dispute, Madonna reportedly hired private detectives to spy on Rocco, while Ritchie launched a parallel legal action in London's High Court. The row began when Rocco left his mother's Rebel Heart world tour when she reportedly confiscated his mobile phone, and he subsequently refused to return home with her to the States. Rocco spent Christmas in London with his father, who is the director of films including Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and has largely been living with him ever since. In March, Madonna told an audience in Auckland that accepted that she had ‘lost the battle,’ breaking down as she told them: 'There’s no love stronger than a mother for her son.' As soon as the Material Girl singer's worldwide tour concluded that month, she hopped straight on a plane to the UK to patch things up with her eldest son. As the row unfolded Madonna made a series of swipes at her former husband in public and on social media. Ritchie's second wife also posted a picture on Christmas day of Rocco at their wedding, in what was seen as a veiled swipe at Madonna. Though more recently, in April, Guy was seen to put in the time to repairing his bond with Madonna and was spotted taking wine around to her London home as a peace offering. Madonna has also invested time into proving to Rocco that she can be a more relaxed parent. Later that month, after pictures of the teenager claimed to show Rocco 'drinking and smoking under a bridge' she treated him to a late-night, sold out performance of stage show You Me Bum Bum Train in London. He also bonded with his half-sister Lourdes Leon at a performance of off-Broadway show Sleep No More. She also took him away on a special trip to Milawi in Africa, where David and Mercy were born, this July to bring the whole family together. In August, Madonna made sure that Rocco was sufficiently spoiled on his 16th birthday, too. The Mail On Sunday revealed that Madonna had spent £50,000 on a private jet to fly Rocco and some pals to New York to celebrate his sweet 16. On Wednesday, shortly after the court ruling, Madonna took to social media on to hit back at the decision, writing that sometimes a mother 'need to be a b****'. Sharing a series of pictures hours after it was revealed Rocco would live with his father Guyin London, she appeared to take a swipe at the decision and her detractors. In the pictures (shot by Mert Alas) shared on social media, the Vogue singer can be seen in a black hoodie with a crown drawn atop her head above the words 'Queen' and 'B****'. Posting the photos to both Instagram and Twitter, she seemed to take a thinly veiled swipe at the days events. Next to the one reading 'B****', she quipped: 'Because sometimes soccer Mom's need to be a... The caption attached to the 'Queen' image read: 'And be treated like a...'[SEP]Chevy Chase has checked into a Minnesota addiction center for an alcohol issue, according to his rep. "Saturday Night Live's" original "Weekend Update" host checked into the Hazelden Addiction Treatment Center recently, his publicist confirmed Tuesday. "He is there for an alcohol-related tune-up because he wants to be the best he can be," she said. Chase, 72, went to rehab for drug treatment in California in the '80s, but told Esquire in 2010, "I never shot things up or free-based. I was pretty low-level when it came to drug abuse. I checked myself into the Betty Ford Clinic after my nose started to hurt." The "Community" and "Vacation" actor has two movies slated for release this year: "Dog Years," with Burt Reynolds and Ariel Winter, and "The Christmas Apprentice." NEW YORK — Singer Madonna and her ex-husband, director Guy Ritchie, have settled a custody dispute over their 16-year-old son Rocco, a court official in New York said on Wednesday. It was not immediately announced with which parent the teenager would live. Madonna, 58, and Ritchie, 47, have been in a legal battle over their son since December, when the teenager ignored a court order to fly back from Ritchie's London home to live with his mother in New York. The "Material Girl" singer and the director of 2009 film "Sherlock Holmes" married in 2000. After they divorced in 2008, they agreed Rocco would live with Madonna. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the New York State court system, confirmed the case officially was settled Wednesday but did not immediately provide further information. Details of the settlement also were not revealed in online court records. Attorneys for Madonna and Ritchie did not immediately return calls for comment. • VENICE— Playing a society reject who tries to survive in a desert wasteland after having her limbs cut off by cannibals was a terrifying experience, British model-turned-actress Suki Waterhouse said at the Venice film festival this week. • The 24-year-old actress landed her first major role with "The Bad Batch," which premieres in Venice and is one of 20 U.S. and international movies competing for the coveted Golden Lion that will be announced Saturday. • "I was absolutely terrified and I stayed terrified throughout the whole thing," Waterhouse told a press conference ahead of the movie's official premiere. • Shooting in the desert and portraying a character with a prosthetic leg and without an arm was a challenge both physically and mentally, said the actress, who has modeled for fashion house Burberry. • "I'm a girl from London who's been in a different industry, and I was suddenly like kaplonked in the salt and sea." • Writer and director Ana Lily Amirpour described her second feature film as a "action-adventure-fairy tale" that explores the lives of people on the margins of society and the limits of survival and human understanding. • "I guess it is a love letter to something American. I do love America. The things I love, though, I don't really think are perfect," Amirpour said. • Amirpour said the movie was shot in the Californian desert and she spent a year visiting a local community called Slab City, whose inhabitants, living in trailers and off the grid, eventually became extras on the set.[SEP]It was not immediately announced with which parent the teenager would live. Madonna, 58, and Ritchie, 47, have been in a legal battle over their son since December, when the teenager ignored a court order to fly back from Ritchie's London home to live with his mother in New York. The "Material Girl" singer, who concluded her worldwide "Rebel Heart" tour in March, and Ritchie, director of 2009 film "Sherlock Holmes," married in 2000. After they divorced in 2008, they agreed that Rocco would live with Madonna. In March, a New York judge and a British judge both separately urged the former spouses to find an amicable resolution for Rocco's sake. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the New York State court system, confirmed the case was officially settled on Wednesday but did not immediately provide further information. Details of the settlement also were not revealed in online court records. Attorneys for Ritchie did not immediately return calls for comment and a representative for Madonna's lawyers said they do not comment on cases involving children. Madonna and Ritchie also have an adopted son who was born in Malawi. Ritchie is now married to British model Jacqui Ainsley, with whom he has three children.

The American pop star Madonna agrees on a settlement with her former husband Guy Ritchie over their son.

next Image 1 of 3 prev next Image 2 of 3 prev Image 3 of 3 Lawyers for the Philippine government and heirs of Ferdinand Marcos say the late dictator is qualified to be buried at a heroes' cemetery as a former president and war veteran despite opposition from his regime's victims. Solicitor General Jose Calida defended President Rodrigo Duterte's directive to allow Marcos' burial at the military-run Heroes' Cemetery at the resumption Wednesday of Supreme Court hearings on the victims' petitions against the burial. Calida said that the cemetery is not a national pantheon, and that its name is a misnomer because there is no standard or body defining what a hero is, and burying Marcos there will not confer him the title of a hero. Marcos was ousted in a 1986 "people power" revolt and died in exile in Hawaii in 1989.[SEP]MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES (AP) — The Philippine Supreme Court on Wednesday extended its temporary ban on the burial of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at a heroes’ cemetery after a hearing during which some justices questioned whether President Rodrigo Duterte abused his executive power and violated laws by allowing the entombment, which is opposed by the Marcos regime’s human rights victims. The court gave both sides 20 days to submit statements before issuing a ruling. An earlier court order temporarily halted the burial until Sept. 12 while the cases were being heard. Solictor General Jose Calida defended Duterte’s directive, saying it is within the president’s power and a political issue on which the court should not rule. He said Marcos, as a former president and war veteran who was not dishonorably discharged from the military, is qualified to be buried at the cemetery. Burying a dictator accused of massive rights violations and corruption at the Heroes’ Cemetery has long been an emotional and divisive issue in the Philippines, where Marcos was ousted by a “people power” revolt in 1986. He flew to Hawaii, where he lived with his wife and children in exile until he died in 1989. His body was flown back to his hometown in 1993, where it has been displayed in a glass coffin. But his family wants his remains transferred to the Heroes’ Cemetery. During Wednesday’s hearing, about 200 supporters of the late dictator picketed outside the court, some carrying a streamer that said “Bury the dead, follow the law.” Another group of activists opposing the burial held up a banner that said “Marcos is no hero!” and chanted “Marcos, Hitler, Dictator, Puppet!”[SEP]THE SUPREME Court on Wednesday extended to October 18 the status quo order halting the planned burial of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, giving the magistrates more time to study the case. This means there will be no interment at the Heroes’ Cemetery in Taguig this month as planned by the late strongman’s family with the permission of President Rodrigo Duterte, who promised to allow the burial during the election campaign to put an end to a lingering issue. The court en banc first issued a 20-day status quo ante order on August 23, at the request of petitioners seeking to block the burial, mostly victims of Martial Law. On Wednesday, the parties were ordered to submit their respective memoranda to the court within 20 days, following a second round of oral arguments. Government lawyers told the high tribunal Marcos’ achievements as a soldier who fought against the Japanese during World War 2 would not be diminished just because he was ousted by the EDSA “People Power” revolt in 1986. Solicitor General Jose Calida was asked by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro if the removal of Marcos from the presidency could be considered as a basis for stripping him of honors, such as the Medal of Valor, as a war hero. “It is in the position of the State that once it (Medal of Valor) is awarded, it cannot be diminished. It cannot be nullified,” Calida said during the oral arguments. “Based on military standards, given to a Medal of Valor awardee, former President Marcos fits to the definition of a hero,” Calida added. Imelda’s pension Marcos was awarded the Medal of Valor, the highest Philippine military accolade, in October 1958 for fighting the Japanese forces in Bataan in January 1942. Proof of gratitude of the Philippine government, said Calida, is the pension given by the State to Marcos’ widow, former first lady and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos. Mrs. Marcos has been receiving a P25,000 monthly pension—P20,000 for the former President’s Medal of Valor and P5,000 for his military service—since 1994. This was not disputed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). NHCP Chairwoman Ma. Serena Diokno said her agency only probed the war medals that Marcos allegedly claimed to have received from the United States Army. For the Commission on Human Rights headed by Jose Luis Martin Gascon, Marcos should be denied a place at the Libingan ng mga Bayani because of rights abuses committed during Martial Law. “It is our opinion that burying him at the Libingan ng mga Bayani would be contrary to international and national laws with respect to human rights,” said Gascon. Victims’ pain Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno asked government lawyers if allowing the burial would only bring pain to the victims of Martial Law, pointing out that there was no confession or acknowledgement of the abuses during the Marcos regime. “Aren’t we disacknowledging the pain of the victims by the burial?” Sereno asked. Calida said mere burial won’t erase the history, and that “hope springs eternal” as regards the healing of human rights victims. The Marcos family’s lawyer, Hyacinth Rafael-Antonio, said the emotions of the victims have no relevance to the case, as the burial is allowed by military regulations.[SEP]Through the initiative of the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance headed by its national chair Atty. Loida Nicolas Lewis, the global protest against burial of Philippines dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos at Libingan Ng Mga Bayani (heroes cemetery) will be held today, Sept. 7, 2016, from 5pm to 6pm at the San Jose Intersection, Beach Road. This according to Dr. Celia Lamkin, chairperson of USPGG CNMI, Guam, Hawaii ,and American Samoa. There will be similar protests in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other U.S. cities, Tokyo, Italy, France , Canada, and other countries on Sept. 7 from 12 noon to 1pm. “Please wear white T-shirts. If you know of friends, relatives, classmates, or colleagues who were victims of Martial Law, please bring their photos. We will display those pictures during the global protest rally,” said Lamkin. (PR)

The Duterte administration defends its decision to bury the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippine heroes' cemetery.

Image copyright Mbl.is/Hallur Mar Hallsson Image caption The sword was handed over to heritage officials on Monday A group of Icelandic goose hunters got more than they bargained for during a recent outing - they didn't catch a single bird, but stumbled upon a Viking sword thought to be more than 1,000 years old. The five men were in Skaftarhreppur in southern Iceland when they found the sword, which they think may have washed up during a recent flood, the Visir news website reports. One of the men, Arni Bjorn Valdimarsson, shared a photo of it on his Facebook page and swiftly received a call from Iceland's Cultural Heritage Agency, which took possession of the artefact on Monday morning. Image copyright Arni Bjorn Valdimarsson Image caption The sword is largely intact The agency's director, Kristin Huld Sigurdardottir, says only 20 swords of this age have been discovered in Iceland before, making it a significant find. It didn't take much effort on the hunters' part, though. "It was just lying there, waiting to be picked up - it was obvious and just lying there on the ground," one of them, Runar Stanley Sighvatsson, tells Iceland Monitor. It's believed the sword dates back to at least the 10th Century, and may have been placed in a pagan grave, the website says. The exact area where the sword was found hasn't been revealed, as the agency wants to do a little digging of its own to see what else is lying around there. Next story: Tokyo quake drill focuses on tourist language barrier Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.[SEP]A group of geese hunters in Iceland found more than just birds on a recent outing, stumbling upon a 1,000-year-old Viking sword. The perfectly preserved weapon was found in the dirt and undergrowth in Skaftarhreppur, Southern Iceland. Experts believe the rusted sword laid undisturbed in a riverbed for centuries before being washed up during flooding last year. The Norse chieftain Ingolfr Arnarson and his wife Hallveig Frodesdatter are thought to be the first permanent Nordic settlers of Iceland. According to the Icelandic Book of Settlements, Landnama, he left Norway after becoming involved in a blood feud. He set off with his family for a new island that had been described by other Norse sailors including Garoarr Svavarsson and Floki Vilgeroarson – the first Norsemen to sail to Iceland. According to Icelandic legend, upon seeing the soaring shores of Iceland he threw his carved high seat pillars overboard and swore to build his farm wherever they came ashore. It apparently took three years before it was finally located in a large bay in the southwest of the country in 874AD. He called the place Reykjavik ,which means steam bay. Ingolfr’s son Torstein Ingolfrsson later became a chieftain and founded the first parliament – known as a thing – in Iceland. Posting an image of the relic on Facebook, one of the hunters, Arni Bjorn Valdimarsson, claimed the double-edged sword may have belonged to Ingolfr Arnarson, widely recognised as the first Icelander and one of the earliest permanent settlers on the island. 'It was just lying there, waiting to be picked up,' said Runar Stanley Sighvatsson, another of the hunting party. The Icelandic Cultural Heritage Agency has since claimed the sword, taking possession of it on Monday morning, saying the weapon is one of a small number to have been found in tact in Iceland. According to Icelandic law, all archaeological remains found on or in the ground are considered the property of the state. The hunters had to pass the sword to the Icelandic Cultural Heritage Agency, which will pass it on to the national museum after analysing it. Kristin Huld Sigurdardottir, the director general of the agency, said: 'We are very excited here in Iceland as this is only the 24th sword from Viking era found in Iceland. 'At this stage we date the sword to circa 950 AD or maybe even prior to that. 'Many of the swords are in pieces and even only found a part of the hilt. So it is fantastic to find an almost complete sword. 'It is in a pretty good state. The point is broken off and a small part missing, but apart from that it is relatively well preserved, although of course corroded.' Viking explorers first reached Iceland in around 870 CE after Norse sailors had stumbled on the islands after sailing to the Faroe Islands. It was originally given the Norse name of 'Snowland', but the island transforms in the summer months to a habitable green land filled with natural resources. Among the first permanent settlers of the island was the Norwegian Ingólfr Arnarson and his wife, Hallveig Fróðadóttir. The pair are believed to have settled in what would later become the capital, Reykjavik. The hunters found the sword in an area near a southern Icelandic river which was badly damaged by flooding last year, some distance from the capital. If the recently discovered weapon is confirmed to have belonged to one of these first permanent Icelandic settlers it would carry huge cultural significance for Icelanders. The sword is double-edged and still attached to its hilt. There are also remains of a wooden handle on the hilt. The research team also hopes to find the remains of a scabbard on the blade. Ms Huld Sigurdardottir said: 'The goose hunters that found the sword found another object which we have not analysed yet. 'Our archaeologists have now gone to the site to evaluate whether this is from a pagan/heathen grave.' VIKINGS IN ICELAND FEASTED ON BEEF AND BOOZE Vikings who settled in Iceland spent most of their time producing and consuming alcohol and beef, according to a 2014 study by Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Experts say they did this in part to achieve political ambitions in an environment very different from their Scandinavian homeland. Davide Zori, an assistant professor at the university, said that the seafaring warriors wanted to sustain a lifestyle where chieftains hosted huge feasts of beer and beef served in great halls. The Viking chieftains used wealth and cultural displays to flex political muscle with their rivals and to cement good relations with local labourers and supporters. The team excavated a farmstead called Hrísbrú in Iceland’s Mosfell Valley, including a chieftain’s longhouse nearly 100 feet long with a ‘feast-worthy’ great hall, a church and a cemetery of 26 graves. Carbon dating and studies of volcanic eruption layers indicated that the longhouse was built in the late ninth or early 10th century and abandoned by the 11th. When the Vikings arrived in uninhabited Iceland, they found forested lowlands, ample pasture land and sheltered sea inlets. The team excavated a farmstead called Hrísbrú in Iceland’s Mosfell Valley (mapped), including a chieftain’s longhouse nearly 100 feet long with a ‘feast-worthy’ great hall, a church and a cemetery of 26 graves Excavations show that choice cattle were selected for feasts, with ritual slaughter and the display of skulls common. Examination of barley seeds suggests the Vikings may have used them to produce alcohol, as well as for bread or porridge. Over the centuries, as temperatures in the North Atlantic dropped during the ‘Little Ice Age,’ being a lavish host got tougher, Professor Zori explained. Cattle had to be kept indoors in large barns during the winter so ‘they [the Vikings] had to decide how many to slaughter and store,’ he said. ‘They didn’t have salt, so they had to use big vats of curdled milk as a preservative’ As the landscape changed due to erosion, climate shifts and cleared forests, it became harder to rear larger numbers of cattle. High-status households also struggled to grow enough grain for beer-making and local consumption, based on historical accounts, which have now been confirmed by archaeological data. ‘It got harder and harder to keep up that showiness – and when that collapsed, you didn’t have that power, that beer and big slabs of beef to show off,’ he said, explaining that the power of chieftains diminished. Over time, sheep farming replaced the raising of cattle.[SEP]THE 2016 SP Papua New Guinea Hunters’ presentation night takes place tomorrow at Gateway Hotel, Port Moresby. Hunters chief executive officer Bob Cutmore said the event would be similar to last year’s edition and would have the usual awards and accolades given out to the season’s best performers. “The Hunters are having their presentation night on Saturday and it’ll be the last engagement for the team before they start their eight-week break on Monday,” Cutmore said. Cutmore would not confirm the special guests who were on the schedule but said the venue had seating for up to 300 guests including the Hunters team and management and board as well as the PNGRFL executive. He confirmed that Sports Minister Justin Tkatchenko was one of the dignitaries expected at the function. Among the acknowledgements to be handed out, the coveted Player of the Year award sits on top of the pile. Israel Eliab picked up the 2015 gong with this year’s award believed to be a close three-way tussle between star back Justin Olam, hooker cum halfback Wartovo Puara Jr and five-eighth Ase Boas. Olam looks set to scoop the awards night with the 22-year-old in the running for the Top Tryscorer, Best Back and Rookie of the Year awards. The other awards to be given out are the People’s Choice award, Players’ Player, Coach’s award, Man of Steel award and the PNGRFL Chairman’s Bow and Arrow award. Captain Noel Zeming looks set to take out the top point scorer (120 points) award despite missing 10 games during the season. Olam’s 14 tries, while not as impressive as Eilab’s 22 last year or Gary Lo’s 24 from 2014, is well ahead of nearest challenger in Adex Wera’s 11 for the season. Competing for the Best Forward’s gong are probably only two men: Brandy Peter’s evolution into an elite forward was stamped this season with the burly Southern Highlander among the best in the Hunters pack week in week out; Timothy Lomai’s season has also been noteworthy after a stint out of the Hunters fold earlier in the year – both he and Peter surprised many with their consistency and quality. Olam will have some competition for the Best Back award with Wera, Bland Abavu and Thompson Teteh strong contenders. Puara’s stellar form at dummy half and his seamless transition to first reciever mid-way through the season marks him as a club great in the making and he could well add another Man of Steel award to the one he picked up last year. The club’s other stand outs in 2016 have been Warren Glare ( best tackler), Adam Korave (leadership and aggression), Gahuna Silas (impact), Esau Siune (best metre-gainer) and Benjamin Hetra (best bench forward).

Hunters discover a 1000-year-old sword in Iceland.

Image copyright AP Image caption Ackerson Meadow is home to endangered wildlife Yosemite National Park in California is to gain a 400-acre addition, its largest expansion in nearly 70 years. Ackerson Meadow features wetlands and rolling hills that are home to endangered wildlife, park officials quoted by AP news agency said. The land, on Yosemite's western boundary, was bought for the park by conservation group the Trust for Public Land for $2.3m (£1.7m). Yosemite National Park covers about 1,200 sq miles of mountainous scenery. It attracts millions of visitors every year and celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. The new addition, which was traditionally used for logging and grazing cattle, will be preserved as habitat for wildlife including the endangered great grey owl, the largest owl in North America, the officials said. The land had been owned since 2006 by Robin and Nancy Wainwright. Mr Wainwright said that by selling it to the trust, they had passed up a lucrative offer from a developer which had wanted to build a resort. He said he had often seen bears strolling through the meadow and owls over fields of wildflowers in the spring. Image copyright AP Image caption The land was historically used for logging and grazing cattle Mr Wainwright said he hadn't wanted that experience to be available only to visitors who could afford to stay in a resort. "To have that accessible by everyone, to me is just a great thing. It was worth losing a little bit of money for that," he added. Park spokesman Scott Gediman said Yosemite's boundary had seen some minor changes over the years but the addition of Ackerson Meadow was the largest expansion since 1949. He said the Trust for Public Land had put up $1.53m for the purchase with the Yosemite Conservancy and anonymous donors making up the rest.[SEP]FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Robin Wainwright could have cashed-in on pristine grassland and forest he owned along the border with Yosemite National Park — building an upscale resort for a few fortunate guests. Wainwright and his wife Nancy, however, decided to take a slight loss on their investment and sold it to a land trust, which donated it Wednesday to Yosemite. It expands the park by 400 acres, Yosemite's largest addition in nearly 70 years. This undated photo provided by The Trust for Public Land shows Ackerson Meadow in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Visitors to the park now have more room to explore nature with the announcement on Wed. Sept. 7, 2016 that the park's western boundary has expanded to include Ackerson Meadow, 400 acres of tree-covered Sierra Nevada foothills, grassland and a creek that flows into the Tuolumne River. This is the park's biggest expansion in nearly 70 years, and will serve as wildlife habitat. (Robb Hirsch/The Trust for Public Land via AP) The public will soon be able to enjoy the wildlife and natural scenery, such as the explosion of flowers that blossom each spring and bears that often stroll through the property. "To have that accessible by everyone to me is just a great thing," Robin Wainwright said. "It was worth losing a little bit of money for that." Ackerson Meadow is located along Yosemite's western boundary. The area was purchased from private owners by the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation group, for $2.3 million and donated to the park. Officials told The Associated Press that Yosemite will preserve the land — historically used for logging and cattle grazing — as habitat for wildlife such as the great grey owl, the largest owl in North American and listed as endangered by California wildlife officials. Shaun Crook, president of the Tuolumne County Farm Bureau, said that not everybody supported turning the private property over to the government. For at least a century, the grassy Ackerson Meadow has fattened beef cattle and been used for logging, he said. "That will no longer happen," he said, adding that both industries are being squeezed out of business. "I fear we'll lose the value of that meadow." The park's boundary has seen some minor changes over the years, but this expansion is the largest since 1949 to the park of nearly 750,000 acres total, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. More than 4.5 million people are expected to visit Yosemite this year, which Gediman said would set a record for the park that celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. Other draws to the park include the massive Half Dome rock and the sheer, granite face of El Capitan — both admired by visitors from floor of Yosemite Valley. Elsewhere in the park stand groves of giant sequoia, some of the oldest and largest living things on Earth. Visitors pass Ackerson Meadow on their way to Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which provides drinking water to San Francisco. The land was bought with $1.53 million from the Trust for Public Land and $520,000 from the Yosemite Conservancy, which supports a variety of projects in the park. Anonymous donors contributed the rest, Gediman said. "We are delighted and proud to make this gift to Yosemite and the people of America," said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land. The land completes the park's original plans from 1890, which included Ackerson Meadow, said Yosemite Conservancy's President Frank Dean. "It's a stunning open meadow surrounded by forest habitat, which supports a wide variety of flora and fauna," said Park Superintendent Don Neubacher.[SEP]The first U.S. national park sites – As the National Park Service commemorates its centennial in 2016, CNN celebrates the nation's oldest national parks and monuments, which were established before the agency that now oversees them. Click through the gallery to see some of our favorite first park sites. The first U.S. national park sites – Yellowstone claims the honor of the nation's first national park, created on March 1, 1872. The U.S. Army ran the park for its first 32 years, and many park rangers were veterans. Protected primarily because of geothermal areas containing about half the world's active geysers, the 2.2 million-acre park is home to grizzly bears, wolves, elk, bison and dozens of other mammal species, birds, fish and reptiles. The first U.S. national park sites – Even during a time in American history when "manifest destiny" called prospectors to use the country's natural resources, California's stunning sequoias called out for protection from the logging industry. On September 25, 1890, Sequoia National Park became the second national park, and the first national park formed to protect a living organism. The first U.S. national park sites – The park was named General Grant National Park when it was created on October 1, 1890, but it didn't keep that moniker for long. When a new national park to protect Kings Canyon was established in 1940, General Grant National Park was rolled into it. Vestiges of the honor given Grant remain: The enormous General Grant Tree was designated as the nation's Christmas tree in 1926. The first U.S. national park sites – The heart of Washington state's first national park, Mount Rainier towers above the surrounding landscape at 14,410 feet. The park was created on March 2, 1899, after a five-year campaign by conservation and scientific groups. The mountain is actually an active volcano, and there are more than two dozen major glaciers on its slopes. The first U.S. national park sites – While there's no evidence that Native Americans lived at Crater Lake, they did treat it as a holy site before the eruption of Mount Mazama, which occurred some 7,000 years ago and created the deepest lake in the United States (1,943 feet). Some Native Americans still consider the lake holy. The eye-catching site became Crater Lake National Park on May 22, 1902. The first U.S. national park sites – The Devils Tower rock formation is a sacred site to more than 20 surrounding Native American tribes, who call it "Bear's Lodge," "Bear's House," "Bear's Tipi" and other names. The site was protected under the 1906 Antiquities Act. More recently, a spiritual leader from the Lakota Nation in Wyoming has petitioned the federal government to change the name to Bear Lodge National Monument. The first U.S. national park sites – El Morro is home to the ancestral Atsinna pueblo, which was built around 1275 by ancestors to the Zuni tribe. It's estimated that the pueblo had about 857 rooms. Take the half-mile Inscription Trail to see the 2,000 petroglyphs and inscriptions dating back to the 17th century, when the Spanish were traveling through what is now New Mexico. It was named a national monument on December 8, 1906. The first U.S. national park sites – On December 8, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt created this national monument, now Petrified Forest National Park, to protect the area's beautiful petrified wood. The main attraction is the fossilized wood, yet there is much more at this significant national park, including more than 13,000 years of human history dating back to the end of the last Ice Age. The first U.S. national park sites – When conservationist John Muir heard that William and Elizabeth Kent had purchased a redwood forest north of San Francisco to protect it and named it after him, Muir said, "This is the best tree-lovers monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world." President Theodore Roosevelt created Muir Woods National Monument on land donated to the federal government by the Kents on January 9, 1908. The first U.S. national park sites – The Anasazi, also called Ancestral Puebloans, started settling down in the Four Corners region about 2,000 years ago. Keet Seel, Betatakin and Inscription House -- the three cliff dwellings protected by Navajo National Monument -- date to around 1250 to 1300. On March 20, 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt established Navajo National Monument, named for the people who live on Navajo Nation land now, to protect those ancient homes. The first U.S. national park sites – People have walked the land now called Zion National Park since 6000 B.C., yet it wasn't until a 1908 federal land survey that the stunning beauty of Zion was broadcast to outsiders. The surveyors immediately recommended that President William Taft protect the lands, which he did on July 31, 1909, calling it Mukuntuweap National Monument. It became Zion National Monument in 1918 and Zion National Park in 1919. The first U.S. national park sites – Glaciers have been carving their way through Glacier National Park for millennia, and humans have been in the area for about 10,000 years. There are still reservations abutting and near the national park site, and the park land is spiritually important to local tribes. In the late 1800s, "Forest & Stream" editor George Bird Grinnell started lobbying for Glacier to become a national park. He succeeded on May 11, 1910. The first U.S. national park sites – Sacred to the Native American nations who live near it, Rainbow Bridge in Utah is one of the world's largest known natural bridges. While visitors can see the bridge and hike the trails at the national monument, which was created on May 30, 1910, it's still used as a spiritual site. Since 1995, the park service has been working with neighboring tribes to ensure the spirituality of the space is respected. The first U.S. national park sites – The land in the Colorado Plateau's northeast corner, designated the Colorado National Monument on May 24, 1911, had a fervent protector in John Otto, the park's first custodian and fiercest advocate. Otto first discovered the red-rock canyons south of Grand Junction in 1906, and he built the first trails to reach the canyons. The first U.S. national park sites – Glaciers have carved out the landscape of Rocky Mountain National Park, where more than 60 peaks stand higher than 12,000 feet. The land became U.S. territory with the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and attracted hunters, ranchers, miners and homesteaders. Local naturalists started agitating for conservation, and President Woodrow Wilson created the national park on January 26, 1915. The first U.S. national park sites – It was 149 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the land now protected by the monument named for them. They became extinct about 59 million years ago, but their legacy lives on in the fossils left behind. Paleontologist Earl Douglass found the Carnegie Quarry in 1909, and President Woodrow Wilson protected the site only six years later, on October 4, 1915. The first U.S. national park sites – Now called Acadia National Park, the park once known as Sieur de Monts National Monument and Lafayette National Park celebrates its centennial on July 8, 1916. The first national park east of the Mississippi owes its existence to an elite group who loved Maine -- including Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot, John D. Rockefeller Jr. and textile heir George B. Dorr. The first U.S. national park sites – Early Native Hawaiians revered Pele, goddess of volcanoes, and believed that the Halema'uma'u Crater at the summit of Kilauea was the deity's home. Created on August 1, 1916, Hawaii National Park only included the summits of Kilauea and Mauna Loa on Hawai'i (the Big Island) and Haleakala on Maui with other volcanic sites added later. Haleakala was made a separate national park in 1961. Today, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park covers 520 square miles.[SEP]FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Visitors to Yosemite National Park in California have more room to roam after officials on Wednesday announced a 400-acre expansion of the park — its largest in nearly 70 years. The addition features wetlands and a grassy meadow surrounded by tall pine trees on rolling hills that are home to endangered wildlife. Ackerson Meadow is located along Yosemite's western boundary. The area was purchased from private owners by the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation group, for $2.3 million and donated to the park. This undated photo provided by The Trust for Public Land shows Ackerson Meadow in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Visitors to the park now have more room to explore nature with the announcement on Wed. Sept. 7, 2016 that the park's western boundary has expanded to include Ackerson Meadow, 400 acres of tree-covered Sierra Nevada foothills, grassland and a creek that flows into the Tuolumne River. This is the park's biggest expansion in nearly 70 years, and will serve as wildlife habitat. (Robb Hirsch/The Trust for Public Land via AP) Officials told The Associated Press that Yosemite will preserve the land — historically used for logging and cattle grazing — as habitat for wildlife such as the great grey owl, the largest owl in North American and listed as endangered by California wildlife officials. Robin and Nancy Wainwright, who owned the land since 2006, sold it to the trust. Robin Wainwright said they lost a "few hundred thousand dollars" passing up a lucrative offer from a developer to build a resort. He said he often saw bears strolling through the meadow and owls soaring over fields of vibrant wildflowers blooming in the springtime. He didn't want that experience available only to those who could afford a resort. "To have that accessible by everyone to me is just a great thing," Wainwright said. "It was worth losing a little bit of money for that." The park's boundary has seen some minor changes over the years, but this expansion is the largest since 1949 to the park of nearly 750,000 acres total, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. More than 4.5 million people are expected to visit Yosemite this year, which Gediman said would set a record for the park that celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. Visitors pass Ackerson Meadow on their way to Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which provides drinking water to San Francisco. The land was bought with $1.53 million from the Trust for Public Land and $520,000 from the Yosemite Conservancy, which supports a variety of projects in the park. Anonymous donors contributed the rest, Gediman said. "We are delighted and proud to make this gift to Yosemite and the people of America," said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land. The land completes the park's original plans from 1890, which included Ackerson Meadow, said Yosemite Conservancy's President Frank Dean. "It's a stunning open meadow surrounded by forest habitat, which supports a wide variety of flora and fauna," said Park Superintendent Don Neubacher.[SEP]Visitors to Yosemite national park in California have more room to roam after officials on Wednesday announced a 400-acre expansion of the park – its largest in nearly 70 years. The addition features wetlands and a grassy meadow surrounded by tall pine trees on rolling hills that are home to endangered wildlife. Ackerson Meadow is located along Yosemite’s western boundary. The area was purchased from private owners by the Trust for Public Land, a not-for-profit conservation group, for $2.3m and donated to the park. Officials told the Associated Press that Yosemite would preserve the land – historically used for logging and cattle grazing – as habitat for wildlife such as the great gray owl, the largest owl in North America and listed as endangered by California wildlife officials. Robin and Nancy Wainwright, who had owned the land since 2006, sold it to the trust. Robin Wainwright said they lost a “few hundred thousand dollars” passing up a lucrative offer from a developer to build a resort. He said he often saw bears strolling through the meadow and owls soaring over fields of vibrant wildflowers blooming in the springtime. He did not want that experience available only to those who could afford a resort. “To have that accessible by everyone, to me, is just a great thing,” Wainwright said. “It was worth losing a little bit of money for that.” The park’s boundary has seen some minor changes over the years, but this expansion is the largest since 1949 to the park of nearly 750,000 acres total, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. More than 4.5 million people are expected to visit Yosemite this year, which Gediman said would set a record for the park, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. Visitors pass Ackerson Meadow on their way to Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which provides drinking water to San Francisco. The land was bought with $1.53m from the Trust for Public Land and $520,000 from the Yosemite Conservancy, which supports a variety of projects in the park. Anonymous donors contributed the rest, Gediman said. “We are delighted and proud to make this gift to Yosemite and the people of America,” said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land. The land completes the park’s original plans from 1890, which included Ackerson Meadow, said the Yosemite Conservancy’s president, Frank Dean. “It’s a stunning open meadow surrounded by forest habitat, which supports a wide variety of flora and fauna,” said the park superintendent, Don Neubacher.[SEP]FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Yosemite National Park is expanding with the donation of Ackerson Meadow, an area of wetlands and grassy meadows surrounded by forests. It is the park's largest addition in nearly seven decades. Here's a look at what it is: The addition increases Yosemite's total space of nearly 750,000 acres by 400 acres. It forms a new part of Yosemite's western boundary. Visitors travel by it on their way to the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies San Francisco with drinking water. It features wetlands and a grassy meadow surrounded by tall pine trees on rolling hills. It is home to wildlife with federal and state protection, such as the great grey owl, the largest owl in North American and listed as endangered by California wildlife officials. The land was bought from a private owner for $2.3 million. Robin Wainwright said he and his wife, Nancy, sold it to the Trust for Public Land at a slight loss. But they prefer that it go to Yosemite so the public can enjoy it, rather than selling it to developer. The trust orchestrated the donation, putting up most of the money — $1.53 million. The Yosemite Conservancy contributed $520,000, and anonymous donors put up the rest.[SEP]Visitors to Yosemite National Park will soon have more room to roam after officials on Wednesday announced a 400-acre expansion, the largest in nearly 70 years. The addition to the park in California features wetlands and a grassy meadow surrounded by tall pine trees on rolling hills that are home to endangered wildlife. Ackerson Meadow is located along Yosemite's western boundary. The area was purchased from private owners by the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation group, for $2.3 million and donated to the park. Officials told The Associated Press that Yosemite will preserve the land — historically used for logging and cattle grazing — as habitat for wildlife such as the great grey owl, the largest owl in North American and listed as endangered by California wildlife officials. Robin and Nancy Wainwright, who owned the land since 2006, sold it to the trust. Robin Wainwright said they lost a "few hundred thousand dollars" selling to the trust, and the couple also passed up a lucrative offer from a developer to build a resort. He said he often saw bears strolling through the meadow and owls soaring over fields of vibrant wildflowers blooming in the springtime. He didn't want that experience available only to those who could afford a resort. "To have that accessible by everyone to me is just a great thing," Wainwright said. "It was worth losing a little bit of money for that." Shaun Crook, president of the Tuolumne County Farm Bureau, said that not everybody supported turning the private property over to the government. For at least a century, the grassy Ackerson Meadow has fattened beef cattle and been used for logging, he said. "That will no longer happen," he said, adding that both industries are being squeezed out of business. "I fear we'll lose the value of that meadow." The park's boundary has seen some minor changes over the years, but this expansion is the largest since 1949 to the park of nearly 750,000 acres total, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. More than 4.5 million people are expected to visit Yosemite this year, which Gediman said would set a record for the park that celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. Other draws to the park include the massive Half Dome rock and the sheer, granite face of El Capitan — both admired by visitors from floor of Yosemite Valley. Elsewhere in the park stand groves of giant sequoia, some of the oldest and largest living things on Earth. Visitors pass Ackerson Meadow on their way to Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which provides drinking water to San Francisco. The land was bought with $1.53 million from the Trust for Public Land and $520,000 from the Yosemite Conservancy, which supports a variety of projects in the park. Anonymous donors contributed the rest, Gediman said. "We are delighted and proud to make this gift to Yosemite and the people of America," said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land. The land completes the park's original plans from 1890, which included Ackerson Meadow, said Yosemite Conservancy's President Frank Dean. "It's a stunning open meadow surrounded by forest habitat, which supports a wide variety of flora and fauna," said Park Superintendent Don Neubacher.[SEP]In the biggest expansion in 70 years, Yosemite National Park officials announced Wednesday the addition of 400 acres to the park. The addition features wetlands and a grassy meadow surrounded by tall pine trees on rolling hills that are home to endangered wildlife. Ackerson Meadow is located along Yosemite’s western boundary. The area was purchased from private owners by the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation group, for $2.3 million and donated to the park. Yosemite will preserve the land — historically used for logging and cattle grazing — as habitat for wildlife such as the great gray owl, the largest owl in North American and listed as endangered by California wildlife officials. The announcement comes several weeks after President Obama visited Yosemite, where he touted the natural beauty while also warning about the need to protect the park from the ravages of global warming. He pointed to the drying of Yosemite’s grasslands and the shrinking of its largest glacier, which once stretched a mile wide. He cited shifts in the historic bird ranges and said alpine mammals such as pikas had been forced farther up slopes to escape rising temperatures. “Fires are raging across the West right now … all while it’s still really early in the season,” he said during his June visit. The Yosemite expansion comes after three Southern California sites were designated national monuments this year: Sand to Snow, Mojave Trails and Castle Mountains. Those areas, in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, have helped connect hundreds of miles of the region’s protected wildlands. Robin and Nancy Wainwright, who owned the Yosemite land since 2006, sold it to the trust. Robin Wainwright said they lost a “few hundred thousand dollars” passing up a lucrative offer from a developer to build a resort. He said he often saw bears strolling through the meadow and owls soaring over fields of vibrant wildflowers blooming in the springtime. He didn’t want that experience available only to those who could afford a resort. “To have that accessible by everyone, to me, is just a great thing,” Wainwright said. “It was worth losing a little bit of money for that.” The park’s boundary has seen some minor changes over the years, but this expansion to the park of nearly 750,000 acres is the largest since 1949, he said. More than 4.5 million people are expected to visit Yosemite this year, which spokesman Scott Gediman said would set a record for the park, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. Visitors pass Ackerson Meadow on their way to Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which provides drinking water to San Francisco. The land was bought with $1.53 million from the Trust for Public Land and $520,000 from the Yosemite Conservancy, which supports a variety of projects in the park. Anonymous donors contributed the rest, Gediman said. “We are delighted and proud to make this gift to Yosemite and the people of America,” said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land. The land completes the park’s original plans from 1890, which included Ackerson Meadow, said Yosemite Conservancy’s President Frank Dean. “It’s a stunning open meadow surrounded by forest habitat, which supports a wide variety of flora and fauna,” said Park Superintendent Don Neubacher. Op-Ed: Will our national parks survive the next 100 years? President Obama and the first family to visit Yosemite National Park 3:09 p.m.: This article was updated with more details on the land. 2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with background and new details. This article was originally published at 2:25 p.m.[SEP]LOS ANGELES, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Yosemite National Park on Wednesday announced its largest expansion in seven decades with the donation by a conservancy group of a large meadow surrounded by trees that will be home to dozens of endangered species. Ackerson Meadow at the western edge of the current park was purchased from a private couple earlier this year by the Trust for Public Land for $2.3 million and donated to the National Park Service, a Yosemite spokeswoman said. The gift of 400 acres (161.87 hectares) of land marks the largest expansion of Yosemite, which was first protected in 1864 and encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles (3,107.99 sq km) in central California, since 1949. "It's a big open meadow surrounded by forest land. We're very excited. This pristine meadow is going to provide habitat for a number of protected species," park spokeswoman Jamie Richards said. Among them are two endangered species of owls. Among the major contributors to the purchase were the nonprofit Yosemite Conservancy, the National Park Trust and American Rivers. According to the park, the land is especially important because it consists of a meadow. While just three percent of Yosemite National Park is meadows, they are home to some one-third of the plant species found there. Frank Dean, president of the Yosemite Conservancy, said in a statement that Ackerson Meadow had been included in the original boundary plans for the park, which was inspired by the advocacy of Scottish-American naturalist John Muir. "Donating the largest addition since 1949 to one of the world's most famous parks is a great way to celebrate the 100th birthday of our National Park Service -- and honor John Muir's original vision for the park," said Will Rogers, President of The Trust for Public Land. Yosemite, considered one of the crown jewels of America's national park system, regularly ranks among the top U.S. tourist attractions. The park saw a record 4.3 million visitors in 2015. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)

The U.S. Yosemite National Park expands by 400 acres.

James Titcomb has filed his latest dispatch live from San Fransisco, and it's a hands on with the new iPhone 7 Plus. Here's what he thinks: I’ve been able to barge my way through the throngs to have a quick play with the new iPhone 7 Plus, and collected some initial thoughts. The first thing to say is that to the untrained eye, there is little difference from either the 6 or 6s, both visually and in holding the phone - the very nice jet black shade notwithstanding. Many will feel that this alone doesn’t make the 7 much of an upgrade. But play around with it for a while and it’s clear that a lot has changed. The stereo speakers sound very impressive, and the redesigned camera in the 7 Plus is a significant upgrade. While it’s difficult to judge picture quality in a packed showroom, it’s clear that zoomed-in photos are a lot crisper and clearer, and the tweaked software, which replaces pinch to zoom, makes it much easier to take a long-distance shot. The wireless AirPods are also nicely thought out: take one earphone out, for example, and the music will stop. And contrary to my fears, they didn’t immediately fall out of my ears. Many of the under-the-hood features - water resistance, battery life improvements and better performance - won’t become clear until several weeks of use, but at first glance, there is enough here to get fans excited.[SEP]Apple has unveiled its long-awaited iPhone 7 an event in San Francisco today, alongside the iPhone 7 Plus with a dual-lens camera and a "swim-proof" Apple Watch 2. As expected, Apple has done away with the headphone socket on both iPhone models. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will ship with a pair of wired headphones that plug into the charging port on the bottom of the device, as well as an adaptor for people who want to hang onto their old headphones. The company also showed off a pair of wireless headphones, called AirPods, which can be purchased for an additional £159. • iPhone 7: Release date, price, images and key features of Apple's new iPhone These can connect to both the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch 2 with just a tap, according to Apple, and switch "seamlessly" between entertainment and calls. Both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have an IP67 rating, which means they are totally protected against dust and can be immersed in water to a depth of 1 metre. They also feature a new home button which is "force-sensitive", meaning it provides haptic feedback when you use it in different ways. Both phones have upgraded cameras. The iPhone 7 has a 12-megapixel wide angle camera, which Apple claims is 60% faster and 30% more energy-efficient than previous models, and has 4 LEDS in the flash. The iPhone 7 Plus has an additional telephoto camera, which together with the standard 12-megapixel wide angle camera offers optical zoom at two times and up to 10 times digital zoom for photos. Apple said the camera software would be updated later this year, allowing the iPhone 7 Plus camera to capture depth-of-field, and separate the background from the foreground to achieve amazing portraits once possible only with DSLR cameras. Both iPhone 7 models come in five colour options - silver, gold, rose gold, black and "jet black" (which is shiny), and three storage options - 32GB, 128GB and a whopping 256GB. • When is the iPhone 7 coming out in the UK? How to pre-order the new Apple smartphone They will run the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 10, which among other things bring a host of new exciting messaging features. • How much do the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus cost in the UK - and is the iPhone 6s any cheaper? In the UK, Apple said the iPhone 7 will be available from a starting price of £599 for the cheapest 32GB option. The 128GB version is £699 and the 256GB version will set you back a whopping £799. The larger iPhone 7 Plus will be even more of a wallet buster than it's smaller sibling. The cheapest (32GB) iPhone 7 Plus costs £719, followed by a 128GB model at £819, and then a 256GB variant costing an astonishing £919 in the UK. The new jet black finish will be offered exclusively on the 128GB and 256GB models. Apple also unveiled the Apple Watch Series 2 at its launch event, which looks almost identical to its predecessor. However, while the first Apple Watch was "splash" proof, the second edition Series 2 is "swim" proof - completely water resistant to a depth of 50 meters, in both swimming pools and open water. The Apple Watch 2 also has built-in GPS, so it can record precise distance, pace and speed for outdoor workouts such as walking, running or cycling. The Apple Watch 2 is available in two different case sizes - 38 mm and 42 mm - and three different colours - gold, rose gold, silver or space grey. The Apple Watch 2 will be available in gold, rose gold, silver or space grey aluminium, or silver or space black stainless steel cases paired with a wide variety of bands starting at £369. "Despite being touted as a credible numbered sequel, it was difficult to escape the feeling that the iPhone 7 is very much an iterative device rather than the step change needed to allay concerns of falling fortunes," said Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch.com. "Having said that, the device nailed the key features consumers look for in a flagship smartphone, from an improved display and increased resilience to water and dust, to an improved camera and better battery life. "Only time will tell if this is the model to help Apple to break away from Samsung, who is aggressively biting at their heels with a strong line-up in the Galaxy S7 and Edge."[SEP]At Apple's iPhone 7 unveiling in San Francisco on Wednesday, the tech powerhouse revealed a host of new and updated hardware and software, including a new type of headphone jack and souped-up camera. Here's a rundown of the biggest announcements. As expected, iPhone is removing the standard analog headphone jack and forcing headphones to use its "Lightning" connector, which plugs into the phone's charging port. The iPhone 7 will come with an adapter so older earphones can still be used. But Apple is pushing Apple AirPods, which CEO Tim Cook says are a "breakthrough design," wireless headphones that sync across all Apple devices and respond to touch that can access Siri. The AirPods are shipping in late October and cost $160. Apple's new iPhone is getting a faster processor, an updated home button and will come with water and dust protection. Apple says the iPhone 7 home button is now force sensitive, so responses can differ based on how hard you press it. It's similar to what Apple has done with a trackpad in a slimmer MacBook model last year. The iPhone 7 will have stereo speakers for the first time, with twice the volume of iPhone 6S speakers. The phone's battery life is improved, too; Apple estimates that the 7 Plus will have an additional hour of battery life compared to the 6S. Camera improvements include a new flash with four rather than two shades of color to match ambient light. High-end photographers can get images in RAW format, which allows for more versatile editing, matching what many leading cameras now have. The iPhone 7 Plus will have two cameras with different lenses that will boost the zoom capabilities of the camera. The camera can now zoom in up to 10 times the original size of the photo. Both cameras take 12 megapixel photos. The two lenses will also sense depth and allow users to blur backgrounds in images, mimicking an effect that typically requires changing the lens aperture in stand-alone cameras. Other smartphone makers such as LG and Motorola are also starting to offer models with dual lenses to improve picture quality. The difference is the wide angle on LG G5 has lower resolution with 8 megapixels. The iPhone 7 will start at $650, the same as the 6s it replaces. The larger Plus model is increasing to $770, instead of $750. They come in silver, gold, rose gold, black and the new jet-black finish. Storage has been doubled, so Apple joins rival phone makers in making the starter model 32 gigabytes, rather than 16 gigabytes before. Apple is doubling storage in higher-priced models, too — to 128 and 256 gigabytes. The new phones will ship Sept. 16, with orders to start this Friday. Older iPhones will get price reductions, and last year's models are also getting double the storage. The latest software update, available on Tuesday, will add more intelligence to Apple services like Maps, Photos, the iPhone keyboard and Siri, the voice-activated digital assistant. There's a new Home app to control appliances. In a big change for Apple, the company is also opening Siri and its iMessage service to work with apps created by independent developers. Apple is also allowing developers to build apps for iMessage, although the options so far appear to mostly involve sending payments or ordering food. It's also adding bigger emoji and other visual effects for iMessage, including what it calls "Invisible Ink," which blurs an image in a message until a recipient swipes a finger across the screen. Apple announced many of the features in June. Apple introduced a "swim-proof" watch, the Apple Watch Series 2. The new watch has built-in GPS, a brighter display and faster processor than the previous Apple Watch. There's also new ceramic watch-face. The price starts at $370. The original model will get a faster processor price cut to $270, down from $300. The updates are coming Sept. 16. Existing watches can get new operating software on Sept. 13. In addition, there's a new Apple Watch Nike +, a Nike-branded Apple Watch in four colors that's designed for runners. It is also priced at $369 and is available late October. Battery life, which has been a weak spot of the watch, was not mentioned. A Pokemon Go app is coming to Apple Watch. The app lets you collect items from Pokestops, hatch eggs and alert you to nearby Pokemon (you still need your phone to catch actual Pokemon). It will be shipping before the end of the year. Nintendo debuted a new Super Mario game for iOS called Super Mario Run. It's the first iOS game featuring Nintendo's Mario characters. Nintendo has long resisted bringing Mario to mobile phones, relying on it instead to sell its hand-held DS gaming systems. The new game, which can be played one handed, will be released in time for the holidays. The game will have a fixed price which is being kept under wraps for now. The news sent Nintendo shares soaring on Wednesday. Apple Pay will come to Japan in October with a new wireless technology called Felica to be included in iPhones and Apple Watches there. Apple Pay will also come to New Zealand in October and Russia in the fall. In the U.S. and elsewhere, mobile payments use a wireless technology called NFC. A transit feature in Apple Maps will also launch in Japan. Apple iWork suite of software, including word processing, processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs, will include real-time collaboration features for the first time. It's something Google and Microsoft already offer in some form. Although Apple's iWork package allows syncing through iCloud, it's has been primarily for one person to work on documents at a time. The software is available for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, with a web version for Windows users.[SEP]Just a days left before the much-awaited event of fall 2016. We don’t have to explain what the big news is all about as the whole world is standing on its toes to see what Apple will reveal on the 7th of September 2016. It is the D-day for the new Apple iPhone 7. The Silicon Valley giant encrypts its invite every year. There is always something new that excites the fans and followers towards the new release, as they are seen decoding the hidden message with speculations and predictions each year. This time, it is no different. The cryptic invites sent out last week revealed that the grand Apple event would take place at the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco, United States. Apple has a habit of being sneaky and secretive about its products. It has never released any iPhone upgrade without being mysterious. We all desperately wait for the upgrades and try to piece together the unfinished puzzle. The tech giant never confirms any update about its products before the actual launch. The recent invite of Apple Inc. for the event of 7th September iPhone 7 launch had a simple tagline “See you on the 7th” with coloured circles. Even the in Pakistan, people who love Apple products and do online shopping in Pakistan on a regular basis are going crazy about the iPhone 7 launch. The invitation for the much-awaited launch event was itself laced with so many hints about the upcoming model. The translucent dots in the invite are coloured which relates to the coloured Apple iPhone 7 handsets. These dots are popularly known as the bokeh effect in photography which occurs in low light. Fans speculate that the new Apple iPhone will feature an upgraded camera lens that makes it possible to photograph in low light. Either way, Apple is ready to step-up to the competition with Samsung, Huawei and Sony with improved photography capabilities. It is very likely that these predictions will be correct, and we will get to see the new flagship device soon. The dots can also be water droplets which are also relevant to the fact that the new Apple device will have waterproof design feature. With just days left before the expected launch, the buzzing rumours about Apple iPhone 7 price in Pakistan and all over the world have skyrocketed. It will be a surprise if Apple doesn’t stick to its yearly upgrade of iPhones. The star product has seen yearly updates over a period of 9 years. The 10th generation of iPhone should be no different. All evidence points out to various upgrades in the new Apple iPhone 7. It is expected that Apple will ditch its typical 3.5 mm headphone jack. The device will feature lightning connected headphones along with an adapter in a box for traditional headphones. Hence, we can expect a slim and waterproof design. The most significant upgrade that we have been hearing since the beginning of 2016 is the 5.5-inch display screen. Apple will eliminate the home screen button, thus increasing the display size. The larger size of Apple iPhone 7 is rumoured to boast a dual lens camera resulting in advanced image quality. The upcoming iPhone 7 Plus is rumoured to come in five different colours. A glossy piano black and a darker shade of black in matte are the two new colours to watch out for. This generation of Apple iPhone will not feature grey, but we will see rose gold, gold and silver. Leaks have shown that Apple iPhone 7 will have a capacity of 32GB and will max out to 256GB, making the 10th generation Apple iPhone 7 devices the most capacious model up to date. All existing rumours also lead to the information that Apple iPhone 7 will go up on sale on the 16th or 23rd September. All Pakistani fans can pre-order the device online in just a few clicks to get it before anybody else. Apple surely has something big planned for this year and like always, the fans will have something to talk about even after the release of Apple iPhone 7 until Apple decides to con up with something new next year.[SEP]Apple is expected to unveil a new iPhone on Wednesday -- a cause for celebration for the throngs of iFaithful. But on Wall Street, Apple's stock has become something less than iXtradordinary. It's boring. A laggard. Dare I say, a has been? Apple (AAPL, Tech30) stock is up just 2% this year. Meanwhile, the Dow and S&P 500 have both gained more than 6% year-to-date. Tech rivals Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) and Facebook (FB, Tech30) have gained 15% and 20% respectively in 2016. Both have stolen a bit of Apple's thunder. So has Google (GOOGL, Tech30) parent Alphabet. The Android maker's stock is up nearly 25% in the past year and is not far from its record high. The bloom is off of Apple's rose. (Or shall I say rose gold?) What's more, Apple's stock fell nearly 5% in 2015. So even though shares are slightly higher this year, they are still lower than where they were at the end of 2014. And the stock is about 20% below its all-time high from April 2015. Why is Wall Street no longer infatuated with Apple? It's become too predictable. Related: What to expect at Apple's big iPhone event Investors want more than just new iPhones every year. The improvements tend to be incremental. So there's no pressing need for consumers to constantly upgrade. (I'm waiting for 2018 ... and hope Apple pulls a "Dodgeball" and releases the iPhone Ocho.) The stakes are very high for Apple. The company even finally activated its long dormant Twitter account last week -- replacing the generic Twitter egg with the Apple logo as its icon and adding the images from the promotional material for the 9/7 event in the background. It tweeted an ad as well -- although the promoted tweet doesn't actually appear on Apple's Twitter page. There have been lots of rumors about the iPhone 7 already -- so it may be tough for the company to surprise consumers (and investors) in a positive way. If anything, there may be more outrage than elation if Apple -- as expected -- dumps the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. The lack of any major innovation from Apple lately is a key reason why analysts are predicting that sales and profits for the full fiscal year (which ends this month) will be down from a year ago. Revenues and earnings aren't expected to rebound all that sharply next year either. Wall Street is forecasting a sales increase of less than 4% and earnings increase of only 8%. Related: These smartphone makers are beating Apple in China Investors want to see another revolutionary product. The Apple Watch is not it. CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly promised that there is more in the Apple pipeline. But we're still waiting. It seems unlikely that Cook will have a trick up his sleeve at the iPhone 7 event that will rejuvenate interest in the stock among growth-oriented investors just yet either. The stock is cheap though. It trades for only about 12 times earnings estimates for next year. It also has gobs of cash -- more than $231 billion. (It may need to part with a chunk of that it if Apple loses its tax battle with the EU though.) And then there's the dividend. Apple's payout yields 2.1% -- more than a 10-Year U.S. Treasury bond. So Apple, amazingly enough, has become little more than a modern day AT&T (T, Tech30). You buy it for the dividend. Any additional juice from earnings and sales growth is gravy...unless Cook finally unveils something truly new from Apple to get Wall Street jazzed again.[SEP]Apple has unveiled the new iPhone 7, having made the phone water resistant for the first time and removed the headphone jack. The tech giant's chief executive Tim Cook announced the phone at an event in San Francisco, though a social media glitch saw the firm's Twitter account - only recently activated - accidentally reveal the news early. A new version of the Apple Watch, called the Series 2 and with greater focus on health and exercise tracking, was also announced, including a special Nike+ version for runners. The Watch, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will go on sale on September 16, with pre-orders for the devices beginning on Friday. Instead of the traditional headphone connection, iPhone packages will now come with earphones that fit into the phone's Lighting port, currently used for charging and data transfer. However, Apple also revealed new wireless earphones, called AirPods, that will connect to both iPhone and Apple Watch remotely. An adaptor that enables traditional headphones to continue to plug into the iPhone will also be included in the box. The iPhone 7 has also had its camera completely redesigned, with a much-rumoured second lens being added to the larger iPhone 7 Plus that will enable users to capture more zoomed images without losing picture quality. The lenses across the two phones now contain a 12 megapixel sensor. Mr Cook said of the smartphone: "It has become the industry gold standard. "iPhone is the phone by which all others are measured and it has become a cultural phenomenon." In July, the tech giant revealed it had sold the one billionth unit of the device, while Mr Cook said the Apple Watch was now the world's second most popular watch brand and most popular smartwatch.[SEP]Apple is expected on Wednesday to unveil its latest iPhones, kill the audio jack and announce a new version of the Apple Watch. For iPhone owners, this is a chance to see if the next-generation smartphone -- likely called the iPhone 7 -- is worth an upgrade or waiting another year. Of course, tech fans are eager to see if the once groundbreaking company has something unexpected in store, too. While Apple announcements used to electrify with unexpected hardware and software, guests and its signature "one more thing" surprise, the well-oiled rumor machine has since killed most of the mystery. We'll be live at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium starting at 10:00 a.m. PT/1:00 p.m. ET. Check back for updates and photos of new gadgets as they're announced. Fresh iPhones: Apple is expected to release two new iPhones, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and remove the traditional headphone jack. Other rumored changes include waterproofing and dual cameras for the Plus. Jack controversy: The removal of the audio jack might make it easier to waterproof the iPhone, but will make all existing wired headphones obsolete, unless people buy an Lighting adapter. Apple Watch 2.0: The Apple Watch came out last year, and until now, there's been no major hardware upgrades -- unless you consider different color straps "hardware". The new Apple Watch will likely look like its predecessor and include GPS but not tout its own cellular connection. This means users will still have to keep their iPhone nearby for the watch to work. New software: Apple previewed major updates for all its operating systems -- iOS 10 for the iPhone and macSierra for Mac computers -- this summer at its developer conference. Now, the company is going to recap what's new and share final release dates. iOS 10 is the most exciting update, which has a ton of major feature additions for messaging, Siri and photos.[SEP]Apple CEO Tim Cook and company are hosting a major press event in San Francisco today where they’re taking the wraps off of the new iPhone 7 and Apple Watch 2. And we’re here live bringing you all the news as it happens. Apple unveiled iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. As expected, Apple did away with the headphone jack. For those who want to plug in their headphones, they’ll have to go through the lightning USB port; Apple is offering an adapter for existing headphones. Alternatively, Apple is offering wireless earbuds they call AirPods, which will set you back $159. The new iPhones will come with a powerful 12 megapixel camera and 4.7 Retina HD display. The 7 will start at $649 and the 7 Plus will start at $769. Apple Watch 2 will be waterproof. Apple senior VP Jeff Williams specifically said this watch would be “swim-proof.” The original Apple watch was just “splash-proof.” The new watch will also of much more robust graphics performance, with a display that will be two times brighter than the original. This watch and the Nike (NKE) edition of this Series 2 watch will start at $369. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off a couple of surprises including the announcement of Mario Run, a new mobile game for the iPhone from Nintendo (NTDOY). This is obviously exciting news for Nintendo fans, who have already been delighted by Nintendo-related games like PokemonGO. In fact, PokemonGO is coming for the the Apple Watch. Stay tuned and don’t forget to check back after the show for all of our hands-on impressions and the hottest of takes from the Yahoo Finance crew. Why the headphone jack must die Apple spits on history by removing the headphone jack Why I’ll never want an Apple Watch Why I’m buying the new Apple Watch[SEP]SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is expected to show off new iPhones, an updated smartwatch — and maybe some new gear for listening to both — during its annual fall product launch event today. Hard-core Apple fans will be watching closely for details about the newest features coming to Apple’s gadgets, from a widely anticipated dual-lens camera for the iPhone to a rumoured GPS sensor in the Apple Watch. But even casual users of consumer technology may be interested to see if Apple follows through on reports that it’s eliminating the iPhone’s analog headphone jack, since that could pave the way for a big shift in the way people listen to digital music. Getting rid of the traditional analog jack means future iPhone owners will need earbuds or headphones that use a digital connection, either through a wireless signal like Bluetooth or a cord that fits in the same port used for recharging the device. Apple may ship the next iPhones with an adapter that lets older headsets plug into the charging port. Tech blogs and industry analysts say Apple is also working on new headsets that fit the iPhone’s “Lightning” power port, and possibly new “Air Buds” that use a Bluetooth-like wireless signal. Aside from some new colours, the new iPhones aren’t expected to look much different from the models Apple has been selling since 2014, which include a standard model with a 4.7-inch screen and a “Plus” version with a 5.5-inch screen. Analysts say Apple is departing from its usual two-year development cycle and won’t announce a major revamp of its signature smartphone this year. Despite a recent dip in iPhone sales, most Apple watchers don’t expect a big overhaul until 2017, the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone’s release. Even so, the new phones are expected to come with faster processors, more memory and better cameras — an upgraded lens for the standard iPhone and a new dual-lens system for the Plus model that promises better “zoom” capabilities and improved performance in low lighting. Analysts say the new Apple Watc h will also have some new features, including a GPS sensor that can be used with exercise apps and other services. But despite reports that Apple has been working on giving the watch its own cellular capability — meaning it wouldn’t need to be paired with an iPhone — analysts say that’s unlikely to come this year. Apple is also expected to announce the dates when the new models will go on sale, along with its timetable for releasing the next major upgrades to the software for iPhones, iPads, the Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac computers. Though it might not seem dramatic, eliminating the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack would be controversial. On the plus side, it could let Apple make the iPhone slightly thinner and possibly waterproof; it might also free up space for other components. And some enthusiasts say a digital connection provides better audio quality. But critics are already complaining that the old analog headphones worked better than most wireless headsets, which can be clunky to set up and sometimes randomly drop their connections. Most existing headphones won’t plug into the iPhone’s charging port without an adapter. And it isn’t clear how you’d plug in your headset if you’re already charging your phone. For many people, listening to music and watching video — not to mention making the occasional phone call — constitutes one of the main uses for a smartphone. Along with the new iPhones, some analysts expect Apple use today’s event to promote new gear from Beats Electronics, the high-end headphone maker that Apple acquired two years ago for $3 billion. Apple has a history of preemptively doing away with older technologies, often prompting lamentations from users — at least until they got used to it. Co-founder Steve Jobs famously decided the first iMacs didn’t need a floppy disk drive in 1998, years before Windows PCs followed suit. Later, he made waves by selling MacBooks without a CD drive or even a traditional hard drive. More recently, Apple made millions of old power cords incompatible by replacing the 30-pin charging port on older iPhones and iPads with the much smaller Lightning port in 2012. Some of Apple’s rivals are also moving away from the headphone jack. Already this year, Lenovo’s Motorola division and Chinese smartphone maker LeEco have released phones without analog audio jacks, relying instead on cords that plug into a new digital port known as USB-C. “The market is changing,” said Jim Thiede, head of global product marketing at Motorola, who expects to see a number of manufacturers producing “USB-C headphones, earbuds and what have you” over the next three to six months. Some believe Apple’s real goal is to move people away from cords and plugs altogether. Apple has already cut the number of ports on its latest MacBooks, encouraging owners to use wireless features like Apple’s AirDrop and AirPlay for sharing files or streaming music and video, he noted. If more iPhone owners use wireless headsets, they may also be likely to try streaming music or other services wirelessly from the Apple Watch, said Carolina Milanesi, a mobile tech analyst at the research firm Creative Strategies. That may be part of Apple’s longer term plan, she added.[SEP]Apple on Wednesday unveiled two upgraded versions of its iPhone and a new waterproof smartwatch, seeking to reignite growth for the iconic technology maker. The iPhone 7 and larger iPhone 7 Plus, with new camera technology, 50-meter water resistance and other features, were the highlight of an Apple media event in San Francisco. The new devices come with Apple seeking to reverse declines in sales of the iPhone in an increasingly saturated global market, and boost its Apple Watch — in a slump since the enthusiasm of last year’s release wore off. Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the new smartphones take advantage of the latest iPhone software, iOS 10. “We are about to launch iOS 10, our biggest iOS release ever. It is jam-packed with new features,” Cook said. “Now of course the world’s most advanced mobile operating system deserves the most advanced smartphone, and here it is.” The flagship devices will be sold at around the same price as the models they replace, starting at $649 for the iPhone 7 for US customers, with deliveries in 25 countries beginning September 16. One new iPhone feature — which may ruffle some feathers — is the removal of the headphone jack, requiring audio to be delivered via Apple’s proprietary “lightning” connector or by wireless. “From the start we designed lightning to be a great audio connector,” Apple vice president Phil Schiller told the unveiling event. “We are taking the headphones in iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to lightning, and including them in the box with the device.” Apple will also include an adaptor to allow consumers to use existing headphones with the iPhone. The iPhone 7 Plus, Apple’s version of a “phablet,” includes dual cameras to improve optical performance and photo quality, the company said. While Apple has touted total iPhone sales of one billion, the number sold in the quarter ending June 25 fell 15 percent from a year earlier, highlighting concerns over growth for the key profit driver. Apple had saved a further surprise for its launch event, announcing jointly with Nintendo that “Super Mario Run” — featuring the iconic game character and developed specifically for mobile — will hit the App Store this year. Apple, Nintendo and game maker Niantic announced the wildly popular Pokemon Go would be available for Apple Watch users later this month. On the wearables front, its new Apple Watch Series 2 will also feature GPS — allowing people to gather fitness data during an outdoor workout without need to take along a smartphone. “We started shipping Apple Watch just 18 months ago, and already people all over the world are using it in many aspects of their daily lives,” Cook said. “But we are just getting started.” Sales figures for the smartwatch are not disclosed by Apple, but surveys show enthusiasm has faded since last year’s release. Apple saw a 56.7 percent year-over-year drop in sales of the device in the past quarter, research firm IDC said.

Apple announces the release of the iPhone 7 along with the Apple Watch 2.

A Chinese airline has come under fire after reportedly warning passengers to exercise caution when visiting areas of London "mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people". The advice in Air China's inflight magazine came to light after Beijing-based journalist Haze Fan posted a picture of the article on Twitter. Social media users were quick to pick up on the article, which has been described as "ignorant" and "blatantly racist". In a feature on visiting the capital, the airline urges travellers to be wary and take precautions when entering high ethnic minority areas in the capital. The excerpt read: "London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people. Advertisement "We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling." Ms Fan, a news and documentary producer for US channel CNBC, tweeted the picture and linked in London Mayor Sadiq Khan, whose late father was an immigrant from Pakistan, asking for his opinion. Writing for CNBC, she said: "Even for China, where companies have struggled with race issues in their marketing previously, the latest inflight magazine from the country's flagship airline will likely come as a shocker." Virendra Sharma, Labour MP for Ealing Southall, said he had raised the issue with the Chinese ambassador to the UK to demand an apology from the airline. "I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements," he said. "I have raised this issue with the Chinese ambassador, and requested that he ensures an apology is swiftly forthcoming from Air China, and the magazine is removed from circulation immediately. "I have invited representatives of Air China to visit my constituency of Ealing Southall to see that a very multi-cultural area is safe, and would be of great value for those visiting London to see. "I will await their response, and if an appropriate one is not forthcoming I shall feel forced to question whether Air China is a fit company to operate in the UK." Lambeth and Southwark London assembly member Florence Eshalomi tweeted to say she was disappointed by the piece. Air China is the country's flagship carrier, with 98 international routes and two flights per day from Beijing to London Heathrow. The article was published in its monthly Wings Of China magazine. Figures from VisitBritain show the number of trips to the UK from China rose by 46% last year to 270,000. The airline has not commented on the article.[SEP]China’s flagship carrier airline Air China has warned readers of its in-flight magazine to take “precautions” when visiting areas of London largely populated by “Indians, Pakistanis and black people”. The main article in the Wings of China in-flight magazine hails Britons’ fondness for hats, before a sidebar offers tips for visiting the English capital, with the paragraph: “London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people.” The article also warns: “We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.” Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing, Southall, which has a large Indian population, complained of Air China’s “blatantly untrue and racist statements ” . “I have invited representatives of Air China to visit my constituency of Ealing, Southall to see that a very multi-cultural area is safe, and would be of great value for those visiting London to see,” he said on his blog. “I will await their response, and if an appropriate one is not forthcoming I shall feel forced to question whether Air China is a fit company to operate in the UK,” Mr Sharma said. China is the world’s largest outbound travel market - with some 120 million people travelling overseas in 2015, and Air China operates two flights per day from Beijing to London Heathrow. Irish tourism authorities have been keen to build on the UK’s tourist campaigns. Under the British Irish Visa Scheme (BIVS), Chinese visitors can use a single-visit visa to visit both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, as neither is part of the Schengen Agreement. There have been several examples of racist ads or commentaries in the Chinese media in recent months. In June, a racist detergent advertisement in which a black workman was “washed white” and transformed into a Chinese man by a Chinese homemaker caused an international stir. The Global Times newspaper, which is published by the same group that publishes the People’s Daily, the official organ of the ruling Communist Party, responded to the row by saying racism had only become a problem in China since the country started to open up to the West. In July, an editorial in the Global Times urged African-Americans “to learn from other races, including Asian-Americans” on how to deal with racism by working hard and earning respect for their “educational and occupational achievements”. At the G20 meeting last week in Hangzhou, British prime minister Theresa May hailed the “Golden Era” of Sino-British relations. London is a popular destination for Chinese tourists, the number of trips to Britain from China rose by 46 per cent last year to 270,000 according to the agency VisitBritain.[SEP]LONDON — Air China has come under fire in Britain for an article in its in-flight magazine that tells visitors to take precautions in areas of London with large ethnic-minority populations. Haze Fan, a producer at CNBC, tweeted a photo of part of the bilingual Mandarin-English article from the Wings of China magazine. It said in English that “London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people.” Labour Party lawmaker Vivendra Sharma, who represents a diverse London district, said Wednesday that he had written to China’s ambassador to Britain, demanding an apology for the “blatantly untrue and racist statements.” Air China, which flies twice daily between Beijing and London, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.[SEP]China says it opposes all discrimination after Air China London warning SHANGHAI, Sept 8 (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it opposes all racial discrimination after state-owned Air China withdrew an in-flight magazine that warned visitors to be careful in parts of London populated by members of ethnic minorities. China prides itself as a new global superpower but occasional high-profile examples of prejudice towards foreigners, or people from minority groups, illustrate lingering biased attitudes in some quarters. "Precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people," the state-owned airline's Wings of China magazine said in an article offering advice to visitors to London, according to a photo of the text seen by Reuters. The advice, in its September edition, triggered an online uproar. Air China responded by saying it had removed all copies of the magazine from its aircraft and it had asked the publisher to "learn the lesson and avoid similar problems" in future. Publications on its flights did not represent its views, the airline said in a statement. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing she had noted the flag carrier had made an "initial response" to the article. "We hope that through its investigation Air China can appropriately handle the relevant issue," Hua said. "We consistently advocate for and support the equality of all ethnicities without exception and oppose all forms of racial discrimination." The publisher apologised for hurting Air China with the "inappropriate wording", according to a statement emailed to Reuters by Air China. The article also drew criticism in Britain. Member of parliament Virendra Sharma called the magazine "offensive" and asked in a post on twitter that the airline to remove the magazine and apologise. Sharma represents London's Ealing Southall area, dubbed "Little India", where more than one-third of residents are of Asian origin. The magazine's advice is the latest example of material published in China deemed insensitive and sparking uproar. In May, a detergent maker apologised after airing a television advertisement showing a black man being shoved into a washing machine and coming out a fair-skinned Asian. Public discussion of discrimination is unusual in China, which is dominated by the ethnic Han majority but is home to numerous minority groups as well as a growing influx of foreigners. Nearly 270,000 people from China visited Britain last year and Air China did get some sympathy. "Air China is not wrong. You really should take the company's advice for safety concerns. No need to care if it's politically correct," one netizen wrote on the Weibo social media site. (Reporting by Jackie Cai in SHANGHAI, addtional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by John Ruwitch, Robert Birsel)[SEP]MPs have urged China’s UK ambassador to intervene in a row over racist comments reportedly issued by a Chinese airline about ethnic minority areas of London. An image of text from an inflight Air China magazine posted on social media prompted outrage after it warned passengers that “precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people”. The text, tweeted by Beijing-based producer Haze Fan of US news channel CNBC, added: “We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.” Two MPs have urged Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, to secure an apology to their London constituents. Virendra Sharma, Labour MP for Ealing Southall where 39% of the population is Asian, wrote to Liu to complain about “blatant racism” from the airline. He said: “I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements. “I have raised this issue with the Chinese ambassador, and requested that he ensures an apology is swiftly forthcoming from Air China, and the magazine is removed from circulation immediately. “I have invited representatives of Air China to visit my constituency of Ealing Southall to see that a very multicultural area is safe, and would be of great value for those visiting London to see. “I will await their response, and if an appropriate one is not forthcoming I shall feel forced to question whether Air China is a fit company to operate in the UK.” Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, which has one of the largest south Asian populations in London, said: “I think it is offensive to all Londoners, not just the ethnic minorities mentioned.” Speaking to the Evening Standard she said: “I am going to be writing to the Chinese ambassador to invite him to visit Tooting in London, where all races live side by side. Then they can see how we live and our wonderfully diverse community.” In her tweet, Fan asked what London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, thought about the comments. A spokesman for Khan said the mayor’s office was drafting a statement. Lambeth and Southwark London assembly member Florence Eshalomi also invited Liu to her constituency. She said this would show him “what an international city London is”. She told the Guardian: “London is a safe city with a lot to offer visitors from across the world. Air China is doing a disservice to its passengers.” The article was published in Air China’s monthly Wings of China magazine. The airline is the country’s flag carrier and has two flights a day from Beijing to Heathrow. It operates a total of 98 international routes. Figures from VisitBritain show the number of trips to the UK from China rose by 46% last year to 270,000. Total expenditure from these visits was estimated at £586m and the average length of stay was 15 nights.[SEP]BEIJING (AP) — Chinese flag-carrier Air China said Thursday that it had removed copies of its inflight magazine containing an article criticized as racist for telling visitors to take precautions when visiting areas of London with large ethnic-minority populations. The state-owned airline said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the September issue of "Wings of China" used "inappropriate" language and that the article didn't represent the airline's views. "After discovering this problem, Air China immediately removed this magazine from all flights and demanded that the publishers of 'Wings of China' seriously learn from this lesson, strengthen their content review and avoid making similar mistakes," the airline said. FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2013 file photo, an Air China's Boeing 777 jet, top, taxis to a gate after landing at Beijing International Airport in Beijing, China. Air China said Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, that it had removed copies of its inflight magazine containing an article telling visitors to take precautions when visiting areas of London with large ethnic-minority populations. The state-owned airline, China's flag carrier, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the September issue of "Wings of China" used "inappropriate" language and that the article didn't represent the airline's views. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File) It also forwarded an email from the magazine's publisher apologizing to Air China and saying the fault lay with an "editing mistake." The original article in English read: "London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people." It also advised tourists not to go out alone at night, and for women not to travel alone. British lawmaker Vivendra Sharma, who represents a diverse London district, said Wednesday that he had written to China's ambassador to Britain to demand an apology for the "blatantly untrue and racist statements." In the apology to Air China, China Aviation Media Co. Ltd. said the article ran "counter to our original intention to promote the beautiful scenes of London." "It has brought about misunderstanding from some media outlets and readers and also a huge negative impact on your company's business operations and image. We deeply apologize for that," its statement read. It's not the first time Chinese businesses have been criticized for being tone-deaf over issues of race and ethnicity. Earlier this year, a Chinese laundry detergent maker apologized "for the harm caused to the African people" over its TV advertisement that showed a black man being stuffed into a washing machine and coming out a fair-skinned Asian man. Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd. Co. said it strongly condemned racial discrimination but blamed foreign media for playing up the controversy. The examples highlight how companies and much of the population in China remain somewhat oblivious to racial sensitivities, partly a result of China's overwhelming ethnic homogeneity and a relative lack of contact with foreigners until recent years that has allowed stereotypes to persist. Asked about the magazine's London travel advice, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded that the government only issues tourist alerts to people "travelling to high risk areas like war zones." The Chinese government "resolutely opposes all forms of racial discrimination," she said.[SEP]A Chinese airline today caused outrage after an inflight magazine told passengers to the UK to avoid ethnic minority areas in London. A passage in the current edition of Wings of China, the publication distributed on Air China, Asia’s third largest airline, warns “London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people. “We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.” The phrase is repeated in both Mandarin and English in the magazine’s feature on the capital. The "racist" article shocked one Chinese journalist, Haze Fan, on a flight in China so much she tweeted a picture of it to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan asking him what he thought. She said her Londoner fiancée “felt its rather insulting”. Now politicians are demanding an apology and that the phrase is removed from the publication by the airline, which flies twice daily between London and Beijing. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, which has one of the largest Indian and Pakistani populations in London, said: “My initial thoughts were that the comments were outrageous. “I think that it is offensive to Londoners and I would like to see it removed. I would also like to ask the airline why they thought these precautions needed to be taken. “Why they feel they needed to warn people of something that is not reflective of London at all? “I think it is offensive to all Londoners, not just the ethnic minorities mentioned. “We pride ourselves on having a wonderfully diverse community, and this may mean people come here with a different idea, it is worrying that some may arrive concerned. “I am going to be writing to the Chinese Ambassador to invite him to visit Tooting in London, where all races live side by side. Then they can see how we live and our wonderfully diverse community.” Lambeth and Southwark London assembly member Florence Eshalomi told the Standard that “you couldn’t make up these outdated and near-on racist views”. She said: “I keep thinking, is this 2016? “We want people who embrace our diversity and different culture - that is the make-up of London. “If airlines have a problem with that then we don’t want them in London. “We would love to offer Chinese tourists a tour of areas like Peckham, Brixton and Newham where they would be welcomed with open arms by our diverse communities.” A spokesman from civil rights campign group Hope Not Hate spokesman said: “If true, these comments are crassly ill-informed and offensive, and simply peddle to outrageous stereotypes. “It beggars belief to understand how they could have been written in the first place. “They should be removed immediately. Londoners deserve an apology.” Air China declined to respond to request for a comment.[SEP]Air China says it has removed all copies of an in-flight magazine that's been slammed for "blatant racism" about ethnic minorities in London. A travel tip at the end of the magazine's latest cover story advised London visitors about going to neighborhoods with large populations of "Indians, Pakistanis and black people." The warning set off a storm of protest and prompted a British lawmaker to demand an apology from China's flag carrier. "London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people," said the passage, which was spotted by a CNBC journalist. "We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when traveling." The warning appeared in the September issue of the airline's "Wings of China" magazine as part of a promotional feature about the British capital. "I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements," said Virendra Sharma, the member of parliament for an ethnically diverse district in western London. He said Wednesday he had written to the Chinese ambassador to the U.K. to demand an apology from the state-owned airline. On Thursday, Air China (AIRYY) pinned the blame for the "inappropriate expressions" on a sister firm, Air China Media, which shares a parent company with the airline and publishes its in-flight magazine. The airline said it had "asked the publisher to draw a serious lesson from the episode and strengthen its content review to avoid similar problems from arising again." Air China Media said in a letter addressed to the airline that the upsetting language was "entirely due to an editing error and in no way reflected the magazine's views." "This has caused great negative impact on the operations and brand image of your airline, for which we sincerely apologize," Air China Media said, adding that it also hoped to "sincerely apologize to all travelers and readers who were offended by the article." Air China Media also claimed it had published the story "in cooperation with the tourism board for Great Britain." But VisitBritain, the country's official tourist board, said it had not been consulted and did not have "sight of the text of this article at any stage." An earlier apology was posted on Air China's North American Twitter account Wednesday afternoon in the U.S. But the tweet was deleted hours later without explanation. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that it hoped Air China would "properly handle the situation after its investigation." "I want to emphasize the position of the Chinese government," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing. "We always hold that all races are equal and firmly oppose all forms of racial discrimination." The controversy is the latest case of marketing linked to China coming under fire for racism. A Chinese company provoked widespread outrage earlier this year with a laundry detergent ad that depicted a black man being thrown into a washing machine and then emerging as a light-skinned Chinese man. There was also considerable criticism online after the Chinese posters for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" seemed to downplay black actor and co-lead John Boyega.[SEP]An edition of a Chinese airline's inflight magazine which warned passengers that "precautions are needed" when entering ethnic minority areas of London will be withdrawn, its publisher said. The advice was included in a feature on visiting London in Wings of China, a publication distributed on board Air China flights. A statement from the in-house Wings of China Office, obtained and translated by US news channel CNBC, whose Beijing-based producer first reported the controversial excerpt, read: "The inappropriate expressions in the article are merely the mistakes made by the editors, but in no means represent the views of the magazine. "We will immediately withdraw all the publications, carefully learn this lesson, improve our management to make sure there will be no more similar mistakes. We also would love to send sincere apologies via Air China to all the readers and passengers who felt uncomfortable because of this." The magazine article stated: "London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people. "We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling." Virendra Sharma , Labour MP for Ealing Southall, said on Wednesday that he has written to the Chinese ambassador to the UK demanding an apology for what he described as blatant racism . He said: "I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements. "I have raised this issue with the Chinese ambassador, and requested that he ensures an apology is swiftly forthcoming from Air China, and the magazine is removed from circulation immediately. "I have invited representatives of Air China to visit my constituency of Ealing Southall to see that a very multi-cultural area is safe, and would be of great value for those visiting London to see. "I will await their response, and if an appropriate one is not forthcoming I shall feel forced to question whether Air China is a fit company to operate in the UK." Air China is the country's flag carrier and has two flights per day from Beijing to London Heathrow. The late father of London Mayor Sadiq Khan was an immigrant from Pakistan. Figures from VisitBritain show the number of trips to the UK from China rose by 46% last year to 270,000. Total expenditure from these visits was estimated at £586 million and the average length of stay was 15 nights.[SEP]LONDON: A British MP has slammed Air China for alleged “racist” travel advice offered to clients visiting London. The airline’s “Wings of China” magazine reportedly provides safety advice to travellers based on the race and nationality of local residents. “London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people,” the magazine says, according to a photograph published by CNBC. “We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling,” the magazine adds. The description prompted London MP Virendra Sharma, who emigrated from India to the UK in the 1960s, to complain to the Chinese government. “I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements,” he said in an online statement. “I have raised this issue with the Chinese ambassador, and requested that he ensures an apology is swiftly forthcoming from Air China, and the magazine is removed from circulation immediately,” Sharma said. Neither Air China nor the Chinese embassy were immediately available to comment on the report, which comes during a period of tension between Beijing and London. British Prime Minister Theresa May returned to London this week from the G20 summit hosted by China, where she defended her decision to delay giving the go-ahead to a nuclear power project in which Beijing has substantial investment. China has a one-third stake in the plan to build Britain’s first nuclear plant in decades at Hinkley Point in southwest England, along with French company EDF. May unexpectedly delayed the project in July after EDF gave it a green light, saying on Sunday she would make a decision this month. China’s ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, warned last month relations were at a “crucial historical juncture” between the two countries. AFP

Air China receives criticism in the United Kingdom after it releases an advertisement warning passengers from visiting areas of London populated by blacks, Indians and Pakistanis.

Image copyright EPA US firm Liberty Media has confirmed it is buying the racing business Formula 1 for $4.4bn (£3.3bn). The move ends years of speculation about the ownership of the company. Bernie Ecclestone will remain as chief executive but Chase Carey, vice-chairman of 21st Century Fox, will become the new chairman. Liberty Media has stakes in several sports and entertainment businesses, including the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball club. Owned by the billionaire John Malone, Liberty will initially purchase a minority stake in the world's leading motor-racing championship. A full takeover is planned if regulators approve the deal. The total transaction values the firm at $8bn but includes $4.1bn worth of F1's debt. Liberty Media is buying the stake from the private equity firm CVC Capital. CVC has held a stake for the past decade but sold some of its holding in 2012. It has been criticised for taking considerable profits from the sport, which has suffered from falling TV ratings in recent years. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone (right) talks to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner Analysis: Dan Roan, BBC sports editor This is one of the biggest deals in sports history and one of the most important moments in the history of F1. Under overlord Bernie Ecclestone's long command - and the last decade of ownership by private equity group CVC - the motorsport series has enjoyed remarkable growth in terms of global popularity, profits and new races. Liberty Media will hope to build on these strengths, helping the sport gain new fans, especially in the Americas, and to capitalise on new opportunities around marketing, promotion, digital rights and social media. However, assuming European regulators approve the takeover, there are issues that the new US owners will need to address - the decline in appeal among younger audiences in an ultra-competitive sporting landscape, the rising costs to teams, fans and circuits, and the predictability of races. Many inside the sport will be relieved to see the back of CVC, which has done very well out of its investment, and excited by the future. But this is also the beginning of the end of Mr Ecclestone's remarkable reign. Inevitably there will be uncertainty. Ecclestone to stay for 'three more years' Beginning of the end for Ecclestone? Ecclestone: The man, the myths and the motors "We are excited to become part of Formula 1," said Greg Maffei, chief executive of Liberty Media. "We think our long-term perspective and expertise with media and sports assets will allow us to be good stewards of Formula 1 and benefit fans, teams and our shareholders." Mr Ecclestone said: "I would like to welcome Liberty Media and Chase Carey to Formula 1 and I look forward to working with them." Earlier, he said in an interview with Reuters that he had been asked to stay on for three years and would miss the Singapore Grand Prix on 18 September as he needed be in London for the negotiations. The 85-year-old British businessman has run the sport for 40 years.[SEP]The sale of Formula One to Liberty Media has been agreed in a takeover which values the sport at $8bn. John Malone, head of the entertainment and communications group, has purchased a controlling interest in the sport from CVC Capital. Chase Carey, the executive vice-president of 21st Century Fox, has been appointed chairman of the Formula One Group, while Bernie Ecclestone, currently the chief executive, will remain in his position. Liberty has paid $4.4bn for Formula One, initially for a 18.7% stake before acquiring the remainder on completion of the deal in 2017. CVC will remain shareholders but the voting shares that control the group will pass to Liberty. CVC has owned the sport since 2006, making a huge return on its initial investment of $2bn. “The transaction price represents an enterprise value for Formula One of $8bn and an equity value of $4.4bn,” Liberty Media confirmed in a statement. The income from the sale is likely to make F1 the most profitable deal in the investment house’s history. Much is expected of the new owners, with considerable emphasis on pushing the sport into new media and targeting new audiences. The US-based company has clear intent not only to take advantage of Formula One’s ability to buck downward trends in financial returns but will also use its leverage as a media company to promote the sport and is likely to develop a new business model to back it. Greg Maffei, the president and chief executive officer of Liberty Media, said: “We think our long-term perspective and expertise with media and sports assets will allow us to be good stewards of Formula One and benefit fans, teams and our shareholders. We are excited to become part of Formula One.” The statement continued: “After completion of the acquisition Liberty Media will own Formula One and it will be attributed to the Liberty Media Group which will be renamed the Formula One Group. “Chase Carey will serve as the new chairman of Formula One, succeeding Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who will remain on Formula One’s board as a non-executive director. Bernie Ecclestone will remain Formula One’s CEO.” The new owners have also included the option for allowing the F1 teams to participate in the new investment in the sport and said they will discuss the idea further with several that have expressed interest already. Carey said he was looking forward to the “opportunity to help Formula One continue to develop and prosper for the benefit of the sport, fans, teams and investors alike.” In the short term, however, Ecclestone, who has run Formula One as a fiefdom for 40 years, will be on hand to see through the takeover, having already said he was expecting to stay on for a further three years. In a statement he said: “I would like to welcome Liberty Media and Chase Carey to Formula One and I look forward to working with them.” Ecclestone, who is now 85 years old, has largely handled the key tenets of F1’s financial success, which hinges on TV deals and the sale of rights to host races, himself. He likes to do business face to face and make deals that are both personal and private. The sale of British broadcasting rights for the sport to Sky in 2011 was done and dusted before a bemused paddock had any idea of the deal. It has been his negotiation of an escalator clause in new race contracts that has ensured the sport’s profits have beaten both inflation and recession in recent years. Having him on board to ensure the lucrative revenue stream that made Liberty’s purchase so attractive in the first place is an unsurprising move for the new owners. How long they will stick with F1’s old guard in the new era remains to be seen.[SEP]Bernie Eccleston's reign over Formula One could be reaching the finish line after an American entertainment tycoon agreed to buy it in a deal worth £6 billion. Liberty Media is buying 100 per cent of the shares of F1's parent company Delta Topco from the British private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. Ecclestone, who has been part of Formula One ever since the 1950s, will remain as chief executive for three years but 21st Century Fox vice-chairman Chase Carey will become the new chairman. Reluctant to delegate, Ecclestone has not groomed a successor and critics have accused him of holding back the sport through a failure to embrace fully new media or the digital marketplace, something Liberty is expected to make a priority. The deal, which has an enterprise value of $8 billion US according to a company statement, heralds a new era for Formula One, a European-dominated sport that has long sought to break into the US market and win fresh audiences. Liberty Media, which is owned by American media mogul John Malone, and its sister companies have interests that span from baseball's Atlanta Braves to Virgin Media, and Malone owns shares in ITV, Eurosport and Formula E. Liberty Media president and chief executive Greg Maffei said: 'We are excited to become part of Formula One. We think our long-term perspective and expertise with media and sports assets will allow us to be good stewards of Formula One and benefit fans, teams and our shareholders. 'We look forward to working closely with Chase Carey and Bernie Ecclestone to support the next phase of growth for this hugely popular global sport.' Ecclestone added: 'I would like to welcome Liberty Media and Chase Carey to Formula One and I look forward to working with them.' On Wednesday he said: 'I will stay on as F1 chief executive'. 'I will continue to do all the things I have previously done, such as negotiate with the circuits, television companies and people like that.' Liberty Media will initially acquire an 18.7 per cent minority stake before completing a full takeover if the deal is approved by regulators and the FIA. Carey said: 'I am thrilled to take up the role of Chairman of Formula One and have the opportunity to work alongside Bernie Ecclestone, CVC, and the Liberty Media team. 'I greatly admire Formula One as a unique global sports entertainment franchise attracting hundreds of millions of fans each season from all around the world. 'I see great opportunity to help Formula One continue to develop and prosper for the benefit of the sport, fans, teams and investors alike.' As a major investor in the internet, many observers expect Malone to move F1 more in that direction, which would not be difficult as Ecclestone has made no apologies about ignoring the digital revolution. Liberty Media will also want to grow F1's presence in the United States, where it has traditionally struggled against home-grown alternatives, although the US Grand Prix in Austin has been a relative success. And F1 fans should expect more innovations with gaming technology and virtual reality, as well as a much more coherent marketing effort with the drivers and teams. But the days of terrestrial broadcasters like the BBC, ITV or current domestic home Channel 4 providing free-to-air coverage on Sunday afternoons might be numbered. Meanwhile, Ecclestone’s daughters are set to share a £500million windfall from the deal. Heiresses Tamara Ecclestone, 32, and sister Petra Stunt, 27, are in line to pocket the eye-watering fortune as they are thought be the beneficiaries of a trust which owns an 8.5 per cent stake in F1. Ecclestone has been widely credited with transforming F1 from something run by enthusiasts into one of the world’s richest sports generating £1.1billion sales annually. A controversial figure, Ecclestone has held an iron grip over the sport and is known for playing rival teams off against each other. On one occasion when they grouped together to challenge him, Mr Ecclestone said: ‘They think they have me by the balls but their hands aren’t big enough.’[SEP]The US company Liberty Media says it has agreed an $8bn deal to buy Formula One – with Bernie Ecclestone retaining his position as chief executive. John Malone’s group has confirmed the deal after talks with CVC Capital Partners, which has controlled the sport for a decade. Chase Carey, vice-chairman of 21st Century Fox, will become the new chairman. “Liberty Media Corporation and CVC Capital Partners announced today that Liberty Media has agreed to acquire Formula One, the iconic global motorsports business, from a consortium of sellers led by CVC,” the statement read. “Liberty Media owns interests in a broad range of media, communications and entertainment businesses. Those interests are attributed to three tracking stock groups: the Liberty SiriusXM Group, the Liberty Braves Group and the Liberty Media Group. The consideration comprises cash and newly issued shares in the Liberty Media Group tracking stock (LMCK) and a debt instrument exchangeable into shares of LMCK. The transaction price represents an enterprise value for Formula One of $8bn and an equity value of $4.4bn. “The acquisition will be effected by Liberty Media acquiring 100% of the shares of Delta Topco, the parent company of Formula One (Delta Topco herein referred to as “Formula One”). The acquisition is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions and is described in more detail below. “Concurrent with the execution of the agreement to effect the acquisition, Liberty Media has completed the acquisition of an 18.7% minority stake in Formula One for $746m, funded entirely in cash (which is equal to $821m in consideration less a $75m discount to be repaid by Liberty Media to selling stockholders upon completion of the acquisition). Prior to completion CVC Funds will continue to be the controlling shareholder of Formula One. “After completion of the acquisition Liberty Media will own Formula One and it will be attributed to the Liberty Media Group which will be renamed the Formula One Group. The consortium of sellers led by CVC will own approximately 65% of the Formula One Group’s equity and will have board representation at Formula One to support Liberty Media in continuing to develop the full potential of the sport. In addition, a CVC representative will be joining the Liberty Media Board of Directors. “Chase Carey has been appointed by Delta Topco and will serve as the new chairman of Formula One, succeeding Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who will remain on Formula One’s board as a non-executive director. Bernie Ecclestone will remain Formula One’s CEO.” “I am thrilled to take up the role of chairman of Formula One and have the opportunity to work alongside Bernie Ecclestone, CVC and the Liberty Media team,” Chase Carey said. “I greatly admire Formula One as a unique global sports entertainment franchise attracting hundreds of millions of fans each season from all around the world. I see great opportunity to help Formula One continue to develop and prosper for the benefit of the sport, fans, teams and investors alike.” Ecclestone added: “I would like to welcome Liberty Media and Chase Carey to Formula One and I look forward to working with them.” The statement also confirms that the deal is subject to consent from third parties including the FIA, F1’s governing body. The acquisition is “expected to close by the first quarter of 2017”.[SEP]Liberty Media has announced that it has agreed a deal to acquire Formula One in a deal worth 4.4bn US dollars (£3.3bn). The American entertainment and media giant is buying 100 per cent of the shares of F1's parent company Delta Topco from the British private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. Bernie Ecclestone will remain as chief executive but 21st Century Fox vice-chairman Chase Carey will become the new chairman. Liberty Media, which is owned by American media mogul John Malone, and its sister companies have interests that span from baseball's Atlanta Braves to Virgin Media, and Malone owns shares in ITV, Eurosport and Formula E. Liberty Media president and chief executive Greg Maffei said: "We are excited to become part of Formula One. We think our long-term perspective and expertise with media and sports assets will allow us to be good stewards of Formula One and benefit fans, teams and our shareholders. "We look forward to working closely with Chase Carey and Bernie Ecclestone to support the next phase of growth for this hugely popular global sport." Ecclestone added: "I would like to welcome Liberty Media and Chase Carey to Formula One and I look forward to working with them." Liberty Media will initially acquire an 18.7% minority stake before completing a full takeover if the deal is approved by regulators and the FIA. Carey said: "I am thrilled to take up the role of Chairman of Formula One and have the opportunity to work alongside Bernie Ecclestone, CVC, and the Liberty Media team. "I greatly admire Formula One as a unique global sports entertainment franchise attracting hundreds of millions of fans each season from all around the world. "I see great opportunity to help Formula One continue to develop and prosper for the benefit of the sport, fans, teams and investors alike." As a major investor in the internet, many observers expect Malone to move F1 more in that direction, which would not be difficult as Ecclestone has made no apologies about ignoring the digital revolution. Liberty Media will also want to grow F1's presence in the United States, where it has traditionally struggled against home-grown alternatives, although the US Grand Prix in Austin has been a relative success. And F1 fans should expect more innovations with gaming technology and virtual reality, as well as a much more coherent marketing effort with the drivers and teams. But the days of terrestrial broadcasters like the BBC, ITV or current domestic home Channel 4 providing free-to-air coverage on Sunday afternoons might be numbered.[SEP]John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. agreed to buy the company that controls Formula One from private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners Ltd. for $4.4 billion in cash, stock and convertible debt. Liberty will hold an 18.7 percent stake in Formula 1 parent Delta Topco right away and will take full ownership as soon as the end of March, the Englewood-based company said Wednesday, citing an announcement from the companies. London-based CVC, largest shareholder in Delta Topco, will own 65 percent of Liberty Media Group, a unit of Liberty Media Corp. Malone will retain control of the company through voting shares. Chase Carey, a former top executive at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, will become chairman of Liberty Media Group, which will change its name to Formula One Group, Liberty said in a news release. Liberty Media Corp. CEO Greg Maffei said in a call with investors that Liberty will pay $1.1 billion in cash and issue $3.3 billion in non-voting tracking stock to existing Formula One shareholders. The deal, which includes the assumption of some Formula One debt, values the motorsports group at $8 billion. The deal reflects a push by media companies to secure popular programming at a time when TV faces increasing competition from digital alternatives. Broadcasters and advertisers prize sports events like Formula One and English Premier League soccer because they continue to draw large live viewing audiences and have a growing global following. While Formula One has struggled to crack the U.S. market, it generated $1.3 billion from television rights and other revenue sources including race-hosting fees in 2014, the most recent year available, according to filings at the U.K.’s Companies House. Liberty Global Plc, a London-listed sister company to Liberty Media, owns cable operator Virgin Media in the U.K. and other broadband and TV providers. The deal would provide a windfall for CVC, which bought control of Formula One from lenders in 2006 for $2 billion and later sold stakes to BlackRock Inc. and Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. Bernie Ecclestone, the British entrepreneur who founded Formula One in 1978 and built a global following through the sale of lucrative TV and advertising deals linked to Grand Prix races in dozens of countries, will remain chief executive officer, CNBC said. Around the time of the 2006 sale, Ecclestone quelled a threat from Formula One teams to set up a rival car-racing series and his management involvement has continued since the CVC takeover.[SEP]Formula One is being bought by Liberty Media, a U.S. company that invests in entertainment and sports, in a takeover valuing the auto racing series at $8 billion. Liberty Media, which is controlled by 75-year-old tycoon John Malone, has ended years of uncertainty about the ownership of the sport with Wednesday's deal . The transition is expected to be overseen by F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, who told the Associated Press that he will retain his role as the sport enters a new era. Liberty Media will be renamed Formula One Group after the deal is complete, which is expected by March 2017.[SEP]Bernie Ecclestone insisted he will carry on as chief executive of Formula One for at least three years as the £6billion takeover of the sport ploughed on. He is never scared of a fight and, at 85, is refusing to give up his position as the paddock’s impresario. Despite having his power reduced, Ecclestone said he will work with new chairman Chase Carey, who will be installed by Liberty Media when they take over. ‘I will stay on as F1 chief executive,’ he said. ‘I will continue to do all the things I have previously done, such as negotiate with the circuits, television companies and people like that. ‘The good news is we will have someone on board in Chase, and he will hopefully be able to push F1 into new territories with social media. I have never found a way to make money from that.’ The deal is expected to go through — the money’s in the post — and Ecclestone will attend a board meeting on Tuesday rather than go to the Singapore Grand Prix. There remain a few formalities to be observed. The sport’s governing body the FIA, who have a one per cent share in the sport’s commercial operation, have to give their assent. That is thought unlikely to be withheld, not least because they stand to make significant money. Ecclestone’s power has been near-absolute for 40 years and he has seen off numerous coups, but he seems to accept this deal is going through. He confirmed the length of contract on offer to him when he said: ‘They want me to be here for three years. ‘There are certain things that are important to me: (Carey’s) connections in America with TV, which are good. There is also his connection with sponsors, the people he has been dealing with for years, which are also good, and finally social media, which again is good. This is all positive for the sport.’[SEP]London (AP) — Formula One is being bought by Liberty Media, a U.S. company that invests in entertainment and sports, for $4.4 billion. Liberty Media Corp., which is controlled by 75-year-old tycoon John Malone, has ended years of uncertainty about the ownership of the auto racing series with Wednesday’s deal. There will be continuity, with Bernie Ecclestone remaining the chief executive officer of F1. But the 85-year-old Ecclestone will have to work under a new chairman: Chase Carey, the executive vice chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment conglomerate 21st Century Fox. Formula One has hundreds of millions of fans, and Carey said in a statement that he sees opportunity to develop it. In an interview, Ecclestone said he is optimistic Liberty has the resources, expertise and outlook to drive the growth of F1 — particularly in the United States. Liberty said it has initially purchased a minority stake of 18.7 percent for $746 million. A buyout is expected to be completed by March 2017. F1’s biggest current shareholder, investment fund CVC Capital Partners, and the other sellers will still own 65 percent of Formula One Group stock, and retain board representation. But CVC, which first invested in F1 in 2005, is ceding control of the sport to Malone’s Liberty, which has all the voting shares. The company says the deal values Formula One at $8 billion, including debt. Malone, a U.S. cable-industry pioneer, has wide-ranging holdings in sports and entertainment. His Liberty Media also owns Major League Baseball team Atlanta Braves and has a controlling interest in radio company Sirius XM. Malone also controls European telecom company Liberty Global and has investments in U.S. cable company Charter, which recently bought Time Warner Cable, and various cable-TV companies. “I hope they do a lot because they are American and have had dealings in television in America for a long time,” Ecclestone said of Liberty. “They have dealings with a lot of sponsors because of their TV networks and social media which we haven’t done (as much) in the past.” The sport returned to the U.S. in 2012 after a five-year absence, with Austin hosting the race under the current deals. “I am very, very happy that they can come in and do things (for the sport),” Ecclestone, the long-time F1 commercial chief, told The Associated Press. “I have been trying to do things in America for years but not very successfully … maybe they are the people that can get it done.” Asked about challenging NASCAR’s supremacy in the U.S., Ecclestone said: “They are the people that should be concerned, of course.” At the time of the sale, CVC had a 35.5 percent stake in F1, followed by U.S. fund manager Waddell & Reed with slightly more than 20 percent. Ecclestone has 5.3 percent stake in F1 but his family Bambino Trust has a further 8.5 percent, rounding up his involvement up to about 14 percent.[SEP]* Agreed to acquire Formula One from a consortium of sellers led by CVC capital partners * Transaction price represents enterprise value for Formula One of $8.0 billion * Initial sale of 18.7 percent minority stake in Formula One, with 100 percent sale subject to satisfaction of conditions * Acquisition will be effected by liberty media acquiring 100 percent of shares of Delta Topco, parent company of Formula One * Transaction price represents an equity value of $4.4 billion * Liberty Media Corp says Bernie Ecclestone will remain formula one's CEO * Prior to completion, CVC funds will continue to be controlling shareholder of Formula One * Upon completion of acquisition, Liberty Media Group will be renamed Formula One Group * Formula One will remain based in London * Liberty Media Corp says funding for cash component of acquisition is expected to come from cash on hand at Liberty Media Group * Ticker symbols for series A, series B and series C Liberty Media Group tracking stocks will be changed from LMC (A/B/K) respectively * Selling stockholders will get $1.1 billion in cash, 138 million newly issued shares of LMCK and a $351 million exchangeable debt instrument Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

Liberty Media confirms it is buying Formula One for US$4.4 billion; however, Bernie Ecclestone will remain as chief executive.

PTI By NIAMEY: At least 38 people have been killed and more than 92,000 left homeless since June in disastrous floods in Niger, the United Nations have said. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the deaths, up from a previous government toll of 14, followed torrential rains in August. More than 26,000 livestock have been lost and more than 9,000 homes destroyed, the UN said, citing government figures. Authorities and NGOs have already given out aid to more than 50,000 people, the UN added, with many of the homeless sheltering in schools and public buildings. Despite being in the middle of the desert, Agadez in the north and Tahoua to the west are among the worst hit regions, along with Maradi in the south. Niger is in the midst of its annual rainy season, having struggled to overcome a severe food crisis caused by drought. One of the poorest countries on the planet, its authorities are also struggling with 300,000 refugees and internally displaced people who have fled the Boko Haram insurgency in Niger's southeast and in neighbouring Nigeria.[SEP]A new armed group has threatened to launch attacks in the uranium-rich west African country of Niger to protest against the marginalisation of the minority Toubou population. The arid country, one of the world’s poorest, is facing attacks from Nigeria-based Boko Haram jihadists and other groups near its rich uranium mines. “The Movement for Justice and the Rehabilitation of Niger wishes to inform… that we will take up an armed fight to obtain our fundamental rights,” said a statement signed by Adam Tcheke Koudigan who described himself as interim president of the group. “The government of Niger has remained completely indifferent to our more than legitimate demands,” he said, accusing authorities of turning a blind eye to environmental degradation near oil sites. It accused the China National Petroleum Corporation of “making millions of dollars” while ravaging the environment and ignoring the welfare of locals. “We are on the ground, ready… and when the time comes we will attack Niger,” he said in a video, surrounded by armed men, one of whom held a rocket launcher. The pastoral Toubous are spread across Chad, Libya, Niger and Sudan. But a government source dismissed the video as a “media stunt”, adding: that Koudigan was “insignificant and has no one behind him.”

Flooding in Niger kills at least 38 people and leaves more than 92,000 people displaced.

US senate blocks Zika funding for third time US Senate Democrats blocked a $1.1 billion bill to combat the Zika virus for a third time after Republicans inserted provisions that would end funding for a major abortion provider. Returning from a seven-week break to the measure with which the last Senate session ended, Democrats voted unanimously to stop the legislation from moving forward and ending debate, opposing measures that would have blocked funding for reproductive health group Planned Parenthood and allowed Confederate flags to fly at military cemeteries. The vote, which required 60 votes to pass in the Republican-controlled chamber, failed 52 to 46. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer accused Republicans of loading the bill with "poison pill riders to assuage the hard right." "Rather than continuing to work with Democrats, Republicans decided to appease a group so extreme that they didn't even want Zika funding to begin with," he said in a statement. "It's hard to explain why, despite their own calls for funding, Senate Democrats decided to block a bill that would keep pregnant women and babies safer from Zika," he said on the Senate floor before reintroducing the previously blocked measure. The funding is now expected to be included in a bipartisan stopgap spending bill later this month. Zika is spread by mosquitoes and sexual contact. A study out Tuesday said the virus may live in eyes and spread through tears. Zika causes only mild symptoms for most people. But in pregnant women, it can cause microcephaly, a deformation in which babies are born with abnormally small brains and heads. The disease has also been linked to a potentially fatal disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can lead to nervous system problems such as weakness and paralysis. President Barack Obama urged Congress to fund the fight against Zika last month after health officials expressed deepening worry about the spread of the virus with the first reports of local transmissions in Florida. In the absence of a funding bill, the White House has been redirecting funds earmarked to fight Ebola, cancer and other diseases. "That's not a sustainable solution," Obama said. The delay for more funds "puts more Americans at risk."[SEP]Singapore has so far detected more than 280 Zika infections since reporting its first case on Aug. 27. Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 1,800 cases of the birth defect. In adults, Zika infections have also been linked to a rare neurological syndrome known as Guillain-Barre, as well as other neurological disorders. An analysis of two locally infected patients showed the Zika strain in Singapore likely evolved from a strain already circulating in Southeast Asia since the 1960s, the Straits Times newspaper said on its website. The analysis will be made available for the benefit of the global scientific community, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the newspaper said. On Wednesday, the WHO updated its assessment of the Zika virus as a cause of congenital brain abnormalities in babies and the Guillian-Barre syndrome, after considering months of research into the mosquito-borne disease.[SEP]Researchers have found that the Zika virus can live in eyes, and research in mice may help explain why some Zika patients develop eye disease, including a condition that can lead to permanent vision loss. In a study published Tuesday in Cell Reports, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis describe the effect of Zika virus infections in the eyes of mouse fetuses, newborns and adults. The study suggests that the eye could be a reservoir for the virus. Eye infection raises the possibility that people could become infected with Zika through contact with tears from infected people, they said. Zika virus is primarily spread from the bite of an infected mosquito. It is also spread through sex. Some researchers are also considering whether other bodily fluids may play a role. Researchers have detected Zika virus in blood, urine, semen, saliva and breast milk. It has also been found in genital tract swabs and fluid inside the eye, health officials have said. Researchers said bodily fluids, including tears, are one possibility for how an elderly Utah man may have spread the virus to his son. The elderly man died in July after contracting Zika from travel abroad, but his son did not leave the country and the mosquitoes known to spread the disease are not found in their area. Officials haven't been able to determine how his caregiver son became infected. The son has since recovered. "That one case illustrates the real conundrum," said Rajendra Apte, an ophthalmology professor and retina specialist who is one of the study's senior authors. To determine the effects of Zika infection on the eye, Washington University scientists infected adult mice and found live virus in the eyes seven days later. They didn't find virus in the eyes of baby mice eight days after they were born to infected mothers. But after infecting neonatal mice, they found evidence of Zika infection once they were born, Apte said. Researchers found that the tears of infected mice contained Zika's RNA - the genetic material from the virus - but not infectious virus, when tested 28 days after infection. What researchers don't know is whether in mice, "there is a point where tears are actually infectious," Apte said. He added that in people, "it could be a completely different story." Unlike other parts of the body, the eye is a place where the normal immune response is suppressed. It's an evolutionary response to avoid inflammation of sensitive tissue "because if you have a lot of inflammation or scar tissue, it's not good for vision," he said. As a result, infections sometimes persist in the eye after they have been cleared from the rest of the body. American doctor Ian Crozier treated patients in West Africa during the Ebola epidemic in 2014, and later became infected himself. The virus lurked in his eye months after he had been declared Ebola-free. Researchers are planning studies to determine whether infectious Zika virus persists in human eyes, Apte said. They also want to know how long the virus stays in the eyes because of other public health implications. Hepatitis C virus, a related virus, can infect the human cornea and is transmitted by corneal transplants, the study said. The study pointed out that eye banks may need to start testing corneas for Zika virus as well.[SEP](CNN) The pictures from Brazil are heartbreaking: baby after baby born with a small head and damaged brain after an attack by the Zika virus during pregnancy. The official numbers are equally disturbing: The rate of birth defects involving the nervous system nearly doubled across Brazil after Zika arrived. This stark statistical reality was discovered by a team of researchers from Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which analyzed hospital records across Brazil from 2008, well before Zika arrived, until the end of February 2016. The researchers also looked for data on rare, potentially deadly inflammations of the brain and spinal cord such as encephalitis, myelitis, and encephalomyelitis, as well as Guillain-Barré syndrome , a disorder where the body's immune system attacks its own nerve cells, causing pain, paralysis and even death. The results, published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases , found "an unprecedented and significant rise in the hospitalization rate for congenital malformations of the nervous system, Guillain-Barré syndrome, encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis" beginning in mid-2014. That's more than a year before the world became aware of the outbreak in October 2015, and stories of Zika's terrible consequences began to appear in the news. The numbers show the northeast region of Brazil, often considered the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, was indeed the hardest hit. Historical averages of congenital malformations were stable at about 40/100,000 live births until November of 2015. Then the number jumped to 170/100,000 births, four times higher. Then, in the four months between November 2015 and February 2016, "a total of 1,027 hospitalizations for congenital malformations of the nervous system were recorded nationwide," the researchers said. Almost half, 448, occurred in the Northeast. Rates of Guillain-Barré and encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis showed a similar increase in the Northeast. Hospitalizations for Guillain-Barré increased by nearly 3% until the outbreak peaked in July of last year, while the Northeast was the only area of the country to see an increase in CNS. No one really knows why this section of Brazil was so unfortunate. "It might be the economic environment," one researcher told CNN's Chief Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, during his visit to the northeastern city of Salvador just before the Olympic Games in Rio. "Because of the poverty, we have a more closely packed population, and sanitary conditions are worse in this part of the country," said Dr. Jamary Oliveira Filho, a Harvard-trained neurologist who is studying the Zika outbreak. "It's the perfect setup for epidemic to occur, where there's already inadequate social conditions." In their study, researchers from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation mention additional theories. One is that co-infection with dengue or chikungunya, two other viruses passed by the same mosquito that carries Zika, might be contributing to the devastating consequences of the virus. Another is that a drought, malnutrition and contamination of drinking water might be a contributing factor. "The concentration of neuropathies in the northeast states remains a mystery for researchers and health surveillance services," said the researchers. "New detection tools for outbreaks should be pursued to identify real trends and, at the same time, minimize false alarms and panic that could be provoked in populations potentially affected by the Zika epidemic."[SEP]Malaysia on Wednesday confirmed its first case of the Zika virus in a pregnant woman, a 27-year-old living in a southern city next to the city-state of Singapore. Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are undersized, besides other brain abnormalities. Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said the woman, who is three- to four-months pregnant, lives in the southern city of Johor Bahru, next to Singapore which has reported a total of 275 cases so far. Her husband, who works in Singapore, had also showed symptoms of Zika and was undergoing tests. ‘It’s still unclear whether the woman contracted the disease from her husband or whether it was locally transmitted,’ Subramaniam told a press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative capital. Last week, Malaysia confirmed the first imported case of Zika in a 58-year-old woman who had visited Singapore. On Saturday, it confirmed the first case of a locally transmitted Zika infection. Subramaniam said Malaysia was expecting to see more cases in Johor Bahru because of its closeness to Singapore. About 200,000 Malaysians commute daily from Johor to the city-state. Although microcephaly is typically detected during ultrasounds in the late second and early third trimester of pregnancy, these findings can be detected as early as 18-20 weeks gestation, according to the US centers for disease control and prevention.[SEP](CNN) The pictures from Brazil are heartbreaking: baby after baby born with a small head and damaged brain after an attack by the Zika virus during pregnancy. The official numbers are equally disturbing: The rate of birth defects involving the nervous system nearly doubled across Brazil after Zika arrived. This stark statistical reality was discovered by a team of researchers from Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which analyzed hospital records across Brazil from 2008, well before Zika arrived, until the end of February 2016. The researchers also looked for data on rare, potentially deadly inflammations of the brain and spinal cord such as encephalitis, myelitis, and encephalomyelitis, as well as Guillain-Barré syndrome , a disorder where the body's immune system attacks its own nerve cells, causing pain, paralysis and even death. The results, published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases , found "an unprecedented and significant rise in the hospitalization rate for congenital malformations of the nervous system, Guillain-Barré syndrome, encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis" beginning in mid-2014. That's more than a year before the world became aware of the outbreak in October 2015, and stories of Zika's terrible consequences began to appear in the news. The numbers show the northeast region of Brazil, often considered the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, was indeed the hardest hit. Historical averages of congenital malformations were stable at about 40/100,000 live births until November of 2015. Then the number jumped to 170/100,000 births, four times higher. Then, in the four months between November 2015 and February 2016, "a total of 1,027 hospitalizations for congenital malformations of the nervous system were recorded nationwide," the researchers said. Almost half, 448, occurred in the Northeast. Rates of Guillain-Barré and encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis showed a similar increase in the Northeast. Hospitalizations for Guillain-Barré increased by nearly 3% until the outbreak peaked in July of last year, while the Northeast was the only area of the country to see an increase in CNS. No one really knows why this section of Brazil was so unfortunate. "It might be the economic environment," one researcher told CNN's Chief Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, during his visit to the northeastern city of Salvador just before the Olympic Games in Rio. "Because of the poverty, we have a more closely packed population, and sanitary conditions are worse in this part of the country," said Dr. Jamary Oliveira Filho, a Harvard-trained neurologist who is studying the Zika outbreak. "It's the perfect setup for epidemic to occur, where there's already inadequate social conditions." In their study, researchers from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation mention additional theories. One is that co-infection with dengue or chikungunya, two other viruses passed by the same mosquito that carries Zika, might be contributing to the devastating consequences of the virus. Another is that a drought, malnutrition and contamination of drinking water might be a contributing factor. "The concentration of neuropathies in the northeast states remains a mystery for researchers and health surveillance services," said the researchers. "New detection tools for outbreaks should be pursued to identify real trends and, at the same time, minimize false alarms and panic that could be provoked in populations potentially affected by the Zika epidemic."[SEP](CNN) The pictures from Brazil are heartbreaking: baby after baby born with a small head and damaged brain after an attack by the Zika virus during pregnancy. The official numbers are equally disturbing: The rate of birth defects involving the nervous system nearly doubled across Brazil after Zika arrived. This stark statistical reality was discovered by a team of researchers from Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which analyzed hospital records across Brazil from 2008, well before Zika arrived, until the end of February 2016. The researchers also looked for data on rare, potentially deadly inflammations of the brain and spinal cord such as encephalitis, myelitis, and encephalomyelitis, as well as Guillain-Barré syndrome , a disorder where the body's immune system attacks its own nerve cells, causing pain, paralysis and even death. The results, published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases , found "an unprecedented and significant rise in the hospitalization rate for congenital malformations of the nervous system, Guillain-Barré syndrome, encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis" beginning in mid-2014. That's more than a year before the world became aware of the outbreak in October 2015, and stories of Zika's terrible consequences began to appear in the news. The numbers show the northeast region of Brazil, often considered the epicenter of the Zika outbreak, was indeed the hardest hit. Historical averages of congenital malformations were stable at about 40/100,000 live births until November of 2015. Then the number jumped to 170/100,000 births, four times higher. Then, in the four months between November 2015 and February 2016, "a total of 1,027 hospitalizations for congenital malformations of the nervous system were recorded nationwide," the researchers said. Almost half, 448, occurred in the Northeast. Rates of Guillain-Barré and encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis showed a similar increase in the Northeast. Hospitalizations for Guillain-Barré increased by nearly 3% until the outbreak peaked in July of last year, while the Northeast was the only area of the country to see an increase in CNS. No one really knows why this section of Brazil was so unfortunate. "It might be the economic environment," one researcher told CNN's Chief Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, during his visit to the northeastern city of Salvador just before the Olympic Games in Rio. "Because of the poverty, we have a more closely packed population, and sanitary conditions are worse in this part of the country," said Dr. Jamary Oliveira Filho, a Harvard-trained neurologist who is studying the Zika outbreak. "It's the perfect setup for epidemic to occur, where there's already inadequate social conditions." In their study, researchers from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation mention additional theories. One is that co-infection with dengue or chikungunya, two other viruses passed by the same mosquito that carries Zika, might be contributing to the devastating consequences of the virus. Another is that a drought, malnutrition and contamination of drinking water might be a contributing factor. "The concentration of neuropathies in the northeast states remains a mystery for researchers and health surveillance services," said the researchers. "New detection tools for outbreaks should be pursued to identify real trends and, at the same time, minimize false alarms and panic that could be provoked in populations potentially affected by the Zika epidemic."[SEP]Biden asks U.S. Congress to allow unencumbered Zika funding vote WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday called on the Republican-led U.S. Congress to allow an up-or-down vote on funding to combat the Zika virus without other provisions attached, calling the health threat posed by the pathogen a national emergency. Congress has failed to approve any funding to fight the mosquito-borne virus since President Barack Obama asked for $1.9 billion in February. Lawmakers have been deadlocked for months over a $1.1 billion funding bill. Democrats have accused Republicans of attaching controversial provisions related to abortion and Obama's healthcare law that they cannot accept and have called for new legislation. Republicans in turn have accused Democrats of blocking the bill to gain political advantage by portraying Republicans as obstructionists on Zika funding. "Give us an up-or-down vote, straight, on Zika," Biden, a former Democratic senator from Delaware, said at an event on Capitol Hill with fellow Democrats from the Senate and House of Representatives. "I understand attaching controversial issues to important legislation ... but this is a national emergency," Biden added. "People's health, the well-being of unborn children, the health of the country at large, is at stake. Act." Republicans and Democrats have huddled separately in closed meetings this week to see if they could reach a compromise during September's 19-day legislative work session. A main issue is Democrats' opposition to language, backed by Republicans, that they say would prevent Zika funds for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, mainly in Puerto Rico. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika. The virus, first detected in Brazil last year, has spread rapidly through the Americas. Florida is the only U.S. state so far where local mosquitoes are known to be transmitting Zika.[SEP]CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Burmese Consulate in Chiang Mai has warned pregnant Burmese women to temporarily avoid visiting the northern Thai province after a pregnant migrant woman was infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus this week. On Monday, the Zika virus was detected in two pregnant women in Chiang Mai Province’s San Sai District. One is a 28-year-old Burmese migrant, eight months into her pregnancy, according to the Chiang Mai Public Health Centre. As of Monday, 11 Zika cases have been reported in Chiang Mai Province, according to The Bangkok Post—the highest concentration in Thailand, where known cases have reached a total of 20 across four provinces: Chiang Mai, Phetchabun, Bueng Kan and Chanthaburi. But the Thai Ministry of Public Health says the situation remains under control. The symptoms of Zika infection are generally mild, although in pregnant women it can cause brain malformations and other defects in unborn children. There are no vaccines or specific treatments. The virus has been known to occur largely in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. However, a widespread Zika epidemic began in Brazil early last year, spreading to other parts of South and North America and to some Pacific islands. It has since been detected in Southeast Asia, Singapore and Thailand. The Burmese Consulate’s statement issued on Wednesday read, “Pregnant women and those planning to have a baby should temporarily suspend trips to Chiang Mai.” Burmese Consular General U Kaung San Lwin told the Irrawaddy the warning was intended for Burmese migrants living in Thailand as well as Burmese tourists. He said the Burmese patient was undergoing treatment at the Public Health Center’s emergency unit in San Sai. The Consulate intends to erect warning signs about the Zika virus in Burmese migrant communities in Chiang Mai—including in the vicinity of the Burmese Wat Sai Moon monastery—and publish posts on Facebook. He added that the Consulate was ready to support Burmese infected with the Zika virus, and encouraged all Burmese migrants to contact the Consulate immediately if symptoms appear. “I would like to warn the migrants to avoid being bitten by misquotes, to be aware of the symptoms and to see a doctor if you find yourself feeling any of the symptoms […] and to contact us,” he said. Some migrant communities have already been informed about the risks of Zika infection by an awareness campaign begun by Thai authorities last month. Burmese migrant Ma Khin Phone, who belongs to a workers’ association, said the migrants she knew of—particularly pregnant women—were concerned about the disease. “When we conduct outreach among migrant communities, we advise them to scrupulously avoid mosquito bites and to use mosquito nets,” she said.[SEP]BRAD WENSTRUP The truth behind the Zika funding delays Fears are rising as the Zika virus has become a national concern. Nearly three months ago, my colleagues and I in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to help combat the virus, which is borne by mosquitos and can cause serious birth defects and other conditions if contracted during pregnancy. Yet Americans are still waiting for relief. Why? Because Senate Democrats refused to pass this bill before going home for the August District Work Period. Passing our bill should have been simple. Republicans and Democrats agree on the problem. To date, hundreds of pregnant women in the United States and territories have shown signs of the Zika virus. Countless others live in fear of being infected. Republicans and Democrats also agree on the solution: targeted federal funding can bolster efforts to prevent the virus, including mosquito control and the development and commercialization of vaccines. The solution was swift and simple: the House of Representatives passed a balanced, bipartisan, bicameral bill that would have provided $1.1 billion for Zika prevention efforts. Then the dysfunction and politics began. Senate Democrats blocked the bill twice because it did not send taxpayer money to one of their biggest political supporters, Planned Parenthood. They turned a genuine public health threat to unborn babies into an opportunity to defend Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States. At the core of this dysfunction are seven clinics in Puerto Rico that are affiliated with Planned Parenthood. Under the House-passed legislation, these clinics are ineligible to receive funds to help fight Zika. The bill stipulates a more logical and effective approach — sending Zika virus defense funding to hospitals, community health centers, state health departments, and Medicaid. So Planned Parenthood advocates threw their political muscle behind these clinics and urged the Senate to oppose the Zika legislation. And Senate Democrats and the president have responded by going on a PR blitz to blame Republicans for inaction. Yet, who is really being obstructionist here? The push to include these Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics as funding recipients in the bill was a crass political calculation that unnecessarily injected politics into an important public health concern. As fact-checkers at the media-run Politifact noted, everywhere there is a clinic in Puerto Rico, there is “another type of facility that would have been eligible for additional funding to combat the spread of Zika.” Senate Democrats had a choice: they could pass much-needed legislation or they could engage in political theater in defense of one of their loudest and most politically powerful allies. They chose political theater, and, sadly, used the phrase “women’s health” as a weapon to deny women and their unborn children true protection. They chose to fight for Planned Parenthood instead of those afflicted with the Zika virus. More than six weeks have passed since that vote, and every day the Senate fails to act places more women and children at risk. The Senate is prepared to take up this legislation again next Tuesday. I appeal to my colleagues to lay aside political calculations. The problem is clear, and the solution is ready. Do the right thing and pass this bill to fight this public health crisis.

Malaysia reports its first pregnant woman infected with the Zika virus.

VIENTIANE: US President Barack Obama warned Beijing Thursday it could not ignore a tribunal’s ruling rejecting its sweeping claims to the South China Sea, driving tensions higher in a territorial row that threatens regional security. The dispute has raised fears of military confrontation between the world’s superpowers, with China determined to cement control of the strategically vital waters despite a July verdict that its claims have no legal basis. “The landmark arbitration ruling in July, which is binding, helped to clarify maritime rights in the region,” Obama told Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in Laos. “I recognize this raises tensions but I also look forward to discussing how we can constructively move forward together to lower tensions and promote diplomacy and stability.” The verdict by an international tribunal in The Hague said China’s claims to most of the waters—through which $5 trillion in global shipping trade passes annually—had no legal basis. It also said that a massive burst of artificial island-building activity undertaken by China in recent years in a bid to bolster its claims was illegal. China angrily vowed to ignore the ruling, describing it as “waste paper”, even though it had legal force through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Obama’s emphasis on the ruling being “binding” will undoubtedly attract a strong reaction from China, which has argued the United States has no role to play in the dispute. Other claimants in the sea are the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei—all part of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc meeting in Laos— plus Taiwan. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is also in Laos this week, with ASEAN hosting a series of regional meetings, and gathered with Obama later Thursday at an 18-nation East Asia summit. ASEAN leaders released a statement on Wednesday saying they were “seriously concerned” over recent developments in the sea. But intensive Chinese lobbying helped to ensure there was no mention of the July ruling in the ASEAN statement. The East Asia statement to be released later Thursday was also going to give a muted response, according to a draft obtained by Agence France-Presse. ASEAN works by consensus, and China has successfully pressured Cambodia and Laos in recent years to ensure the bloc does not gang together to heavily pressure Beijing. However the Philippines released photos on Wednesday it said showed renewed Chinese island-building activity, in a deliberate move to throw the issue into the spotlight. The Chinese ships were at Scarborough Shoal, a small fishing ground within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone that China took control of in 2012. If China did build an island at the shoal, it could lead to a military outpost just 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the main Philippine island, where US forces are stationed. It would also be a major step in China’s quest to control the sea, giving it the ability to enforce an air defense identification zone. Obama warned Chinese President Xi Jinping in March not to build at the shoal. Chinese island-building in the Spratlys archipelago—another strategically important location—has already triggered various US military shows of strength. Security analysts have said Chinese island-building at Scarborough Shoal could trigger a military confrontation. China insisted repeatedly this week it was not undertaking any island-building activities at the shoal, and on Thursday repeated its rejection of the tribunal ruling. “We hope the US can take an objective and just attitude with respect to South China Sea issues,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing. A barrage of other security threats were also in focus in Laos on Thursday, including North Korea’s nuclear ambitions following its latest missile tests. Obama warned on Monday that Kim Jong-Un’s regime was dooming itself to further isolation, and the UN Security Council condemned the tests. A spectacular sideshow in Laos this week has been a spat between Obama and the acid-tongued Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose nations are longtime allies. Duterte launched a tirade against Obama on Monday after being told the US president planned to raise concerns about a war on crime in the Philippines that has claimed 3,000 lives in just over two months. “Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum,” Duterte told reporters. Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte scheduled for Tuesday because of the outburst. AFP[SEP]With a successful Group of 20 summit under its belt and the run-up to November’s presidential election occupying Washington, Beijing appears to be testing the waters for a potential move on a hotly disputed site in the South China Sea that would further extend its grip there — and significantly ratchet up tensions in the region. China has in recent days and weeks ramped up its activity around the Scarborough Shoal, with Philippines’ Defense Ministry releasing pictures Wednesday showing what it said were Chinese boats near the chain of rocks and reefs just 230 km (140 miles) from the Philippine coast. The release came just hours before Southeast Asian nations were due to meet China’s premier at a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Laos. The moves have stoked fears in Manila that Beijing could be laying the groundwork for an eventual land-reclamation project at the contentious collection of rocky outcroppings that barely jut above water at high tide. China’s focus in the contentious waters has shifted since the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued a ruling in July that invalidated its claims to the South China Sea, a decision Beijing has lambasted as “waste paper.” Starting in 2014, China began employing an army of dredging vessels to create seven man-made islands in the South China Sea’s Spratly chain, building military-grade airstrips, radar facilities and hangers for Chinese fighter jets on a number of the reclaimed islets, including Mischief Reef, located 250 km west of the Philippines’ Palawan Island. It has also beefed-up the defense capabilities on Woody Island, its main outpost in the Paracel archipelago further west, deploying surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets there in February. But experts say Scarborough Shoal would be the crowning jewel in a bid to solidify an iron grip over the South China Sea. Building at Scarborough would create a large “strategic triangle” comprising Woody Island and its Spratly outposts, giving Beijing the ability to police an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea. The impact of such a strategic triangle would be tremendous for both the United States’ and Japan’s strategic planning, some experts say, and could be a game-changer in regional power relations. “If China is successful in militarizing the Scarborough Shoal, this would represent a significant change in the status quo,” said Jeffrey Hornung, a security and foreign affairs expert with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA in Washington. “Should China build up the shoal with radars, missiles and an airstrip, it would enhance China’s anti-access, area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities as well as improve its power-projection capabilities in the region, particularly vis-a-vis the U.S.” Hornung said this matters because a new base that forms a strategic triangle with its facilities and runways in the Paracels and Spratlys would bring the entire region under Chinese radar, missile and air coverage — effectively creating a “Chinese lake.” “This would enable China to control the sea lines of communication, monitor foreign naval and air activities, enforce a South China Sea air defense identification zone and could work to blunt America’s freedom of action in times of conflict. Hornung also said Japan, like the U.S. and others, is concerned about this because this gives China a significant edge not just in a wartime situation, but in peacetime as well, and will enable it to better monitor what the U.S. and its allies are doing in the region. China was prepared to initiate land-reclamation at Scarborough in March, according to a Financial Times report citing current and former U.S. officials, but backed down after U.S. President Barack Obama warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping of serious consequences if it began dredging work there. Another report, this one coming just last month by the South China Morning Post, reignited concern over the issue. It quoted an unidentified source familiar with the Scarborough matter as saying that reclamation work there would not start until after the Group of 20 summit, which wrapped up Monday in the Chinese host city of Hangzhou, but potentially before the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3. “U.S. President Barack Obama will focus on domestic issues ahead of the election as he needs to pass down legacies before leaving office. That might make him busy and he might not have time to take care of regional security issues,” the source was quoted as saying. The Hong Kong-based daily had earlier reported in late April that Chinese work at the shoal would begin within the year. The Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, first said last week that it had spotted Chinese barges and numerous other vessels — including Chinese coast guard ships — at Scarborough. It said these sightings could presage a move to turn the shoal into another man-made island. State Department spokesperson Katina Adams told The Japan Times this week that it was aware of reports that the Philippines has raised concerns about the number of Chinese vessels near Scarborough. “We continue to closely monitor the situation around Scarborough Reef, and we encourage all sides to exercise restraint and take practical steps to lower tensions,” Adams said. Jay Batongbacal, who heads the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the state-run University of the Philippines, said the vessels seen last week could allow China to make a lightning advance on Scarborough. “Rather than barges as widely reported, they do appear to be at least one dredging ship and a cable-laying ship,” Batongbacal told The Japan Times. “These could be for preparatory work. the dredger could be used to create deeper channels into/within the reef for subsequent construction activities. The cable laying ship could be intended to lay communications cables that would be more secure than satellite/radio links. “Both could allow sudden massive reclamation in a single burst of activity, as soon as the weather permits,” he said, adding that a cable-laying ship could also be used to lay a series of listening devices across the seafloor all the way up to the mainland that would be effective against submarines and surface ships. Regional security experts also said some of the vessels spotted by Manila were likely part of China’s “maritime militia,” or “little blue men,” the sea equivalent of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “little green men” that were deployed during Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. The nominally civilian maritime militia — which China also used last month to swarm the waters near the Japanese-controlled, Chinese-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea — is one of Beijing’s most important tools. Often masked as innocuous fishing vessels, the militia is employed in “gray zone” activities as a tool of asymmetric warfare, offering major rewards while threatening the U.S., Japan and other potential opponents with major risks if engaged, observers say. “It is very likely that at least a portion of these vessels (near Scarborough) are maritime militia, given that they do not seem to be engaged on purely private economic activities,” said Alex Calvo a guest professor at Nagoya University focusing on security issues. He said the vessels in the area of Scarborough could either be manned by militia members and formally affiliated with the organization or simply one with all or some crew belonging to it, perhaps sporting high-tech equipment provided by Chinese authorities. China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that there had been no change to the situation around Scarborough. “I can tell you that there has not been any change to the Huangyan Island situation. China has also not taken new actions,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing, using China’s name for the shoal. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was set to ask Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at Wednesday’s summit whether the vessels were on another island-making mission on the Scarborough, just a few hundred kilometers from Philippine military bases hosting U.S. troops. Bonnie Glaser, a regional security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the distance from Scarborough to the bases was a top concern for the U.S. and the Philippines. Manila is a U.S. treaty ally and a deal between the two countries allowing an increased American military presence in the former U.S. colony was greenlighted in January. “I think the main concern is the proximity of Scarborough Shoal to the Philippines main island,” Glaser said. “The U.S. will be rotating forces out of bases in the Philippines and a Chinese military outpost on Scarborough will pose a threat to these assets.” According to retired U.S. Marine Col. Grant Newsham, a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo, China would effectively have a permanent presence there under such a scenario. “This is a huge military advantage,” Newsham said. “U.S. ships and aircraft may be able to operate in and transit the South China Sea, but it is an ephemeral presence — here today, gone tomorrow. The Chinese will be there regardless — and that is what matters.” While major Chinese dredging operations in the South China Sea have apparently been halted since the end of last year, a number of observers described a move on Scarborough as seemingly imminent. “Right now it is still unclear, but I would not really be surprised,” said Nagoya University’s Calvo. “China is indeed ready to cross that ‘red line,’ among other reasons because it is not much of a red line. It is not backed by any explicit threat to use force.” Philippine Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, a vocal defender of Manila’s territorial claims in its dispute with Beijing, offered a more clear-cut view. “My personal assessment is that China will start the dredging after the G-20 meeting and before the November elections in the U.S.,” Carpio told The Japan Times. He said Beijing has long planned to militarize the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal so as to enforce its so-called “nine-dash line” claim to most of the South China Sea. “The Chinese have built islands on all the seven reefs that China occupies in the Spratlys,” Carpio said. “There is no reason why Scarborough Shoal, strategically located near the Bashi Channel — the shortest outlet of China’s Hainan-based nuclear missile submarines to the Pacific Ocean, will be an exception.” Abhijit Singh, head of the Maritime Policy Initiative Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi, said for the Chinese, the only issue was the timing. “My sense is that it may not happen in the next few weeks, but at an opportune moment in days following, when China can justify its reclamation by pointing to a U.S. provocation,” Singh said. “But I have little doubt that the Chinese will ultimately build a structure on Scarborough, because it’s the last link in the regional maritime strategy.” With ramped-up military activity in the waters recently, including U.S. “freedom of navigation” patrols near Chinese-held islands and regular Chinese air force “combat patrols” in the area, the potential for an unintended clash — something that could be seen as an “opportune moment” — is high. But regardless of any Chinese move on Scarborough, the mere psychological effects of the issue could also prove destabilizing. “The psychological threat of China dominating such a strategic area has many worried that China will control the South China Sea, and all the trade that transits through it,” said Sasakawa’s Hornung. “This, in turn, has led regional countries like Japan to look with concerned eyes to the U.S. should the dredging start. To date, the U.S. has opposed Chinese actions in the South China Sea. But beyond the occasional patrol or limited efforts to bolster regional nations maritime capabilities, the U.S. response has essentially been limited to diplomatic protests and the building of a coalition opposed to Chinese actions. “Because the Philippines is a treaty ally of the U.S., if China can act freely with no U.S. response beyond a diplomatic protest, its credibility as an ally will be under severe stress,” said Hornung. “In particular, a non-U.S. response would send shock waves through Tokyo, given that concerns over U.S. commitment to the defense of the Senkaku Islands continues to lurk among officialdom in Tokyo.” “If China starts to dredge, it behooves the U.S. to act firmly, knowing that its response will be under close scrutiny from its regional allies.”[SEP]A summit of Southeast Asian countries and world powers is expected to let China off with a muted reprimand over its expansionist activities in the disputed South China Sea, according to a draft of their joint statement to be released Thursday. The mild language in the statement, despite growing frustrations in the region over China’s claims, is even more striking given that the summit included President Barack Obama, whose administration has repeatedly expressed concern over Beijing’s actions in the resource-rich sea. The lukewarm rebuke is a reflection of Beijing’s diplomatic, economic and military clout within the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which spearheaded the summit Thursday with the United States, China, Russia, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Together, they are meeting in the East Asia Summit in the Laotian capital. “We reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security and freedom of navigation in and over-flight in the South China Sea,” said the draft of the declaration. The six-page, 28-point declaration devoted one paragraph to the South China Sea. “Several Leaders remained seriously concerned over recent developments in the South China Sea … We stressed the importance for the parties concerned to resolve their disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international laws,” it said. The statement made no mention of the land reclamation activities by China, which has turned shoals and coral reefs into seven man-made islands with and built airstrips capable of handling military aircraft on three of them. ASEAN leaders at their earlier summit on Tuesday expressed concern over China’s island-building. The ASEAN leaders had also said that their summit “took note of the concerns expressed by some leaders on the land reclamations and escalation of activities in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region.” The use of the phrase “some leaders” in the two statements underscores the fundamental problem ASEAN and the wider East Asia Summit has in dealing with China — not all its members are willing to scold Beijing. Cambodia, for example, remains firmly in China’s camp, as is Laos to a large extent, preventing any robust statement from the consensus-bound ASEAN group. The issue of ownership of territories in the South China Sea has come to dominate ASEAN summits in recent years. China claims virtually the entire sea as its own, citing historical reasons. That has pitted it against the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, all members of ASEAN, which have overlapping claims. On July 12, an international arbitration tribunal hearing a complaint filed by the Philippines ruled against China, saying its expansive claims were illegal. It also rebuked China for forcibly preventing Filipinos from fishing in their traditional areas. Beijing has rejected the ruling and continued its activities. The ASEAN statement and the draft East Asia Summit statement made no mention of the tribunal. On Wednesday, the Philippines released what it says are surveillance pictures of Chinese coast guard ships and barges at the disputed Scarborough Shoal, an apparent attempt to publicize its concerns before ASEAN leaders met with Chinese Premier Li Kequiang in Vientiane. The Philippines is concerned that China may plan to turn the shoal into another man-made island. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China has not done anything to alter the circumstances surrounding the shoal. “What I can tell you is that the situation in waters near Huangyan Island remains unchanged and China hasn’t made any new moves,” Hua said in Beijing, using the shoal’s Chinese name. “We should be highly alert against the mischief-making intentions of people who spread such groundless information in such situations.” New Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has taken a more conciliatory approach to China than his predecessor, and has said he would not raise the dispute in an adversarial manner that might upset Beijing. The U.S. military has also expressed concern over the possibility that China might turn Scarborough into another island, something that would give Beijing’s forces greater control over a swath of the South China Sea used as a passageway to the Taiwan Strait.[SEP]VIENTIANE: Beijing came under pressure at an Asian summit Wednesday over its “illegal” island building in the South China Sea, after the Philippines produced evidence it said showed fresh construction activity at a flashpoint shoal. An artificial island at Scarborough Shoal could be a game changer in China’s quest to control the sea and raises the risk of armed confrontation with the United States, according to security analysts. Beijing this week insisted it had not started building at the shoal—a move that could lead to a military outpost just 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the main Philippine island, where US forces are stationed. But the Philippines on Wednesday released images it said showed Chinese ships in the area that were capable of dredging sand and other activities required to build an artificial island. “We have reason to believe that their presence is a precursor to building activities on the shoal,” defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told AFP. “We are continuing our surveillance and monitoring of their presence and activities, which are disturbing.” China claims nearly all of the sea, through which $5 trillion in shipping trade passes annually, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. The competing territorial claims have long been a major source of tension in the region, with China using deadly force twice to seize control of islands from Vietnam. Tensions have escalated sharply in recent years as China has built islands on reefs and islets in the Spratlys archipelago—another strategically important location—that are capable of supporting military operations. The United States has reacted to that build-up by sailing warships close to the new islands, and sending warplanes over them, deeply angering China. A UN-backed tribunal ruled in July that China’s claims to most of the sea had no legal basis and its construction of artificial islands in the disputed waters was illegal. But Beijing vowed to ignore the ruling. China took control of Scarborough shoal in 2012 after a standoff with the Philippine Navy, and has since deployed large fishing fleets while blocking Filipino fishermen. Expanding that presence with a military outpost is vital to achieving China’s ambitions of controlling the sea, according to security analysts. US officials fear a Chinese military airfield at the shoal would enable Beijing to enforce a threatened air defense identification zone in the sea. An outpost at the shoal would also put Chinese fighter jets and missiles within easy striking distance of US forces stationed in the Philippines. US President Barack Obama reportedly directly warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during a meeting in March not to push ahead with any artificial island building there. The United States, which is a treaty ally of the Philippines, has repeatedly said it does not want to fight a war over the shoal. But military skirmishes cannot be ruled out if China does start to build an island, according to security analysts. “We could witness a physical confrontation between Chinese Coast Guard and Filipino vessels backed up by the US Navy,” Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at Australia’s University of New South Wales, told AFP. An Obama aide on Wednesday played down the significance of the Philippine photos, telling reporters the United States had not detected any unusual activity at Scarborough Shoal. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had said he did not want to anger China by highlighting the territorial row at the summit of regional leaders in Laos this week. But the release of the photos came just a few hours before Duterte and other leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations met China’s Li, in what his spokesman said was a deliberate move. The Philippines and Singapore, which this year is ASEAN’s lead negotiator with China, raised the dispute during the meeting. “What was underlined… was the importance of the rule of law and adhering to international bodies,” Duterte’s spokesman, Martin Andanar, told reporters in Vientiane. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also called on China to abide by the tribunal’s ruling, emphasizing in his meeting with ASEAN leaders that the verdict was legally binding. Obama is also in Laos for the regional meetings, which will conclude on Thursday with an East Asia summit. But the US president cancelled his planned meeting with Duterte, during which the sea issue was to be discussed, after the volatile Philippine president called him a “son of a whore”. AFP[SEP]CHINA'S HERE. One of the Chinese ships spotted near Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), September 3, 2016. Photo courtesy Philippine Department of Defense VIENTIANE, Laos (UPDATED) – Beijing came under pressure at an Asian summit on Wednesday, September 7, over its "illegal" island building in the South China Sea, after the Philippines produced evidence it said showed fresh construction activity at a flashpoint shoal. An artificial island at Scarborough Shoal could be a game changer in China's quest to control the sea and raises the risk of armed confrontation with the United States, according to security analysts. Beijing this week insisted it had not started building at the shoal – a move that could lead to a military outpost just 230 kilometers (140 miles) from the main Philippine island, where US forces are stationed. But the Philippines on Wednesday released images it said showed Chinese ships in the area that were capable of dredging sand and other activities required to build an artificial island. "We have reason to believe that their presence is a precursor to building activities on the shoal," defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told Agence France-Presse. "We are continuing our surveillance and monitoring of their presence and activities, which are disturbing." China claims nearly all of the sea, through which $5 trillion in shipping trade passes annually, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. The competing territorial claims have long been a major source of tension in the region, with China using deadly force twice to seize control of islands from Vietnam. Illegal island building A ship of the China Coast Guard near Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), September 3, 2016. Photo courtesy Philippine Department of Defense Tensions have escalated sharply in recent years as China has built islands on reefs and islets in the Spratlys archipelago – another strategically important location – that are capable of supporting military operations. The United States has reacted to that build-up by sailing warships close to the new islands, and sending warplanes over them, deeply angering China. A UN-backed tribunal ruled in July that China's claims to most of the sea had no legal basis and its construction of artificial islands in the disputed waters was illegal. But Beijing vowed to ignore the ruling. China took control of Scarborough shoal in 2012 after a standoff with the Philippine Navy, and has since deployed large fishing fleets while blocking Filipino fishermen. Expanding that presence with a military outpost is vital to achieving China's ambitions of controlling the sea, according to security analysts. US officials fear a Chinese military airfield at the shoal would enable Beijing to enforce a threatened air defence identification zone in the sea. An outpost at the shoal would also put Chinese fighter jets and missiles within easy striking distance of US forces stationed in the Philippines. US President Barack Obama reportedly directly warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during a meeting in March not to push ahead with any artificial island building there. Conflict risk Another Chinese ship near Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), September 3, 2016. Photo courtesy Philippine Department of Defense The United States, which is a treaty ally of the Philippines, has repeatedly said it does not want to fight a war over the shoal. But military skirmishes cannot be ruled out if China does start to build an island, according to security analysts. "We could witness a physical confrontation between Chinese Coast Guard and Filipino vessels backed up by the US Navy," Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at Australia's University of New South Wales, told AFP. An Obama aide on Wednesday played down the significance of the Philippine photos, telling reporters the United States had not detected any unusual activity at Scarborough Shoal. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had said he did not want to anger China by highlighting the territorial row at the summit of regional leaders in Laos this week. But the release of the photos came just a few hours before Duterte and other leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations met China's Li, in what his spokesman said was a deliberate move. The Philippines and Singapore, which this year is ASEAN's lead negotiator with China, raised the dispute during the meeting. "What was underlined... was the importance of the rule of law and adhering to international bodies," Duterte's spokesman, Martin Andanar, told reporters in Vientiane. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also called on China to abide by the tribunal's ruling, emphasising in his meeting with ASEAN leaders that the verdict was legally binding. Obama is also in Laos for the regional meetings, which will conclude on Thursday with an East Asia summit. But the US president cancelled his planned meeting with Duterte, during which the sea issue was to be discussed, after the volatile Philippine president called him a "son of a whore." – Rappler.com[SEP]US President Barack Obama warned Beijing Thursday it could not ignore a tribunal's ruling rejecting its sweeping claims to the South China Sea, driving tensions higher in a territorial row that threatens regional security. The dispute has raised fears of military confrontation between the world's superpowers, with China determined to cement control of the strategically vital waters despite a July verdict that its claims have no legal basis. "The landmark arbitration ruling in July, which is binding, helped to clarify maritime rights in the region," Obama told Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in Laos. "I recognise this raises tensions but I also look forward to discussing how we can constructively move forward together to lower tensions and promote diplomacy and stability." The verdict by an international tribunal in The Hague said China's claims to most of the waters -- through which $5 trillion in global shipping trade passes annually -- had no legal basis. It also said that a massive burst of artificial island-building activity undertaken by China in recent years in a bid to bolster its claims was illegal. China angrily vowed to ignore the ruling, describing it as "waste paper", even though it had legal force through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Obama's emphasis on the ruling being "binding" will undoubtedly attract a strong reaction from China, which has argued the United States has no role to play in the dispute. Other claimants in the sea are the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei -- all part of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc meeting in Laos -- plus Taiwan. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is also in Laos this week, with ASEAN hosting a series of regional meetings, and will meet Obama later Thursday at an 18-nation East Asia summit. ASEAN leaders released a statement on Wednesday saying they were "seriously concerned" over recent developments in the sea. But intensive Chinese lobbying helped to ensure there was no mention of the July ruling in the ASEAN statement. ASEAN works by consensus, and China has successfully pressured Cambodia and Laos in recent years to ensure the bloc does not gang together to heavily pressure Beijing. However the Philippines released photos on Wednesday it said showed renewed Chinese island-building activity, in a deliberate move to throw the issue into the spotlight. The Chinese ships were at Scarborough Shoal, a small fishing ground within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone that China took control of in 2012. If China did build an island at the shoal, it could lead to a military outpost just 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the main Philippine island, where US forces are stationed. It would also be a major step in China's quest to control the sea, giving it the ability to enforce an air defence identification zone across the waters. Obama warned Chinese President Xi Jinping in March not to build at the shoal. Chinese island-building in the Spratlys archipelago -- another strategically important location -- has already triggered various US military shows of strength. The United States has sent warships close to the new islands, and warplanes over them, deeply angering China. Security analysts have said Chinese island-building at Scarborough Shoal could trigger a military confrontation. China insisted repeatedly this week it was not undertaking any island-building activities at the shoal. A barrage of other security threats were also in focus in Laos on Thursday, including North Korea's nuclear ambitions following its latest missile tests. Obama warned on Monday that Kim Jong-Un's regime was dooming itself to further isolation, and the UN Security Council condemned the tests. But North Korea responded by threatening on Wednesday to take "further significant measures". A spectacular sideshow in Laos this week has been a spat between Obama and the acid-tongued Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose nations are longtime allies. Duterte launched a tirade against Obama on Monday after being told the US president planned to raise concerns about a war on crime in the Philippines that has claimed 3,000 lives in just over two months. "You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. Son of a whore, I will curse you in that forum," Duterte told reporters. Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte scheduled for Tuesday because of the outburst. They met briefly on Wednesday night before a leaders' dinner, but only exchanged "pleasantries", according to the White House.[SEP]With a successful Group of 20 summit under its belt and the run-up to November’s presidential election occupying Washington, Beijing appears to be testing the waters for a potential move on a hotly disputed site in the South China Sea that would further extend its grip there — and significantly ratchet up tensions in the region. China has in recent days and weeks ramped up its activity around the Scarborough Shoal, with Philippines’ Defense Ministry releasing pictures Wednesday showing what it said were Chinese boats near the chain of rocks and reefs just 230 km (140 miles) from the Philippine coast. The release came just hours before Southeast Asian nations were due to meet China’s premier at a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Laos. The moves have stoked fears in Manila that Beijing could be laying the groundwork for an eventual land-reclamation project at the contentious collection of rocky outcroppings that barely jut above water at high tide. China’s focus in the contentious waters has shifted since the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued a ruling in July that invalidated its claims to the South China Sea, a decision Beijing has lambasted as “waste paper.” Starting in 2014, China began employing an army of dredging vessels to create seven man-made islands in the South China Sea’s Spratly chain, building military-grade airstrips, radar facilities and hangers for Chinese fighter jets on a number of the reclaimed islets, including Mischief Reef, located 250 km west of the Philippines’ Palawan Island. It has also beefed-up the defense capabilities on Woody Island, its main outpost in the Paracel archipelago further west, deploying surface-to-air missiles and fighter jets there in February. But experts say Scarborough Shoal would be the crowning jewel in a bid to solidify an iron grip over the South China Sea. Building at Scarborough would create a large “strategic triangle” comprising Woody Island and its Spratly outposts, giving Beijing the ability to police an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the South China Sea. The impact of such a strategic triangle would be tremendous for both the United States’ and Japan’s strategic planning, some experts say, and could be a game-changer in regional power relations. “If China is successful in militarizing the Scarborough Shoal, this would represent a significant change in the status quo,” said Jeffrey Hornung, a security and foreign affairs expert with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA in Washington. “Should China build up the shoal with radars, missiles and an airstrip, it would enhance China’s anti-access, area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities as well as improve its power-projection capabilities in the region, particularly vis-a-vis the U.S.” Hornung said this matters because a new base that forms a strategic triangle with its facilities and runways in the Paracels and Spratlys would bring the entire region under Chinese radar, missile and air coverage — effectively creating a “Chinese lake.” “This would enable China to control the sea lines of communication, monitor foreign naval and air activities, enforce a South China Sea air defense identification zone and could work to blunt America’s freedom of action in times of conflict. Hornung also said Japan, like the U.S. and others, is concerned about this because this gives China a significant edge not just in a wartime situation, but in peacetime as well, and will enable it to better monitor what the U.S. and its allies are doing in the region. China was prepared to initiate land-reclamation at Scarborough in March, according to a Financial Times report citing current and former U.S. officials, but backed down after U.S. President Barack Obama warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping of serious consequences if it began dredging work there. Another report, this one coming just last month by the South China Morning Post, reignited concern over the issue. It quoted an unidentified source familiar with the Scarborough matter as saying that reclamation work there would not start until after the Group of 20 summit, which wrapped up Monday in the Chinese host city of Hangzhou, but potentially before the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3. “U.S. President Barack Obama will focus on domestic issues ahead of the election as he needs to pass down legacies before leaving office. That might make him busy and he might not have time to take care of regional security issues,” the source was quoted as saying. The Hong Kong-based daily had earlier reported in late April that Chinese work at the shoal would begin within the year. The Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, first said last week that it had spotted Chinese barges and numerous other vessels — including Chinese coast guard ships — at Scarborough. It said these sightings could presage a move to turn the shoal into another man-made island. State Department spokesperson Katina Adams told The Japan Times this week that it was aware of reports that the Philippines has raised concerns about the number of Chinese vessels near Scarborough. “We continue to closely monitor the situation around Scarborough Reef, and we encourage all sides to exercise restraint and take practical steps to lower tensions,” Adams said. Jay Batongbacal, who heads the Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea at the state-run University of the Philippines, said the vessels seen last week could allow China to make a lightning advance on Scarborough. “Rather than barges as widely reported, they do appear to be at least one dredging ship and a cable-laying ship,” Batongbacal told The Japan Times. “These could be for preparatory work. the dredger could be used to create deeper channels into/within the reef for subsequent construction activities. The cable laying ship could be intended to lay communications cables that would be more secure than satellite/radio links. “Both could allow sudden massive reclamation in a single burst of activity, as soon as the weather permits,” he said, adding that a cable-laying ship could also be used to lay a series of listening devices across the seafloor all the way up to the mainland that would be effective against submarines and surface ships. Regional security experts also said some of the vessels spotted by Manila were likely part of China’s “maritime militia,” or “little blue men,” the sea equivalent of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “little green men” that were deployed during Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. The nominally civilian maritime militia — which China also used last month to swarm the waters near the Japanese-controlled, Chinese-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea — is one of Beijing’s most important tools. Often masked as innocuous fishing vessels, the militia is employed in “gray zone” activities as a tool of asymmetric warfare, offering major rewards while threatening the U.S., Japan and other potential opponents with major risks if engaged, observers say. “It is very likely that at least a portion of these vessels (near Scarborough) are maritime militia, given that they do not seem to be engaged on purely private economic activities,” said Alex Calvo a guest professor at Nagoya University focusing on security issues. He said the vessels in the area of Scarborough could either be manned by militia members and formally affiliated with the organization or simply one with all or some crew belonging to it, perhaps sporting high-tech equipment provided by Chinese authorities. China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that there had been no change to the situation around Scarborough. “I can tell you that there has not been any change to the Huangyan Island situation. China has also not taken new actions,” spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing, using China’s name for the shoal. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was set to ask Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at Wednesday’s summit whether the vessels were on another island-making mission on the Scarborough, just a few hundred kilometers from Philippine military bases hosting U.S. troops. Bonnie Glaser, a regional security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the distance from Scarborough to the bases was a top concern for the U.S. and the Philippines. Manila is a U.S. treaty ally and a deal between the two countries allowing an increased American military presence in the former U.S. colony was greenlighted in January. “I think the main concern is the proximity of Scarborough Shoal to the Philippines main island,” Glaser said. “The U.S. will be rotating forces out of bases in the Philippines and a Chinese military outpost on Scarborough will pose a threat to these assets.” According to retired U.S. Marine Col. Grant Newsham, a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo, China would effectively have a permanent presence there under such a scenario. “This is a huge military advantage,” Newsham said. “U.S. ships and aircraft may be able to operate in and transit the South China Sea, but it is an ephemeral presence — here today, gone tomorrow. The Chinese will be there regardless — and that is what matters.” While major Chinese dredging operations in the South China Sea have apparently been halted since the end of last year, a number of observers described a move on Scarborough as seemingly imminent. “Right now it is still unclear, but I would not really be surprised,” said Nagoya University’s Calvo. “China is indeed ready to cross that ‘red line,’ among other reasons because it is not much of a red line. It is not backed by any explicit threat to use force.” Philippine Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, a vocal defender of Manila’s territorial claims in its dispute with Beijing, offered a more clear-cut view. “My personal assessment is that China will start the dredging after the G-20 meeting and before the November elections in the U.S.,” Carpio told The Japan Times. He said Beijing has long planned to militarize the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal so as to enforce its so-called “nine-dash line” claim to most of the South China Sea. “The Chinese have built islands on all the seven reefs that China occupies in the Spratlys,” Carpio said. “There is no reason why Scarborough Shoal, strategically located near the Bashi Channel — the shortest outlet of China’s Hainan-based nuclear missile submarines to the Pacific Ocean, will be an exception.” Abhijit Singh, head of the Maritime Policy Initiative Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi, said for the Chinese, the only issue was the timing. “My sense is that it may not happen in the next few weeks, but at an opportune moment in days following, when China can justify its reclamation by pointing to a U.S. provocation,” Singh said. “But I have little doubt that the Chinese will ultimately build a structure on Scarborough, because it’s the last link in the regional maritime strategy.” With ramped-up military activity in the waters recently, including U.S. “freedom of navigation” patrols near Chinese-held islands and regular Chinese air force “combat patrols” in the area, the potential for an unintended clash — something that could be seen as an “opportune moment” — is high. But regardless of any Chinese move on Scarborough, the mere psychological effects of the issue could also prove destabilizing. “The psychological threat of China dominating such a strategic area has many worried that China will control the South China Sea, and all the trade that transits through it,” said Sasakawa’s Hornung. “This, in turn, has led regional countries like Japan to look with concerned eyes to the U.S. should the dredging start. To date, the U.S. has opposed Chinese actions in the South China Sea. But beyond the occasional patrol or limited efforts to bolster regional nations maritime capabilities, the U.S. response has essentially been limited to diplomatic protests and the building of a coalition opposed to Chinese actions. “Because the Philippines is a treaty ally of the U.S., if China can act freely with no U.S. response beyond a diplomatic protest, its credibility as an ally will be under severe stress,” said Hornung. “In particular, a non-U.S. response would send shock waves through Tokyo, given that concerns over U.S. commitment to the defense of the Senkaku Islands continues to lurk among officialdom in Tokyo.” “If China starts to dredge, it behooves the U.S. to act firmly, knowing that its response will be under close scrutiny from its regional allies.”[SEP]We shouldn't be surprised by the coarseness spewing from Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who insulted President Barack Obama by calling him a "son of a whore." Vulgarity is Duterte's calling card. Miffed at the traffic jam that Pope Francis' visit to Manila caused in 2015, he called the pontiff exactly what he called Obama. He also once said he would castrate men who did not go along with his plan for mass vasectomies to deal with overpopulation. And at an election rally last spring, he joked about not getting a chance to rape an Australian woman, a missionary who in 1989 had been taken hostage, raped and killed during a prison riot. What's more worrisome about Duterte is how he has overseen a vicious campaign of extrajudicial killings in the name of waging war against Philippine drug dealers and addicts. Local estimates put the number of people killed in his drug war at 2,400 in a span of two months. Police and vigilante groups are carrying out street executions, embracing what Duterte labeled his "shoot to kill" approach to drug dealing and drug use. The 71-year-old leader took office earlier this summer and hasn't been vague about his intent, telling a crowd in a Manila slum on the day of his inauguration, "If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself, as getting their parents to do it would be too painful." Obama was right to respond to Duterte's intemperate babbling at an Asian summit in Laos by canceling a bilateral meeting with the Philippine leader, who now says he regretted what he said. (The two informally met Wednesday at a dinner of world leaders and exchanged niceties.) But long after the summit, the U.S. faces a much trickier task in dealing with the Philippine leader. How hard should the U.S. come down on a government that jettisons due process, yet also serves as a vital ally in American policy toward China? We think the answer is simple: The U.S. should get tough with Duterte. His bombastic populism has endeared him to a nation wearied by establishment politics and fed up with drug crime. But Filipinos for the most part are ardently pro-United States. Duterte's brutal drug war may be popular with Filipinos, but alienating the U.S. likely won't be. That's leverage Washington can use as it looks for ways to pressure Duterte to carry out his fight against drugs through lawful arrests and fair trials rather than by crassly flouting human rights. Filipinos know how vital the U.S. is to their effort to keep China from commandeering a crucial swath of the Pacific. China has been creating artificial islands in the South China Sea to justify its claim to territorial waters there — a charade declared illegitimate by an international tribunal in July in The Hague. Under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, Manila bolstered an already strong military alliance with the U.S. as a counterpoint to China's actions in the South China Sea, allowing Washington to build military facilities at five Philippine bases. Duterte has his own ideas about the South China Sea dispute, including the possibility of giving in to China's claim in exchange for China building a new rail line on the island of Mindanao, where Duterte is from. That may not sit well with the majority of Filipinos, given their wariness of China's actions. We've seen Duterte's kind before — around the globe, presidential candidates often build election campaigns on reckless populist rhetoric. While Duterte's gutter talk is meant almost exclusively for domestic consumption, his lack of regard for human rights is something the West, and the U.S. in particular, shouldn't and can't ignore. The Obama administration and its successor have to let Duterte know that he risks a scaled-back relationship with the U.S. if he continues to allow extrajudicial killings — an estrangement that surely would hurt the Filipino leader's popularity at home.[SEP]VIENTIANE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The Philippines said on Wednesday it was "gravely concerned" that Chinese boats were preparing to build structures at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, shattering an appearance of cordiality at an Asian summit in Laos. Officials said talks between Southeast Asian leaders and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang went smoothly and there was no tension over a recent ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague that invalidated China's claims to the waterway. But, hours before the meeting, the Philippines' defence ministry released photographs and a map showing what it said was an increased number of Chinese vessels near Scarborough Shoal, which China seized after a standoff in 2012. The ministry's spokesman told reporters in Manila the pictures were made public because China's ambassador to the Philippines had denied there was any new activity there. "We believed that this is precursor to possible building of structures on the shoal," spokesman Arsenio Andolong said, adding that China's denial was "even more disturbing". China said there had been no change to the situation around the shoal and it had not taken any new action there. "Given this situation, some people are hyping the situation by spreading that kind of information," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily briefing in Beijing. China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts or all of the resource-rich South China Sea, making it a hot spot of regional tension. The last four are members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). China has over the past year alarmed other claimants, and outside powers such as the United States and Japan, by re-claiming land on several disputed reefs through dredging, and building air fields and port facilities. A Philippines official said the release of the pictures and a map showing the ships' positions was ordered by the defence minister, who was at the ASEAN summit in Vientiane, Laos. But there was no row over the issue at the summit. "It seems that every country played down the level of conflict, therefore the tone of the meeting was quite friendly and emphasised peace and security within the region," said Major General Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a Thai government spokesman. The Philippine concern about the shoal comes after a dispute with the United States, its main ally. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte criticised U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, prompting the cancellation of a meeting between them in Laos. China has repeatedly blamed the United States for stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than $5 trillion of trade moves annually. The United States says it has no position on the territorial disputes but wants to ensure freedom of navigation. With that in mind, it has conducted patrols close to Chinese-held islands, to Beijing's anger, while China has been bolstering its military presence in the sea. Although the Scarborough Shoal is merely a few rocks poking above the sea, it is important to the Philippines because of the fish stocks in the area. Manila says China's blockade of the shoal is a violation of international law. The dispute has become more significant since the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in July that no country had sovereign rights over activity at Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground for Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese. China has refused to recognise the ruling by the court in The Hague. Duterte wants China to abide by the ruling but he had pledged not to raise the issue during the meeting in Laos. Instead, he wants to smooth the way for bilateral negotiations and last month sent former President Fidel Ramos as his special envoy to meet Chinese representatives in Hong Kong. A senior Chinese official said Beijing was confident it could return to a healthy relationship with the Philippines. "In the past 30 years, the relationship has been very smooth, it's only in the past few years, because of some problems known to all, the relationship has been affected," vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin said at the Laos summit. A draft ASEAN communique seen by Reuters on Monday listed eight points related to the South China Sea, but made no mention of the arbitration ruling. The bloc traditionally shies away from taking a position on thorny diplomatic issues, especially where China is concerned, because of its influence in the region. Still, a Philippine security official travelling with Duterte said it was a challenge for the government to explain to fishermen why they could not return to the Scarborough Shoal area when The Hague had ruled it was a fishing ground for all. "We won in the arbitral court, but we could not enforce it, how can we explain that to our own fishermen?" said the official, who declined to be identified. "So, we wanted to talk to China and resolve the issue, but the situation like this is making it more difficult. The president is asking what is China's intentions in the area?"[SEP]Beijing's "illegal" island building in the South China Sea moved centre stage at an Asian summit Wednesday after the Philippines produced evidence it said showed fresh construction activity at a flashpoint shoal. An artificial island at Scarborough Shoal could be a game changer in China's quest to control the sea and raises the risk of armed confrontation with the United States, according to security analysts. Beijing this week insisted it had not started building at the shoal -- a move that could lead to a military outpost just 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the main Philippine island, where US forces are stationed. But the Philippines on Wednesday released images it said showed Chinese ships in the area that were capable of dredging sand and other activities required to build an artificial island. "We have reason to believe that their presence is a precursor to building activities on the shoal," defence department spokesman Arsenio Andolong told AFP. "We are continuing our surveillance and monitoring of their presence and activities, which are disturbing." China claims nearly all of the sea, through which $5 trillion in shipping trade passes annually, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. The competing territorial claims have long been a major source of tension in the region, with China using deadly force twice to seize control of islands from Vietnam. Tensions have escalated sharply in recent years as China has built islands on reefs and islets in the Spratlys archipelago -- another strategically important location -- that are capable of supporting military operations. The United States has reacted to that build-up by sailing warships close to the new islands, and sending warplanes over them. This has deeply angered China, which has accused the Americans of "militarising the region", and raised concerns of armed conflict between the two world powers. A UN-backed tribunal ruled in July that China's claims to most of the sea had no legal basis and its construction of artificial islands in the disputed waters was illegal. But Beijing vowed to ignore the ruling. China took control of Scarborough shoal in 2012 after a standoff with the Philippine Navy, and has since deployed large fishing fleets while blocking Filipino fishermen. Expanding that presence with a military outpost is vital to achieving China's ambitions of controlling the sea, according to security analysts. US officials fear a Chinese military airfield at the shoal would enable China to enforce a threatened air defence identification zone in the sea. Another major concern is it allows China a military base close to where US forces regularly operate on the Philippine main island of Luzon. US President Barack Obama reportedly directly warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during a meeting in March not to push ahead with any artificial island building there. The United States, which is a treaty ally of the Philippines, has repeatedly said it does not want to fight a war over the shoal. But military confrontation can not be ruled out if China does start to build an island, according to security analysts. "We could witness a physical confrontation between Chinese Coast Guard and Filipino vessels backed up by the US Navy," Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at Australia's University of New South Wales, told AFP. An Obama aide on Wednesday played down the significance of the Philippine photos, telling reporters the United States had not detected any unusual activity at Scarborough Shoal. When pressed on initial Philippine accusations on Monday before the photos were released, China insisted there were no dredging boats or others to prepare for island building. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had said he did not want to anger China by highlighting the territorial row at the summit of regional leaders in Laos this week. But the release of the photos came just a few hours before Duterte and other leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations met China's Li. Also on Wednesday, the Philipppine coast guard announced that United States is giving Manila two used military aircraft, to help expand sea patrols in the face of territorial disputes with China. The two Sherpa 30-seater aircraft will be delivered in December, Philippine coast guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo told AFP. "It will help us in the movements of the Philippine Coast Guard like patrol missions," Balilo added. Obama is also in Laos for the regional meetings, which will conclude on Thursday with an East Asia summit.

The Duterte administration accuses China of building a "secret island" on the Scarborough Shoal.

Image copyright AP Image caption Nabeel Rajab says he has been detained since the beginning of the summer The US State Department has urged Bahrain to immediately release the prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab. A spokesman said the US was "very concerned" about Mr Rajab's detention and charges filed against him. Mr Rajab is reported to be facing fresh charges for writing a letter to the New York Times. He has served several prison sentences since setting up the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights in 2002. In his letter published in the New York Times on Sunday, Mr Rajab said he had been detained, mostly in isolation, in Bahrain since the beginning of the summer. He said Bahrain had some 4,000 political prisoners and the highest prison population per capita in the Middle East. "This is a country that has subjected its people to imprisonment, torture and even death for daring to desire democracy," he wrote. Following the article, Bahraini prosecutors filed new charges against an unnamed man, who rights activists say is Mr Rajab, for "publishing a column in a foreign newspaper in which he deliberately broadcast news, statements and false rumours that undermine the kingdom's prestige and stature". US State Department Mark Toner said in Washington: "We call on the government of Bahrain to release him [Mr Rajab] immediately. "We have concerns about the state of human rights in general in Bahrain and we're engaging with the government... on all these issues." Image copyright AFP Image caption Anti-government protests in Bahrain often feature images of Nabeel Rajab Bahrain is home to the US Navy Fifth Fleet. Mr Rajab has been a fierce critic of the Bahraini authorities and helped to lead anti-government protests which erupted in March 2011. Demonstrators took to the streets, demanding more democracy and an end to discrimination against the majority Shia Muslim community by the Sunni Muslim royal family. The protests were quelled by security forces after the authorities brought in troops from neighbouring Sunni-led Gulf states to restore order.[SEP]WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The United States voiced concern on Tuesday about the detention of leading Bahraini democracy campaigner Nabeel Rajab and called on the Manama government to release him immediately. The call by the U.S. State Department came just two days after The New York Times published a letter by Rajab that said he was facing prosecution for his work exposing human rights abuses in Bahrain and criticizing the war in Yemen. Prosecutors in Bahrain filed new charges on Monday against an unidentified man, believed by rights activists to be Rajab, for "publishing a column in a foreign newspaper in which he deliberately broadcast news, statements and false rumors that undermine the kingdom's prestige and stature." Asked about the new charges, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States was "very concerned" about Rajab's "ongoing detention and the new charges filed against him." "We call on the government of Bahrain to release him immediately," Toner said. "We have concerns about the state of human rights in general in Bahrain and we're engaging with the government ... on all these issues." Rajab said in his letter to the Times that he had been detained, mostly in isolation, in Bahrain since the beginning of the summer. He said Bahrain had some 4,000 political prisoners and the highest prison population per capita in the Middle East. "This is a country that has subjected its people to imprisonment, torture and even death for daring to desire democracy," Rajab wrote. He said he also was accused of "insulting a neighboring country," Saudi Arabia, by sending notes on Twitter calling for an end to the war in Yemen. Rajab, who met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this year, was critical of the United States for selling billions of dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia for the Yemen conflict. Rajab said recent strong U.S. statements on Bahrain's human rights problems were good "but unless the United States is willing to use its leverage, fine words have little effect." He urged U.S. President Barack Obama to use American influence to resolve the Yemen conflict. Opposition political groups in Bahrain staged large protests during the Arab Spring of 2011, when demonstrators across the Arab world took to the streets calling for greater democracy. The protests in Bahrain were put down when neighboring Saudi Arabia sent troops to restore order. Political tensions have continued since then in Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. (Reporting by David Alexander and Arshad Mohammed)

The Obama administration urges Bahrain to free Nabeel Rajab, a human rights activist.

This story is from September 7, 2016 the annual haj pilgrimage logistics fell apart war of words 'Evil' Saudi royals don't deserve to manage holy sites criticised Saudi Arabia crush last year Sons of "magus" "Bigotry" DUBAI: The bitter war of words between Iran and Saudi Arabia intensified on Wednesday ahead offrom which Iranians have been excluded for the first time in decades.Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted the "incompetence" of the Saudi royal family as he met with the families of victims of a deadly stampede during last year's haj Iranians have been blocked from the event after talks on safety andin May.Theon the eve of the mass pilgrimage will deepen a long-running rift between the Sunni kingdom and the Shia revolutionary power. They back opposing sides in Syria's civil war and a list of other conflicts across the Middle East.Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneiover how it runs the haj after akilled hundreds of pilgrims. He said Saudi authorities had "murdered" some of them, describing Saudi rulers as godless and irreligious.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the "cursed, evil" Saudi ruling family did not deserve to manage Islam's holiest sites.Meeting with the families of victims of a deadly stampede during last year's haj pilgrimage, Khamenei said: "The Saudis' failure and incompetence in this incident proves once again that this cursed, evil family does not deserve to be in charge and manage the holy sites.""If they are telling the truth and are not at fault in this incident, they should let an Islamic international fact-finding committee closely examine and clarify the truth of the issue," Khamenei said, according to a transcript of his comments published on his website."Even if this was not deliberate, this much impertinence and incompetence is an offence for a political ruling system."Responding to a question by Saudi newspaper Makkah, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised at Khamenei's comments."We have to understand that they are not Muslims ... Their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis)," Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying, remarks republished by the Arab News.He described Iranian leaders as sons of "magus", a reference to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of the region that is now Iran 13 centuries ago.Al al-Sheikh's remarks drew an acerbic retort from Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said they were evidence of bigotry among Saudi leaders."Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.Saudi authorities normally seek to avoid public discussion of whether Shias are Muslims, but implicitly recognise them as such by welcoming them to the haj, and by accepting Iranian visits to the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.Tensions between the two countries have been rising since Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in January following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, itself a response to the Saudi execution of dissident Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.Custodian of Islam's most revered places in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on organising haj, one of the five pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to is obliged to undertake at least once.Riyadh said 769 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 disaster, the highest haj death toll since a crush in 1990. Counts of fatalities by countries who repatriated bodies showed that more than 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.Iran blamed the 2015 disaster on organisers' incompetence. Pilgrims from Iran will be unable to attend haj, which officially starts on September 11, this year after talks between the two countries on arrangements broke down in May.The split between Islam's main sects dates to a dispute among Muslims over who would rule their community after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, and Shias still regard his descendents as a line of imams blessed with divine guidance.Today such disagreements over history remain emotive points of tension between the sects, but they are also divided over day -to-day issues including differing interpretations of Islamic law and the role and organisation of the clergy.In the Wahhabi teaching of Sunni Islam followed by the Saudi clergy and government, Shia doctrine about imams is seen as incompatible with the concept of a monotheistic God.[SEP]MPs call on Government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia Britain must suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia as it appears the country is committing war crimes in Yemen and it "seems inevitable" that they involve UK weapons, a group of MPs has apparently said in a leaked draft report. According to BBC Two's Newsnight, the Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls said in a draft report: "The weight of evidence of violations of international humanitarian law by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is now so great that it is very difficult to continue to support Saudi Arabia while maintaining the credibility of our arms licensing regime." The Government has faced sustained pressure to suspend the sale of weapons to the country amid claims that international humanitarian law (IHL) has been breached in fighting between the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, and Shiite Yemeni rebels. According to Newsnight, the committee said in its draft report: "The weight of evidence is now so great that the UK should suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen until an independent and international inquiry can establish the truth." The programme quoted the draft report as saying it "seems inevitable that any violations of international law by the Saudi-led coalition would involve arms supplied by the UK". It adds, according to the programme: "While doubt and uncertainty about IHL compliance in Yemen exists, the default position of the UK should not to be to continue to sell weapons." The claims come after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday defended the selling of arms to Saudi Arabia for potential use in Yemen's bloody civil war, insisting the export of weapons to the country would continue. The Foreign Secretary said the Government found there was not a "clear risk" that weapons were being used to violate IHL. His comments followed the Government's admission that it wrongly published statements assuring the Commons that IHL assessments regarding Saudi Arabia had been passed when they had not been carried out. The Government said the original statements resulted from error and were not a deliberate attempt to mislead Parliament[SEP]The war of words on the eve of the mass pilgrimage will deepen a long-running rift between the Sunni kingdom and the Shi'ite revolutionary power. They back opposing sides in Syria's civil war and a list of other conflicts across the Middle East. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message published on Monday, criticized Saudi Arabia over how it runs the haj after a crush last year killed hundreds of pilgrims. He said Saudi authorities had "murdered" some of them, describing Saudi rulers as godless and irreligious. Responding to a question by Saudi newspaper Makkah, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised at Khamenei's comments. "We have to understand that they are not Muslims ... Their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis)," Al al-Sheikh was quoted as saying, remarks republished by the Arab News. He described Iranian leaders as sons of "magus", a reference to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of the region that is now Iran 13 centuries ago. Al al-Sheikh's remarks drew an acerbic retort from Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said they were evidence of bigotry among Saudi leaders. "Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account. Saudi authorities normally seek to avoid public discussion of whether Shi'ites are Muslims, but implicitly recognize them as such by welcoming them to the haj, and by accepting Iranian visits to the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Tensions between the two countries have been rising since Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in January following the storming of its embassy in Tehran, itself a response to the Saudi execution of dissident Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Custodian of Islam's most revered places in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on organizing haj, one of the five pillars of Islam which every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to is obliged to undertake at least once. Riyadh said 769 pilgrims were killed in the 2015 disaster, the highest haj death toll since a crush in 1990. Counts of fatalities by countries who repatriated bodies showed that more than 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians. Iran blamed the 2015 disaster on organizers' incompetence. Pilgrims from Iran will be unable to attend haj, which officially starts on Sept. 11, this year after talks between the two countries on arrangements broke down in May. The split between Islam's main sects dates to a dispute among Muslims over who would rule their community after the death of the Prophet Mohammad, and Shi'ites still regard his descendents as a line of imams blessed with divine guidance. Today such disagreements over history remain emotive points of tension between the sects, but they are also divided over day -to-day issues including differing interpretations of Islamic law and the role and organization of the clergy. In the Wahhabi teaching of Sunni Islam followed by the Saudi clergy and government, Shi'ite doctrine about imams is seen as incompatible with the concept of a monotheistic God.[SEP]Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called Wednesday on the Muslim world to unite and punish the Saudi government for its handling of the hajj pilgrimage and wider actions in the region. "Regional countries and the world of Islam should take coordinated actions to resolve problems and punish the Saudi government," he told a cabinet meeting, according to the IRNA state news agency. "If the existing problems with the Saudi government were merely the issue of the hajj... maybe it would have been possible to find a way to resolve it and put it in the right direction," he added. "Unfortunately, this government by committing crimes in the region and supporting terrorism in fact shed the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Syria and Yemen." Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia were already at rock bottom before the regional rivals started trading barbs this week ahead of the start of the annual hajj pilgrimage on Saturday. Iranians have been blocked from joining the hajj for the first time in almost 30 years after talks on security and logistics fell apart in May. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday accused Saudi Arabia of "murder" over the deaths of nearly 2,300 pilgrims, including hundreds of Iranians, in a stampede during last year's pilgrimage. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit out at the "bigoted extremism" of the Saudi authorities, responding to claims by Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, that Iranians were "not Muslims".[SEP]Tehran-Riyadh war of words hots up as Iranians miss hajj Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Saudi authorities of "bigoted extremism" late Tuesday in an increasingly bitter war of words over Iran's exclusion from this year's hajj pilgrimage. Javad Zarif was responding to a claim by Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, that Iranians were "not Muslims". "Indeed, no resemblance between Islam of Iranians and most Muslims, and bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric and Saudi terror masters preach," Zarif tweeted. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was due to meet later on Wednesday with the families of some of the more than 400 Iranian victims of a stampede that killed nearly 2,300 pilgrims at last year's hajj. He published a scathing open letter on Monday, accusing the Saudis of failing to protect pilgrims. "The hesitation and failure to rescue the half-dead and injured people... is also obvious and incontrovertible. They murdered them," he wrote. For the first time in almost three decades, Iranians have been blocked from the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest places in Saudi Arabia after the regional rivals failed to agree on safety and logistical issues. That has sparked acrimonious exchanges ahead of the start of the hajj on Saturday. Khamenei described the Saudi royal family as "small and puny Satans who tremble for fear of jeopardising the interests of the Great Satan (the United States)", and called on the Muslim world to end its management of the hajj. The grand mufti responded on Tuesday, telling the Makkah daily: "We must understand these are not Muslims, they are children of Magi and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one." "Magi" was a reference to the Zoroastrian religion that was prevalent in Iran before Islam, and is sometimes used as an insult against Iranians. Iran and Saudi Arabia follow different branches of Islam -- Shiite and Sunni -- and vie for regional dominance, backing rival sides in conflicts from Syria to Yemen.[SEP]The war of words between regional religious and political rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia has heated up as more than two million Muslims assembled in the Grand Mosque in Mecca to perform the initial rituals of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani, a moderate mid-level Shia cleric, called on Muslims to unite and punish the Sunni Saudi government for its mismanagement of last year’s Hajj when at least 2,411 pilgrims (according to the Associated Press), among them 464 Iranians, were killed in a stampede – and for Saudi involvement in wars in Syria and Yemen. Rouhani was replying to Saudi Arabia’s chief cleric, Grand Mufti Abdelaziz al-Sheikh, who declared that Shias are “not Muslims [but] children of the Magi [Zeroastrians] and their hostility towards Muslims is an old one”. This policy line towards Shias, considered along with Sunnis an orthodox Islamic sect, was adopted by the 18th-century cleric Mohamed Ibn Abdul Wahhab, who called for a return to Islam’s founding principles and partnered with Muhammad Ibn Saud in the conquest of Arabia. Al-Sheikh’s pronouncement came in response to Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said the Saudis had “murdered” last year’s victims and urged the Muslim world to challenge Saudi stewardship of not only the Hajj but also of Mecca and Medina, the cities where Islam was born. If his call were accepted, it would nullify the right of the Saudi monarch to assume the title of “Guardian of the Two Holy Sites”. Khamenei wants a commission representing all Muslim sects to take over management of the Hajj and the holy cities, although the Saudis conquered Mecca and Medina nearly a century ago and have spent billions of dollars on pilgrimage infrastructure, earning billions in return from the Hajj. When the multitude gathers today and tomorrow in the tent city at Mina ahead of the pilgrimage, some 61,000 Iranians will be absent. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Iranians are not participating, after Tehran and Riyadh rowed over terms surrounding the pilgrimage. The major obstacle was Riyadh’s insistence that Iranians should apply for Hajj visas from the Swiss embassy in Tehran, as the Saudi embassy in Tehran has been closed since an arson attack on it last January by an Iranian mob after the Saudis executed Nimr al-Nimr, a leading Saudi Shia cleric accused of “terrorism”. The last time Iranians stayed away from the hajj was after the 1987 event, when 400 pilgrims and police died in clashes sparked by Iranian anti-western political protests. On Sunday, the throng will move to the Plain of Arafat where the faithful will stand in silence at noon to commemorate the “Standing” of the congregation listening to the Prophet Muhammad’s sermon. That night, ahead of the Feast of Sacrifice, the pilgrims will camp at Muzdalifa, located between Arafat and Mina, where each will gather stones to fling over the next three days at three pillars, in a symbolic rejection of temptation. The traditional small stone pillars surrounded by low white-washed walls have been replaced by a multilevel, circular pedestrian bridge from which pilgrims carry out the stoning of massive pillars. The concrete bridges and their approaches have been the sites of seven deadly crushes between 1994 and 2015, with a total of some 4,000 fatalities. The causes of the 2015 stampede and the number of victims are disputed, prompting many countries to criticise Riyadh for failing to impose crowd control. The tussle over the hajj is a bitter religious aspect of Iranian-Saudi rivalry, intensifying the power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia which began in earnest with the 1979 creation of the Iranian Islamic Republic. Since then Iran has stirred dissent among Shias in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and elsewhere but failed to extend its influence to a major Arab country until 2003, when the US installed a pro-Iranian Shia regime in Baghdad. Today Iran backs the Syrian government and Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen while Saudi Arabia seeks the overthrow of the Syrian regime and is waging war on the Houthis.[SEP]Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the country, said in remarks published on Wednesday that the leaders of regional rival Iran were not Muslims and saw Sunni Muslims as their enemy. Referring to the Iranian leadership, the English-language Arab News website quoted him as saying: "We have to understand that they are not Muslims ... Their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis).” He said Iranian leaders were "followers of magus", a term that refers to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of today's Iran thirteen centuries ago.[SEP]Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, the highest religious authority in the country, said that the leaders of regional rival Iran were not Muslims and saw Sunni Muslims as their enemy. He said this on Wednesday in Riyadh in reaction to comments by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticizing Saudi management of the hajj and suggesting Muslim countries think about ending Saudi control of the annual pilgrimage. Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised by the comments from Khamenei. “We have to understand that they are not Muslims, their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah.” He said Iranian leaders were “followers of magus”, a term that refers to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of today’s Iran thirteen centuries ago.[SEP]Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency on Wednesday quoted Rouhani lambasting Saudi Arabia’s response to the 2015 stampede in Mina. Iran’s president on Wednesday called on the Muslim world to “punish” Saudi Arabia following last year’s hajj crush and stampede that killed over 2,400 people sharp criticism as multitudes poured into the kingdom for this year’s pilgrimage. Iranian pilgrims are not taking part in this year’s hajj, a ritual required of all able-bodied Muslims at least once in their life. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency on Wednesday quoted Rouhani lambasting Saudi Arabia’s response to the 2015 stampede in Mina by saying pilgrims lost their lives because Saudi authorities acted just as “bystanders rather than rescuing” those caught in the disaster. “The government of Saudi Arabia must be held accountable for this incident,” Rouhani told a weekly Cabinet meeting. “Unfortunately, this government has even refrained from a verbal apology to Muslims and Muslim countries.” Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile met with families of victims and survivors of the Mina stampede and reiterated his demand that Saudi Arabia’s ruling Al Saud family properly investigate the disaster, IRNA reported. “If they are claiming that they are not guilty in the incident, they should let an Islamic-international fact-finding delegation review and probe the case closely,” Khamenei said, adding that Saudi Arabia “should not shut people’s mouth with money.” On social media, Khamenei’s accounts used the hashtag #alSaudHijacksHajj to criticise the kingdom, while reiterating his demand that someone other than the Saudis be in charge of administering the hajj. The September 24, 2015, stampede and crush of pilgrims killed at least 2,426 people, according to an Associated Press count based on state media reports and officials’ comments from 36 of the over 180 countries that sent citizens to the hajj. The official Saudi toll of 769 people killed and 934 injured has not changed since Sept. 26. The kingdom has never addressed the discrepancy, nor has it released any results of an investigation they promised to conduct over the disaster. Iran had the highest death toll of any country, with 464 Iranian pilgrims killed. In January, tensions between longtime rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia soared after the kingdom executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric. Angry demonstrators later attacked two Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran and Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties to the Islamic Republic. The two countries also support opposing sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen. On Monday, Khamenei raised the stakes in the dispute over hajj by saying Saudi officials had “murdered” hajj pilgrims who were injured in the stampede. Saudi’s grand mufti countered by claiming that Iranians are “not Muslims.” A coalition of Gulf nations on Wednesday also criticized Khamenei. The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council issued a statement saying that Khamenei’s remarks and any such “false and outrageous accusations ... should not be issued from the heart or the tongue of any Muslim.”[SEP]Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the country, said in remarks published on Wednesday that the leaders of regional rival Iran were not Muslims and saw Sunni Muslims as their enemy. Al al-Sheikh was reacting to comments by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticising Saudi management of the haj and suggesting Muslim countries think about ending Saudi control of the annual pilgrimage. Responding to a question about Monday’s comments by Khamenei, Al al-Sheikh said he was not surprised by them. “We have to understand that they are not Muslims … Their enmity toward Muslims is old and their main enemies are the followers of Sunnah (Sunnis),” the English-language Arab News website reported him as saying. He said Iranian leaders were “followers of magus”, a term that refers to Zoroastrianism, the dominant belief in Persia until the Muslim Arab invasion of today’s Iran thirteen centuries ago. Al-Sheikh’s remarks, made to a Mecca newspaper which carried them on Tuesday, drew a swift retort from Iran‘s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who criticised Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam. “Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims & bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.

The top cleric of Saudi Arabia says Iranians "are not Muslims."

Story highlights A Russian fighter jet came within 10 feet of a US aircraft Russia has a long history of similar intercepts, which the Pentagon has protested Washington (CNN) A Russian fighter jet made an "unsafe close-range intercept" of a US aircraft over the Black Sea Wednesday, coming within 10 feet of the American plane. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said the potentially dangerous incident, involving a Russian SU-27 jet and a US Navy P-8A Poseidon plane, lasted 19 minutes. A US official told CNN's Barbara Starr that the Russian plane came within 10 feet of the P-8 at one point. Davis added that the US plane was conducting routine operations in international airspace at the time. "These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions, and could result in a miscalculation or accident," Davis said in a statement. The US has long protested Russian intercepts of its aircraft; there have been several this year. Read More[SEP]The United States accused Russia of sending one of its fighter jets dangerously close to an American spy plane over the Black Sea on Wednesday, an intercept American military officials said was "unsafe and unprofessional," even as Moscow said it acted in accordance with international flight rules. The U.S. said its Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft was on "routine operations" in international airspace when a Russian SU-27 Flanker jet flew within three meters of it in an intercept that lasted 19 minutes. "U.S. Navy aircraft and ships routinely interact with Russian units in the area and most interactions are safe and professional," the U.S. Defense Department said. "However, we have concerns when there is an unsafe maneuver like this. These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions, and could result in a miscalculation or accident." The Russian defense ministry said it dispatched its fighter jet after the U.S. aircraft approached the Russian border and turned off its transponders, which are used for identification. "After the Russian fighters approached the reconnaissance aircraft for visual inspection and identification of the aircraft registration numbers, the American planes abruptly changed course and flew in the opposite direction from the Russian border," Moscow said. A Russian defense ministry spokesman said the Russian fighter acted in strict accordance with international rules. The conflict in the skies comes at a time of increased tensions between the two countries, chiefly their inability to agree on how to achieve a lasting cease-fire in the Syrian civil war and end fighting in eastern Ukraine. Russia has been supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels trying to overthrow his government, while the U.S. has focused its attention on attacks against Islamic State jihadists in Syria. The U.S. imposed economic sanctions against Moscow for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and support for pro-Moscow fighters in eastern Ukraine doing battle with Kyiv's forces. Wednesday's incident over the Black Sea is one of several between Russian and U.S. warplanes this year. In April, as a U.S. guided missile destroyer patrolled in the Baltic Sea, two Russian warplanes flew simulated attack passes over it. The two countries agreed in a 1972 pact to various measures to avert dangerous interactions in international waters.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says that a Russian fighter jet flew within 10 feet of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft, in what officials called an unsafe intercept over the Black Sea. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, says the Russian SU-27 Flanker fighter made the unsafe maneuver Wednesday near a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft that was conducting routine operations in international airspace. The Russian jet conducted four intercepts of the Poseidon, and the one that was considered unsafe lasted about 19 minutes. Russian jets have occasionally flown close to other U.S. aircraft and Navy ships in the region. In one more dramatic incident earlier this year, Russian jets buzzed over the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, coming within 30 feet of the warship.[SEP]A Russian fighter jet has flown within 10 feet of a U.S. Navy plane over the Black Sea. The jet made what Pentagon officials called an 'unsafe intercept' of an American surveillance aircraft. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, says the Russian SU-27 Flanker fighter made the maneuver on Wednesday. It was near a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft that was conducting routine operations in international airspace. 'U.S. Navy aircraft and ships routinely interact with Russian units in the area and most interactions are safe and professional,' Davis said, according to ABC News. 'However, we have deep concerns when there is an unsafe maneuver. 'These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in a miscalculation or accident, which results in serious injury or death.' The Russian jet conducted four intercepts of the Poseidon, and the one that was considered unsafe lasted about 19 minutes. Russian jets have occasionally flown close to other U.S. aircraft and Navy ships in the region. In another dramatic incident earlier this year, Russian jets buzzed over the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, coming within 30 feet of the warship. The P-8A Poseidon is almost 40 meters long and 13 meters high. According to Naval Air Systems Command, it was designed to: 'meet the Navy’s needs of developing and fielding a maritime aircraft equipped with significant growth potential, including an extended global reach, greater payload capacity, higher operating altitude, and the open systems architecture.' The Russian SU-27 fighter is a combat aircraft comparable but considered superior to the U.S. F-15 jet.[SEP]Russian fighter flies within '10 feet' of US spy plane: US official A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US spy plane over the Black Sea on Wednesday, coming within just 10 feet of the American aircraft, a US defense official said. "During the intercept, which lasted approximately 19 minutes, the SU-27 (Flanker jet) initially maintained a 30-foot separation distance, then closed to within 10 feet (3 meters) of the P-8A (Poseidon), which is considered unsafe and unprofessional," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a Pentagon announcement. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement it dispatched Su-27 fighter jets to check out the US P-8 Poseidon planes as they "twice tried to get close to the Russian border over the Black Sea without their transponders turned on".[SEP]Russian jet came within 10 feet of U.S. spy plane: U.S. officials WASHINGTON/BERLIN, Sept 7 (Reuters) - A Russian fighter jet carried out an "unsafe and unprofessional" intercept of a U.S. spy plane flying a regular patrol over the Black Sea, coming within 10 feet (3.05 meters) of the American aircraft, two U.S. defense officials told Reuters on Wednesday. The incident comes at a time of increased tensions between the United States and Russia, who are on opposing sides of the Syrian civil war. One official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the incident lasted about 19 minutes and the Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter came within 10 feet of the U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance plane. "They're up there for 12 hours and there are lots of interactions. But only one of the incidents was what the pilot determined was unsafe," said another official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Officials were now talking with the pilot and reviewing the incident to determine whether it would be included in the annual meeting of U.S. and Russian officials about more serious intercepts, the official added. There have been a number of similar incidents involving Russia and the United States this year. In April, two Russian warplanes flew simulated attack passes near a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea. The events are reminiscent of the Cold War, when a series of close calls led to a bilateral agreement aimed at avoiding dangerous interactions at sea that was signed in 1972 by then-Secretary of the Navy John Warner and Soviet Admiral Sergei Gorshkov. (Reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; editing by Chizu Nomiyama, G Crosse)[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) — A Russian fighter jet flew within 10 feet of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft, in what American officials called an unsafe intercept over the Black Sea, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, says the Russian SU-27 Flanker fighter made the unsafe maneuver Wednesday near a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft that was conducting routine operations in international airspace. Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Wednesday that the Poseidon aircraft did not have its transponders turned on, and that it approached Russia's southern border twice. He said Russian jets were deployed to intercept the incoming aircraft and "Russian pilots acted in strict compliance with international flight rules." A senior U.S. defense official said the Navy Poseidon had its transponder turned on during the entire flight. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity. According to the U.S., the Russian jet conducted four intercepts of the Poseidon, and the one that was considered unsafe lasted about 19 minutes. Davis said that U.S. Navy aircraft and ships routinely interact with Russian units in the area and most interactions are safe and professional. "However, we have concerns when there is an unsafe maneuver like this," he said. "These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions, and could result in a miscalculation or accident. " Russian jets have occasionally flown close to other U.S. aircraft and Navy ships in the region. In one more dramatic incident earlier this year, Russian jets buzzed over the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, coming within 30 feet of the warship. Associated Press writer Kate dePury in Moscow contributed to this report.[SEP]A U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane had a close encounter with a Russian fighter that came within 10 feet of the aircraft as it flew in international airspace over the Black Sea. It is the latest encounter between the two militaries that American officials have labeled "unsafe and unprofessional". According to defense officials, the incident occurred this morning as a U.S. Navy P-8A maritime reconnaissance aircraft flew over the Black Sea conducing "routine operations." It was approached by a Russian SU-27 "Flanker" fighter jet that made "an unsafe close-range intercept" of the Navy plane. During the 19-minute encounter, the Russian fighter jet initially maintained a 30-foot distance from the American aircraft. But it then closed to within 10 feet of the P-8A aircraft, which one official said "is considered unsafe and unprofessional." Another official said that the U.S. crew attempted to contact the Russian pilot but received no response in return. "U.S. Navy aircraft and ships routinely interact with Russian units in the area and most interactions are safe and professional," said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. "However, we have deep concerns when there is an unsafe maneuver. These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in a miscalculation or accident, which results in serious injury or death." In recent months there have been several other close calls involving Russian aircraft and American planes and warships. In April, a pair of Russian fighters buzzed the destroyer USS Donald Cook as it was operating in the Baltic Sea. A video of the encounter released by the U.S. Navy showed the aircraft repeatedly buzzing the ship, including one pass where a Russian fighter flew as close as 30 feet to the American ship. News of the latest "unsafe and unprofessional" encounter comes on the same day that Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused Russia of "unprofessional" behavior. Speaking at Oxford University today, Carter included Russian interactions in international airspace among a list of examples for how Russia is eroding international norms. "With its violations of Ukrainian and Georgian territorial integrity, its unprofessional behavior in the air, in space, and in cyber-space, as well as its nuclear saber-rattling -- all have demonstrated that Russia has clear ambition to erode the principled international order that has served the United States, our allies and partners, the international community, and Russia itself so well," said Carter.[SEP]A Russian fighter jet came within just 10ft (3m) of a US spy plane while performing an "unsafe and unprofessional" interception of the aircraft, defence officials said. The incident, which occurred over the Black Sea , is likely to cause more tension between the US and Russia, who are at odds over the Syrian civil war and Ukraine. It lasted about 19 minutes and involved a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter and an American Navy P-8 surveillance plane flying a regular patrol, according to US officials. • The new Cold War: Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin give each other an icy glare at G20 Speaking anonymously, one official said: "They're up there for 12 hours and there are lots of interactions. "But only one of the incidents was what the pilot determined was unsafe." Officials were talking with the pilot and reviewing the incident to determine whether it would be included in an annual meeting of US and Russian officials about more serious intercepts. The Russian defence ministry said it had sent Su-27s to intercept a US aircraft approaching its border over the Black Sea on Wednesday because the American planes had turned off their transponders, which are needed for identification. There have been a number of similar incidents involving Russia and the United States this year. In April, two Russian warplanes flew simulated attack passes near a US guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea. The events are reminiscent of the Cold War , when a series of close calls led to a bilateral agreement aimed at avoiding dangerous interactions at sea that was signed in 1972. In July, NATO leaders agreed to deploy military forces to the Baltic states and eastern Poland for the first time and increase air and sea patrols to reassure allies who were once part of the Soviet bloc, following Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. The 28-nation Western defense alliance decided to move four battalions totaling 3,000 to 4,000 troops into northeastern Europe on a rotating basis to display its readiness to defend eastern members against Russia.[SEP]Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said the potentially dangerous incident, involving a Russian SU-27 jet and a US Navy P-8A Poseidon plane, lasted 19 minutes. A US official told CNN's Barbara Starr that the Russian plane came within 10 feet of the P-8 at one point. Davis added that the US plane was conducting routine operations in international airspace at the time. The official added that the US plane was operating in international airspace at the time. "These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions, and could result in a miscalculation or accident," Davis said in a statement. The US has long protested Russian intercepts of its aircraft; there have been several this year. On two separate occasions in April , Russian SU-27 fighters performed "barrel rolls" over American KC-135 planes flying above the Baltic Sea. RELATED: Russian jets keep buzzing U.S. ships and planes. What can the U.S. do? Russian officials have defended the actions of their pilots in the past, but have yet to comment on the most recent incident. Tensions have been ratcheted up in the Black Sea recently as Russia began five days of military exercises Monday involving 12,500 personnel and its Black Sea fleet based in Crimea, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 an event that has subjected Russia to international sanctions. The Russian Defense Ministry posted a video Thursday on its Facebook page showing Russian fighter crews based in Crimea conducting an intercept drill. The latest incident also comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are due to meet Thursday to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria.

A Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet makes an "unsafe close-range intercept" of a United States Navy P-8A Poseidon over the Black Sea in international airspace, coming within 10 feet (3.3 m) of the U.S. aircraft.

Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein is facing local charges over her actions at an anti-pipeline protest in North Dakota. Authorities in Morton County filed warrants Wednesday for the arrests of Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka, on charges of criminal trespass and criminal mischief, both misdemeanors, the Bismarck Tribune reported. ADVERTISEMENT The county sheriff's department said Stein and Baraka vandalized equipment at a construction site for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in Morton County while trespassing at the site along with activists. The warrant said law enforcement officers saw a video of Stein spray painting “I approve this message,” on construction equipment, and another of Baraka painting “decolonization” and “We need decolonization.” Stein called her actions “civil disobedience” in a statement admitting to the accusations, and said she intended to protect American Indian burial sites and drinking water. “I hope the North Dakota authorities press charges against the real vandalism taking place at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation: the bulldozing of sacred burial sites and the unleashing of vicious attack dogs,” she said. “I hope they take action against the Dakota Access Pipeline company that is endangering drinking water not only for the Standing Rock Sioux, but for millions of people downstream of the reservation who depend on the Missouri River.” Environmentalists and American Indian tribes are trying through multiple means to get Dakota Access’s construction blocked, including challenging an Army Corps of Engineers permit its developer obtained. They say it would pass through or near sensitive water bodies, risking the water quality, and the oil it would carry would be harmful to the climate. The activists scored a victory Tuesday when a federal judge issued a temporary, limited order halting some of the project’s construction.[SEP]A North Dakota judge issued a warrant Wednesday for the arrest of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who is accused of spray-painting construction equipment during a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline. Court records show Stein was charged Wednesday in Morton County with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief. The same charges have been filed against her running mate, Ajamu Baraka. Stein campaign spokeswoman Meleiza Figueroa could not immediately comment on whether Stein plans to turn herself in. Activists invited Stein to leave a message at the protest site near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation on Tuesday, Figueroa said, and Stein sprayed "I approve this message" in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer. A court document shows Baraka painted the word "decolonization" on a piece of construction equipment. Morton County Sheriff's Office spokesman Rob Keller said the warrant has been filed and if authorities were to come across Stein, "they would arrest her." The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is trying to stop construction of a section of the $3.8 billion four-state pipeline that tribal leaders say would violate sacred and culturally sensitive grounds and possibly pollute water. Before the charges were filed, Stein said in a statement said she hoped North Dakota authorities "press charges against the real vandalism taking place at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation: the bulldozing of sacred burial sites and the unleashing of vicious attack dogs."[SEP]BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein says she's working with North Dakota authorities to arrange a court date on charges related to her participation in a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Stein has acknowledged spray-painting construction equipment Tuesday in North Dakota. Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka were charged Wednesday with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief, and authorities issued arrest warrants. Stein defended her actions to the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/2cfvzAg ) Thursday during a campaign stop in Chicago. She said it would have been "inappropriate for me not to have done my small part" to support the Standing Rock Sioux. In this Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016 photo, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein prepares to spray-paint "I approve this message" in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer at a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in the area of Morton County, N.D. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said Tuesday that authorities plan to pursue charges against Stein. (Alicia Ewen/KX News via AP) The tribe says the pipeline threatens sacred sites and drinking water. The $3.8 billion pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota to Illinois. In this photo provided by LaDonna Allard, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, second from right, participates in an oil pipeline protest, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016 in Morton County, N.D. North Dakota authorities plan to pursue charges against Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein for spray-painting construction equipment at a Dakota Access Pipeline protest. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said Tuesday that the charges would be for trespassing and vandalism. (LaDonna Allard via AP)[SEP]MANDAN, N.D. – Morton County authorities issued warrants Wednesday for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate after video showed them spray painting graffiti on a bulldozer as they joined protesters at a Dakota Access Pipeline site Tuesday. The Morton County State’s Attorney’s Office filed criminal complaints against Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka for criminal trespass and criminal mischief. Both charges are Class B misdemeanors punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine. The Morton County Sheriff’s Department said warrants were issued for both suspects. Authorities were alerted to video that showed Stein painting “I approve this message” on the front of a bulldozer and Baraka painting the last word in the message “We need decolonization,” according to the statement. Stein’s campaign emailed a statement to Forum News Service at about the same time Wednesday afternoon acknowledging that she spray-painted the message on the bulldozer, saying it was one of the same bulldozers used to destroy what the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says were sacred burial sites in the pipeline route west of Highway 1806 on Saturday, which led to a clash between protesters and private security guards armed with pepper spray and guard dogs. “I hope the North Dakota authorities press charges against the real vandalism taking place at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation: the bulldozing of sacred burial sites and the unleashing of vicious attack dogs,” Stein said. “I hope they take action against the Dakota Access Pipeline company that is endangering drinking water not only for the Standing Rock Sioux, but for millions of people downstream of the reservation who depend on the Missouri River.” About 200 people protested at the construction site two miles east of State Highway 6 about 20 miles south of Mandan, and two protesters bound their hands to bulldozers for several hours. Law enforcement officers were present but kept their distance and didn’t intervene. No arrests were made, but the sheriff’s department said it’s “actively investigating all unlawful acts” associated with the protests.[SEP]WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - A sheriff's department in North Dakota is investigating possible charges against the U.S. Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein, for damaging equipment during protests on Tuesday over construction of an oil pipeline. Stein was part of a group protesting the Dakota Access pipeline and spray-painted construction equipment, the Morton County Sheriff's Department said. Stein does not dispute the account. Protesters, who say the project will damage burial sites considered sacred to a nearby Native American tribe and pollute the area's drinking water, also attached themselves to bulldozers and broke a fence, the department said. Stein, a 66-year-old doctor and environmental activist from Massachusetts, said in a statement that she had spray-painted the words "I approve this message" onto a bulldozer, a nod to the phrase American politicians append to their advertisements to comply with transparency laws. No arrests were made, the department said, and the investigation was continuing. The department also posted a picture on its Facebook page that showed Stein spraying the bulldozer, calling it a "criminal act." The $3.7 billion, 1,100-mile (1,800-km) pipeline project would be the first to move crude oil from the Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Energy Transfer Partners is leading a group of firms to build it. The project sparked violent clashes during the weekend between tribe members and other protesters and security officers near the construction site, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is seeking a court order to block construction. The Green Party opposes continued investment in oil extraction because of its link to climate change. "I hope the North Dakota authorities press charges against the real vandalism taking place at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation: the bulldozing of sacred burial sites and the unleashing of vicious attack dogs," Stein said in her statement. She said that pipeline security officials had used dogs and pepper spray on protesters over the weekend. A spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners did not respond to a request for comment. A Reuters-Ipsos poll in late August showed Stein the first choice of 2 percent of voters, trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and Libertarian Gary Johnson. The U.S. presidential election will be held on Nov. 8. Stein was arrested for trespassing in Texas during her 2012 presidential campaign when she tried to take supplies to protesters opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline.[SEP]WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Authorities in North Dakota are investigating possible charges against U.S. Green Party presidential candidate for allegedly damaging equipment during protests on Tuesday over construction of an oil pipeline in the state. Jill Stein allegedly was part of a group protesting the building of the Dakota Access pipeline and spray painted construction equipment, Morton County Sheriff's Department said. Protesters also attached themselves to bulldozers and broke a fence, the department said. No arrests were made, Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said in excerpts of a news conference posted to the department's Facebook page. The department also posted a picture that is said showed Stein spraying paint on construction equipment. "Authorities are investigating this criminal act," it wrote in the post late on Tuesday. Possible charge could include trespassing and vandalism, according to media reports. Representatives for Stein could not be immediately reached for comment. The $3.7 billion, 1,100-mile (1,770-km) pipeline project would be the first to move crude oil from the Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Energy Transfer Partners is leading a group of firms to build it. The project sparked violent clashes during the weekend between protesters and security officers near the construction site, which several Native American tribe oppose, saying it affects areas where they have sacred sites. On Tuesday, a federal judge granted in part and denied in part a temporary restraining order requested by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and a neighboring tribe. The judge said he would decide by Friday whether to grant the tribes' larger challenge to the pipeline, which would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw permits for the project. Kirchmeier and other local authorities on Tuesday urged a peaceful resolution to the protests, which they said were continuing. A Reuters-Ipsos poll in late August showed Stein, whose party promotes environmental issues, with 2 percent of voters in a field with Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and Libertarian Gary Johnson. Stein was arrested for trespassing in Texas during her 2012 presidential campaign when she tried to take supplies to protesters opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline.[SEP]CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Authorities say they will charge Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein who is accused of spray-painting construction equipment during a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said Tuesday that Stein will face trespassing and vandalism charges. A spokeswoman for Stein says activists invited her to leave a message at the protest site Tuesday. Stein sprayed "I approve this message" in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer. In this photo provided by LaDonna Allard, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, second from right, participates in an oil pipeline protest, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016 in Morton County, N.D. North Dakota authorities plan to pursue charges against Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein for spray-painting construction equipment at a Dakota Access Pipeline protest. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said Tuesday that the charges would be for trespassing and vandalism. (LaDonna Allard via AP) As of late Tuesday, Stein was not arrested or charged in the incident. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is trying to stop construction of a section of the pipeline that tribal leaders say would violate sacred and culturally sensitive grounds. Angry protesters faced off with construction workers at the site on Saturday.[SEP]MORTON COUNTY, N.D. – More than 100 protesters gathered at a Dakota Access Pipeline construction site Tuesday where two people bound themselves to bulldozers and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was meeting with pipeline opponents. A woman and a man attached themselves to equipment east of State Highway 6 using the same type of casting material used by demonstrators last week. The gathering began about 10 a.m. Tuesday northwest of the main pipeline protest site. About 75 people remained by 12:30 p.m. Witnesses said pipeline construction workers were in the area when protesters arrived but are no longer working in the area. Stein leaned on the blade of a bulldozer as she talked to those gathered at the site. “I’m not here for a photo op. For me, this work began long before the campaign,” said Stein, noting she was arrested in the fight to stop Keystone XL. Protesters grilled Stein on what policy changes she would make to improve conditions for Native Americans. At one point, a protester said “Where’s Obama?” and she replied “Exactly, where is Obama?” Law enforcement monitored the situation from the top of a hill but was not working to cut the protesters free, as they did last week during a similar demonstration.[SEP]Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said that he is seeking to file charges against Stein for spray painting the construction vehicle, though the 2016 long-shot was not arrested during the protest. Stein can be seen on local media outlet video Tuesday shaking a can before spraying something onto the front blade of the bulldozer at a construction site in St. Anthony, North Dakota. The company Energy Transfer Partners is behind the pipeline construction, though its unclear whom specifically the bulldozer belongs to or which site she was on. It was not clear what Stein spray painted onto the bulldozer. CNN has reached out to both the Stein camp and the Morton County Sheriff's office to confirm the details, but did not immediately receive a response. As of Wednesday, charges against Stein had not yet been filed. Kirchmeier told the Bismarck Tribune that he was working with the state attorney's office regarding charges. CNN has reached out to the North Dakota Attorney General's office and have not yet gotten a response. A spokesperson for Stein told KXMB that she will hold a news conference Wednesday. Stein was in North Dakota with dozens of demonstrators to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline , a nearly $4 billion effort to construct a pipeline linking the Bakken shale formation, a large shale oil deposit in the state, with oil refineries on the Gulf coast. Displaying her activist credentials, Stein spoke to some of the protesters about the pipeline and did some campaigning as well. She described herself as "someone who's been here with you on the frontlines" and joined a scattered "where's Obama?" chant. Stein has a history of environmental activism, and was arrested in 2012 when she was running for president in that cycle during her protest outside a presidential debate she was not invited to.[SEP]CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Authorities say they will charge Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein who is accused of spray-painting construction equipment during a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said Tuesday that Stein will face trespassing and vandalism charges. A spokeswoman for Stein says activists invited her to leave a message at the protest site Tuesday. Stein sprayed “I approve this message” in red paint on the blade of a bulldozer. As of late Tuesday, Stein was not arrested or charged in the incident. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is trying to stop construction of a section of the pipeline that tribal leaders say would violate sacred and culturally sensitive grounds. Angry protesters faced off with construction workers at the site on Saturday.

The sheriff's department of Morton County, North Dakota, issues arrest warrants for United States Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein, and her running-mate, Ajamu Baraka on charges of criminal trespass and criminal mischief. The county sheriff's department says that Stein and Baraka vandalized equipment at a controversial pipeline construction site.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad Denmark will buy data leaked from the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers scandal, Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen has announced. An anonymous offer to sell data involving up to 600 Danish citizens was made to the tax authorities over the summer, he said in a statement. "We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes," he said. The decision was attacked as "deeply reprehensible" by a spokesman for one of the opposition parties. Mr Lauritzen did not reveal the exact sum to be paid but it is believed to be about 9m kroner (£1m; $1.4m; 1.2m euros). It is not clear whether Denmark is buying the information from the original source of the leak, who remains anonymous, or from another party. Mr Lauritzen said that the Danish government communicated with its source via encrypted channels after being put in touch by a foreign tax authority. The Panama Papers leak was the biggest in history. Some of the documents have been published by various media organisations but many remain unpublished. Germany, France and the UK are all believed to have paid for data on bank customers in the past, including a German payment in 2014 for data leaked from the law firm involved in the Panama Papers, Mossack Fonseca. Some 11.5m documents previously leaked from the firm to international media revealed huge offshore tax evasion. 'Wise to buy' Mr Lauritzen said that Denmark "must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders who hide fortunes in, for instance, Panama. Therefore we agreed that it is wise to buy the material". But he accepted that there "may be fundamental problems associated with buying leaked information" and said tax authorities "should be cautious". The proposal by the centre-right Venstre party - which rules as a minority government - is said by Danish media to have the support of the other two main parties in parliament, the centre-left Social Democrats and anti-immigration Danish People's Party. But the Liberal Alliance, Venstre's former coalition partner, sharply criticised the idea. Tax spokesman Joachim Olsen said it might encourage the theft of private information to sell it on to the Danish authorities. The Panama Papers, first detailed in April, revealed the hidden assets of hundreds of politicians, officials, current and former national leaders, celebrities and sports stars. They listed more than 200,000 shell companies, foundations and trusts set up in tax havens around the world. Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad and filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general's office. It said it did not act illegally and that information was being misrepresented. Panama Papers - tax havens of the rich and powerful exposed Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A huge leak of confidential documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca were passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama and UK newspaper The Guardian were among 107 media organisations in 76 countries which analysed the documents. The BBC does not know the identity of the source[SEP]Denmark will buy data leaked from the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers scandal, Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen has announced. An anonymous offer to sell data involving up to 600 Danish citizens was made to the tax authorities over the summer, he said in a statement. “We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes,” he said. The decision was attacked as “deeply reprehensible” by a spokesman for one of the opposition parties. Germany, France and the UK are all believed to have paid for data on bank customers in the past but this may be the first time a government has agreed to pay for data leaked from the law firm involved in the Panama Papers, Mossack Fonseca. Some 11.5m documents previously leaked from the firm to international media revealed huge offshore tax evasion. Mr Lauritzen did not reveal the exact sum to be paid but it is believed to be at most 9m kroner (£1m; $1.4m; 1.2m euros). “Everything suggests that it is useful information,” the Danish tax minister said. “We must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders who hide fortunes in, for instance, Panama. Therefore we agreed that it is wise to buy the material.” At the same time, he accepted that “there may be fundamental problems associated with buying leaked information” and said tax authorities “should be cautious”. The proposal by the centre-right Venstre party – which rules as a minority government – is said by Danish media to have the support of the other two main parties in parliament, the centre-left Social Democrats and anti-immigration Danish People’s Party. But the Liberal Alliance, Venstre’s former coalition partner, sharply criticised the idea. Tax spokesman Joachim Olsen said it might encourage the theft of private information to sell it on to the Danish authorities. The Panama Papers, first detailed in April, revealed the hidden assets of hundreds of politicians, officials, current and former national leaders, celebrities and sports stars. They listed more than 200,000 shell companies, foundations and trusts set up in tax havens around the world. Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad and filed a complaint with the Panamanian attorney general’s office. It said it not act illegally and that information was being misrepresented. Panama Papers – tax havens of the rich and powerful exposed Eleven million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca were passed to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. BBC Panorama and UK newspaper The Guardian were among 107 media organisations in 76 countries which analysed the documents. The BBC does not know the identity of the source The documents show how the company helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax Mossack Fonseca says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and never been accused or charged with criminal wrongdoing IMAGE: Getty Images Image caption Mossack Fonseca said it had been hacked by servers based abroad For more on this story and video go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37299637[SEP]COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark's taxation minister says authorities will buy leaked data from a Panamanian law firm that helped customers open offshore companies to avoid paying taxes. Taxation minister Karsten Lauritzen says Denmark's Customs and Tax Administration had received an anonymous offer over the summer to acquire data from the so-called "Panama Papers" that could involve up to 600 people. Lauritzen says "everything suggests that it is useful information" and "we owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes." He said Wednesday other parties in Parliament supported buying some of the 200,000 documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca, saying "the material contains relevant and valid information about several hundred Danish taxpayers." He said the data cost a single-digit million kroner, where 9 million is equivalent to $1.4 million.[SEP]COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Denmark will buy leaked data from a Panamanian law firm that helped customers open offshore companies to avoid paying taxes, the Scandinavian country’s taxation minister said Wednesday. Karsten Lauritzen said Danish tax authorities had received an anonymous offer over the summer to acquire data from the so-called “Panama Papers” that could involve up to 600 people. The ministry said communication with the anonymous source was made via encrypted channels. Lauritzen says “everything suggests that it is useful information” and “we owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes.” “We must take the necessary measures in order to catch tax evaders who hide fortunes in, for instance, Panama,” Lauritzen said in a statement. “Therefore, we agreed that it is wise to buy the material.” He said, without elaborating, that “there may be fundamental problems associated with buying leaked information,” and taxation authorities “should be cautious.” He added that other parties in the 179-seat Parliament supported buying the documents, which are part of a stash of documents leaked from law firm Mossack Fonseca. The data, which consists of records on 11.5 million offshore holdings, was originally leaked to a German newspaper, which shared it with a global network of investigative journalists, leading to a series of media reports in April. In May, the journalists made the names of 200,000 offshore entities available in a searchable database. It’s unclear whether Denmark is the first country to have bought or accessed the leaked data beyond what was made public. The repercussions of the leak have been far-ranging. The uproar led to the resignation of the prime minister of Iceland, and brought scrutiny to, among others, the leaders of Argentina and Ukraine, Chinese politicians, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his friends. “The material contains relevant and valid information about several hundred Danish taxpayers,” Lauritzen said. It was not clear how many lawmakers backed the plan as there had been no public vote in the assembly. Lauritzen said the data cost a single-digit-million kroner. One million kroner is equivalent to $150,000.[SEP]Denmark has become the first country in the world to buy data from the Panama Papers leak, and now plans to investigate whether 500-600 Danes who feature in the leaked offshore archive may have evaded tax. Denmark’s tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen, said he has paid DKK9m (£1m) for the information, which comes from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. He said an anonymous source approached the Danish government over the summer. The source sent over an initial sample of documents and the government reviewed them. After concluding they were genuine, it secretly negotiated support for the controversial deal from political parties in parliament, the minister said. “Everything suggests that it is useful information. We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes,” Lauritzen said, admitting that he had originally been “very wary”. He added: “The material contains relevant and valid information about several hundred Danish taxpayers.” The Panama Papers, published in April, were the biggest leak in history. The archive includes 12.7m documents. There are details of offshore companies – half of them incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, a UK tax haven – as well as of secret “beneficial owners”. An anonymous source, “John Doe”, gave the archive to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. An international consortium of journalists from 180 media organisations including the Guardian examined the leaked files, which featured several heads of state and politicians. It is unclear if John Doe is the same source who sold information to the Danes. Lauritzen said he did not know who the source was. The government communicated with him – or her – via encrypted channels, he said, after being put in touch by a tax authority in another country. This raises the prospect that other European countries may discreetly be buying data on their own citizens. In 2014, German tax officials paid about €1m (£850,000) for files from a much smaller Mossack Fonseca leak. They carried out raids on customers of Commerzbank, suspected of evading tax. Tax authorities from around the world including HM Revenue and Customs asked journalists earlier this year to give them access to the Panama Papers archive. All approaches were declined. DR, Denmark’s state broadcasting corporation, refused a request from the country’s rightwing liberal government. The government had already started an investigation into eight Danish banks. A preliminary report said the banks had not done enough to ensure offshore accounts weren’t used for money laundering or tax evasion. The authorities also asked police to investigate whether Nordea Bank, with 11 million customers, had complied with anti-money laundering directives. This is the first time Denmark has chosen to buy information on suspected tax evaders. Dennis Flydtkjær, an MP with the Danish People’s party and a tax rapporteur, said that he was sceptical about the deal but that “in this case we can be prepared to bend our principles”. He told Politiken newspaper that the country was losing billions to tax evasion and that it was a scandal. He declared: “This is a golden opportunity to show that we are actually going after people who cheat.”[SEP]LONDON -- Denmark will buy documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm at the heart of an offshore finance scandal, part of a growing global effort to clamp down on tax evasion by wealthy individuals, Denmark's tax minister said Wednesday. A Danish government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy, said the cost of the data was less than $1.5 million, and the government hoped that the unpaid taxes recovered would more than offset the cost of the information. It was unclear whether the documents came from the trove known as the Panama Papers, published in April, which contained millions of leaked confidential documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama and ensnared politicians, businessmen and other prominent figures around the world. The move by the Danish authorities, believed to be the first time that a government has publicly acknowledged paying for access to the documents, seems likely to raise ethical questions about governments buying private material that the law firm says was stolen. The Danish tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen, a member of the center-right governing party, said he had every reason to believe that the data would prove useful. "For many years Denmark has been in the forefront internationally when fighting tax evasion," he said in a statement. "We owe it to all Danish taxpayers who faithfully pay their taxes. We have to take the necessary measures to catch tax evaders hiding their fortunes in places like Panama, in order to avoid tax payments in Denmark. That's why we agreed it was wise to buy this material." The Danish government official who spoke anonymously said that the country's Customs and Tax Administration had received an anonymous offer over the summer from a party willing to sell the data, and that the data involved 320 cases concerning up to 600 Danish taxpayers. He said the purchase of the data likely would take place this month and that the move had received cross-party support.[SEP]What is the significance of Denmark buying data from the Panama Papers leak? The Panama Papers are the biggest leak ever: 12.7m documents from the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca. They amount to a who’s who of the international rich. They include details of the real or “beneficial” owners behind anonymous offshore companies. The leak includes passport scans, addresses, and email chains, typically between the firm, which has offices around the world, and other lawyers and banks. In short, a goldmine for any ambitious tax inspector. Who is the source? We don’t know. In 2015 an anonymous source approached Bastian Obermayer, a reporter with Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung. Over the next 12 months, the source gave Obermayer Mossack Fonseca’s entire internal database, updated in real-time instalments. After the Panama Papers were published the source wrote a manifesto, suggesting his motives were idealistic: to expose wrongdoing. The source called himself John Doe. It’s unclear if John Doe has now sought to cash in on the leak by selling selective chunks of information to European and other governments, or if the source is someone else. Has this happened before? Yes. In 2014, the German government paid just under €1m for a previous – and much smaller – Mossack Fonseca leak. This led to a series of raids on those customers of Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, whom the authorities suspected of tax evasion. In 2006-07, Hervé Falciani took data from inside HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary. It showed how HSBC helped wealthy customers dodge tax. After fleeing to France, Falciani gave the HSBC files to French authorities. They shared them with other countries, including the UK. In January, British tax authorities admitted they had not prosecuted anybody. Will other countries buy the data? Probably. Denmark’s tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen, says another government put him in touch with the anonymous source. This means the source has approached at least one other tax authority. Germany is a likely candidate. In the past, several EU countries, including Belgium, have taken a tough approach to tax offenders. David Cameron did hold an anti-corruption summit in London following the Panama Papers revelations, but the UK has generally been reluctant to pursue offenders or investigate offshore leaks. It has so far not questioned employees at Mossack Fonseca’s UK office. The firm has closed branches in Jersey and the Isle of Man.[SEP]Your feedback is important to us! We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article. Comments submitted by third parties on this site are the sole responsibility of the individual(s) whose content is submitted. The Daily Star accepts no responsibility for the content of comment(s), including, without limitation, any error, omission or inaccuracy therein. Please note that your email address will NOT appear on the site. If you are facing problems with posting comments, please note that you must verify your email with Disqus prior to posting a comment. follow this link to make sure your account meets the requirements. (http://bit.ly/vDisqus)[SEP]ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique Thursday invited the Opposition parties for framing a joint and comprehensive legislation to investigate the Panama Papers and other corrupt practices. Responding to allegations of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the National Assembly, he said the investigation should not be any person specific but across the board. “We should bring such a legislation which not only investigate corruption of the past but also shut doors for malpractices in the future,” he added. He said two bills on Panama Papers from the government and Opposition had been tabled in the National Assembly and Senate. “Government and Opposition bills should be discussed and a comprehensive legislation should be enacted for the investigation of Panama Papers and other corrupt practices,” he added. He said that a parliamentary committee should also be constituted to bring unanimous legislation to address the issue. He said that fair people from the government and Opposition should be inducted in the committee. The minister said that the government was and is ready to sit with the Opposition parties to chalk out a way forward for investigation into the Panama Papers. He said the Opposition parties during talks with the government themselves were of the view that the investigation should not be person-specific. He said the Speaker’s decision on the disqualification references filed against the Prime Minister and the PTI Chairman is correct and this House endorses his decision. The minister said that it is the tactics of the PTI Chairman to attack the personality of the Speaker and hurl allegations of rigging on him. It is the same Speaker who did not accept the resignation of the PTI MNAs, he added. On the references filed against the Prime Minister, the Minister said that the four references furnished before the Speaker did not carry any documentary evidence. Therefore, the Speaker did not find appropriate to forward the references to the ECP. He said that the Speaker also rejected one reference against the PTI Chairman and forwarded the second one to the ECP having the substantial material and evidence. Khawaja Saad said that Imran Khan himself is the founder of offshore companies but he never gets tired of hurling accusations on others. He asked Imran Khan to stop the politics of allegations and mud-slinging and demonstrate maturity in his political conduct. The minister recalled that it was agreed if the judicial commission, formed to investigate the rigging of the general election, indicated engineered rigging, the PML-N will leave the government and if otherwise the PTI will take its allegations back. But he said Imran Khan backed out from the written agreement.[SEP]The Danish tax authority SKAT has been given the go-ahead by Parliament’s tax committee and the tax minister, Karsten Laurtizen, to purchase information regarding Danes listed in the Panama Papers that were leaked earlier this year. According to DR Nyheder, the information for sale relates to 320 cases involving some 600 Danish tax payers, and it will be purchased from an anonymous source. “SKAT has already sifted through a sample of the data material, which has been obtained for free,” SKAT wrote, according to DR Nyheder. “It is on this basis that SKAT has evaluated that the information is adequately relevant and validates the launch of tax investigations into a number of companies and persons who are named in the material.” High profile It is unknown how much SKAT must shell out for the information, which is of great interest to the Danish authorities. Leaked by the global media in April, the Panama Papers comprises 11.5 million documents regarding secret accounts in tax havens that were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. A number of high-profile individuals have been implicated as part of the leak, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, footballer Lionel Messi and the Icelandic prime minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, who has since resigned.

Denmark's government plans to buy the leaked Panama Papers containing Danish citizens.

LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon’s President Ali Bongo shrugged off growing international pressure on Wednesday to recount last week’s disputed election, saying it was a matter for the constitutional court to decide. Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba votes during the presidential election in Libreville, Gabon, August 27, 2016. REUTERS/Gerauds Wilfried Obangome Opposition leader Jean Ping, who has branded the Aug. 27 election a sham, said he did not trust the court. The European Union has also questioned the validity of the results and France, the former colonial ruler, backs the idea of a recount. The poll and its violent aftermath - at least six people have died in riots - have drawn international attention to Gabon, which counts Total and Royal Dutch Shell PLC among foreign investors. The inflow of petrodollars have made it one of Africa’s richest nations by GDP per capita, but they have mostly benefited the elite. Asked in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Wednesday whether he would permit a recount, Bongo told France’s RTL radio: “What people should be asking me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned ... that’s done at the level of the Constitutional Court.” Bongo, whose family has ruled Gabon for half a century, said that under the electoral law, his opponents had until 1400 GMT (10.00 a.m. ET) on Thursday to lodge their complaints with the court. He said he was preparing his own objections. Ping, a former diplomat, said he had no faith in the constitutional court, the highest legal body that can rule on an election, and said any recount should take place under international supervision. “The constitutional court is the Bongo family. We know that,” Ping told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday. Ping’s camp has alleged the number of votes cast for Bongo in southeastern Haut-Ogooue province was inflated. Official figures show the president won 95.46 percent of the vote, after a 99.9 percent turnout. “I AM A DEMOCRAT” The African Union has said it will send mediators to Gabon this week. The United Nations, which will send a representative to attend the process, is encouraging the opposition to file an appeal with the constitutional court. “We hope the African Union mission ... will demand, as did President Ping, as well as national and international public opinion, a recount polling station by polling station,” said Ping spokesman Rene Ndemezo Obiang at a press conference. Obiang said Ping had yet to appeal to the court. “Are we going to?” he said. “We shall see.” Asked whether he would accept the court’s ruling if it did examine the results, Bongo told Europe 1 radio: “I am a democrat. I am in favor of the Constitutional Court taking up the case.” He added he expected it would rule in his favor. Bongo said any suggestion of forming a unity government with opponents was premature. “It is difficult to work with those who asked the Gabonese people to go into the streets and loot,” he said. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, whose country was once close to Bongo’s father and predecessor, suggested on Tuesday a recount would be sensible, and urged the Gabonese authorities to help locate about 15 French nationals who are missing. “They are among those who rioted and looted and were therefore arrested,” Bongo said, adding that six dual nationals would be treated like any citizen of Gabon.[SEP]PARIS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Gabon's re-elected President Ali Bongo shrugged off international calls for a recount of last week's disputed vote, saying it was a matter for the constitutional court to decide. The European Union has questioned the validity of election which the opposition has dismissed as a sham. France, the former colonial ruler of the central African oil producer, has said a recount would be wise Asked in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Wednesday whether he would permit a recount, Bongo told France's RTL radio: "What people should be asking me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned ... that's done at the level of the Constitutional Court." Opposition leader Jean Ping, who has said the election was stolen, called on Tuesday for help from the international community. He told Reuters: "Everybody knows the result and everybody knows that Bongo is doing everything not to accept it." Ping has said he has no faith in the constitutional court because it was tied to the Bongo family and that he wants a recount done under international supervision before any appeal to that court. Asked about the possibility of forming a unity government with the opposition, Bongo said it was premature to discuss such a move. "I will be the president for all Gabonese, I will work with all my compatriots who want to join me in working for the development of the country. But it is difficult to work with those who asked the Gabonese people to go into the streets and loot." (Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Astrid Wendlandt and Andrew Heavens)[SEP]Gabon's Bongo says for Constitutional Court to rule on vote recount PARIS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Gabon's re-elected President Ali Bongo said he would be a leader for all Gabonese people and that it was for the Constitutional Court to decide whether there should be a recount of last week's disputed vote result. The European Union has questioned the validity of the result which saw Bongo win by a wafer-thin margin and France has said a recount would be wise. Asked in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Wednesday whether he would permit a recount, Bongo told France's RTL radio: "What people should be asking me to do is apply the law. I cannot violate the law. As far as a recount is concerned ... that's done at the level of the Constitutional Court."[SEP]LIBREVILLE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Gabon's opposition faced a legal deadline on Thursday to seek a vote recount in an election they say was stolen by President Ali Bongo, whose family has ruled the oil-rich OPEC member state for about half a century. Results last week showed Bongo, 57, beat his main rival Jean Ping, a veteran diplomat, by fewer than 6,000 votes in the Aug. 27 poll, prompting days of violent riots during which at least six people died. Bongo has rejected accusations that results were altered to ensure his victory but has come under increasing international pressure to back a recount of votes, including from former colonial power France, which has a military base in Gabon. The United Nations has urged the opposition to lodge an appeal with the constitutional court before the 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) deadline. Ping, 73, has repeatedly questioned the neutrality of the court and could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday. However his campaign manager said Ping was weighing the option of officially challenging the result. "We are currently studying the question. A decision has not yet been taken," said John Nambo. International criticism of the election has focused on the results from Bongo's stronghold, the province of Haut-Ogooue, where the participation rate was more than double that of other regions and showed that 95.46 percent of voters backed Bongo. The European Union has said it found anomalies in the results from Haut-Ogooue and on Thursday France renewed its call for a recount. "France considers that a transparent, impartial examination of the results of the presidential election is a condition for ending the crisis as it's the only way to establish the sincerity of the result incontestably," said French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal. As well as its military base, France has about 14,000 nationals based in Gabon and, through its oil giant Total , a large stake in the country's oil sector, which produces 200,000 barrels per day. But Paris has ruled out intervening in Gabon's post-electoral crisis as it has done before in its former colonies, saying it is up to Africans to resolve it. African Union mediators, led by Chad's President Idriss Deby, are expected to arrive in the Gabonese capital Libreville on Friday to help find a solution to the standoff. Some analysts have questioned whether Deby, one of Africa's "big men" in power since 1990, will push for a recount. A power-sharing deal in Gabon is also seen as unlikely, partly because of the personal nature of the feud between the two candidates. Bongo has accused the opposition of cheating in its turn and said on Wednesday he would ask the constitutional court to investigate irregularities in Ping's stronghold and elsewhere. Critics of Bongo, who won a disputed election in 2009 after the death of his long-ruling father Omar Bongo, say he has not done enough to redistribute oil wealth beyond a small elite. The ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) has suffered a series of high-level defections in recent years. Ping, a life-long political insider and former African Union Commission chairman, was a close ally of President Omar Bongo but fell out with his son and resigned from the PDG in 2014. He has fathered two children with Ali Bongo's sister Pascaline. (Reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Joe Bavier and Gareth Jones)[SEP]GABON President Ali Bongo has accused international observers who highlighted anomalies in the country’s contested presidential election of bias. Mr Bongo criticised the European Union mission observing Gabon’s election after questions were raised over his narrow victory. He also accused opposition leader Jean Ping of a “massive fraud”. “If we want to address the anomalies, we must be clear, balanced and address any anomalies,” he said. BBC stated that on Tuesday the EU questioned the legitimacy of the election results in Gabon on 27 August. The Constitutional Court is expected to meet on Thursday to consider a challenge by Mr Ping. Mr Bongo said he would respect the wishes of the court if it ordered a recount. The EU mission said there was a “clear anomaly” in the results from Mr Bongo’s home province after official figures from Haut-Ogooue showed a turnout of 99.93 per cent, with 95 per cent of votes cast for the president. Mr Ping, who lost the election by less than 6,000 votes, has pointed to the results in the province as evidence of electoral fraud. He has called for a general strike and said that dozens of his supporters have been killed in violent clashes since the result was announced. The Gabonese authorities say three people have died and 105 have been injured in street violence and mass arrests have taken place.[SEP]LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) — The dispute over Gabon's presidential election has intensified as opposition candidate Jean Ping is mounting a legal challenge and demanding a recount. Ping has already publicly declared himself the winner, even though election results said incumbent President Ali Bongo Ondimba won the Aug. 27 vote. FILE-In this file photo taken on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba, leaves the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande as part of preparation of the upcoming COP21 Climate Conference in Paris, France. President Ondimba on Wednesday Sept. 7, 2016 tried to deflect European Union observers' findings of a voting anomaly in his stronghold province that pushed him over the edge to win re-election, accusing his lead opponent of ballot fraud and a plot to seize power. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File) Those results showed Bongo won by less than 2 percentage points. There is no provision for a runoff in this Central African nation. European Union observers have expressed concern about results in Bongo's stronghold province. Bongo's campaign has said it also planned to contest results at some of the polling stations. Bongo came to power in 2009 after the death of his father, who had ruled Gabon for more than four decades. FILE - In this Thursday Sept. 1, 2016 file photo, Gabonese Police stand guard on a barricade following an election protest in Libreville, Gabon. Post election violence in Gabon has killed between 50 and 100 people, the opposition presidential candidate said Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016, a toll much higher than the government's count of three in days of violent demonstrations against the president's re-election. ( AP Photo/Joel Bouopda, File)[SEP]PARIS, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Gabon's re-elected President Ali Bongo, who has come under international scrutiny following his razor-thin election win last week, said on Wednesday that if electoral fraud was committed it was by his opponent Jean Ping. "Jean Ping has committed fraud," Bongo said in an interview with France's Europe 1 radio. Opposition leader Ping has said the vote was stolen by Bongo. The European Union has questioned the validity of the result and France has said a recount would be wise. (Reporting by Richard Lough; editing by Astrid Wendlandt)[SEP]The fight for democracy in Africa is, these days, centred on the tiny, oil-rich country of Gabon. It is not a new fight, by any means. In 2009, after the death of longtime leader Omar Bongo – who had ruled the former French colony for more than 40 years – riots broke out in several cities when it was announced that his son, Ali Bongo, was slated to become the next president. Opposition leaders called foul after presidential election results were announced, and they attempted to organise a nationwide strike. Now, seven years on, Ali Bongo has run up against a new, wider wave of protests, after he claimed he had won re-election, on 27 August, with a lead of just over 5,000 votes in a nation of 1.8 million. Street clashes with police led to several deaths. Opposition supporters set fire to the parliament building. Yet Mr Bongo remains defiant. He has accused his critics of attempting a coup and he has rejected calls for a recount of votes and even for election results to be published in detail. At one point he had his main opponent, Jean Ping, who says the election is being stolen, placed under house arrest. There were also government efforts to impose a media blackout, including by cutting off the internet. The situation on the streets has since eased, but tensions still run high in this central African country. Gabon’s crisis is watched closely by France and neighbouring African states. France has a key military base as well as important economic interests in the region and has called for a recount, but it wants to be careful not to appear to meddle directly for fear of being accused of neocolonial reflexes. Whether outside mediation can help resolve a situation where two men, Mr Bongo and Mr Ping, both claim to be the legally elected president will now be put to the test: the African Union announced this week that it would send a delegation to Gabon. None of this is made easier by the complex web of family ties that have long stood at the heart of Gabonese politics. Mr Ping, 73 years old, a former president of the African Union commission, was one of Omar Bongo’s closest and longest-serving ministers and married one of his daughters. He now describes Gabon as “a dictatorship pure and simple, run by a clan” – a “dynastic regime” that must be ended. But there is hardly any doubt that he has solid reasons to complain about vote manipulation. A mission of European Union observers said there were “obvious anomalies”. Mr Ping hopes international pressure will bear down on Mr Bongo, who clearly believes time is on his side because no external player is ready to consider anything like outright intervention. Many of Gabon’s citizens certainly want its political course to change. Its population is poor and the economy has slumped with the fall of global oil prices. Families struggle for food day to day. Mr Bongo’s rule has been tainted by many allegations of corruption, not least the ownership of luxury cars and apartments in Paris. Gabon has only had three presidents since its independence in 1960. Mr Bongo, 57, may have tried to project the image of a younger leader, but his repressive methods are fast placing him in the same category as other strongmen who hang on to power as if mandates were for life. The unrest that has broken out reflects deep-seated popular anger. Gabon’s civil society, like those elsewhere in Africa, wants its voice to be heard, and democratic procedures to be respected. The votes should be recounted.

Ali Bongo Ondimba rejects calls for a recount.

Story highlights Freshly uncovered footprints found on a busy Western Australian beach Paleontologist says they may have come from four-meter long carnivore (CNN) Everyone knows you have to watch out for sharks on Australian beaches -- but what about dinosaurs? A 130-million year old dinosaur footprint has been found among the seaweed and surf on popular Cable Beach near the town of Broome, Western Australia. Bindi Lee Porth told CNN she was collecting seashells when she felt an indent in the sand. Clearing it away, she found a number of massive, preserved footprints. "I've been down there every night with tourists, kids, locals. I've been getting kids to stand in them and walk along the tracks of the dinosaurs," she said. "It's unbelievable to stand in the tracks, close your eyes and put yourself back there in time. It's very hard to describe, it's just amazing." Read More[SEP](CNN) Everyone knows you have to watch out for sharks on Australian beaches -- but what about dinosaurs? A 130-million year old dinosaur footprint has been found among the seaweed and surf on popular Cable Beach near the town of Broome, Western Australia. Bindi Lee Porth said she was collecting seashells when she felt an indent in the sand. Clearing it away, she found a number of massive, preserved footprints. "(I'm) amazed. To be connected to something from so many millions and millions of years ago is fantastic, we're pretty happy. The kids didn't believe me at first, but I was right," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Porth said she had been on the beach dozens of times before without seeing any dinosaur footprints. One of a number of footprints found along the beach. University of Queensland palaeontologist Steve Salisbury told CNN the tracks had probably been covered by sand or water for decades, but erratic tides at Cable Beach had finally revealed them. He said the tracks were called Megalosaurus Broomensis and they were probably made by a medium-sized carnivore. "It was a type of theropod dinosaur, a carnivorous one," he said. "The tracks are about 30 to 50 centimeters (1 to 1.6 feet) long so we can tell the dinosaur was probably about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high at the hips and maybe 2.5 to 4 meters (8 to 13 feet) long." Dinosaur tracks have been part of Aboriginal mythology, known as Dreamtime, in the area for generations. "This particular spot, for instance, is known to have tracks on it and is called the Place of the Emu Man," Salisbury said, referring to the three-toed tracks similar to emu footprints. Other footprints found include those of the stegosaurus and the enormous, herbivorous brontosaurus. According to Salisbury, the rock which holds the footprints is stronger than the layers above it, which have washed away over the years to expose the footprints to the air once again. "As it weathers away we start to see these ancient surfaces emerge. What you're essentially seeing are surfaces that are frozen in time and were walked over by dinosaurs millions of years ago," he said.[SEP]Dinosaur footprints dating back to the cretaceous period have been uncovered on a beach in far-north Western Australia after being buried in sand for almost 50 years. The three-toed tracks were found on Cable beach in Broome, 2,240km north of Perth, on Sunday, when a woman who was collecting shells with her family felt an indent beneath her foot. “So I just sort of brushed all the sand away and it’s revealed this beautiful, like a bird, foot,” Broome woman Bindi Lee Porth told the ABC. It’s the first time these particular tracks have been reported since 1974 but they are familiar to the Indigenous peoples of the Dampier peninsula. To the Goolarabooloo they are the tracks of Marrala, the Emu Man, a creator spirit, whose footprints appear and disappear under shifting sands along more than 50km of coastline. They are written into songlines that tell the dreamtime history and law of the area, which is so heavily pockmarked with fossilised footprints that it’s become known as the dinosaur coast. Paleontologist Dr Steven Salisbury, a senior lecturer with the school of biological sciences at the University of Queensland who leads a project to map out the dinosaur footprints on the Dampier Peninsula, said these particular tracks belonged to a carnivorous theropod, bigger than a velociraptor but smaller than a Tyrannosaurus rex. By the size of the footprints, he said, it was estimated to stand between 1.5m and 1.8m high at the hip, which, “assuming it’s a bog-standard carnivore” would make it between 3m and 4m long. “They are unique to the Dampier Peninsula,” he said. “That sort of track only occurs here.” The three-toed footprints are less plentiful than sauropod tracks but more recognisable, looking like every dinosaur track ever found in a cartoon. Sauropod tracks, which belong to four-legged herbivores, “can just look like little potholes”, Salisbury said. Salisbury said the rocks in the Dampier Peninsula were rich with footprints of sauropods, theropods, stegosaurus and other cretaceous-era dinosaurs. It’s the only area in Australia where dinosaurs of this era are recorded. He said the density of tracks was based on a combination of the environment that existed in that area 130 million years ago that attracted the dinosaurs and the particular rock which preserved the footprints. “It seems like the area was part of a vast river plane flowing into a delta so there were lots of species that were conducive to the preservation of dinosaur tracks,” he said. Prints of the three-toed carnivore can be found at a number of points along the coast, most notably at Minyirr, also known as Gantheaume Point, where they are exposed in the rocks. Minyirr is also a significant place in the Marrala dreaming. “The whole community is littered with these tracks, local Bart Pigram told Guardian Australia. “They come up every now and then and then they disappear and no one talks about them for 20 years until they pop up again.” Pigram is a Yawuru man, one of the groups recognised as traditional owners of the area, and is also a member of the Dinosaur Coast Management Group. He said he was concerned about the ability of Indigenous people to protect these particular tracks because Cable beach is the centre of the town’s tourist area. “We have had issues before when people have come up and actually tried to gouge the rocks out,” he said. “This is prehistory, it must be protected.”[SEP]Alt-rock legends Dinosaur Jr. will visit New Zealand for a one-off show. The band, who have been shredding on and off since they formed in Massachusetts, USA, in 1984, will play The Studio in Auckland. It's the first time the band has visited these shores since 2013, when they played to a sold out crowd at the Powerstation. Since the original trio of J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph reunited in 2007, Dinosaur Jr has produced four albums, taking their career total to 11. READ MORE: * Dinosaur Jr get better with every album * Dinosaur Jr. far from extinction * Dinosaur Jr rock like it's 1988 * J Mascis: The Godfather of grunge Their latest, Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not, has been called "as thrillingly noisy, focused and as concisely realised as anything in that vast back-catalogue" by Graham Reid of Elsewhere. Dinosaur Jr. play The Studio in Auckland on January 23 2017. Tickets on sale from 9am, September 14 from Ticketmaster.co.nz and UnderTheRadar.co.nz.[SEP]Hatzegopteryx, the biggest flying animal in the world will be found, starting from today, at Dino Parc Rasnov. The giant flyer, who was discovered right in Romania, was reconstituted by Dino Parc Rasnov based on the discoveries made by Professor Dan Grigorescu from the University of Bucharest, the one who found the Hatzegopteryx fossils. The arrival of the pterosaur is accompanied by another premiere: a nest with 10 real dinosaur eggs discovered at Tustea, in the Hateg Country Dinosaur Geopark! The new exhibition was inaugurated in the presence of the President of Brasov County Council, Adrian Vestea, of the Vice-Mayor of Rasnov, Liviu Butnariu, of the Mayor of Hateg, Marcel Goia as well as of the paleontologists from the University of Bucharest. “Hatzegopteryx is the most important exhibit of Dino Parc Rasnov until now. We are glad that all our visitors will be able to see the full-scale reproduction of a unique discovery in the world, and that this discovery was made right in Hateg Country. Moreover, we’ve supported this year a team of students researchers who, under the guidance of the teachers from the University of Bucharest, have discovered two dinosaur egg nests close to Hateg. Our wish is to awaken the interest of both the specialists and the public who is willing to enter the mysteries of the dinosaurs’ lives. We also can say that we’ve reached 500,000 visitors, in one year after the park was opened, and we expect a growing number of children to come and see a little piece of history from a disappeared world which is slowly rediscovered”, stated Adrian Apostu, Manager at Dino Parc Rasnov. “’The scaring flyer from Hateg’, as we named it, is from my point of view, a reason of national pride and a global premiere for a long time. Hatzegopteryx couldn’t find a better home than Dino Parc Rasnov, where he will stay together with the other dinosaurs that are accurately reproduced from a scientific point of view. I would like to thank to our partners from Dino Parc Rasnov for their support and direct involvement. This partnership gives me an additional hope regarding the area of paleontology in Romania”, stated Professor Dan Grigorescu. Hatzegopteryx thambema (“The scaring flyer from Hateg”) was discovered IN 1978 by Professor Dan Grigorescu in the Hateg area. It lived about 68 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous. Its name is composed of the name of the region where it was discovered and “pteryx”, which is the Greek term for “wing”. Having an wingspan of about 12 meters, a skull of around 3 meters unprecedented in any animal in the past, with strong bones of the limbs, despite its capacity to fly, which involves easiness, Hatzegopteryx thambema is the biggest pterosaur discovered until today. In the fossil site from Tustea were discovered 18 egg nests belonging to the dinosaur species of hadrosauroid (“dinosaur with duckbill”), Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus. Establishing the membership is given by the fact that there fragments of the chickens’ skeleton were discovered near the egg nests, and they are clearly indicating that they come from Telmatosaurus. It was and it still is a big surprise in the scientific world, because the type of spherical egg, having the shell decorated with rounded nodules and with a prismatic micro-structure, discovered at Tustea, belongs to the egg species called Megaloolithus; until the discovery from Tustea, this kind of egg was deemed to belong to some big sauropod dinosaurs, therefore to herbivore dinosaurs from the Titanosaur family. In Argentina were discovered even embryos of titanosaurs in eggs of this kind!

A beachgoer in Australia discovers dinosaur footprints believed to be around 130 million years old while combing the shore for shells.

More than 4,000 para-athletes are in Rio for the 2016 Paralympic Games - the first time this event has been held in Latin America. While sport takes centre-stage for the fortnight, organisers are hoping the Games will also serve as a catalyst for social change in Rio. Beach for Everyone, a project launched 10 years ago, aims to provide safe access to the beaches for the physically handicapped. It's co-founder, Ricardo Gonzalez, is optimistic about the effect the Games will have on people's attitudes. "The Paralympic Games will touch the sensibility of the people," Gonzalez told Al Jazeera. "To see that people with a disability can do everything, this attitude has to be stimulated. So the Paralympic Games is a great moment." READ MORE: Rio revamped in run-up to Olympics Accessibility still remains an issue in Rio with road crossings, public buildings and tourist sites built without giving the disabled much consideration. "It's getting better, but so many things are made with no thought," said Brazilian para-triathlete Edson Rocha Nascimento. "Public transportation, for example roads, buses and the metro, are very difficult to access if you are in a wheelchair." Large amounts of public funds are diverted to building stadiums and broadcasting the Games. But disability expert Ahmed Habib hopes the brief spotlight on disability is worth the huge price tag attached. "All we can hope is that people are watching the Paralympics at home and they start conversations with their families and their colleagues and realise that their perceptions about disabled people have been wrong all along the way," said Habib.[SEP]The opening ceremony of All-Russian Paralympic Sports Competitions took place in Moscow on September 7. Minister for Sport Vitaly Mutko and head of the Russian Paralympic Committee Vladimir Lukin took part in the ceremony, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta wrote. "Today's gala event is a tribute to our Paralympians, whose hard work and courage, belief in themselves and their capabilities serve as an inspiring example to all," Vitaly Mutko said, reading Vladimir Putin's address to the Paralympic athletes. "The Russian team is one of the strongest teams in the world, and I am confident that you will demonstrate your skills, persistence, dedication and determination to victory," the president's address to the Russian athletes said. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko expressed his regret about the fact that the Russian Paralympic athletes were suspended from the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "I am sure that these are temporary difficulties, and Russia will soon return to the great Paralympic family - the work on that will be done quickly. The winners will receive the same prizes and awards that they would receive in Rio. We will do our best to develop our Paralympic movement," said Vitaly Mutko. The head of the Russian Paralympic Committee Vladimir Lukin, said: "It is a pity our athletes are not together with their brothers in spirit. Sport unites athletes from all countries, irrespective of political games and solutions," the official said. Later, Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko told reporters that he was feeling guilty for the fact that the Russian athletes were excluded from the Paralympic Games in Rio. "We feel guilty and responsible, - said Mutko. - In this situation it is very difficult to say something, because it was all very strange. The court's decision did not have any grounds." President Putin initiated the organization of the competitions for Russian Paralympic athletes after they were barred from participating in the Paralympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. The All-Russian Paralympic Sports Competitions will take place on September 8-9 on major sports venues in the Moscow region. As many as 263 athletes will perform in 18 disciplines. Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru[SEP]The best images from the first day’s action of the Paralympic Games in Rio[SEP]The incredible Rio 2016 Olympics are in the books and now the waiting is over for the Paralympics . Team GB enjoyed a memorable Games with 27 gold medals and 67 medals in total and the Paralympics team will be aiming for similar success. Great Britain managed 34 gold medals at London 2012 with 120 medals in total and are aiming for a collection of 121 this summer. UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl described the target as 'incredibly challenging,' while British Paralympic Games chief Tim Hollingsworth called it an 'ambitious one'. Hollingsworth added it would be the "most competitive team ever to the most competitive Paralympic Games ever." Here's a breakdown of all the events and where Team GB are best placed to secure glory. • What time does the Paralympics opening ceremony start? All you need to know as Team GB prepare for Rio 2016 games Paralympic fact: Paralympic archer Zahra Nemati was Iran's flag bearer at the Rio 2016 Olympics. British hopes: John Cavanagh won gold in 2004 in Athens and will be competing in his fifth Games. Paralympic fact: Wheelchair racers compete at speeds of more than 30 kilometres per hour and the top men can complete a marathon in under one hour 30 minutes. British hopes: Wheelchair racer David Weir is a six-time Paralympic champion and the team talisman. Paralympic fact: Boccia, coming from the Latin for ball, is played in 50 countries worldwide. British hopes: David Smith and Nigel Murray were part of the squad which won team gold in Beijing and bronze in London. Paralympic fact: The flat water event is new for Rio. British hopes: Captain Nick Beighton, who was injured serving in Afghanistan in 2009, was fourth in rowing at London 2012 before switching to canoeing. Paralympic fact: Alex Zanardi, the former motor-racing driver, won London 2012 gold in hand-cycling and celebrated by lifting his bike above his head. British hopes: Dame Sarah Storey has 11 Paralympic golds and needs one more to succeed wheelchair racer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson as Britain's most successful female Paralympian. Paralympic fact: Britain have never lost the team event, winning in 2004, 2008 and 2012. British hopes: Sophie Christiansen won three gold medals at London 2012, while Lee Pearson is a 10-time Paralympic champion. Paralympic fact: The crowd must be silent so the blind or partially-sighted players (all wearing blackout masks) can hear a noise-making device in the ball. Paralympic fact: There may have been no British team at the Olympics, but the Paralympic team comprises players from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. British hopes: Jack Rutter, the team captain, was on the verge of signing professional terms with Birmingham before suffering a head injury. Paralympic fact: The court markings are tactile, enabling the athletes to feel their way around. British hopes: One of three sports where Britain is not represented in Rio. Paralympic fact: In the only martial art on the Paralympic programme, the partially-sighted athletes are allowed to have contact with their opponent before each contest begins. British hopes: Sam Ingram claimed bronze in Beijing and silver in London, where ParalympicsGB secured their best judo medal haul since 1996. Paralympic fact: Athletes with different disabilities compete for the same medals, with weight the only classifier. Paralympic fact: Adaptive rowing made its Paralympic debut in the 2008 Games. British hopes: Tom Aggar won in Beijing but was dejected after missing out on London, having dominated the sport in the intervening years. Paralympic fact: For greater stability, the yachts used in Paralympic sailing have keels. British hopes: Helena Lucas was the first Briton selected for either the 2016 Olympic or Paralympic Games. Paralympic fact: Britain has won medals at every Games in which shooting has been included, since Toronto 1976. British hopes: Matt Skelhon won gold in Beijing and will have his sights on the target once again. Paralympic fact: A part of the player's body between their buttocks and shoulders must be in contact with the floor when they hit the ball. British hopes: No British team after a loss of funding post-London 2012. British hopes: Ellie Simmonds and Ollie Hynd are established stars bidding to win more gold in Rio. Paralympic fact: Poland's Natalia Partyka made her Paralympic debut in Sydney aged 11 and has competed in three Olympic Games (Beijing, London and Rio). British hopes: Will Bayley claimed silver at London 2012 and will be looking to go one better in Rio. Paralympic fact: Rio will be the sport's first Paralympics. British hopes: World and European champion Lauren Steadman is competing in her third Paralympics, having made her debut as a swimmer in Beijing aged 15. Paralympic fact: There is a professional league in Spain where many of the top players ply their trade. British hopes: The men took bronze in Athens and Beijing and were fourth in London. Paralympic fact: Athletes compete in wheelchairs fastened to the floor, with the length of the playing area determined by the athlete with the shorter arm reach. British hopes: Just two, but Piers Gilliver and Dimitri Coutya both have World Championship medals. Paralympic fact: Commonly known as murderball due to its ferocity, wheelchair rugby is a game played by athletes with a disability affecting both their arms and legs. British hopes: Britain must upset the established elite to get on the podium but they have some talented individuals. Paralympic fact: The ball is allowed to bounce twice. British hopes: Jordanne Whiley and Gordon Reid are Wimbledon champions and will have high hopes for Rio.[SEP]RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will not attend any of the Paralympic Games which start in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said. "He is no longer attending at all and we fully understand how difficult it can be to reschedule a busy diary," said Craig Spence, the IPC's Director of media and communications. The opening ceremony will be held on Wednesday and the Games run from Sept. 7-18. (Reporting by Andrew Downie)[SEP]Szekeres won a bronze medal in the fencing competition at the 1988 Olympics Seoul. After being injured in a bus accident in 1991 he took up wheelchair fencing and went on to win medals at five different Paralympic Games.[SEP]According to The Guardian, the goodwill of the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Rio was "punctured" with a demonstration of defiance on the part of Belarusian athletes, who carried a Russian flag to express their protest to the International Paralympic Committee. The author of the article wrote that Belarus ignored the direct prohibition of the International Paralympic Committee and carried the Russian flag during the parade of athletes at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games at Maracana Stadium. The IPC, The Guardian said, did not like the appearance of the Russian flag, and the "show of defiance" distracted attention from the spectacular opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. The International Business Times also wrote that the "festive spirit of the Rio 2016 Paralympics opening ceremony was dampened by the Belarus team." "Following some wonderful action, performances and fireworks, the mood was soured a little when the Belarus contingent walked into the Maracana Stadium carrying a Russian flag," The IBT wrote. On 7 September, speaking to reporters, Philip Craven, the head of the IPC, said that the committee was strongly determined to exclude Russian Paralympic athletes from the Rio Games, and the IOC supported the verdict unanimously. Russia launched its own, All-Russian Paralympic Games in the Moscow region on September 7. "The Russian team is one of the strongest teams in the world, and I am confident that you will demonstrate your skills, persistence, dedication and determination to victory," President Putin said in his written address to the athletes. On the first day of the All-Russian Paralympics, our athletes have set four world records. Swimmers Anna Krivshina Sergei Sukharev, Andrei Granichka and Roman Zhdanov have shown outstanding results. The Alternative Paralympic Games for Russian athletes takes place on training bases near Moscow. Three-time Paralympic champion in athletics Margarita Goncharova set a personal record as she completed the 400 meter-race in T38 category in 1 minute 0.44 seconds. Other winners at this distance were Arina Baranova (T13, 58.45 seconds), Yevgenia Trushnikova (T37, 1.03,74) and Anastasia Solovieva (T47, 59.98). Four-time Paralympic champion in athletics Alex Ashapatov showed the best result in the shot put in F57 category - 13.47 meters. Svetlana Krivenok (F33) has updated the world record in this sport with 7.51 meters. Unfortunately, there was little time to arrange alternative Paralympics properly, and the competitions are held on training bases, rather than sports arenas. The athletes compete in seven sports; in 11 other disciplines, the athletes aspire to results of world championships. For many excluded athletes, the Paralympic Games in Rio were supposed to become their first major sports event. Those people were deprived of their lifetime dream, but no one has given way to despair. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has decided to revoke the accreditation from the member of the Belarusian delegation, who carried the Russian flag at the opening of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Noteworthy, President of the Russian Paralympic Committee Vladimir Lukin, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko and President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov expressed their support and gratitude to the Belarusian official, who had the courage to appear on the stadium in Rio carrying a Russian flag. Earlier, the head of the Paralympic Committee of Belarus, Oleg Shepel, said that Belarusian athletes were ready to carry the Russian flag at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in solidarity with Russian colleagues. On August 7, the International Paralympic Committee disqualified the Russian Paralympic Committee, having excluded all Russian athletes from international competitions. Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru[SEP]The XV Paralympic Games opens at the Maracana Stadium with a carnival atmosphere The After Party has begun. The XV Paralympic Games in Rio opened at the Maracana Stadium with a carnival atmosphere on Wednesday. Seventeen days after the Olympics closed, with the Paralympics embroiled in the worst build-up in its 56-year history, Brazil belatedly got into the Paralympic mood. London 2012 was declared a triumph of the human spirit; Paralympic competitors considered sports stars first and foremost. It was hoped to be a watershed moment for the Paralympic movement. But the incompetence of Rio's organising committee - using Paralympic funds as contingency for the Olympics - left the Games feeling like an afterthought. Despite the slow uptake of tickets, 1459 days since the London Paralympics closed on September 9, 2012, the 78,000-seat Maracana was full on Brazil's Independence Day. Paralympians describe the Olympics as the warm-up; their own inspiring festival as the After Party. And Rio, Brazil and the world must prepare to be amazed over the next 11 days. More than 4300 athletes from 159 nations, plus two refugees in an independent team, are prepared to perform to the peak of their physical capabilities and change perceptions of what is possible. It is the biggest Paralympics yet - in terms of athletes participating - and the greatest performances are expected to take place in Rio. Remember the names. Brazilians will cheer swimmer Daniel Dias, athletes Alan Oliveira and Terezinha Guilhermina. American Tatyana McFadden will go for seven gold medals and others will emerge. In Britain alone there is wheelchair racer David Weir, swimmers Ellie Simmonds and Ollie Hynd and cyclist Dame Sarah Storey, who will bid to surpass Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson as the British female with the most Paralympic gold medals on Thursday's opening day. Lee Pearson led ParalympicsGB into the arena as part of a show with a central theme of "Everybody has a heart". The 10-time equestrian gold medallist was chosen by his 263 fellow athletes, who are aiming to surpass their London 2012 total by winning 121 medals over 11 days of competition. Second place on the medal table - behind China - is also the target. Russia's absence helps. With its stance in the wake of revelations of state-sponsored doping in Russia, the International Paralympic Committee and its president Sir Philip Craven showed the leadership and stance the International Olympic Committee did not. Principled. Honest. And spirited.[SEP]Members of the delegation of Greece enjoy themselves during the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, late on Wednesday. Greece’s Paralympic team comprises 59 athletes – 43 men and 16 women – who are to compete in a total of 12 sports: wheelchair tennis, weight lifting, sailing, swimming, boccia, wheelchair fencing, cycling, shooting, track events, judo, archery and paracanoeing. The Rio Paralympics started on Thursday with swimming, track events and track cycling. They are to run through September 18. [Mauro Pimentel/AP][SEP]RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will not attend any of the Paralympic Games starting in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said. Bach had already said he would miss Wednesday's opening ceremony to remain in Germany for the funeral of his friend Walter Scheel, the former West German foreign minister and deputy chancellor who died last month aged 97. But officials said he was now unable to reschedule other commitments and will be unable to travel to Brazil after the funeral. "President Bach was planning to attend the Opening Ceremony and first day of competition but can no longer attend due to a State funeral in Germany," Craig Spence, the IPC's Director of media and communications, said in a statement. "We fully understand that he cannot reschedule other long standing engagements to attend the Games here at a later date. The IOC is the IPC's number one strategic partner and we thank them, and President Bach, for their continued support." The IPC did not say what the long-standing engagements were. "The fact that he can't come is unfortunately a fact of life and shows how busy these presidents and officials are," Spence told Reuters in a telephone call. "We don't see it as a snub at all." Rio was awarded the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympics in 2009. The opening ceremony will be held at the Maracana stadium on Wednesday night and the Games run from Sept. 7-18. (Reporting by Andrew Downie, editing by Ed Osmond)

The 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, i.e., (parallel Olympic Games), open in Rio de Janeiro.

Hundreds of Taliban militants stormed a provincial capital in southern Afghanistan on Thursday and were fighting on multiple fronts with government forces, officials said. Afghan officials deployed reinforcements to Tarin Kot, in Uruzgan province, and Afghan and U.S.-led NATO warplanes were carrying out airstrikes in an attempt to deter the latest Taliban advance against a strategic city. One security official in Uruzgan said provincial officials had sought shelter at the local airport, home to an Afghan army brigade, in a sign that the battle was not going the government’s way. “Afghan forces have lost overall control of the whole city,” said the official, requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. Advertisement A Twitter account affiliated with the Taliban boasted that the city “was about to fall” and that its fighters were “combing the streets” of Tarin Kot. In a statement, the militant group called on Afghan security forces to stand down, saying it would “forgive and guarantee the life, property and honor of those who give up fighting.” “We see them as our brothers,” the statement said. The police chief in Uruzgan, Mohammad Wais Samimi, said by phone from Tarin Kot: “Our forces have been trying to push back the Taliban as fighting is going on in three parts of the city.” Afghan officials said the powerful police chief of neighboring Kandahar province, Gen. Abdul Razaq, had arrived in Uruzgan with his forces and would help lead “a clearing operation.” Advertisement A spokesman for U.S.-led coalition forces declined to comment on the operation as it was ongoing. One of the areas under attack was Sarchakhlai, just a few hundred yards from the provincial police headquarters. Taliban fighters were separated from the headquarters only by a dry riverbed. Samimi said the Taliban launched an assault on the outskirts of Tarin Kot five days ago and Afghan forces responded with airstrikes and ground operations. The spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, Sediq Sediqqi, said Afghan special forces soldiers were sent to Tarin Kot on Wednesday night. In three days of fighting, 250 Taliban fighters had been killed or wounded, said Dost Mohammad Nayab, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Eleven Afghan soldiers and police were killed and 17 injured, he said. It was not possible to confirm the figures. No civilians had been killed, but several families had fled Tarin Kot for neighboring provinces, Nayab said. Tarin Kot resident Ahmad Shah, a journalist who was stuck in his office, said, “The city is abandoned.” Uruzgan sits on the border of the southern province of Helmand, the hub of Afghanistan’s poppy production. Taliban fighters control several districts in Helmand and in recent weeks have sought to erode the government’s grip on the capital of that province, Lashkar Gah. Advertisement The Taliban offensive in Helmand in August prompted the U.S. military to launch airstrikes near Lashkar Gah and deploy more than 100 ground troops to advise Afghan forces. Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India. shashank.bengali@latimes.com Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia UPDATES: 9:05 a.m.: This article was updated with casualty figures and other details. This article was originally published at 3:20 a.m.[SEP]Hundreds of Taliban militants stormed a provincial capital in southern Afghanistan on Thursday and were fighting on multiple fronts with government forces, city officials said. Afghan officials deployed police reinforcements to Tarin Kot, in Uruzgan province, in an attempt to deter the latest Taliban advance against a strategic city. One security official in Uruzgan said provincial officials had sought shelter at the local airport, home to an Afghan army brigade, in a sign that the battle was not going the government’s way. “Afghan forces have lost overall control of the whole city,” said the official, requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. A Twitter account affiliated with the Taliban boasted that the city “was about to fall” and that its fighters were “combing the streets” of Tarin Kot. In a statement, the militant group called on Afghan security forces to stand down, saying they would “forgive and guarantee the life, property and honor of those who give up fighting.” “We see them as our brothers,” the statement said. The police chief in Uruzgan, Mohammad Wais Samimi, said by phone from Tarin Kot: “Our forces have been trying to push back the Taliban as fighting is going on in three parts of the city.” One of the areas under attack was Sarchakhlai, just a few hundred yards from the provincial police headquarters. Taliban fighters were separated from the headquarters only by a dry riverbed. Samimi said the Taliban launched their assault on the outskirts of Tarin Kot five days ago and Afghan forces responded with airstrikes and ground operations. The spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, Sediq Sediqqi, said Afghan special forces soldiers were sent to Tarin Kot Wednesday night. There was no information about casualties. Tarin Kot resident Ahmad Shah, a journalist who was stuck in his office, said, “The city is abandoned.” Uruzgan sits on the border of the southern province of Helmand, the hub of Afghanistan’s poppy production. Taliban fighters control several districts in Helmand and in recent weeks have sought to erode the government’s grip on the capital of that province, Lashkar Gah. The Taliban offensive in Helmand in August prompted the U.S. military to launch airstrikes near Lashkar Gah and deploy more than 100 ground troops to advise Afghan forces. Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India. Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia[SEP]KABUL, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Taliban forces were fighting within the capital of Afghanistan's central province of Uruzgan on Thursday, threatening government offices as the leadership fled to the airport, officials said. Militants had fought their way to within a few hundred metres of the governor's compound and police headquarters while gun battles spread in the provincial capital of Tarin Kot, a city of about 70,000 people, said provincial police chief Wais Samim. The militant offensive, and the apparent government collapse in some areas, was reminiscent of the Taliban's speedy but brief capture of Kunduz city last year, the first time the group had seized a provincial capital since they lost power in 2001. Top provincial leaders in Uruzgan had retreated to the airport, which houses an Afghan military base, according a police official who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media. In separate phone interviews with Reuters, security officials were already assigning blame for the apparent collapse of the defences. Police chief Samim said many of the city's police had made deals with the Taliban and left their checkpoints without a fight, while another police official accused the province's senior leadership of abandoning the city. Late on Wednesday, the Taliban released a statement promising government forces protection if they surrendered peacefully. The city's prison had fallen to the advancing militants, but its occupants had previously been transferred to the airport, said Abdul Karim, head of the Uruzgan provincial council. In a statement online, the Taliban said their fighters had entered the city and overrun at least seven checkpoints as well as the prison, with city officials taking the prisoners as "hostages" and fleeing to the airport. "Street to street clashes are currently taking place against the enemy inside the city," the statement said. Last year, Kunduz was retaken by the government only after nearly two weeks of fighting, with American special forces and warplanes backing up elite Afghan troops. A spokesman for the U.S. military command in Kabul said officials were monitoring the situation, but as of Wednesday there were no coalition advisers in Uruzgan and no American air strikes had been conducted this week. At least 69 coalition troops died in Uruzgan province during nearly a decade and a half of international military efforts to defeat the Taliban and other militant groups after 2001. (Reporting by Mohammed Stanekzai in Lashkar Gah and Sayed Sarwar Amani in Kandahar. Writing by Josh Smith. Editing by Nick Macfie)[SEP]KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban pushed into the capital of Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, triggering fierce clashes and sending all government officials fleeing from the city, an Afghan official said. The insurgents' surprise attack left authorities in control only of Tirin Kot's police headquarters, which the Taliban were besieging since the morning hours, according to The provincial spokesman, Doost Mohammad Nayab. Nayab said that all checkpoints around the city have been overrun or destroyed and appealed to the government in Kabul for quick reinforcements. He did not provide a casualty toll but said he feared that the city will soon completely fall to the insurgents. Hundreds of Taliban are involved in the assault, Nayab added, without giving any specifics. However, within hours, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said the Taliban had been repelled from Tirin Kot. Mohammad Radmanish, the ministry's deputy spokesman, said the army, police and intelligence service headquarters in the city have all been secured. Radmanish insisted that all strategic locations in Tirin Kot, a city with a population of about 72,000, are now under government control and that reinforcements are on the way to the Uruzgan provincial capital. Air support has been called in and Afghan airstrikes have killed several Taliban fighters in Tirin Kot, he added. The Taliban did not immediately issue any statements to media about the attack on Tirin Kot. Nayab later said that Afghan and U.S. air force were pounding the Taliban with airstrikes, forcing them to step back from city. Afghan state TV reported from Tirin Kot that all shops, bakeries and pharmacies were closed and that the residents were fleeing. One resident, shopkeeper Sultan Muhammad, said he fled and was making his way south to the city of Kandahar, the provincial capital of neighboring Kandahar province. "We civilians are fed up with both the Taliban and the government, we don't care who is coming and who is going, we just want peace," he said, speaking to The Associated Press over the phone. He said the Taliban had pushed inside Tirin Kot, where they are now "attacking government buildings inside the city." Tirin Kot is the third Afghan provincial capital that has come under Taliban threat recently, along with the city of Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province. The uptick in Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces has prompted the United States to send additional troops to the southern Helmand province, where its capital, Lashkar Gah, is also under heavy pressure from the insurgents. The provincial council head Kareem Atal earlier said that roughly 80 percent of Helmand is already under Taliban control. Since August, Taliban fighters have attacked Afghan security forces in northern Kunduz province, briefly taking control of a district headquarters. The militants also overran a district in northern Baghlan province and in eastern Paktia province. Meanwhile, in eastern Nangarhar province, Taliban militants are fighting pitched battles with security forces. The Taliban are also believed to have captured much of Uruzgan province. Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense says its security forces are currently waging operations in 15 provinces. Also on Thursday, a bomb blast struck in front of a pharmacy in a crowded market in the northeastern province of Baghlan, killing nine people and wounding 15, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, Jaweed Basharat, said. He said children were among those killed when the bomb, which was attached to a bicycle, exploded. In Kabul, a sticky bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding two others, police officer Gulam Jan said.[SEP]KABUL, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Taliban forces were fighting within the capital of Afghanistan's central province of Uruzgan on Thursday, threatening government offices as the leadership fled to the airport, officials said. Militants had fought their way to within a few hundred metres of the governor's compound and police headquarters while gun battles spread in the provincial capital of Tarin Kot, a city of about 70,000 people, said provincial police chief Wais Samim. (Reporting by Mohammed Stanekzai in Lashkar Gah and Sayed Sarwar Amani in Kandahar. Writing by Josh Smith. Editing by Nick Macfie)[SEP]Afghan forces encircled by Taliban in provincial capital, officials say KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Exhausted Afghan security forces were surrounded on Friday by Taliban fighters in the capital of Afghanistan's south-central province of Uruzgan, a day after fighting off a concerted push by the militants, officials said. The Taliban attack, in one of the country's top opium-producing areas, has exposed how thinly stretched Afghan security forces have become as they try to contain Islamist insurgents in other areas of the country. Taliban insurgents had battled their way on Thursday to within a few hundred metres (yards) of key government buildings in Tarin Kot, the provincial capital home to as many as 70,000 people, while many local leaders fled to a nearby airport. Bolstered by reinforcements and air support, Afghan troops pushed the Taliban out of the city by nightfall, but the situation remains serious, said Dost Mohammed Nayab, a spokesman for the Uruzgan governor. "The Taliban are still in surrounding areas of the city," he said. "Our forces are exhausted and are running short of ammunition." Overnight clashes left at least seven dead on the government side and 30 among the Taliban, said Abdul Karim, head of the Uruzgan provincial council. He accused the Taliban of using civilians as human shields, complicating efforts to drive out the insurgents. "It will take more attention and effort to clear all areas," he added. The Taliban on Thursday rejected claims by government officials of high casualties among the attackers. In a statement, the militant groups said its fighters had overrun more than a dozen checkpoints and seized many weapons and other equipment from retreating troops. Photos posted online by the Taliban purport to show fighters looting and burning what appears to be a government military base. At least 69 coalition troops died in Uruzgan during nearly a decade and a half of international military efforts to defeat the Taliban and other militant groups after 2001. About 16,000 NATO and allied troops remain in Afghanistan, mostly in an advising and counterterrorism mission, but as of Thursday, U.S. officials said they had no troops in Uruzgan, nor had they conducted any air strikes. The province is in a part of south-central Afghanistan long dominated by the Taliban and warlords who vie for access to its lucrative smuggling routes and illicit drug production. (Reporting by Sayed Sarwar Amani; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)[SEP]KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban pushed into the capital of Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, triggering fierce clashes and sending all government officials fleeing from the city, an Afghan official said. The insurgents' surprise attack left authorities in control only of Tirin Kot's police headquarters, which the Taliban were besieging since the morning hours, according to The provincial spokesman, Doost Mohammad Nayab. Nayab said that all checkpoints around the city have been overrun or destroyed and appealed to the government in Kabul for quick reinforcements. He did not provide a casualty toll but said he feared that the city will soon completely fall to the insurgents. However, within hours, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said the Taliban had been repelled from Tirin Kot. Mohammad Radmanish, the ministry's deputy spokesman, said the army, police and intelligence service headquarters in the city have all been secured. Radmanish insisted that all strategic locations in Tirin Kot are under government control and that reinforcements are on the way to the Uruzgan provincial capital. Air support has been called in and Afghan airstrikes have killed several Taliban fighters in Tirin Kot, he added. The Taliban did not immediately issue any statements to media about the attack. Tirin Kot is the third Afghan provincial capital that has come under Taliban threat recently, along with the city of Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province. The uptick in Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces has prompted the United States to send additional troops to the southern Helmand province, where its capital, Lashkar Gah, is also under heavy pressure from the insurgents. The provincial council head Kareem Atal earlier said that roughly 80 percent of Helmand is already under Taliban control. Since August, Taliban fighters have attacked Afghan security forces in northern Kunduz province, briefly taking control of a district headquarters. The militants also overran a district in northern Baghlan province and in eastern Paktia province. Meanwhile, in eastern Nangarhar province, Taliban militants are fighting pitched battles with security forces. Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense says its security forces are currently waging operations in 15 provinces. Also on Thursday, a sticky bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in Kabul, killing one civilian and wounding two others, police officer Gulam Jan said. Associated Press Writer Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.[SEP]Heavy clashes are underway in provincial capital of southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgents have launched a coordinated attack to take control of the key district. Provincial police chief Wais Samimi said clashes between the Afghan forces and the Taliban insurgents are underway since several days but the gun battle intensified earlier today. Officials in the provincial council have warned that the control of the provincial would soon fall if additional troops and logistics were not provided soon. The Taliban militants group however have claimed that they have taken control of several security posts as the provincial capital is under the siege of the group. In the meantime, the association of free journalists of Afghanistan have said the lives of at least 26 journalists are under the threat as the Taliban group threatens the provincial capital. Uruzgan is among the relatively volatile provinces in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgents are actively operating in a number of its remote districts. The coordinated attack on Tarinkot city comes as the Taliban group aims to take control of the strategic cities as part of their spring offensive to weaken the government’s stance in the ongoing insurgency that has entered to its 15th year. Follow Khaama Press (KP) | Afghan News Agency on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook. Stay updated via RSS[SEP]US warplanes unleashed three strikes on Friday in Afghanistan’s province of Uruzgan, where Afghan security forces remained surrounded by Taliban fighters a day after having fought back a concerted push by the militants. The Taliban attack, in one of the country’s top opium-producing areas, has exposed how thinly stretched Afghan security forces have become as they try to contain Islamist insurgents in other areas of the country. Taliban insurgents on Thursday battled their way to within a few hundred metres of key government buildings in Tarin Kot, a city of about 70,000 and capital of the south-central province, while many local leaders fled to a nearby airport. In the capital, Kabul, the American military command confirmed that its warplanes had conducted at least three air strikes, with aircraft of the Afghan air force also providing support. Bolstered by reinforcements and air support, Afghan troops pushed the Taliban out of the city by nightfall, but the situation remains serious, said Dost Mohammed Nayab, a spokesman for the Uruzgan governor. “The Taliban are still in surrounding areas of the city,” he said. “Our forces are exhausted and are running short of ammunition.” Overnight clashes left at least seven dead on the government side and 30 among the Taliban, said Abdul Karim, head of the Uruzgan provincial council. He accused the Taliban of using civilians as human shields, complicating efforts to drive out the insurgents. “It will take more attention and effort to clear all areas,” he added. The Taliban on Thursday rejected government officials’ claims of high casualties among the attackers, saying in a statement they had overrun more than a dozen checkpoints and seized many weapons and other equipment from retreating troops. Photos posted online by the Taliban purport to show fighters looting and burning what appears to be a government military base. About 16,000 NATO and allied troops remain in Afghanistan, mostly in advisory and counterterrorism roles, but also regularly launching air strikes in support of Afghan operations. At least 69 coalition troops died in Uruzgan during nearly a decade and a half of international military efforts to defeat the Taliban and other militant groups after 2001. The province is in a part of Afghanistan long dominated by the Taliban and warlords who vie for access to its lucrative smuggling routes and illicit drug production.[SEP]LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Taliban forces have fought their way to within a few kilometers of the capital of Afghanistan's central province of Uruzgan, officials said on Wednesday, warning of its collapse unless authorities provide air support and ground reinforcements. The Taliban are battling to topple the Western-backed government of Afghanistan 15 years after they lost power in a U.S.-led military operation. Overstretched Afghan security forces and their foreign military advisers have focused on blunting Taliban attacks in southern Helmand province and the northern city of Kunduz, besides battling Islamic State militants in eastern Nangarhar. Many of the embattled police and soldiers around the Uruzgan capital of Tarin Kot are fighting with minimal reinforcements and often with insufficient food and ammunition, say regional officials. "If there is no significant air support and ground reinforcement, Tarin Kot will collapse," warned Abdul Karim, head of the provincial capital. Security forces have halted the Taliban advance about 2 km (1.2 miles) from the city's prison, whose prisoners the militants seek to free, officials suspect, using a tactic the Taliban employed when they briefly captured Kunduz last year. In a posting online, the Taliban claimed to have overrun 15 government outposts, including a "strategic military base" in Uruzgan. "All the surrounding areas of the capital are under tight siege and attacks of mujahideen," the group said. Despite the Taliban offensives in Uruzgan, the NATO-led coalition, which declared its combat mission over at the end of 2014, said it had no advisers in the province, nor had U.S. warplanes conducted any air strikes in recent days. The insurgents would not be able to break through security cordons, said Dost Mohammed Nayab, the spokesman of the provincial governor. "The Taliban did whatever they could to get the capital city but they couldn't," he said. "We are ready to defend our province." At least 32 Taliban have been killed and another 23 wounded, Nayab said, with six security forces killed and nine wounded. Taliban forces continue to threaten the Helmand capital of Lashkar Gah, where militants once again cut a major highway to neighbouring Kandahar, said Omar Zwak, the spokesman of the provincial governor. Coalition advisers were recently sent back into the city to help police based there, but a U.S. military spokesman said the soldiers would have a non-combat role. (Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Taliban militants storm the city of Tarinkot, the provincial capital of Afghanistan's Urozgan Province, with fighting reported on multiple fronts throughout the city. Local officials flee to the nearby Tarinkot Airport for shelter.

An American flag that turned up in Washington state two years ago is believed to be the flag that was raised by firefighters above the site of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The Everett Police Department, with help from forensic experts, made the assessment after the flag turned up in 2014. The flag will be donated to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Still, the mystery about how the flag turned up nearly 3,000 miles away from New York. The flag disappeared from Ground Zero during the site cleanup. The police investigation began in November 2014 when a man, who identified himself as “Brian,” dropped off a flag in a plastic bag that he said was given to him by a widow of a 9/11 victim at an Everett fire station. According to Q13 Fox, the man said for some reason he thought the flag was from Ground Zero. “This flag was turned in with a story. Reported to be the iconic flag raised at Ground Zero September 2001,” Everett Deputy Police Chief Mark St. Clair told Q13 Fox. The detectives' investigation included DNA analysis, photographic comparisons and eyewitness identification. Washington State Patrol Crime Lab scientist Bill Schneck was tasked with figuring out whether the flag was from Ground Zero. “Oh my gosh! I figured it was incredibly patriotic for one thing. Just to know I’m looking at something this important,” Schneck said. He said that he began to examine the particles from the flag and compared with the dust particles captured from Ground Zero after the attack and during the cleanup. He also analyzed the original photograph. “If you look at the original photograph from 9/11 you see a certain black electric tape holding two lines together and they had the same general profile so I knew then, well, this could be it,” he added. Schneck said he analyzed his findings over and over again and is now certain that the flag was from Ground Zero. He said he was invited to the ceremonies that are set to take place Sunday to remember the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks, but he declined saying that he’s no hero and that Americans should all remember the victims, first responders and the families involved in the attacks. Everett police have asked the public to help find the man who dropped off the flag. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from Q13 Fox.[SEP]Flag firefighters raised at ground zero returns to site NEW YORK (AP) — An American flag that firefighters hoisted at ground zero in the hours after the 9/11 terror attacks returns to the World Trade Center site after disappearing for more than a decade. The 3-foot-by 5-foot flag goes on display Thursday at the Sept. 11 museum in New York. It was the centerpiece of a photo that became a defining image of patriotic perseverance. The image shows three firefighters raising the flag over the rubble. The flag was turned in two years ago by an as-yet-unidentified man at a firehouse in Everett, Washington. Painstaking tests and examinations indicated it was indeed the same Star Spangled Banner. The History Channel will air a documentary about the flag's recovery on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the attacks.[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) - An American flag that firefighters hoisted at Ground Zero in the hours after the 9/11 terror attacks returns to the World Trade Center site after disappearing for more than a decade. The 3×5-foot flag goes on display Thursday at the Sept. 11 museum in New York. It was the centerpiece of a photo that became a defining image of patriotic perseverance. The image shows three firefighters raising the flag over the rubble. The flag was turned in two years ago by an as-yet unidentified man at a firehouse in Everett, Washington. Painstaking tests and examinations indicated it was indeed the same Star Spangled Banner.[SEP]Go inside the chaos and courage of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York in "9/11: Fifteen Years Later," airing Sunday, September 11, at 8p ET (CNN) On September 11, 2001, amid the burning ashes of the World Trade Center, three New York City firefighters hoisted a small American flag removed from a nearby yacht. It was 5 p.m. on a day that would radically change the course of history. The image, captured by a former photographer from The Bergen Record, became a symbol of hope and resiliency in the face of unimaginable tragedy. But within hours of its raising, the flag disappeared from the World Trade Center site. The iconic flag is now back in New York City, 15 years after it went missing. It will be displayed near the entrance of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, built on the site of ground zero. Its reappearance is as mysterious as its disappearance. The original flag was "either misplaced, stolen or secreted away by unknown forces in the chaos of ground zero," according to Michael Tucker, who produced, wrote and directed the film with his wife, Petra Epperlein. When an official was sent to pick up the original flag a week or so after 9/11, he apparently received a larger flag which was flown at subsequent events, the film's director said. That was the flag that flew over Yankee Stadium during a 9/11 Prayer Service on September 23, and fluttered over the USS Roosevelt as the aircraft carrier sent missions over Afghanistan. A man who only identified himself as a retired Marine named "Brian" turned it over to a local fire station in November 2014. The only other information Brian gave was that he had been given the flag on Veterans Day 2007 by a man who had received it from the widow of a 9/11 firefighter, said Everett Deputy Police Chief Mark St. Clair. Brian then vanished. Among those who died on that fateful day were 343 firefighters. Everett detectives launched a search for Brian. They even released a sketch of him to the local newspaper in the hopes that he would be identified and could provide more helpful information about the flag. However, their efforts proved futile. DNA discovered on electrical tape on the flag's halyard did not match DNA from any of the three firefighters who raised the flag on 9/11, or the owners and crew of the yacht where the flag had initially flown. At the Washington State Patrol laboratory, forensic scientist William Schneck spent weeks analyzing photos, the flag's fibers and thousands of dust particles -- comparing them to a pure sample of World Trade Center dust taken from a New York City fire truck at ground zero. The composition of "pulverized building material" was a match. According to the lab report, the flag and its accompanying ropes had been exposed to the World Trade Center dust cloud in September 2001. "We wanted to be thorough and complete and be able to have the investigation stand independently," said Everett Detective Jim Massingale, a retired Army Ranger. "We knew it would be scrutinized." A retired New York Police Department officer who now works with the Everett Police Department held the flag as it was being packaged to return to New York City. "He actually grabbed onto that flag, held it up to his face and smelled it, and turned and looked at me and said, 'That's the smell that I remember from that day,'" said Detective Michael Atwood.[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) - An American flag raised at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 in a defining moment of patriotic resolve took its place at the site Thursday after disappearing for over a decade. The 3-foot-by-5-foot flag took a symbolic and curious journey from a yacht moored in lower Manhattan to the smoking wreckage of the World Trade Center, then to a firehouse about 2,400 miles away in Everett, Washington — and now to a glass case at the National Sept. 11 Museum. “In a museum that’s filled with such deeply powerful artifacts, this newest of artifacts is certainly one of the most emotionally and historically powerful,” museum President Joe Daniels said as the display was unveiled Thursday, three days before the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks. The flag’s absence, he said, “just felt like a hole in the history of this site.” The flag is the centerpiece of one of the most resonant images of American fortitude on 9/11. After plucking the flag from a nearby boat, three firefighters hoisted it amid the ashen destruction as photographer Thomas E. Franklin of The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey, captured the scene. The Pulitzer Prize-winning picture inspired a postage stamp, sculpture and other tributes. Meanwhile, the flag was signed by New York’s governor and two mayors and flown at Yankee Stadium, outside City Hall and on an aircraft carrier near Afghanistan — except it wasn’t the right flag. It was bigger, and by 2004, the yacht’s owners had publicly broached the error. By then, officials had no idea what had happened to the real flag. They were in the dark until November 2014, when a man turned up at an Everett fire station with what is now the museum’s flag, saying he’d seen a recent documentary about the mystery. The man, who gave firefighters only the name “Brian,” said he’d gotten it as a gift from an unnamed National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration worker who’d gotten it from an unidentified 9/11 widow. The detectives gathered surveillance video and circulated a police sketch, but they haven’t found the man or been able to confirm his explanation of the flag’s provenance. DNA tests of material found on electrical tape wrapped around the flag’s halyard didn’t match the firefighters or other people known to have handled the flag. But a forensic expert analyzed dust on the flag and halyard and found it consistent with Ground Zero debris. Meanwhile, the detectives scrutinized photos and videos of the flag-raising and consulted one of the yacht’s former crew members to compare the flag’s size, material, stitching, hardware and halyard. Taking all the evidence together, “we feel it’s very likely the one captured in the photo,” said Massingale, now with the Stillaguamish Police Department on the Stillaguamish Tribe’s reservation in Washington. The yacht’s owners, Shirley Dreifus and the late Spiros E. Kopelakis, were so surprised when first told the flag might have resurfaced that Kopelakis wondered whether the call was a prank, Dreifus said. She and Chubb Insurance donated the flag to the museum.[SEP]U.S. returns to 1 World Trade Center 15 years after attacks NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government on Friday marked its return to the rebuilt 1 World Trade Center, moving its New York City offices back to Lower Manhattan 15 years after the Sept. 11 attacks that had reduced the site to rubble. "Today is meant to be an uplifting day, a sign of our determination to move forward," said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson at an event on the 63rd floor. Also known as the Freedom Tower, the 104-story 1 World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere, at 1,776 feet (541 meters). Construction began in 2006 and the building opened in 2014 when media company Conde Nast, the anchor tenant, moved in. About 67 percent of its 3 million square feet is now leased. The federal government was one of the first tenants in the original World Trade Center in the 1970s, said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Director Patrick Foye. The General Services Administration had leased space at 6 World Trade Center before it was destroyed in the attacks. The government became the third tenant in the new building when the General Services Administration signed the lease on its behalf in 2012. On Sept. 11, 2001, four U.S. commercial airplanes were hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center's twin towers, as well as the Pentagon building near Washington D.C. and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people. The federal government's return to the World Trade Center sends a "message to the entire world that we will never, ever renounce our values or be afraid," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. More than 1,000 employees of the GSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had moved into the space by March, a spokeswoman said. The lease for the approximately 220,000 square feet is $15 million per year. Still, not everyone was happy about the return of government agencies to the building. In 2015, six GSA employees sued to try to block the move, saying they feared the rebuilt tower would again be a target for possible attacks. A federal judge in Manhattan threw out the case in June. In Washington on Friday, members of the U.S. House of Representatives gathered on the exterior steps to the chamber for a remembrance ceremony and sang God Bless America. Recalling "that terrible day," House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, spoke of the first responders "who went rushing into danger when the whole world was running away from it." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, told the assembly that because of the first responders' heroic efforts, "Americans rose united" from the rubble of the attacks. For one of those first responders, Michael Byrne, a former New York City firefighter who is now a senior FEMA official, the return of federal government employees to the World Trade Center site is deeply personal. At the event in Lower Manhattan, Byrne said that as he walks past the memorial to his office each morning, he bids "hello" to friends who died in the 2001 attacks and asks for their blessing. "We feel the renewed commitment in this beautiful building to continuing the mission for which our former friends gave their life," he said. (Reporting by Hilary Russ; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Bernadette Baum)[SEP]A flag rises in one of the most iconic photographs of Sept. 11, 2001. Three firefighters took it from the Star of America yacht in the Hudson River and raised it on an angled pole amidst the ruins of the World Trade Center. Within five hours, the flag was gone, but it lived on in the photograph by photojournalist Thomas Franklin, a symbol of hope and resilience following the terrorist attack. The flag resurfaced two years ago, and today is being introduced at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, three days before the 15th anniversary of the attacks. But what happened in those missing years is unknown. The first clue is a man only known as Brian. No last name, no address, no phone number. Brian arrived at a fire station in Everett, Washington on Nov. 4, 2014, according to HeraldNet. He was holding a plastic bag with a 3-foot by 5-foot U.S. flag inside and a halyard -- the rope and the brass and silver hardware used to hang the flag on a pole. Brian told the firefighters he had been watching a documentary on historical artifacts, and one segment detailed the missing ground zero flag. He said he was a Marine and was given the flag in honor of his military service on Veterans Day 2007. Before that, he said the flag was with an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who had been given the flag by a 9/11 widow. John W. Cutter, who was a member of the New York Police Department’s criminal intelligence section and retired as a deputy chief in 2004, said in a History Channel program to debut Sunday that flags used at burials typically do not include halyards. “This leads me to believe that he received the flag in some other fashion and is afraid to say how he got it,” Cutter said. Brian told the firefighters he would like the flag returned to the people of New York City. He said he didn’t want a reward or publicity. Then he left. Multiple attempts to find the man since then — including a police sketch and scouring surveillance footage — have failed. Detectives Jim Massingale and Mike Atwood took over the flag investigation, with the Everett police department keeping it secret. They quickly learned the flag originally belonged to Star of America yacht owners Shirley Dreifus and her husband, Spiros Kopelakis. Their insurance company reimbursed them, after the flag was taken by the firefighters on September 11, and subsequently lost. The detectives sent the flag in for forensics testing and found out by Christmas that the debris residue on the flag was consistent with the dust from ground zero. “We got to handle the flag several times. It was pretty powerful,” Massingale said. “It was powerful to hold it in your hands.” The flag matched in size, nylon material and stitching to the one in the September 11 photo. Certain oddities about the halyard, tape and rope in the September 11 photos matched as well. The yacht’s second mate, Monica Rosero, flew out to look at the flag and halyard in Everett. She said the black electrical tape on the rope was the work of her late husband and she was 80 percent sure it was the same flag. A former FBI agent and art fraud expert said priceless paintings are less scrutinized than the flag in Everett was, according to HeraldNet. “I feel very strongly that’s the halyard in the photograph,” Massingale told HeraldNet, saying the same about the flag. The two breathed a sigh of relief on Aug. 4 when a museum curator came to the police station to collect the flag and halyard, knowing it was headed back home to Manhattan. Shirley Dreifus told The New York Times she was saddened that her husband died two years ago and could not share the news. She said he had called it “the icon of the century.” “It’s truly amazing,” Dreifus said. “In fact, ‘stunning’ is the way I put it.” But 13 years of the flag’s life remain a mystery. “We didn’t have an agenda. We were never pressured to say it’s the flag,” Massingale said. “People will draw their own conclusions based on the investigation.”[SEP]9/11 flag believed to be lost found in Washington state EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — A U.S. flag that turned up in Washington state in 2014 is believed to be the flag that was raised by firefighters above the site of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The finding comes after a two-year investigation by the Everett Police Department, with assistance from forensic experts. The flag will be donated to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Exactly how the flag wound up in Everett, a city about 30 miles north of Seattle, is a mystery. The flag disappeared from ground zero during the site cleanup. The police investigation began in November 2014, when a man dropped off a flag at an Everett fire station. Former Everett Police Detective Jim Massingale told ( http://bit.ly/2cbtGrC ) The Daily Herald "the flag is likely the same flag."[SEP]A U.S. flag that turned up in Washington state in 2014 is believed to be the flag that was raised by firefighters above the site of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The finding comes after a two-year investigation by the Everett Police Department, with assistance from forensic experts. Former Everett Police Detective Jim Massingale, one of the investigators who worked on the case, told The Daily Herald 'the flag is likely the same flag.' It will be donated to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, and is set to be unveiled at the museum on Thursday during a ceremony in New York. Exactly how the three-foot by five-foot flag wound up in Everett, a city about 30 miles north of Seattle, is still a mystery. On September 11, 2001, the flag was captured in an iconic photo taken by photojournalist Thomas Franklin as three New York City firefighters held the banner above the rubble of where the World Trade Center twin towers once stood. The firefighters had taken the flag from the Star of America, a nearby yacht moored in the Hudson River, owned by Shirley Dreifus and her husband Spiros Kopelakis, according to The Daily Herald. Using electrical tape to bind together two lengths of rope, the firefighters raised the flag in what would later become an image of hope following the terrorist attacks. The photo was printed around the world, was turned into a stamp and won several awards including 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Breaking News Photography. But within five hours of the flag and its halyard being raised and captured in the mage by Franklin, it disappeared from ground zero during the site cleanup. At the time, no one at the scene had known it had gone missing, and another flag had surfaced that was believed to be the one from the Star of America. That flag was taken on the USS Theodore Roosevelt through a tour of the Middle East, and on April 1, 2002 was raised formally in front of New York's City Hall. However, when it was returned to the yacht's owners in the summer of 2002, Dreifus along with crew members realized it was not the original flag. The flag returned to Dreifus measured three feet by eight feet, but the one from her yacht measured three feet by five feet - and the start of the mystery began, according to Gothamist. The police investigation began in November 2014, when a man who said he was a former Marine who served in Iraq had dropped off a flag at an Everett fire station. The man, who only identified himself as Brian, handed a plastic shopping bag to firefighters, telling them he had watched an episode of Lost History on the History Channel. During the show, host Brad Meltzer had detailed the disappearance of the flag at ground zero. Brian claimed he had the flag and halyard, which he said was given to him by an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He said the employee had received the flag from the widow of a 9/11 victim, according to the Daily Herald. Brian said he was given the flag from the employee in honor of his military service on Veterans Day in 2007, and hoped the flag would be returned to New York. However, with the flag still having some of its equipment and rope attached to it, a detective told the History Channel he had doubts the flag had originally come from the widow of a 9/11 victim, according to Gothamist. In the meantime, the flag was stored in a separate evidence room with stricter protocols and was kept secret by Everett police while forensics experts tested it for its authenticity. Over a two-year period, the detectives' investigation included DNA analysis, photographic comparisons and eyewitness identification. Among tests for authenticity included a chemical analysis of trace evidence from the flag and halyard. The New York City fire also department provided DNA from the three firefighters who raised the flag, but DNA found on the flag did not match those snapped in the photo. Investigators had also made an attempt to compare the DNA of others who might have handled the flag, including Monica Rosero who worked on the yacht. Rosero and Dreifus also sent personal items that belonged to their late husbands for testing, but nothing definite came back. Rosero, who was flown to Everett by The History Channel, said she was 80 per cent sure the flag was from the yacht, noting she was more certain about the halyard. Detectives also studied hundreds of photos of the flag for any similarities between it and the flag in Everett. Investigators also tried to locate Brian, releasing a sketch of him in the hopes of finding him. It has finally been determined after two years that there is enough evidence from the witness reports to trace evidence that proved the flag was the one from the yacht. 'I feel very strongly that's the halyard in the photograph,' Massingale told The Daily Herald, with his former partner Everett Police detectives Mike Atwood adding 'I'm even more confident.' 'It all just lines up,' Deputy Police Chief Mark St Clair said. The flag was donated to the the National September 11 Memorial & Museum by Dreifus, the surviving owner of the Spirit of America.[SEP]Clinton to visit ground zero on 9/11 anniversary NEW YORK (AP) — Hillary Clinton's campaign said Friday she now plans to visit ground zero to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks. Clinton will arrive at the memorial Sunday morning before the annual moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., marking the moment that the first plane struck the skyscraper's north tower, her spokeswoman Julie Wood told The Associated Press on Friday. Clinton, who was a senator from New York when the attacks took place in 2001, had not previously indicated that she would visit the memorial for its annual commemoration. But her campaign notified officials at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum late Thursday that she would like to attend the morning's events, according to a person briefed on the decision but not authorized to speak publicly before her visit was officially announced. The former Secretary of State is not expected to make any public remarks. Her Republican rival, New York native Donald Trump, is not slated to attend. A spokeswoman for Trump declined to discuss the celebrity businessman's schedule for the day. Both campaigns have confirmed they intend to halt television ads for the anniversary, keeping with a tradition of avoiding partisan presidential politics on 9/11. A spokesman for the September 11 memorial told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the museum had not heard from either candidate that they planned to attend but indicated that a last-minute change would be welcome. Clinton's decision to mark the anniversary at the World Trade Center site has a precedent: in 2008, the last time an incumbent wasn't running for the White House, Barack Obama and John McCain set aside their political differences to make a joint appearance at the site in New York. Trump and Clinton are the first New Yorkers to become their parties' nominees for president since nearly 3,000 people died in the Sept. 11 attacks. Both candidates have made their experiences that day part of their campaign narratives. Clinton has frequently highlighted her efforts — including in a campaign ad released Friday — to aid those affected by the World Trade Center collapse. She made frequent trips to the attack site and her staff has highlighted her efforts to help secure medical benefits for first responders sickened at ground zero. Trump, meanwhile, has said he donated construction equipment to the recovery effort and gave $100,000 to the memorial after touring it for the first time earlier this year. But he also received widespread criticism for claiming that "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated when the towers toppled, a claim for which there is no proof. The lower Manhattan memorial — now a peaceful open space flanked by soaring new skyscrapers — has hosted President Barack Obama and other elected officials at previous commemorations but in recent years, including Sunday, the speakers at the event will largely be family members of the deceased. What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz

The Police Department of Everett, Washington, identifies and returns the American flag from the September 11 attacks to Ground Zero, the World Trade Center site in New York City.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The ANC ordered the cars, believing it would be re-elected A new mayor in South Africa says he will give away a fleet of new luxury cars ordered by his predecessors. Solly Msimanga, from the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), said the vehicles would instead be given to a police anti-hijack unit. However, he will continue to use the luxury car used by the previous mayor. The DA took control of Tshwane, a metropolitan area including the capital Pretoria, from the African National Congress (ANC) in local elections. Mr Msimanga said no more luxury cars would be bought under his leadership. He took over from the governing ANC, which lost control of the capital for the first time since 1994, last month. More on this and other African stories Four things from South Africa election The ANC bought 10 new BMW 3 series vehicles, which are yet to be delivered, for 5 million rand ($356,000; £266,000), local reports say. The cars were meant for members of the mayoral council, with the ANC said to be confident it would retain control of the municipality in the elections. Image copyright EPA Image caption Solly Msimanga won elections in August He will still use a BMW 5 series car he inherited from the previous mayor, reports the IOL website. Mr Msimanga's spokesman Matthew Gerstner told the BBC that this vehicle could not "be dispensed with because it's been bought and paid for already and treasury regulations prohibit that". He added: "But, as soon as he can replace it, he will, with a sensible, low-cost vehicle". Mr Msimango says the DA-led coalition government wanted to embark on cost-cutting measures. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The ruling African National Congress has got the lowest share of the vote since 1994 He said in a statement: "No new luxury cars will be bought or leased for politicians‚ and if vehicles currently owned by Tshwane require replacement‚ sensible and low-cost vehicles will be procured. "I will not allow public money to be spent on luxury cars‚ while our people struggle for services‚ houses and jobs. "A Hyundai i20 or Toyota Corolla can do the same job for a politician as an expensive sedan." The ANC national government has been criticised for wasteful expenditure, so South Africans will be closely watching what the opposition do differently in the key urban areas they won in the August elections, says the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg. South Africans will be keen to see if the opposition, which has until now only run one province, will be able to make good on its ambitious election promises, our correspondent says.[SEP]Thinking it would retain Tshwane, the African National Congress-led administration bought 10 new BMW 3 series vehicles for members of the mayoral council, with an estimated value of over R5 million. NATIONAL NEWS - Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga has rejected ten luxury vehicles, which were bought by his predecessors for politicians and senior officials in his municipality.The newly elected Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor has also banned the purchase or leasing of luxury vehicles.He has uncovered the fact that public money had been used by previous leaders of the municipality to buy luxury BMW vehicles for politicians.[SEP]Limpopo Democratic Alliance leader Jacques Smalle says this is unacceptable. NATIONAL NEWS - Questions are being asked after the Greater Tzaneen Municipality purchased vehicles worth R1.6 million for the new mayor and speaker, despite owing creditors more than R20 million.A court order has also been issued to attach the municipality’s assets.This comes a day after Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga announced that his municipality would not spend any more money on luxury cars, and employees would have join other citizens in driving similar cars.[SEP]It’s still early days, but new City of Tshwane executive mayor Solly Msimanga appears to be pressing the right buttons – getting to the bottom of what’s ailing the capital city. Endemic corruption, nepotism, mismanagement and wasteful expenditure are problems that have seen several municipalities crumbling to the point of being unable to deliver basic services to residents. Last week, Msimanga announced he had uncovered massive graft in Tshwane and had been given forensic reports about corruption that were “suppressed” for a long time. This week, Msimanga announced that Tshwane officials would no longer be allowed to purchase or lease luxury cars. This was part of cost-cutting measures implemented by the executive mayor since taking office last month. “I will not allow public money to be spent on luxury cars while our people struggle for services‚ houses and jobs. No more luxury cars will be bought or leased under my government. A Hyundai i20 or Toyota Corolla can do the same job for a politician as an expensive sedan‚” Msimanga said. Shortly after taking office, he revealed plans to ban blue-light convoys for politicians and city officials‚ including himself. “Tshwane officials will now travel alongside ordinary citizens. They will wait in traffic and will stop at red lights‚” he said in his inaugural address last month. Last week‚ Msimanga announced two immediate changes to cut costs: putting a stop to all inaugural parties and inaugural events with catering for Tshwane’s new executive and ending celebratory dinners and lunches that only benefit politicians. The mayor appears to be a breath of fresh air in the capital city council which was previously run by an administration with a penchant for reckless spending from the public purse. A clear example is the failed smart electricity meters deal. A few weeks ago, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria prevented the Tshwane metro from making a nearly R1-billion payment to the company responsible for rolling out the project in the city. We hope Msimanga’s bold plans are not just a publicity stunt driven by political point scoring. He must now walk the talk and ensure he and his team put Tshwane on a road to recovery that benefits all its residents.[SEP]The car will be funded from money left over from the service delivery projects in Emalahleni Local Municipality, Mpumalanga, and in defence of the purchase, municipal spokesperson Lebo Mofokeng said all processes had been followed. According to The Sowetan, Mofokeng explained Mayor Lindiwe Ntshalintshali was currently driving a Toyota Lexus with a mileage of 124 813 kilometres, and an extended motor plan had been purchased at a cost of R43 000. ALSO READ: ‘New ANC mayor spoils himself with flashy Merc’ “Council approved the replacement of the official vehicle of the executive mayor following supply-chain processes. The R1.5 million was rolled over from the previous year’s budget. These were savings realised from the completed projects,” Mofokeng said. The DA has opposed the move, with its Emalahleni leader Nerita Naidu saying it was morally wrong to buy the car with funds meant for service delivery. SA Local Government Association provincial spokesperson Nokwanda Ndashe said it was a requirement by law for new vehicles to be procured for mayors. Meanwhile, Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga has put an end to purchases of luxury vehicles for politicians and senior officials. “No new luxury cars will be bought or leased for politicians, and if vehicles currently owned by Tshwane require replacement, sensible and low-cost vehicles will be procured,” Msimanga said in a statement. “I will not allow public money to be spent on luxury cars while our people struggle for services, houses and jobs. “No more luxury cars will be bought or leased under my government. A Hyundai i20 or Toyota Corolla can do the same job for a politician as an expensive sedan,” he fired.

Solly Msimanga, newly elected Democratic Alliance mayor of Tshwane, South Africa, rejects a fleet of luxury cars for himself and instead donates it to the city's police.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wells Fargo has long been the envy of the banking industry for its ability to sell multiple products to the same customer, but regulators on Thursday said those practices went too far in some instances. The largest U.S. bank by market capitalization will pay $185 million in penalties and $5 million to customers that regulators say were pushed into fee-generating accounts they never requested. “We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request,” the bank said of a settlement reached Thursday with California prosecutors and federal regulators. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will receive $100 million of the total penalties - the largest fine ever levied by the federal agency. “Today’s action should serve notice to the entire industry that financial incentive programs, if not monitored carefully, carry serious risks that can have serious legal consequences,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. Los Angeles officials and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were also party to the settlement. In a complaint filed in May 2015, California prosecutors alleged that Wells Fargo pushed customers into costly financial products that they did not need or even request. Bank employees were told that the average customer tapped six financial tools but that they should push households to use eight products, according to the complaint. The bank opened more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized, the CFPB said Thursday. Wells Fargo spokeswoman Mary Eshet said the bank fired 5,300 employees over “inappropriate sales conduct.” The firings took place over a five-year period, Eshet said, adding that the bank has 100,000 employees in its branches. Wells Fargo regularly releases numbers about how many products it sells to customers, a practice it calls “cross-sell.” Its wealth and investment management unit, for example, sold 10.55 products per retail banking household in November 2015, up from 10.49 a year earlier, according to the bank’s annual 10-K financial filing. A Wells Fargo branch is seen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, February 10, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young In the second quarter, however, the bank changed how it tallies up some of those numbers and said it was considering more changes. Piper Jaffray analyst Kevin Barker said he does not think the crackdown on Wells Fargo will have much of an impact on others in the industry. “I think this is unique to Wells Fargo and their particular situation and how hard they push on cross-sell,” he said.[SEP](Reuters) - Wells Fargo will pay $185 million in penalties and $5 million to customers that regulators say were pushed into fee-generating accounts that they never requested, officials said on Thursday. "Wells Fargo reached these agreements consistent with our commitment to customers and in the interest of putting this matter behind us," the bank said of its settlement with California prosecutors and federal regulators. "We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request," it added. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will receive $100 million of the total penalties - the largest fine ever levied by the agency, which was conceived after the 2008 financial crisis. "Today's action should serve notice to the entire industry that financial incentive programs, if not monitored carefully, carry serious risks that can have serious legal consequences," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. Los Angeles officials and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were also party to the settlement. In a complaint filed in May 2015, California prosecutors alleged that Wells Fargo pushed customers into costly financial products that they did not need or even request. According to that complaint, Wells Fargo employees pushed checking account customers into savings, credit and online accounts that could generate fees. Bank employees were told that the average customer tapped six financial tools but that they should push households to use eight products, according to the complaint. The bank opened more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized, according to the CFPB. The bank said that the deal this week settles the "allegations that some of its retail customers received products and services that they did not request." In recent financial filings, Wells Fargo has changed how it describes and calculates "cross-sell" - a term for bundling multiple products to retail, wealth management and corporate customers. The bank added new language to its last annual report, stating that its "approach to cross-sell is needs-based as some customers will benefit from more products, and some may need fewer."[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) — Regulators are fining Wells Fargo $185 million for illegally opening millions of unauthorized accounts for their customers in order to meet aggressive sales goals. The San Francisco-based bank will pay $100 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency created five years ago; $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and $50 million to the City and County of Los Angeles. It will also pay restitution to affected customers. The CFPB says Wells Fargo sales staff opened more than 2 million bank and credit card accounts that may have not been authorized by customers. In a statement, Wells Fargo said: "We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request."[SEP]Everyone hates paying bank fees. But imagine paying fees on a ghost account you didn't even sign up for. That's exactly what happened to Wells Fargo customers nationwide. On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts -- without their customers knowing it -- since 2011. The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money. "Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses," Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement. Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees over the last few years related to the shady behavior. Employees went to far as to create phony PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll customers in online banking services, the CFPB said. Related: Who owns Wells Fargo? You, me and Warren Buffett The scope of the scandal is shocking. An analysis conducted by a consulting firm hired by Wells Fargo concluded that bank employees opened up over 1.5 million deposit accounts that may not have been authorized, according to the CFPB. The way it worked was that employees moved funds from customers' existing accounts into newly-created accounts without their knowledge or consent, regulators say. The CFPB described this practice as "widespread" and led to customers being charged for insufficient funds or overdraft fees -- because the money was not in their original accounts. Additionally, Wells Fargo employees also submitted applications for 565,443 credit card accounts without their knowledge or consent, the CFPB said the analysis found. Roughly 14,000 of those accounts incurred over $400,000 in fees, including annual fees, interest charges and overdraft-protection fees. The CFPB said Wells Fargo will pay "full restitutions to all victims." Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers. "We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request," Wells Fargo said in a statement. Wells Fargo is the most valuable bank in America, worth just north of $250 billion. Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), the investment firm run legendary investor Warren Buffett, is the company's biggest shareholder. The $100 million fine will go toward the CFPB's Civil Penalty Fund, a $35 million penalty will go to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and another $50 million will be paid to the City and County of Los Angeles. "One wonders whether (the CFPB) penalty of $100 million is enough," said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor and former director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "It sounds like a big number, but for a bank the size of Wells Fargo, it isn't really." Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that the 5,300 firings took place over several years. The bank listed 265,000 employees as of the end of 2015. Related: Barclays fined $109 million for trying to hide a deal with rich clients "At Wells Fargo, when we make mistakes, we are open about it, we take responsibility, and we take action," the bank said in a memo to employees on Thursday. The CFPB declined to comment on when the investigation began and what sparked it, citing agency policy. "We don't comment on how we uncover these matters," a spokesman said. As part of the settlement, Wells Fargo needs to make changes to its sales practices and internal oversight. "Consumers must be able to trust their banks. They should never be taken advantage of," said Mike Feuer, the Los Angeles City Attorney who joined the settlement. Feuer's office sued Wells Fargo in May 2015 over allegations of unauthorized accounts. After filing the suit, his office received more than 1,000 calls and emails from customers as well as current and former Wells Fargo employees about the allegations. Wells Fargo declined to say when it hired a consulting firm to investigate the allegations. However, a person familiar with the matter told CNNMoney the bank launched the review after the L.A. lawsuit was filed. Even though the Wells Fargo scandal took place nationally, the settlement with L.A. requires the bank to alert all its California customers to review their accounts and shut down ones they don't recognize or want. "How does a bank that is supposed to have robust internal controls permit the creation of over a half-million dummy accounts?" asked Vladeck. "If I were a Wells Fargo customer, and fortunately I am not, I'd think seriously about finding a new bank." Brian Kennedy, a Maryland retiree, told CNNMoney he detected that an unauthorized Wells Fargo savings account had been created in his name about a year ago. He asked Wells Fargo about it and the bank closed it, he said. "I didn't sign up for any bloody checking account," Kennedy, who is 57 years old, told CNNMoney. "They lost me as a banking customer and I have warned family and friends." --To reach the author of this article email Matt.Egan@cnn.com[SEP]Retail and commercial banking giant Wells Fargo will pay more than $185 million in fines after US regulators accused the bank of secretly opening accounts without customers' knowledge, officials said Thursday. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said employees at Wells Fargo, the world's largest bank by market value, had illegally boosted sales figures by opening unauthorized deposit and credit accounts and then covertly funding them with customers' money, sometimes creating phony email addresses to enroll them. This resulted in fees and other charges for customers and improperly helped bank employees meet sales targets and receive bonuses, according to the CFPB. Wells Fargo will pay $100 million to the CFPB, the largest fine to date imposed by the bureau, which was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The San Francisco-based bank will pay $50 million to the City of Los Angeles, which had filed suit last year, accusing the bank of pressuring employees into fraudulent behavior, such as opening fictitious accounts. The bank will also pay a $35 million fine to banking regulators at the Treasury Department in addition to fully compensating all customers concerned, the CFPB said in a statement. “Today's action should serve notice to the entire industry that financial incentive programs, if not monitored carefully, carry serious risks that can have serious legal consequences," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement.[SEP]Everyone hates paying bank fees. But imagine paying fees on a ghost account you didn't even sign up for. That's exactly what happened to Wells Fargo customers nationwide. On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts -- without their customers knowing it -- since 2011. The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money. "Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses," Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement. Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees over the last few years related to the shady behavior. Employees went to far as to create phony PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll customers in online banking services, the CFPB said. Related: ATM and overdraft fees top $6 billion at the big 3 banks The scope of the scandal is shocking. An analysis conducted by a consulting firm hired by Wells Fargo concluded that bank employees opened up over 1.5 million deposit accounts that may not have been authorized, according to the CFPB. The way it worked was that employees moved funds from customers' existing accounts into newly-created accounts without their knowledge or consent, regulators say. The CFPB described this practice as "widespread" and led to customers being charged for insufficient funds or overdraft fees -- because the money was not in their original accounts. Additionally, Wells Fargo employees also submitted applications for 565,443 credit card accounts without their knowledge or consent, the CFPB said the analysis found. Roughly 14,000 of those accounts incurred over $400,000 in fees, including annual fees, interest charges and overdraft-protection fees. The CFPB said Wells Fargo will pay "full restitutions to all victims." Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers. "We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request," Wells Fargo said in a statement. Wells Fargo is the most valuable bank in America, worth just north of $250 billion. Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), the investment firm run legendary investor Warren Buffett, is the company's biggest shareholder. "One wonders whether a penalty of $100 million is enough," said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor and former director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "It sounds like a big number, but for a bank the size of Wells Fargo, it isn't really." The CFPB declined to explain how it came up with the $100 million penalty figure. Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that the 5,300 firings took place over several years. The bank listed 265,000 employees as of the end of 2015. "At Wells Fargo, when we make mistakes, we are open about it, we take responsibility, and we take action," the bank said in a memo to employees on Thursday. It's not clear when Wells Fargo hired a consulting firm to investigate the allegations, nor what triggered the response. Wells Fargo did not respond to a request for comment on this. The CFPB declined to comment on when the investigation began and what sparked it, citing agency policy. "We don't comment on how we uncover these matters," a spokesman said. As part of the settlement, Wells Fargo needs to make changes to its sales practices and internal oversight. "Consumers must be able to trust their banks. They should never be taken advantage of," said Mike Feuer, the Los Angeles City Attorney who joined the settlement. Feuer's office sued Wells Fargo in May 2015 over allegations of unauthorized accounts. After filing the suit, his office received more than 1,000 calls and emails from customers as well as current and former Wells Fargo employees about the allegations. Even though the Wells Fargo scandal took place nationally, the settlement with L.A. requires the bank to alert all its California customers to review their accounts and shut down ones they don't recognize or want. "How does a bank that is supposed to have robust internal controls permit the creation of over a half-million dummy accounts?" asked Vladeck. "If I were a Wells Fargo customer, and fortunately I am not, I'd think seriously about finding a new bank." --To reach the author of this article email Matt.Egan@cnn.com[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) — California and federal regulators fined Wells Fargo a combined $185 million on Thursday, alleging the bank’s employees illegally opened millions of unauthorized accounts for their customers in order to meet aggressive sales goals. The San Francisco-based bank will pay $100 million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency created five years ago; $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and $50 million to the City and County of Los Angeles. It will also pay restitution to affected customers. It is the largest fine the CFPB has levied against a financial institution and the largest fine in the history of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office. The CFPB said Wells Fargo sales staff opened more than 2 million bank and credit card accounts that may have not been authorized by customers. Money in customers’ accounts were transferred to these new accounts without authorization. Debit cards were issued and activated, as well as PINs created, without telling customers. In some cases, Wells Fargo employees even created fake email addresses to sign up customers for online banking services. “Wells Fargo built an incentive-compensation program that made it possible for its employees to pursue underhanded sales practices, and it appears that the bank did not monitor the program carefully,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. The behavior was widespread, the CFPB and other regulators said, involving thousands of Wells Fargo employees. “Consumers must be able to trust their banks,” Feuer said. Wells Fargo’s aggressive sales tactics were first disclosed by The Los Angeles Times in an investigation in 2013 . The story series prompted the Los Angeles City Attorney office to sue Wells Fargo over its tactics. Roughly 5,300 employees at Wells Fargo were fired in connection with this behavior, according to Los Angeles City Attorney’s office. In a statement, Wells Fargo said: “We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request.” Wells Fargo said they’ve refunded $2.6 million in fees associated with any product that was opened without authorization. Despite the LA Times investigation, Wells Fargo is still known for having aggressive sales goals for its employees. Wells Fargo’s executives highlight every quarter the bank’s so-called “cross sale ratio,” which is the number of products the bank sales to each of their individual customers. The ratio hovers around six, which means every customer of Wells Fargo has on average six different types of products with the bank. Ken Sweet covers banking and consumer financial issues for The Associated Press. Follow him on Twitter at @kensweet.[SEP]Wells Fargo & Co. will pay $185 million to resolve claims that bank employees opened deposit and credit-card accounts without customers’ approval to satisfy sales goals and earn financial rewards, U.S. regulators said. The lender opened more than 2 million accounts that consumers may not have known about, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a statement Thursday. Wells Fargo, which fired 5,300 employees over the improper sales practices, agreed to pay a record $100 million fine to the CFPB, $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and $50 million to the Los Angeles city attorney to settle the matter. The San Francisco-based bank also will compensate customers who incurred fees or charges, the agencies said. “Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in his agency’s statement. “Because of the severity of these violations, Wells Fargo is paying the largest penalty the CFPB has ever imposed.” The bank agreed to resolve the allegations without admitting or denying the agencies’ accusations, and said in a statement that it had set aside $5 million for customer remediation. “We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request,” Wells Fargo said in its statement. The thousands of employees terminated by Wells Fargo included managers and were dismissed over five years, said Mary Eshet, a bank spokeswoman. “On an annual basis, more than 100,000 team members worked in our stores,” she said. “While we regret every interaction that was not handled properly, the number of instances and team members involved represent a very small portion of our business.” “Each quarter we consider all available relevant and appropriate facts and circumstances in determining whether a litigation matter is material and disclosed in our public filings,” Eshet said. “Based upon that review, we determined that the matter was not material.” Thousands of employees at Wells Fargo were involved in opening accounts and moving funds that resulted in customers getting charged fees for services they didn’t seek, according to the regulators. Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer sued Wells Fargo last year and accused the bank of high-pressure quotas for workers that encouraged them to skirt the rules. “When I worked at Wells Fargo, I faced the threat of being fired if I didn’t meet their unreasonable sales quotes every day, and it’s high time that Wells Fargo pays for preying on consumers’ financial livelihoods,” Khalid Taha, a former employee, said in a statement. Wells Fargo shares rose 13 cents to $49.90 in New York trading Thursday. The stock has dropped 8.2 percent this year, the third-worst performance in the 24-company KBW Bank Index.[SEP]More than 5,000 Wells Fargo employees have been fired as a result of a scandal involving phony bank accounts. But do the CEO or other senior executives need to be let go too? Wells Fargo is paying $185 million in fines after the Los Angeles City Attorney and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that Wells Fargo employees had secretly set up new fake bank and credit card accounts in order to meet sales targets. In some cases, Wells Fargo customers were hit with overdraft fees and other charges because their money had been unknowingly moved from their regular account to a fake one. The CFPB said Thursday that the practice was "widespread." But how "widespread" remains to be seen. During the past decade, only a few top executives at many U.S. and European banks have lost their jobs due to numerous scandals going back to the financial crisis. Several big banks inflated the value of mortgage-backed securities on their books. And some major banks coordinated to manipulate the Libor lending rate and foreign exchange rates, for example. But the Wells Fargo (WFC) scandal impacts thousands of average people a lot more directly than these instances of fraud. Imagine having to pay a fee because someone took your money and moved it somewhere else! The outrage is justifiable. So it's fair to wonder why some of Wells Fargo's highest-paid employees are not taking more responsibility and why no one is taking the fall. CEO John Stumpf made $19.3 million in compensation in 2015. That makes him one of the top-paid bankers in the United States as he has been for years, along with these others: JPMorgan Chase (JPM)'s Jamie Dimon, Bank of America (BAC)'s Brian Moynihan and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs (GS). Stumpf, and his predecessor Dick Kovacevich, are well-known in banking circles for leading the bank's efforts to cross-sell, or get customers to sign up for more and more accounts, with Wells Fargo. Both often won banker of the year awards from various industry organizations because of their cross-selling prowess. The stock has outperformed nearly all of its big bank rivals over the past five and 10 years as well. Wells Fargo's financial success is a big reason why many investors, including the legendary Warren Buffett, love the bank. His Berkshire Hathaway firm owns nearly 480 million shares of Wells Fargo, a 9.5% stake. That makes Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) the largest owner of Wells Fargo. And Wells Fargo is Berkshire Hathaway's second largest holding overall, trailing only Kraft Heinz (KHC). Berkshire Hathaway and Buffett were not immediately available for comment about the Wells Fargo scandal and whether or not high-level management changes are needed. Related: Who owns Wells Fargo? You, me and Warren Buffett But Buffett's right hand man, Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger told me in an interview at the company's 2015 annual shareholder meeting, that "Wells Fargo behaves better than the average big bank." He added that "nobody's perfect" though. Stumpf isn't the only one at Wells Fargo that is making a lot of money though. COO Timothy Sloan took home $11 million in compensation in 2015. CFO John Shrewsbury received $9.05 million. As did David Carroll, the senior executive vice president in charge of Wealth and Investment Management. In an SEC filing, Wells Fargo justified Carroll's pay package by saying that under Carroll's leadership, his division "achieved a number of important strategic objectives, including ... growth in loan balances and deposits." A spokesperson for Wells Fargo said in an e-mailed statement that "both managers and team members were affected by the disciplinary actions and terminations." Related: Who owns Wells Fargo anyway, You, me, and Warren Buffett The spokesperson added that the firings took place between January 2011 and March of this year and that it only affected about 1% of its workforce over that timeframe. "While we regret every interaction that was not handled properly, the number of instances and team members involved represent a very small portion of our business," the spokesperson said. But a lawsuit filed by the state of California against Wells Fargo in May, 2015 sheds some more light on the bank's cross-selling efforts and alleged misconduct. According to the suit, Wells Fargo imposes "unrealistic sales quotes on its employees." The suit claims that employees engaged in "unlawful and fraudulent conduct, including opening customer accounts and issuing credit cards without authorization" and that the bank "has known about and encouraged these practices for years." "The result is that Wells Fargo has engineered a virtual fee-generating machine, through which its customers are harmed, its employees take the blame, and Wells Fargo reaps the profits," according to the lawsuit. Wells Fargo boasts that its customers have an average of six financial products or accounts with the bank. It "seeks to increase this to an average of eight" financial products per account holder. It's a company goal "Wells Fargo calls the 'Gr-eight' initiative." But there's nothing Great about the attention Wells Fargo is now getting though. --CNNMoney's Matt Egan and Pallavi Gogoi contributed to this report.[SEP]Wells Fargo, the largest U.S. bank by market cap, will pay $185 million in fines and penalties plus restitution to customers, according to a statement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Los Angeles prosecutor's office were also parties to the settlement. In a complaint filed in May 2015, California prosecutors alleged that Wells Fargo for years pushed customers into costly financial products that they did not need or even request. The bank opened more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized, according to the CFPB.

International banking company Wells Fargo agrees to pay $190 million, including $100 million to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (largest ever for the agency), to settle a case involving deceptive sales that pushed customers into fee-generating accounts they never requested. The bank fired 5,300 employees over "inappropriate sales conduct." The firings took place over a five-year period.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption First look at a Great Plague skeleton DNA testing has for the first time confirmed the identity of the bacteria behind London's Great Plague. The plague of 1665-1666 was the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Britain, killing nearly a quarter of London's population. It's taken a year to confirm initial findings from a suspected Great Plague burial pit during excavation work on the Crossrail site at Liverpool Street. About 3,500 burials have been uncovered during excavation of the site. Testing in Germany confirmed the presence of DNA from the Yersinia pestis bacterium - the agent that causes bubonic plague - rather than another pathogen. Some authors have previously questioned the identity of microbes behind historical outbreaks attributed to plague. Daniel Defoe's 18th century account of the catastrophic event in A Journal of the Plague Year described the gruesome fate of Londoners. "The plague, as I suppose all distempers do, operated in a different manner on differing constitutions; some were immediately overwhelmed with it, and it came to violent fevers, vomitings, insufferable headaches, pains in the back, and so up to ravings and ragings with those pains," Defoe wrote. Image copyright Hulton Archive Image caption The Great Plague killed about a quarter of the capital's population "Others with swellings and tumours in the neck or groin, or armpits, which till they could be broke put them into insufferable agonies and torment; while others, as I have observed, were silently infected." Evidence of the pathogen had eluded archaeologists but seemed tantalisingly close when a suspected mass grave was discovered last year during a Crossrail dig at the Bedlam burial ground, also known as the New Churchyard, in East London. Alison Telfer from Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) showed me around the area planned for one of the downward escalators going into the future Broadgate ticket hall at Liverpool Street. "We've found about three-and-a-half thousand burials on this site," she told the BBC's Today programme. "We've been working here for the last five-and-half-years on and off and we're hoping we'll be able to get positive identification of the plague on a number of the individuals. Image copyright Crossrail Image caption More than 3,500 burials have been uncovered at the site "Because of the position of the skeletons, they'd obviously been laid in coffins & put in very respectfully, nobody was thrown in anywhere in presumably what must have been quite a traumatic event." This revelation is somewhat at odds with Daniel Defoe's version of events: "Tis certain they died by heaps and were buried by heaps; that is to say, without account." Panic and disorder only came towards the end of The Great Plague. Vanessa Harding, professor of London history at Birkbeck, University of London, describes the experience of Londoners at the time. "Not many people who actually get it survive but some do. And it seems to be quite easily transferred from person to person even if we're not sure currently about the agency or way in which this actually happens," Prof Harding said. Image copyright Hulton Archive Image caption Daniel Defoe wrote that plague victims "died by heaps and were buried by heaps" "But there are also what we might consider public health measures which from their point of view include killing cats and dogs, getting rid of beggars in the streets, trying to cleanse the city in both moral and practical terms. The people who do best are those who get out of London." The search for the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes plague, in a selection of skeletons from the dig continued last year in the osteology department at Mola where all the Liverpool Street finds were stored and examined by Michael Henderson. "They're carefully boxed, individual elements, legs separately, arms separately, the skulls and the torsos," he explained. "We excavated in the region of three and a half thousand skeletons, one of the largest archaeologically excavated to this date. A vast data set that can give us really meaningful information." Image copyright Crossrail Image caption DNA from the London remains was analysed at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany The bones are laid out in anatomical order. Teeth are removed and sent for ancient DNA analysis at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. "The best thing to sample for DNA is the teeth; they're like an isolated time capsule," said Mr Henderson. In Germany, molecular palaeopathologist Kirsten Bos drilled out the tooth pulp to painstakingly search for the 17th century bacteria, finally obtaining positive results from five of the 20 individuals tested from the burial pit. "We could clearly find preserved DNA signatures in the DNA extract we made from the pulp chamber and from that we were able to determine that Yersinia pestis was circulating in that individual at the time of death," she said. "We don't know why the Great Plague of London was the last major outbreak of plague in the UK and whether there were genetic differences in the past, those strains that were circulating in Europe to those circulating today; these are all things we're trying to address by assembling more genetic information from ancient organisms." Image copyright Crossrail Image caption A nearby gravestone marks the passing of Mary Godfree, a plague victim Bos and her team will now continue to sequence the full DNA genome to better understand the evolution and spread of the disease. There was nothing to identify those found in the mass grave under the Crossrail development but located a short distance away a headstone was found inscribed with the name Mary Godfree who fell victim to the plague. Her interment is recorded in the burial register of St Giles, Cripplegate, on 2 September 1665. To reassure anyone worried whether plague bacterium was released from the excavation work or scientific analysis, it doesn't survive in the ground.[SEP]It wiped out nearly a quarter of London's population and was one of the triggers for the scientific renaissance that swept England in the 17th Century. Now the bacteria that caused the Great Plague of London between 1665 and 1666 has been definitively identified as the bug that causes bubonic plague - Yersinia pestis. Archaeologists used DNA testing on skeletons found in a mass grave in a churchyard uncovered during the construction of the new Crossrail Elizabeth that will run through the city's Liverpool Street Station. Around 42 bodies were discovered in the pit, where they had been stacked up to eight deep and once would have been in coffins and wrapped in shrouds. It is thought the pit may have contained up to 100 individuals although some of the pit had been disturbed by building work during the 19th and 20th Century. Scientists took samples from the teeth 20 of the skeletons to search for traces of the plague pathogen. They found five appear to have been exposed to it before they died and the researchers believe this is most likely to be the cause of death. Scientists now hope to sequence the whole genome of the plague bacteria in the hope of comparing it to those responsible for the Black Death epidemic in 1348. The research could help provide new insights into the evolution of the disease as it spread around Europe over several centuries. Professor Vanessa Harding, an expert in London history at Birkbeck, University of London, said: 'This is a very exciting finding, for the history of London, the history of disease, and the history of burial. 'It confirms that Yersinia pestis was present in early modern London plague epidemics, and links them epidemiologically with the 14th-Century Black Death and the 1720 Marseille plague. 'We still need, however, to understand why the disease manifested itself in so many different ways, and whether other pathogens made a significant contribution to these epidemics.' While Yersinia pestis has long been suspected as the cause of the Great Plague in the 17th Century, the new findings are the first to confirm it definitively. It was the last major bubonic plague epidemic to have hit Britain and killed around 100,000 people in London. The total death toll is likely to have been far higher, however, as many town and cities around England were hit far worse than London. An account by Thomas Vincent in God's Terrible Voice in the City by Plague and Fire, describes London in August 1665. He said: 'Now the cloud is very black, and the storm comes down upon us very sharp. 'Now Death rides triumphantly upon his pale Horse through our streets, and breaks into every house almost, where any inhabitants are to be found. 'Now people fall as thick as leaves from the Trees in Autumn, when they are shaken by a mighty wind. 'Now there is a dismal solitude in London-streets…Now we could hardly go forth, but we should meet with many Coffins, and see many with sores, and limping in the streets.' Burial registers show there was a dramatic increase in burials at the New Churchyard, also called the Bedlam burial ground, in Liverpool Street in 1665. Last year archaeologists unearthed a 7.5 feet wide pit at the site filled with bodies. Samples were taken from the teeth of some of those found there because the enamel of teeth helps to protect DNA after death. This means they can serve as time capsules, preserving genetic information that was circulating in an individual's blood stream at the time of death. The DNA was sent to experts at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. In 2014 skeletons excavated during the construction of another part of the Elizabeth line at Farringdon were found to contain traces of DNA from Yersnia pestis. These individuals are though to have died in Europe's first major plague epidemic in 1348. Researchers hope that further analysis of the new DNA may be able to answer questions about the relationship between the 17th Century Great Plague and the 14th Century Black Death. They say it could also help to reveal whether these plague outbreaks, and other smaller ones around the same time, were part of a single wave or several as a result of trade from Asia. Previous work on victims in Germany, Spain and Russia has suggested the Black Death and the Great Plague was caused by a single strain of bacterium. Professor Harding added: 'The excavation also underlines the strength of custom and order in time of crisis, showing that plague burial, even in mass graves, could be controlled and orderly, with bodies in coffins laid neatly on each other – not quite the shambolic 'plague pit' of popular discourse.' Among the other items found at the site of the mass grave were a headstone, reused in a wall later, which belonged to a plague victim named Mary Godfrey, who died in 1665. The mass grave is one of around 3,300 burials that have been uncovered during excavations at the New Churchyard. Most of those who were found in the mass burial pit, however, were young people under the age of 17-years-old. Don Walker, senior osteologist at the Museum of London Archaeology, which as been leading the excavations, said identifying the bacteria responsible for the deaths was a major step forward in understanding the disease. He said: 'This discovery has the potential to greatly enhance scientist's understanding of the disease and coupled with detailed research of the skeletons reveal more about this devastating epidemic and the lives of its victims.' Crossrail has conducted an extensive archaeology programme during the construction of the new line. To date it has found more than 10,000 artefacts and fossils spanning 55 million years of London's past. Jay Carver, Crossrail lead archaeologist, said: 'The Crossrail project has given archaeologists a rare opportunity to study previously inaccessible areas of London. 'The discovery of the ancient DNA, which has eluded scientists for so long, is yet another piece of the jigsaw that we are piecing together to learn more about the lives and deaths of 16th to 18th Century Londoners.'[SEP](CNN) In 1665, the Great Plague of London killed more than 75,000 people in the space of a year, almost a quarter of the city's population back then. It caused 8,000 deaths per week during its peak in September 1665. To date, scientists and archaeologists alike have been unable able to state assuredly that the disease behind the deaths was in fact the Bubonic Plague -- until now. DNA sequenced from ancient skeletons dating back to the 17th century was found to match that of the bacteria responsible for the plague, known as Yersinia pestis. The bacteria typically live in fleas found on small animals and rodents, such as rats, which can jump onto humans and bite them to spread the bacteria. Infections typically cause flu-like symptoms, sudden fever and chills, body aches and vomiting, killing up to 60% of people if left untreated. "For the first time, we understand what caused the 1665 plague," said Don Walker, senior human osteologist at the Museum of London Archaeology , who led the excavation. "No one really knew what caused it." More than 3,300 burials were uncovered in 2015 at the site known as the Bedlam burial ground, near Liverpool Street station in London, within the New Churchyard archaeological site. They were discovered during the development of the new Elizabeth Line , part of the capital's Crossrail line, due to start running in 2018. Within the grounds, the teams soon found a mass grave containing 42 skeletons of people suspected to be victims of the Great Plague of London. "We were hoping to find a plague pit, and we did," Walker said. "As we knew that the cemetery covered the period of outbreaks of the plague." Fragments of pottery, glass and coffins found in the grave were used to date the grounds to between 1650 and 1670, confirming that this was in fact a " plague pit ," -- or at least, suspected to be until DNA proved otherwise. Though many historians assumed that the large-scale deaths were caused by the plague, this is the first time evidence has become available to prove it. "The only way you'd know is through DNA," said Walker. "This is a very exciting finding, for the history of London, the history of disease, and the history of burials," added Vanessa Harding, professor of London history at Birkbeck University of London. Finding and sequencing the DNA of these skeletons, which were more than 300 years old, is no easy task, namely because the availability of any DNA to work with is limited. Any Yersinia bacteria on the surface of the skeletons would have died long ago, meaning scientists had to extract DNA from teeth, where enamel helps protect and preserve DNA with less risk of contamination. "You get much less DNA and need to amplify it," explained Walker. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany, analyzed DNA extracted from 20 skeletons found in the mass burial pit, as well as 20 skeletons from other parts of the burial ground to compare. Traces of plague bacteria were found in five of the skeletons sampled from the mass burial pit, with the remaining 15 thought to have lost their traces. The quick fatality of the bacteria means there is less time for them to flourish, and then stay on human remains; DNA has an even lower survival rate when buried in the ground. Zero traces were seen in those acting as a control group. "The discovery of the ancient DNA, which has eluded scientists for so long, is yet another piece of the jigsaw that we are piecing together to learn more about the lives and deaths of 16th to 18th century Londoners," said Jay Carver, the lead archaeologist at Crossrail. The team behind this research believes the DNA of these 300-year-old bacteria could help us understand more about plague infections past and future. "[This finding] confirms that Yersinia pestis was present in early modern London plague epidemics, and links them epidemiologically with the 14th-century Black Death and the 1720 Marseille Plague," said Harding. "We still need, however, to understand why the disease manifested itself in so many ways, and whether other pathogens made a significant contribution to these epidemics." Historically, the disease spread rapidly and had a high fatality rate, but today's infections appear to be contracted less easily and spread more slowly. This change in its epidemiology was why some experts questioned whether the Great Plague of London was caused by the same disease. "Looking at the DNA ... could help tell us why the disease has changed in this way," said Walker. "It's important for historical research, but will hopefully also contribute to modern medical research."[SEP]INTERNATIONAL NEWS - DNA testing has for the first time confirmed the identity of the bacteria behind London's Great Plague. The plague of 1665-1666 was the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Britain, killing nearly a quarter of London's population. It's taken a year to confirm initial findings from a suspected Great Plague burial pit during excavation work on the Crossrail site at Liverpool Street. About 3,500 burials have been uncovered during excavation of the site. Daniel Defoe's 18th century account of the catastrophic event in A Journal of the Plague Year described the gruesome fate of Londoners. "The plague, as I suppose all distempers do, operated in a different manner on differing constitutions; some were immediately overwhelmed with it, and it came to violent fevers, vomitings, insufferable headaches, pains in the back, and so up to ravings and ragings with those pains," Defoe wrote.

German scientists confirm that the cause of the Great Plague of London from 1665–1666 was Yersinia pestis (cause of the Bubonic plague).

Zimbabwe's High Court has overturned a two-week ban on protests in the capital following a legal challenge from political activists. Police banned rallies in Harare and the surrounding district on Thursday, after several violent clashes between police and anti-government protesters in recent weeks. But Judge Priscilla Chigumba said on Wednesday that the official police note issued last week was "invalid" and curtailed citizens' rights. "The court has said the ban was unlawful," lawyer Tendai Biti, a former finance minister who represented the activists, told journalists following the verdict. Biti also said that the court had delivered "a brave judgment that asserts the independence" of the judiciary. Zimbabwe has seen months of protests against alleged human rights abuses and the deterioration of the economy under President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country since 1980. Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from the High Court in Harare, said some protesters were planning to go back to the streets as soon as this week. "Their message is that they are unhappy with President Robert Mugabe; they say the economy is being run down, and some even say it's time for him to go." Earlier this week, Mugabe accused the country's judiciary courts of being reckless in allowing several anti-government protests that later turned violent. "We can't allow that to continue, [to have] these violent demonstrations unimpeded. No. Enough is enough," Mugabe said. On Friday, a different court denied bail to 58 people arrested during protests on August 26 when riot police fired tear gas, beat up several people and blocked off the site of an opposition demonstration in Harare. In the same demonstration, protesters threw stones at police while some set tyres ablaze and pulled down the sign for a street named after Mugabe.[SEP]Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwe's high court on Wednesday overturned a two-week ban on protests in the capital Harare after a challenge from activists involved in a surge of demonstrations against President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe has vowed to crack down on the protests, which have erupted over recent months as Zimbabwe has been pitched into deepening economic crisis. "The court has said the ban was unlawful," Tendai Biti, a lawyer and opposition party leader among those who brought the case to court, told journalists. "The judgement is a very brave judgement. We are very proud that the court recognised the power it has (and) importantly that courts will adjudicate matters without fear and favour." Mugabe, who has routinely crushed dissent since he came to power in 1980, last week criticised the country's courts after several anti-government protests turned violent. Judges authorised an opposition demonstration in Harare on August 26 which degenerated into clashes between opposition supporters and security forces. Mugabe later blasted judges for "reckless" rulings allowing demonstrations against his rule, saying he hoped they had "learnt a lesson". Zimbabwe has suffered economic collapse over the last 15 years, with 90 percent of the population now not in formal employment. The cash-strapped government has been slow to pay the salaries of public sector workers, including the military, while banks are running out of cash. "The judgement is progressive. We are excited," Stendrick Zvorwadza, a protest leader and long-time critic of Mugabe, said after judge Priscilla Chigumba made her ruling. "Like we have always been saying this (campaign) symbolises peace." Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who have represented scores of arrested protesters, said the ruling against the police ban on protest was "a victory for activists". On Friday, another court denied bail to 58 people arrested during the August 26 protests when riot police fired tear gas, beat up several people and blocked off the site of an opposition demonstration in Harare. Protesters fought back, throwing stones at police while some set tyres ablaze and pulled down the sign for a street named after Mugabe. The demonstration -- which had been authorised by a court -- was to demand electoral reform before 2018 when Mugabe, 92, plans to stand for re-election. Promise Mkwananzi, leader of the Tajamuka ("We are agitated") protest group, was also arrested at the protests and was denied bail when he appeared in court on public violence charges. The last elections in 2013 were won by Mugabe in a vote the opposition said was rigged.[SEP]HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A Zimbabwean court has overturned a ban on demonstrations imposed by the police in the capital, Harare. High Court judge Priscilla Chigumba on Wednesday ruled in favor of a group of 18 political parties challenging the ban, which affected the central business district. Police had banned all demonstrations in the area for two weeks following a series of violent clashes with anti-government protesters. The judge says the ban was invalid because it had been imposed without following correct procedure. She says the ban also infringed on the rights of citizens. This southern African country faces rising frustration over a plummeting economy and allegations of government mismanagement.[SEP]Zimbabwe court says ban on protests invalid, suspends it for 7 days HARARE, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's High Court ruled on Wednesday that a two-week ban by police on protests was illegal, saying it would suspend it for a week after a challenge by political activists who had said the move violated their rights. Police in the southern African nation issued an official notice last Thursday prohibiting all demonstrations in the capital Harare after anti-government protests descended into some of the worst violence seen in two decades. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing Stella Mapenzauswa; Editing by James Macharia)[SEP]Harare — Zimbabwe has once again said it plans to re-introduce flights to London and Beijing after suspending them several years ago due to financial and operational challenges besetting the national carrier. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development Munesu Munodawafa was quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper Tuesday as saying that the government was currently scouting for a strategic partner for the airline with capacity especially to resume long haul flights. The Harare-London route is one of Air Zimbabwe’s most lucrative routes and analysts believe a direct flight between Beijing and Harare would go a long way in boosting Chinese tourists into Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe government recently gave Air Zimbabwe the approval to find a suitable strategic partner to revive its operations, and has often expressed desire to resume flights to the United Kingdom and China because of their huge potential. “The focus is for the operator that will be able to resume the long haul drive,” Munodawafa said. At its peak, Air Zimbabwe used to fly to over 25 regional and international destinations but is currently only flying regional routes in southern Africa due to lack of funds to modernize its fleet and pay off creditors. It is saddled with a 300 million U.S. dollars debt, and requires a billion dollars for recapitalization, according to government.[SEP]In Zimbabwe, government and protesters get more defiant HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — For many in Zimbabwe, enough is enough. The words are spelled out in anti-government graffiti in the capital, Harare, one of several new declarations of defiance that authorities have trouble scrubbing away. Over the weekend, President Robert Mugabe also declared "enough is enough" of the growing protests that reflect nationwide anger over a plummeting economy and alleged state corruption. Protesters have clashed with police wielding tear gas, water cannons and batons. Hundreds have been arrested. Both sides of the political divide are increasingly fed up, an ominous sign in this country whose 92-year-old leader is showing signs of advanced age but makes no move of wanting to quit. Mugabe has been in power since independence from white minority rule in 1980, meaning any political transition will be a leap into the unknown for most people in a nation with a record of disputed and sometimes violent elections. Many in Zimbabwe are waiting to see whether the fragmented opposition that recently joined forces can find enough momentum to force real change. The opposition has faltered in the past because of government crackdowns, internal divisions and other problems. "Forming a coalition would present the opposition with the best chance to unseat Mugabe," said Eldred Masunungure, a political analyst at the University of Zimbabwe. But he said the opposition likely would struggle with "state-sponsored election violence, intimidation and the involvement of the military in elections." Opposition leaders, including former prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai and a former vice president, Joice Mujuru, have mentioned the possibility of contesting the next elections in 2018 as a single front. Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state, has vowed to run for office again. But the shrewd operator, who joked away the latest rumors of his death last weekend after an overseas absence, has struggled to curb divisions within his own party. He continues to say the growing unrest is manipulated by adversaries in the West like the United States. "We cannot sit idly while our country is being torn apart by unruly foreign-sponsored agents," Ignatius Chombo, the home affairs minister, said last month. Many demonstrations are now organized through social media, prompting the government to announce plans for a law that would tighten social media controls and target what it calls "cyberterrorists." Mugabe has criticized the courts for overruling an earlier police ban on demonstrations, saying the decision had endangered stability. Human Rights Watch has accused the president of interfering in the judiciary's independence. A two-week protest ban is currently in effect, but opposition groups plan another demonstration on Sept. 16 after it expires. Amid the uncertainty, many people in this country of 13 million people focus on daily survival, selling medicine, car parts or basic food staples on the street. They stand in long lines at banks because of shortages of the U.S. dollar, which replaced the local currency years ago because of hyperinflation. The government has failed to pay its more than 500,000 employees, including the military, on time since June. Some Zimbabweans are joining Pentecostal churches that have been mushrooming across the country in hopes of a miracle. The churches are often led by couples calling themselves "prophet and prophetess" who sell things like rubber bracelets and "anointed" water to followers, promising miraculous riches. "I want the 'prophet' to bless my business. Everything else has failed to work," Mateo Sithole said while packing potatoes at his market stall in the eastern city of Mutare. "People have no money. They are not buying," In Harare, the anti-government graffiti on downtown buildings takes aim at the man in charge. "You are now a ghost," one says. Another says: "Old Mugabe must go now."[SEP]JOHANNESBURG, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Human rights groups slammed the World Bank on Thursday over an internal report on Zimbabwe that suggested it would be a sign of "political development" for the country if its poor human rights record did not get any worse. In the leaked July 27 document, seen by Reuters and reported by some African media, the Washington-based bank laid out a potential plan for clearing $1.88 billion of Zimbabwe's arrears with the region's big three multilateral lenders - the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB). The report identified progress on Zimbabwe's human rights record as a needed benchmark to justify re-engagement with the southern African country and bring it back into the international financial fold. The bank believed Zimbabwe was committed to "major change", with 92-year-old Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwe's only leader since independence from Britain in 1980 - recognising the need for outside help to resuscitate a moribund economy, the report said. But as a proposed indicator of "political development" away from "coercion" in the country, it said in a bullet point: "Number of alleged human rights violations level off or decline from 2014 average and/or no unwarranted arrest of key opposition leaders." Rights groups took exception to such a benchmark in a country where security forces are accused of routine abuses, ranging from harassment of opposition supporters and activists to beatings and forced disappearances. "Reading this literally turned my stomach," Todd Moss, the chief operating officer of the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based think-tank, wrote in a blog that also accused the World Bank of being too ready to believe the government's rhetoric on reform. "For the World Bank to move ahead with funding Zimbabwe based on this naive and deeply flawed analysis would be a colossal mistake," he added. The report also noted that - with the exception of disputed and bloody elections in 2008 - Zimbabwe's politics were largely non-violent, due in large part to "strong coping mechanisms and a rigid security apparatus". "It is shocking to hear that the World Bank is considering a bailout package for Zimbabwe at a time when the human rights situation in the country is deteriorating as police use excessive force to crush numerous peaceful protests," added Dewa Mavhinga, senior Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch in Johannesburg, adding that the bank risked "unwittingly funding abuse in Zimbabwe." In a statement issued in Washington, the World Bank distanced itself from the report. "The Zimbabwe Turnaround Elibility Assessment Note that was leaked to some outlets is an unofficial draft document that has not been approved by the Bank," the World Bank said. The institution said it would only resume direct lending to Zimbabwe when the arrears were cleared. It said it was committed to helping Zimbabwe achieve its long-term development goals and cared "deeply about the well-being of the people of Zimbabwe." The report comes about a month after the World Bank approved new safeguards for people and the environment in its financing that have come under criticism from non-profit groups for creating "loopholes" with vague language and reliance on borrower country laws and standards. One of Africa's brightest prospects when it won independence, Zimbabwe's economy has collapsed since 2000 after the expropriation of thousands of white-owned farms and disastrous hyperinflation. Clearing the arrears is a pre-requisite for restructuring its $8.3 billion of foreign debt, or attracting investment to upgrade its creaking infrastructure and kick-start the economy. The document said Harare would repay its $120 million of arrears to the IMF using its Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) at the Fund. The outstanding amounts owed to the World Bank and AfDB - $1.156 billion and $601 million respectively - would be cleared via a mixture of short-term loans arranged by the Cairo-based Afreximbank and Lazard, a large U.S. investment bank, and the AfDB's 'Transitional Support Facility'. It did not provide further details. A spokesman for Afreximbank said this week the deal had not yet been finalised. (Reporting by Ed Cropley in Johannesburg, additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Andrew Hay)[SEP]HARARE, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main public service union on Friday rejected a government plan to cut 25,000 jobs and suspend annual bonuses, saying it would hurt workers already struggling to make ends meet. The Apex Council, a grouping of all state sector unions, demanded talks with the government over the plan that Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said is essential to ensure the southern African country can keep paying its staff. "We believe these measures are ill-conceived and can only further entrench the doom and gloom that has become the lot of the average civil servant," said Cecelia Alexander, head of the Apex Council which called a two-day walkout in July by teachers, doctors and nurses over pay delays, part of the biggest strike in Zimbabwe in 10 years. In a budget statement on Thursday, Chinamasa said state sector wages took up 97 percent of revenues collected between January and June, a situation that could destabilise the economy. It also meant the government risked being unable to pay salaries, Chinamasa said, proposing the suspension of annual bonuses for state employees this year and next to save $180 million annually. Last year, Chinamasa made similar proposals but was forced to back down by President Robert Mugabe who told him to find the money elsewhere. Under Chinamasa's plan, the civil service would shed 25,000 jobs, reducing the workforce to 273,000 by the end of 2017. Salaries for ministers and senior officials would be cut by up to 20 percent and Zimbabwe would close some embassies abroad. Unable to get funds from international lenders, Zimbabwe is in its worst financial crisis since adopting the U.S. dollar in 2009. Economic difficulties have fueled political tensions, with anti-government protests over cash shortages and unemployment. On Friday, Harare police fired teargas to break up a march by a dozen social media activists from #Tajamuka protesting against a police ban on demonstrations, witnesses said. Tajamuka is slang for 'defiance' in Zimbabwe's Shona language. Separately, Mugabe told a central committee meeting of his ruling ZANU-PF party that the opposition was trying to fuel a popular uprising and that the government would take "very strong" action against public violence. "Let these opposition parties and all those groups be warned that our patience has limits and will certainly run out," he said in front of reporters at the start of the meeting, before blaming Zimbabwe's economic woes on Western sanctions. (Editing by Ed Cropley)[SEP]My mission is two fold; 1) Learning from this phenomenal story of development and building strategic bases and lines for the new Zimbabwe that’s imminent. 2) I am also looking for that Doctor who raises Bob from the dead. I have a petition for him from the citizens of Zimbabwe…hahahaha. A few years ago United Arab Emirates (UAE) was a piece of dirt but over the last two or so decades it has transformed into one of the most developed nations in the world with Dubai ranking among the best cities in the world. This did not just happen. The perpetual and unprecedented development happening here is not accidental. It takes vision and solid leadership. Ever since the discovery of oil in UAE, it has never been the same. Dubai in particular was just a small fishing settlement before the discovery of Oil in the 1960’s. Today, Dubai is certainly one of the best cities in the world. It’s widely known as the Middle East’s capital of excess; an emirate state where money and opulence reign supreme. Dubai’s unfathomably high skyscrapers, reaching into the clouds, are matched only in size by its vast, sprawling shopping malls and its residents’ bulging bank balances. Zimbabwe is obviously naturally more blessed than this desert which has been transformed into one of the best nations called UAE. Zimbabwe is extremely rich in Natural resources…the best arable land in Africa, plenty of minerals including diamonds, platinum and gold. Zimbabwe’s flora and fauna is breathtaking. What Zimbabwe lacks is visionary leadership. Zimbabwe is suffering from perpetual leadership drought. Zimbabwe’s problems are not an act of nature. They are a result of leadership failure. That is the reason why the President can wake up one day to inform the nation that US$15 billion worth of diamonds were lost through his government’s corruption and lack of vision. We are changing that and we are going to take our Zimbabwe to its rightful place. We can’t continue to vegetate in the morass of failure and retrogression while the world is moving forward. We are however not oblivious of the fact that this current crop of pseudo leaders won’t take us to that place. Mugabe and his minions have curved a niche for themselves in the world of failure. Cognizant of the fact that watering a dead log won’t bring it back to life, we know exactly what to do with these dead logs. We can, we will and we must replace them. The time has come. Only a new breed of leaders can take Zimbabwe forward. We are ready to take our nation where it belongs. A new and better Zimbabwe is possible in our lifetime. We shall come face to face with it. Let’s do this.[SEP]“Today’s High court decision is a victory for Zimbabwe’s constitutional principles. It sends a clear message to the authorities that the right to protest, as enshrined in the country’s constitution, cannot just be stripped away by the state on a whim,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for Southern Africa. “Zimbabwe’s authorities must respect and obey today’s ruling and allow people to assemble and raise their grievances, as long as they are doing it within the confines of the laws that govern public protests.” Today’s ruling comes after President Robert Mugabe publicly threatened the country’s judges on 3 September accusing them of being reckless by allowing demonstrations in the country. The Zimbabwe government imposed a ban on protests in the country’s capital Harare on 1 September 2016, under the Public Order and Security Act for a period of two weeks. The ban was imposed amid an escalation in protests in the country over stalled electoral reforms and the declining economy. The ban was announced the day before opposition parties were due to hold an anti-government demonstration on 2 September 2016.

The High Court of Zimbabwe overturns bans on protests in Harare.

Image copyright Courtesy: Hindustan Times Image caption Preeti Rathi's parents grieve over a photograph of their daughter A man in the Indian city of Mumbai has been sentenced to death for a fatal acid attack on a woman at a busy railway station three years ago, in what is being seen as a legal landmark. Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was murdered, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse. Her neighbour Ankur Panwar attacked her after she rejected a marriage proposal. It is the first such sentence for an acid attack in India. Many such attacks go unpunished, campaigners say. Panwar, 25, was convicted of murder and other offences at a special court in the city on Tuesday. He is likely to appeal against the verdict in a higher court. On Thursday, the special court said that the crime fell within the "rarest of rare" category which justified the death penalty. Ms Rathi, who suffered severe injuries to her lungs and eyes in the attack on 2 May 2013, died a month later. A month after her death, India's Supreme Court ordered federal and state governments to regulate the sale of acid. Image copyright Courtesy: Hindustan Times The court ruled that acid could only be sold to people who showed a valid identity card. However, critics say that it is still widely and easily available. According to government figures, there are hundreds of such attacks a year; but campaigners say the real figures are much higher.[SEP]MUMBAI: An Indian court sentenced a man to death Thursday for murdering a woman by throwing acid on her face after she rejected his marriage proposal, a decision applauded by the victim’s family. Ankur Panwar was found guilty on Tuesday of hurling sulphuric acid on 24-year-old Preeti Rathi in a fit of jealousy outside a railway station in the financial capital Mumbai in May 2013. Rathi, who was a neighbor of Panwar’s in New Delhi and had just arrived in Mumbai to start a new job as a nurse, died in hospital of multiple organ failure the following month. “The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases,” public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told Agence France-Presse. The Supreme Court says capital punishment should only be carried out in “the rarest of rare” cases in India, among a dwindling group of nations that still have the death penalty on their statute books. Panwar’s lawyer said they would appeal the verdict—delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women—to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai’s highest. “We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it,” Apeksha Vora told Agence Fance-Presse. Police alleged Panwar, reportedly 26, and a hotel management graduate, had committed the crime out of jealousy after she rejected his marriage proposal and had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career. Nikam successfully argued that Panwar’s attack had been pre-meditated. Vora had pleaded leniency for her client, saying that he was his family’s sole breadwinner. “We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay,” Hitesh Rathi, Preeti’s brother, told AFP. Hundreds of acid attacks occur in India and other nations every year, but experts say these figures are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg, with scores of survivors facing lifelong scars and social stigma. AFP[SEP]An Indian court sentenced a man to death on Thursday for murdering a woman by throwing acid on her face after she rejected his marriage proposal, in a landmark judgement. Ankur Panwar was found guilty on Tuesday of hurling sulphuric acid on 24-year-old Preeti Rathi in a fit of jealousy outside a railway station in the financial capital Mumbai in May 2013. Rathi, who was a neighbour of Panwar's in New Delhi and had just arrived in Mumbai to start a new job as a nurse, died in hospital of multiple organ failure the following month. "The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases," public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP. The Supreme Court says capital punishment should only be carried out in "the rarest of rare" cases in India, among a dwindling group of nations that still have the death penalty on their statute books. "This is a landmark judgement for such crimes. This is the first time that such a judgement has been passed for an acid attack-related case against a woman," said Nikam. Activists welcomed the sentence which they said would go a long way to preventing future attacks, but criticised the length of time taken to bring the offender to justice. "It is a welcome judgement but it has come too late. It took a fast-track court three years to punish the guilty," said Sonali Mukherjee, whose own face was severely disfigured in 2003 by a group of men who have been convicted but are on bail pending an appeal. About 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015, according to the latest official crime figures. Experts say these figures and similar ones in other South Asian countries are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg. Deaths are rare but scores of survivors face lifelong scars and battle social stigma. India's Supreme Court ordered states in 2013 to enforce restrictions on the sale of acid in a bid to curb attacks, but Mukherjee and other campaigners say it remains easy to purchase. The victim's family applauded Thursday's decision, saying it should now be swiftly carried out. "We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay," Hitesh Rathi, Preeti's brother, told AFP. Police alleged Panwar, reportedly 26, and a hotel management graduate, had committed the crime out of jealousy after she rejected his marriage proposal and had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career. Panwar's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict -- delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women -- to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai's highest. "We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it," Apeksha Vora told AFP. Nikam successfully argued that Panwar's attack had been pre-meditated. Vora had pleaded leniency for her client, saying that he was his family's sole breadwinner.[SEP]A man who killed a woman by hurling acid in her face when she rejected his marriage proposal has been sentenced to death in India in what is being seen as a legal landmark. Preeti Rathi, who was 23 when she was murdered, had just arrived from Delhi to join the Indian navy as a nurse. Her neighbour Ankur Panwar attacked her after she rejected a marriage proposal. Her threw sulphuric acid on her in a fit of jealously outside a railway station in Mumbai in May 2013. She died in hospital of multiple organ failure the next month. 'The court has awarded the death penalty to Ankur Panwar. I convinced the court that the acid attack belonged to the rarest of rare cases, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told AFP. Nikam added: 'This is a landmark judgement for such crimes. This is the first time that such a judgement has been passed for an acid attack-related case against a woman.' Police said Panwar, a hotel management graduate, had committed the heinous crime out of jealously when she rejected his marriage proposal. He had wanted to disfigure her face to destroy her career. The victim's family welcome today's decision and said the death penalty should now be swiftly carried out. 'We had sought the death penalty since the beginning so the verdict is good. Now, we want it to be carried out without any delay,' Hitesh Rathi, Preeti's brother, told AFP. Activists welcomed the sentence which they said would go a long way to preventing future attacks, but criticised the length of time taken to bring the offender to justice. Sonali Mukherjee, whose own face was severely disfigured in 2003 by a group of men who have been convicted but are on bail pending an appeal, said: 'It is a welcome judgement but it has come too late. It took a fast-track court three years to punish the guilty.' About 300 acid attacks were reported in India in 2015, according to the latest official crime figures. Experts said these figures and similar ones in other South Asian countries are likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg. Deaths are rare but scores of survivors face lifelong scars and social stigma. India's Supreme Court ordered states in 2013 to enforce restrictions on the sale of acid to try and curb attacks, but Mukherjee and other campaigners claim that it remains easy to purchase. Panwar's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict - delivered at a special court dealing with crimes against women - to the Bombay High Court, Mumbai's highest. 'We are moving the case to the high court. There is no second thought about it,' Apeksha Vora told AFP. During the trial, Vora had pleaded leniency for her client and said he was his family's sole breadwinner.[SEP]Indian man sentenced to death for killing woman with acid NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court has sentenced a man to death for killing his neighbor by throwing sulfuric acid at her for refusing to marry him three years ago. It is the first death sentence given for an acid attack under stringent laws introduced by the government to curb crimes against women following the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012. Prosecutors said the Mumbai court sentenced Ankur Panwar on Thursday after finding him guilty of killing the 23-year-old woman, who died of serious burn injuries. They said Panwar followed the woman on a train from New Delhi where they lived and attacked her with acid as she got off in Mumbai to begin a nursing career with the navy.[SEP]First capital punishment in Maharashtra in an acid attack case In the first such order in an acid attack case in Maharashtra, a special women’s court here sentenced Ankur Panwar to death on Thursday. He was convicted of the charge of throwing acid on Preeti Rathi at Bandra station in 2013 after she chose to pursue her nursing career, declining his proposal for marriage. Special Judge Anju S. Shende said: “According to the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, the facts of the case and the recent acid attack judgments by the Supreme Court, the accused is sentenced to death… , subject to confirmation by the Bombay High Court.” She said the accused could appeal against the judgment within 30 days. The court gave its judgment based on the statements of eyewitnesses and the fact that he was unable to explain the acid marks on his hand. It observed: “He wanted to have her and he could not get her, that is why he wanted to destroy her. The height of brutality in acid attacks is more than that in the cases of rape. Rape is considered as destroying the very soul of the victim, but even then if she is kept at a safe place she can stay without disclosing her identity; but in the case of an acid attack, they [the victims] have to move around with their bodies. I consider him a sadist as called by the prosecutor and I did not find that he could be reformed.” On May 2, 2013, Preeti came from New Delhi to Mumbai by train to take up a nursing job at the INHS Asvini Hospital. Panwar, Preeti’s neighbour in Narela, followed her on the same train and threw acid at her when she alighted at Bandra. The Mumbai District Legal Services Authority awarded Rs. 2,02,000 to Preeti’s family after she died of burns and injuries a month after the attack. Defence lawyer Apeksha Vora said Preeti had died because of medical negligence as the acid was not proved to be sulphuric acid, and Panwar was falsely implicated because he was arrested seven months after the incident. However, Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said Panwar threw the acid on Preeti as she wanted to pursue her career in Mumbai and he wanted to marry her.[SEP]An Indian teenager who lost an eye and whose face was brutally disfigured in an acid attack walked the New York catwalk to whoops and cheers Thursday in what she called a life-changing experience. Reshma Qureshi, 19, brushed off nerves to stride the runway like a pro in a stunning cream and floral floor-length gown by Indian designer Archana Kochhar on the first official day of New York Fashion Week. "I feel really good and the experience was great," she told AFP afterward, speaking in Hindi through a translator. "I feel as though it has definitely changed my life." She was invited to take part by FTL Moda, a fashion production company committed to challenging industry stereotypes of beauty and which last year invited a model with Down Syndrome to take part. Qureshi, whose ambition remains to finish the last two grades of high school and go to college, said she hoped her participation would send a powerful message to other acid attack survivors. "Why should we not enjoy our lives? What happened to us is not our fault and we've done nothing wrong and so we should also move forward in life," she told AFP the night before the show. Acid attacks, which overwhelmingly target women and children, are a particular scourge in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the West Indies and the Middle East. In India, an estimated 500 to 1,000 attacks take place each year, and while they rarely kill they leave severe physical, psychological and social scars that can see victims ostracized and hidden away. Thursday's show came the same day an Indian court sentenced a man to death for murdering a 24-year-old woman by throwing acid on her face after she rejected his offer of marriage, in a landmark judgement. Since Qureshi was attacked by her brother-in-law in 2004, pinned down by his friends and her face doused in acid, she has become the face of a campaign to end the open sale of acid in India. As slim as any professional model and with thick, luxurious hair, she appears in YouTube videos, filmed in her home base of Mumbai, and offering beauty tips and make-up advice. Just moments before hitting the catwalk she clung to the arm of a floor assistant. But with her hair swept into a chignon with a delicate headpiece, professional make-up and her model frame flattered by the curves of the gown, she quickly turned into a natural. "I want to tell the world -- do not see us in a weak light and see that even we can go out and do things," she told AFP. "People have a tendency to look at acid attack survivors from one perspective and I don't want them to look at them like that anymore," she said. Backstage she was embraced by a fellow model and then lent over the balcony watching part of the rest of the show which featured evening and daywear for men and women by a handful of different designers. As much as the audience of stylists, bloggers and members of the Indian diaspora whooped and cheered, Qureshi had come across on the eve of the show as rather overwhelmed and understandably jet lagged. The daughter of a taxi driver and abroad for the first time, she was accompanied by a representative of the charity she works with, but flung into the bulb-popping, high-octane world of Manhattan fashion. She answered questions politely, saying that New York seemed "very nice" even though she had barely slept on the long, transcontinental flight and had no time to even see the skyline. But with her New York debut under her belt, she was much happier. She will walk in a second show Thursday before heading out to dinner and is keen to see as much as possible of the Big Apple. "I do feel brave," she said.[SEP]Reshma Qureshi, brushed off nerves to stride the runway like a pro in a stunning cream and floral floor-length gown by Indian designer Archana Kochhar. A 18-year-old Indian acid attack victim, who lost an eye and whose face was brutally disfigured in the attack, walked the New York catwalk to whoops and cheers in what she called a life-changing experience. Reshma Qureshi, 19, brushed off nerves to stride the runway like a pro in a stunning cream and floral floor-length gown by Indian designer Archana Kochhar on the first official day of New York Fashion Week. “I feel really good and the experience was great,” she told AFP afterward. “I feel as though it has definitely changed my life.” She was invited to take part by FTL Moda, a fashion production company committed to challenging industry stereotypes of beauty and which last year invited a model with Down Syndrome to take part. Ms. Qureshi, whose ambition remains to finish the last two grades of high school and go to college, said she hoped her participation would send a powerful message to other acid attack survivors. “Why should we not enjoy our lives? What happened to us is not our fault and we’ve done nothing wrong and so we should also move forward in life,” she said the night before the show. Acid attacks, which overwhelmingly target women and children, are a particular scourge in Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the West Indies and the Middle East. In India, an estimated 500 to 1,000 attacks take place each year, and while they rarely kill they leave severe physical, psychological and social scars that can see victims ostracized and hidden away. The fashion show came the same day an Indian court sentenced a man to death for murdering a 24-year-old woman by throwing acid on her face after she rejected his offer of marriage, in a landmark judgement. Ms. Qureshi was attacked by her brother-in-law in 2004, pinned down by his friends and her face doused in acid. She has become the face of a campaign to end the open sale of acid in India. “I want to tell the world — do not see us in a weak light and see that even we can go out and do things,” she told said. “People have a tendency to look at acid attack survivors from one perspective and I don’t want them to look at them like that anymore,” she said. Backstage she was embraced by a fellow model and then lent over the balcony watching part of the rest of the show which featured evening and daywear for men and women by a handful of different designers.[SEP]Ankur Panwar was convicted for throwing acid on Preeti as she apparently refused his proposal to marry him. A special women’s court on Wednesday awarded death sentence to Ankur Panwar for throwing acid on Preeti Rathi at Bandra station on May 2, 2013. The court on Tuesday convicted Panwar, who was 23 years old when he committed the crime, with the intention of causing burns and committing murder. At the City Civil and Sessions Court, judge Anju Shende convicted Mr Panwar, a chef who was working with a premium hotel and was the breadwinner of a family of five under section 302 (punishment for murder) and 326 B (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) of the Indian Penal Code. Panwar’s family said they will move High Court in appeal against his conviction and will also plead for the case to be shifted to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam sought death penalty as he said the tendency of the accused may cost the lives of many other girls Preeti had secured a nursing job at the INHS Asvini Hospital and had just reached Mumbai from New Delhi when acid was thrown at her. She died due to burns and injuries a month later. Panwar, currently lodged at the Arthur Road Jail, lived near Preeti’s neighbourhood in Narela, Delhi. He has been convicted for throwing acid on Preeti and her family members as she apparently refused his proposal to marry him. Defence lawyer Apeksha Vora said Preeti died due to medical negligence. She said her client had been falsely implicated because he was arrested seven months after the incident took place. However, the prosecution contended that Panwar was guilty as Preeti had declined his proposal for marriage. The trial lasted for one-and-a-half years during which time the prosecution examined 37 witnesses, including five eyewitnesses and 11 doctors.[SEP]The National selectors will meet in Mumbai on September 12 to pick the Indian team for the first Test against New Zealand starting at the Green Park in Kanpur on September 22. Selectors Vikram Rathour and Saba Karim will watch the first two days of the Duleep Trophy final at Greater Noida along with India chief coach Anil Kumble before joining chairman of the selection panel Sandeep Patil in Mumbai. Gagan Khoda and MSK Prasad, the other members of the selection meeting, are likely to hook in through video conference from Australia where they are travelling with the India-A team.

A court in the Indian city of Mumbai convicts and sentences Ankur Panwar to the death penalty for a fatal acid-throwing attack.

"Right now, we think we've got some nut, who in the midst of one of our most emotional times here at our school started calling in these threats," Dodson said at an afternoon news conference, adding, "Basically, he's what we're looking for right now."[SEP]"The shooter appears to have shot herself," Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson told radio station KVLF. A law enforcement officer was also injured during the incident, which began shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in the town of 5,900 in Texas' Big Bend region. Further details about the officer's and injured student's conditions were not available. The shooting prompted a lockdown at Alpine's three public schools. Dodson said the shooting at the high school was part of a chaotic series of events that included a bomb threat called in at nearby Sul Ross State University, which required law enforcement personnel to rush there from the high school. "That's ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we've got this situation going on," Dodson said. "This community does not expect this, we don't want this, and we can't explain it yet." ALPINE, Texas — Police in the West Texas town of Alpine say there’s an “active shooter” situation at a high school and schools have been locked down amid the search for a suspect. Elizabeth Carter, a lieutenant with the Texas Department of Public Safety, said someone brought a gun onto the Alpine High School campus Thursday morning. Ruth Hucke (HOOK’-ee), a spokeswoman for Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine, said hospital personnel were tending to three “victims.” Hucke declined to say how the victims were injured or further identify them. When asked if the victims had been shot, Hucke said she “can’t say anything further.” Hucke said the hospital would provide a statement later Thursday. She had no additional details. Police dispatcher Scarlet Eldred said an unspecified incident took place at the high school shortly before 9 a.m. Eldred says police were seeking an “active shooter.” Eldred didn’t immediately provide additional information, other than the person being sought was a male. The school district’s website says the town of about 5,900 residents has three schools. Sul Ross State University in Alpine also was placed on lockdown.[SEP]A 14-year-old female student died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday after shooting and injuring another student inside a high school in West Texas, according to the local sheriff. "The shooter appears to have shot herself," Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson told radio station KVLF. A gun was found near the suspected shooter, he said. The incident began shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in this town of 5,900 in Texas' Big Bend region. Authorities did not immediately release a possible motive for the gunfire. The sheriff said the family of the girl who died had moved to the Alpine area about six months ago. Dodson said the injured student ran outside seeking help. She was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't considered life-threatening, he said. He said a federal law enforcement officer responding to the incident was shot in the leg when another officer's gun accidentally discharged. The shooting prompted a lockdown at Alpine's three public schools. Dodson said the shooting at the high school was part of a chaotic series of events that included a bomb threat called in at nearby Sul Ross State University, which required law enforcement personnel to rush there from the high school. "That's ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we've got this situation going on," Dodson said. "This community does not expect this, we don't want this, and we can't explain it yet." Alpine is 220 miles southeast of El Paso and 110 miles north of Big Bend National Park. After months behind bars, the face of the armed Oregon occupation goes on trial 12:45 p.m.: This article has been updated with the age of the student who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. 10:30 a.m.: This article has been updated throughout with additional details. 10 a.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the shooter’s death. This article was originally published at 9 a.m.[SEP]Police in the West Texas town of Alpine say there’s an “active shooter” situation at a high school and schools have been locked down amid the search for a suspect. Elizabeth Carter, a lieutenant with the Texas Department of Public Safety, said someone brought a gun onto the Alpine High School campus on Thursday morning. Ruth Hucke (HOOK’-ee), a spokeswoman for Big Bend Regional Medical Centre in Alpine, said hospital personnel were tending to three “victims”. Police dispatcher Scarlet Eldred said an unspecified incident took place at the high school shortly before 9 a.m. Eldred says police were seeking an “active shooter”. Eldred didn’t immediately provide additional information, other than the person being sought was a male. The school district’s website says the town of about 5,900 residents has three schools. Sul Ross State University in Alpine also was placed on lockdown. Alpine is 220 miles southeast of El Paso.[SEP]ALPINE, Texas (AP) — Police in the West Texas town of Alpine say there's an "active shooter" situation at a high school and schools have been locked down amid the search for a suspect. Elizabeth Carter, a lieutenant with the Texas Department of Public Safety, said someone brought a gun onto the Alpine High School campus Thursday morning. Ruth Hucke (HOOK'-ee), a spokeswoman for Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine, said hospital personnel were tending to three "victims." Hucke declined to say how the victims were injured or further identify them. When asked if the victims had been shot, Hucke said she "can't say anything further." Hucke said the hospital would provide a statement later Thursday. She had no additional details. Police dispatcher Scarlet Eldred said an unspecified incident took place at the high school shortly before 9 a.m. Eldred says police were seeking an "active shooter." Eldred didn't immediately provide additional information, other than the person being sought was a male. The school district's website says the town of about 5,900 residents has three schools. Sul Ross State University in Alpine also was placed on lockdown.[SEP]One person has been shot dead after an "active shooter" opened fire at a school in Texas, police said. Police in Texas said the shooter entered Alpine High School on Thursday morning. According to Brewster County Attorney Steve Houston, one person died after a shooting in the school's band hall, It was reported there may be two suspects and that at least one person has been taken to hospital. Surrounding schools have also been placed on lockdown following the incident. According to its website, Alpine High School has around 1,000 students and is about 30 miles east of Marfa. This page is being updated[SEP]A woman at a high school in Texas has killed herself after gunning down another teenager, it has been reported. Alpine High School, which has about 280 students, is now on lockdown and pupils were evacuated to a nearby church. Brewster County Sheriff Ronnie Dodson told radio station KVLF the shooter turned the gun on herself after shooting another student in the lower half of the body. It's not clear if the female shooter was a student or from outside the school. The injured student is at a nearby hospital. A federal officer was injured when another officer's gun fired and has also been rushed to hospital. His condition is not known at this time. Dodson said about five shots were fired in the school. An Alpine High School Board source told NewsChannel 9 that one student was shot and taken to hospital. The school is in Alpine, a community of about 6,500 people. A Twitter user, identified only as key, wrote: "As a student of Alpine High, I want to thank the law enforcement for their amazing effort to keep us safe." We'll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story. For the latest news and breaking news visit Mirror.co.uk/news . Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you. Follow us on Twitter @DailyMirror - the official Daily Mirror & Mirror Online Twitter account - real news in real time. We're also on Facebook/dailymirror - your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Mirror Online.[SEP]ALPINE, Texas — A female student died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday after shooting and injuring another female student inside a high school in West Texas, according to the local sheriff. “The shooter appears to have shot herself,” Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson told radio station KVLF. A gun was found near the suspected shooter, he said. The incident began shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in the town of 5,900 in Texas’ Big Bend region. Authorities did not immediately release a possible motive for the gunfire. Dodson said the injured student ran outside seeking help and was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life threatening. He said a federal law enforcement officer who was responding to the incident was shot in the leg when another officer’s gun accidentally discharged. The shooting prompted a lockdown at Alpine’s three public schools. Dodson said the shooting at the high school was part of a chaotic series of events that included a bomb threat called in at nearby Sul Ross State University, which required law enforcement personnel to rush there from the high school. “That’s ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we’ve got this situation going on,” Dodson said. “This community does not expect this, we don’t want this, and we can’t explain it yet.” Alpine is 220 miles southeast of El Paso and 110 miles north of Big Bend National Park.[SEP]Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson said the incident happened inside a bathroom at Alpine High School in Alpine just before 11 a.m. ET. ALPINE, Texas (AP) — A female student died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Thursday after shooting and injuring another female student inside a high school in West Texas, according to the local sheriff. Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson told radio station KVLF that the injured student ran outside seeking help and was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren't considered life threatening. "The shooter appears to have shot herself," the sheriff said. A gun was found near the suspected shooter, he said. The incident began shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in Alpine, a town of 5,900 about 220 miles southeast of El Paso. Authorities did not immediately release a possible motive for the gunfire. Dodson said a federal law enforcement officer who was responding to the incident was shot in the leg when another officer's gun accidentally discharged. Dodson didn't immediately return a message left with his office by The Associated Press seeking further details about the investigation. The school district declined comment, saying it would release a statement later. Alpine police referred to its Facebook page for updates, but none had been posted as of Thursday afternoon. The shooting prompted a lockdown at Alpine's three public schools. Dodson said the shooting at the high school was part of a chaotic series of events that included a bomb threat called in at nearby Sul Ross State University, which required law enforcement personnel to rush there from the high school. "That's ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we've got this situation going on," Dodson said. "This community does not expect this, we don't want this, and we can't explain it yet."[SEP]A student is injured and a female gunman is dead after a shooting at a high school in West Texas, but the danger might not be over yet as cops are racing to investigate a bomb threat at a nearby college. Alpine High School was placed on lockdown after reports of an active shooter Thursday morning. The Brewster County Sheriff says a female student brought a gun to school and shot another female student, before committing suicide. A federal agent responding to the scene was also injured when another officer accidentally shot him outside the school. The sheriff's office previously said that as many as two gunmen were attacking the school, but they now say there are no other suspects. The student and officer who were injured have not been identified and it's unclear how serious their injuries are. The student victim was apparently strong enough to run outside and flag down a car to take her to the hospital. A spokeswoman for Big Bend Regional Medical Center said the hospital are tending to three 'victims'. Spokeswoman Ruth Hucke declined to say how the victims had been injured. It's still unclear what sparked the shooting on Wednesday. A student at the school, whose friend was shot, told CBS 7, 'There was blood all over the hallway'. Local reporters are now saying that cops have been diverted to nearby Sul Ross State University, after someone called police and threatened the school with a bomb. 'Sheriff Dodson said someone called them and said "y'all better leave me alone"' and made threats against the school, according to Marfa Radio reporter Travis Bubenik. The sheriff has called in the FBI to assist them with the case, and track down who phoned in the bomb threat. Sul Ross State is located a little less than two miles from Alpine high School. Just 280 students are enrolled at Alpine High School, in the small town of just 6,500. Classes for the new year started on August 22. Alpine is located near Big Bend National Park, near the Mexican border, in a remote area about 30 miles from Marfa, Texas. All of the surrounding schools were placed on 'critical lockdown' in response to the shooting reports this morning. But now that the threat appears to be over, students are set to be released to their parents soon.

A female student at Alpine High School in Texas, U.S., shoots herself dead in what appeared to be an "active shooter" event, resulting in a student and police officer being injured.

Story highlights Teachers are accused of having links to Kurdish militants Education Ministry: Number of suspended teachers could reach 14,000 Istanbul (CNN) Turkey has suspended thousands of teachers over alleged links to a militant Kurdish group, according to sources and state-run news agency Anadolu. At least 11,285 schoolteachers across the country were suspended over suspected links to a separatist terrorist organization, Anadolu reported Thursday, citing Turkey's Education Ministry. That number could reach 14,000 during an investigation conducted in coordination with governors' offices across the country, Anadolu reported. Although the ministry did not specify the group, the term "separatist terrorist organization" usually refers to the Kurdistan worker's party, or PKK. Later, a senior Turkish official confirmed to CNN that the "separatist organization" is PKK. Read More[SEP]Image caption Children in Turkey start back at school next week More than 11,000 teachers in Turkey have been suspended for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a week before children go back to school. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had said he thought as many as 14,000 teachers were associated with terror activities. Turkey, alongside Western countries, regards the PKK as terrorists. Tens of thousands of school workers and private teachers were purged separately after a failed coup in July. Tens of thousands of people have died in a decades-long insurgency by the PKK, who want more self-rule for Kurdish people. Who are the PKK? Who are the Kurds? Who did Turkey purge after the coup? Turkey's education ministry said 11,285 teachers had been suspended and were on paid leave pending an investigation. The state-run Anadolu news agency said they were suspected of activities "in support of the separatist terrorist organisation and its affiliates". It also said the number was meant to grow to 14,000 after an investigation carried out alongside local governors' offices. It is not clear what part of the country the suspended teachers are mainly from, but Turkey's Kurdish population is concentrated in the south-east, near the borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran. There are 850,000 teachers in Turkey, meaning the suspensions only affect less than 2% of teachers. However earlier this year, 15,200 education ministry officials lost their jobs and 21,000 private school teachers had their licences revoked, amid a crackdown on followers of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed for the failed 15 July coup.[SEP]DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey is waging the largest operation in its history against Kurdish militants and the removal of civil servants linked to them is a key part of the fight, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, as more than 11,000 teachers were suspended. The crackdown comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of orchestrating an attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement. Erdogan has repeatedly said he will not stop in his efforts to quash both the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) or followers of Gulen, a network Ankara has labeled as FETO, meaning “Gulen Terror Organisation”. “We have run and are currently running the largest operations against the PKK terrorist organization in its history, both within and across our borders,” Erdogan said. “Whether it’s the struggle against the PKK or against the FETO, an important dimension of this struggle is the removal of civil servants that are extensions of these organization within the state.” Turkey has sacked or suspended 100,000 people following the failed July 15 coup. At least 40,000 people have been detained on suspicion of links to Gulen’s network and half of those arrested. The scope of the crackdown has raised concern from rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies who fear Erdogan is using the failed coup as pretext to curtail dissent. Following the coup, there has been no let-up in the government’s campaign against the PKK in the mainly Kurdish southeast. The group, seen as a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union, has waged a three-decade insurgency that has killed 40,000 people, most of them Kurds. TEACHERS SUSPENDED The government suspended 11,500 teachers over alleged links to the PKK, an official said on Thursday, after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said during a visit to the region over the weekend that there were an estimated 14,000 teachers with links to the militants. Security officials and local media reports said the state had appointed administrators to two municipalities in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, although the local governor later denied it. “Reports on the taking over of two mayor’s offices in Diyarbakir do not reflect the truth. There has not been such an appointment at this stage. If there is an appointment, a statement will be made,” the governor’s office said in a statement. Security officials, the private Dogan news agency, and the state-run Anadolu agency earlier said the government appointed the administrators to replace a pro-Kurdish party because of alleged support for Kurdish militants. Diyarbakir is a province in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast. The Democratic Regions Party (DBP), which runs the councils and many across the region, has been dubbed by Erdogan as an extension of the PKK, which has fought a three-decades-old conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast. The DBP is the local partner of Turkey’s national pro-Kurdish opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).[SEP]Turkey suspends 11,500 teachers over alleged links to Kurdish militants -official ANKARA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Turkey has suspended 11,500 teachers over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), a Turkish official said on Thursday, confirming an earlier report from broadcaster CNN Turk that cited the education ministry. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim visited the mainly Kurdish southeast over the weekend and said in a speech there that an estimated 14,000 teachers had links to the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the European Union and the United States. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by David Dolan)[SEP]Turkey has suspended 11,500 teachers over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party, a Turkish official said on Thursday, confirming an earlier report from broadcaster CNN Turk that cited the education ministry. Prime minister Binali Yildirim visited the mainly Kurdish southeast over the weekend and said in a speech there that an estimated 14,000 teachers had links to the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the European Union and the United States.[SEP]At least 11,285 schoolteachers across the country were suspended over suspected links to a separatist terrorist organization, Anadolu reported Thursday, citing Turkey's Education Ministry. That number could reach 14,000 during an investigation conducted in coordination with governors' offices across the country, Anadolu reported. Although the ministry did not specify the group, the term "separatist terrorist organization" usually refers to the Kurdistan worker's party, or PKK. Later, a senior Turkish official confirmed to CNN that the "separatist organization" is PKK. "There are more than 850,000 teachers in Turkey. The individuals in question are temporarily suspended, placed on paid leave, pending formal investigation," the official told CNN. "In this sense, I am not in a position to comment on the specific connection. More broadly, such steps are taken based on concrete evidence such as financial links, recruitment efforts etc." Turkey imposed a three-month state of emergency in July after an attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It fired about 50,000 people after that failed coup. About 21,000 teachers in private institutions had their licenses revoked amid a crackdown on followers of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric blamed by Erdogan for the failed July 15 coup. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed to suspend all teachers associated with the PKK. Speaking in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, which has been repeatedly hit by PKK attacks, Yildirim said some 14,000 teachers serving in the region were suspected of being linked to terrorism. The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year. The PKK claim to represent Turkey's largest ethic group, the Kurds, who make up an estimated 20% of the Turkish population. PKK has been battling the Turkish state off and on for some 30 years.[SEP]has suspended more than 10,000 teachers over suspected links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Turkish official said on Thursday, following a purge of education staff in the wake of the failed coup bid. ‘The individuals in question are temporarily suspended – placed on paid leave – pending formal investigation,’ the official said. A total of 11,500 teachers suspected by the education ministry of having engaged in activities ‘in support of the separatist terrorist organisation and its affiliates’ have been suspended, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, is listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies. The number was expected to go up to 14,000 based on the results of an investigation carried out in coordination with local governors’ offices, Anadolu said, without elaborating further. The suspension comes just over a week before the new school year gets underway in Turkey. In a key visit to the Kurdish-majority city Diyarbakir in the southeast on Sunday, prime minister Binali Yildirim said up to 14,000 teachers would be suspended over links to the PKK. There are 850,000 teachers in Turkey. The insurgency in the southeast has resumed after the collapse last year of a fragile ceasefire declared by the PKK. The latest move comes after the government has purged tens of thousands of education personnel, including teachers and university academics, after the July 15 coup attempt seeking to oust president Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power. Turkish authorities have blamed the coup on Erdogan’s arch-foe, US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen. The government has vowed to press on with its campaign to eradicate the PKK from southeastern Turkey. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984 with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.[SEP]DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Turkey took over two southeastern councils run by a pro-Kurdish party and suspended more than 11,000 teachers on Thursday as Ankara ratcheted up a crackdown on those it accuses of ties to Kurdish militants fighting an insurgency in the southeast. The crackdown comes as Ankara pushes ahead with a purge against tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of orchestrating an attempted coup in July. He denies any involvement. Security officials said the state appointed administrators to the Sur district of the southeast's largest city Diyarbakir, an area severely damaged in fighting between security forces and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. The Silvan district of Diyarbakir province was also brought under the control of administrators, with both councils targeted over what the officials said was their support for the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies. The Democratic Regions Party (DBP), which runs the councils and many across the region, has been dubbed by President Tayyip Erdogan as an extension of the PKK, which has fought a three-decades-old conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast. The DBP is the local partner of Turkey's national pro-Kurdish opposition party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). The government also suspended 11,500 teachers over alleged links to the PKK, an official said, after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said during a visit to the region over the weekend that there were an estimated 14,000 teachers with links to the militants. Erdogan said in a speech that Turkey was conducting the largest operations in its history against Kurdish militants in the southeast and that the removal of civil servants with links to them was a key element of the fight. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984 and the fighting flared up in July last year after the collapse of a two-year old ceasefire. (Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Seda Sezer; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan)[SEP]Dozens held as teachers protest suspensions in Turkey's southeast, union says DIYARBAKIR, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Turkish police detained dozens of people and used water cannon on Friday to disperse several hundred teachers demonstrating against their suspension from classrooms in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, union sources said and TV footage showed. Brawls erupted and police pushed back crowds chanting "shoulder to shoulder against fascism" after Turkish authorities suspended more than 11,000 teachers on Thursday over alleged links with the Kurdish militants. A further 418 teachers were also suspended from duty in the predominantly Kurdish eastern province of Tunceli on Friday. Several hundred teachers gathered in front of the education ministry's provincial building to protest. "This is an attack on our unionised struggle," Suleyman Guler, the provincial head of the education union, Egitim-Sen, told Reuters. Guler was also suspended from work. "It is not possible to accept this decision. There is neither a crime here nor a criminal. We call for the immediate halt of this move," he said. The suspensions were part of the government's campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast. It comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement. The scope of that crackdown has raised concern among rights groups and Turkey's Western allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the failed coup as pretext to curtail dissent. The anti-PKK campaign is Turkey's largest ever against the group, and the removal of civil servants linked to the PKK is a key part of the fight, Erdogan said on Thursday. Demonstrations have been banned across Diyarbakir province since mid-August during the state of emergency declared after the failed coup. On Friday, the Diyarbakir governor's office also imposed a curfew in more than a dozen neighbourhoods across three districts, as security operations were planned against Kurdish militants in the region. More than 40,000 people have died since autonomy-seeking PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state more than 30 years ago. The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. (Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by David Dolan, Larry King)[SEP]Dozens held as teachers protest suspensions in Turkey's southeast, union says DIYARBAKIR, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Turkish police detained dozens of people and used water cannon on Friday to disperse several hundred teachers demonstrating against their suspension from classrooms in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, union sources said and TV footage showed. Brawls erupted and police pushed back crowds chanting "shoulder to shoulder against fascism" after Turkish authorities suspended more than 11,000 teachers on Thursday over alleged links with the Kurdish militants. A further 1,151 teachers were also suspended from duty in the predominantly Kurdish eastern provinces of Tunceli and Van on Friday, Dogan news agency reported. Several hundred teachers gathered in front of the education ministry's provincial building Tunceli to protest, Reuters TV footage showed. "This is an attack on our unionised struggle," Suleyman Guler, the provincial head of the education union, Egitim-Sen, told Reuters. Guler was also suspended from work. "It is not possible to accept this decision. There is neither a crime here nor a criminal. We call for the immediate halt of this move," he said. The suspensions were part of the government's campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast. It comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement. The scope of that crackdown has raised concern among rights groups and Turkey's Western allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the failed coup as pretext to curtail dissent. The anti-PKK campaign is Turkey's largest ever against the militant group, and the removal of civil servants linked to the PKK is a key part of the fight, Erdogan said on Thursday. Turkey will remove municipal managers who support the PKK and appoint new administrators to more than two dozen municipalities, interior minister Suleyman Soylu told state broadcaster TRT. "The management of 28 municipalities will be removed from under the instructions of Qandil and will be transformed to the will of the sons of this nation," he said, referring to the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq where the PKK's senior leadership is based. Demonstrations have been banned across Diyarbakir province since mid-August during the state of emergency declared after the failed coup. On Friday, the Diyarbakir governor's office also imposed a curfew in more than a dozen neighbourhoods across three districts, as security operations were planned against Kurdish militants in the region. More than 40,000 people have died since autonomy-seeking PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state more than 30 years ago. The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. (Additional reporting by Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by David Dolan, Larry King)

Turkey suspends 11,500 teachers over alleged links to separatist terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a week before the start of school.

Move follows standoff in capital Yerevan between police and armed men, and could pave way for a coalition government This article is more than 3 years old This article is more than 3 years old The prime minister of Armenia has announced his resignation following weeks of civil unrest and a sharp economic downturn. Hovik Abrahamyan told a cabinet meeting on Thursday that the country needs “new approaches and a new beginning,” and his departure should lead the way towards a coalition government. Last month, Armenia’s president, Serzh Sargsyan, promised to create a government of national accord after a two-week standoff at a police compound in the capital, Yerevan, which left two police officers dead and shook the nation. Several dozen armed men stormed the building and demanded the release of Zhirair Sefilyan, the leader of the New Armenia Public Salvation Front opposition group, who was arrested in June on suspicion of preparing to seize government buildings and telecoms facilities in Yerevan. The standoff galvanised Armenia’s protest movement, triggering rallies in support of the gunmen and further clashes with police. In recent months, there has been a flare-up of violence in Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. Karabakh is technically part of Azerbaijan, but it has been run by an ethnic Armenian government since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In April, the worst clashes since a 1994 ceasefire broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Barricades, clashes and a white dog: two weeks of protest in Armenia’s capital Read more In comments reported by Russian news agencies, Abrahamyan said he was stepping down in order to “give a chance to a new government,” which would offer “new approaches in order to consolidate society”. However, it was not clear from his statement who would lead the government. Political analysts in Armenia have named the former mayor of Yerevan Karen Karapetyan, a top executive at Russian gas company Gazprom, as the likeliest successor to Abrahamyan.[SEP]YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The prime minister of Armenia says he is resigning in order to give way to a coalition government. Armenia's president last month promised to create a government of "national accord" following a two-week standoff at a police compound that left two police officers dead and shook the nation. It was not clear from Prime Minister Ovik Abramyan's statement on Thursday who will lead the new government. Several dozen armed men captured the police compound in capital Yerevan in July, demanding freedom for an opposition activist and the government's ouster. The standoff triggered rallies in support of the gunmen and clashes with police in what appeared to be the biggest political crisis in this country in years.[SEP]William Sharp Jr., was born Dec. 8, 1954, in Whitmore to Willie and Priscilla Sharp. He departed his earthly journey on Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, at his home. He was preceded in death by both of parents; his sister, Katie Sharp Walker; his uncle and aunt, Leroy and Betty Washington, who raised him, and his grandparents, Jonas and Helen Hardrick. He leaves to cherish his memories his long-time companion, Dorothy Summage; his sisters, Dorothy (Terrance) Chancellar of Greenwood, Ill., Jackie and Carolyn Sharp and Diane (Charles) Lewis, all of Robbin, Ill., Lenetta (George) Staples of Country Club, Ill.; three aunts, Irene Moore of Widener, Clara (Ulysses) Pruitt of Forrest City and Maesola (Lewis) Mason, and a host of nephews, nieces, cousins, other relatives and a very special friend, Minister Otis Dawson. Visitation for Mr. Sharp will be held at Kincaid Funeral Services, 2615 S. Washington, on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, from 1 to 5 p.m. The funeral service will be in the chapel of Kincaid Funeral Services on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, at 11 a.m., with Minister Otis Dawson delivering the eulogy. Burial will follow at Casteel Cemetery, with arrangements under the direction of Kincaid Funeral Services, Inc. Share memories or express condolences by signing the guestbook at www.kincaidfuneralservices.com.[SEP]Armenian prime minister resigns, says country needs new approach YEREVAN, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan tendered his resignation at a government meeting on Thursday, saying the country needed fresh policies, after an economic slowdown this year and outbreaks of violence. His announcement paves the way for the cabinet to resign and the president to appoint a new prime minister following consultations with parliament. "We need a new approach, new start. That's why I've decided to resign and let the president form a new government," Abrahamyan said. A former parliamentary speaker and an economist by training, Abrahamyan was appointed prime minister two years ago. In 2015 Armenia's economy started to deteriorate - economic growth slowed to 3 percent in 2015 from 3.5 percent in 2014 and below the government's growth forecast of 4.1 percent. The government expects 2.2 percent economic growth in 2016. Armenia, a country of 3.2 million people, depends heavily on aid and investment from former Soviet overlord Russia, whose economic downturn has hit Armenian exports and much-needed remittances from Armenians working there. The government has also faced political challenges, including a flare-up of violence in Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in April between Armenian-backed separatists and Azeri forces. Two months later a group of 30 armed men seized the police station and took hostages in the Armenian capital Yerevan. Two police officers were killed during a two-week stand-off, before gunmen surrendered to the authorities. The incident led to mass protests in the capital, when people took to the streets to secure the release of a jailed opposition politician and demand the resignation of the government and the president. Shortly after that Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said radical reforms in political and social life were needed. He said it was necessary to form "a government of national accord" to provide a broader distribution and division of political responsibility. Local media reported that Abrahamyan might be replaced by 53-year-old technocrat Karen Karapetyan, the former head of national gas distributing company ArmRosGazprom and later Yerevan mayor. After leaving the post of mayor, he moved to Moscow, to be appointed as the first vice-president of Gazprombank. He is currently deputy CEO of Russian gas producer Gazprom's Mezhregiongaz unit. Experts say the new government is likely to be temporary and the final configuration will emerge only after 2017 parliamentary election and the end of Sarksyan's second term in 2018, when the full transition from the semi-presidential form of government to a parliamentary republic will be completed. (Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Hovik Abrahamyan resigns as Prime Minister of Armenia citing civil unrest and a sharp economic downturn.

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A high court in the State of Palestine suspends upcoming municipal elections.

Uzbekistan's parliament has appointed Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president after the death of Islam Karimov last week, Russian news agency Interfax reported on Thursday. Mirziyoyev had been tipped as a favourite to succeed the late Karimov, who governed Uzbekistan with an iron fist since first entering power while the country was still part of the Soviet Union. Karimov was re-elected multiple times, though none of the elections he participated in fulfilled international fairness criteria. According to the Uzbek constitution, in the case of a premature vacating of the position of president, the speaker of parliament's upper house becomes interim president for three months, after which a leader is expected to take charge. This will now not happen, as the Uzbek prime minister, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, will become acting president, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti confirmed. Mirziyoyev has served as prime minister since 2003. He is 59-years-old, having previously served as a governor of two Uzbek regions, including the historic Samarkand region, where Karimov is buried. Karimov's death was widely reported almost a week before the government announced he had died after a stroke. The delay in announcing the leader's demise may have been a deliberate ploy to allow officials time to discuss his succession. Parliamentary head Nigmatulla Yuldashev reportedly volunteered to step aside, in order for Mirziyoyev to lead the country. A date for official elections has not been announced. Mirziyoyev has been the most visible Uzbek politician in the wake of Karimov's death, leading the funeral procession, responding to world leaders' messages of condolences and receiving the likes of Putin on a condolence visit to Uzbekistan.[SEP]Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev has been named as acting president of Uzbekistan following the death of its long-serving leader, Islam Karimov. Mirziyoyev, who has served as prime minister since 2003, was confirmed as acting president at a joint session of the Uzbek parliament Thursday. Karimov, the country’s authoritarian ruler of 27 years, died of a brain hemorrhage last week at the age of 78. He was buried in his home town of Samarkand on Saturday, but left no obvious successor. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Samarkand Monday, laying flowers at Karimov’s grave and personally giving his condolences to the former president’s widow and daughter. Mirziyoyev accompanied Putin during his visit, suggesting to many that he was likely to succeed Karimov. Presidential elections to determine Karimov’s successor should be held within three months, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a representative of Uzbekistan’s parliament.[SEP]Uzbekistan’s parliament named prime minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president on Thursday in succession to the late president Islam Karimov, saying stability and law and order had to be maintained in the populous Central Asian state. Mr Mirziyoyev (59) secured the top job when the man who should have become transitional leader under the constitution bowed out in his favour, saying he had long experience in office and enjoyed the respect of people. The authoritarian Karimov died of a stroke last week aged 78 after ruling the resource-rich country for 27 years. Under the Uzbek constitution, a presidential election must now be held within three months, and Mr Mirziyoyev, who was the official mourner-in-chief at Karimov’s funeral and met Russian president Vladimir Putin this week, is widely expected to be elected. Russia, the United States and China vie for influence in Uzbekistan, a country of 32 million bordering Afghanistan. Central Asia pundits say they do not expect any drastic policy changes under Mr Mirziyoyev, a former regional governor valued by Karimov as a competent manager. With his appointment as acting head of state, Mr Mirziyoyev leapfrogged the little-known Senate chairman Nigmatilla Yuldashev, who under the constitution should have led the country during the transition period. Mr Yuldashev turned down the role and instead asked to for Mr Mirziyoyev to be installed as acting president, taking into account “his long experience of work in executive positions and respect among the people”, the parliament said in a statement. Parliament supported Mr Yuldashev’s motion, stressing the “need to preserve stability, public security, law and order and effectively resolve political and economic issues”. Karimov cast his country as a bulwark against militant Islam but drew western criticism for suppressing political dissent. Human rights groups say there are hundreds of political and religious prisoners in local jails and say torture is practised. In contrast to the West, Mr Putin said during his visit to Tashkent this week he hoped the new Uzbek leader would continue Karimov’s work, putting a stamp on Moscow’s claim to be the former Soviet republic’s closest ally.[SEP]ALMATY, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan's parliament appointed Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president on Thursday, a source who saw the written decision of the legislature told Reuters. President Islam Karimov, who had ruled Central Asia's most populous nation for 27 years, died of a stroke last week aged 78. Mirziyoyev, who was the official mourner-in-chief at Karimov's funeral and met Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, is widely expected to become the president of Uzbekistan, an energy-rich country where Russia, the United States and China are vying for influence. Under the Uzbek constitution, a presidential election must now be held within three months. Central Asia pundits say they do not expect any drastic policy changes if Mirziyoyev, a former regional governor, is duly elected president of the mainly Muslim nation of 32 million people that borders Afghanistan. By appointing Mirziyoyev, 59, as acting head of state, the legislature leapfrogged Senate Chairman Nigmatilla Yuldashev, who under the constitution should have led the country during the transition period as acting president after Karimov's death. But Yuldashev, a little-known figure, had declined the role saying he lacked experience, the same source said. The appointment of Mirziyoyev, valued by Karimov as a competent manager, is expected to be officially announced in an evening TV news programme - a usual practice in the secretive nation. Karimov cast his country as a bulwark against militant Islam but drew Western criticism for suppressing political dissent. Human rights groups say there are hundreds of political and religious prisoners in local jails and say torture is practised. In contrast to the West, Putin said during his visit to Tashkent this week he hoped the new Uzbek leader would continue Karimov's work, putting a stamp on Moscow's claim to be the former Soviet republic's closest ally. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Gareth Jones)[SEP]After days of speculation about his health, Islam Karimov, the first and only president of independent Uzbekistan, was pronounced dead on Sept. 2. Karimov’s death has cast the country into uncertainty; analysts have predicted a surge of Islamic fundamentalism, ethnic and regional disputes, confrontation between political clans, and even civil war. The president’s passing has, perhaps most importantly, touched off a succession crisis: because Karimov did not designate an heir, a political battle to assume the throne is under way in Tashkent. Three men stand out as potential successors: Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Rustam Azimov, and National Security Service (SNB) chief Rustam Inoyatov. While Mirziyoyev and Azimov are public figures who seem to be ready to run for president (an election is supposed to be held within three months), Inoyatov may act more as a grey cardinal, manipulating Mirziyoyev—his close associate—rather than seeking elected office. Perhaps the most likely candidate to move into the presidential palace is the fifty-nine-year-old Mirziyoyev, a candidate known for his hot temper. It is said that he routinely insults and hits his subordinates. According to reports from human rights activists, when he was governor of the Dzhizak region, Mirziyoyev beat a local college teacher to death for refusing to bring his students to work in the cotton fields in the pouring rain. Mirziyoyev is said to be close to the entire Karimov family, as well as to Rustam Inoyatov. There are a great number of theories purporting to explain the alliance between the prime minister and the SNB head, including that Inoyatov planted Mirziyoyev in Karimov’s inner circle so that he would be able to influence the president. Inoyatov has been at the helm of Uzbekistan’s security service for more than twenty years and controls all of Uzbekistan’s major military and security structures; Inoyatov has his own army that includes Uzbekistan’s most combat-ready detachments. What’s more, some reports suggest that Inoyatov’s people in the presidential administration kept a close eye on Karimov’s communications with the heads of regions and ministries. The third potential candidate to replace Karimov is Rustam Azimov, who became finance minister in 1998 and whose knowledge of free market principles helped him become a fixture on Karimov’s team. To many in Uzbekistan and the émigré community, Azimov’s name is associated with liberalism: he has a master’s degree from Oxford, which probably makes him the most well-educated man in the government. That being said, he isn’t altogether different from other Uzbek leaders who ascended to power under Karimov; he just never directly persecuted political dissenters, like Inoyatov, or drove people to the cotton fields en masse, like Mirziyoyev. What matters most is these three men’s ability to agree on who will be the next president of Uzbekistan; a protracted power struggle could prove disastrous. One of them—perhaps, Azimov—may be eliminated. It’s also possible that, as in Turkmenistan, the president will be replaced by a second- or even third-tier government official. In any case, the caution with which officials in Tashkent handled information about the president’s grave medical condition and death suggest that the struggle for power may be only just beginning. Petr Bologov is an international columnist at Slon.ru.[SEP]ALMATY, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan will elect a new president on Dec. 4 following the death of veteran leader Islam Karimov last week, the elections authority said on Friday, as Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev looked set to take over. Karimov died of a stroke on Sept.2 aged 78 after ruling the resource-rich Central Asian country of 32 million people for 27 years in an authoritarian manner, brooking no dissent. Political parties will be able to nominate candidates between Sept. 30 and Oct. 20, Central Election Commission Chairman Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov told reporters. On Thursday, Uzbekistan's parliament named Mirziyoyev, 59, as interim president when the man who should have become transitional leader under the constitution bowed out in his favour, saying he had long experience in office and enjoyed the respect of people. Mirziyoyev was also the official mourner-in-chief at Karimov's funeral and met Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, strong signs that he is likely to succeed Karimov. Uzbekistan has never held a vote judged free and fair by Western observers. Karimov was routinely reelected with more than 90 percent of the vote. In a speech delivered in parliament on Thursday and published on Friday, Mirziyoyev pledged to continue Karimov's policies, focusing on stability and security and sticking to the "Uzbek model" in economic matters. Uzbekistan has been deliberately slow to introduce market reforms under Karimov and the economy remains dominated by the state. Mirziyoyev also said Tashkent would continue the policy of avoiding military blocs and refusing to host military bases of foreign nations. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Additional reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov; Editing by Dominic Evans)[SEP]TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbek news agencies report that Uzbekistan's parliament has appointed Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev as the country’s interim president after the death of longtime President Islam Karimov. Both houses of the Uzbek parliament made the decision at a joint session on September 8. According to Uzbekistan’s Constitution, the head of the upper house of parliament, the Senate, would assume presidential authority for a period of three months if the president dies or is unable to perform duties. But the Senate Chairman, Nigmatulla Yuldashev, had refused to accept interim presidency. The presidential election would be held during the nearest three months. Shavkat Mirziyaev, 59, graduated from the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Mechanization of Agriculture. He served as head of administration of the Mirzo-Ulugbek district of Tashkent. Mirziyaev has been Uzbekistan’s prime minister since 2003, making him the longest serving prime minister in Uzbekistan's 25-year history as an independent country. Prior to that post, he was the governor of the Samarkand Province (2001-2003) and the Jizzakh Province (1996-2001). Islam Karimov, who had ruled Uzbekistan with an iron fist since 1989, died from a stroke at the age of 78. He was buried in his home city of Samarkand on September 3, a day after the Uzbek government officially announced his death.[SEP]ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Ex-Soviet Uzbekistan’s new interim president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ruled out military alliances, the government said Friday, following the same course as the late veteran strongman Islam Karimov. Mirziyoyev — who served as the Central Asian country’s prime minister for nearly 13 years — is the frontrunner to replace Karimov in a presidential vote expected to take place within three months. “The firm position of our country, as before, is non-membership in all military-political alliances and not allowing other states’ military bases and facilities on the territory of Uzbekistan,” Mirziyoyev told lawmakers, according to a foreign ministry statement. “No one should doubt that any attempt by internal and external forces to encroach on the sovereignty and independence of our country will be severely suppressed.”[SEP]Presidential elections in Uzbekistan will take place on Dec. 4, the country's government has confirmed. Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev was named as acting president on Thursday, following the death of the country's long-serving leader Islam Karimov. Uzbekistan last held presidential elections in March 2015. Karimov faced three other candidates, all of whom were from pro-government parties. Election monitors for the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) reported that the elections did not show “genuine competition” and that the “rigidly constrained media did not provide political debate.” Karimov, the country’s authoritarian ruler of 27 years, died of a brain hemorrhage last week at the age of 78. He was buried in his home town of Samarkand on Saturday, but left no obvious successor. Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Samarkand Monday, laying flowers at Karimov’s grave and personally giving his condolences to the former president’s widow and daughter. Mirziyoyev accompanied Putin during his visit, suggesting to many that he was likely to succeed Karimov.[SEP]Nearly a week after Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan's longtime autocratic president, was officially declared dead after suffering a stroke, the country's parliament appointed Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as acting president on Thursday, setting the stage for the experienced bureaucrat to assume the role permanently in the latest sign of consensus among the country's elites over succession. Mirziyoyev, who has been Uzbekistan's prime minister since 2003, was widely considered the favorite to succeed Karimov, who was the former Soviet country's first and only president, and his appointment as the caretaker president is the clearest sign yet that Mirziyoyev is looking to make it permanent. During Karimov's lavish funeral, state TV showed footage of Mirziyoyev assuming official duties, including organizing the massive event and interacting with foreign dignitaries in attendance; that included his meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Uzbekistan on Tuesday. Under the constitution, Senate leader Nigmatilla Yuldashev should have taken over the interim position ahead of elections within three months, but reportedly declined. According to a statement released on the Uzbek government's official website, Yuldashev broke with procedure during the parliamentary session and in an indication of Mirziyoyev's growing behind-the-scenes power, asked lawmakers to appoint the prime minister instead of himself due to the prime minister's "many years of [government] experience." As interim president and Karimov's probable successor, Mirziyoyev will have to tackle a host of issues facing Uzbekistan, including economic stagnation, mass migration, and the shadow of Islamist extremism. But Mirziyoyev's most challenging task could be navigating Uzbekistan's complex, and often turbulent, relations with major powers like Russia, the United States, and China, as well as its four Central Asian neighbors - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan - as Moscow, Beijing, and Washington jostle for influence across the region. "Moscow is much more interested in Central Asia than anyone else," Bakhti Nishanov, deputy director for Eurasia at the International Republican Institute, told Foreign Policy. "The Chinese see it as economically important, the Americans want regional stability, but for the Russians, it is almost part of their identity." Mirziyoyev has already received a warm welcome from Putin. During his visit, Putin pledged his support for Uzbekistan and portrayed Russia as Karimov's closest ally, telling the interim leader that he could count on Moscow as one of his "most reliable friends." The Kremlin and Karimov had a complicated, and at times fraught, relationship during the 25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, Tashkent was wary of its former patron in Moscow and sought to cement its own independence, even later becoming an unsavory ally of the United States in the global war on terrorism. "Karimov was a very effective ruler that was able to carve out independence for his country," Paul Stronski, a Central Asia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, told FP. "Whether the next person is able to have that same sort of vision for a space that isn't in Russia or the West's pocket is the big question." Uzbekistan's ties with Washington have also had their ups-and-downs. Closer relations were cemented with U.S. access to an air base used to move materiel and personnel to the ongoing war effort in Afghanistan. That relationship was derailed following Washington's criticism of the Andijan massacre, in which Uzbek security forces shot and killed unarmed protesters in 2005. Following the incident, Tashkent evicted the United States from the air base in Uzbekistan and Putin quickly moved to rekindle ties with Karimov and has been courting Tashkent ever since. Yet China remains the largest economic player Central Asia and has heavily invested in infrastructure across the region to promote its "One Belt, One Road" project, a 21st-century version of the Silk Road that's intended to connect China to Europe through the Central Asian countries. But while Beijing is an important economic force, it has so far largely refrained from playing a larger political or security role in the region. The United States, meanwhile, has significantly scaled back its footprint in Central Asia following the drawdown of operations in Afghanistan and the closure of U.S. air bases in Uzbekistan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Moscow, in contrast, has pushed to solidify its influence in Central Asia through regional organizations like the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-led military bloc, of which Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are members, and the Eurasian Economic Union, which Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have joined. Uzbekistan has so far resisted membership in these organizations, despite Putin's entreaties, and whether Mirziyoyev opts for closer ties with Russia will have a major effect on Uzbekistan's future. "The Russians are playing a long game in Central Asia," said Nishanov. "Mirziyoyev is certainly the preferred candidate for the Kremlin as he is a product of the current system." Relations with Uzbekistan's Central Asian neighbors will also loom large over Mirziyoyev in the coming months. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakhstan, and Almazbek Atambayev, the president of Kyrgyzstan, both skipped Karimov's state funeral in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand. Nazarbayev and Karimov have been competing for regional leadership. Kazakhstan, in large part thanks to its oil wealth, emerged as the richest country in Central Asia, fueling the rivalry between the two autocratic heads of state. Uzbekistan's relations with Kyrgyzstan have been even more delicate, with Karimov halting the supply of natural gas several times to his smaller neighbor to cow Kyrgyz leadership into changing policies that he did not like. In 1999, for example, the Uzbek leader demanded that former Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev stop democratic reforms he was carrying out or face having the country's energy supplies cut off. According to Stronski, how Uzbekistan's next president decides to deal with other countries in Central Asia could be an important way for the new leader to leave his mark on the country and cement his hold on power. "How will the next leader seek to solidify his legitimacy?" said Stronski. "He might want to pick a fight with one of the neighbors or have a standoff to make a point."

Uzbekistan’s parliament appoints Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president after the death of President Islam Karimov.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday named a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general as the government’s first federal cyber security chief, a position announced eight months ago that is intended to improve defenses against hackers. Gregory Touhill’s job will be to protect government networks and critical infrastructure from cyber threats as federal chief information security officer, according to a statement. The administration of President Barack Obama has made bolstering federal cyber security a top priority in his last year in office. The issue has gained more attention because of high-profile breaches in recent years of government and private sector computers. U.S. intelligence officials suspect Russia was responsible for breaches of Democratic political organizations and state election systems to exert influence on the Nov. 8 presidential election. Russia has dismissed the allegations as absurd. Obama announced the new position in February alongside a budget proposal to Congress asking for $19 billion for cyber security across the U.S. government. The job is a political appointment, meaning Obama’s successor can choose to replace Touhill after being sworn in next January. Touhill is currently a deputy assistant secretary for cyber security and communications at the Department of Homeland Security. He will begin his new role later this month, a source familiar with the matter said. Touhill’s responsibilities will include creating and implementing policy for best security practices across federal agencies and conducting periodic audits to test for weaknesses, according to the announcement. Grant Schneider, who is the director of cyber security policy at the White House’s National Security Council, will be acting deputy to Touhill, according to the announcement.[SEP]In February, President Obama announced a Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) that takes a series of short-term and long-term actions to improve our cybersecurity posture within the Federal Government and across the country. The CNAP builds upon a comprehensive series of actions over the last nearly eight years that have fundamentally shifted the way we approach security in the digital age and raised the level of cybersecurity across the country. Over the last year alone we’ve made significant progress. For example, we’ve: established the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, consisting of top strategic, business, and technical thinkers from outside the government to make critical recommendations on actions that can be taken over the next decade to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy and public safety; proposed legislation to establish a $3.1 billion Information Technology Modernization Fund (ITMF) to modernize government IT and retire and replace legacy IT that is difficult to secure and expensive to maintain; directed implementation of a Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP) for the Federal civilian government as well as the first-ever Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy to identify, recruit, develop, retain, and expand the pipeline of the best, brightest, and most diverse cybersecurity talent for Federal service and for our Nation. While we’ve seen progress, and as the President has made clear on many occasions, there’s much more to do. That’s why today we are proud to announce Brigadier General (retired) Gregory J. Touhill as the first Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). A key feature of the CNAP is creation of the first CISO to drive cybersecurity policy, planning, and implementation across the Federal Government. General Touhill is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where he focuses on the development and implementation of operational programs designed to protect our government networks and critical infrastructure. In his new role as Federal CISO, Greg will leverage his considerable experience in managing a range of complex and diverse technical solutions at scale with his strong knowledge of both civilian and military best practices, capabilities, and human capital training, development and retention strategies. Greg will lead a strong team within OMB who have been at the forefront of driving policy and implementation of leading cyber practices across federal agencies, and is the team that conducts periodic cyberstat reviews with federal agencies to insure that implementation plans are effective and achieve the desired outcomes. In addition to the naming the first Federal CISO, we are also proud to announce Grant Schneider as the Acting Deputy CISO. In creating the CISO role, and looking at successful organizational models across government, it became apparent that having a career role partnered with a senior official is not only the norm but also provides needed continuity over time. Grant currently serves as the Director for Cybersecurity Policy on the National Security Council staff at the White House where he focuses on development and oversight of cybersecurity policies to protect government data, networks, and systems, and brings over 20 years of technical skills to the role. Strong cybersecurity depends on robust policies, secure networks and systems and, importantly, a cadre of highly skilled cybersecurity talent. Building on the Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy to identify, recruit, and retain top talent, the CISO will play a central role in helping to ensure the right set of policies, strategies, and practices are adopted across agencies and keeping the Federal Government at the leading edge of 21st century cybersecurity. Tony Scott is the U.S. Chief Information Officer. J. Michael Daniel is Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator. Also see:[SEP]Retired Air Force Brigadier Gen. Gregory Touhill just got a promotion. The White House has named Touhill as the first ever federal chief information security officer, a role that is focused on bolstering the U.S. government’s digital defenses. The Obama administration first announced the creation of the position in February as part of a $19 billion “cybersecurity national action plan” that included IT investments and new hires. Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter. Touhill currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications within the Department of Homeland Security. In the new job, he will report to Tony Scott, the federal chief information officer and former executive at business software company VMware (VMW). Touhill will lead a team within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget “that conducts periodic cyberstat reviews with federal agencies to insure that implementation plans are effective and achieve the desired outcomes,” said Scott, the U.S. info chief, and Michael Daniel, U.S. cybersecurity coordinator, in a jointly authored blog post announcing the news. Touhill will be responsible for “helping to ensure the right set of policies, strategies, and practices are adopted across agencies,” they said. Reuters first reported the news of Touhill’s hire moments before the Obama administration published its blog post. For more on cybersecurity and politics, watch: Touhill, who joined the military more than three decades ago, has led teams at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, at the Air Force’s Central Command, and at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. You can read more about his bio on the U.S. Air Force website here. In a post on Twitter, Richard Bejtlich, chief security strategist at the cybersecurity firm FireEye (FEYE), questioned the longevity of Touhill’s tenure in the face of an upcoming presidential election. “First reaction: will he survive election? Is he an appointee or bureaucrat? Latter might increase staying power,” he said. The appointment is political, a White House spokesperson clarified in an email to Fortune, meaning that Touhill may serve only briefly in the position because of President Obama’s limited time remaining in office. The Obama administration also appointed Grant Schneider, cybersecurity policy director on the White House’s National Security Council, as Tuohill’s acting deputy information security chief—a career role, in contrast to Touhill’s. Schneider previously spent seven years as the chief information officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency. The pair will likely start in their new roles later this month, a person familiar with the hirings told Fortune. This story has been updated with additional information from the White House.[SEP]WASHINGTON—The White House on Thursday named a retired U.S. Air Force general as the government's first federal cyber security chief, a position announced eight months ago that is intended to improve defenses against hackers. Gregory Touhill's job will be to protect government networks and critical infrastructure from cyber threats as federal chief information security officer, according to a statement. The Obama administration has made bolstering federal cyber security a top priority of the president's last year in office. The issue has gained more attention due to high-profile breaches in recent years against the government and private sector. Most recently U.S. intelligence officials have suspected Russia is responsible for breaches of Democratic political organizations and state election systems. They believe it may be trying to exert influence over the U.S. presidential election, a charge the Kremlin has denied. President Barack Obama announced the new position in February alongside a budget proposal to Congress asking for $19 billion for cyber security across the U.S. government. Touhill is currently a deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security. He will begin his new role later this month, a source familiar with the matter said. Grant Schneider, who is the director of cyber security policy at the White House's National Security Council, will be acting deputy to Touhill, according to the announcement.

The Obama administration chooses retired United States Air Force Brigadier General Gregory Touhill the first federal CISO chief, who reports to the CIO of the U.S. Tony Scott.

This story is from September 8, 2016 GSLV-F05 lifts off from Sriharikota on Sept 8, 2016 (TOI pic by B A Raju) INSAT-3DR Mastering cryogenic technology SRIHARIKOTA: More than two decades after the Indian cryogenic engine programme was formalised, an indigenous cryogenic engine developed by Indian Space Research Organisation successfully propelled for the first time an operational flight of GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) lifting into space the country’s third exclusive meteorological satellite on Thursday evening.INSAT-3DR, an advanced weather satellite , was placed in orbit around 17 minutes after GSLV-F05 took off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 4.50pm. The launch was originally scheduled to be held at 4.10pm. However, it was delayed by 40 minutes as scientists were “rechecking observations made during propellant filling." INSAT-3DR is the second heaviest satellite placed in orbit by an indigenous cryogenic engine propelled GSLV. The 2,211kg satellite, which will provide meteorological and search and rescue data services to the country, was injected into the geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite, with the help of its propellant, will be raised to the final geostationary orbit after two days. Isro chairman A S Kiran Kumar said, “The launch vehicle has performed extremely well.”It was GSLV’s 10th flight. It was GSLV’s fourth flight with the desi cryogenic engine CE-7.5, with the first three being developmental flights. “This is the third successful launch with the indigenous cryogenic engine in GSLV. It has demonstrated its consistent performance and proved to be an operational launch vehicle of India,” said director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre P Kunhikrishnan.Isro called the present one an operational flight as the space agency was confident about the technology and its success. GSLV is a three-staged vehicle and cryogenic engine is used in the third and final stage.“The GSLV rocket has carried the highest mass satellite into orbit. However, the biggest achievement this year will be the launch of GSLV Mark-III with indigenous high thrust cryogenic engine [CE-20] carrying the highest mass satellite,” said Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director K Sivan, director. GSLV Mark-III will be launched in December.INSAT-3DR, configured with an imager and two transponders, will continue the services rendered by previous satellites and further augment the capability to provide both meteorological and search and rescue services. A data relay transponder will provide meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic data from remote uninhabited locations through automatic weather stations, rain gauges and agro met stations. The other is a satellite aided search and rescue transponder that will pick up and relay alert signals originating from the distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land based users.The imager in the satellite will generate images of the Earth disk from an altitude of 36,000km once in every 26 minutes and provide information on various parameters including radiation, sea surface temperature, snow cover, cloud motion and fog.India has six meteorological satellites out of which three -- Kalpana-1, INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR -- are exclusively for providing weather services.Isro had conducted three developmental flights with the indigenous cryogenic engine, which it was forced to develop after it used up all the Russian-supplied engines. However, the maiden flight with the desi engine carrying a 2,220kg GSAT-4, an experimental advanced communication satellite, plunged into the Bay of Bengal minutes after it took off from Sriharikota on April 15, 2010. A study conducted later revealed that the turbo pump supplying fuel to the engine had stopped working. Since then, critical modifications were made to both the engine and the rocket before its first successful flight in 2014 and later in 2015.Isro had faced several challenges during the development of the engine. Cryogenic engines were basically essential to put satellites in geostationary orbit, but the technology was quite sophisticated. The reasons were obvious - burning a super-cooled fuel at extremely high temperatures. Isro was faced with the task of developing a material that can withstand the high temperature and pressure during combustion.Even while its first 7.5-tonne engine, capable to carrying two-tonne payload, developed in 2000, blew up during a test, Isro began a project to develop another engine that could carry double the weight.With a CE-20 engine, Isro is not just aiming at launching satellites weighing up to four tonne, but also a possible future manned mission.In Video: ISRO launches weather satellite[SEP]Psychiatrists urged to give the Medical Council three or four research priorities in mental health. In the coming months the Indian Council of Medical Research will come up with a programme for mental health research. Sowmya Swaminathan, director general of the Council, who inaugurated the three-day international conference on schizophrenia (ICONS) here on Thursday said psychiatrists and all those who work with people with mental illnesses would be called up on to partner in the effort. Implementation research, which involves research from the point of delivery of care, she explained, be it in the urban or rural setting, is the need of the hour. One of the issues that the Council wants to address is suicide as it is the number one cause of death among people in the 15 to 29 year age group, she said. “We will call all NGOs and academic institutions to apply and the Indian Psychiatric Association to be a partner with the government hospitals. The government needs help to deliver care,” with its existing infrastructure and human resources, Dr. Sowmya said, urging the psychiatric associations and psychiatrists to give the Council “three or four research priorities.” Research had also shown that neuropsychiatric illnesses hurt more people in the lower socioeconomic strata as they did not have access to treatment and care. President of Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) R. Seshasayee said the organisation had introduced a fellowship to work in the Department of Rehabilitation at SCARF and an oration during the biennial ICONS in the name of its founder Saradha Menon. SCARF director R. Thara made a moving presentation on Dr. Menon. Senior psychiatrists Dinesh Bhugra, Roy Abraham Kallivayalil and G. Prasad Rao, felicitated.[SEP]Launch delayed by 40 minutes; lift off expected at 4:50 p.m. The Indian Space Research Organisation's GSLV-F05 rocket, carrying the INSAT-3DR advanced weather satellite, will lift off from the Second Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 4.50 p.m. on Thursday. The rocket, with the indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage as its fourth stage, will place the satellite, weighing 2,211-kg, in the Geostationary Transfer Orbit. On being placed in the intended orbit, INSAT-3DR would use its own propulsion system to reach its final geosynchronous orbital home and be stationed at 74 deg East longitude, ISRO said. The satellite is expected to provide a variety of meteorological services to the country. 3.43 p.m.: GSLV F05 launch has been delayed by 40 minutes, our correspondent T.K. Rohit reports. 3.37 p.m.: The country started on the GSLV rocket plan in the late 1980s and early 1990s so as to be able to put its 2,000-kg communication satellites to geosynchronous orbits at 36,000 km in space from its own soil. It suffered a setback from geopolitics combined with high-technology commerce: Russia, at the behest of the USA, went back on a deal to transfer critical cryogenic technology for the last and crucial stage of the rocket. Starting in the mid-1990s, ISRO has developed its own cryo engine and has tested it on three vehicles since 2010. Twenty years on, that old dream vehicle is about to become ready for regular work. On the eve of its flight carrying the weather satellite INSAT-3DR, A.S.Kiran Kumar, ISRO Chairman and the fifth to preside over the GSLV programme, speaks to Madhumathi D.S. about what it means to our country. Full interview here

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launches its meteorological satellite INSAT-3DR into a geostationary transfer orbit atop its GSLV Mk II launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Cape Canaveral, Florida (CNN) NASA on Thursday evening launched a space probe called OSIRIS-REx to chase down a dark, potentially dangerous asteroid called Bennu . The probe will take a sample of the asteroid and -- in a US space first -- bring the sample back to Earth. "NASA did it again!" Jim Green, Planetary Science Division director at NASA, said at a post-launch briefing. "Tonight is a night for celebration," said Ellen Stofan , NASA chief scientist. "We are on our way to an asteroid." OSIRIS-REx lifted off at 7:05 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. NASA tweeted, "Our @OSIRISREx spacecraft is on its way, and everything is on the timeline ..." Our @OSIRISREx spacecraft is on its way, and everything is on the timeline. Keep watching: https://t.co/KX5g7zfYQe pic.twitter.com/89uZ54af0v Mission managers said the launch was flawless, the spacecraft is in excellent health and that the mission is hitting all its early milestones. "The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is happy and healthy," said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft. The mission's principal investigator, Dante Lauretta, said the next big moment for him will be seeing Bennu for the first time from OSIRIS-REx. "Everyone on the team has some image in their mind of what Bennu is going to look like and it's going to be phenomenal to see what it really looks like." Those images should start arriving in about two years as OSIRIS-REx approaches Bennu. Life, sort of, imitating art In this real life story, OSIRIS-REx will study and sample Bennu, a big, roundish space rock that has made it onto NASA's list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids . That means Bennu is one of the most dangerous space rocks we know of because it could one day collide with Earth. The probe is scheduled to arrive at Bennu in August 2018. For months it will hang out -- take pictures, make scans of the asteroid's surface and create a map. Then, in July 2020, OSIRIS-REx will unfurl its 11-foot-long (3.35-meter) robot arm called TAGSAM and make contact with Bennu's surface for about five seconds. During those few seconds, the arm will use a blast of nitrogen gas to kick up rocks and dust and then try to snag a sample of the dust and store it. "We are basically a space vacuum cleaner," said Lauretta NASA hopes to get at least 2 ounces (60 grams) and maybe as much as 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of asteroid dust and small rocks. Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth OSIRIS-REx pulled within 12 miles of the diamond-shaped space rock Monday, December 3. Hide Caption 1 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth An artist's concept of what the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will look like as it orbits asteroid Bennu. Hide Caption 2 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth OSIRIS-REx sits on top of its launch vehicle, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, after it was rolled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on September 7, 2016. Hide Caption 3 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth This drawing shows an artist's concept of what it will look like when the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touches asteroid Bennu with its robot arm to grab a sample of the asteroid. Hide Caption 4 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth OSIRIS-REx will spend two years mapping and scanning Bennu before taking a sample of the asteroid and flying it back to Earth. Hide Caption 5 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is sealed inside its protective payload fairing as it sits atop a rocket at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on September 2. Hide Caption 6 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, enclosed in its protective shell, is lifted and examined by workers on August 29 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Hide Caption 7 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is sealed inside a two-piece payload fairing on August 24. The fairing will protect it during launch. Hide Caption 8 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth The OSIRIS-REx arrives at Kennedy Space Center on an Air Force C-17 aircraft. The spacecraft was shipped in this huge container from Lockheed Martin's facility near Denver. The spacecraft arrived at Kennedy on May 20. Hide Caption 9 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Denver. It is 20.25 feet in length (6.2 meters) with its solar arrays deployed. Its width is 8 feet (2.43 meters) x 8 feet (2.43 meters). Its height is 10.33 feet (3.15 meters). It's powered by two solar panels that generate between 1,226 watts and 3,000 watts. It has five instruments to explore asteroid Bennu and also has a robot arm to touch the asteroid long enough to collect a sample. Hide Caption 10 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth OSIRIS-REx will briefly touch asteroid Bennu to take a sample of the space rock. It will use its 11-foot ( (3.35 meters) robot arm, called the Touch-and-Go Sample Arm Mechanism, or TAGSAM. Above, a worker at Lockheed Martin tests the arm. Hide Caption 11 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is rotated on a spin table during testing on May 24 at Kennedy Space Center. Hide Caption 12 of 13 Photos: OSIRIS-REx will take a sample of asteroid Bennu and return it to Earth These radar images of asteroid Bennu were obtained by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, California, on September 23, 1999. Hide Caption 13 of 13 "We kind of expect a gravel field on the surface of the asteroid," Lauretta said. He said he thinks the rocks will be about half an inch, based on information gathered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope on September 24, 2023, but it won't land. In a bit of Hollywood-style drama, it will fly over Utah and OSIRIS-REx heads home in March 2021 and arrives back at Earthon September 24, 2023, but it won't land. In a bit of Hollywood-style drama, it will fly over Utah and drop off the capsule holding the asteroid sample. A parachute will guide the capsule to the ground at the Utah Test and Training Range in Tooele County. Will Bennu really hit Earth? The short answer is maybe. If it does, it's big enough to do some damage. Bennu has a diameter of 1,614 feet (492 meters). It makes its next approach to Earth in 2135 when it will pass just inside the moon's orbit. This close approach will change Bennu's orbit, and scientists say that could cause it to impact Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199. The odds are small -- about 1 in 2,500. But NASA wants to get as much warning as possible for anything that threatens Earth. It's worth pointing out that while Bennu is a known threat, NASA said only about 51% of the near-Earth asteroids of Bennu's size have been found. Meaning there could be lots of unknown threats out there. The mission is a first for NASA but ... This is not the first mission to bring an asteroid sample to Earth. Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft brought back a small sample of asteroid Itokawa dust in 2010. NASA also has brought back other space rocks and dust: • • The • And NASA has landed on an asteroid before: The • The Apollo astronauts brought back rocks and soil from the moon. NASA's Stardust mission brought back samples of dust from Comet Wild 2.• The GENESIS mission brought back samples of the solar wind, material ejected from the outer portion of the sun, in 2004.• And NASA has landed on an asteroid before: The NEAR-Shoemaker mission touched down on asteroid Eros in 2000. It's still there. But it didn't send back any samples. What OSIRIS-REx won't do ... It won't blow up Bennu, and it won't save the Earth from any other menacing space rocks. Right now, efforts to defend the planet from asteroids and comets are still in their infancy. "It really takes more than one agency for the kind of capabilities that are needed for this," Lindley Johnson of NASA's new Planetary Defense Coordination Office told CNN. He said the new office is coordinating with several agencies, the US government and other nations to help develop resources to defend Earth from asteroids of about 330 feet (100 meters) in size or larger. (For smaller asteroids we would just be told to take cover.) But we would have to know years in advance that a dangerous rock is coming before we could do anything about it. "We would need probably at least five years warning to 10 years warning to be able to launch an effective space mission to deflect that object," Johnson said. NASA has a spacecraft called NEOWISE that is hunting potentially threatening asteroids. Ground-based telescopes also are helping watch Pan-STARRS LINEAR (it discovered Bennu in 1999) and the Catalina Sky Survey Early Monday, the Catalina Sky Survey detected an asteroid close to Earth that had never been seen before. The rock was given the designation 2016 RB1. "Just right about now, it's on its closest approach to the Earth, passing underneath the Earth at about 21,000 miles (33,796 kilometers)," Johnson said a briefing Wednesday afternoon. "That's closer than communications satellites orbit the Earth." NASA estimated the asteroid to be between 25 and 50 feet (7 and 16 meters) in diameter and said it was not a hazard to Earth. "If it were to have impacted the Earth, it would have disintegrated in the atmosphere," Johnson said. Besides trying to identify potentially hazardous asteroids, Johnson's agency is working on plans to deflect them away from Earth. It's collaborating with the European Space Agency on the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment Mission , and it's working with other NASA departments on the Asteroid Redirect Mission About the spacecraft The name OSIRIS-REx is an acronym for the spacecraft's mission objectives: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer. The acronym spells the name of the Egyptian god Osiris. Minus fuel, OSIRIS-REx weighs 1,940 pounds (880 kilograms). With fuel -- 4,650 pounds (2,110 kilograms). The sample return capsule weighs about 100 pounds (45.4 kilograms). The mission costs about $800 million excluding the rocket. Bennu was named by North Carolina student Michael Puzio during a 2013 international contest. Puzio, who was 9 at the time, thought the spacecraft's robot arm and solar panels looked like the Bennu bird, also from Egyptian mythology. (Before Puzio stepped up, the rock was known in the scientific community as 1999 RQ36.) And what happens to the spacecraft after it drops off its sample? OSIRIS-REx will keep flying and will go orbit the sun. NASA said it may be repurposed, but it won't be bringing home any more samples.[SEP]The mission has been described as a ‘slow high-five’ with a nearby asteroid to collect material that could date back to the origins of the solar system Nasa launched a spacecraft on Thursday for a mission to slap an asteroid, capture some of the debris that shakes off, and return more interstellar samples to Earth than any mission since the Apollo era. The space agency launched its Osiris-Rex spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in clear dusk skies a little after 7pm, local time, Thursday as scientists, reporters and spectators cheered. Within minutes, the rocket booster jettisoned, leaving the craft en route for a seven-year journey into space. Nasa's Osiris-Rex probe set to attempt 'smash-and-grab' on speeding asteroid Read more Though Atlas V rockets have had a 100% success rate, Nasa engineers combed over the launch procedures with extra care this week, following the explosion of a SpaceX rocket and its payload last week. Even with the extra precaution, the mission is so far on schedule and under budget, principal investigator Dante Lauretta told reporters earlier this week. “Nobody likes to see your colleagues go through a day like they did,” Lauretta said. “It was a stark reminder of the risk we face in this business.” Celebrating with his colleagues after the successful launch, Lauretta struck a philosophical note. “It’s the human spirit, you know? Orisis-Rex is us,” he said at a briefing. The mission, he added, fit Nasa’s broader quest to answer “the big questions: where do we come from, what is our future, and really, are we alone in the universe?” The two-ton spacecraft is on a mission to Bennu, officially classed a “potentially hazardous asteroid” chosen for its relative proximity to Earth and our orbit. The asteroid nears Earth every six years and will come closest in 2135, when it threads between our planet and the moon. In the decades after that pass, to about 300,000km from the planet, Nasa calculated that Bennu has a one in 2,700 chance to strike the Earth. Osiris-Rex is scheduled to meet its 492m-wide destination in August 2018, and it will spend as long as two years mapping Bennu. “We will be able to see an object the size of a penny on Bennu,” Nasa researcher Daniella DellaGiustina told reporters at a separate briefing. Once it has found a suitable spot on the surface, Osiris-Rex will swing down, strike the asteroid with a jet of nitrogen and capture what debris it bounces off the surface. Christine Richey, deputy program scientist for the mission, called the operation a “safe, smooth, slow high-five” to collect material that could date back to the origins of the solar system. SpaceX's booms and busts: spaceflight is littered with explosions and disasters Read more Then the craft will drift away and measure its prize: the scientist want at least 60 grams, and as much as two kilograms, to expel in a capsule back Earth. If all goes well, the chunk of asteroid will parachute down to Utah in September 2023. Past missions have brought scientists less than a milligram of asteroid material and samples of solar wind and comet dust. A single sample “is a lifetime of data”, Nasa astrochemist Jason Dworkin told reporters. “You can take rocks and slice them up into tiny, tiny fragments and manipulate them using people,” he said, noting that one of his colleagues continues to study material from the Apollo missions. “People not yet born, with ideas we don’t have now, can test them in ways we can’t even conceive of.” Richey agreed that a successful return would be “the gift that keeps on giving”. The researchers hope that the asteroid material will help reveal what happened in the earliest stages of the solar system, including whether asteroids brought water and organic molecules to planets like Earth, seeding it with the chemicals for life. While Osiris-Rex studies the asteroid from orbit, it will also help scientists learn how sunlight changes asteroids by heating them up and subtly changing their course. They may also learn more about how to predict their paths and potentially deflect larger, more dangerous rocks, such as the six-mile-wide asteroid believed to have killed the dinosaurs.[SEP]US space agency NASA is poised Thursday to launch its groundbreaking first mission to a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples that could shed light on the dawn of the solar system. Scientists hope the seven-year, $800 million mission will reveal something about the origins of the Bennu asteroid and of life itself. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to blast off Thursday at 7:05 pm (2305 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "The primary objective of the mission is to bring back 60 grams (2.1 ounces) of pristine carbon-rich material from the surface of Bennu," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of the mission and a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona. "We expect these samples will contain organic molecules from the early solar system that may give us information and clues to the origin of life." The Lockheed Martin-made spacecraft will be carried aboard an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture owned by Lockheed and Boeing. Weather forecasters said there was an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for the launch of the mission aimed at peering into the solar system's birth 4.5 billion years ago. OSIRIX-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) is expected to reach Bennu in August 2018 and return to Earth with its bounty in 2023. The asteroid is about 1,600 feet (492 meters) in diameter. "Think of it as a small mountain in space," Lauretta said. Its 1.2-year orbit around the sun brings it closer to Earth every six years at a distance similar to the moon -- although there is very little chance Bennu could collide with Earth, according to estimates by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The highest probability, one in 2,500, would occur between 2175 and 2196. Once OSIRIX-REx reaches the asteroid in 2018, five instruments will map its surface using 3D laser imaging, identify the minerals and chemicals that may be on the surface, and select the sample site. In July 2020, the spacecraft will touch Bennu -- but only for three seconds -- with a three-meter (3.3-yard) arm to collect rocks and dust using a device called the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM). The TAGSAM is a type of reverse-vacuum device originally conceived by a Lockheed Martin engineer in his garage. The space dust -- which may reveal how the materials necessary for life, such as carbon and ice, made their way to Earth -- will be stored in a capsule for the return journey. The OSIRIS-REx will leave the asteroid in March 2021 and travel two and a half years to return to Earth in September 2023. As the spacecraft nears our planet, the return sample capsule will be ejected and gently lowered to Earth by parachutes to an area southwest of Salt Lake City in the western state of Utah. From there it will be transported to the NASA space center in Houston, Texas, where the materials will be analyzed. The OSIRIS-REx will remain in orbit around the sun. The mission will lay the groundwork for future explorations of asteroids and other small objects in the solar system, scientists say. It could notably cast light on the widely accepted hypothesis that this type of asteroid brought water and other materials seen as necessary for life on Earth, they say. Another aim of the mission is to measure the Yarkovsky effect, the sun's heating force on asteroids as they rotate that can cause them to drift widely over time. A better understanding of this effect could help scientists more accurately predict the long-term risk of asteroids to Earth and divert the path of those threatening to collide with our planet. In December 2014 the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency launched a similar mission, Hayabusa 2, which should reach an asteroid (162173 Ryugu) in 2018. The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will place on the space rock's surface a small lander named Mascot, produced by the French and German space agencies. Its predecessor, Hayabusa, was supposed to study the effect of a crash landing on asteroid Itokawa and recover samples to bring back to Earth, but it only managed to bring back a few micrograms of material in 2010. The European Space Agency succeeded in November 2014 to put its Philae lander on a comet, a space first. The lander transmitted 60 hours of data before running out of power. Unlike the OSIRIS-REx mission, a return to Earth had not been planned.[SEP]Cape Canaveral, Florida (CNN) NASA on Thursday evening launched a space probe called OSIRIS-REx to chase down a dark, potentially dangerous asteroid called Bennu . The probe will take a sample of the asteroid and -- in a US space first -- bring the sample back to Earth. "NASA did it again!" Jim Green, Planetary Science Division director at NASA, said at a post-launch briefing. "Tonight is a night for celebration," said Ellen Stofan , NASA chief scientist. "We are on our way to an asteroid." OSIRIS-REx lifted off at 7:05 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. NASA tweeted, "Our @OSIRISREx spacecraft is on its way, and everything is on the timeline ..." Our @OSIRISREx spacecraft is on its way, and everything is on the timeline. Keep watching: https://t.co/KX5g7zfYQe pic.twitter.com/89uZ54af0v Mission managers said the launch was flawless, the spacecraft is in excellent health and that the mission is hitting all its early milestones. "The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is happy and healthy," said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft. The mission's principal investigator, Dante Lauretta, said the next big moment for him will be seeing Bennu for the first time from OSIRIS-REx. "Everyone on the team has some image in their mind of what Bennu is going to look like and it's going to be phenomenal to see what it really looks like." Those images should start arriving in about two years as OSIRIS-REx approaches Bennu. NASA hopes to get at least 2 ounces (60 grams) and maybe as much as 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of asteroid dust and small rocks. The short answer is maybe. If it does, it's big enough to do some damage. This close approach will change Bennu's orbit, and scientists say that could cause it to impact Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199. The odds are small -- about 1 in 2,500. But NASA wants to get as much warning as possible for anything that threatens Earth. It's worth pointing out that while Bennu is a known threat, NASA said only about 51% of the near-Earth asteroids of Bennu's size have been found. Meaning there could be lots of unknown threats out there. The mission is a first for NASA but ... NASA also has brought back other space rocks and dust: It won't blow up Bennu, and it won't save the Earth from any other menacing space rocks. Right now, efforts to defend the planet from asteroids and comets are still in their infancy. He said the new office is coordinating with several agencies, the US government and other nations to help develop resources to defend Earth from asteroids of about 330 feet (100 meters) in size or larger. (For smaller asteroids we would just be told to take cover.) But we would have to know years in advance that a dangerous rock is coming before we could do anything about it. "We would need probably at least five years warning to 10 years warning to be able to launch an effective space mission to deflect that object," Johnson said. "Just right about now, it's on its closest approach to the Earth, passing underneath the Earth at about 21,000 miles (33,796 kilometers)," Johnson said a briefing Wednesday afternoon. "That's closer than communications satellites orbit the Earth." NASA estimated the asteroid to be between 25 and 50 feet (7 and 16 meters) in diameter and said it was not a hazard to Earth. "If it were to have impacted the Earth, it would have disintegrated in the atmosphere," Johnson said. The mission costs about $800 million excluding the rocket. And what happens to the spacecraft after it drops off its sample? OSIRIS-REx will keep flying and will go orbit the sun. NASA said it may be repurposed, but it won't be bringing home any more samples.[SEP]Cape Canaveral, Florida (CNN) NASA is launching a space probe called OSIRIS-REx on Thursday to chase down a dark, potentially dangerous asteroid called Bennu . The probe will take a sample of the asteroid and -- in a US space first -- bring the sample back to Earth. "I'm really excited. I can't wait to get to the asteroid," OSIRIS-REx program scientist Jeffrey Grossman told CNN. "We're going to learn so much about the solar system from studying this asteroid and getting a sample back." If you're thinking this sounds a bit like the plot from the 1998 sci-fi flick "Armageddon," you would be right, but without Bruce Willis (there won't be any people on this spacecraft) and without space shuttles. (NASA retired the shuttles in 2011.) In this real life story, OSIRIS-REx will study and sample Bennu, a big, roundish space rock that has made it onto NASA's list of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids . That means Bennu is one of the most dangerous space rocks we know of because it could one day collide with Earth. Thursday's launch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET , with backup launch windows for an additional 33 days. OSIRIS-REx will lift off from Cape Canaveral on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The spacecraft rolled out to the launch pad Wednesday. What OSIRIS-REx will do? NASA hopes to get at least 2 ounces (60 grams) and maybe as much as 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of asteroid dust and small rocks. The short answer is maybe. If it does, it's big enough to do some damage. This close approach will change Bennu's orbit, and scientists say that could cause it to impact Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199. The odds are small -- about 1 in 2,500. But NASA wants to get as much warning as possible for anything that threatens Earth. It's worth pointing out that while Bennu is a known threat, NASA said only about 51% of the near-Earth asteroids of Bennu's size have been found. Meaning there could be lots of unknown threats out there. The mission is a first for NASA but ... NASA also has brought back other space rocks and dust: It won't blow up Bennu, and it won't save the Earth from any other menacing space rocks. Right now, efforts to defend the planet from asteroids and comets are still in their infancy. He said the new office is coordinating with several agencies, the US government and other nations to help develop resources to defend Earth from asteroids of about 330 feet (100 meters) in size or larger. (For smaller asteroids we would just be told to take cover.) But we would have to know years in advance that a dangerous rock is coming before we could do anything about it. "We would need probably at least five years warning to 10 years warning to be able to launch an effective space mission to deflect that object," Johnson said. "Just right about now, it's on its closest approach to the Earth, passing underneath the Earth at about 21,000 miles (33,796 kilometers)," Johnson said a briefing Wednesday afternoon. "That's closer than communications satellites orbit the Earth." NASA estimated the asteroid to be between 25 and 50 feet (7 and 16 meters) in diameter and said it was not a hazard to Earth. "If it were to have impacted the Earth, it would have disintegrated in the atmosphere," Johnson said. The mission costs about $800 million excluding the rocket. And what happens to the spacecraft after it drops off its sample? OSIRIS-REx will keep flying and will go orbit the sun. NASA said it may be repurposed, but it won't be bringing home any more samples.[SEP]CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept 8 (Reuters) - An Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Florida on Thursday carrying a space probe on NASA's first quest to collect samples from an asteroid and return them to Earth in hopes of learning more about the origins of life. The United Launch Alliance booster lifted off at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Perched on top of the 19-story rocket was NASA's robot explorer Osiris-Rex, built by Lockheed Martin to carry out the seven-year, $1 billion mission to and from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. United Launch Alliance is a private partnership between Lockheed and Boeing. The 3,300-pound (1,500 kg) solar-powered probe is expected to take two years to reach its destination, a dark, rocky mass roughly a third of a mile wide and shaped like giant acorn orbiting the sun at roughly the same distance as Earth. Scientists believe Bennu is covered with organic compounds dating back to the earliest days of the solar system. "You can think of these asteroids as literally prebiotic chemical factories that were producing building blocks of life 4.5 billion years ago, before Earth formed, before life started here," NASA astrobiologist Daniel Glavin said before launch. Once it settles into orbit around Bennu in 2018, the Osiris-Rex probe will spend up to two more years mapping the asteroid's surface and taking inventory of its chemical and mineral composition. Scientists will ultimately select a promising site to sample and command Osiris-Rex to fly close enough to Bennu so that the probe's 11-foot-long (3.4 meter) robot arm can touch the asteroid's surface. A sampling container will then release a swirl of nitrogen gas, which will stir up gravel and soil for collection. After gathering at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of material, Osiris-Rex will fly back to Earth, jettisoning a capsule bearing the asteroid-sample container for a parachute descent and landing in the Utah desert in September 2023. Osiris-Rex is the latest in a series of missions to asteroids that began with the 1991 flyby of asteroid Gaspra by NASA's Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft. Only one other spacecraft, Japan's Hayabusa, has previously returned samples from an asteroid to Earth, but due to a series of problems it collected less than a milligram of material. A follow-on mission, Hayabusa 2, is underway, with a return to Earth planned for December 2020. The U.S. space agency also hopes Osiris-Rex will demonstrate the advanced imaging and mapping techniques needed for future science missions and for upcoming commercial asteroid-mining expeditions. Although Bennu occupies the same approximate orbital distance from the sun, it poses little threat to Earth. NASA estimates that there is a one-in-2,700 chance that Bennu might hit Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199. (Reporting by Irene Klotz at Cape Canaveral; Editing by Steve Gorman and Tom Brown)[SEP]WASHINGTON: US space agency NASA is poised Thursday to launch its groundbreaking first mission to a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples that could shed light on the dawn of the solar system. Scientists hope the seven-year, $800 million mission will reveal something about the origins of the Bennu asteroid and of life itself. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to blast off Thursday at 7:05 pm (2305 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “The primary objective of the mission is to bring back 60 grams (2.1 ounces) of pristine carbon-rich material from the surface of Bennu,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of the mission and a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona. “We expect these samples will contain organic molecules from the early solar system that may give us information and clues to the origin of life.” The Lockheed Martin-made spacecraft will be carried aboard an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture owned by Lockheed and Boeing.[SEP]CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept 6 (Reuters) - A U.S. space probe was cleared for launch on Thursday to collect and return samples from an asteroid in hopes of learning more about the origins of life on Earth and perhaps elsewhere in the solar system, NASA said on Tuesday. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket was scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to dispatch the robot explorer Osiris-Rex on a seven-year mission. United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. Osiris-Rex is headed to a 1,640-foot (500-meter) wide asteroid named Bennu, which circles the sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth. NASA estimates that there is a one-in-2,700 chance that Bennu might hit Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199. NASA estimates that there is a one-in-2,700 chance that Bennu might hit Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199. Chance of being born left-handed: one in 10. Chance of dying on a U.S. motor vehicle accident: one in 112. Heating from the sun gently pushes the asteroid, and charting its path is among the goals of the $1 billion mission. The U.S. space agency also hopes Osiris-Rex will demonstrate the advanced imaging and mapping techniques needed for future science missions and for upcoming commercial asteroid-mining expeditions. Osiris-Rex is expected to reach Bennu in August 2018 and begin a two-year study of its physical features and chemical composition. The solar-powered spacecraft will then fly to Bennu's surface and extend a robot arm to collect at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of what scientists hope will be carbon-rich material. "We're going to asteroid Bennu because it's a time capsule from the earliest stages of solar system formation, back when our planetary system was spread across as dust grains in a swirling cloud around our growing protostar," lead researcher Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona told a prelaunch news conference on Tuesday. Inside the developing solar system, small rocky bodies were beginning to form, many of them studded with water ice and organic materials, which are key compounds that may have made Earth habitable or even given life its start, Lauretta said. If all goes as planned, the capsule containing samples from Bennu will be jettisoned from the returning Osiris-Rex spacecraft on Sept. 24, 2023, for a parachute descent and landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range. Osiris-Rex is the latest in a series of missions to asteroids that began with the 1991 flyby of asteroid Gaspra by NASA's Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft. Japan's Hayabusa 1 probe managed to return a few tiny grains of asteroid Itokawa to Earth in 2010, the first asteroid sample return mission. A follow-on mission, Hayabusa 2, is underway. The Osiris-Rex launch was set for between 7:05 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. on Thursday (2305 to 0105 GMT on Friday).[SEP]What the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission is all about[SEP]A Colorado-developed spacecraft designed to follow, study and briefly touch a large asteroid with an orbit near Earth is set to take off Thursday evening from Cape Canaveral in Florida. OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, has a mission of studying the Bennu asteroid and snatching a sample from its surface. NASA is scheduled to launch the craft within a two-hour window starting at 5:05 p.m. local time. “We designed and built the entire spacecraft, including a unique collection arm” said Gary Napier, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin in Littleton. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton will monitor and operate the craft during its seven-year mission and in another Colorado connection, NASA is launching the craft on an Atlas 5 rocket built by the United Launch Alliance, which is based in Centennial. Scientists at the University of Arizona are heading up the project, the third under NASA’s New Frontier program, which seeks to advance the understanding of the solar system with relatively low-cost projects. After launch, OSIRIS-REx will orbit for a year and fly by the earth on Sept. 22, 2017, in a slingshot maneuver designed to whip it towards Bennu, which it expects to reach in August 2018. OSIRIS-REx will spend the next two years photographing and mapping the asteroid to better understand its composition and features, including locating the best spot to collect a sample some time in July 2020. Low-gravity conditions make landing on Bennu and trying to scoop up loose materials from the bedrock difficult. Instead, the craft will extend an 11-foot arm with a device to vacuum up a sample using a device called the Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism or TAGSAM. Lockheed Martin engineer Jim Harris developed the TAGSAM, which uses a concentrated blast of nitrogen gas to push materials into a collection chamber. The goal is to collect a minimum of 4 ounces of material, but possibly as much as 4 pounds, Napier said. The craft has enough nitrogen gas to make three attempts to get what it needs. By March 2021, the craft will bid adieu to Bennu 101955 and make its way back to earth. A capsule containing the samples will separate and make its way back to earth on Sept. 24, 2023, landing in the Utah desert. Its mission accomplished, OSIRIS-REx will head off into deep space awaiting future instructions. So why spend $800 million, not counting the launch vehicle, to chase an asteroid moving 63,000 miles per hour for seven years and grab a small sample in a five-second span? For starters, Bennu is carbon-bearing asteroid. While common in space, the ones that have landed on Earth quickly become contaminated. Scooping up the ancient and pristine carbon-based materials could offer insights into the origins of the solar system. Dante Lauretta, professor of planetary science and cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona, is heading a team of scientists trying to answer questions such as how do materials flow and form in low-gravity environments and whether asteroids contributed to the water found on earth. There is another, less esoteric, reason for getting to know that particular asteroid, which is named after the ancient Egyptian bird deity. Every six years, Bennu comes very close to earth. By the second half of the next century, scientists put the probability of Bennu hitting earth at 1 in 2,700, Napier said. Long odds, perhaps, but a head-on collision with a chunk of rock the size of five football fields would be devastating.

The United Launch Alliance successfully launches NASA's OSIRIS-REx from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41 in Florida. The mission is to study asteroid 101955 Bennu and in 2023 to return a sample to Earth for detailed analysis. If successful, OSIRIS-REx will be the first U.S. spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid.

Image copyright Reuters It is a famous, gentle giant of the African savannah, but the giraffe's genetics have just revealed that there is not one species, but four. Giraffes have previously been recognised to be a single species divided into several sub-species. But this latest study of their DNA suggests that four groups of giraffes have not cross-bred and exchanged genetic material for millions of years. This is a clear indication that they have evolved into distinct species. The study published in the journal Current Biology has rewritten the biology of Earth's tallest mammal. The scientists say their findings could inform the conservation efforts for all four species of giraffe. Conservation was the catalyst for this genetic research; the Giraffe Conservation Foundation asked the team to carry out genetic analysis of giraffes in Namibia. The foundation wanted to understand the genetic differences between different giraffe populations, to see how the animals might be affected if different subspecies were mixed together when animals were moved into protected areas. What we found then, says Axel Janke, a geneticist at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, who led the research, "was that the sub-species were genetically very different and separate. "I'd never seen that in a population study [of a species] before." This initial study examined what is known as mitochondrial DNA - a packet of DNA within every cell's "engine". This is useful for population genetics - it can be easily isolated and contains lots of known variants that can track relatedness. But mitochondrial DNA is not part of the code that builds an animal, so Dr Janke decided to examine and compare parts of that code - the nuclear DNA. "It turned out, he told BBC News, that, for example, "the whole clade of northern giraffes was very different from reticulated giraffes." "Our findings indicated four distinct species." Those four species include: southern giraffe ( Giraffa giraffa ), ), Masai giraffe ( G. tippelskirchi ), ), reticulated giraffe ( G. reticulata ) ) northern giraffe (G. camelopardalis), which includes the Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis) as a distinct but related subspecies. While giraffes had always been thought to be of one species, Dr Janke likened the difference between one species and another - in terms of their genetic code - to that of a Polar bear compared with a brown bear. Image copyright Julian Fennessy Image caption Juvenile Southern Giraffes Image copyright Julian Fennessy Image caption Reticulated giraffe This suggests that each species is adapted for a specific environment or diet - a question that is the subject of his team's next research project. Neglected by science Matthew Cobb, professor of zoology at the University of Manchester explained that the "four groups of giraffes had "been separated for 1-2 million years, with no evidence of genes being exchanged between them". Image copyright Julie Maher Image caption Masai Giraffe Image copyright Julian Fennessy (GCF) Image caption Northern Giraffe "This is an important finding that will enable conservation biologists to target their efforts and, perhaps, to come up with new conservation approaches in captivity or in the wild, based on the genetic similarities and differences between these groups," Professor Cobb told BBC News. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mike Jordan from Chester Zoo tells the BBC's Victoria Gill how a surprising discovery about giraffes could impact conservation. Dr Janke commented: "We've clearly completely forgotten what a giraffe is." He added that conservation programmes focused on specific species - understanding an animal's life, behaviour and habitat, to inform how it can be protected in the wild. In the last 15 years, the population of giraffes has declined by 40% - there are now an estimated 90,000 individuals in the wild. But, as a single species, they are classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as of Least Concern. Now, it is clear that each of these four newly classified species could be faring very differently. It's important to raise awareness for conservation, said Dr Janke, "to protect his beautiful animal of which we know so little." Follow Victoria on Twitter.[SEP]After studying DNA evidence, scientists have discovered that the giraffe is not one species, but four. They have said the four distinct species are genetically at least as different as brown and polar bears. Until now, only a single species of giraffe made up of several sub-species had been recognised. The unexpected discovery, published in the journal Current Biology, highlights the urgent need to protect the world's tallest mammal, researchers have said. Geneticist Professor Axel Janke, from Goethe University in Germany, said: "We were extremely surprised, because the morphological and coat pattern differences between giraffe are limited." Prof Janke and his team looked at DNA taken from skin samples from 190 giraffes from across Africa. Analysis showed there were four highly distinct groups of giraffe, which apparently do not mate with each other in the wild. The scientists categorised four species of the animal: the southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa), the Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi), the reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata), and the northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis). Giraffes are in dramatic decline across their range in Africa. with numbers have dropping from more than 150,000 individuals to fewer than 100,000 in the past three decades. Yet relatively little research has been done on giraffes, compared with other large animals such as elephants, rhinoceroses, gorillas and lions, say the researchers. The northern giraffe includes the elusive sub-species, the Nubian giraffe, which lives in Ethiopia and South Sudan.[SEP]There are four species of giraffe, not one: scientists There are actually four species of giraffe, not one as previously believed, researchers said Thursday in a discovery that could change conservation efforts for the world's tallest mammal. The study in the journal Current Biology is based on DNA evidence from skin biopsies of 190 giraffes across Africa. Giraffe populations have dropped dramatically in Africa over the past few decades, going from about 150,000 to less than 100,000. But giraffes have been little studied, compared to other large animals like elephants, rhinoceroses, gorillas and lions. Until now, researchers believed there was one species of giraffe, and as many as nine subspecies. The latest data shows there are four distinct species of giraffe which apparently do not mate with each other in the wild. "Those four species include (the) southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa), Masai giraffe (G. tippelskirchi), reticulated giraffe (G. reticulata), and northern giraffe (G. camelopardalis), which includes the Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis) as a distinct subspecies," said the study. It also said the genetic differences among giraffe species "are at least as great as those between polar and brown bears." "We were extremely surprised, because the morphological and coat pattern differences between giraffe are limited," says Axel Janke, a geneticist at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Goethe University in Germany. "Consequently, giraffes should be recognized as four distinct species despite their similar appearance." Now, researchers say some giraffes could be considered for listing as a vulnerable or endangered species on the Red List maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). For example, the northern giraffe numbers less than 4,750 individuals in the wild. There are fewer than 8,700 reticulated giraffes, making each species among the most endangered large mammals in the world, the research team said.[SEP]Low population levels of two of them — the northern giraffe and reticulated giraffe — make them some of the world's most endangered large mammals. Genetic research on the world’s tallest land animal has found that there are four distinct species of giraffe, not just one as long believed, with two of them at alarmingly low population levels. Scientists on Thursday unveiled a comprehensive genetic analysis of giraffes using DNA from 190 of the towering herbivores from across their range in Africa. The genetic data showed that four separate species of giraffes that do not interbreed in the wild inhabit various parts of the continent. “We were extremely surprised,” said conservationist Julian Fennessy, co-director of the Namibia-based Giraffe Conservation Foundation. Beyond genetics, the researchers identified differences among the four species including body shape, coloration and coat patterns. Genetic differences among the four species were comparable to those between polar bears and brown bears, said geneticist Axel Janke of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and Goethe University in Germany. Until now, scientists had recognised a single species, with the scientific name Giraffa camelopardalis. The study identified the four separate species as: the southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa), with a population of 52,000; the Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi), with 32,500; the reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata), with 8,700; and the northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), with 4,750. “The conservation implications are immense and our findings will hopefully help put giraffe conservation on the map," Mr. Fennessy said. The giraffe currently is not listed as endangered, although its population has declined dramatically over the past three decades from more than 150,000 to fewer than 100,000, the researchers said. But the low population levels of the northern giraffe and reticulated giraffe make them some of the world's most endangered large mammals and of high conservation importance, Mr. Fennessy said. Giraffes stand up to about 18 feet (5.5m) tall, with long necks and legs, a sloped back and two to five short knobs called ossicones atop the head. They have a tan, white or yellowish coat blotched with brownish patches. They roam the savannas of central, eastern and southern Africa, as far north as Chad, south to South Africa, east to Somalia and west to Niger. Mr. Fennessy said the biggest threats to the giraffe include habitat destruction due to human population growth as well as poaching for bush meat, their tail hair and “medicinal” parts. Their closest relative is the long-necked African mammal called the okapi. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.

Genetic tests show that the genus giraffa, previously thought to contain one extant species, actually consists of four.

CLOSE The suspension stems from robbery claims that Ryan Lochte and three other U.S. swimmers made while in Rio for the summer Olympics. USA TODAY Sports Ryan Lochte was suspended on Thursday for 10 months by the USOC and USA Swimming. (Photo: Rob Schumacher, USA TODAY Sports) Twelve-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte has agreed to serve a 10-month suspension due to his involvement in a gas station incident during the Rio Olympics. He will also be ineligible for the 2017 world championship meet, and he will have to forfeit all United State Olympic Committee and USA Swimming medal funding for the gold medal he earned as part of the men's 4x200 freestyle relay in Rio. Other sanctions against Lochte include no monthly stipend and no direct support or access to USOC training facilities during the suspension. Lochte will also have to perform 20 hours of community service. "We accept the decision as believe it is in everyone’s best interest to move forward," Jeff Ostrow, Lochte's attorney, said in a statement sent exclusively to USA TODAY Sports. "Ryan is grateful to be a member of the U.S. Olympic Team and USA Swimming. He recognizes his lapse in judgment, and is looking forward to continuing his training, volunteer work with kids, and resuming his swimming career next year with an eye toward representing his country at the 2020 Olympic games in Japan. "That said, in my opinion, while the collective sanctions appear to be harsh when considering what actually happened that day - Ryan did not commit a crime, he did not put the public safety at risk, and he did not cheat in his sport - we will leave it to others to evaluate the appropriateness of the penalties." The other three swimmers with Lochte that night at the gas station — Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen — will be suspended from domestic and international USA Swimming national team competitions for four months. They too will lose their monthly stipends and access to USOC training facilities during that span. All four swimmers will not be allowed to visit the White House alongside fellow U.S. Olympians, and all four are not permitted to attend USA Swimming's annual Golden Goggles event this year. These disciplinary measures were announced by both the USOC and USA Swimming Thursday morning. “As we have said previously, the behavior of these athletes was not acceptable. It unfairly maligned our hosts and diverted attention away from the historic achievements of Team USA,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement. “Each of the athletes has accepted responsibility for his actions and accepted the appropriate sanctions. We look forward to focusing our energy on the Paralympic Games and the incredible men and women representing our country in Rio.” “During an otherwise extraordinary Olympic Games, a small group of athletes had lapses in judgement and conduct that are unacceptable and not consistent with our expectations." "When Code of Conduct infractions occur, it’s our responsibility to take action that reflects the seriousness of what happened,” USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus said. “Unfortunately, this storyline took attention away from the athletes who deserved it the most. These athletes took accountability for their mistakes and are committed to represent themselves and our country with the great character and distinction we expect.” The incident at the gas station involved all four swimmers and occurred after a night of partying following the end of the Olympic swimming competition. Lochte's mother, Ileana, told USA TODAY Sports the next morning that her son had been robbed, which kickstarted a week-long news cycle that saw Lochte revise his account of what happened and acknowledge he exaggerated some details. But he stood by his story that he and his teammates were detained at gunpoint and forced to pay money so they could leave. The details Lochte initially embellished — about a gun being cocked against his forehead, for example — drew the attention of Rio authorities, who met with the swimmers to take statements and begin their own investigation, which quickly morphed into Rio authorities alleging at a news conference that the swimmers had filed a false police report. Authorities later said that only Lochte and Jimmy Feigen had made false statements to police, and the other two, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, were regarded as witnesses. At the news conference, however, Rio authorities also offered an embellished account. Rio police chief Fernando Veloso characterized the athletes’ actions at the gas station as vandalism, alleging they had broken into the restroom and vandalized a soap dispenser and mirror. Those allegations heightened media portrayals of the four swimmers as obnoxious Americans behaving recklessly late at night in a foreign country and Lochte was pilloried in media reports around the world. Veloso also defended the security guards drawing their weapons as necessary to protect themselves, though a witness told USA TODAY Sports the swimmers were “terrified” and the guards had pulled their guns when the swimmers tried to leave the scene without paying for alleged damage to an advertising sign. A USA TODAY Sports investigation of witness accounts, official reports and surveillance videos supported Bentz’s claim that he did not see anyone vandalize the gas station restroom. It also concluded the framework of what Lochte said was true – the swimmers were in a taxi that was prevented from leaving the gas station by an armed man who flashed a badge and ordered them out of the car, and that they were held at gunpoint and forced to pay money, about $50, for damaging the sign. Video showed a security guard did aim his gun at Lochte’s head, though it was not “to the forehead,” as Lochte initially said. There was no evidence the swimmers entered the restroom, which was locked. The swimmers said they had stopped at the gas station because they needed to urinate, and said they did so in bushes behind the building after finding the restroom locked. Legal experts and a Brazilian judge also told USA TODAY Sports that the actions of the guards that night may have been illegal, as Brazilian law prohibits anyone from determining on their own the damages to property and using a weapon to collect payment. All four swimmers eventually were able to leave Brazil by the end of the Olympics, though Bentz and Conger were first pulled off their planes for further questioning before they left and Feigen had to pay a $11,000 settlement to avoid charges before he could return home. Rio authorities say they will pursue a case against Lochte for filing a false police report, but Lochte’s legal team disputes that the swimmer made false statements to police. PHOTOS: Swimming at the 2016 Rio Olympics[SEP]Swimmer Lochte slapped with 10-month suspension after Rio: official Swimmer Ryan Lochte has been hit with a 10-month suspension following his bogus gunpoint robbery story during a drunken night out at the Rio Olympics, US sports authorities said Thursday. The US Olympic Committee and USA Swimming, in a joint release, announced the punishment against the swim superstar, as well as four-month suspensions against three other Americans. "The behavior of these athletes was not acceptable. It unfairly maligned our hosts and diverted attention away from the historic achievements of Team USA," said Scott Blackmun, CEO of the USOC. The three Americans punished in addition to Lochte were Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen. Brazilian authorities last month charged Lochte with making a false report about being robbed at gunpoint during the Olympics. Lochte had already left the country by the time the charges were filed. The Olympic gold medal winner had told media in Rio that he and his three teammates were mugged after an all-night party by robbers pretending to be police. The tale humiliated first the Brazilian hosts of the Games and later Lochte's own Team USA, after police determined that he had largely concocted his story. Top sponsors, including Speedo and Ralph Lauren, abandoned the Olympic gold medal winner in the uproar over the made-up story, potentially costing him millions in endorsements. His suspension also means that Lochte will be ineligible for next year's World Championships in Budapest. Lochte last week told ABC's "Good Morning America" program that it was time to move on from the scandal which attracted headlines around the world, and that "everyone (is) blowing this way out of proportion." "I'm never one to dwell on the past. I just want to move forward," said the beleaguered swimming star, on the day it was announced he had been chosen to appear on the "Dancing with the Stars" reality show. "Everyone has got to be sick and tired about hearing about this," Lochte said. "I just want to move forward."[SEP]U.S. swimmer Lochte gets 10-month suspension over Rio scandal -media Sept 7 (Reuters) - American swimmer Ryan Lochte has been suspended for 10 months, U.S. media reported on Wednesday, following a scandal involving the U.S. Olympic athlete and three other swimmers at the Rio Games. The suspension was handed down by the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming, USA Today reported, citing an unnamed source. Celebrity gossip website TMZ, citing unnamed sources, also reported the suspension. No further details were available. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports. Neither the U.S. Olympic Committee nor USA Swimming immediately responded to requests for comment. Lochte, 32, was dropped by four of his major sponsors after admitting he "overexaggerated" a tale about being robbed and held at gunpoint with the three other swimmers after a party during the Rio Olympics. Brazilian authorities said the group destroyed a bathroom and urinated in public, and have recommended that Lochte be charged with falsely reporting a crime. USA Today also reported that the three other swimmers were suspended, although for shorter lengths of time, and that Lochte would be banned from a championship swim meet in Budapest in 2017. Late last month, ABC television said Lochte was joining the cast of "Dancing With the Stars," a competition in which celebrities are paired with professional ballroom dancers. That announcement came as the gold medalist said he thought reaction to his Rio de Janeiro tale had been blown out of proportion. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney)[SEP]Disgraced US swimmer Ryan Lochte has reportedly been suspended for 10 months following the 'fake robbery' scandal which overshadowed the Rio Olympics. The punishment was handed down by the US Olympic Committee and USA Swimming, according to multiple reports in America. Lochte, 32, was dropped by four of his major sponsors after he admitted he "overexaggerated" his story about being robbed and held at gunpoint in Rio. The Olympic gold medallist claimed he and three teammates - Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger - were help up after stopping at a petrol station after a party. • Disgraced Olympian Ryan Lochte in talks to appear on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here Brazilian authorities said the group destroyed a bathroom and urinated in public, and have recommended that Lochte be charged with falsely reporting a crime . USA Today reported that the three other swimmers were suspended, although for shorter lengths of time, and that Lochte would be banned from a championship swim meet in Budapest in 2017. Late last month, it was revealed that Lochte was joining the cast of "Dancing With the Stars," a competition in which celebrities are paired with professional ballroom dancers. • US Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte charged over 'false robbery claim' by police in Brazil That announcement came as the gold medalist said he thought reaction to his Rio de Janeiro tale had been blown out of proportion. Neither the US Olympic Committee nor USA Swimming immediately responded to requests for comment.[SEP]Ryan Lochte is banned from swimming through next June and will forfeit $100,000 in bonus money that went with his gold medal at the Olympics, part of the penalty for his drunken encounter at a gas station in Brazil during last month’s games. The U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming announced the penalties Thursday. Lochte agreed to a ban that will also render him ineligible for world championships next July because he won’t be able to qualify for them at nationals the previous month. He’ll get no monthly funding from either organization, can’t access USOC training centres, must perform 20 hours of community service and will miss Team USA’s post-Olympics trip to the White House. Agreeing to four-month suspensions were Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen, who were with Lochte at the gas station. Those sanctions, which end Dec. 31, also strip funding and training access and preclude them from the White House visit. Bentz, 20, will also serve 10 hours of community service for violating a curfew rule for athletes under 21. “As we have said previously, the behaviour of these athletes was not acceptable. It unfairly maligned our hosts and diverted attention away from the historic achievements of Team USA,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said. “Each of the athletes has accepted responsibility for his actions and accepted the appropriate sanctions.” The USOC gives a $25,000 bonus to Olympic gold-medal winners, and USA Swimming has awarded a $75,000 gold-medal bonus at past Olympics. But that money pales in comparison to what Lochte lost last month when key sponsors , including Speedo USA and Ralph Lauren, abandoned the 32-year-old in the wake of his actions at the gas station, then his rapidly changing accounts of what really happened. Estimates have put the financial hit for those losses at around $1 million. While the near-10-month suspension is four months longer than the one Michael Phelps received in 2014 for his second DUI, the ouster from next year’s world championships isn’t considered major, in part because those championships typically attract a lesser field in the year after the Olympics. Swimming’s international federation, FINA, called the sanctions “proportionate, adequate and sufficient,” and said it had no plans to augment them. Despite his embarrassment, Lochte has maintained a high profile, posting regularly on social media and accepting a spot on the upcoming season of “Dancing With The Stars.” Last month, Brazilian police charged Lochte with filing a false robbery report, but Lochte has not said whether he’ll return to Brazil to defend himself. Lochte’s gold in the 4x200 freestyle relay was one of 121 overall medals the United States won at the Olympics, yet his actions at the gas station overshadowed a large portion of the second half of the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee’s ethics commission is also looking into the incident. “When Code of Conduct infractions occur, it’s our responsibility to take action that reflects the seriousness of what happened,” USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus said. “Unfortunately, this story line took attention away from the athletes who deserved it the most.”[SEP]Ryan Lochte's future as a competitive swimmer has been called into question, with the US Olympic Committee and USA Swimming jointly announced the 12-time Olympic medallist has been suspended for 10 months and barred from the 2017 World Championships. Lochte's role in a gas-station confrontation with armed security guards during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics nearly overshadowed the Games' second week. The three other swimmers with Lochte on the morning of August 14 - Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen - were suspended for four months each, but remain eligible for the world championships. All four will lose their stipends and other bonuses during the suspensions - which, in Lochte's case, could cost him as much as $100,000 - and won't be permitted to join Team USA during a scheduled visit to the White House later this month. READ MORE: * US swimmer Ryan Lochte gets 10-month suspension over Rio Olympics scandal * Lochte could be axed from US team * Swimmer takes blame for 'robbery' claim * Bentz blames Lochte for fake robbery "Unfortunately, this storyline took attention away from the athletes who deserved it the most," USA Swimming CEO Chuck Wielgus said in a statement. "These athletes took accountability for their mistakes and are committed to represent themselves and our country with the great character and distinction we expect." The suspension of Lochte, 32, is four months longer than the one given to longtime US teammate and rival Michael Phelps in 2014 when the latter was arrested for a second time for DUI, and undoubtedly reflects the degree of embarrassment Lochte caused for the American delegation in Brazil, as well as the host country. "The behaviour of these athletes was not acceptable," USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement. "It unfairly maligned our hosts and diverted attention away from the historic achievements of Team USA." All four of the swimmers signed statements accepting the sanctions. Lochte's includes 20 hours of community service, while Bentz, 20, must perform 10 hours of community service for violating the USOC's curfew rules for athletes under 21. Conger told the Austin American-Statesman this week, "I do not in any way agree with those sanctions, [but] I thought it was best. . . just to put an end to this, regardless whether I thought the consequences were fair or not." In his original telling of the story of what happened that morning, Lochte said his group was pulled over in their taxi and robbed by armed assailants impersonating police, one of whom pointed a gun to his forehead. That story caused a media outcry in a city where street violence is a constant danger, but after Brazilian officials cast doubt on the story, Lochte later admitted embellishing elements of it. In fact, the confrontation occurred at a gas station, where the swimmers acknowledged they urinated on a wall and where Lochte tore down an advertising sign. When Lochte's group attempted to leave without paying for the damage, at least one security guard pulled out a weapon and demanded money before they could leave. Lochte left Brazil soon after the incident, but the others had their passports confiscated and were questioned by authorities - with Feigen paying a fine of about $11,000 - before being permitted to leave the country. Brazilian authorities filed charges against Lochte for falsely reporting a robbery, but it is unlikely he would return there to face those charges. In his last interview with NBC, he acknowledged he "over-exaggerated" the story and apologised for his "immature" behaviour. In the wake of the incident, Lochte lost all of his major sponsorship deals, which were estimated to be worth at least $1 million annually. He has said he plans to continue his swimming career, but in the short term he has signed on to participate in ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," which premiers next week. Even without the suspension, Lochte's future in the sport was murky at best. He showed signs of decline this year, suffering a groin injury at the Olympic trials and qualifying for the Olympics in only one individual event - the 200-meter individual medley, in which he finished fifth. His lone medal in Brazil was a gold as part of the 4x200 freestyle relay. The suspension's length means Lochte would next be eligible for a major international meet at the 2018 Pan-Pacific Championships, when he would be 34. He turns 36 the same summer as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[SEP]He was charged by Brazilian police last month of making a false report about being robbed at gunpoint during a night out. U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte has been hit with a 10-month suspension following his bogus gunpoint robbery story during a drunken night out at the Olympics, two separate media reports said Wednesday. Lochte, 32, has been suspended until mid-2017, the USA Today newspaper reported, citing a person with knowledge of the situation. He would also be banned from next year’s World Championships in Budapest. A United States Olympic Committee (USOC) spokesman declined to confirm the reports when contacted by AFP for comment. USA Today said a statement confirming the suspension would be issued on Thursday. Lochte’s suspension was first reported by the TMZ.com entertainment news website. The site said three other swimmers involved in the escapade were suspended for varying periods up to four months. Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medallist, has lost a slew of sponsorship deals following the Rio escapade. He was charged by Brazilian police last month of making a false report about being robbed at gunpoint during a night out. Lochte had already left the country by the time the charges were filed. The Olympic gold medal winner had told the media in Rio that he and three teammates had been mugged after an all-night party by robbers pretending to be police. The tale humiliated first the Brazilian hosts of the Games and later Lochte’s own Team USA, after police determined that he had largely fabricated his story. Lochte, who is now seeking to rehabilitate his public image with an appearance on upcoming reality show Dancing With the Stars has apologised for his behavior. “I’m taking full responsibility for it,” Lochte said in a television interview. “I over-exaggerated that story and if I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”[SEP]Ryan Lochte has been suspended for 10 months after he falsified claims of being robbed at gunpoint during the Rio Olympics. The disgraced Team USA swimmer was handed the suspension on Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee, the US Olympic Committee, and USA Swimming, TMZ reports. Lochte will also be banned from the 2017 world championship meet, which will be held in Budapest next July. There are additional conditions attached to the suspension, though these are currently unknown. Sources also confirmed that Lochte's suspension will be longer than that handed out to teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen, though their punishments have not been revealed yet. The suspension is also four months longer than the one fellow swimmer Michael Phelps received after his two DUI arrests. The decision was debated by the USOC because Phelps put people's lives in danger with his actions, whereas Lochte simply misrepresented a series of events. Some USOC officials felt the punishment was too harsh, according to TMZ, though it was still allowed to stand. The ban is just the latest blow for the twelve-time Olympic medalist, who lost sponsorship deals worth millions of dollars following the robbery debacle. In an now-infamous beach interview with Billy Bush, Lochte claimed to have been robbed at gunpoint at the Rio Olympics alongside fellow swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen. After days of claim and counter claim between Lochte and the Brazilian police, it emerged that the team had drunkenly trashed a gas station before armed security guards forced them to pay for the damage. While Lochte was able to fly back to the US before the row erupted, Conger and Bentz were pulled off a flight back to Texas before being interviewed by police. During that interrogation they admitted the story had been fabricated by Lochte, saying the version of events he gave to Bush was untrue. They also painted Lochte as the villain, saying he smashed an advertisement at the gas station before confronting the guards. Meanwhile Feigen was forced to pay $11,000 to charity in order to leave Brazil after authorities confiscated his passport. Lochte had already pledged to take a 'significant' amount of time away from swimming to refocus following the incident, so the ban will likely have little impact on his schedule beyond that. While he has admitted exaggerating certain parts of his account of that night, namely having a gun cocked and put against his head, he maintains the team were held by armed men and told to hand over money in order to leave. Brazilian police contended that Lochte and his teammates broke an advertising board and trashed a bathroom at the gas station, though no evidence of damage to the bathroom was every uncovered. Meanwhile pictures of the advertising board show a small crack in the plastic covering it.[SEP]Multiple reports say Ryan Lochte has been handed a 10-month ban by the United States Olympic Committee and USA Swimming for an incident that led to the Olympic gold medallist being charged by Brazilian police with filing a false robbery report. The swimmer claimed he had been robbed at gunpoint at a gas station on a night out during the Rio Olympics, where he had been competing last month. However, security camera footage appeared to show that Lochte and three team-mates had vandalized a bathroom and the “robbers” were security guards demanding payment for the damages. The incident came to dominate headlines at the Rio Olympics, angering the hosts who believed it portrayed their city as crime ridden, and embarrassing a USA team that had gone to great lengths to avoid negative publicity. TMZ first reported news of the suspension, and said Lochte will miss next year’s world swimming championships as a result. Lochte had said before the incident he would consider appearing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo although that now appears to be a a long shot at best. Lochte has denied lying about the incident but has admitted “he left details out” and has apologized for his actions. “I was intoxicated,” Lochte said last month. “I was immature, and I made a stupid mistake. I’m human, and I’m just really sorry.” Lochte has lost four major sponsors since the “robbery”, including the swimwear manufacturer Speedo. However, he has picked one up, Pine Bros Softish Throat Drops, whose slogan says the product is “Forgiving On Your Throat.” He will also appear on the upcoming series of Dancing With The Stars. The USOC apologized for Lochte and his team-mates’ behavior last month. “The behavior of these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA or the conduct of the vast majority of its members,” it said in a statement.[SEP]Twelve-time Olympic swimming medalist Ryan Lochte reportedly has been suspended 10 months for his role in an embarrassing incident during last month's Rio de Janeiro Olympics, in which he embellished details of a gas station confrontation with armed security guards, setting off a week of international intrigue that threatened to overshadow the second week of the Summer Games. Lochte's suspension, first reported by TMZ, was expected to be the longest of the four U.S. swimmers involved in the Rio de Janeiro incident, which occurred in the early morning of Aug. 14, hours after the Olympic swimming competition ended. Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen were with Lochte at the gas station, where Lochte allegedly vandalized the station, leading to the confrontation with security. Conger, a swimmer at the University of Texas, will be suspended for four months, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The swimmers' suspensions are expected to be announced officially Thursday, in a joint statement by the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming. In Lochte's case, his 10-month suspension would keep him out of the 2017 World Championships, as he would miss the qualifying period during which the U.S. team will be chosen. When Michael Phelps was suspended six months in Oct. 2014 following his second DUI arrest, he also missed Worlds the following summer. Conger's suspension, on the other hand, will not prevent him from swimming at Worlds, according to the person with knowledge of the situation. Lochte, 32, initially said he and the other swimmers were pulled over in a taxi by armed men with police badges who demanded money. At one point, he said, a gun was pointed at his forehead. The story of the apparent armed robbery of one of the most decorated Olympians in history caused a media sensation and reinforced stereotypes of Rio as a lawless landwere foreigners were unsafe. But as Brazilian officials began to investigate Lochte's tale, he was forced to alter his narrative multiple times, eventually acknowledging he "over-exaggerated" elements of it. The incident happened at the gas station, not on a highway, and the man who pointed a gun in Lochte's direction was not a robber, but an armed security guard demanding restitution for the advertising sign Lochte had torn down. While Lochte was able to depart Brazil the day after the alleged incident, Bentz and Conger were pulled from their initial flight back to the states and were forced to give statements before being allowed to leave the following night. Feigen, meantime, was forced to pay a fine of around $11,000 before being granted permission to leave. Lochte lost his major endorsements following the incident, and recently was announced as a contestant on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." He has said he intends to continue his career as a competitive swimmer.

American swimmer Ryan Lochte agrees to a 10-month suspension while his other colleagues get four.

Story highlights There was a firefight on the ground in which seven enemy fighters were killed The university has become a target of Taliban-linked insurgents in recent weeks Washington (CNN) A few days after an American and Australian were kidnapped from American University in Kabul last month, US Special Operations Forces from SEAL Team 6 attempted to rescue them but failed to find them at the location they went to, according to three administration officials. There was a firefight on the ground in which seven enemy fighters were killed, according to the officials. The US was never certain the professors were at the site, or if they were, when they had been moved. Some electronic media was recovered indicating the identities of those who were holding them. SEAL Team 6 used a HALO jump, which is a high altitude jump from an aircraft, in the operation. A HALO is generally only attempted when there is no other option. The American University in Afghanistan opened in 2006. It's the only private, nonprofit, coed university in that country and has about 1,700 full- and part-time students. The school is regarded as a symbol of cooperation between Afghanistan and the United States. Read More[SEP]U.S. Special Operations forces conducted a secret raid last month to rescue Western hostages in Afghanistan but failed to recover the men, the Pentagon said Thursday. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said President Barack Obama, acting on a recommendation from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, authorized the August mission to rescue the two civilian hostages in an unspecified area of Afghanistan. U.S. officials believed the hostages, an American and Australian who were professors at the American University in Kabul and were seized at gunpoint in early August, were being held in eastern Afghanistan by the Haqqani network, a hard-line Taliban faction. During the raid, a team of Navy SEALs touched down under the cover of night at a compound where the hostages were believed to be held. The hostages were not there, but a group of militants was, leading to a firefight in which seven militants were killed, officials said. No Americans were wounded. "Military hostage rescue operations are inherently sensitive and dangerous, and careful deliberation went into this mission," Cook said in a statement. "The United States military remains fully prepared to take extraordinary steps to protect American citizens anywhere in the world." The attempt to rescue the kidnapped professors, American Kevin King and Australian national Timothy Weeks, was first reported by Fox News. Officials declined to say whether they know the current whereabouts of the hostages. It was the SEAL team's second attempt in two days to recover the men. A night earlier, the elite forces had boarded their aircraft and flown toward their target even before their mission had secured presidential approval, officials said. They were forced to turn back because the proposal for the raid had not reached the White House with sufficient time for it to be reviewed and presented to President Obama for approval. "There was a very narrow window before the sun came up," said a defense official who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. By the next night, Obama's most senior advisers had studied the plan, assessing the intelligence about the hostages' whereabouts and the risks to American personnel. The president signed off on it, meaning the nighttime raid could go forward. "The president authorized this mission when it was presented to him, with the careful review and recommendation of his national-security team, soon after the Pentagon submitted their request," a senior administration official said. Some officials stressed the unusual nature of the SEALs' step in initiating the raid the first night without having the required approval beforehand. Officials also said there was disagreement among intelligence experts about whether the hostages had been at the compound the first night and possibly moved before the raid occurred on the second night, or whether they were never there. The administration was also scrambling to inform the families of the abducted men even as they coordinated with the Afghan and Australian governments in responding to the disappearance. The raid took place as a reduced U.S. military force seeks to help Afghan troops confront a resurgent Taliban. While the Obama administration declared an end to combat operations in 2014 and Western nations have pulled out most of their troops, militants continue to threaten the government, this week launching an offensive to capture a provincial capital. Militants have also struck Western targets in the Afghan capital repeatedly, including restaurants, embassies and aid organizations. Several weeks after the professors' kidnapping, militants attacked the American University in a prolonged assault. It is not the first time the U.S. military has attempted to rescue Western hostages in Afghanistan. A Navy SEAL won a Medal of Honor for his role in the 2012 operation to rescue an American doctor kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan. In 2010, a British aid worker was accidentally killed by U.S. forces during a rescue attempt in eastern Afghanistan.[SEP]WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S special operations forces launched a rescue mission to retrieve two men kidnapped by insurgents in Afghanistan last month, but the hostages were not there when the rescue team arrived, U.S. defense officials said Thursday. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the rescue mission was approved by Defense Secretary Ash Carter and authorized by the president. Cook said no U.S. personnel or civilians were injured and added that he would not provide any more details “in order to protect the safety of hostages and operational security.” According to defense officials, the mission was delayed one day because of questions about the intelligence and whether the hostages, an American and an Australian who worked at the American University of Afghanistan, were there. Officials would not provide the precise timing or location of the rescue attempt because they said it could jeopardize any possible future operations. Because of questions about the intelligence — including the degree of confidence in the information that the men were at that location — administration officials did not forward the mission request to President Barack Obama until the next day, officials said. Obama approved the mission, and commandos went out that next night. The officials said that when U.S. commandos arrived at the location, they killed seven enemy fighters. They said that based on interviews with people at the site, it’s still not clear if the hostages were ever there. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, so spoke on condition of anonymity. The two men were kidnapped from their vehicle as they traveled from the university to their residence in Kabul last month. The rescue was attempted not long after their kidnapping.[SEP]U.S. attempted to rescue two hostages in Afghanistan -Pentagon WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. forces attempted to rescue two civilian hostages in Afghanistan last month, but the captives were not at the location and no U.S. personnel or civilians were harmed in the attempt, the Pentagon said on Thursday. "In August, at the recommendation of Secretary Carter, President Obama authorized U.S. forces to conduct a mission in Afghanistan, aimed at recovering two civilian hostages," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the hostages were not at the location we suspected," Cook said. He added that U.S. forces "engaged and killed a number of hostile forces." The identities of the hostages were not disclosed. In early August, two faculty members of the American University of Afghanistan, one American and one Australian, were abducted at gunpoint from a road near the university in Kabul. (Reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Phil Stewart in Oslo; Editing by Peter Cooney)

United States Navy SEALs, by high altitude parachuting, fail in a rescue attempt after the team does not find the American and Australian hostages who were kidnapped in Kabul last month.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Twelve people were killed late on Friday in two suicide bombings claimed by Islamic State at a shopping mall in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. More than 40 people were wounded in the attack at Nakheel Mall across from the oil ministry, the sources said. One bomb went off at the entrance to the mall, the other in the parking lot. Unconfirmed amateur video published on Facebook showed what appeared to be four separate fires, including two cars engulfed in flames, under a highway overpass near the mall amid the wailing sirens of first responders. Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said in an online statement that two suicide bombers, one wearing a vest and the other in a car, had targeted “a gathering of Shi’ites” on Palestine Street. The fight against Islamic State, which seized a third of Iraq’s territory in 2014, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between the Shi’ite majority and the Sunni minority. The militants have lost ground in the past year to U.S.-backed government forces and Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias, and Iraq is gearing up for an offensive next month to recapture the northern city of Mosul. Yet such bombings show the group can still strike outside the territory its controls in northern and western Iraq. A car bomb near a hospital in central Baghdad killed nine people on Monday, and another one down the road in July killed 324, one of the deadliest such attacks since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein 13 years ago.[SEP](IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the double car bomb attacks that took place at Baghdad’s Nakheel Mall on Friday. The ISIS-affiliated Amaq News Agency said that the blasts were carried out by ISIS suicide bombers who detonated two car bombs before blowing themselves up to target a Shiite gathering on Falastin Street. Latest reports revealed that at least 10 people were killed with over 40 others injured in the double bombing that occurred at the parking area of al-Nakheel shopping mall, in eastern Baghdad. Noteworthy, ISIS previously carried out an extensive attack on the shopping center in Karada area, also days before Eid al-Fitr, which killed nearly 300 persons.[SEP]Iraqi security forces clean up the site in the aftermath of car bomb explosion in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday (AP photo) BAGHDAD — Two bomb blasts outside a shopping mall in central Baghdad claimed by the Daesh terror group killed at least 13 people, security and medical officials said on Saturday. The bombings were the latest in a series of deadly attacks at Baghdad shopping centres this year that have been claimed by Daesh, including one that killed more than 300 people in early July. The extremist group issued an online statement on the attack, saying it targeted Shiites and was carried out by two Iraqi suicide bombers, one of whom wore an explosive belt and another who drove an explosives-rigged vehicle. Daesh and other Sunni extremists consider Shiite Muslims to be heretics, and frequently target them in bombings. The statement said the bomber who drove the explosives-rigged vehicle was from Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad that was retaken from Daesh in late June. The blasts, which hit just before midnight (2100 GMT) Friday, shattered windows at the multistorey Nakheel Mall on Palestine Street in the city centre, and damaged a fence surrounding it. As people worked to clean up the rubble outside on Saturday, a private security company guarding the mall sought to prevent images being taken, seizing the cameras of two photographers and a video journalist. The cameras were eventually returned, but video footage shot by an AFP photographer was deleted by the firm. Nakheel Mall opened last year and shops were likely to have remained open late ahead of the Muslim feast of Eid Al Adha which begins on Monday. The mall also houses one of the city’s most popular cinemas. Daesh claims most major attacks in Baghdad, including some carried out at shopping centres earlier in the year. On Tuesday, a car bomb near a hospital killed at least seven people in Baghdad’s Karrada district — an area still reeling from a July 3 suicide bombing that set nearby shopping centres ablaze and left more than 300 people dead. Daesh claimed the Karrada blasts, as well as an attack involving gunmen and a car bomb that killed at least 12 people near another Baghdad mall in January. Daesh has suffered a string of military defeats over the past year and the caliphate it proclaimed in June 2014 is rapidly shrinking. As the extremist organisation loses territory across Iraq, officials have warned that it may step up revenge attacks against civilians in Baghdad and other cities.[SEP](IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – Two large explosions, believed to be car bombs, took place in the car parking areas of al-Nakheel shopping mall on Falastin street, in eastern Baghdad, late on Friday, a police source informed. Sharing more details with Iraqi News, he revealed, “The twin explosion left 12 dead and 25 wounded, as well as causing damage to several civilian vehicles.” The attack comes as Iraqi Muslims are preparing for Eid al-Adha, and these areas are always busy with late night shoppers.[SEP]BAGHDAD: Two car bomb blasts outside a shopping mall in central Baghdad late Friday killed at least 10 people and wounded another 25, police and medical sources said. One explosion came from a parked car and the other was caused by an explosives-laden vehicle driven by a suicide bomber outside the Nakheel mall, a police colonel said.[SEP]Two car bomb blasts outside a shopping mall in central Baghdad late Friday killed at least 10 people and wounded another 28, police and medical sources said. One explosion came from a parked car and the other was caused by an explosives-laden vehicle driven by a suicide bomber outside the Nakheel mall, a police colonel said. The preliminary casualty toll was at least 10 people killed and 28 wounded, the officer said. An official in Baghdad's health department confirmed the figures. An interior ministry source also confirmed the details of the attack, which he said took place just before midnight (2100 GMT). The mall opened last year on Palestine street in central Baghdad and shops were likely to have remained open late during the weekend preceding next week's Eid al-Adha feast. The multi-storey shopping mall houses one of the city's most popular cinemas. Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan however said no casualties were reported inside the mall. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the double bombing but all such attacks recently have been claimed by the Islamic State group. The latest of these, on Tuesday, killed at least seven people near a hospital in Baghdad's busy district of Karrada. Karrada was still reeling from a July suicide truck bomb explosion that killed more than 300 people, the deadliest single bombing ever to hit the Iraqi capital. IS has suffered a string of military defeats over the past year and the caliphate it proclaimed in June 2014 seems doomed. As the jihadist organisation loses territory across Iraq, observers and officials alike have warned that IS may revert to carrying out campaigns of terror attacks instead of attempting to hold fixed positions.[SEP]There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but Islamic State militants regularly attack civilian and security targets. Two car bomb blasts outside a shopping mall in central Baghdad late on Friday killed at least 10 people and injured another 25, police and medical sources said. One explosion came from a parked car and the other was caused by an explosives-laden vehicle driven by a suicide bomber outside the Nakheel mall, a police colonel said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but Islamic State militants regularly attack civilian and security targets inside Iraq's capital. More than 25 people were also wounded in the bombing at Nakheel Mall across from the oil ministry, and the death toll was expected to rise. The fight against Islamic State, which seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between the Shia majority and the Sunni minority. The militants have lost ground in the past year to U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces and Iranian-backed Shia militias, but such bombings show they can still strike outside the territory they control in northern and western Iraq.[SEP]BAGHDAD, Sept 10 (Reuters) - At least seven people were killed late on Friday when a car packed with explosives went off in front of a shopping mall in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but Islamic State militants regularly attack civilian and security targets inside Iraq's capital. More than 30 people were also wounded in the bombing at Nakheel Mall across from the oil ministry, and the death toll was expected to rise. The fight against Islamic State, which seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minority. The militants have lost ground in the past year to U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, but such bombings show they can still strike outside the territory they control in northern and western Iraq.[SEP]Explosions in and around Baghdad kill 12 -police, medical sources BAGHDAD, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Five explosions in and around Baghdad killed at least 12 people on Saturday and wounded 27 others, police and medical sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamic State regularly targets civilian areas and security forces in the capital. The ultra-hardline insurgents have lost ground in the past year to U.S.-backed government forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias, but such bombings show the group can still strike outside the territory its controls in northern and western Iraq. The deadliest blast came in Arab al-Jabour, an area of date palm groves on Baghdad's southern outskirts, when an improvised explosive device went off near a civilian vehicle, killing four civilians. A bomb in a local marketplace in Taji, a northern suburb that hosts a large military base, killed three people and wounded nine, the sources said. A suicide bomber in the central Allawi district of Baghdad detonated his explosives vest, killing two and wounding eight. Two roadside bombs in the northern al-Husseiniya district and in Yousifiya, south of the city, killed three and wounded 10.

Twin suicide bombings at the Nakheel Mall in eastern Baghdad kill 12 people and injure more than 40 others. ISIL claims responsibility.

CLOSE Norway's largest newspaper accused Mark Zuckerberg of abusing his power after Facebook removed the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo from a post. Time Nine-year-old Kim Phuc, center, ripped off her burning clothes while fleeing a napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places in Vietnam on June 8, 1972. (Photo: AP, Nick Ut) Facebook decided Friday to reinstate the iconic, Vietnam War-era photograph of a naked girl running from a napalm attack. “After hearing from our community, we looked again at how our Community Standards were applied in this case. An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography. In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time," Facebook said in a statement. The tech giant went on to say "Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed." Facebook said it would review its mechanisms to allow sharing of the image in the future. The editor of Norway's largest newspaper wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg on Friday earlier in which he accused the Facebook chief of "abusing your power" because of the social media firm's decision to remove an iconic, Vietnam War-era photograph of a naked girl running from a napalm attack. In the letter, published on Aftenposten's front page, Espen Egil Hansen said he found it "hard to believe you have thought it through thoroughly" and the media had a responsibility to publish disturbing images. Hansen said that the 1972 Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by Nick Ut was taken down by Facebook after it was published there by Tom Egeland, a Norwegian writer. Facebook has a strict policy on images that show nudity. Hansen said that when Aftenposten subsequently posted the photo on its own Facebook page it received a message from the technology giant asking it to remove or pixelate the photo. Hansen said Zuckerberg should live up to his role as "the world's most powerful editor." “I am worried that the world’s most important medium is limiting freedom instead of trying to extend it, and that this occasionally happens in an authoritarian way,” he added. He said that Facebook needed to be able to "distinguish between child pornography and famous war photographs" and that the "right and duty, which all editors in the world have, should not be undermined by algorithms encoded in your office in California. Editors can't live with you, Mark, as master editor." A Pew Research study from 2016 found that 44% of U.S. adults get their news through Facebook. The removal of the photo and subsequent outcry reflects growing tensions between the world's largest social networking site and traditional newspapers and publishers. Kim Phuc, the then 9-year-old girl in the center of the photo is seen naked and crying, her clothes and layers of skin melted away after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong fighters in South Vietnam. Prime Minister Erna Solberg also joined the debate Friday, saying that the image helped shaped world history. "Facebook gets it wrong when they censor such images,” she said. Facebook also deleted Solberg's post expressing support for Egeland, the writer. She had shared his post in which he had written that Ut's photo was one of seven that had "changed the history of warfare." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2cJqV1U[SEP]Norway’s prime minister joined a campaign by a Norwegian newspaper on Friday accusing Facebook Inc of undue censorship by barring a Vietnam War era news photograph showing a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack. The social media giant erased the iconic photograph, showing children running from a bombed village, from the Facebook pages of several Norwegian authors and media outlets, including top-selling newspaper Aftenposten. Captured in 1972 by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nick Ut of the Associated Press, the image of screaming children running from a napalm attack shows a naked nine-year-old girl at its centre. Aftenposten splashed the photograph across the front page of its newspaper on Friday, next to a large Facebook logo, and wrote a front-page editorial headlined “Dear Mark Zuckerberg”, arguing that the network was undermining democracy. Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg then posted the photograph on her own Facebook profile, writing that it had contributed to change the course of world history. The image later disappeared from the page. “Facebook gets it wrong when they censor such pictures. It limits the freedom of speech,” Solberg wrote. “I say yes to healthy, open and free debate – online and wherever else we go. But I say no to this form of censorship.” Solberg in her posting also praised Facebook for combating pictures of child abuse. Aftenposten, in its editorial, said Facebook should be able to tell the difference between child pornography and famous war photography. Facebook said in a statement its rules were more blunt than the company itself would prefer, adding that restrictions on nudity were necessary on a global platform. “While we recognize that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others,” a company spokesperson wrote. “We try to find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves while maintaining a safe and respectful experience for our global community. Our solutions won’t always be perfect, but we will continue to try to improve our policies and the ways in which we apply them.” In May, Solberg was present when Facebook opened its first Norwegian office.[SEP]Mark Zuckerberg is facing fierce criticism after Facebook censored one of the most famous war photographs in history. The editor of a top Norwegian newspaper on Thursday addressed an open letter to Zuckerberg saying he was "upset, disappointed -- well, in fact even afraid" about Facebook's impact on media freedom. Espen Egil Hansen said his newspaper, Aftenposten, received a demand from Facebook to remove the iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack. "Less than 24 hours after the email was sent, and before I had time to give my response, you intervened yourselves and deleted the article as well as the image from Aftenposten's Facebook page," Hansen wrote. Related: Facebook ditches humans in favor of algorithms for trending news His complaint highlights growing concern about Facebook's vast and expanding influence over news and other content seen by more than a billion people around the world. "You create rules that don't distinguish between child pornography and famous war photographs," Hansen wrote to Zuckerberg. "Then you practice these rules without allowing space for good judgment." Facebook (FB, Tech30) said it recognizes that the photo is iconic, but stressed that it's "difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others." "We try to find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves while maintaining a safe and respectful experience for our global community," the company said. "Our solutions won't always be perfect, but we will continue to try to improve our policies and the ways in which we apply them." The pressure intensified on Friday when Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg accused the company of deleting the image from her own public page. "What they do in removing such pictures, whatever their reasons, is to edit our common history," Solberg said in a statement that urged Facebook to face up to its responsibilities as a major media platform. Related: The girl in the picture -- a journey from war to forgiveness The saga began when Norwegian author Tom Egeland posted a series of historic war photographs on Facebook. The social network removed one of the images -- the famous Vietnam photo of the naked girl, Kim Phuc, fleeing the napalm attack -- and later suspended Egeland's account after he posted a reaction to the deletion. When Aftenposten posted its article about what happened to Egeland on Facebook, that too fell foul of the rules. "You even censor criticism against and a discussion about the decision -- and you punish the person who dares to voice criticism," Hansen wrote. The dramatic photo, snapped by Associated Press photojournalist Nick Ut in 1972, won a Pulitzer Prize and is one of the most memorable images of the 20th Century. Despite its graphic nature, the photo has been credited with helping to turn U.S. public sentiment against the war in Vietnam. Hansen told CNNMoney's Nina Dos Santos on Friday that Zuckerberg is now "the most influential editor-in-chief in the world." "With that follows a great responsibility," Hansen said. "I ask him to think through what he is doing ... to the public debate all over the world." Rolv Erik Ryssdal, chief executive of Aftenposten's publisher, said in a statement that Facebook's position "is not acceptable" and constitutes an attack on democracy and freedom of expression. Zuckerberg has tried to fend off pressure about Facebook's role in managing what articles and images people see. "We're a technology company, we're not a media company," he said last month. "We do not produce any of the content." Facebook says it relies on users to report offensive content. Items they flag are then reviewed by teams of workers around the world who speak many languages, including Norwegian. But some media experts say the system is fatally flawed. "Whether intentional or desired or not, Facebook does now play a critical role in the distribution of news," Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York, wrote earlier this year. "An editor -- or perhaps an ethicist-in-chief -- could help set the services standards and policies." Jarvis seized on Hansen's letter to Zuckerberg, tweeting that it's an example of "exactly why I keep suggesting Facebook needs a top level journalist." Facebook was engulfed by controversy in May over how news stories were chosen for its "trending topics" box. Last month, it removed the humans responsible for manually writing news descriptions and headlines for the section, turning the job over to software programs.[SEP]Mark Zuckerberg is coming under criticism after Facebook censored one of the most famous war photographs in history. The editor of a top Norwegian newspaper on Thursday addressed an open letter to Zuckerberg saying he was "upset, disappointed -- well, in fact even afraid" over the impact of Facebook algorithms on media freedom. Espen Egil Hansen said his newspaper, Aftenposten, received a demand from Facebook on Wednesday to remove the iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack. "Less than 24 hours after the email was sent, and before I had time to give my response, you intervened yourselves and deleted the article as well as the image from Aftenposten's Facebook page," Hansen wrote. Related: Facebook ditches humans in favor of algorithms for trending news His complaint highlights growing concern about Faceboo' (FB, Tech30)s vast and expanding influence over news and other content seen by more than a billion people around the world. "You create rules that don't distinguish between child pornography and famous war photographs," Hansen wrote to Zuckerberg. "Then you practice these rules without allowing space for good judgment." The saga began when Norwegian author Tom Egeland posted a series of historic war photographs on Facebook. Related: The girl in the picture -- a journey from war to forgiveness The social network then removed one of the images -- the famous Vietnam photo of the naked girl, Kim Phuc, fleeing the napalm attack -- and later suspended Egeland's account after he posted a reaction to the deletion, according to the Norwegian newspaper. The photo, snapped by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, won a Pulitzer Prize and is one of the most memorable images of the 20th Century. Despite its graphic nature, the publication of the photo has been credited with helping to turn U.S. public sentiment against the war in Vietnam. When Aftenposten shared its article on Facebook about what happened to Egeland, that too fell foul of the platform's rules. "You even censor criticism against and a discussion about the decision -- and you punish the person who dares to voice criticism," Hansen wrote, describing Zuckerberg as "the most powerful editor in the world." Zuckerberg has tried to fend off pressure about Facebook's role in managing what articles and images people see. "We're a technology company, we're not a media company," he said last month. "We do not produce any of the content." "Whether intentional or desired or not, Facebook does now play a critical role in the distribution of news," Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York, wrote in a blog post earlier this year. "An editor -- or perhaps an ethicist-in-chief -- could help set the services standards and policies." Jarvis seized on the Norwegian editor's letter to Zuckerberg on Thursday, tweeting that it's an example of "exactly why I keep suggesting Facebook needs a top level journalist." Facebook was engulfed by controversy in May over how news stories were chosen for its "trending topics" box. Last month, it removed the humans responsible for manually writing news descriptions and headlines for the section, turning the job over to software programs.[SEP]OSLO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Norway's prime minister accused Facebook Inc on Friday of censorship after it deleted an iconic Vietnam War era news photograph of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack from pages, including her own. In a clash between a democratically elected leader and the social media giant over how to patrol the Internet, Erna Solberg said Facebook was editing history by erasing images of the 1972 photograph of children running from a bombed village. Facebook erased the photograph when Solberg and other ministers in her right-wing cabinet posted it on their Facebook pages, citing its guidelines banning child nudity. Soldberg had posted the image on Friday in a protest after Facebook had already erased the photo from sites of Norwegian authors and the daily Aftenposten. Captured by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nick Ut of the Associated Press, the image of screaming children running from a napalm attack shows a naked nine-year-old girl at its centre. Solberg said Facebook's ban put unacceptable limits on freedom of speech. "They must see the difference between editing out child pornography and editing out history," she told Reuters. "It's perfectly possible for a company like Facebook to sort this out. Otherwise we risk more censorship," she said. Protesting Facebook's move, Solberg re-posted the photo with a black square covering the naked girl, and published a range of other historic images blacking over faces of people such as Ronald Reagan or Winston Churchill. She also posted a version of the "Tank Man" image from China's 1989 Tiananmen uprising, with a black square covering a man standing in front of a row of army tanks. Solberg wrote on her Facebook account: "I want my children and other children to grow up in a society where history is taught as it was." Norway is a big investor in Facebook. Its $891 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, had a stake of 0.52 percent in Facebook worth $1.54 billion at the start of 2016. Aftenposten splashed the Vietnam photograph across the front page of its newspaper on Friday, next to a large Facebook logo, and wrote a front-page editorial headlined "Dear Mark Zuckerberg", arguing that the network was undermining democracy. Facebook said in a statement its rules were more blunt than the company itself would prefer, adding that restrictions on nudity were necessary on a global platform. "While we recognize that this photo is iconic, it's difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others," a company spokesperson wrote. "We try to find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves while maintaining a safe and respectful experience for our global community. Our solutions won't always be perfect, but we will continue to try to improve our policies and the ways in which we apply them." Solberg told Reuters she intends to maintain her account on the network.[SEP]Facebook has deleted a post by the Norwegian prime minister in an escalating row over the website’s decision to remove content featuring the Pulitzer-prize winning “napalm girl” photograph taken during the Vietnam War. Erna Solberg, the Conservative prime minister, called on Facebook to “review its editing policy” after it deleted her post voicing support for a Norwegian newspaper that had inadvertently fallen foul of the social media’s guidelines. Ms Solberg was one of a string of Norwegian politicians who shared the iconic image after Facebook deleted a post from Tom Egeland, a writer who had included the picture by Nick Ut, as one of seven photographs he said had “changed the history of warfare”. Egeland was subsequently suspended from Facebook, and his standoff with the social media giant was reported by the daily newspaper Aftenposten, which used the same image in its reporting of the story and itself came under pressure from Facebook to delete the picture. Aftenposten’s editor-in-chief, Espen Egil Hansen, said the newspaper had received a message from Facebook asking it to “either remove or pixelise” the photograph. He refused and wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg saying he was failing to live up to his role as “the world’s most powerful editor”. In her intervention on Friday, the Norwegian prime minister wrote that the photograph, entitled The Terror of War and featuring a naked 9-year-old Kim Phuc running away from a napalm attack, had “shaped world history”. Ms Solberg added: “I appreciate the work Facebook and other media do to stop content and pictures showing abuse and violence ... But Facebook is wrong when they censor such images.” Before being deleted by Facebook this morning, her post went on to say the website’s decision “helps to curb freedom of expression”, adding: “I say no to this form of censorship.” Ms Solberg said: “It is highly regrettable that Facebook has removed a post from my Facebook page. What they achieve by removing such images, good as the intentions may be, is to edit our common history. I wish today’s children will also have the opportunity to see and learn from historical mistakes and events. This is important. “I hope Facebook uses this opportunity to review its editing policy, and assumes the responsibility a large company managing a broad communication platform should take.” On the decision to delete the prime minister’s post, Mr Hansen told the Guardian: “At least they don’t discriminate, we have to give them credit for that.” The chief executive of Aftenposten’s publisher, Schibsted Media Group, said Facebook had tried to stop the newspaper publishing “one of the most important photos of our time”. Rolv Erik Ryssdal added: “It is not acceptable. Facebook’s censorship is an attack on the freedom of expression - and therefore on democracy.” Mr Ryssdal said Facebook was increasingly powerful in Norway’s media market, capturing 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner (€162 million) of advertising while paying “only crumbs in taxes back to society”. “Schibsted Media Group believes it is very important that the Norwegian media industry now gather to create an independent alternative to the American giants’ enormous power in the advertising market,” he said. “We are talking about the prerequisite for independent journalism. Facebook’s treatment of Aftenposten is another proof of the importance of this.” A Facebook spokeswoman said: “While we recognise that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others. We try to find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves while maintaining a safe and respectful experience for our global community. “Our solutions won’t always be perfect, but we will continue to try to improve our policies and the ways in which we apply them.” The posts that were later deleted would firstly have been reported by a user to Facebook’s community standards team, who would then have made the decision to remove them, rather than being removed automatically by an algorithm.[SEP]SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook backtracked Friday on a decision to censor an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing, after its block on the historic image sparked outrage. The online giant stopped short of apologizing, saying the image had been flagged for violating standards regarding inappropriate posts at the world’s leading social network. “An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography,” Facebook said in a statement. “In this case, we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time.” Taken by photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh for the Associated Press, the 1972 picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack is considered one of the war’s defining images. It was honored with the Pulitzer Prize. An active social media user, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg defied Facebook early Friday by posting the photograph, helping to bring the weekslong controversy to a head. Her post was taken down several hours later, deleted by Facebook, she said. After Facebook reversed position on the image, Solberg told the BBC she was a “happy prime minister.” “It shows that using social media can make (a) political change even in social media.” Solberg refused to back down, re-posting the photo on her Facebook page, along with several other iconic pictures with sections blacked out, in an attempt to illustrate the absurdity of censoring historic images. “What Facebook is doing by deleting photos like this, as good as their intentions are, is to edit our common history,” she wrote in a post. Solberg had shared the picture at Facebook in the name of freedom of expression amid a brewing debate in Norway. The row began several weeks ago after Norwegian author Tom Egeland published a post about war photos, illustrated by the picture. Facebook promptly deleted it. Egeland expressed delight in a Twitter message written in Norwegian after the Facebook about-face. “To all who said ‘there’s no point,’ yes there is a point.” Norwegians had risen to his defense by publishing the photo, posts that Facebook also deleted in line with its rules barring nudity. The affair took on such proportions that the Norwegian Press Federation asked the country’s powerful pension fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, to examine whether the censorship practice was in line with its ethical criteria for investments. At the end of 2015, the fund owned 0.52 percent of Facebook. Traditional media also voiced concern about the moves by Facebook, which has become a key source of news and information for hundreds of millions of people. On Friday, Norway’s biggest daily Aftenposten dedicated the front page of its print edition to the photo, and published a two-page open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook said it reversed course after the outcry from its members and that is was examining how its standards were applied in the situation. “Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal,” California-based Facebook said of the decision to reinstate posts of the image. Facebook said it was also modifying its review mechanisms to prevent the image from being removed in future, but that process could take some time. “The photo should be avai lable for sharing in the coming days,” Facebook said. “We will be engaging with publishers and other members of our global community on these important questions going forward.” This is not the first time Facebook has been accused of a lack of sensitivity in how it enforces its rules on appropriate content. The company has in the past blocked seminal artworks because they featured nudity. Facebook is due to go on trial in France, where a schoolteacher accused it of censorship for blocking his account after he posted a photo of a painting by 19th-century master Gustave Courbet called “L’Origine du monde” (The Origin of the World) that depicts a woman’s vagina. And earlier this year, a Danish lawmaker also complained that Facebook had removed her picture of the Copenhagen statue of the Little Mermaid because of its nudity rules. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) depicted Facebook’s censorship of the Vietnam War photo as a grave violation of freedom of information. “The ‘decency’ rules used by this social network are so restrictive that they trample on the freedom to inform,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in a statement. “We call on Facebook to add respect for the journalistic values of photos to these rules, and to ensure that their rules are never more severe than national legislations.” AFP[SEP]COPENHAGEN — A Norwegian revolt against Facebook’s nude photo restrictions escalated Friday as the prime minister posted an iconic 1972 image of a naked, screaming girl running from a napalm attack, and the social media network promptly deleted it. Politicians of all stripes, journalists and regular Norwegians backed Prime Minister Erna Solberg, defiantly sharing the Pulitzer Prize-winning image by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut. “What they do by removing this kind of image is to edit our common history,” Solberg told the AP in a phone interview. The image shows screaming children running from a burning Vietnamese village. The little girl in in the centre of the frame, Kim Phuc, is naked and crying as the napalm melts away layers of her skin. The protests started last month after Facebook deleted the image from a Norwegian author’s page, saying it violated its rules on nudity. Many Norwegians posted the photo in protest, and Solberg joined them on Friday, saying social media must distinguish between child pornography and images of historical significance. She said Facebook removed her post as she was on a flight from Oslo to the west coast city of Trondheim. “Today, pictures are such an important element in making an impression, that if you edit past events or people, you change history and you change reality,” she told the AP, adding it was the first time one of her Facebook posts was deleted. Solberg later reposted the image with a black box covering the girl from the thighs up. She also posted other iconic photos of historic events, such as the man standing in front of a tank in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, with black boxes covering the protagonists. Facebook, in a statement from its European headquarters in London, responded that “it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others.” Like its Scandinavian neighbours, Norway takes pride in its freedom of speech. It’s also a largely secular nation with relaxed attitudes about nudity. Several members of the Norwegian government followed Solberg’s lead and posted the photo on their Facebook pages. One of them, Education Minister Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, said it was “an iconic photo, part of our history.” Many of the posts were deleted but Isaksen’s was still up Friday afternoon. The photo was also left untouched on a number of Facebook accounts, including the AP’s. It would be physically impossible for the company to comb through the hundreds of millions of photos posted each day so it relies on user reports and algorithms to weed out pictures that go against its terms of service. Photos are often automatically removed if enough people report them. Facebook usually does not proactively remove photos, with some exceptions, such as child pornography. Because of this, what photos are and aren’t removed can sometimes be inconsistent, and sometimes leads to Facebook reinstating the photos after removing them. Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten published the photo on its front page Friday and also wrote an open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in which chief editor Espen Egil Hansen accused the social media giant of abusing its power. Hansen said he was “upset, disappointed — well, in fact even afraid — of what you are about to do to a mainstay of our democratic society.” The uproar also spread outside of Norway, with the head of Denmark’s journalism union urging people to share Hansen’s open letter. Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas, who has previously clashed with Facebook over its failure to remove hate speech deemed illegal in Germany, also weighed in, saying “illegal content should vanish from the Internet, not photos that move the whole world.” Facebook’s statement said it tries to “find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves while maintaining a safe and respectful experience for our global community. Our solutions won’t always be perfect, but we will continue to try to improve our policies and the ways in which we apply them.” Paul Colford, AP vice-president and director of media relations, said: “The Associated Press is proud of Nick Ut’s photo and recognizes its historical impact. In addition, we reserve our rights to this powerful image.” Before it was published 44 years ago, AP also had a discussion about the image because it violated the news agency’s policy on full-frontal nudity. Hal Buell, then AP’s executive news photo editor in New York, said he received a message from Saigon photo editor Horst Faas saying a “controversial picture” was coming up. “Maybe we discussed it on the desk for 10-15 minutes,” said Buell, who is now retired. “But there is nothing about this picture that is prurient. How can we not publish this picture? It captures the horrors of war. It captures the terrible situation of innocents caught in the cross-fire of the war.” AP published the image and media worldwide used it, though some chose not to, Buell said. Facebook now says it will allow posting on the photo, “because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance.”[SEP]Facebook has reinstated a Vietnam War-era photo of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack, after a public outcry over its removal of the image including harsh criticism from Norway's prime minister. In a clash between a democratically elected leader and the social media giant over how to patrol the Internet, Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Facebook was editing history by erasing images of the iconic 1972 "Napalm Girl" photograph, which showed children running from a bombed village. The company initially said the photo violated its Community Standards barring child nudity on the site. ALSO READ: * Facebook 'napalm girl' row mounts as Norway PM posts picture * Facebook weeds out clickbait from News Feed, says don't rely on Facebook for all your news "After hearing from our community, we looked again at how our Community Standards were applied in this case," Facebook said in a later statement, adding it recognised "the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time." Solberg posted the iconic "Napalm Girl" news photograph on her Facebook page after the company had deleted it from sites of Norwegian authors and the daily Aftenposten. Facebook had also removed the photo from the page of the woman who had been photographed as a girl. Captured by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nick Ut of the Associated Press, the image of screaming children running from a napalm attack shows a naked nine-year-old girl at its centre. Solberg said Facebook's ban put unacceptable limits on freedom of speech. "They must see the difference between editing out child pornography and editing out history," she told Reuters. "It's perfectly possible for a company like Facebook to sort this out. Otherwise we risk more censorship," she said. Protesting Facebook's move, Solberg re-posted the photo with a black square covering the naked girl, and published a range of other historic images blacking over faces of people such as Ronald Reagan or Winston Churchill. She also posted a version of the "Tank Man" image from the 1989 protests in China's Tiananmen Square, with a black square covering a man standing in front of a row of army tanks. Solberg wrote on her Facebook account: "I want my children and other children to grow up in a society where history is taught as it was." Aftenposten splashed the Vietnam photograph across its front page on Friday, next to a large Facebook logo, and wrote a front-page editorial headlined "Dear Mark Zuckerberg", saying the social network was undermining democracy. Earlier, Facebook said in a statement its rules were more blunt than the company itself would prefer, adding that restrictions on nudity were necessary on a global platform. Norway is a big investor in Facebook. Its US$891 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, had a stake of 0.52 percent in Facebook worth US$1.54 billion at the start of 2016. Solberg told Reuters she intended to maintain her Facebook account.[SEP]Vietnamese-Canadian Phan Thi Kim Phuc delivers her speech before her June 8, 1972 Pulitzer-Prize-winning photograph during the Vietnam war, during a lecture meeting in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture on April 13, 2013 (AFP Photo/Jiji Press) San Francisco (AFP) - Facebook on Friday reversed its decision to censor an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing, after the move set off a wave of outrage, including from Norway's prime minister. "Because of its status as an iconic image of historical importance, the value of permitting sharing outweighs the value of protecting the community by removal, so we have decided to reinstate the image on Facebook where we are aware it has been removed," a spokesperson for the world's largest social network said in an email to AFP. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg earlier on Friday posted the photograph, which the US social network says violates its nudity rules. Taken by photographer Nick Ut Cong Huynh for the Associated Press, the 1972 picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack is considered one of the war's defining images. It was honored with the Pulitzer Prize. Solberg's post was taken down several hours later, deleted by Facebook, she said. She said Facebook was seeking "to edit our common history." The affair began several weeks ago after Norwegian author Tom Egeland published a post about war photos, illustrated by the picture. Facebook promptly deleted it. Norwegians rose to his defense by publishing the photo, posts that Facebook also deleted in line with its rules barring nudity. In its latest statement, Facebook said it had reversed course "after hearing from our community," and examining how its "Community Standards" were applied. "An image of a naked child would normally be presumed to violate our Community Standards, and in some countries might even qualify as child pornography." But Facebook said it was allowing the picture to be posted on the world's largest social network and will "adjust our review mechanisms to permit sharing of the image going forward." "It will take some time to adjust these systems but the photo should be available for sharing in the coming days," the statement added. "We are always looking to improve our policies to make sure they both promote free expression and keep our community safe."

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten accuses Facebook of censorship because of the website's decision to remove the iconic Vietnam War–era photo "napalm girl" as child pornography.

Sass as a Strategy: How Netflix’s Twitter Became Just as Entertaining as Its Shows and Movies[SEP]General Motors Co. is recalling about 4 million vehicles worldwide to fix an air bag software defect that has been linked to one death. The company said Friday that in rare cases, the car's computers can go into test mode and the front air bags won't inflate in a crash. The seat belts also may not function. GM says the defect is linked to at least one death. GM will notify customers and update the software for free. The recall involves the 2014-2016 Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet SS and Spark EV; the 2014-2017 Buick Encore, GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Corvette, Trax, Caprice and Silverado; and the 2015-2017 Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban and Silverado HD, GMC Yukon, Yukon XL and Sierra HD and Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV.[SEP]General Motors Co ( ) said Friday it will recall nearly 4.3 million vehicles worldwide for a software defect that can, in rare instances, prevent air bags from deploying during a crash, an issue that has been linked to one death and three injuries. The Detroit automaker said the recall of newer trucks, cars and SUVs from the 2014-2017 model years would not have a material impact on its financial results. GM said the sensing and diagnostic module that controls airbag deployment has a software defect that may prevent the deployment of frontal airbags in certain "rare circumstances when a crash is preceded by a specific event impacting vehicle dynamics."[SEP]General Motors is recalling four million vehicles worldwide for a software defect linked to one death. The faults include an airbag software defect in certain models, which means the cars' computers can go into test mode so the front airbags would not inflate in a crash. Seatbelts may also not function in affected vehicles, the firm has warned. General Motors will notify customers and update the software for free, it has been reported. The following models will be recalled; 2015-2017 Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban and Silverado HD, GMC Yukon, Yukon XL and Sierra HD and Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV; 2014-2017 Buick Encore, GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Corvette, Trax, Caprice and Silverado; 2014-2016 Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet SS and Spark EV. • Moment van slams into passenger jet packed with holidaymakers moments before take-off on runway The firm, also known as GM, is based in Detroit, Michigan and produces vehicles in 37 countries under 12 brands.[SEP]General Motors issued a recall notice Friday for 4.3 million cars and trucks worldwide due to a dangerous electronic fault that could prevent airbag deployment in an accident. GM said that in certain driving conditions, the vehicle's airbag sensing and diagnostic module software could automatically begin a diagnostic test that, if running during an accident, could prevent front-seat airbags and seatbelt pretensioners from deploying. GM learned of the fault from a May 17, 2016 accident of a 2014 Silverado truck in which the airbag and tensioners did not activate. The recall covers a wide range of sedans, sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks from the 2014-2017 model years: Buick LaCrosse and Encore; Chevrolet SS, Spark EV, Corvette, Trax, Caprice, Tahoe, Suburban and Silverado; GMC Sierra and Yukon; and Cadillac Escalade. The recall covers 3.6 million vehicles in the United States and 640,000 sold in other countries.[SEP]DETROIT (AP) - General Motors has recalled more than 4 million vehicles, most of them in the U.S., to fix an air-bag software defect that has been linked to one death. The vehicles involved in the recall are all from the 2014-2017 model years and include models from Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac. The company is recalling 4.28 million vehicles worldwide, with 3.6 million being in the U.S. The company said Friday that in rare cases, the car’s sensing and diagnostic module — a tiny computer that senses what the vehicle is doing and controls air-bag deployment — can go into test mode. If that happens, the front air bags won’t inflate in a crash and the seat belts may not work either. GM says the defect is linked to at least one death and three injuries. The company learned of the problem in May when a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado crashed and its air bags didn’t deploy. GM notified Delphi Corp., the supplier that made the module. The two companies tested the modules and decided to recall the vehicles last week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the recall Friday. General Motors Co. will notify customers and update the software for free. GM says dealers already have access to the software update so they should be able to repair the vehicles quickly. The recall involves 3.6 million vehicles. They are:[SEP]General Motors on Friday said it will recall nearly 4.3 million vehicles worldwide due to a software defect that can prevent airbags from deploying during a crash, a flaw already linked to one death and three injuries. GM's action marked the latest massive air bag-related recall in recent years by leading automakers, and was the latest air bag-related issue the Detroit automaker has faced. The world's No. 3 automaker said the sensing and diagnostic module that controls airbag deployment has a software defect that may prevent the deployment of frontal airbags in certain "rare circumstances." GM said the recall of trucks, cars and SUVs from the 2014 to 2017 model years would not have a material impact on its financial results. The recall includes some newer models of the Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Corvette, Silverado 1500, Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban and Silverado HD and Cadillac Escalade. GM stock fell on the news and was trading down $0.90 a share to $30.81, down 2.8 percent. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a notice posted on Friday that "certain driving conditions may cause the airbag sensing and diagnostic module software to activate a diagnostic test" that would prevent the airbag from deploying in the event of a crash. GM received a report in May of a crash involving a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado truck in which the driver's frontal airbag and seat belt equipment called pretensioners did not deploy. Pretensioners tighten up any slack in the seat belt webbing in the event of a crash and work in tandem with the air bags. GM opened an investigation into the issue in June and conducted road testing at its Milford Proving Grounds in August before deciding on a recall. The company said its dealers will update vehicle software to prevent future airbag and pretensioner non-deployments. GM has faced other air bag issues in recent years. In 2014, GM recalled nearly 2.6 million vehicles because of an ignition-switch defect that prevented airbags from deploying in some crashes. GM's independent fund set up to compensate victims awarded $594.5 million and approved 124 death and 275 injury claims in connection with that recall. In July, GM said the NHTSA may force it to recall another 4.3 million vehicles for potentially defective Takata airbag inflators, a call-back that would cost the U.S. automaker $550 million. GM earlier this year recalled 2.5 million vehicles for Takata inflators. GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the automaker is still in discussion with NHTSA about the issue.[SEP]The Detroit automaker said the recall of newer trucks, cars and SUVs from the 2014-2017 model years would not have a material impact on its financial results. GM said the sensing and diagnostic module that controls airbag deployment has a software defect that may prevent the deployment of frontal airbags in certain "rare circumstances when a crash is preceded by a specific event impacting vehicle dynamics."[SEP]WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Friday it will recall nearly 4.3 million vehicles worldwide to fix a software defect that can prevent air bags from deploying during a crash, a flaw already linked to one death and three injuries. GM's action marked the latest large air bag-related recall in recent years by leading automakers, including a record earlier recall involving Takata Corp air bags and investigations into millions of vehicles this year involving two other air bag system suppliers. GM, the world's No. 3 automaker, said the latest recall involved trucks, cars and SUVs from the 2014 to 2017 model years, including some models of the Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Corvette, Silverado 1500, Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban and Silverado HD and Cadillac Escalade. Despite the rash of problems with air bags in recent years, a spokesman for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sought to reassure motorists about the devices, saying "air bags save lives." The agency estimates that frontal air bags saved 2,400 lives in the United States in 2014, the most recent year for which figures were available. The NHTSA said in a notice posted on Friday that under certain driving conditions the air bag system would launch a diagnostic test that would prevent the air bag from deploying in the event of a crash. GM said the software defect would prevent deployment under certain "rare circumstances." GM stock fell on the news and was trading down $1.18 to $30.53, down 3.7 percent on Friday. The company said the recall would not have a material impact on its financial results. Delphi Automotive PLC said in a securities filing on Friday that it supplied sensors and modules for the air bags but suggested it was not to blame, saying they were "in compliance with GM's product specifications and validation criteria." Delphi said it does not expect "the cost, if any, of this recall would be material to our financial position." Delphi fell on the news, off 3.6 percent to $68.10. GM said it received a report in May of a crash involving a 2014 Chevrolet Silverado truck in which the driver's frontal air bag and seat belt equipment called pretensioners did not deploy. GM opened an investigation into the issue in June and conducted road testing in August before deciding on a recall. The company said its dealers will update vehicle software to prevent future air bag and pretensioner nondeployments. GM has faced other air bag issues in recent years. In 2014, GM recalled nearly 2.6 million vehicles because of an ignition-switch defect that prevented air bags from deploying in some crashes. GM's independent fund set up to compensate victims awarded $594.5 million and approved 124 death and 275 injury claims in connection with that recall. In July, GM said the NHTSA may force it to recall another 4.3 million vehicles for Takata air bag inflators, a call-back that would cost the U.S. automaker $550 million. GM earlier this year recalled 2.5 million vehicles for Takata inflators. GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the automaker is still in discussion with NHTSA about the issue. In February, Continental Automotive Systems said it supplied potentially defective air bag control units to 5 million vehicles built over a five-year period worldwide. In August, the NHTSA said it was upgrading and expanding a probe of more than 8 million air bag inflators made by ARC Automotive Inc after a driver was killed in Canada when an inflator ruptured in a Hyundai vehicle. Separately, the NHTSA and a number of global automakers are working to replace as many as 100 million defective air bag inflators worldwide by 14 automakers that have been linked to at least 14 deaths and 100 injuries.

General Motors recalls 4.3 million vehicles after a defect in the software for the airbag led to one fatality.

A longtime Volkswagen engineer from Southern California pleaded guilty in federal court to charges he helped design and implement a software system that enabled the German automaker’s diesel engines to defeat emissions tests. The plea is the first from a staffer involved in the cheating scandal, and it signals that the Justice Department is serious about holding Volkswagen employees personally and criminally responsible for producing about half a million cars that spew up to 40 times the legally allowed amount of pollutants into the atmosphere. James Robert Liang, 62, a Newbury Park resident, pleaded guilty in federal court in Detroit to a single charge of conspiring to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud and violate the Clean Air Act. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. “Today’s charges are the first shoe to drop in the Volkswagen criminal case, but certainly not the last,” said David Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan and former chief of the Justice Department’s environmental crimes section. “The open question is whether the evidence will allow prosecutors to charge senior executives at Volkswagen.” Advertisement Neither Liang nor his attorney could be reached for comment. Public records link Liang to a single-story, four-bedroom home in a gated community in the hills of Thousand Oaks. On Friday, the shutters on street-facing windows were pulled down tight. A silver four-door Volkswagen sat in the driveway, while another silver Volkswagen car was parked on the street, directly in front of the home. As part of the plea agreement, Liang will cooperate with the government in its ongoing criminal investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Such cooperation is generally a sign that federal prosecutors are seeking to charge others in a scheme. Advertisement The plea agreement describes a conspiracy that spanned nearly a decade. Liang had worked in Volkswagen’s diesel development department in Wolfsburg, Germany, starting in 1983. In 2006, he and his “co-conspirators” started work on a new diesel engine for U.S. vehicles, the plea agreement says. As described in a 25-page indictment unsealed Friday along with the plea deal, Liang and the other VW employees at Volkswagen knew “from almost the beginning of VW’s process to design its new ‘clean diesel’ vehicles” that the cars “would not meet U.S. emissions standards.” When they realized that they could not design an engine that would adhere to the strict U.S. standards, while also delivering solid road performance, they created and implemented so-called defeat devices — software that could recognize when cars were being tested “in order to cheat” the tests, according to court papers. If the software detected the vehicle was undergoing a test, it told the car to emit only enough nitrogen oxide to pass the inspection. Otherwise, the court papers allege, it permitted the cars to pump substantially more nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. In a statement released Friday, the Justice Department said Liang admitted to using the software while working on the diesel engine and “assisted in making the defeat device work.” Volkswagen said in a statement that it is “continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice,” but couldn’t comment on the indictment. In 2008, Liang transferred to the U.S. to help launch Volkswagen’s new “clean diesel” vehicles, according to the plea agreement. While working at VW’s test facility in Oxnard, he served as “leader of diesel competence.” Advertisement According to the plea agreement, Liang said he and his co-conspirators “misrepresented” that the VW diesel vehicles met U.S. emissions standards during certification meetings for new cars with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board and “hid the existence of the defeat device from regulators.” According to court papers, Liang and his fellow engineers did not stop at creating the defeat devices — they improved them. As the engines aged, Volkswagen noticed increasing complaints about parts and components breaking down. Engineers believed that the surge in warranty claims was “a result of the vehicle operating in ‘testing mode’ too long rather than switching to ‘road mode,’ ” prosecutors wrote. To blunt the claims, Liang and his fellow employees upgraded the defeat device to help cars better recognize when they no longer were being tested. Volkswagen then pushed the software update out to unwitting customers, claiming that it was intended to improve their cars and never mentioning that it was partly to cheat emissions tests. Liang and his co-conspirators continued to lie to the EPA and state Air Resources Board, even after regulatory agencies started to raise questions about the vehicles’ performance, the plea agreement says. The scandal erupted last September when the Air Resources Board and the EPA said they had discovered the software in certain 2-liter VW diesel vehicles. In regular driving, they said, the vehicles spew up to 40 times the legally allowed amount of nitrogen oxide. Regulators later said the defeat devices also were installed in some Volkswagen and Audi 3.0-liter diesel vehicles as well. Advertisement Volkswagen in June agreed to pay up to $14.7 billion to settle government allegations in the U.S. linked to its cheating on emissions tests and to buy back or terminate the leases of nearly half a million of its cars. The German automaker will spend up to $10 billion to buy back or modify VW and Audi 2.0-liter diesel vehicles in the U.S. It also will pay $2.7 billion into a trust to support environmental programs and reduce emissions. The settlement was reached with the Justice Department, state attorneys general and other agencies, as well as car owners. The agreements represented the largest settlement in U.S. history with an automaker. samantha.masunaga@latimes.com del.wilber@latimes.com Times staff writer Neal J. Leitereg contributed to this report. UPDATES: 11:30 a.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the indictment. 10 a.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the plea agreement. 8:55 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting. This article was originally published at 8:20 a.m.[SEP]A veteran Volkswagen engineer has become the first person to be criminally charged over the diesel emissions scandal, in a move that opens the door to possible charges against other employees. James Liang, a VW employee for 25 years, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud US customers and regulators and agreed to co-operate with federal prosecutors investigating the carmaker’s conduct. The engineer at VW’s facility in Wolfsburg, Germany, admitted to helping develop the cheating software that masks vehicles’ emission levels while in test conditions. Last September VW admitted that 11 million cars – including 110,000 in Ireland – contained the software, sparking investigations and lawsuits across the world that have cost the carmaker billions of dollars and tarnished its reputation. On Friday Mr Liang (62) pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and violate the Clean Air Act. His involvement raises the possibility that criminal charges may be brought against other employees at the German carmaker. VW, which is also under criminal investigation but has not yet faced charges, said: “Volkswagen is continuing to co-operate with the US department of justice. We cannot comment on this indictment.” Since the scandal emerged a year ago, questions over whether senior executives knew of the deception have gone unanswered. A plea agreement with prosecutors stated that, even as VW billed its cars as “clean diesel”, Mr Liang and other company employees “knew that these representations to US customers were false and that VW’s diesel vehicles were not clean”. Mr Liang personally participated in a VW conspiracy to outwit US emissions rules governing 500,000 VW diesel 2.0 litre passenger cars, according to his plea agreement, which describes meetings attended by company officials and US environmental officials in 2007. During those sessions, “Liang participated as his co-conspirators misrepresented that VW diesel vehicles complied with US” emissions rules, the document stated. Mr Liang was a key part of VW’s efforts to quell regulators’ concerns about the vehicles following a 2014 study that identified discrepancies between the cars’ emissions in lab tests compared with their actual road performance. He was part of the original engineering team that built the EA 189 engine in Germany, but he was also in the US when California regulators began asking detailed questions about emissions. “He was in the wrong place twice,” a person familiar with Mr Liang’s case said. Mr Liang moved to the US in 2008 to work in VW’s Oxnard, California facility. According to a US court filing from June, but only released to the public on Friday, Mr Liang and unnamed co-conspirators actively concealed information about the existence of defeat devices for cars with model years from 2008 to 2016. In March 2014, when a West Virginia University study raised questions about the real world emissions of some VW cars, Mr Liang “pursued a strategy to disclose as little as possible” about the illegal software. He “intentionally made... false and fraudulent statements” to the EPA and CARB to make the discrepancies appear as if they were innocent mechanical and technological problems, the legal filing said. When VW recalled half a million cars in early 2015 to “fix” the emissions problem, Mr Liang allegedly knew the recall would not work. VW has already set aside €18 billion to cover the costs of the scandal. Stuart Pearson, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, estimated VW could be fined $2.25 billion if it faced criminal charges over the issue. “The maximum fine the DoJ can impose is two times the economic gain or loss from VW’s actions,” he said. While Exane estimated the cost to VW of not installing the correct emissions reduction technology at the time was about $630 million, Mr Pearson added there could be a “wide interpretation” of the costs the company avoided through its cheating.[SEP]A longtime Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy for his role in the German automaker’s global emissions cheating scandal. James Robert Liang, 62, a Newbury Park, Calif. resident, entered his plea Friday. Though he was indicted under seal on June 1 by a federal grand jury, the indictment was unsealed Friday. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Sean Cox of the Eastern District of Michigan. As part of the plea agreement, Liang will cooperate with the government as part of its ongoing investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Volkswagen said in a statement that it is “continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice,” but couldn't comment on the indictment. Liang was indicted on one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, to commit wire fraud and to violate the Clean Air Act. According to the plea agreement, after he and his “co-co-conspirators” realized they couldn’t design a diesel engine that met strict U.S. regulations, they designed and implemented so-called “defeat devices” that would recognize when vehicles were being tested. For more business news, follow me @smasunaga 8:55 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting. This article was originally published at 8:20 a.m.[SEP]DETROIT (AP) - A Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in the company’s emissions-cheating scandal and has agreed to cooperate in the widening criminal investigation. James Robert Liang, 62, of Newberry Park, California, entered the plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government through wire fraud. Volkswagen has admitted to installing software on about 500,000 2-liter diesel engines in VW and Audi models in the U.S. that turned pollution controls on during government tests and turned them off while on the road. The Environmental Protection Agency found that the cars emitted up to 40 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide, which can cause human respiratory problems. Liang was indicted in June on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another count of violating the Clean Air Act. He allegedly helped design the computer software that cheated on diesel-emissions tests. The indictment alleges Liang and unnamed co-conspirators resorted to using the cheating software after realizing the cars couldn’t both meet consumer expectations for performance and satisfy U.S. emissions standards. Liang pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge Friday morning before Judge Sean Cox. He will be sentenced on Jan. 11. The judge said that sentencing guidelines call for Liang to serve five years in prison. The cooperation of Liang, who began work in Wolfsburg, Germany, and also worked in the U.S., is a major breakthrough in the Justice Department’s investigation into the automaker’s cheating scandal. His cooperation could lead to other criminal charges against VW and the unidentified co-conspirators.[SEP]WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said a Volkswagen engineer has been charged as part of its criminal probe into the German automaker's diesel emissions scandal. The engineer was appearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Friday and is expected to enter into a plea agreement that includes his cooperation with the government in its ongoing investigation, a department spokesman said. VW has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to address environmental, state and owner claims in the United States. (Reporting by David Shepardson)[SEP]A Volkswagen AG engineer pleaded guilty on Friday to helping the German automaker evade US emission standards, becoming the first person US authorities have charged in their investigation. James Liang, who has worked for VW since 1983 and was part of a team of engineers who developed a diesel engine, was charged in an indictment made public on Friday with conspiring to commit wire fraud and violating US clean air laws. The 62 year-old German citizen, who lives in Newbury Park, California, appeared in US District Court in Detroit on Friday and entered into a plea agreement that includes his cooperation with the government in its investigation. The indictment says Liang conspired with current and former VW employees to mislead US regulators about the software that allowed the automaker to circumvent the nation’s emission standards. Liang could face up to five years in prison but could get a much lighter sentence if the government finds he provided substantial assistance. VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan declined to comment on the indictment. “Volkswagen is continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice,” she said. The company has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to address environmental, state and owner claims in the United States. It still faces billions in potential fines and must resolve the fate of 85,000 polluting 3.0-liter vehicles. Reuters reported in August that VW and the Justice Department had held preliminary settlement talks about resolving a criminal probe into the emissions scandal. Liang was indicted in June, but the indictment was only made public on Friday.[SEP]DETROIT (AP) — A Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in the company's emissions cheating scandal, advancing a criminal investigation by agreeing to testify against others. James Robert Liang, 62, of Newberry Park, California, entered the plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government through wire fraud. Liang is the first person to enter a plea in the case, and his cooperation is a major breakthrough in the Justice Department's probe into the scandal. Government documents say others were involved and point to multiple emails in German that likely came from VW employees in Wolfsburg, Germany. Volkswagen has admitted to installing software on about 500,000 2-liter diesel engines in VW and Audi models in the U.S. that turned pollution controls on during government tests and turned them off while on the road. The Environmental Protection Agency found that the cars emitted up to 40 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide, which can cause human respiratory problems. Liang, who began work for VW in 1983 in Germany, and also worked in the U.S., was indicted in June on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another count of violating the Clean Air Act. According to a plea agreement unsealed Friday, Liang admitted that he and others planned software known as a defeat device, that could cheat U.S. emissions tests after recognizing that a diesel engine they were designing could not meet customer expectations and stricter emissions standards. Using the defeat device enabled VW to obtain a certificate from the Environmental Protection Agency needed to sell the cars in the U.S. Liang pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge before Judge Sean Cox. He will be sentenced on Jan. 11. The judge said that guidelines call for Liang to serve five years in prison. He also could be fined up to $250,000. Volkswagen wouldn't comment on the plea but said Friday that it continues to cooperate in the investigation. Laing, who wore a dark suit and tie, mostly responded "yes" or "no" to the judge's questions at the Friday hearing, but also read a brief statement in which he admitted to the fraud. He had a German-speaking interpreter with him in court but did not use her and gave all responses in English. The judge noted that he is not a U.S. citizen and could be subject to immigration action. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Chutkow told the judge that two or more of Laing's colleagues also had knowledge of the conspiracy. According to the indictment, Liang and his co-conspirators were tasked with designing new diesel engines for the U.S. market that complied with stricter emissions standards for nitrogen oxide emissions that went into effect in 2007. Within VW, it was referred to as the US '07 project. Prosecutors say Liang and the other engineers realized that could not design a diesel vehicle that both met the stricter U.S. emission standards and performed well enough to satisfy customers. So they began work on defeat device software that would cheat on the tests, the indictment says. Within VW, the cheating software was referred to as "cycle beating," or "emissions tight" mode, among other terms, according to the indictment. In one 2007 meeting with government officials in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Liang participated as his co-conspirators misrepresented that VW's diesel vehicles complied with U.S. emissions standards, according to the plea agreement. "Liang knew that VW was cheating by implementing the defeat device and that he and his co-conspirators were considering deceiving EPA in this meeting," the plea agreement states. The indictment says that in May 2008 Liang transferred from Volkswagen headquarters in Germany to the U.S. to help oversee the launch of the new "clean diesel" models. Investigators uncovered internal company emails that show Liang and other VW engineers exchanged ideas about how to "effectively calibrate the defeat device" so that the cars would recognize when they were undergoing U.S. emissions testing. The software was designed to recognize when the cars were being tested on a treadmill-like device called a dynamometer. In 2013, Liang and others exchanged messages in German about software that recognized when the engine was revving but the steering wheel was not moving, an indication that the car was undergoing a dynamometer test. The software then calibrated the engine to run cleaner than it would in real world driving, according to the indictment. "If this goes through without problems, the function is probably truly watertight! ;-)" one of the VW employees messaged Liang in German. The scheme began to unravel in 2014 when a nonprofit group discovered that the cars polluted too much in real-world driving conditions. But prosecutors say that Liang and his VW colleagues still conspired to hide the existence of the defeat devices. As a first step, VW offered a new "optimized" software update that was supposed to address the high emissions. "We 'only just need a plausible explanation' as to why the emissions are still high!!!" a VW employee wrote to Liang and others in German after the software patch provided by VW failed to fix the problem. "We must be sure to prevent the authority from testing the Gen 1!" a VW employee emailed in June 2015, referring to the first generation of VW models using the "clean diesel" engines. The emails said that if Gen 1 is tested by the California Air Resources Board "then we'll have nothing more to laugh about!!!!!" As the VW engineers struggled to explain to U.S. regulators why their cars kept failing the tests, a VW employee wrote Liang and others in July 2015: "the key word 'creativity' would be helpful here." ____ Eric Tucker and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this report.[SEP]DETROIT (AP) — A Volkswagen engineer has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in the company's emissions cheating scandal and has agreed to cooperate in the widening criminal investigation. James Robert Liang, 62, of Newberry Park, California, entered the plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government through wire fraud. Liang is the first person to enter a plea in the emissions-cheating scheme. Volkswagen has admitted to installing software on about 500,000 2-liter diesel engines in VW and Audi models in the U.S. that turned pollution controls on during government tests and turned them off while on the road. The Environmental Protection Agency found that the cars emitted up to 40 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide, which can cause human respiratory problems. Liang was indicted in June on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another count of violating the Clean Air Act. According to a plea agreement unsealed Friday, Liang admitted that he and others planned a special software function, known as a defeat device, that could cheat U.S. emissions tests after recognizing that a diesel engine they were designing could not meet customer expectations and stricter emissions standards. Using the defeat device enabled VW to obtain a certificate from the Environmental Protection Agency needed to sell the cars in the U.S. Liang pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge before Judge Sean Cox. He will be sentenced on Jan. 11. The judge said that sentencing guidelines call for Liang to serve five years in prison. The cooperation of Liang, who began work in Wolfsburg, Germany, and also worked in the U.S., is a major breakthrough in the Justice Department's investigation into the automaker's cheating scandal. His cooperation could lead to other criminal charges against VW and the unidentified co-conspirators. Volkswagen wouldn't comment on the plea but said Friday that it continues to cooperate in the investigation. In one 2007 meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with government officials, Liang participated as his co-conspirators misrepresented that VW's diesel vehicles complied with U.S. emissions standards, according to the plea agreement. "Liang knew that VW was cheating by implementing the defeat device and that he and his co-conspirators were considering deceiving EPA in this meeting," the plea agreement states. In May 2008, the indictment says Liang transferred from Volkswagen headquarters in Germany to the U.S. to help oversee the launch of the new "clean diesel" models. Investigators uncovered internal company emails that show Liang and other VW engineers exchanged ideas about how to "effectively calibrate the defeat device" so that the cars would recognize when they were undergoing U.S. emissions testing. The software was designed to recognize when the cars were being tested on a treadmill-like device called a dynamometer. In 2013, Liang and others exchanged messages in German about software that recognized when the engine was revving but the steering wheel was not moving, an indication that the car was undergoing a dynamometer lab test. The software then calibrated the engine to run cleaner than it would in real world driving, in order to pass the test, according to the indictment. "If this goes through without problems, the function is probably truly watertight! ;-)" one of the VW employees messaged Liang in German. Eric Tucker and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this report.[SEP]A Volkswagen engineer pleaded guilty to U.S. federal charges for his role in the diesel emission cheating scandal. James Robert Liang, 62, who worked at Volkswagen for more than 30 years, faces up to five years in federal prison. They were the first U.S. criminal charges in the Volkswagen (VLKAF) case, where the company sold about 500,000 cars loaded with software that cut back on pollution during emissions testing. The same cars emitted up to 40 times the allowed level of various pollutants when actually driven. Liang has agreed to cooperate with the investigation of other Volkswagen employees. He might also have to pay a fine of up to $250,000. "Volkswagen is continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice. We cannot comment on this indictment," said VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan. Liang, a German citizen, helped to develop the so-called "clean diesel" engine for Volkswagen while working in Germany. According to court documents, he and his co-conspirators realized they could not design a diesel engine that would meet the stricter U.S. emissions standards. So they designed and implemented software to cheat the tests. In 2008, Liang moved to the United States to help win regulatory approval of the diesel engines. He attended meetings with environmental regulators and answered questions about the engines' test results, knowing that that were false, according to the court documents. He faces being deported once he serves his prison term. Volkswagen has admitted that its cars contained the illegal software. The company still faces a U.S. criminal probe. Volkswagen says its own probe has determined top executives did not know of the cheating scandal, and that it was the work of lower level employees. But the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts have filed a suit accusing top executives of engaging in a "massive fraud" to break environmental laws. The company also has agreed to pay $15.3 billion in civil penalties to compensate owners of its U.S. diesel cars, including an agreement to fix or buy back the cars.[SEP]A Volkswagen engineer was indicted in Detroit federal court Friday and pleaded guilty for his role in developing an emissions-cheating device installed on a half-million diesel cars sold in the United States. James Liang helped develop the diesel engines equipped with illegal emissions test "defeat devices" from the earliest stages, the indictment said. Liang, 62, is expected to cooperate with US prosecutors developing a criminal case in the Volkswagen scandal, a person close to the case said. "Almost from the beginning of VW's process to design its new 'clean diesel' vehicles, Liang and his fellow co-conspirators designed these VW diesel vehicles not to meet US emissions standards, but to cheat the testing process by making it appear as if diesel vehicles met US emissions standards when, in fact, they did not," the Justice Department said in a 24-page indictment. Liang worked on the defeat devices from November 2006 while at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. He then moved to California for the company in 2008 as Volkswagen ramped up its marketing of its ostensibly "clean diesel" cars with high fuel efficiency in an effort to win greater market share in the US. Liang and other VW employees developed a complex software system to keep emissions low when a car was undergoing testing to demonstrate environmental compliance, but to allow them to spew higher emissions on the road while boosting fuel efficiency, the indictment said. Liang and others consistently misrepresented the system to federal and state environmental regulators and lied about the issue when regulators probed the discrepancy between the cars' testing and real-world emissions performance, the indictment said. "Liang and his co-conspirators attempted to make it appear that there were innocent mechanical and technological problems to blame, while secretly knowing that the primary reason for the discrepancy was the defeat device installed in every VW diesel vehicle sold in the United States." Liang faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine up of to $250,000. A Volkswagen spokeswoman declined to comment on Liang's employment status or on the indictment, but said the auto giant "is continuing to cooperate with the US Department of Justice." Volkswagen settled civil cases in June over cheat devices on two-liter engine diesel cars sold in the US in an agreement valued at $14.7 billion that requires it to buy back or fix vehicles, and pay each owner up to $10,000. A federal judge in San Francisco gave preliminary approval to the plan, which settles with owners of some 480,000 cars with two-liter diesel engines. The German automaker has until October 24 to come up with a fix for some 80,000 cars with three-liter diesel engines equipped with the defeat devices, or face trial. Volkswagen has faced global condemnation since US and California state regulators exposed the emissions-cheating conspiracy in September 2015. The European Commission on Monday urged member states to crack down on Volkswagen for violating consumer protection laws, while Australia's consumer watchdog filed suit against the company on September 1. Some analysts have estimated the scandal could cost the company $30 billion or more.

An engineer from Volkswagen pleads guilty for his role in the emissions cheating scandal.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Latest on the legal challenges and coordination of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline (all times local): Hundreds of people have gathered in three states in a show of solidarity with protesters trying to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that will move oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The Omaha World-Herald reports members of four Nebraska Native American tribes participated in a demonstration in downtown Omaha against the pipeline Thursday evening outside the offices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which granted permits for the project. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, hundreds gathered for an evening of speeches, dancing and chants of, “Water is life,” according to the Tulsa World. Several hundred marchers also rallied in Denver. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has sued to try to stop the $3.8 billion project, and the fight has drawn thousands of protesters to a construction site in North Dakota in recent weeks. A federal judge is set to rule Friday on the tribe’s request to temporarily stop construction near its reservation. The Yankton Sioux Tribe in southern South Dakota has sued federal regulators for approving permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline that will move oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The tribe filed the lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which issued permits for the project. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also a defendant. The lawsuit, which asks that the Corps-issued permits be vacated, says the pipeline’s route passes through the tribe’s treaty lands. It says construction activities in that area will “destroy sites of enormous cultural importance,” causing “injury” to the tribe on a cultural, spiritual and historical level. The Corps did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday evening. The lawsuit was filed ahead of a federal judge’s impending ruling on a request by the Standing Rock Sioux to stop the four-state pipeline. Gov. Jack Dalrymple is activating the North Dakota National Guard ahead of a federal judge’s impending ruling on a request by the Standing Rock Sioux to stop the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline. Dalrymple says a handful of Guard members will help provide security at traffic checkpoints near the site of a large protest. Maj. Gen. Alan Dohrmann, the head of the Guard, says another 100 Guard members will be on standby if needed to respond to any incidents. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is expected to rule by Friday on the tribe’s request to temporarily stop construction on the Dakota Access pipeline. The tribe has been leading a protest for weeks at a site where the route passes near its reservation near the North Dakota-South Dakota border. The protest has included tense confrontations at times, and violence broke out Saturday between private security guards and protesters. North Dakota’s chief archaeologist plans to inspect an area along the route of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline where Standing Rock Sioux officials say they’ve identified cultural artifacts. Paul Picha (PEE’-kuh) told The Associated Press that the trip likely won’t happen until next week. If any artifacts are found, pipeline work would cease. Picha says state officials earlier surveyed the route, but not the disputed site, which is on private land west of State Highway 1806. Last weekend, tribal officials said crews bulldozed several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” in that area, which Texas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners denies. A federal judge allowed construction to continue there earlier this week, but is expected to rule by Friday on the tribe’s lawsuit challenging federal permits. The pipeline starts in western North Dakota and crosses through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.[SEP]WASHINGTON — A federal judge has denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's request to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline while the tribe's lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proceeds. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the injunction in a ruling issued Friday, Sept. 9. The parties are scheduled to meet for a status conference on Sept. 16. While the ruling has been anxiously awaited by all parties, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said this week the ruling should not be considered the end. Archambault has said the tribe would appeal if the request for an injunction was denied and continue looking for other legal options to fight the pipeline. "It's the beginning of a continuing legal battle," Archambault said Thursday while speaking to pipeline opponents who are camping north of the reservation. The $3.8 billion pipeline will carry 450,000 barrels of crude oil each day from North Dakota to Illinois. The tribe sued the corps over its permit for the Missouri River crossing, arguing the federal agency failed to properly consult the tribe. Tribal leaders say the pipeline will destroy sacred sites and threatens the reservation's water supply. The corps argues in court records it "followed a robust tribal consultation process" and said Standing Rock withdrew from a scheduled site visit of the proposed Lake Oahe crossing, a dammed section of the Missouri River. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple activated the North Dakota National Guard Thursday in anticipation of the ruling. About a dozen Guard members are manning a traffic information point on State Highway 1806 to free up law enforcement to have a visible presence near the protest site. A protest is planned at the North Dakota Capitol from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday afternoon.[SEP]Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota on Sept. 9, 2016. ANDREW CULLEN / Reuters[SEP]A federal judge has denied an attempt to halt construction of a controversial $3.8bn oil pipeline that has been fiercely opposed by a Native American tribe that claims the project threatens its water supply and risks destroying cultural heritage. Judge James Boasberg of the US district court ruled that the US Army Corps of Engineers “likely complied” with National Historic Preservation Act by permitting the 1,170-mile Dakota Access pipeline, which will take oil from North Dakota to Illinois. In rejecting a request by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to halt construction of the pipeline, Boasberg wrote: “This court does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance to the Standing Rock Sioux. “Aware of the indignities visited upon the tribe over the last centuries, the court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care. Having done so, the court must nonetheless conclude that the tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here.” Despite the ruling in its favor, the federal government said it would halt pipeline work that occurs on federal land near Lake Oahe until it “can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions”. In a joint statement, the Department of Interior, the Department of Justice and US Army Corps of Engineers said: “Important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain. “The army will move expeditiously to make this determination, as everyone involved – including the pipeline company and its workers – deserves a clear and timely resolution. In the interim, we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe. We urge everyone involved in protest or pipeline activities to adhere to the principles of non-violence.” The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has waged a vociferous protest against the pipeline, which would run near its North Dakota reservation. The tribe’s chairman David Archambault said the pipeline, which will run under the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, will “knowingly poison water”. The pipeline was originally meant to run near the city of Bismarck, which has an overwhelmingly white population, before objections resulted in the relocation to Native American land. There have been several violent clashes between a coalition of Native American tribes and security guards at a protest camp set up at a pipeline construction site in North Dakota. Other activists, including Green party presidential candidate Jill Stein and actor Susan Sarandon, have lent their voices to the protests, which peaked last weekend when tribes claimed cultural sites were being bulldozed. Jack Dalrymple, North Dakota’s governor, ordered 100 national guard troops to the area of the protest camp ahead of Boasberg’s decision. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe said it has received assurances that the troops will not enter the camp. Energy Transfer, the company that is building the pipeline, has claimed that its workers have been attacked by protesters. On Thursday, Boasberg had ruled that work will temporarily stop between North Dakota’s state highway 1806 and 20 miles east of Lake Oahe, but will continue west of the highway because he believes the US Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction on private land. The pipeline would funnel 500,000 barrels of oil a day from the North Dakota oil field to a refinery in Illinois. The project is expected to be finished by the end of the year but tribal leaders have raised concerns that the pipeline, which will run under the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, will pollute drinking water for millions of people and disturb sacred sites. In total, the pipeline will make 200 river crossings in four states. The US Army Corp of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over pipelines that cross major waterways, approved the Dakota Access plan despite warnings from the Environmental Protection Agency that leaking oil could pollute the rivers. Energy Transfer has downplayed the concerns, insisting that any leak would be swiftly remedied. In court documents, Texas-based Energy Transfer said the Dakota Access pipeline is 45% complete and that a temporary injunction to stop it would have “devastating short and long-term impacts” to the project.[SEP]NEAR THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, N.D. (AP) — The Latest on the legal challenge and protest of the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline (all times local): Federal authorities say they want to review their permitting for the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota and have asked that the company “voluntarily pause” construction on a 40-mile span of land that Standing Rock Sioux officials say holds sacred sites and artifacts. A federal judge denied the tribe’s request Friday to temporarily stop construction on the four-state $3.8 billion oil pipeline. Shortly after, the Departments of Justice, Army and Interior released a statement says it would “reconsider any of its previous decisions” on land that borders or is under Lake Oahe and requested that Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners “voluntarily pause” work within 20 miles east or west of the lake. The statement also said that the case “highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects.” The tribe has said that the pipeline threatens its water supply and that construction already has disturbed sacred sites. The Standing Rock Sioux’s tribal historian says a federal judge’s decision to deny a request for a temporary stop of construction on the Dakota Access pipeline gives her “a great amount of grief.” LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, who also has been a part of the protests near the North Dakota reservation, says that the tribe will “continue to stand” and “look for legal recourses,” as well as continue to protest peacefully. Attorney Jan Hasselman with environmental group Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said in the days before the ruling that it’ll be challenged. Hasselman said that they’ll “hope that construction isn’t completed while that (appeal) process is going forward.” Officials with pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners didn’t return The Associated Press’ phone calls or emails seeking comment. Allard also noted that her tribe is not the only that’s filed a lawsuit. The Yankton Sioux tribe in South Dakota did the same yesterday. A federal judge has denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request to temporarily stop construction on the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline near their reservation in North Dakota. Tribal officials challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline that is intended to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg comes amid growing protests over the pipeline, which would cross the Missouri River less than a mile upstream of the reservation. The tribe argues the pipeline could impact drinking water and that construction has already disturbed ancient sacred sites. A lawyer for the tribe says the ruling will be appealed. Many of those protesting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline are planning to gather at the North Dakota Capitol on the day a judge is to rule on a tribal challenge to the project. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg says he’ll rule by the end of Friday on the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s request to block the project, which will carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The rally is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday on the Capitol grounds, and participants will march there from a bridge over the Missouri River, which the tribe says will be threatened by the pipeline. Many are coming from the protest site near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, about 40 miles south of Bismarck. The Standing Rock Sioux say the project threatens water supplies and has already disrupted sacred sites. The developer, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, says modern technology allows quick detection of leaks. Pipeline supporters also say it would cut the amount of oil that travels by train. A North Dakota state agency that regulates private investigation and security firms is looking into the use of force against protesters of the Dakota Access pipeline. The confrontation last weekend between protesters and private security guards left some guards injured. Tribal officials say about 30 protesters were pepper-sprayed and some were bitten by dogs after construction workers bulldozed alleged sacred sites. Monte Rogneby, an attorney for the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board, says the board received complaints about use of the dogs. He says the probe should also find out whether the private security personnel at the site are properly registered and licensed. Rogneby says the board has contacted private security firms that it believes were involved in the protest, but he would not name them. Rogneby says the board wants to finish its investigation “sooner rather than later.” A federal judge is set to deliver a key ruling Friday on the four-state pipeline. An attorney says the Yankton Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit over the Dakota Access pipeline is not expected to have any immediate bearing, and she wouldn’t say whether the tribe would ask a federal court to temporarily block construction of it. The lawsuit from the South Dakota tribe was filed Thursday and is separate from the one filed by the Standing Rock Sioux on which a federal judge is expected to rule Friday. Tribal attorney Jennifer Baker says the lawsuit will take time, but that the Yankton Sioux wants to stand beside Standing Rock, Cheyenne River and other tribes because they share rights to the water and the land. The complaint says the pipeline route passes through the tribe’s treaty territory, aboriginal title lands and areas of cultural and spiritual importance. More than 1,000 people, including families and children, are gathered at the Dakota Access pipeline protest site in North Dakota. They’re awaiting a critical ruling from a federal judge on the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s request to block the $3.8 billion pipeline over environmental concerns. Judith LeBlanc is director of the New York-based Native Organizers Alliance. She said Friday that it’s an historic coming together of tribes — probably the largest such gathering of Native Americans in a century. People have come from as far as New York and Alaska, as well as Canada. Kate Silvertooth made the daylong drive from Colorado on Thursday, spending hundreds of dollars on supplies such as tarps and food. She says she “felt moved” to help the protesters. The pipeline, being built by a Texas-based company, is to carry oil from western North Dakota to Illinois. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association has asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to send federal monitors to the site of a large pipeline protest in North Dakota. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others are trying to stop the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, saying it threatens their drinking water and has disturbed sacred sites. The association, made up of tribal leaders in the Dakotas and Nebraska, aims to defend tribal rights. President John Yellow Bird Steele sent a letter to Lynch on Thursday saying protesters have been attacked by private security with guard dogs and that racial profiling is occurring. Authorities say some protesters are armed with hatchets and knives, and Saturday’s protest injured guards and dogs. Lynch’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg says he’ll rule by the end of Friday on the tribe’s challenge to the pipeline, which will carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein says she’s working with North Dakota authorities to arrange a court date on charges related to her participation in a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline. Stein has acknowledged spray-painting construction equipment Tuesday in North Dakota. Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka were charged Wednesday with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief, and authorities issued arrest warrants. Stein defended her actions to the Chicago Tribune (http://trib.in/2cfvzAg ) Thursday during a campaign stop in Chicago. She said it would have been “inappropriate for me not to have done my small part” to support the Standing Rock Sioux. The tribe says the pipeline threatens sacred sites and drinking water. The $3.8 billion pipeline is to carry oil from western North Dakota to Illinois. A federal judge is set to deliver a key ruling on the four-state Dakota Access pipeline that has drawn thousands of protesters to a construction site in North Dakota in recent weeks. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg says he’ll rule by the end of Friday on the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s request to block the $3.8 billion project, which will carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The tribe argues the project threatens water supplies and has already disrupted sacred sites. The developer, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, says modern technology allows quick detection of leaks. Pipeline supporters also say it would cut the amount of oil that travels by train. A weekend confrontation between protesters and private security guards left some guards injured and some protesters with dog bites. This item has been corrected for style to make “pipeline” lowercase in all instances.[SEP]By James MacPherson, The Associated Press NEAR THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, N.D. — A judge on Friday denied the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s attempt to halt the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline near its North Dakota reservation, but three federal agencies asked the pipeline company to “voluntarily pause” work on a segment that tribal officials say holds sacred sites and artifacts. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose cause drew thousands to a protest site in North Dakota, had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline, saying that the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will harm water supplies. The tribe also says ancient sacred sites have been disturbed during construction. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington denied the tribe’s request for a temporary injunction in a 58-page opinion. But a joint statement from the Departments of Justice, Army and Interior said it would “reconsider any of its previous decisions” on land that borders or is under Lake Oahe and requested that Energy Transfer Partners “voluntarily pause” work within 20 miles east or west of the lake. The statement also said that the case “highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects.” Attorney Jan Hasselman with environmental group Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said in the days before the ruling that it’ll be challenged. “We will have to pursue our options with an appeal and hope that construction isn’t completed while that (appeal) process is going forward,” he said. “We will continue to pursue vindication of the tribe’s lawful rights even if the pipeline is complete.” Tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard said after the ruling that it gives her “a great amount of grief. My heart is hurting, but we will continue to stand, and we will look for other legal recourses.” She also said the protest will continue. Energy Transfer Partners officials didn’t return The Associated Press’ phone calls or emails seeking comment. Boasberg’s ruling said that “this Court does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance to the Standing Rock Sioux” and that, given the federal government’s history with the tribe, “the Court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care. Having done so, the Court must nonetheless conclude that the Tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here.” The 1,172-mile project will carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota’s oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois. Judith LeBlanc, a member of the Caddo Nation in Oklahoma and director of the New York-based Native Organizers Alliance, said before the decision that she expected the protest, which drew thousands Friday, to remain peaceful. “There’s never been a coming together of tribes like this,” she said of Friday’s gathering of Native Americans, which she estimated could be the largest in a century. People came from as far as New York and Alaska, some bringing their families and children, and hundreds of tribal flags dotted the camp, along with American flags flown upside-down in protest. A rally against the Dakota Access pipeline is scheduled for Friday afternoon at the North Dakota Capitol, and many of those gathered at the protest site are expected to make the about 45-mile trek. State authorities announced this week that law enforcement officers from across the state were being mobilized at the protest site, some National Guard members would work security at traffic checkpoints and another 100 would be on standby. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association has asked the federal Justice Department to send monitors to the site because it said racial profiling is occurring. Nearly 40 people have been arrested since the protest began in April, including tribal chairman Dave Archambault II, though none stemmed from Saturday’s confrontation between protesters and construction workers. Tribal officials said workers allegedly bulldozed sites on private land that Hasselman said in court documents was “of great historic and cultural significance.” Energy Transfer Partners denied the allegations. Four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured, officials said, while a tribal spokesman said six people — including a child — were bitten by the dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. The state’s Private Investigation and Security Board received complaints about the use of dogs and will look into whether the private security personnel at the site are properly registered and licensed, board attorney Monte Rogneby said Friday, adding that he would not name the firms. On Thursday, North Dakota’s archaeologist said that piece of private land was not previously surveyed by the state would be surveyed next week and that if artifacts are found, pipeline work still could cease. The company plans to have the pipeline completed this year. In court papers, ETP said stopping the project would cost it $1.4 billion the first year, mostly due to lost revenue in hauling crude. “Investor appetite for the project could shift and financing may no longer be available,” the company said. “Construction of the entire project would cease and the project itself would be jeopardized.” A status conference in the Standing Rock Sioux’s lawsuit is scheduled for Sept. 16. This story has been corrected to show that the opinion is 58 pages long, not one page with no explanation.[SEP]ALLIANCE — About 20 people gather in a silent demonstration Thursday afternoon at the northeast corner of Box Butte and Third Street in support of Standing Rock Reservation, N.D. Lasting about an hour, social media promoted the event attended by many with family and cultural links to the situation and some without. Donald Vergil was part of the demonstration and offered a written statement detailing his opposition, noting, “The cost of life is not expendable nor is our land for sale!” The Standing Rock Sioux are protesting the Dakota Access pipeline that is set to pass close to the reservation near the South Dakota-North Dakota border. A federal judge is expected to rule today on whether construction will stop.[SEP]The drumming on the Higgins Avenue Bridge stopped long enough today for Raymond Kingfisher to take a few swigs off a glass bottle of soda. He’d been playing and singing consistently for an hour. On either side of him stretched a line of roughly 60 demonstrators, many waving signs like “No DAPL” and “You Can’t Drink Oil.” The rally—meant as a show of solidarity with oil pipeline protesters in North Dakota—came together on fairly short notice considering Kingfisher had only put the call on Facebook that morning. In his opinion, it was long overdue.“People have been wondering why this hasn’t happened here yet,” Kingfisher said this afternoon. “A lot of us are stuck here, can’t really pick up and head out [to the protest camps].”Montanans have been traveling to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for weeks now to join the thousands-strong stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL, and more have been collecting supplies to donate to the camps. Today was the first time Missoula locals have held a public gathering, however. Several took it as an opportunity to educate curious passers-by about the ins and outs of the DAPL debate and the stand people are taking against perceived threats to clean water and cultural sites. Others simply cheered every time a passing car honked in support. One pedestrian walking through the crowd informed the demonstrators that she’d already donated money to the legal defense fund established by Standing Rock.“This is where it stops,” she said, raising her hand in the air as she navigated the choked sidewalk.A number of critical developments have occurred in regards to the DAPL over the past week. On Sept. 6, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered a temporary halt to work on a portion of the pipeline following a violent Labor Day weekend altercation between protestors and private security guards at the construction site. On Sept. 7, North Dakota’s Morton County issued an arrest warrant for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein after a video of her spray-painting a DAPL bulldozer went viral. Gov. Jack Dalrymple called on the North Dakota National Guard Sept. 8 to help step up enforcement efforts near the protest camps. And throughout all that time, rallies similar to the one in Missoula today have taken shape across the country in cities like Chicago, Portland, Juneau, Denver and Flagstaff. Hundreds of protestors from the camps near Standing Rock marched on Bismarck today, filling the lawn outside the state capitol building.That march, as well as the Missoula rally, happened within hours of Boasberg denying the Standing Rock Sioux’s request for a preliminary injunction against the DAPL. The tribe immediately announced its intent to appeal the judge’s decision. Not long after, the U.S. departments of Justice, the Army and the Interior jointly called on Energy Transfer Partners to stop DAPL construction, stating a need to pursue national reform to “ensure meaningful tribal input” on such projects. Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II responded in a statement saying “our voices have been heard.” And some of those voices came from right here in western Montana.“We pray for it,” Ruth Swaney said this afternoon while holding a sign and watching her daughter Lily. “Every night when we say our bedtime prayers, it’s one of the things we pray for.”[SEP]A US federal judge on Friday denied a request by a Native American tribe to halt an oil pipeline in North Dakota over fears the project could endanger its drinking water. US District Judge James Boasberg sided with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the pipeline's developer Energy Transfer Partners, ruling that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe "has not shown it will suffer injury" if the pipeline's construction underneath the Missouri River is allowed to proceed. The tribe filed a lawsuit against the Corps, saying it did not adequately consider the potential environmental impacts of the project. The battle has galvanized Native American tribes throughout the US, in a months-long protest that has garnered worldwide attention. Members of some 200 tribes and supporters have gathered for months at a North Dakota camp site near the pipeline's planned route, some as early as April, to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline. Ahead of the judge's decision, tribe chairman David Archambault released a statement urging protesters to remain peaceful. "We call upon all water protectors to greet any decision with peace and order. Even if the outcome of the court's ruling is not in our favor, we will continue to explore every lawful option and fight against the construction of the pipeline," Archambault said.[SEP]BEMIDJI -- Despite a distance of more than 300 miles, members of the Bemidji, Red Lake and Leech Lake communities are hitting the road to protest a pipeline that would carry crude oil through North Dakota -- and sites sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Activists began gathering at locations in Morton County, N.D., in mid-August to protest the Dakota Access pipeline. Since then, community members from all walks of life -- from college students to teachers to local activists -- have made the trip, and some nearby tribes have officially voiced their support for the protestors. Many are concerned that the pipeline will end up leaking, polluting nearby water sources. Nicole Buckanaga, a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, traveled to the construction site two weekends in a row to show her support for the Standing Rock tribe. For Buckanaga the construction hits close to home, despite the physical distance. “No matter what neighborhood you live in, no matter what color your skin is, no matter how much money you have in the bank, there’s nowhere to run when the earth becomes your enemy,” Buckanaga said. “If your water is not drinkable, that poisoned water doesn’t care what color your skin is or how much money you have in the bank.” Despite a conflict between protesters and private security officers Saturday, Buckanaga and other locals who traveled North Dakota said the protesting has been peaceful and that they have felt safe at the camps set up near the construction sites. Buckanaga even brought her older children to the demonstration. “I’ve never felt so safe in my life, to be quite honest with you,” Buckanaga said. “There was zero hostility within the camp. It was a beautiful thing to see so many people coming together.” The Red Lake Nation College is also sponsoring a group of about 20 students who plan to travel to a protest site in Cannonball, N.D. Devery Fairbanks, a college faculty member who will travel with the students, said the college is sponsoring the trip to give students a voice. “The college is agreeing to it because the students want it,” Fairbanks said. “The students have a voice, so the college will try to work with the students on their ideas and what they want to do.” Fairbanks has already made one trip to the site and emphasized the peace of the protests. “I’ve never been to anything that was so emotional and powerful and spiritual as this gathering,” he said. “It’s peaceful, there are no weapons. It’s not designed to attack or to be aggressive at all.” Christian Taylor-Johnson, a junior at BSU who is from Leech Lake, traveled to North Dakota with a group of friends and plans to return this weekend. Taylor-Johnson said he is passionate about protecting the earth, and that he felt called to join the activists. “There was something inside of me that called me there, that said...go stand in solidarity with your brothers and sisters,” Taylor-Johnson said. The student spent five days in North Dakota, and said the time he spent there was peaceful. “It was just a beautiful, serene experience,” he said. “If anybody has the chance to go, I completely encourage you to go.” Three nearby tribes have also shown support for the Standing Rock tribe. A resolution signed Aug. 23 by the Red Lake Tribal Council stated that the tribe “opposes the creation of new pipelines anywhere, and fully supports the peaceful and legal efforts to stop new pipeline currently occurring near Standing Rock Sioux reservation.” The resolution will be ratified at the next council meeting Tuesday. Leech Lake has not passed a resolution but Faron Jackson Sr., chairman of the Leech Lake Tribal Council, wrote a letter Aug. 18 opposing the pipeline. LeRoy Staples Fairbanks, a district representative on the council, hand-delivered the letter to the Standing Rock tribe. “We are honored with the position your nation has taken and you have our admiration for your dedication to protecting your sovereignty, treaty right and also the Mother we all share,” the letter said. “The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe believes that water is sacred and there is no life without clean water.”

A U.S. federal judge denies a request to stop construction of a pipeline that runs through the Standing Rock Reservation of the Sioux people.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has said he'll rule by Friday on the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's lawsuit that challenges federal permits for the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The lawsuit alleges that the pipeline, which would be placed less than a mile upstream of the reservation, could impact drinking water for more than 8,000 tribal members and millions who rely on it downstream. There also have been skirmishes between protesters and private security guards on private land, where the tribe says construction has disturbed ancient sacred sites. Some things to know about the pipeline and the tribe's ongoing protest: WHAT IS THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE? Owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, where shippers can access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. WHAT IS THE LAWSUIT TARGETING? The tribe sued federal regulators for approving the oil pipeline, challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings. Filed on behalf of the tribe by environmental group Earthjustice, the suit says the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will disturb sacred sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation. ETP says the pipeline includes safeguards such as leak detection equipment, and workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could close block valves on it within three minutes if a breach is detected. CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE PROTEST? Since April, a nonviolent tribal protest by mostly members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been set up at a "spirit camp" at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers in the path of the pipeline. It's grown considerably, as they've been joined by other American Indians and non-Native Americans from across the country, including "Divergent" actress Shailene Woodley. But the protest has become heated, with nearly 40 arrested, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II. None of the arrests stemmed from Saturday's confrontation between protesters and construction workers. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka camped with protesters Monday, and her campaign spokeswoman said Stein spray-painted construction equipment Tuesday. Stein and Baraka have been charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief. North Dakota authorities are recruiting law enforcement officers from across the state to guard the site of the protest in anticipation of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's impending federal ruling. Last weekend, tribal officials said crews bulldozed several sites of "significant cultural and historic value" on private land, which Energy Transfer Partners denies. It led to Saturday's clash between protesters and private security guards hired by the pipeline company. Law enforcement officials said four security guards and two guard dogs received medical treatment, while a tribal spokesman countered that six people were bitten by guard dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. On Tuesday, Boasberg partially granted the tribe's request to temporarily stop work near Lake Oahe to prevent the destruction of more sacred sites, but not on the private land that sparked the protest. North Dakota chief archaeologist Paul Picha plans to inspect the area, likely next week. ARE THERE PROTESTS ELSEWHERE? Yes, but nothing like in North Dakota. Construction equipment at several sites in Iowa was set on fire earlier in August, causing more than $1 million in damage. WHY IS THE PIPELINE BEING BUILT? Announced in 2014, supporters said the pipeline would create more markets and reduce truck and oil train traffic — the latter of which has been a growing concern after a spate of fiery derailments of trains carrying North Dakota crude.[SEP]BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has said he will rule by Friday on the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's lawsuit that challenges federal permits for the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline. The lawsuit alleges that the pipeline, which would be placed less than a mile upstream of the tribe's reservation, could impact drinking water for more than 8,000 tribal members and millions who rely on it downstream. Protesters and private security guards have skirmished on private land, where the tribe says construction has disturbed ancient sacred sites. Here's a look at the planned pipeline and the tribe's ongoing protest: Owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, where shippers can access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. Announced in 2014, supporters said the pipeline would create more markets and reduce truck and oil train traffic — the latter of which has been a growing concern after a spate of fiery derailments of trains carrying North Dakota crude. The Sioux tribe sued federal regulators for approving the oil pipeline, challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings. Filed on behalf of the tribe by environmental group Earthjustice, the suit says the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will disturb sacred sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation. A separate lawsuit filed Thursday by a South Dakota tribe also challenges the decisions to grant the permits. ETP says the pipeline includes safeguards such as leak detection equipment, and workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could close block valves on it within three minutes if a breach is detected. Since April, a nonviolent tribal protest held mostly by members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been set up at a "spirit camp" at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers in the path of the pipeline. It's grown considerably, as they've been joined by other American Indians and non-Native Americans from across the country, including celebrities such as "Divergent" actress Shailene Woodley. The protest has become heated, with nearly 40 arrested, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II. None of the arrests stemmed from Saturday's confrontation between protesters and construction workers. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka camped with protesters Monday, and her campaign spokeswoman said Stein spray-painted construction equipment Tuesday. Stein and Baraka have been charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief. Gov. Jack Dalrymple on Thursday activated the North Dakota National Guard ahead of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's impending federal ruling. A handful of soldiers will help provide security at traffic checkpoints near the protest site, and another 100 Guard members will be on standby if needed to respond to any incidents. Last weekend, tribal officials said crews bulldozed several sites of "significant cultural and historic value" on private land, which Energy Transfer Partners denies. It led to Saturday's clash between protesters and private security guards hired by the pipeline company. Law enforcement officials said four security guards and two guard dogs received medical treatment, while a tribal spokesman countered that six people were bitten by guard dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. On Tuesday, Boasberg partially granted the tribe's request to temporarily stop work near Lake Oahe to prevent the destruction of more sacred sites, but not on the private land that sparked the protest. North Dakota chief archaeologist Paul Picha plans to inspect the area, likely next week. Members of the Ponca, Santee, Winnebago and Omaha Tribes in Nebraska and Iowa along with others participate in a rally on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, in front of the Army Corps of Engineers offices in Omaha, Neb., to protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in the Dakotas and Iowa. A judge is expected to rule Friday on whether to block construction of the pipeline that is supposed to pass close to the tribal reservation near the North Dakota-South Dakota border. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)[SEP]By James MacPherson, The Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. — The Standing Rock Sioux’s effort to block a four-state oil pipeline got a lifeline when the federal government temporarily stopped the project, a move some say likely may forever change the way all energy infrastructure projects are reviewed in the future. Just minutes after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s attempt to halt the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline that skirts the reservation in southern North Dakota, three federal agencies appealed to the pipeline company to “voluntarily pause” work on a segment that tribal officials say holds sacred sites and artifacts. Tribal officials challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline that is intended to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Friday’s ruling by Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, came amid growing protests over the pipeline, which would cross the Missouri River less than a mile upstream of the reservation. The statement by the Departments of Justice, Army and Interior said it would “reconsider any of its previous decisions” on land that borders or is under Lake Oahe, one of six reservoirs on the Missouri River and the drinking water source for the tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The statement from the federal departments also said the case “highlighted the need for a serious discussion” about nationwide reforms “with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects.” Troy Eid, a former U.S. attorney in Colorado who now specializes in Indian law, said the action was unprecedented and a “significant setback” for the pipeline’s builders. “Everywhere in Indian Country, people are talking about this,” said Eid, who spoke by phone Saturday while on horseback during a parade at the Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, Arizona. He said the lack of tribal consultation on the Dakota Access pipeline “is a textbook example of how not to do a project.” Historically, tribes only have been consulted on energy infrastructure projects, with the federal government making the actual decisions, said Eid, a Republican. The Obama administration’s action Friday likely changed that, he said. “Tribes want to be able to influence the outcome in a substantive way,” Eid said. Industry consultant Brigham McCown, a former acting administrator for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said the Obama administration’s involvement has “changed the lay of the land forever” for infrastructure projects. “This could bog down or delay every single infrastructure project moving forward,” he said. “I don’t think they even realize the can of worms they’ve opened.” As a regulator during the George W. Bush administration, McCown said he oversaw safety for 1 million daily shipments of hazardous goods throughout the United States by air, rail, sea, land and pipeline. “We were very apolitical in the decisions we made,” he said. “Things are very different now, whether from the right wing or left wing, politics of all kinds are being injected into this.” The company plans to have the pipeline completed this year. In court papers, it said stopping the project would cost it $1.4 billion the first year, mostly due to lost revenue in hauling crude. The federal government’s action in trumping the federal judge’s ruling, however temporary, was a major victory for Native Americans in a “cultural and historical context,” said Monte Mills, an assistant professor and co-director of the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic at the University of Montana in Missoula. “The way Indian Country came together to support Standing Rock has really been powerful,” he said. “There is no question it will be much more difficult and costly for these projects to move forward in the future,” said Brian Jorde, an Omaha, Nebraska, lawyer who is working with opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline designed to move crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast. “The reality is (Dakota Access) likely will move forward — not that I believe it should move forward — but all the pieces are in place for it to go forward,” Jorde said. “There is too much money involved and too much influence in Washington to just give up.”[SEP]BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The federal government quickly followed a federal judge's ruling denying the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's request to stop construction of the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline by stopping work on one section and asking the pipeline company to do the same on a larger 40-mile swath. Here's a look at the planned pipeline and the tribe's ongoing protest: ___ AFTER FIERY TRAIN DERAILMENTS, A MASSIVE PIPELINE PLANNED Owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, where shippers can access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. Announced in 2014, supporters said the pipeline would create more markets and reduce truck and oil train traffic — the latter of which has been a growing concern after a spate of fiery derailments of trains carrying North Dakota crude. ___ TRIBES SUE OVER WATER, SACRED SITES The Standing Rock Sioux's lawsuit challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings. Filed on behalf of the tribe by environmental group Earthjustice, the suit says the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will disturb sacred sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation. The lawsuit alleged that the pipeline, which would be placed less than a mile upstream of the reservation, could impact drinking water for more than 8,000 tribal members and millions who rely on it downstream. A separate lawsuit filed Thursday by the Yankton Sioux tribe in South Dakota challenges the same thing. ETP says the pipeline includes safeguards such as leak detection equipment, and workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could close block valves on it within three minutes if a breach is detected. ___ PROTESTERS SET UP CAMP, A MOVEMENT GROWS Since April, there's been a tribal protest — held mostly by members of the Standing Rock Sioux —at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers. It's grown considerably, as they've been joined by other American Indians and other, non-Native Americans from across the country, including celebrities such as "Divergent" actress Shailene Woodley. Nearly 40 have been arrested as the protest has grown size, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II. None of the arrests stemmed from Saturday's confrontation between protesters and construction workers. ___ POLITICIANS ENTER THE FRAY, OFFICIALS PREPARE Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka have been charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief stemming from their time at the protest. Stein's campaign spokeswoman acknowledged Stein spray-painted construction equipment Tuesday. Gov. Jack Dalrymple has activated the North Dakota National Guard, with a handful of soldiers providing security at traffic checkpoints, and another 100 on standby to respond to any incidents. Meanwhile, the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association has asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to send federal monitors to the protest, alleging racial profiling. ___ CULTURE CLASH Last weekend, tribal officials said crews bulldozed several sites of "significant cultural and historic value" on private land, which Energy Transfer Partners denies. It led to Saturday's clash between protesters and private security guards; law enforcement officials said four security guards and two guard dogs were injured, while a tribal spokesman said six people were bitten by the dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg partially granted the tribe's request to temporarily stop work near Lake Oahe to prevent the destruction of more sacred sites, but not on the private land that sparked the protest. ___ This story has been corrected for style to make "pipeline" lowercase in all instances.[SEP]BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — After months of protests by the Standing Rock Sioux and other Native Americans, a federal judge denied the tribe's request to stop construction of the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. But the federal government quickly stepped in Friday by stopping work on one section and asking the pipeline company to do the same on a larger 40-mile swath. Here's a look at the planned pipeline and the ongoing protests: ___ AFTER FIERY TRAIN DERAILMENTS, A MASSIVE PIPELINE PLANNED Owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, where shippers can access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. Announced in 2014, supporters said the pipeline would create more markets and reduce truck and oil train traffic — the latter of which has been a growing concern after a spate of fiery derailments of trains carrying North Dakota crude. ___ TRIBES SUE OVER WATER, SACRED SITES The Standing Rock Sioux's lawsuit challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings. Filed on behalf of the tribe by environmental group Earthjustice, the suit says the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will disturb sacred sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation. The lawsuit alleged that the pipeline, which would be placed less than a mile upstream of the reservation, could impact drinking water for more than 8,000 tribal members and millions who rely on it downstream. A separate lawsuit filed Thursday by the Yankton Sioux tribe in South Dakota challenges the same thing. ETP says the pipeline includes safeguards such as leak detection equipment, and workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could close block valves on it within three minutes if a breach is detected. ___ PROTESTERS SET UP CAMP, A MOVEMENT GROWS Since April, there's been a tribal protest — held mostly by members of the Standing Rock Sioux —at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers. It's grown considerably, as they've been joined by other American Indians and other, non-Native Americans from across the country, including celebrities such as "Divergent" actress Shailene Woodley. Nearly 40 have been arrested as the protest has grown size, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II. None of the arrests stemmed from Saturday's confrontation between protesters and construction workers. ___ POLITICIANS ENTER THE FRAY, OFFICIALS PREPARE Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka have been charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief stemming from their time at the protest. Stein's campaign spokeswoman acknowledged Stein spray-painted construction equipment Tuesday. Gov. Jack Dalrymple has activated the North Dakota National Guard, with a handful of soldiers providing security at traffic checkpoints, and another 100 on standby to respond to any incidents. Meanwhile, the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association has asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to send federal monitors to the protest, alleging racial profiling. ___ CULTURE CLASH Last weekend, tribal officials said crews bulldozed several sites of "significant cultural and historic value" on private land, which Energy Transfer Partners denies. It led to Saturday's clash between protesters and private security guards; law enforcement officials said four security guards and two guard dogs were injured, while a tribal spokesman said six people were bitten by the dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg partially granted the tribe's request to temporarily stop work near Lake Oahe to prevent the destruction of more sacred sites, but not on the private land that sparked the protest.[SEP]BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — After months of protests by the Standing Rock Sioux and other Native Americans, a federal judge denied the tribe’s request to stop construction of the four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. But the federal government quickly stepped in Friday by stopping work on one section and asking the pipeline company to do the same on a larger 40-mile swath. Here’s a look at the planned pipeline and the ongoing protests: Owned by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota’s oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois, where shippers can access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. Announced in 2014, supporters said the pipeline would create more markets and reduce truck and oil train traffic — the latter of which has been a growing concern after a spate of fiery derailments of trains carrying North Dakota crude. The Standing Rock Sioux’s lawsuit challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings. Filed on behalf of the tribe by environmental group Earthjustice, the suit says the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will disturb sacred sites outside of the 2.3-million acre reservation. The lawsuit alleged that the pipeline, which would be placed less than a mile upstream of the reservation, could impact drinking water for more than 8,000 tribal members and millions who rely on it downstream. A separate lawsuit filed Thursday by the Yankton Sioux tribe in South Dakota challenges the same thing. ETP says the pipeline includes safeguards such as leak detection equipment, and workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could close block valves on it within three minutes if a breach is detected. Since April, there’s been a tribal protest — held mostly by members of the Standing Rock Sioux —at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers. It’s grown considerably, as they’ve been joined by other American Indians and other, non-Native Americans from across the country, including celebrities such as “Divergent” actress Shailene Woodley. Nearly 40 have been arrested as the protest has grown size, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II. None of the arrests stemmed from Saturday’s confrontation between protesters and construction workers. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka have been charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief stemming from their time at the protest. Stein’s campaign spokeswoman acknowledged Stein spray-painted construction equipment Tuesday. Gov. Jack Dalrymple has activated the North Dakota National Guard, with a handful of soldiers providing security at traffic checkpoints, and another 100 on standby to respond to any incidents. Meanwhile, the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association has asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to send federal monitors to the protest, alleging racial profiling. Last weekend, tribal officials said crews bulldozed several sites of “significant cultural and historic value” on private land, which Energy Transfer Partners denies. It led to Saturday’s clash between protesters and private security guards; law enforcement officials said four security guards and two guard dogs were injured, while a tribal spokesman said six people were bitten by the dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg partially granted the tribe’s request to temporarily stop work near Lake Oahe to prevent the destruction of more sacred sites, but not on the private land that sparked the protest.[SEP]A federal judge Friday denied a Native American tribe's request for a temporary restraining order to halt construction on the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote in his decision that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe failed to show "it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction the Court could issue." [Previous story, posted at 10:12 a.m. ET] A federal judge's decision Friday could fuel heightened tensions in the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline. The ruling on a Native American tribe's request for a temporary restraining order on construction comes one day after Gov. Jack Dalrymple activated the state National Guard "in the event they are needed to support law enforcement response efforts," according to a National Guard spokesman. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed an emergency motion Sunday asking the court "to prevent further destruction of the tribe's sacred sites by Dakota Access Pipeline." Proponents say the project could be an economic boon for the region and potentially change the landscape of the US crude oil supply. Those seeking to halt construction warn of an environmental disaster that would destroy sacred Native American sites. The tribe wants to halt further construction on an area two miles west of North Dakota Highway 1806, near Lake Oahe, until the judge's ruling. The plaintiffs claim the tribe was not properly consulted before the US Army Corps of Engineers approved the pipeline project, which would run from North Dakota to South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. A US district court judge is expected to make a decision by Friday. The Army Corps of Engineers has declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. On Thursday, a state National Guard statement said the governor had asked it "to support law enforcement and augment public safety efforts, in light of recent activity with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest." "The Guard members will serve in administrative capacities and assist in providing security at traffic information points," the statement said. "The Guardsmen will not be going to the actual protest site. The governor also placed additional Guardsmen on standby alert in the event they are needed to support law enforcement response efforts." Thousands of people from more than 200 Native American tribes have supported the Standing Rock Sioux's efforts to protect their lands, waters and sacred sites during construction of the pipeline, according to the tribe. If completed, the 1,172-mile pipeline would carry 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day from North Dakota to Illinois. Energy Transfer said the pipeline would bring an estimated $156 million in sales and income taxes to state and local governments. It would also add 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs, the developer said. Protesters are also worried that digging the pipeline under the Missouri River could affect the drinking water supply if the pipeline breaks. Protests turned violent over the weekend, with some demonstrators breaking down a wire fence and trespassing onto a construction area, the Morton County Sheriff's Department said. "Protesters physically assaulted private security officers hired by Dakota Access Pipeline. The security officers were hit and jabbed with fence posts and flagpoles," the sheriff's department said. "According to several reports from security officers, knives were pulled on them or they witnessed protestors with large knives." The sheriff's department also said two guard dogs were injured.[SEP]BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The Standing Rock Sioux’s effort to block a four-state oil pipeline got a lifeline when the federal government temporarily stopped the project, a move some say likely may forever change the way all energy infrastructure projects are reviewed in the future. Just minutes after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s attempt to halt the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline that skirts the reservation in southern North Dakota, three federal agencies appealed to the pipeline company to “voluntarily pause” work on a segment that tribal officials say holds sacred sites and artifacts. Tribal officials had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline that is intended to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Friday’s ruling by Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, came amid growing protests over the pipeline, which would cross the Missouri River less than a mile upstream of the reservation. The statement by the Departments of Justice, Army and Interior said it would “reconsider any of its previous decisions” on land that borders or is under Lake Oahe, one of six reservoirs on the Missouri River and the drinking water source for the tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The statement from the federal departments also said the case “highlighted the need for a serious discussion” about nationwide reforms “with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects.” Troy Eid, a former U.S. attorney in Colorado who now specializes in Indian law, said the action was unprecedented and a “significant setback” for the pipeline’s builders. “Everywhere in Indian Country, people are talking about this,” said Eid, who spoke by phone Saturday while on horseback during a parade at the Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, Arizona. He said the lack of tribal consultation on the Dakota Access pipeline “is a textbook example of how not to do a project.” Eid, a Republican, said that historically, tribes only have been consulted on energy infrastructure projects, with the federal government making the actual decisions, but that the Obama administration’s action Friday likely changed that. “Tribes want to be able to influence the outcome in a substantive way,” Eid said. Industry consultant Brigham McCown, a former acting administrator for the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said the Obama administration’s involvement has “changed the lay of the land forever” for infrastructure projects. “This could bog down or delay every single infrastructure project moving forward,” he said. “I don’t think they even realize the can of worms they’ve opened.” As a regulator during the George W. Bush administration, McCown said he oversaw safety for a million daily shipments of hazardous goods throughout the United States by air, rail, sea, land and pipeline. “We were very apolitical in the decisions we made,” he said. “Things are very different now, whether from the right wing or left wing, politics of all kinds are being injected into this.” The company plans to have the pipeline completed this year. In court papers, it said stopping the project would cost it $1.4 billion the first year, mostly due to lost revenue in hauling crude. The federal government’s action in trumping the federal judge’s ruling, however temporary, was a major victory for Native Americans in a “cultural and historical context,” said Monte Mills, an assistant professor and co-director of the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic at the University of Montana in Missoula. “The way Indian Country came together to support Standing Rock has really been powerful,” he said. “There is no question it will be much more difficult and costly for these projects to move forward in the future,” said Brian Jorde, an Omaha, Nebraska, lawyer who is working with opponents of the Keystone XL oil pipeline designed to move crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast. “The reality is (Dakota Access) likely will move forward — not that I believe it should move forward — but all the pieces are in place for it to go forward,” Jorde said. “There is too much money involved and too much influence in Washington to just give up.”[SEP]WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not authorize construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Corps land even though a federal judge denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request for an injunction. The Corps issued a joint statement Friday with the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior that said important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline remain. “The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws,” the statement read. The agency said it will move expeditiously to make the determination and provide a clear and timely resolution. The Corps requested that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied the tribe’s request for injunction Friday, Sept. 9, in the tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Boasberg wrote that after reviewing the extensive record, the corps has likely complied with the National Historic Preservation Act while the tribe has not shown it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction the court could issue. The parties are scheduled to meet for a status conference on Sept. 16. The statement from the three federal agencies also said the case highlights the need for “a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform” on considering tribes’ views on infrastructure projects. The agencies said this fall they will invite tribes to formal, government-to-government consultations on what the federal government should do to better ensure meaningful tribal input and whether new legislation should be proposed to Congress. Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II is expected to speak from the North Dakota Capitol shortly after 3 p.m. Friday. Archambault has said the tribe intends to continue looking for legal options to fight the pipeline. “It’s the beginning of a continuing legal battle,” Archambault said Thursday while speaking to pipeline opponents who are camping north of the reservation. “We have respected and protected the right of individuals to protest even when protests have disrupted our community,” Morton County Commission Chairman Cody Shulz said in a statement released after the ruling. “It is now clear and obvious the fight needs to be moved from Morton County to a courtroom in Washington, D.C.” Shulz added that protesters should “respect the rule of law and the right for all citizens to live and travel in peace,” and urged them to shift efforts to judicial or legislative solutions. The $3.8 billion pipeline will carry 450,000 barrels of crude oil each day from North Dakota to Illinois. The tribe sued the corps over its permit for the Missouri River crossing, arguing the federal agency failed to properly consult the tribe. Tribal leaders say the pipeline will destroy sacred sites and threatens the reservation’s water supply. The corps argues in court records it “followed a robust tribal consultation process” and said Standing Rock withdrew from a scheduled site visit of the proposed Lake Oahe crossing, a dammed section of the Missouri River. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple activated the North Dakota National Guard Thursday in anticipation of the ruling. About a dozen Guard members are manning a traffic information point on State Highway 1806 to free up law enforcement to have a visible presence near the protest site. A protest is planned at the North Dakota Capitol from until 6 p.m. Friday.[SEP]NEAR THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, N.D. (AP) — The Standing Rock Sioux tribe's attempt to halt construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline near its North Dakota reservation failed in federal court Friday, but three federal agencies asked the pipeline company to "voluntarily pause" work on a segment that tribal officials say holds sacred sites and artifacts. The tribe, whose cause has drawn thousands to join its protest, had challenged the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant permits at more than 200 water crossings for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners' $3.8 billion pipeline, saying that the project violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and will harm water supplies. The tribe also says ancient sacred sites have been disturbed during construction. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington denied the tribe's request for a temporary injunction in a 58-page opinion. But a joint statement from the Departments of Justice, Army and Interior asked Energy Transfer Partners to "voluntarily pause" work within 20 miles east or west of the lake while it reconsidered "any of its previous decisions" on land that borders or is under Lake Oahe. The statement also said that the case "highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes' views on these types of infrastructure projects." Attorney Jan Hasselman with environmental group Earthjustice, who filed the lawsuit in July on behalf of the tribe, said in the days before the ruling that it'll be challenged. "We will have to pursue our options with an appeal and hope that construction isn't completed while that (appeal) process is going forward," he said. "We will continue to pursue vindication of the tribe's lawful rights even if the pipeline is complete." Tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard said after the ruling that it gives her "a great amount of grief. My heart is hurting, but we will continue to stand, and we will look for other legal recourses." She also said the protest will continue. Energy Transfer Partners officials didn't return The Associated Press' phone calls or emails seeking comment. Boasberg's ruling said that "this Court does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance to the Standing Rock Sioux" and that, given the federal government's history with the tribe, "the Court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care. Having done so, the Court must nonetheless conclude that the Tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here." The 1,172-mile project will carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois. Judith LeBlanc, a member of the Caddo Nation in Oklahoma and director of the New York-based Native Organizers Alliance, said before the decision that she expected the protest, which drew thousands Friday, to remain peaceful. "There's never been a coming together of tribes like this," she said of Friday's gathering of Native Americans, which she estimated could be the largest in a century. People came from as far as New York and Alaska, some bringing their families and children, and hundreds of tribal flags dotted the camp, along with American flags flown upside-down in protest. A rally against the Dakota Access pipeline is scheduled for Friday afternoon at the North Dakota Capitol, and many of those gathered at the protest site are expected to make the about 45-mile trek. State authorities announced this week that law enforcement officers from across the state were being mobilized at the protest site, some National Guard members would work security at traffic checkpoints and another 100 would be on standby. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association has asked the federal Justice Department to send monitors to the site because it said racial profiling is occurring. Nearly 40 people have been arrested since the protest began in April, including tribal chairman Dave Archambault II, though none stemmed from Saturday's confrontation between protesters and construction workers. Tribal officials said workers allegedly bulldozed sites on private land that Hasselman said in court documents was "of great historic and cultural significance." Energy Transfer Partners denied the allegations. Four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured, officials said, while a tribal spokesman said six people — including a child — were bitten by the dogs and at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed. The state's Private Investigation and Security Board received complaints about the use of dogs and will look into whether the private security personnel at the site are properly registered and licensed, board attorney Monte Rogneby said Friday, adding that he would not name the firms. On Thursday, North Dakota's archaeologist said that piece of private land was not previously surveyed by the state would be surveyed next week and that if artifacts are found, pipeline work still could cease. The company plans to have the pipeline completed this year. In court papers, ETP said stopping the project would cost it $1.4 billion the first year, mostly due to lost revenue in hauling crude. "Investor appetite for the project could shift and financing may no longer be available," the company said. "Construction of the entire project would cease and the project itself would be jeopardized." A status conference in the Standing Rock Sioux's lawsuit is scheduled for Sept. 16.

Following this ruling, and to head off an immediate confrontation, the Obama administration temporarily suspends further construction of the pipeline on U.S. Army Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe, and asks the Dakota Access construction company to voluntarily pause all work within 20 miles of the lake.

LEGAZPI CITY—The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Thursday raised the alert level over Mt. Mayon in Albay province from zero to 1 after it observed abnormalities around the volcano. Ed Laguerta, resident volcanologist of Phivolcs here, said 146 earthquakes had been recorded in areas around the volcano from Aug. 3 to 6, with epicenter traced to Santo Domingo town. ADVERTISEMENT Laguerta also described the volcano’s base ground as “inflated.” Michael Jaucian, Inquirer Southern Luzon Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READ[SEP]The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has recorded a volcanic earthquake on the Mayon Volcano in southeastern Luzon, a day after warning locals to avoid areas close to the active dome due to "abnormal activity". The warning to the residents of Legazpi city of Albay province, located in the northern Philippines' Luzon island, came after the volcano's monitoring network detected an earthquake in the past 24 hours as well as the emission of white steam plumes and sulfur dioxide emissions indicating that magma is moving up from underneath the volcano. READ MORE: * Skiers in Chile watch as volcano spews ash, smoke * Hawaii's Kilauea volcano forms smiley face in lava lake * Iceland raises alarm after largest volcano starts to rumble "Phreatic explosion may happen anytime but a big explosion is expected in the coming days," said PHILVOCS resident volcanologist Eduardo Laguerta, who noted that a similar "period of unrest" had occurred before a previous Mayon eruption. The volcano's last eruption in September 2014 forced more than 58,000 people to flee their homes. Mayon is one of the most well known of the Philippines' 18 active volcanoes.

The alert level for the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines is increased after more than a hundred earthquakes were detected in its vicinity.

Image copyright EPA Image caption The mangled front coach of the Portuguese train near O Porrino station At least four people have been killed and 47 hurt in a train derailment near O Porrino in north-western Spain. About 60 passengers were on the Portuguese train when it derailed at 09:30 (07:30 GMT) just outside the station. Those killed were the Portuguese driver and Spanish conductor, a US tourist and another Spaniard. O Porrino is located south of the Galician city of Vigo, near the border with Portugal. In July 2013 Spain suffered one of its worst train crashes in the same region, when a high-speed train derailed near Santiago de Compostela, killing 79 people and injuring some 170. The driver failed to brake in time before a bend. In Friday's crash the train apparently hit part of a bridge, El Pais newspaper reported. A photo showed that the train had also struck a signalling tower next to the line. Authorities have opened an investigation and retrieved the train's data recorder for analysis. Emergency workers fear there may be another body hidden in the wreckage. The train operator is Comboios de Portugal and it was travelling on the Vigo-Porto route. 'Covered in blood' The front portion of the train was badly mangled, but the last two carriages were only lightly affected and Spanish media report that many people were able to walk off the damaged train. Image copyright AFP Image caption The train's driver and conductor were among the dead Image copyright Reuters Image caption Several foreign nationals were reportedly on board Railway and track management company Adif said the accident had happened just before the train arrived in the station. "The train braked suddenly and suitcases fell on top of us," a passenger told Reuters news agency. "My mother smashed into my father and hurt him, my mum's neck really hurts... When we came out of the carriage we saw people covered in blood. It was really horrible." A passenger in a video posted by local daily La Voz de Galicia said the train had suddenly started swaying from one side to the other. "It wouldn't stop," she said. "I was sitting down and I fell to the ground. And then the train stopped. It was that quick." At least three people were killed on the spot, while the fourth died in hospital. Cause unclear Jesus Vazquez Almuina, health representative in the regional government, was quoted as saying there were many nationalities on board. "There were a lot of Spaniards and Portuguese obviously, but also Americans, Germans, people from Chile, Argentina... people who were doing the Road to Santiago [pilgrimage] and were continuing their trip to Porto," he said, according to AFP news agency. Helicopters, ambulances and fire engines were speedily deployed to the scene. The reason for the derailment has yet to be determined. Officials say it took place on a "very straight line" in an area of good visibility. O Porrino Mayor Eva Garcia de la Torre told told local radio the train involved in the crash looked old. Image copyright EPA Image caption Rear parts of the train were relatively unscathed[SEP]At least two dead as train derails in northern Spain MADRID, Sept 9 (Reuters) - At least two people have died after a train derailed in Galicia, in northern Spain, a spokesman for the local emergency services said on Friday. Local newspaper La Voz de Galicia said the accident took place at a station. In 2013, 80 people were killed in Spain's worst rail disaster in decades when a high-speed train went off the tracks and slammed into a wall near Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia. (Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Writing by Sarah White, Editing by Angus Berwick)[SEP]At least two people have died after a train derailed in Galicia, in northern Spain, a spokesman for the local emergency services said on Friday. Local newspaper La Voz de Galicia said the accident took place at a station. In 2013, 79 people were killed in Spain’s worst rail disaster in decades when a high-speed train went off the tracks and slammed into a wall near Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia.[SEP]The Portuguese driver was among the dead in the accident, which saw the train hit the wall of a bridge and smash into a pillar, according to the mayor of the nearby town of O Porrino. Pictures posted online and in local media showed one carriage of the train, which was carrying at least 65 people, lying on its side, the front completely caved in and mangled. Helicopters, ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scene to attend to the victims, some of whom were thought to be seriously injured. A passenger said in a video posted on local daily La Voz de Galicia that the train suddenly started wobbling. “It wouldn’t stop. I was sitting down and I fell to the ground,” she said. “And then the train stopped. It was that quick.” Ramon Gonzalez, a witness interviewed by Spanish television who works in the station cafeteria near the accident, said there was a “very strong bang.” “It was full of black smoke … It’s a straight line, the train was due to stop in 50 metres (164 feet), so this isn’t normal. “There are still some injured here but not very serious, the seriously injured were quickly evacuated.” The train was travelling from the Galician town of Vigo to the city of Porto in Portugal when the accident happened near O Porrino. Manuel Carrera, deputy mayor of O Porrino, said four people had died in the accident. Adif, the company that manages railways in Spain and is in charge of the tracks, said the accident happened around 9.30am local time (0730 GMT) just before arriving into the station. “There isn’t bad visibility there, it emerges from a curb,” Eva Garcia de la Torre, Mayor of O Porrino, told the Cadena Ser radio. She added that the train looked old. But the reason of the derailment has yet to be determined. Spain’s railway company Renfe said the train and the driver were both Portuguese, adding that railway traffic had been suspended in the area. Galicia was also the scene of one of Spain’s worst rail disasters in 2013, when around 80 people were killed and another 144 injured after a train slammed into a concrete wall on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela. The train was approaching a curve at more than twice the speed limit on that piece of the track in Galicia. A pre-trial investigation of the July 24, 2013 crash carried out by a court in Galicia concluded the accident was caused by a lapse in attention by the driver, who was on the telephone at the time of the crash with another rail employee. He has been charged with negligent homicide, and a Spanish court said earlier this year that an investigation into the crash would be reopened to determine if Adif was also partly responsible. As regional elections near in Galicia at the end of the month, several political parties including the ruling conservative Popular Party and the Socialists announced they had suspended their campaign, which had only just kicked off. Meanwhile Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is from Galicia, tweeted his concern. “My condolences to the families of those who died and hoping that the injured recover quickly,” he said.[SEP]At least three dead after train derails in northern Spain MADRID, Sept 9 (Reuters) - At least three people were killed on Friday after a train derailed in Galicia in north-western Spain, emergency services said. Dozens of people were also injured in the crash, Spanish media said, citing Eva Garcia de la Torre, the mayor of O Porrino, the town closest to the accident. The train between the city of Vigo and Porto, in Portugal, was carrying 63 passengers and two crew members, including the driver, state-run railway operator Renfe said. Spanish media reported the driver was among those killed. Television footage from the accident, which happened just before 9.30 am (0730 GMT), showed the train's front carriage flipped onto its side and rammed up against an electricity pylon next to the track. The crash took place close to a station. In 2013, 80 people were killed in Spain's worst rail disaster in decades when a high-speed train went off the tracks and slammed into a wall near Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia. It was not immediately clear what had caused Friday's crash. (Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Writing by Sarah White, Editing by Angus Berwick)[SEP]At least four people were killed on Friday after a train derailed in Galicia in north-western Spain, emergency services said. About 47 other passengers were also injured in the crash, authorities said. The train which was travelling between the Spanish city of Vigo to Porto in Portugal, was carrying 63 passengers and two crew members, including the driver, state-run railway operator Renfe said. Spanish media reported the driver was among those killed. The train, which derailed just before 9.30am local time (7.30am Irish time ) had three cars. The front one came completely off the track and hit a post next to the line, leaving it leaning to one side. The back two cars were partly off the tracks. Adif railway infrastructure company said it has opened an investigation. The derailment occurred on a straight stretch close to Porrino station. Renfe also said that the train belongs to Portuguese company Comboios and that the engine driver has Portuguese citizenship. It was not immediately clear what had caused Friday’s crash. In 2013, 80 people were killed in Spain’s worst rail disaster in decades when a high-speed train went off the tracks and slammed into a wall near Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia.[SEP]At least two people are believed to have died after a train derailed in northern Spain this morning. There is also an increasing number of injured people, thought to be more than 50, after a train came off the tracks near Pontevedra, Galicia. It had been travelling form the port city of Vigo to Valenca do Mino, in Portugal, when it derailed in the Spanish town of O Porrino at 9.30am. The reasons why the train derailed are as yet unclear, according to Spanish media. One of those dead is believed to be the driver, while a third person is reported to be in a critical condition. Firefighters and paramedics are at the scene as passengers are being rescued from the wreckage and rushed to hospital. Spanish rail operator Adif has said all rail traffic on the line will be suspended. In July 2013, a high-speed train traveling from Madrid to Spain’s north derailed outside Santiago de Compostela, killing 79 people and injuring 140. This page is being updated.[SEP]MADRID (AP) — A passenger train derailed Friday in Spain’s northwestern Galicia region, killing at least four people and injuring 47 others who were taken to hospitals, authorities said. The accident occurred at 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) in Porrino, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) northwest of Madrid, the Galician regional government said. The regional government’s president, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, told reporters at the scene that the train’s Portuguese engineer and Spanish ticket collector were among the dead, as well as two passengers, one of whom died in hospital. Rescue crews searching through the wreckage suspect there may be a fifth victim inside a car, he said. The train had three cars and was approaching Porrino station when it derailed. The front car came completely off the track and smashed into an electricity pylon next to the line, crushing the engineer’s cab and leaving the car leaning to one side. The back two cars were partly off the tracks. Emergency services dispatched doctors on helicopters to the scene. The train was carrying 63 passengers, state rail company Renfe said. It left Vigo at 9:02 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Porto in neighboring Portugal two hours later. It belonged to Portuguese rail company Comboios de Portugal. Adif railway infrastructure company said it has opened an investigation. The derailment occurred on a straight stretch close to Porrino station.[SEP]A passenger train derailed Friday in Spain's northwestern Galicia region, killing four people and injuring 47 others who were taken to hospitals, authorities said. The accident occurred at 9:30am (local time) in Porrino, about 450 kilometres northwest of Madrid, the Galician regional government said. The train had three cars. The front one came completely off the track and smashed into an electricity pylon next to the line, crushing the engineer's cab and leaving the car leaning to one side. The back two cars were partly off the tracks. Emergency services dispatched doctors on helicopters to the scene. The train was carrying 63 passengers, the engineer and a ticket collector, state rail company Renfe said. The train left Vigo at 9:02am and was scheduled to arrive in Porto in neighbouring Portugal two hours later. It belonged to Portuguese rail company Comboios de Portugal. READ MORE: * Five killed in train derailment south of the Egyptian capital * Train derails after hitting truck in Australia, no one killed Adif railway infrastructure company said it has opened an investigation. The derailment occurred on a straight stretch close to Porrino station.[SEP]A passenger train derailed Friday in Spain's northwestern Galicia region, killing four people and injuring 47 others who were taken to hospitals, authorities said. The Galician regional government said the accident occurred at 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) in Porrino, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) northwest of Madrid. It said emergency services dispatched doctors on helicopters to the scene. The train was traveling from Vigo to Porto, in neighboring Portugal. It belonged to Portuguese rail company Comboios de Portugal. Adif railway infrastructure company said it has opened an investigation. The derailment occurred on a straight stretch close to Porrino station. Spanish media said the train was carrying around 60 passengers. The train had three cars. The front one came completely off the track and hit a post next to the line, leaving it leaning to one side. The back two cars were partly off the tracks.

A train derails at a station in the town of O Porriño in Galicia, Spain, killing at least four people.

After Cable Cars Got Stuck In The Alps, Dozens Spent Night Suspended In Midair Enlarge this image toggle caption Luca Bruno/AP Luca Bruno/AP On Thursday night, a series of cable cars traveling over the Mont Blanc Alpine Massif stopped working — leaving more than 100 tourists stranded, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports. Helicopter crews managed to extract 65 of the trapped people in a delicate rescue operation. But by the time night fell the helicopters had to stop, leaving dozens more people, including a 10-year-old child, dangling in the gondolas overnight. By morning, the cable car system had been repaired and the gondolas were sent into motion again. All the tourists are now safe, The Associated Press reports. Enlarge this image toggle caption Luca Bruno/AP Luca Bruno/AP The cable car crosses between mountain peaks in France and Italy, near the towns of Chamonix, France, and Courmayeur, Italy. "The panoramic cable cars rise to an altitude of 12,000 feet, and are operated in the summer season with large numbers of tourists and climbers," Eleanor says. "The cable cars stopped working after their cables became crossed," she reports. "Officials believe strong winds may have caused the cables to become tangled." That was around 4 p.m. local time. Helicopter rescue operations soon began — but they were risky, the AP reports: " 'The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable,' said Col. Frederic Labrunye, commander of the provincial gendarmerie group of Haute-Savoie. 'By the volume of people to rescue — we rarely rescue 110 people at the same time in high mountain — and by the environment in which it happens ... in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of five kilometers of cable with 36 cabins.' "Helicopters had to delicately fly over the cable, which is risky itself, then lower a rescuer on to an area 'not larger than a table,' strap on passengers one by one and extract them, he said, describing it as 'air surgery.' " Enlarge this image toggle caption Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images After helicopters were grounded, some people — those closest to the ground — were extracted by rescuers working from the glacier beneath them, the AP says. The rest had to wait until morning. It was a chilly night in the Alps, but the stranded tourists weren't alone as they waited out the high-altitude mishap. "First aid workers bringing blankets and food spent the night in the gondolas with those trapped," Eleanor says.[SEP]COURMAYEUR, Italy: More than 30 tourists who spent a terrifying night in cable cars in the French Alps were set to be brought to the ground Friday, operators said. A total of 110 people became trapped when the cable cars ground to a halt shortly before 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) Thursday at an altitude of 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) in the Mont Blanc region. Seventy-seven people were rescued, including 48 airlifted out by helicopter in a delicate operation as darkness fell. Thirty people in cable cars closest to the ground managed to climb down with the help of rescuers. “The last hour seemed very, very long. We called the operators who explained that three cables got snarled up and they had to be untangled but they didn’t manage to do it,” an unnamed man who was one of the first tourists to be rescued told French radio. But with darkness falling and the weather deteriorating, the rescue operation was suspended, leaving 33 tourists, one of them a 10-year-old child, forced to spend the night dangling in mid-air. Shortly before 8:00 am (0600 GMT), news came that the cable cars had restarted. “They resumed five minutes ago, the last cable (which was blocking the system) was untangled,” Mathieu Dechavanne, CEO of the Mont-Blanc Company that manages the system, told Agence France-Presse. He said the remaining passengers could now be rescued without the use of helicopters. Police said all the remaining passengers seemed in good health. “We were in contact with them throughout the night, the people were cold” but there did not appear to be any health emergencies, the local police chief, Stephane Bozon, told Agence France-Presse.. The prefect of the Haute-Savoie region, Georges François Leclerc, said late Thursday that rescuers were forced to halt their operation at 8:45pm as they could not “guarantee the safety of the pilots, rescuers and the people stuck in the cars”. During the night, a team of five rescuers, three French and two Italian police officers also attempted to reach the trapped tourists. One of the officers managed to get into a car which contained a 10-year-old child. Those still stuck had access to emergency blankets, energy bars and bottles of water in the cars. Each cable car holds just four passengers. They connect Aiguille du Midi on the French side of the mountains with Pointe Helbronner on the Italian border. The incident was caused by cables that got crossed for “unknown reasons”, but a gust of wind is thought to have played a part, Dechavanne said on Thursday. The employees of the company were not able to repair the cars, forcing an evacuation operation to begin around 5:00pm. The cable cars offer panoramic views of Mont Blanc, which straddles the French-Italian border. The incident comes five years after around 40 people were stuck for nearly seven hours on the Grande-Motte cable car in the southeastern French Alps after it broke down. They were evacuated through trap doors in the floor of the cars, using ropes to reach the ground 40 meters (130 feet) below. AFP[SEP]More than 30 tourists who spent a dramatic night stranded in cable cars above the French Alps were brought to the ground on Friday after an 18-hour ordeal, operators said. They were the last of 110 sightseers trapped when the cable cars ground to a halt on Thursday afternoon in the shadow of Mont Blanc, western Europe’s loftiest peak. After a night in the frozen dark, dangling at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,500 feet), the string of cars lurched into movement at around 8 a.m. (0600 GMT). The incident was caused by cables that got crossed for “unknown reasons”, but a gust of wind is thought to have played a part, said Mathieu Dechavanne, boss of the Mont-Blanc Company which manages the system. The cars were restarted after the last cable was untangled, he told AFP. The 33 remaining passengers were able to reach the ground by exiting the cars at three points on the way down, an official said. Teams on Thursday had been able to rescue 77 passengers, most of them by helicopters and others who were able to climb down with help. But as darkness fell and the weather deteriorated, the operation was suspended, leaving the remaining tourists, one of them a 12-year-old boy, to spend the night suspended in mid-air. The boy’s sister, Italian tourist Maria Elena Perrone (18), was rescued on Thursday but then had an agonising wait for news of her brother and parents who were in a different cable car. “It was terrible. My brother had to stay up there with my parents and they were only wearing sweatshirts. When the Sun set, it was cold,” she told AFP, sobbing. “For two and a half hours we didn’t know what had happened and the cable car was moving a lot when they were trying to untangle the cables.”[SEP]More than 100 people were trapped in cable cars suspended more than 3,000 metres above the French Alps after high winds reportedly resulted in a mechanical failure. Dozens of tourists were at the centre of a dramatic rescue operation in Mont Blanc on Wednesday as a rescue helicopter was scrambled to the scene. Police said 110 people became trapped in the panoramic Vallee Blanche Cable Car that rises to an altitude of 3,778 metres (12,395ft) just before 5.30pm. The cable car connects the famed Aiguille du Midi peak to the Pointe Helbronner and takes 30-35 minutes. The cause behind the fault is unknown at this stage but initial reports suggested high winds may have caused the cable cars to become stuck. Le Dauphine reported 65 people have been rescued mid-air after French, Italian and Swiss emergency teams launched an operation. The website said the operation had been suspended for the night but food, water and survival blankets had been distributed. Large numbers of tourists visit the attraction for spectacular close-up views of the Mont Blanc range, western Europe’s tallest mountains. Mathieu Dechavanne, chief executive of the company which manages the cable cars, told La Vanguardia: 'This will take some time but the weather is good. “We are in contact with customers. They have water and means to communicate.” Chamonix mayor Eric Fournier added: "There's nothing fundamentally to fear".[SEP]More than 100 people were left trapped in panoramic cable cars close to Mont Blanc in the Alps this afternoon. A rescue operation was mounted and French and Italian rescue services are evacuating the reported 110 sightseers in Chamonix. Initial reports from the French-Italian border suggest a mechanical failure was to blame, but this has yet to be confirmed. It happened on a cable connecting the Aiguille du Midi station in France to the Italian Punta Helbronner at around 5.25pm. It is thought 25 cable cars were left suspended 3,800 metres in the air. Italian news service R.it reports that strong winds may have caused the cable cars to stop. The winds may have made the wires which support the cabin cars cross Eric Fornier, the Mayor of Chamonix, told BFMTV that rescuers, supported by their Italian counterparts, are working to bring the trapped people to safety. And Frédéric Maurer, 49, one of the first passengers to be rescued along with his daughter and son after the intervention of the Mountain Rescue Service, said: 'We were in the cab for two-and-a-half hours locked under the sun. 'We had just started from flagship station Helbronner on the Italian side, when everything froze.' Mathieu Dechavanne, chief executive of the company which manages the cable cars, said the operation to get people down is likely to take a while. He told La Vanguardia: 'This will take some time but the weather is good. 'We are in contact with customers. They have water and means to communicate.'[SEP]A ten-year-old child was among dozens of tourists rescued today after spending the night stranded in cable cars dangling above the Mont Blanc mountain range. The rescue mission in the French Alps restarted at dawn and returned the 33 people to safety after they became trapped at an altitude of about 3,800m (12,468ft) yesterday afternoon, apparently when cables became tangled in high winds. Sixty-five people, including US, French and Italian tourists, were rescued yesterday by helicopter before night fell over Europe’s highest mountains. A dozen were brought down from the four-person gondolas by rescuers using ropes. Clouds hampered visibility last night in conditions which rescuers said made for “a very complex operation”. The remainder were provided with blankets and food as they awaited the resumption of rescue attempts at 5.30am. They were taken to Chamonix in France and the Italian town of Courmayeur. It is believed rescuers were this morning able to complete the process of untangling the cables and the tourists were brought down in the cable cars, without the need for a helicopter evacuation. Antoine Burnet, from cable car operator Compagnie Du Mont Blanc, praised the professionalism of the rescuers and the “exemplary conduct” and calmness” of those trapped. He described the rescue operation as “serene”. Stéphane Bozon, the rescue commander from the Chamonix Gendarmerie, said: “We were in touch with them all night. The people were cold but there was no vital distress.” The cables had crossed at three points on the three mile route between Aiguille du Midi in France and Pointe Helbronner in Italy. The panoramic ride over glaciers usually takes 30 minutes to complete. Kathy Cook, a tourist from Michigan, who was rescued last night, said: “We were there almost 10 hours in the cable car. The cable car left about 2:30 in the afternoon and it was just before midnight when they finally brought us out of the gondolas, which was really quite an experience. “The helicopter rescue failed because the fog moved in, so we had to just wait and then they decided they could bring us safely to the ground, and we walked up the glacier to the hut.” Frederic Labrunye, commander of the provincial gendarmerie group of Haute-Savoie, said: “The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable. “By the volume of people to rescue -we rarely rescue 110 people at the same time in high mountain - and by the environment in which it happens ... in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of 5km of cable with 36 cabins.”[SEP]Dozens of tourists, including three children, have been rescued after being trapped overnight in cable cars dangling above the slopes of Mont Blanc in the Alps. Their return to land ended an extraordinarily complex and vertiginous rescue effort over two days amid the spectacular but dangerous landscape of Western Europe’s tallest mountains. The last passengers were brought down yesterday morning, after emergency workers managed to untangle cables that had jammed on Thursday, according to the mayor of the French town of Chamonix. With the cables now straightened, the cable cars were able to resume their journey, at very slow speeds and under close surveillance, and delivered the passengers to the nearest ground stations, mayor Eric Fournier said. The passengers were then flown by helicopter to Chamonix and the Italian town of Courmayeur. The ordeal began on Thursday afternoon, when cables on the Panoramic Mont Blanc cable car service got twisted, trapping 110 people in a string of cars at 3,800m. French and Italian helicopters flew in rescuers who dropped down on cables onto the tops of the cars, and lifted out passengers one by one. “The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable,” said Colonel Frederic Labrunye, commander of the provincial gendarmerie group of Haute-Savoie. “By the volume of people to rescue – we rarely rescue 110 people at the same time in high mountain – and by the environment in which it happens in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of 5km of cable with 36 cabins.” Helicopters had to carefully fly over the cables, which is risky itself, then lower a rescuer on to an area “not larger than a table”, strap on passengers one by one and extract them, he said, describing it as “air surgery”. Then fog descended and darkness started to fall, and authorities called off the helicopter rescue. So they switched to “Plan B,” Mr Fournier said. Mountain guides identified the cable cars closest to the ground, and used climbing ropes to carry passengers to the surface of the glacier below, one by one. From there, rescuers brought the passengers by foot to the nearest mountain station. Fournier said 65 people were rescued overall on Thursday, and another 12 were brought down overnight using “Plan B”. The remaining 33 people were in cable cars too high off the ground, so they stayed overnight. They included a seven-year-old and nine-year-old from Korea and a ten-year-old Italian child. “They didn’t get a lot of sleep, but they were warm under blankets and with their families,” Mr Fournier said. Five rescuers stayed overnight in the cable cars and provided blankets, food and water.[SEP]A rescue operation has resumed to free tourists who spent the night trapped in cable cars suspended above the French Alps. Efforts to save the group were halted last night when conditions became too dangerous for rescue helicopters. 110 tourists became stuck on the 35-minute 5km cable car trip over the Vallée Blanche at 5.25pm yesterday. Rescue efforts saw 65 people freed before night fell. The remainder, including a child aged 10, had to stay in the cabins overnight. The journey links the Aiguille du Midi, a 3842 metre peak above Chamonix, France, to the Point Helbronner, a 3462 metre peak in Italy. At 11.30pm a helicopter could still be seen above the site making efforts to distribute emergency supplies and rescue remaining victims. Speaking to a French television station during the rescue, Eric Fournier, the Mayor of Chamonix, said: “People who are stuck in the cabins are being evacuated by helicopter. “There are no fundamental concerns. The rescuers, supported by their Italian counterparts, are implementing with speed and efficiency all the necessary operations to bring these people back into the valley. "It has happened in the heart of Mont Blanc so, by character, it was quite spectacular.” There was speculation that a problem with the cables had caused the breakdown. The nationalities of those who remained trapped was not known. There were French, American and Italian tourists among those rescued on Thursday. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised the “courage” of the French and Italian rescuers. He said: “They are engaged in a delicate operation to rescue 110 people trapped following a technical incident.” The tourists had accessed the Panoramic Mont Blanc cabins, open from June to the end of September, from either the Helbronner in Italy or the Aiguille du Midi in France. The two peaks have their own cable car system connecting them to their nearby villages. The French Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi connects the peak of Aiguille du Midi to the village of Chamonix, while the Italian Skyway Monte Bianco connects the peak of Pointe Helbronner to the village of La Palud, just north of Courmayeur near the Mont Blanc Tunnel. The Panoramic Mont Blanc cable car tourist attraction linking the two countries was opened in 1958. There are 12 groups of three cabins which seat four people each. They are pulled by a haulage rope of 10,200 metres in a single loop. The cabins run from the Aiguille du Midi station over the Vallée Blanche glacier and the Glacier du Géant glacier to the Helbronner station. Although the cables sag by some 255 m, the cabins still have a clearance of some 300 m to the glacier underneath.[SEP]Dozens of tourists, including a 10-year-old child, were safely rescued Friday after being trapped in cable cars dangling above the slopes of Mont Blanc in the Alps overnight. The mountain rescue service in the French city of Chamonix said cables that had become entangled Thursday were repaired, and the cable cars were able to resume operation Friday morning. The travelers were brought to Chamonix and the Italian town of Courmayeur. A series of cable cars got stuck after the cables tangled at 3,600 meters altitude, prompting a major rescue operation. The interior minister said 65 people were rescued Thursday night, but 45 had to be left there overnight after rescue operations were halted because of rough flight conditions for helicopters and darkness. Five rescuers stayed overnight in the cable cars and provided blankets, food and water to help weather the chilly mountain nighttime conditions. Those who were brought down Thursday night described an extraordinarily tense and risky rescue operation. "We were there almost 10 hours in the cable car. The cable car left about 2:30 in the afternoon and it was just before midnight when they finally brought us out of the gondolas, which was really quite an experience," said Kathy Cook, a tourist from Michigan. "The helicopter rescue failed because the fog moved in, so we had to just wait and then they decided they could bring us safely to the ground, and we walked up the glacier to the hut," she said upon arrival in Courmayeur. When the fog moved in, the helicopter effort was called off, and rescuers concentrated on bringing down people whose cable cars were closest to the ground, Italian rescuer Mario Mochet said. Rescuers on the glacier below helped transfer them to a shelter on the slopes before they were brought further down the mountains. "The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable," said Col. Frederic Labrunye, commander of the provincial gendarmerie group of Haute-Savoie. "By the volume of people to rescue — we rarely rescue 110 people at the same time in high mountain — and by the environment in which it happens ... in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of five kilometers of cable with 36 cabins." Helicopters had to delicately fly over the cable, which is risky itself, then lower a rescuer on to an area "not larger than a table," strap on passengers one by one and extract them, he said, describing it as "air surgery." The cable car, which offers spectacular up-close views of Western Europe's tallest mountains and deep valleys below, connects the Aiguille de Midi peak in France, at 3,842 meters (12,605 feet), to Pointe Helbronner in Italy, at 3,462 meters (11,358 feet). No spoons allowed: Beijing is pressuring its 4-year-olds to eat only with chopsticks Don't be like Gary Johnson: 8 things you should know about Aleppo, including what it is[SEP]Paris (AP) — A series of cable cars carrying tourists stopped working at high altitude over the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps on Thursday, prompting a major rescue operation and leaving 45 people trapped in midair overnight, France’s interior minister said. Four helicopters were deployed after 110 people became stuck when the cable cars stalled because of a “technical incident,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. He said the helicopters rescued 65 people before the efforts were suspended for the night because of rough flight conditions. First aid workers were transported to the site and will be spending the night in the cable cars with those who are trapped, Cazeneuve said. Rescuers provided blankets, food and water to help weather the chilly mountain conditions overnight. The cable car, which offers spectacular up-close views of Western Europe’s tallest mountains and deep valleys below, connects the Aiguille de Midi peak in France, at 3,842 meters (12,605 feet), to Pointe Helbronner in Italy, at 3,462 meters (11,358 feet). Cables carrying the Panoramic Mont Blanc cars reportedly tangled around 4 p.m. (1400 GMT). Workers from the operating company tried to untangle the lines but failed. They alerted authorities and French and Italian mountain rescue specialists were brought by helicopter to evacuate passengers. Passengers were transferred to other cable cars that brought them down the mountain to Courmayeur in Italy. Descending from the cable cars, one passenger told reporters “it ended well” despite five or six hours suspended midair in cold mountain conditions. French police said the evacuation was suspended at 9:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. EDT, 1930 GMT), and will resume Friday at 7:15 a.m. (0515 GMT, 1:15 a.m. EDT). Chamonix Mayor Eric Fournier said earlier on BFM television that “there’s nothing fundamentally to fear.” The cable car journey normally takes 30-35 minutes. The Panoramic Cable Car is operated in the summer season, when large numbers of climbers and tourists converge on the area. Another series of cable cars takes skiers and visitors to the peak of the Aiguille de Midi year-round.

More than a hundred tourists in the French Alps spend an evening suspended in midair inside cable cars that ceased to move.

(CNN) Planes completed aerial spraying for mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus early Friday in the Miami area, despite concerns over possible effects that the insecticide Naled may have on health and the environment. Since the mosquito that carries Zika is most active at predawn and at sunset, all spraying must take place at those times. So far, there have been 56 local transmissions of the Zika virus in Florida , which has 20.6 million residents. The state has seen 596 travel-related cases of Zika, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The virus can cause neurological disorders in unborn children Health officials have sprayed pesticide and larvicide on the ground in areas where they believe the mosquitoes may be, and are expanding those efforts with the aerial use of Naled. The spraying was originally scheduled for Thursday, but was delayed for a day after concerned residents protested. Experts say there's no reason to be concerned over the effects of the insecticide on human health and the environment. The amount of insecticide used is minimal -- two tablespoons per acre -- about the size of a football field, according to the CDC. "Aerial spraying using Naled and other insecticides has been used in many populated areas of the continental United States, including Miami, Tampa and New Orleans to help control mosquitoes," the CDC said on its website Naled breaks down swiftly in water and sunlight, and its chemicals don't cause health problems in people or pets if used in small quantities, according to the CDC. Sprayers produce fine droplets that are small enough to stay airborne and intercept mosquitoes in flight. It kills mosquitoes on contact. But while US health officials say it's safe, Europe has banned the use of agricultural products containing Naled over safety concerns. A few days later, in an unprecedented move, the CDC announced a travel warning, advising pregnant women not to visit that area. Authorities launched aggressive mosquito-control measures, including spraying in the area. Last month, the CDC advised pregnant women not to travel to an area of Miami Beach limited to 1½ square miles. Pregnant women are at greatest risk because the virus can have devastating consequences for an unborn baby, including the birth defect microcephaly and other neurological disorders, as well as miscarriage and stillbirth among women infected while pregnant. In addition to human health, critics say Naled kills pollinators and wildlife, and is toxic to the environment.[SEP](CNN) Planes completed aerial spraying for mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus early Friday in the Miami area, despite concerns over possible effects that the insecticide Naled may have on health and the environment. Since the mosquito that carries Zika is most active at predawn and at sunset, all spraying must take place at those times. So far, there have been 56 local transmissions of the Zika virus in Florida , which has 20.6 million residents. The state has seen 596 travel-related cases of Zika, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The virus can cause neurological disorders in unborn children Health officials have sprayed pesticide and larvicide on the ground in areas where they believe the mosquitoes may be, and are expanding those efforts with the aerial use of Naled. The spraying was originally scheduled for Thursday, but was delayed for a day after concerned residents protested. Experts say there's no reason to be concerned over the effects of the insecticide on human health and the environment. The amount of insecticide used is minimal -- two tablespoons per acre -- about the size of a football field, according to the CDC. "Aerial spraying using Naled and other insecticides has been used in many populated areas of the continental United States, including Miami, Tampa and New Orleans to help control mosquitoes," the CDC said on its website Naled breaks down swiftly in water and sunlight, and its chemicals don't cause health problems in people or pets if used in small quantities, according to the CDC. Sprayers produce fine droplets that are small enough to stay airborne and intercept mosquitoes in flight. It kills mosquitoes on contact. But while US health officials say it's safe, Europe has banned the use of agricultural products containing Naled over safety concerns. A few days later, in an unprecedented move, the CDC announced a travel warning, advising pregnant women not to visit that area. Authorities launched aggressive mosquito-control measures, including spraying in the area. Last month, the CDC advised pregnant women not to travel to an area of Miami Beach limited to 1½ square miles. Pregnant women are at greatest risk because the virus can have devastating consequences for an unborn baby, including the birth defect microcephaly and other neurological disorders, as well as miscarriage and stillbirth among women infected while pregnant. In addition to human health, critics say Naled kills pollinators and wildlife, and is toxic to the environment.[SEP]A Miami-Dade County sprays pesticides over the ocean in hopes of it drifting over the mainland to control and reduce the number of mosquitoes on Sept. 9 in Miami Beach. Joe Raedle / Getty Images[SEP](CNN) Predawn aerial spraying for Zika-carrying mosquitoes, set to begin Friday, is bugging out residents of Miami Beach, Florida. But concerns about the consequences for human health and the environment may be overblown, according to experts. Originally scheduled for Thursday, the spraying was delayed for a day after angry residents protested. "Nobody's here bc they're afraid #zika we care abt organic solutions not poison. We're skeptical Gov Scott $ interest" #naled #miamibeach Maria de los Angeles' tweet is typical of the concerns being voiced by residents: "Nobody's here bc they're afraid #zika we care abt organic solutions not poison. We're skeptical Gov Scott $ interest" #naled #miamibeach." So far there have been 56 locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus in Florida , which has 20.6 million residents. As of Thursday, there were also 596 travel-related cases of Zika in Florida. According to the CDC, there are 2,977 cases of the virus in the continental United States. Here's what you need to know: Why are they spraying? Spraying is needed because the mosquitoes aren't gone yet even though authorities have sprayed on the ground. A few days later, in an unprecedented move, the CDC announced a travel warning, advising pregnant women not to visit that area. Aggressive mosquito-control measures were taken, including mosquito spraying in the area. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised pregnant women not to travel to an area of Miami Beach limited to 1½ square miles. Scott said the area runs from the beach to the Intracoastal Waterway and from Eighth Street to 28th Street. Pregnant women are at greatest risk because the virus can have devastating consequences for an unborn baby, including the birth defect microcephaly and other neurological deficits, as well as miscarriage and stillbirth among women who were infected while pregnant. What are they spraying and how does it work? The main ingredient of the insecticide, Dibrom, is the chemical naled. The chemical kills mosquitoes on contact. Sprayers produce very fine droplets that are small enough to stay airborne and intercept mosquitoes in flight. Naled spray droplets stay airborne for an extended period, and the chemical begins to break down once exposed to sunlight or water. Very little of the low-concentration spray settles on the ground. Those who worry that they may have come into contact with the chemicals should wash, according to officials. Any food that may have been exposed should be rinsed before eating. Since concentrations are far below what is harmful to humans, symptoms, such as skin irritation or headache, are unlikely. Are there health risks associated with naled? One South Florida resident quoted a coworker in a tweet as saying, "We're either gonna die of Zika or cancer." In its own review of naled, however, the European Union came to a different conclusion. Is this the first use of naled in Florida? The Mosquito Control Section has applied naled via an ultra-low-volume spray for many years, officials said in a news release. In fact, Dibrom has been used in the United States over the past 50 years, said Timothy J. Donnelly, vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of AMVAC Chemical Corp., which makes the insecticide. "It is regularly sprayed in 12 states on over 15 million acres each year," Donnelly said last month. Miami-Dade County's aerial spraying alternates between naled and an insecticide called BTI (bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, a naturally occurring bacterium), which targets mosquito larvae instead of adult mosquitoes. BTI has been registered with the EPA since 1961 as a pesticide. What are the environmental risks of aerial spraying? On Thursday, a Twitter user described as a backyard bee keeper wrote, "@CDCgov Please stop the use of toxic NALED, it kills pollinators and wildlife and its toxic to environment." "This is crazy," she said. "It's like using a sledgehammer to crack a peanut. The devastation that it has already caused is beyond comprehension. We can't live without these honeybees." The spraying occurred, Dorchester County Administrator Jason Ward said, because four people in the county had developed Zika while traveling to areas of the world where the virus is actively circulating. Summerville residents then expressed concern about the virus. Zika is not actively circulating in South Carolina. Still, Aedes aegypti, the main mosquito that carries and transmits the virus, has been found in small numbers in the nearby Charleston area, according to Ward. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Bee Laboratory declined to comment on the issue. "We do recommend mosquito control to be done around travel-associated cases as well as locally transmitted cases if the mosquitoes that spread Zika are in the environment," said entomologist Janet McAllister of the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. "We don't want the virus to take hold in the local mosquito population." The truth is the nation's bee population has long been stressed by the public's need for pest control. "I've seen it with West Nile virus and after hurricanes and major flooding," entomologist Jeffrey Harris said. "I always tell the beekeepers that human health is always going to trump bee health, and if there is a natural disaster that increases a dangerous mosquito population, they are going to spray." Harris runs the Honey Bee Extension and Research Program for Mississippi State University and is active in research on bees and how to best protect them from pesticides. "Aerial spraying is a tough one," he said. "The recommendations are difficult to follow. While maximum foraging for bees is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the summertime, the bees are already out at dawn, when aerial spraying is recommended. So spraying in the morning is the worst thing they can do for bees." Since the variety of mosquito that carries Zika is most active predawn and at sunset, all spraying must take place at those times. Special precautions are not necessary, Miami-Dade County officials said, though people with allergies may want to remain indoors. During any insecticide operation, it is recommended that beekeepers cover their bees. "When naled gets sprayed, it knocks out the mosquitoes, but if sprayed over water, it breaks down quickly," he said. If the chemicals are rotated and managed properly, an environmental area can recover, Phillips noted.[SEP](CNN) Predawn aerial spraying for Zika-carrying mosquitoes, set to begin Friday, is bugging out residents of Miami Beach, Florida. But concerns about the consequences for human health and the environment may be overblown, according to experts. Originally scheduled for Thursday, the spraying was delayed for a day after angry residents protested. "Nobody's here bc they're afraid #zika we care abt organic solutions not poison. We're skeptical Gov Scott $ interest" #naled #miamibeach Maria de los Angeles' tweet is typical of the concerns being voiced by residents: "Nobody's here bc they're afraid #zika we care abt organic solutions not poison. We're skeptical Gov Scott $ interest" #naled #miamibeach." So far there have been 56 locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus in Florida , which has 20.6 million residents. As of Thursday, there were also 596 travel-related cases of Zika in Florida. According to the CDC, there are 2,977 cases of the virus in the continental United States. Here's what you need to know: Why are they spraying? Spraying is needed because the mosquitoes aren't gone yet even though authorities have sprayed on the ground. A few days later, in an unprecedented move, the CDC announced a travel warning, advising pregnant women not to visit that area. Aggressive mosquito-control measures were taken, including mosquito spraying in the area. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised pregnant women not to travel to an area of Miami Beach limited to 1½ square miles. Scott said the area runs from the beach to the Intracoastal Waterway and from Eighth Street to 28th Street. Pregnant women are at greatest risk because the virus can have devastating consequences for an unborn baby, including the birth defect microcephaly and other neurological deficits, as well as miscarriage and stillbirth among women who were infected while pregnant. What are they spraying and how does it work? The main ingredient of the insecticide, Dibrom, is the chemical naled. The chemical kills mosquitoes on contact. Sprayers produce very fine droplets that are small enough to stay airborne and intercept mosquitoes in flight. Naled spray droplets stay airborne for an extended period, and the chemical begins to break down once exposed to sunlight or water. Very little of the low-concentration spray settles on the ground. Those who worry that they may have come into contact with the chemicals should wash, according to officials. Any food that may have been exposed should be rinsed before eating. Since concentrations are far below what is harmful to humans, symptoms, such as skin irritation or headache, are unlikely. Are there health risks associated with naled? One South Florida resident quoted a coworker in a tweet as saying, "We're either gonna die of Zika or cancer." In its own review of naled, however, the European Union came to a different conclusion. Is this the first use of naled in Florida? The Mosquito Control Section has applied naled via an ultra-low-volume spray for many years, officials said in a news release. In fact, Dibrom has been used in the United States over the past 50 years, said Timothy J. Donnelly, vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of AMVAC Chemical Corp., which makes the insecticide. "It is regularly sprayed in 12 states on over 15 million acres each year," Donnelly said last month. Miami-Dade County's aerial spraying alternates between naled and an insecticide called BTI (bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, a naturally occurring bacterium), which targets mosquito larvae instead of adult mosquitoes. BTI has been registered with the EPA since 1961 as a pesticide. What are the environmental risks of aerial spraying? On Thursday, a Twitter user described as a backyard bee keeper wrote, "@CDCgov Please stop the use of toxic NALED, it kills pollinators and wildlife and its toxic to environment." "This is crazy," she said. "It's like using a sledgehammer to crack a peanut. The devastation that it has already caused is beyond comprehension. We can't live without these honeybees." The spraying occurred, Dorchester County Administrator Jason Ward said, because four people in the county had developed Zika while traveling to areas of the world where the virus is actively circulating. Summerville residents then expressed concern about the virus. Zika is not actively circulating in South Carolina. Still, Aedes aegypti, the main mosquito that carries and transmits the virus, has been found in small numbers in the nearby Charleston area, according to Ward. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Bee Laboratory declined to comment on the issue. "We do recommend mosquito control to be done around travel-associated cases as well as locally transmitted cases if the mosquitoes that spread Zika are in the environment," said entomologist Janet McAllister of the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. "We don't want the virus to take hold in the local mosquito population." The truth is the nation's bee population has long been stressed by the public's need for pest control. "I've seen it with West Nile virus and after hurricanes and major flooding," entomologist Jeffrey Harris said. "I always tell the beekeepers that human health is always going to trump bee health, and if there is a natural disaster that increases a dangerous mosquito population, they are going to spray." Harris runs the Honey Bee Extension and Research Program for Mississippi State University and is active in research on bees and how to best protect them from pesticides. "Aerial spraying is a tough one," he said. "The recommendations are difficult to follow. While maximum foraging for bees is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the summertime, the bees are already out at dawn, when aerial spraying is recommended. So spraying in the morning is the worst thing they can do for bees." Since the variety of mosquito that carries Zika is most active predawn and at sunset, all spraying must take place at those times. Special precautions are not necessary, Miami-Dade County officials said, though people with allergies may want to remain indoors. During any insecticide operation, it is recommended that beekeepers cover their bees. "When naled gets sprayed, it knocks out the mosquitoes, but if sprayed over water, it breaks down quickly," he said. If the chemicals are rotated and managed properly, an environmental area can recover, Phillips noted.[SEP]MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Aerial insecticide spraying to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus is underway in Miami Beach. A plane carrying the insecticide naled released the spray over the targeted area before dawn Friday. The next round is scheduled for 6 a.m. Sunday. Some residents oppose the spraying, citing the potential for harmful effects. But county officials say the low concentration of naled won’t harm them. “We are concerned that the naled actually has more of a potential risk of creating the problems we are trying to avert than the actual concern with Zika,” area resident Brik Viera said. Local television stations reported that some parents kept their children home from school on Friday because of the spraying. The aerial spraying targets adult mosquitoes; different pesticides for larvae will be sprayed on the ground. The touristy South Beach area of Miami Beach is the second site declared an active zone of Zika transmission by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland. The discovery in August led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to include a section of Miami Beach in a travel warning issued for pregnant women. Earlier in the summer, a travel warning was issued for Miami’s Wynwood arts district, which is popular for day trips. South Beach also became the first place on the mainland where the virus was isolated in mosquito samples, with health authorities reporting last week that three batches of the insects tested positive for Zika. Florida’s agriculture department said Friday that one more batch from the area had tested positive. Statewide, an additional 2,900 batches of more than a dozen insects each have tested negative for the virus, state officials said in a news release. Zika infection can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy. Of Florida’s 56 non-travel-related Zika cases, 11 have been traced to Miami Beach and 29 to Wynwood. The rest are being considered isolated cases and have not prompted authorities to issue warnings of local transmission.[SEP]The Latest: More mosquitoes with Zika in Miami Beach MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on Zika mosquitoes in Miami Beach (all times local): Officials say additional mosquitoes have tested positive for Zika in Miami Beach. This Aug. 4, 2016 photo shows a plane conducts mosquito control aerial spraying over Wynwood area of Miami, Fla., and the surrounding areas in order combat the spread of Zika. Miami-Dade County officials say they're delaying the aerial spraying of an insecticide called naled over South Beach following concerns voiced by residents and local officials. County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a statement Wednesday, Sept. 7 that the spraying to fight the Zika virus scheduled for Thursday morning was moved to Friday morning. Additional sprayings are scheduled for Sunday and the next two weekends. (Logan Riely/Miami Herald via AP) Florida's agriculture department said Friday that one more batch from the area had tested positive. State officials say in a news release that an additional 2,900 batches of more than a dozen insects each have tested negative for the virus statewide. Aerial insecticide spraying to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus is underway in Miami Beach. A plane carrying the insecticide naled released the spray over the Atlantic Ocean before dawn Friday. The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2cL57UF ) quotes Miami-Dade County officials as saying that on-board meteorological equipment was used to measure weather conditions and calculate a flight pattern that would allow the wind to carry the spray over the island. Aerial insecticide spraying to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus is underway in Miami Beach. A plane carrying the insecticide naled released the spray over the Atlantic Ocean before dawn Friday. The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2cL57UF ) quotes Miami-Dade County officials as saying that on-board meteorological equipment was used to measure weather conditions and calculate a flight pattern that would allow the wind to carry the spray over the island. The next round is scheduled for 6 a.m. Sunday. Some residents opposed spraying, citing the potential for harmful effects. But county officials say the low concentration of naled won't harm them. Aerial spraying targets adult mosquitoes; different pesticides for larvae will be sprayed on the ground. Of Florida's 56 non-travel-related Zika cases, 11 are associated with Miami Beach.[SEP]MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Aerial insecticide spraying to combat mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus is underway in Miami Beach. A plane carrying the insecticide naled released the spray over the Atlantic Ocean before dawn Friday. The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2cL57UF ) quotes Miami-Dade County officials as saying that on-board meteorological equipment was used to measure weather conditions and calculate a flight pattern that would allow the wind to carry the spray over the island. The next round is scheduled for 6 a.m. Sunday. Some residents oppose spraying, citing the potential for harmful effects. But county officials say the low concentration of naled won't harm them. "We are concerned that the naled actually has more of a potential risk of creating the problems we are trying to avert than the actual concern with Zika," said area resident Brik Viera. Local television stations reported that some parents kept their children home from school on Friday because of the spraying. Aerial spraying targets adult mosquitoes; different pesticides for larvae will be sprayed on the ground. South Beach is the second site of Zika transmission by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland. The discovery in August led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to include a section of Miami Beach in a travel warning issued for pregnant women. Earlier in the summer, a travel warning was issued for Miami's Wynwood arts district, which is popular for day trips. Zika infection can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy. Of Florida's 56 non-travel-related Zika cases, 11 are associated with Miami Beach.[SEP]The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced Friday that it has detected Zika in another mosquito sample from the same small area in Miami Beach where it was announced on Sept. 1 that three other samples had tested positive for Zika. All samples have consisted of Aedes aeqypti mosquitoes and are from an area where increased trapping and intensified mosquito control measures have already been underway since the Florida Department of Health determined local transmission had occurred. There have been 571 reported cases of travel-acquired Zika cases in Florida so far. There have been 43 cases of locally-acquired infection in the Miami area. For almost six months the U.S. Congress has failed to pass a funding bill needed to speed up research and control of the Zika virus, which causes a severe brain defect in unborn children called microcephaly or “tiny head” syndrome and causes Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults, which can be crippling as well as deadly. There is no vaccine for Zika and no cure. Mosquitoes, sexual contact with someone infected and contact with infected blood can transmit the virus to humans. Some emergency funds from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been released, but the amount needed is not enough and not soon enough to stop the spread so far. There have been 24 sexually transmitted cases reported in the U.S. so far. “The fact that we have identified a fourth Zika-positive mosquito pool in Miami Beach serves as further confirmation that we must continue our proactive and aggressive approach to controlling the mosquito population, including our recent decision to begin aerial spraying in combination with larvicide treatment by truck,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “We will continue to work in close collaboration with the health and environmental experts and the City of Miami Beach to keep our community safe from the Zika virus.” On Friday the US Department of Health and Human Services issued the following update to national Zika statistics: Zika Case Count: As of September 7, there were more than 18,800 confirmed cases of Zika virus in U.S. states and territories. •2,964 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. States and District of Columbia. •15,869 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. territories. Pregnant women with evidence of Zika virus: As of September 1, there were more than 1,750 pregnant women with evidence of Zika virus. •671 pregnant women in U.S. states and District of Columbia. In addition, there have been 38 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome in the U.S. and U.S. territories. For a state-by-state table of Zika cases in the U.S. visit: http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html[SEP]MIAMI (AP) — Business owners are anxious for federal health officials to lift a travel advisory warning pregnant women and their partners to avoid parts of Miami and South Beach that have been identified as zones of active transmission of the Zika virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it could lift its advisory for a 1-square-mile zone encompassing Miami's Wynwood neighborhood on Sept. 19 if no new locally contracted cases are confirmed, The Miami Herald reports (http://hrld.us/2bZrzIO). Business owners and analysts say if Zika infections persist in Miami and a 1.5-square-mile portion of Miami Beach, visitors who have been waiting to make reservations in Miami-Dade County may turn elsewhere. The Wynwood Business Improvement District has asked the city of Miami for money to compensate for Zika's impact. Cancellations since the first local Zika infection was confirmed in Wynwood in late July have forced Felipe Correa to lay off one employee from his company running tours in Miami, Key West and the Everglades. "My Miami tour basically collapsed ... all of my pre-arrival reservations canceled," said Correa. Connecticut resident Coco Lewis decided to move her annual birthday party from South Beach to Las Vegas next month because of Zika. "We don't want to chance it," said Lewis, 23. "It's just too risky." South Florida's luxury real estate market, already slumping because of weak foreign currencies, is reporting cancellations by potential buyers from New York and Europe. "Zika is a deal-breaker for clients who plan to have children," said Senada Adzem of brokerage Douglas Elliman. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has classified all Miami-Dade County as an area of "widespread transmission." The United Kingdom has advised pregnant women to avoid the county for non-essential travel and consider postponing non-essential travel in the rest of Florida. In August, leisure airfare prices fell 17 percent year-over-year at Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, according to an analysis by Harrell Associates. Hotel bookings in greater downtown Miami fell by nearly 3 percent in the first three weeks of August compared to last year, according to data collected by analytics firm Smith Travel Report. It's not clear how much of that decline is attributable to Zika. Zika infection can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy. The mosquito-borne virus also can be sexually transmitted. Of Florida's 56 non-travel-related Zika cases, 11 have been traced to Miami Beach and 29 to Wynwood. The rest are being considered isolated cases and have not prompted authorities to issue warnings of local transmission. Miami-Dade County officials expect to spend an extra $10 million fighting Zika through the summer. The city of Miami approved $247,000 for special events meant to draw customers back to Wynwood. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is surveying local businesses about economic damage related to Zika. Miami Beach officials are hoping to minimize Zika's effect on the local economy. Hotels regularly spray for mosquitoes, and planes fly over the beach with banners reading, "Use insect repellent. No Zika." Critics have been troubled by the release of information about Zika infections by Gov. Rick Scott and state agencies, saying not enough details have been provided about where infections are suspected and that the number of tourists contracting the virus in Florida may be under-reported. Florida's health department told The Miami Herald (http://hrld.us/2c1fOBF) that eight out-of-state residents have contracted Zika in Florida but are not included in the state's total count of local Zika infections. "The department reports cases of Florida residents," spokeswoman Mara Gambineri said. As of Friday, health officials have confirmed 616 travel-related Zika cases statewide, including 84 pregnant women.

Miami Beach authorities begin spraying for the Zika virus despite protests.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Saturday that North Korea’s nuclear capability is expanding fast, echoing alarm around the world over the isolated state’s fifth and biggest nuclear test, carried out in defiance of U.N. sanctions. North Korea conducted the test on Friday and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain. The test showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was unwilling to alter course, and that tougher sanctions and pressure were needed to apply “unbearable pain on the North to leave no choice but to change”, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said. “North Korea’s nuclear capability is growing and speeding to a considerable level, considering the fifth nuclear test was the strongest in scale and the interval has quickened substantially,” Yun told a ministry meeting convened to discuss the test. The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, drew global condemnation. The United States said it would work with partners to impose new sanctions, and called on China to use its influence - as North Korea’s main ally - to pressure Pyongyang to end its nuclear program. In Beijing on Saturday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui told North Korea’s ambassador to China, Ji Jae Ryong, that the test was “not conducive to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula”, China’s Foreign Ministry said. “China urges North Korea not to take any more actions that could exacerbate tensions, and return as soon as possible to the correct direction of denuclearisation,” Zhang said. But Russia was skeptical that more sanctions were the answer, while China was silent on the prospect of a new U.N. Security Council resolution, although state media did carry commentaries criticizing the North. Under 32-year-old leader Kim, North Korea has sped up development of its nuclear and missile programs, despite U.N. sanctions that were tightened in March and have further isolated the impoverished country. Related Coverage Key China border city brushes off latest North Korea nuclear test DENUNCIATION The Security Council denounced North Korea’s decision to carry out the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed for the 15-member body to impose new sanctions. U.S. President Barack Obama said after speaking by telephone with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday that they had agreed to work with the Security Council and other powers to vigorously enforce existing measures and to take “additional significant steps, including new sanctions”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it may take more than additional sanctions to resolve the crisis, suggesting that a Security Council agreement may prove difficult. “It is too early to bury the six-party talks. We should look for ways that would allow us to resume them,” Lavrov said. The talks, aimed at ending the North’s nuclear program, involve the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China, and North Korea, but have been defunct since 2008. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had repeatedly offered talks to North Korea, but Pyongyang had to accept de-nuclearization, which it had refused to do. “We have made overture after overture to the dictator of North Korea,” he said, adding that he ultimately hoped for an outcome similar to that reached in nuclear talks with Iran. China said it was resolutely opposed to the test but Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying would not be drawn on whether China would support tougher sanctions. On Saturday, the Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said North Korea was wrong in thinking that building nuclear weapons would provide it with more security or prestige. A cut-out of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set on fire during an anti-North Korea rally in central Seoul, South Korea, September 10, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji “Owning nuclear weapons won’t ensure North Korea’s political security,” it said in an editorial. “On the contrary, it is poison that is slowly suffocating the country.” “OUT OF CONTROL” South Korea’s Park said late on Friday that Kim was “mentally out of control”, blind to all warnings from the world and neighbors as he sought to maintain power. “The patience of the international community has come to the limit,” she said. North Korea, which calls the South and the United States its main enemies, said its “scientists and technicians carried out a nuclear explosion test for the judgment of the power of a nuclear warhead”, according to its official KCNA news agency. It said the test proved North Korea was capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on a medium-range ballistic missile, which it last tested on Monday when Obama and other world leaders were gathered in China for a G20 summit. Pyongyang’s claims of being able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified. Its continued testing in defiance of sanctions presents a challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the U.S. presidential election in November, and a headache to be inherited by whoever wins. North Korea has been testing different types of missiles at an unprecedented rate this year, and the capability to mount a nuclear warhead would be especially worrisome for its neighbors South Korea and Japan. The Pentagon does not have evidence that North Korea had been able to miniaturize a nuclear weapon, Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross said. But he added: “Given the consequences of getting it wrong, it is prudent for a military planner to plan for the worst.” Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested this was North Korea’s most powerful nuclear test so far, at yield of 20 to 30 kilotonnes. That would make this test larger than the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in World War Two, which had an output of about 15 kilotonnes. Slideshow (24 Images) South Korea’s military put the force of the blast at 10 kilotonnes, which would still be the North’s most powerful blast to date. “The important thing is that, five tests in, they now have a lot of nuclear test experience. They aren’t a backward state any more,” Lewis said.[SEP]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A North Korean TV presenter reads out the news North Korea says it has successfully carried out its fifth nuclear test, in continued defiance of UN resolutions. A 5.3 magnitude tremor had earlier been detected near its nuclear test site. South Korea believes it is the North's biggest-ever test, raising fears it has made significant nuclear advances. South Korean President Park Geun-hye called it an act of "self-destruction" showing the "maniacal recklessness" of leader Kim Jong-un. The US warned of "serious consequences". China's foreign ministry said Beijing was resolutely opposed to the test and urged North Korea to avoid further action that would worsen the situation. North Korea is banned by the UN from any tests of nuclear or missile technology and has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since its first test in 2006. The North said the latest test had been of a "nuclear warhead that has been standardised to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets". Estimates of the explosive yield of the latest blast have varied. South Korea's military said it was about 10 kilotonnes, enough to make it the North's "strongest nuclear test ever". Other experts say initial indications suggest 20 kilotonnes or more. The bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima in 1945 had a yield of about 15 kilotonnes. Image copyright AP Image caption South Korea's military said the test appeared to be the North's biggest yet Ms Park, who is cutting short an overseas visit, said the test was a "grave challenge" to the international community that would "only earn more sanctions and isolation" for North Korea. "Such provocation will further accelerate its path to self-destruction," she said. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country "absolutely cannot condone" any such test and would "protest adamantly" to Pyongyang. "North Korea's nuclear development is becoming a graver threat to Japan's safety and severely undermines the peace and safety of the region and the international community," he said. The White House said President Barack Obama had spoken to both Ms Park and Mr Abe after the latest test. A statement from press secretary Josh Earnest said Mr Obama had "reiterated the unbreakable US commitment to the security of our allies in Asia and around the world". Analysis: Steve Evans, BBC News, Seoul What North Korea's opponents can actually do is problematic. After the fourth test back in January, China agreed to impose tougher UN sanctions. Further and even tougher sanctions are still possible, like blocking the export of fuel oil to North Korea. That would be a drastic step which might halt the economy and cause serious suffering to ordinary people. China and the US are increasingly at odds as China asserts itself in East Asia. China's bottom line is that it does not want the collapse of the regime in Pyongyang if that leads to a chaotic power vacuum, possibly filled by the US and its allies. "The president indicated he would continue to consult our allies and partners in the days ahead to ensure provocative actions from North Korea are met with serious consequences." China's foreign ministry said it would lodge a diplomatic protest. Its statement read: "Today, [North Korea] again conducted a nuclear test despite widespread international opposition - the Chinese government firmly opposes the test." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed "serious concern", adding: "UN Security Council resolutions should be strictly complied with." Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the test was "in clear violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions and in complete disregard of the repeated demands of the international community. It is a deeply troubling and regrettable act". Long-expected test The North often uses nationally important dates as an opportunity to show military strength. Friday is its National Day, on which it celebrates the founding of the current regime. The test was first detected as a 5.3 magnitude earthquake on Friday morning in north-east North Korea, close to its Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site. Image copyright GeoEye Both Japan and China are monitoring radiation levels. The North's last test in January had a yield of about 6-8 kilotonnes. Pyongyang said it was of a hydrogen bomb, which employs nuclear fusion, although many analysts cast doubt on that claim. The North said its latest test meant that it could now produce "at will, and as many as it wants, a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power" for use on ballistic rockets. The North's claims on "miniaturised" nuclear warheads have never been independently confirmed. In recent months the North has conducted a series of ballistic missile launches - some of which reached Japanese waters - and has unleashed a rising tide of aggressive rhetoric, threatening nuclear attacks on its enemies. The North has also been angered by a US and South Korean plan to install an anti-missile defence system in the South and by the allies' massive annual joint military exercises, which are still taking place.[SEP](The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 5.3-magnitude seismic event in North Korea on Friday, near a nuclear test site in the northeastern part of the county. The event at 9:30 a.m. local time had a zero depth. Its epicenter was 11 miles (18 km) east-northeast of Sungjibaegam, North Korea, the USGS said.[SEP]Magnitude of N.Korea seismic event greater than last one - CTBTO agency VIENNA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Preliminary data collected by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) in Vienna indicates that the magnitude of the seismic event detected in North Korea on Friday was greater than a previous one in January, the agency's chief said. CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo told reporters in Vienna that early information indicated a magnitude on Friday of around 5 compared to 4.8 to 4.9 in January. North Korea said on Friday that it had successfully conducted a nuclear explosion test, its fifth and most powerful atomic test to date. (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Dominic Evans)[SEP]U.S., European and Chinese agencies reported that the tremor was recorded at 0030 GMT. The U.S. Geological Survey and European agencies measured the tremor at a magnitude of 5.3. A South Korea government official and the meteorological agency said it was a suspected nuclear test, and Seoul called an emergency meeting of its National Security Council. "Today at around 9:30 a.m., we detected an artificial earthquake wave at magnitude 5.0 in the area of North Korea's Punggye-ri and we are analyzing whether it is a nuclear test," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, referring to the North's nuclear test site. The China Earthquake Networks Center also said the tremor was a suspected explosion. China's environment ministry began emergency radiation monitoring along its borders with North Korea in northeast China, state television reported. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said such a nuclear test could not be tolerated. Japan's foreign minister lodged a protest and Tokyo also sent two military jets to begin measuring for radiation. Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said the highest estimates of seismic magnitude suggested this was the most powerful nuclear test conducted by North Korea so far. He said the seismic magnitude and surface level indicated a blast with a 20- to 30-kilotonne yield. Such a yield would make this test, if confirmed, larger than the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in World War Two and potentially bigger than that dropped on Nagasaki soon after. "That's the largest DPRK test to date, 20-30kt, at least. Not a happy day," Lewis told Reuters, using the North's official title of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The important thing is that five tests in, they now have a lot of nuclear test experience. They aren't a backwards state any more," he said. Initial analysis of North Korea's January test estimated a yield of just 6 kiloton. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the South's military believed the seismic event indicated a blast with a 10-kilotonne yield, still the largest ever conducted by the secretive North. Kune Y. Suh, a nuclear engineering professor at Seoul National University, said the latest test, if confirmed, appeared to be two to three times larger than earlier tests, with a potential yield of more than 10 kiloton. "So North Korea can now show off their nuclear capability proudly," Suh said. Lassina Zerbo, the head of world monitoring agency the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, said the seismic activity registered on Friday was larger than that triggered by the North's test in January. That test was recorded with a magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The White House's National Security Council said it was aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula. "We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners," an NSC statement said. U.S.-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, said in a note late on Thursday that satellite images showed fresh activity at North Korea's Punggye-ri test site. Isolated North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January resulted in tough new U.N. sanctions. It has conducted a series of missile tests since then, including of a submarine-launched missile, in defiance of those resolutions. North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006.[SEP]Japan to consider more sanctions on North Korea after nuclear test TOKYO, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Japan's chief government spokesman said on Friday Tokyo will consider further unilateral sanctions against North Korea after the reclusive North conducted what South Korea said was a nuclear test. South Korean President Park Geun-hye said North Korea had conducted a nuclear test in clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, after a surface-level seismic event with a magnitude of 5.3 was recorded near the North's nuclear test site. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Paul Tait)[SEP]North Korea suspected to have conducted fifth nuclear test SEOUL, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A seismic tremor was recorded in an area around North Korea's known nuclear site on Friday, and was suspected to be the fifth nuclear test by the isolated nation, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. U.S., European and Chinese seismological agencies reported that the tremor was recorded at 0030 GMT at surface level. A South Korean government official said it was a suspected nuclear test, Yonhap reported, and Seoul called for an emergency National Security Council meeting. The China Earthquake Networks Center said the tremor was a suspected explosion. Japan's top government spokesman also said there was a high possibility the seismic event indicated that North Korea had conducted a nuclear test and that relevant ministries had been instructed to gather information. Two months ago, U.S.-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, said satellite images showed a high level of activity at North Korea's nuclear test site, called Punggye-ri. Speculation has intensified that North Korea may conduct a fifth nuclear test after the United States blacklisted its leader, Kim Jong Un, on July 6 for human rights abuses. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, resulting in tough new U.N. sanctions. It has conducted a series of missile tests this year, including a submarine-launched missile. The January test was recorded with a magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. (Reporting by Seoul bureau; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Paul Tait)[SEP](CNN) [Breaking news update, posted at 1:11 a.m. ET] North Korea says a nuclear warhead explosion test was conducted in a nuclear research center located at its northern test site, according to a broadcast from North Korea Television, KCTV. The KCTV presenter said the test showed the nuclear warhead "has been standardized to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets. "That would enable North Korea to "produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power." [Previous story, posted at 12:16 a.m. ET] North Korea conducted a fifth nuclear test Friday, potentially its most powerful yet, South Korean officials said. South Korea condemned the test, saying it was a clear violation of the United Nations Security Council resolution. President Park Geun-hye called Kim Jong Un's regime "fanatically reckless." "The only thing that Kim Jong Un regime can gain from the nuclear tests is stronger sanctions from the international community and its isolation. Such provocation will eventually hasten its path to self-destruction," she said in a statement. The blast had the explosive power of 10 kilotons, almost twice as large as the previous test, said Kim Nam-wook, from South Korea's Meteorological Administration. By comparison, the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons. "We are currently analyzing whether it was a successful test," a South Korean defense ministry official told CNN. A US official told CNN that it looked like a nuclear test but confirmation would be dependent on seismic readings, location of the seismic event and whether it can be matched to an underground test site. Satellite images had shown new activity at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in recent weeks, according to North Korea monitoring site 38North. A small number of mining carts could be seen, as well as a new canopy which was designed to hide activity to the site, analysts said. In January, North Korea claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, a move that was condemned by the UN Security Council and led to punitive sanctions on the North Korean regime. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Friday that if North Korea had conducted another nuclear test it was "absolutely unacceptable." "We must lodge a strong protest," he said. Concern has been growing that North Korea is testing weapons at an unprecedented pace this year, said CNN Seoul correspondent Paula Hancocks. Sanctions, including ones targeting Kim Jong Un personally, have had little effect. Philip Yun, executive director of Ploughshares Fund, a group that advocates nuclear disarmament, said that North Korea had become "increasingly aggressive." "The reason is because the international community is not taking it seriously. There's no prospect right now for any talks or negotiations. This will only escalate the situation," he said. Earlier, the U.S. Geological Survey reported a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in North Korea, but later termed it an explosion. The South Korea Meteorological Administration measured the quake as magnitude 5.0 but said it believed it was artificial.[SEP]U.S., European and Chinese seismological agencies reported that the tremor was recorded at 0030 GMT at surface level. A South Korean government official said it was a suspected nuclear test, Yonhap reported, and Seoul called for an emergency National Security Council meeting. The China Earthquake Networks Center said the tremor was a suspected explosion. Japan's top government spokesman also said there was a high possibility the seismic event indicated that North Korea had conducted a nuclear test and that relevant ministries had been instructed to gather information. Two months ago, U.S.-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, said satellite images showed a high level of activity at North Korea's nuclear test site, called Punggye-ri. Speculation has intensified that North Korea may conduct a fifth nuclear test after the United States blacklisted its leader, Kim Jong Un, on July 6 for human rights abuses. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, resulting in tough new U.N. sanctions. It has conducted a series of missile tests this year, including a submarine-launched missile. The January test was recorded with a magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006.[SEP]SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The Latest on North Korea's nuclear test (all times local): China has condemned North Korea's fifth nuclear test, a key denunciation for Pyongyang by its economic lifeline and only major ally. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday criticizing North Korea for carrying out a test with "disregard" for international objections. The statement said China "resolutely opposes" the test and called on North Korea to stop any behavior that "worsens the situation." North Korea said Friday that it had detonated a warhead, hours after South Korean officials said they had detected seismic activity near a known nuclear test site. China has provided cover to North Korea from worldwide denunciations of its nuclear program. But it toughened its line after Pyongyang carried out long-range missile tests earlier this year, restricting exports of jet fuel into the country and banning some mineral imports. The statement did not indicate whether China would take any immediate action or support new sanctions. President Barack Obama has been briefed about the report of seismic activity near a nuclear facility in North Korea. South Korean officials say it was indeed a nuclear test, the fifth by the North. Obama returned to Washington from a trip to Asia just before 1 a.m. EDT Friday. His press secretary, Josh Earnest, says Obama received the briefing aboard Air Force One from his national security adviser, Susan Rice. Earnest says Obama also consulted with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan in separate phone calls. Earnest says Obama reiterated the unbreakable U.S. commitment to the security of America's allies in Asia and around the world. The spokesman says Obama indicated he would continue to consult America's allies and partners in the days ahead "to ensure provocative actions from North Korea are met with serious consequences." The spokesman for the State Department, John Kirby, says Secretary of State John Kerry has been briefed on the matter and that officials are monitoring and assessing the situation. North Korea's state TV says Friday's nuclear test "examined and confirmed" specific features of a nuclear warhead designed to be mounted on ballistic missiles. It says there was no radioactive leakage or adverse environmental impact caused by the test. North Korea says the test shows the country is ready to hit back if provoked by enemies including the United States, and that it will continue its efforts to strengthen the quantity and quality of its nuclear weapons. North Korea says it has successfully conducted a nuclear explosion test aimed at examining the power of its nuclear warheads. North Korea's state TV said Friday that the test elevated the country's nuclear arsenal and is part of its response to the international sanctions following its earlier nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in January and February. North Korea says it will continue to take efforts to strengthen the quantity and quality of its nuclear weapons. China says the Ministry of Environmental Protection has activated a contingency plan to begin monitoring radiation levels in provinces bordering North Korea, but says radiation levels are normal. In Japan, meanwhile, two T-4 trainer aircraft took off from Hyakuri Air Base northeast of Tokyo, carrying a special container to collect air samples for analysis of possible radioactive materials. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike says Japan's capital city is also testing water samples and monitoring radiation levels in the air to examine possible impact from the North Korean nuclear test. She told reporters: "I will protect the safety of Tokyo residents." South Korea says North Korea on Friday conducted its fifth atomic test, producing its biggest-ever explosive yield, after monitors detected artificial seismic waves from a quake measuring a magnitude 5. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Friday that "there is a possibility that North Korea has forced a nuclear test," citing the temblor showing wave patterns from a non-seismic source. He says: "If North Korea did conduct a nuclear test, it is absolutely not acceptable, and we must lodge a strong protest." Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida also confirmed that Japan Meteorological Agency has detected shaking patterns that are not from a naturally occurred earthquake. The meteorological agency detected a magnitude 5.3 shaking in North Korea, near the country's nulear test facility. NHK says Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority is now analyzing radiation levels at monitoring stations nationwide to see if there is any change. South Korean President Park Geun-hye has strongly condemned North Korea's nuclear test, saying in a statement that it showed the "fanatic recklessness of the Kim Jong Un government as it clings to a nuclear development." Park's office says she spoke in Laos with President Barack Obama about the test Friday morning, but didn't immediately reveal more details. Park says South Korea will employ all available measures to put more pressure on North Korea. A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, Ned Price, says Washington is aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula in the vicinity of a known North Korean nuclear test site. He says: "We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners." South Korea says North Korea on Friday conducted its fifth atomic test, producing its biggest-ever explosive yield, after monitors detected artificial seismic waves from a quake measuring a magnitude 5. The U.S. Geological Survey called the seismic activity an "explosion" on its website.

A 5.3 magnitude seismic event recorded in North Korea is confirmed to be the result of a nuclear weapons test.

The possibility of Irish unity must be considered in Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU, so that both parts of a unified Ireland could be part of the EU, the Taoiseach has told a high-level British-Irish conference. Enda Kenny said that achieving Irish unity, by purely peaceful means and by consent, is a lynchpin of the Good Friday Agreement and of the peace process. “The possibility of unity by consent must be maintained as a valid democratic option into the future,” he told the annual meeting of the British-Irish Association in Oxford. “That means that, if there were democratic consent to Irish unity at some time in the future, there must be a mechanism to ensure that democratic decision can be implemented within the European Union, as was the case in Germany.” The Taoiseach, who raised the prospect of a border poll shortly after the Brexit vote, said he did not believe there should be a border poll now. “There is no convincing evidence to suggest that a majority of the people of Northern Ireland would opt for a change in its constitutional status. There are more urgent issues facing our island than a border poll,” he said. Mr Kenny said that the impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland was an all-island issue and that the Government will soon propose a mechanism to facilitate a “conversation” involving groups and individuals from North and South. All-island dimension The Taoiseach did not refer to an all-Ireland forum on Brexit, an idea rejected by Northern Ireland’s first minister Arlene Foster, but he said there must be some way for the all-island dimension to be discussed. “My Government strongly believes that there is a need for the widest possible conversation on the implications of the referendum result in Ireland, both North and South. It is an all-island issue. There are many organisations and individuals across the island of Ireland who are outside the political establishment but who wish to be heard on this issue. We must give them a real opportunity to participate. This need threaten no one. In fact, it is in the interest of everyone,” he said. Addressing an audience made up of politicians, senior officials and business, academic and cultural figures from Britain and both parts of Ireland, the Taoiseach spoke of the enduring strength of the British-Irish relationship. But he said that Ireland remained committed to the European project and warned against underestimating the difficulty Britain will face in securing a beneficial post-Brexit deal from the EU. “The process of negotiation that will soon be embarked upon will involve a recalibration of all of the mosaic of relationships that make us what we are today. When it is complete, we will have a new set of relationships within the UK, between Britain and Ireland, between North and South on the island of Ireland, and between Britain and a 27-member EU which includes Ireland,” he said. “No one should underestimate the commitment of the 27 EU member states to maintaining the European Union. The EU is the answer to so many historic questions for Europe. Questions that led to bloodshed 100 years ago, and questions that go to the very heart of peace and prosperity in Europe today. “That is why nobody in Britain should think that the negotiations ahead will be easy, or that they can be viewed through a purely economic lens. For the remaining EU members, there are matters of historic and fundamental importance at stake. It will be a hard bargain to strike.”[SEP]If Independent junior minister John Halligan departs from the Government it would not destroy Enda Kenny’s makeshift majority in the Dáil but it would certainly put it on the edge. Under the terms of the agreement with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael must be able to command a majority in the Dáil when Fianna Fáil abstains. This requires the votes of 58 TDs. Fine Gael has 50 TDs of its own. It also has the support of the Independent Alliance TDs – Mr Halligan, Shane Ross, Finian McGrath, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, Seán Canney – and of unaligned Independents Katherine Zappone and Denis Naughten. Of these seven TDs, six are Ministers or junior ministers. Mr Kenny also enjoys the habitual support of the Tipperary TD Michael Lowry – who has said he has an “understanding” with the Government but with whom there is no formal agreement for support – and the Clare TD Michael Harty, who has been appointed chair of the Oireachtas health committee. However, Dr Harty has said he is supporting the Government on a “case-by-case” basis. He voted with the Government on early amendments to the Apple tax motion on Wednesday night, but did not vote with the Government on the final substantive motion. With the support of all of the above, Mr Kenny has 59 votes in the Dáil – the same number he received when he was elected Taoiseach back in May. If Mr Halligan resigns, that falls to 58 – the bare Dáil majority with a Fianna Fáil abstention. It’s no wonder that both Fine Gael and Independent Ministers are on the lookout for additional support. And there are certainly several Independent TDs who have often voted with the Government, some of whom – such as Mattie McGrath and Noel Grealish – were involved in lengthy discussions with Fine Gael after the election but did not ultimately join the Government. Others in Fine Gael speculate that newly Independent TD Stephen Donnelly could join the Government. Any or all of these, however, would surely exact a price for their support. Mr Kenny’s Dáil strength is precarious, to say the least.[SEP]Sir, – The article by David Davis, who tells us that he is “UK secretary of state for exiting the European Union”, is trying to reassure us that Brexit is not a momentous decision with enormous implications for not alone the UK but also the EU and not least for the relationship between the UK and Ireland (“Ireland does not have to choose between the UK and the EU”, Opinion & Analysis, September 8). He seems to think that the Brexit vote will not have a deleterious effect on the billion-euro trade between the two countries on these islands. He is mistaken. He says that under Brexit, “Ireland will not have to choose between having a strong commitment to the EU or the UK”. Any assessment of Brexit that is based on reality would have to conclude that Ireland is being forced to make such a choice. He promises to “strengthen the political and commercial ties” between the two countries. That was already the situation since both countries joined what is now the EU in 1973. Brexit has, however, unilaterally broken up that arrangement. Telling us, in relation to Northern Ireland, that “there will be no return to the borders of the past” is flying in the face of reality. Brexit by definition is a decision to put a border between the UK and the rest of the EU. Otherwise there was no point in voting for it. – Yours, etc,[SEP]Britain should make up its mind on start of Brexit talks - Eurogroup head BRATISLAVA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Britain must make up its mind on the start of formal divorce procedures with the European Union as its economy stands to lose the most from the prolonged uncertainty, the head of euro zone finance ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Friday. EU leaders have pressed Britain to initiate formal exit talks as soon as possible after voters chose to split from the bloc in a referendum in June, although the government plans to take until at least the end of the year to form a negotiating stance. "For the Brexit process, it really is up to the British to make up their minds, in terms of when to start and how to get it on the road," Dijsselbloem told reporters in Bratislava before a meeting of the Eurogroup countries using the euro currency. "I think, in the end, it will be the British economy that is damaged most, which I don't hope for but, I mean, this is my concern." He also said he felt there was a strong political commitment from the EU's remaining 27 members to move forward together. Other ministers said the so-called Brexit would be part of talks that should focus on improving the EU. "We will talk of course ... informally, but all the more intensively, about how to strengthen Europe after the British decision," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said, mentioning higher investment and stronger tax regulation as areas of discussion. Sweden's finance minister, Magdalena Andersson, said Brexit should not be allowed to dominate talks. "We, of course, need a good Brexit both for Britain and the European Union," she said. "But also within the European Union we need to take steps forward to develop the union and not only be hijacked by Brexit." Andersson also said she was worried about signals that Britain could launch new aggressive tax policies to smooth economic bumps, such as lower corporate taxes suggested by former finance minister George Osborne, which she said would make other EU members reluctant over a deal. New British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said on Thursday he was considering whether a fiscal response to Brexit would be appropriate as part of a budget statement due in November. Prime Minister Theresa May has given little away on what she wants when Britain leaves the EU, saying she will not show her hand before Britain triggers Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty to start the exit procedure. That will not happen this year, she says. (Reporting by Jason Hovet and Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Jan Strupczewski and Alison Williams)[SEP]It is “critical” for the Irish bloodstock industry that Brexit does not result in trade barriers between the Republic and UK, according to a leading racehorse auctioneer. Britain is the biggest market for Irish racehorses, with its buyers spending about €150 million a year purchasing thoroughbreds from here. Speaking as horse breeders gear up for number of important sales later this month, Goffs’ chief executive, Henry Beeby, warned that the industry needs as much “free trade and free movement as possible” between the two countries post-Brexit. “It is critical that no barriers go up and that there is free movement of people and horses,” he said. Mr Beeby added that the two countries’ racing and breeding industries are interdependent and barriers would damage both. Goffs, which has operations in both jurisdictions, will run its high profile Orby sale in the last week of this month, where it will offer more than 400 yearlings for sale. Rival Tattersalls Ireland will host a similar auction in Fairyhouse, Co Meath, shortly before. Mr Beeby said sterling’s fall against the euro, sparked by the UK’s vote in June to leave the EU, had not so far hit sales nor prompted Irish vendors to send their horses to be sold at auctions in the UK. “I think that people will go to where the best horses are, and many buyers now do their calculations in dollars in any case,” he said. Irish Thoroughbred Marketing figures show that in 2013 British buyers spent €155 million buying Irish bred racehorses at auction. Just over €205 million worth of horses were sold that year.[SEP]Pub operator Greene King says trading could get tougher on Brexit Sept 9 (Reuters) - Pub operator Greene King Plc said on Friday trading conditions could get tougher following Britain's decision in June to leave the European Union. "While the broader implications remain unclear, a number of recent industry surveys have flagged risks to leisure spend and we are alert to a potentially tougher trading environment ahead," the company said in a statement. The company, which brews ales such as Old Speckled Hen, said like-for-like sales grew by 1.7 percent for the first 18 weeks of the year, helped by European Football Championships and better weather. In June, the company had flagged concerns that Brexit would weigh on consumer spending. Separately, rival J D Wetherspoon Plc said profit before tax for the 52 weeks ended July 24 rose 3.6 percent to 80.6 million pounds ($107.3 million). Wetherspoon, which owns more than 950 pubs across Britain and Ireland, said it currently anticipate a "slightly" improved trading outcome for the current financial year.[SEP]The European Parliament has named Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and arch-foe of eurosceptics across the continent, to represent it in forthcoming Brexit negotiations with London. Verhofstadt, 63, leads the liberal bloc in the legislature, where he has railed against nationalists like Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party, who described the Belgian on Thursday as a “fanatical” federalist who “hates everything we stand for”. Parliament, which announced Verhofstadt’s appointment by a caucus of fellow party leaders, will have a limited role in the detailed negotiations with British Prime Minister Theresa May, once she formally launches the process triggered by the June 23 referendum vote to leave the bloc. But MEPs will have to pass legislation to enact a divorce and possibly other agreements. Verhofstadt was one of a trio of parliamentarians involved in negotiating this year’s pact with May’s predecessor, David Cameron, which offered Britain concessions on EU migration and other rules in a vain bid to persuade its voters to stay. Verhofstadt, who called his appointment an “honour” and said parliament would play a “central role” in any deals with London, has long taken a tough line with the British. But he spoke out after the vote to back Scotland’s pro-independence leader Nicola Sturgeon in her quest for Scots not to be forced out of the EU. A Fleming fluent in English, he has often clashed verbally in the chamber with Farage as well as with Syed Kamall, the pro-Brexit British Conservative leader in parliament. Farage said Verhofstadt would speed Britain’s departure from the bloc but Kamall complained that he had been appointed in a “back room” deal and called for an open vote in the legislature. There is little love lost between the Belgian and the Conservatives. When Boris Johnson dropped a bid to lead the party in July, Verhofstadt said he and other “Brexiteers” were “rats fleeing a sinking ship.” Johnson is now foreign minister. The EU parliament is dominated by strongly pro-EU members, who fear that a deal too generous to Britain will reinforce centrifugal forces elsewhere. They will be keen to prevent Brussels and other states allowing Britain to retain full access to EU markets while keeping out European immigrants. Detailed negotiations will be handled by the EU executive, the European Commission. Its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, has appointed Michel Barnier, a French conservative former minister, MEP and EU commissioner, to lead the talks. The other 27 member states must also agree any deals. They will negotiate through the European Council and its president, Donald Tusk. He has named Didier Seeuws, a Belgian diplomat who was once Verhofstadt’s government spokesman, to coordinate the Council’s involvement in the negotiations. While Barnier has been visiting Brussels to prepare for his task, he does not formally start his job until Oct. 1. EU officials say they see little urgency since May says she will not formally notify the Union this year of Britain’s plan to leave, under Article 50 of the EU treaty. Tusk, who met May in London on Thursday for their first official talks, and Juncker, insist there can be no negotiations until that notification — although British and EU officials widely expect some general, informal discussions about how talks will be conducted and on possible outcomes. Tusk told May, who has made Brexit campaigner David Davis her minister responsible for negotiating with Brussels, that the ball was now in Britain’s court. Notification under Article 50 should set a two-year deadline for its departure, either under an agreed treaty or without one, if talks fail to reach a deal.[SEP]Bertie Ahern didn’t know about Apple. “The Revenue Commissioners act within hard walls”, says Bertie. Successive Irish governments were unaware of Apple’s special tax arrangements, according to Mr Ahern, a former Minister for Finance who was taoiseach in 2007 when Apple got its second generous ruling from Revenue. Why not believe him? Governments didn’t know what was going on in the banks either, or in the banking “regulator” or in Nama or in the gardaí or in children’s homes run for the State by the Catholic Church. And no doubt they knew nothing until recently about voracious vulture funds that used charity law to avoid tax. Sometimes you have to wonder if they know what is going on in government. And then there’s the rest of us, who vote for politicians and who maybe do not want to know too much. Irish ministers should get out more – in Chicago for example. The dogs on American streets have long known that we were giving it away. It’s what brings their firms here. One morning two years ago I found myself downtown in the Windy City looking for breakfast. I asked a man in a suit if he knew a good place. He was heading to a great pancake house and he suggested I join him. The tone changed as we walked. He worked for a big Chicago accountancy firm, and had just got back overnight from an audit in San Diego. Maybe he was tired. But when he confirmed that I was Irish he started in on me contemptuously about the “double Irish” tax avoidance scheme, laughing. I pulled on the green jersey, the one they keep wanting you to wear to cover Ireland’s political and corporate embarrassments. Humiliated as a citizen of Ireland abroad, I rolled out the usual lines about everybody being at it, and Ireland being a small, open economy on the edge of Europe that has to fight more powerful states for jobs. In the end I told him I was running late, and bailed out of breakfast with the guy. In February of this year The Irish Times reported that Google had used the strategy known as the “double Irish/ Dutch sandwich” to move €10.7 billion through the Netherlands to Bermuda in 2014, allowing it to earn most of its foreign income tax free You can bet that’s the tip of a corporate iceberg. So what should we do? The Government is scrambling to close some of the more obscene loopholes, such as vulture funds using a Revenue concession for charities that was intended to help the poor and weak. These funds buy up property to rent and make it harder for young couples to own homes. For a century, Irish leaders have been going to America to attract investment to Ireland. Eventually, a combination of incentives and a low corporate tax rate began to pay off. Job numbers rose dramatically and, from 1961, the population began to grow again for the first time since before the Great Famine. That was the deal, and it was worth it. Who relished a return to the depressed economic and social conditions of the 1950s or earlier? If other countries did not like it, then too bad. Our membership of the EEC from 1973 helped us lure US companies. Closest to the United States by air, we spoke the same language and had a pretty decent standard of education. The weather wasn’t great, but the craic made up for it. Yet what made the big difference was profit margins. Then, as capital became more global and mobile, and competition more cut-throat, multinationals could play one country off against another. A race to the tax bottom began. We pushed things too far. Revenue appears to have had a free hand to do deals subject to no effective scrutiny. It is hard to believe that no minister for finance or taoiseach knew, at least in broad outline, what was going on. We elect governments that have failed to monitor swathes of Irish life. It is no intrusion into the privacy of tax returns to demand that the Revenue Commissioners keep us clearly informed about the number and kind of deals they do. Then the public may at least make an informed judgment on whether or not it really pays Ireland to keep chasing foreign direct investment, and can decide if we have any real choice in the matter. Hopefully, given where Brexit may also lead us, it will not boil down to a hard choice between being in the EU or out of it.[SEP]Brexiteers this week hailed a record rise in Britain’s services sector last month as evidence that pre-referendum warnings about the economic cost of Brexit were nothing more than doom-mongering. On closer inspection, the record rise was simply a rebound from the record fall in economic activity immediately after the referendum, but it was enough for a couple of investment banks to rethink their predictions of a post-Brexit recession. Brexit secretary David Davis warned against overconfidence when he addressed the House of Commons on Monday, but he was optimistic about the prospects for negotiating new trade deals after Britain leaves the EU. Davis’s candour got the better of him when he told MPs that it was “improbable” that Britain would remain part of the European single market after Brexit, an assertion that earned him a sharp put-down from Downing Street the following day. Davis shares the confidence of many Brexiteers that Britain will be able to negotiate access to the single market on preferential terms even if it limits immigration from the EU. But a 15-page message from the Japanese government to the UK and the EU this week offered an insight into the pressure foreign investors will exert on British negotiators. For Japanese companies to remain in Britain, the letter said, any post-Brexit deal must maintain the trade in goods with the EU with no burdens of customs duties and procedures; preserve an environment in which services and financial transactions across Europe can be provided and carried out smoothly; and ensure that regulations and standards remain harmonised between the UK and the EU. Theresa May told MPs on Wednesday she would not be rushed into a negotiating position ahead of Brexit talks, but with opinion polls showing most voters expect some controls on EU immigration, it is hard to see how her government can avoid making that a red line. The prime minister has effectively ruled out an “off-the-shelf” option such as Norway’s, which would see the UK staying in the single market after it leaves the EU. So most of the chatter at Westminster points to a departure from the single market, with a view to negotiating “access” to it after Britain leaves the EU. But as a paper published yesterday by former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and former EU commissioner and Goldman Sachs chairman Peter Sutherland points out, securing such a deal is likely to be a long, difficult process. Among the first questions to be answered is whether Britain wants to remain part of the EU customs union after Brexit. Membership of the customs union obliges Britain to impose the EU’s common external tariff, so it cannot conclude any new trade deals until it leaves. “Outside the customs union, all goods exported to and imported from the EU will need to be declared to the customs authorities. This will introduce delays, extra paperwork and costs for British businesses . . . It will also make continental businesses less willing to include UK-produced goods in their supply chains,” Clegg and Sutherland write. “Leaving the EU customs union will require the introduction of new customs controls (a ‘hard border’) between Northern Ireland and the Republic, in order to prevent goods from crossing the Border in contravention of customs checks.” Negotiating a new free trade agreement with the EU, which would have to be ratified by all 27 remaining member states, could take years. And Britain would not be able to strike individual deals with member states, because all trade agreements are negotiated on behalf of the EU as a whole. Clegg and Sutherland pour cold water on the idea of any shortcut, such as dropping tariffs on imports from the EU to zero and challenging the EU to reciprocate. “If we drop tariffs on EU imports to zero we will be obliged to do the same for every other country in the world. That would at a stroke undermine any prospect of securing favourable free trade agreements with third countries . . . we would have squandered our negotiating capital,” they write. Besides, any such arrangement would not address non-tariff barriers, which are so important for British businesses and for foreign companies operating in Britain.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny says that Irish unity must be considered in Brexit talks.

The Crimean peninsula can never be returned to Ukraine, notwithstanding the fact that it was “annexed,” Czech President Milos Zeman said in answering a reader’s question in the Czech newspaper Parlamentni Listy. “[Nikita] Khrushchev committed an unforgivable stupidity and the world’s politicians acknowledge today that Crimea cannot be given back to Ukraine,” Zeman said, referring to the Soviet leader who in 1954 made Crimea part of Ukraine, which was then a part of the Soviet Union. Read more At the same time, the Czech president stressed that he believed Crimea was, indeed, “annexed” by Russia in 2014. “It is doubtless that agreements guaranteeing Ukraine’s territorial integrity were breached,” he said, responding to a question from a reader who argued that Crimea had historically been a part of Russia and was thus just “returned,” and not “annexed.” Zeman had urged the EU to accept the Crimean Republic’s accession into the Russian Federation immediately after it took place in 2014, saying that no one should expect the region’s return to Ukraine in the foreseeable future. He has also repeatedly spoken out against the anti-Russian sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU and US over Crimea and the Ukrainian crisis. Most recently, at the opening ceremony of an annual agricultural fair in Ceske Budejovice in late August, he urged the Czech government to seek ways to lift anti-Russian sanctions, stressing that the US embargo on Cuba had demonstrated that these kinds of measures were ineffective. Zeman was also the only Western leader who came to Russia to attend the 2015 celebrations marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.[SEP]Crimea cannot be returned to Ukraine, Czech president says PRAGUE, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine cannot get back the Crimea peninsula, although Russia took it by annexation, Czech President Milos Zeman was quoted as saying. Russia annexed Crimea, which includes the strategic port of Sevastopol where its Black Sea Fleet has been based, in 2014, prompting the European Union and United States to impose economic and political sanctions on various Russian companies and officials. Zeman has spoken out against the EU sanctions and has regularly expressed pro-Russian views. He was the only Western leader to attend the May 2015 celebrations in Moscow to mark the end of World War Two. "An annexation means breaching international agreements and it is doubtless that agreements guaranteeing Ukraine's territorial integrity were breached," Zeman said in a response to a reader's question published by www.parlamentnilisty.cz. "On the other hand, I agree with you that (Soviet leader Nikita) Khrushchev made an unforgivable silly thing and world's politicians acknowledge today that Crimea cannot be given back to Ukraine," Zeman said. He did not specify who those politicians were. Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1954. The Czech government, which has the main say in the foreign policy of the EU country, has followed the common stance of the bloc regarding the sanctions on Russia. The United States expanded its sanctions over the Crimea annexation on September 1, adding dozens of people and companies, some of them involved in building a multi-billion dollar bridge to link the Russian mainland with the peninsula. This week, Russia has started major military exercise involving the Black Sea and Caspian fleets with 12,500 troops taking part. (Reporting by Robert Muller)[SEP]MARINKA, Ukraine — The gray-bearded officer’s summary of the war in eastern Ukraine is terse with weariness. “We stand in place. We shoot over there, they shoot back from over there,” Mykhailo Gaiduk said. “It’s just burning up time.” The area that Gaiduk calls “over there” is territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists, where a rebel using the nom de guerre of Chester agrees: “Everybody is tired of this pointless war.” A cease-fire signed two years ago was supposed to have ended the fighting. So was a cease-fire last year. A temporary truce called for the beginning of the new school year on Sept. 1 briefly tamped down the fighting — the Ukrainian side reported only one soldier and one rebel were killed Tuesday. But that relative calm is clearly fragile; Ukraine also claimed rebels fired some 90 mortar rounds at troops outside the city of Mariupol, one of the war’s tensest areas. According to United Nations figures, more than 9,500 people have been killed in the fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that began in April 2014, after Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by street protests and Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula. The region, which is also known as Donbass, forms Ukraine’s Russian-speaking industrial heartland and many local residents on both sides of the front line are deeply distrustful of the new Ukrainian government’s Western-leaning policies. However, an all-out war didn’t break out there until after the arrival of a large number of troops and heavy weaponry, chiefly believed to be Russian supplies. Despite the carnage and the weariness of those inflicting it, there’s little expectation it will actually stop anytime soon. Ukraine says it will propose making the start-of-school cease-fire permanent at a meeting of conflict negotiators on Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus. But the word “Minsk” has become nearly synonymous with broken promises and dashed hopes. The Minsk Protocol of September 2014, signed by Ukraine, Russia and rebel representatives, called for an end to the fighting. That agreement frayed so fast that five months later a new round of negotiations — this time including France and Germany — were held in Minsk. Although the agreement coming from that meeting had a firmer grip and saw both sides pull back heavy weaponry from the front lines for a time, other provisions weren’t met; attacks resumed and escalated. Under the Minsk agreements, the two rebel-controlled regions — which call themselves the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics — are to remain part of Ukraine, which disappointed many who sought absorption into Russia or outright independence. But although remaining part of Ukraine, they are to have some powers devolved to them and Ukraine is to conduct regional elections. However, Ukraine says it will not call elections there until it is allowed full return of control of the Ukraine-Russia border, a concession the rebels are unwilling to give. The leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, which relies heavily on support from Russia, says straight out that the stalemate is in his interest. “Time works for us. The Minsk agreement is our great diplomatic victory, the guarantee of our independent status … The Minsk agreement tied Kiev’s hands, and we were given the opportunity to become stronger,” Alexander Zakharchenko recently told journalists. And in a way it may work in Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s interest too, says analyst Vadim Karasyov. “War is profitable for both sides. The separatists make money. And Poroshenko can attribute all the problems of (Ukraine’s) economy to the war,” he said. As awful as the full-scale war was, some on Ukraine’s front lines found it preferable to the seemingly endless grind of today’s smaller clashes. “In 2014, we suffered losses, but we won, we went ahead. We squeezed them, we beat them, they were afraid of us,” said a Ukrainian sniper who gave his name only as Corporal. “Now we’re bearing the same losses, but standing still.”[SEP]Russia has formed a "self-sufficient military group" in Crimea capable of repelling attempts to seize the peninsula, Interfax news agency quoted the Defence Ministry as saying on Friday. The statement was made during the final stage of the Caucasus-2016 large-scale military drills held in Crimea. Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 after months of protests in Kiev ousted pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.[SEP]MOSCOW, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Russia has formed a "self-sufficient military group" in Crimea capable of repelling attempts to seize the peninsula, Interfax news agency quoted the Defence Ministry as saying on Friday. The statement was made during the final stage of the Caucasus-2016 large-scale military drills held in Crimea. Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 after months of protests in Kiev ousted pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Christian Lowe)

Czech President Milos Zeman says in an interview that the Crimean peninsula can never be returned to Ukraine, notwithstanding the fact that it was de facto annexed by Russia.

Congress on Friday approved a bill that would allow the victims of 9/11 to sue the government of Saudi Arabia – putting lawmakers on a collision course with the White House. The House passed the legislation by voice vote on Friday, months after the Senate OK'd the measure back in May. The bill heads soon to President Obama's desk, testing whether the White House will follow through on warnings that the president could veto. The administration for months has argued the legislation could harm the country’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and put U.S. officials stationed overseas in jeopardy. But Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said the U.S. government should be more concerned about the families of the victims than "diplomatic niceties." The bill would give victims’ families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed thousands of Americans in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Poe said he doesn't know if the Saudi government had a role in the attacks. "That's for a jury of Americans to decide," he said. The vote was held ahead of the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks. Following Friday’s vote, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the authors of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, said he was “pleased” the House had “taken this huge step forward towards justice” and said he hoped the Obama administration would not veto the bill. “There are always diplomatic considerations that get in the way of justice, but if a court proves the Saudis were complicit in 9/11, they should be held accountable,” Schumer said in a written statement. “If they’ve done nothing wrong, they have nothing to worry about.” Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, has voiced strong objections to the legislation. The White House also has cautioned that if the door is opened for U.S. citizens to take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States. Votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto. Friday’s House vote comes two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11 that reignited speculation over links at least a few of the attackers had to Saudis, including government officials. The allegations were never substantiated by later U.S. investigations into the terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the legislation is enacted. But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir denied in May that the kingdom made any threats over the bill. He said Riyadh had warned that investor confidence in the U.S. would shrink if the bill became law. "In fact what they (Congress) are doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities, which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle," Al-Jubeir said. Right before Friday’s vote, House members from both parties briefly adjourned to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., led a moment of silence on the Capitol steps, and lawmakers sang "God Bless America" in remembrance of 9/11, when lawmakers gathered in the same location to sing the song immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington. The Associated Press contributed to this report.[SEP]WASHINGTON — Approval of a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia puts Congress on a collision course with President Barack Obama on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The House passed the legislation Friday by voice vote, about four months after the measure cleared the Senate despite vehement objections from Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. The White House has signaled Obama would veto the legislation over the potential for the measure to backfire. The Obama administration cautions that if U.S. citizens can take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States. There also is apprehension the bill would undermine a longstanding yet strained relationship with a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East. Votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia, which was preparing for the annual hajj pilgrimage beginning Saturday. The legislation gives victims’ families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed thousands in New York, the Washington, D.C., area and Pennsylvania. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said the U.S. government should be more concerned about the families of the victims than “diplomatic niceties.” Poe said he doesn’t know if the Saudi government had a role in the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people. “That’s for a jury of Americans to decide,” Poe said. The vote came after House members from both parties briefly adjourned to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., led a moment of silence on the Capitol steps, and lawmakers sang “God Bless America” in remembrance of 9/11, when lawmakers gathered in the same location to sing the song immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the legislation is enacted. But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir denied in May that the kingdom made any threats over the bill. He said Riyadh had warned that investor confidence in the U.S. would shrink if the bill became law. “In fact what they (Congress) are doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities, which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle,” Al-Jubeir said. The House vote came two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11 that reignited speculation over links at least a few of the attackers had to Saudis, including government officials. The allegations were never substantiated by later U.S. investigations into the terrorist attacks. Brian McGlinchey, director of advocacy website 28pages.org, said making the documents public “strengthened the resolve of 9/11 families and other advocates of justice to bring about the enactment” of the bill. A decision by Obama to veto legislation “that would give 9/11 families their well-deserved day in court would truly stain his legacy,” McGlinchey said. In a separate development, a bipartisan group of senators announced Thursday that they’ve introduced a joint resolution of disapproval to block the Obama administration’s proposed sale of more than $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cited Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record and the kingdom’s role in Yemen’s civil war. The war is pitting Yemen’s internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015. “Selling $1.15 billion in tanks, guns, ammunition, and more to a country with a poor human rights record embroiled in a bitter war is a recipe for disaster and an escalation of an ongoing arms race in the region,” Paul said.[SEP]Congress sent President Barack Obama a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, putting lawmakers on a collision course with the White House on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The House passed the legislation Friday by voice vote, about four months after the measure cleared the Senate despite vehement objections from Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. The legislation gives victims’ families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed thousands in New York, the Washington, D.C., area and Pennsylvania. The White House has signaled Obama would veto the legislation over the potential for it to backfire and apprehension about undermining a longstanding yet strained relationship with a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East. The Obama administration has warned that if U.S. citizens can take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States. Votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said the U.S. government should be more concerned about the families of the victims than “diplomatic niceties.” Poe said he doesn’t know if the Saudi government had a role in the Sept. 11 attacks. “That’s for a jury of Americans to decide,” Poe said. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia. The timing of the vote could be seen as an additional slap at the kingdom, which was preparing for the annual hajj pilgrimage beginning Saturday. But a sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said lawmakers were focused only on the symbolism of bringing the bill to the floor as close to the 15th anniversary as possible. The bill’s proponents disputed the argument that there will be a boomerang effect if the measure is signed into law. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., another sponsor, said foreign governments cannot look the other way if terrorist activities are being plotted or launched from their countries. Terry Strada, national head of 9/11 Families United For Justice Against Terrorism, dismissed fears the U.S. could be the target of lawsuits. “If we’re not funding terrorist organizations and killing people, then we don’t have anything to worry about,” she said. The vote came after House members from both parties briefly adjourned to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks. House Speaker Paul Ryan led a moment of silence on the Capitol steps, and lawmakers sang “God Bless America” in remembrance of 9/11, when lawmakers gathered in the same location to sing the song immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the legislation is enacted. But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir denied in May that the kingdom made any threats over the bill. He said Riyadh had warned that investor confidence in the U.S. would shrink if the bill became law. “In fact what they (Congress) are doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities, which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle,” Al-Jubeir said. The House vote came two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11 that reignited speculation over links at least a few of the attackers had to Saudis, including government officials. The allegations were never substantiated by later U.S. investigations into the terrorist attacks. Brian McGlinchey, director of advocacy website 28pages.org, said making the documents public “strengthened the resolve of 9/11 families and other advocates of justice to bring about the enactment” of the bill. A decision by Obama to veto legislation “that would give 9/11 families their well-deserved day in court would truly stain his legacy,” McGlinchey said. In a separate development, a bipartisan group of senators are seeking to block the Obama administration’s proposed sale of more than $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cited Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record and the kingdom’s role in Yemen’s civil war. The war is pitting Yemen’s internationally recognised government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015.[SEP]WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The White House on Friday reiterated that President Barack Obama would veto a bill that would allow the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia's government for damages. The House of Representatives was expected to vote on the bill on Friday. The Senate passed it unanimously in May. "We are in the same place we were the last time," the White House official said on Friday. Both Obama and a White House spokesman said in April the president would veto the bill. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Bernadette Baum)[SEP]U.S. House votes to allow Sept. 11 families to sue Saudi Arabia WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation by voice vote on Friday that would allow the families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Saudi Arabia's government for damages, despite the White House's threat to veto the measure. The U.S. Senate passed the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act," or JASTA, unanimously in May. Opponents of the bill said it could strain relations with Saudi Arabia and lead to retaliatory laws targeting U.S. citizens or corporations in other countries. The vote's timing was symbolic, passing two days before the 15th anniversary of the hijacked-plane attacks on New York and Washington. Its passage was greeted with cheers and applause in the House chamber. The White House on Friday reiterated that President Barack Obama would veto the bill. If Obama carries out his veto threat and the required two-thirds of both the Republican-majority House and Senate still support the bill, it would be the first time since Obama's presidency began in 2009 that Congress had overridden a veto. The House passed the measure by voice, without recorded individual votes, which is not technically considered unanimous. That could make it easier for Obama's fellow Democrats to uphold his veto later without officially changing their positions. (Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Grant McCool)[SEP]WASHINGTON — Congress sent President Barack Obama a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, putting lawmakers on a collision course with the White House on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The House passed the legislation Friday by a voice vote, about four months after the measure cleared the Senate despite vehement objections from Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. The legislation gives victims' families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed thousands in New York, the Washington, D.C., area and Pennsylvania. The White House has signaled Obama would veto the legislation over the potential for it to backfire and apprehension about undermining a longstanding yet strained relationship with a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East. The Obama administration has warned that if U.S. citizens can take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States. Votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said the U.S. government should be more concerned about the families of the victims than "diplomatic niceties." Poe said he doesn't know if the Saudi government had a role in the Sept. 11 attacks. "That's for a jury of Americans to decide," Poe said. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.[SEP]US House allows 9/11 victims to sue Saudi, bill heads to Obama The House of Representatives passed legislation Friday that would allow victims of the 9/11 attacks and their relatives sue foreign governments suspected of backing acts of terrorism against the United States. The bill -- approved in the House by a voice vote some four months after its Senate passage -- is strongly opposed by the government of Saudi Arabia, the home nation of 15 of the 19 hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks. It now heads to President Barack Obama's desk, just days before the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The White House has signaled its opposition to the measure. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi join members of the House of Representatives on the steps of the US Capitol for a ceremony marking the anniversary of the September 11th attacks ©Win McNamee (Getty/AFP)[SEP]WASHINGTON -- Congress sent President Barack Obama a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11, 2001, victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, putting lawmakers on a collision course with the White House on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The House passed the legislation Friday by voice vote, about four months after the measure cleared the Senate despite vehement objections from Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. The legislation gives victims' families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed thousands in New York, the Washington, D.C., area and Pennsylvania. The measure was never debated on the House or Senate floors. The White House has signaled that Obama would veto the legislation over the potential for it to backfire and apprehension about undermining a long-standing yet strained relationship with a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East. The Obama administration has warned that if U.S. citizens can take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States. Votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said the U.S. government should be more concerned about the families of the victims than "diplomatic niceties." Poe said he doesn't know whether the Saudi government had a role in the 9/11 attacks. "That's for a jury of Americans to decide," Poe said. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia. The timing of the vote could be seen as an additional slap at the kingdom, which was preparing for the annual hajj pilgrimage beginning today. But a sponsor of the bill, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said lawmakers were focused only on the symbolism of bringing the bill to the floor as close to the 15th anniversary as possible. "The families have been asking for this for over a decade," said Terry Strada, whose husband, Thomas Strada, was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center towers, and has long lobbied Congress on the issue. "We don't feel this is fast-track in any way, shape or form." Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, both Democrats, called on Obama to sign the bill. "If Saudi Arabia had no involvement with the attacks, it has nothing to fear from litigation," they wrote in a letter Friday. The bill's proponents disputed the argument that there will be a boomerang effect if the measure is signed into law. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., another sponsor, said foreign governments cannot look the other way if terrorist activities are being plotted or launched from their countries. Terry Strada, national head of 9/11 Families United For Justice Against Terrorism, dismissed fears that the U.S. could be the target of lawsuits. "If we're not funding terrorist organizations and killing people, then we don't have anything to worry about," she said. But French Parliament member Pierre Lellouche, who serves as chairman of France's equivalent of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would pursue legislation that would permit French citizens to sue the United States with cause. "I have sympathy with the notion of hitting those countries which actively support terrorism," Lellouche said Friday. But the U.S. bill "will cause a legal revolution in international law with major political consequences." The vote came after House members from both parties briefly adjourned to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks. House Speaker Paul Ryan led a moment of silence on the Capitol steps, and lawmakers sang "God Bless America" in remembrance of 9/11, when lawmakers gathered in the same location to sing the song immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the legislation is enacted. But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir denied in May that the kingdom made any threats over the bill. He said Riyadh had warned that investor confidence in the U.S. would shrink if the bill became law. "In fact what they [Congress] are doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities, which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle," Al-Jubeir said. Information for this article was contributed by Richard Lardner, Jon Gambrell and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press; and by Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times.[SEP]House to vote on Sept. 11 legislation as veto threat looms WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is slated to vote on a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, setting the stage for a showdown with President Barack Obama on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The Senate passed the bill in May by voice vote despite the strident objections from Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. The White House has signaled Obama would veto the legislation over concerns about exposing Americans overseas to legal risks. If the door is opened for U.S. citizens to take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States, the Obama administration has cautioned. Votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate would be needed to override a veto. FILE - This June 16, 2016, file photo, shows an exterior view of the Capitol Building in Washington. The House is slated to vote Sept. 9 on a bipartisan bill that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, setting the stage for a showdown with President Barack Obama on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the attacks. The Senate passed the bill in May by voice vote despite the strident objections from Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) "We wanted it to come to the floor, symbolically before the 15th anniversary," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the bill's sponsor in the House. "We've been aiming toward that the entire session." The bill set for a House vote Friday gives victims' families the right to sue in U.S. court for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the 2001 attacks that killed thousands in New York, the Washington, D.C., area and Pennsylvania. Terry Strada, national chair for 9/11 Families United For Justice Against Terrorism, disagreed that the bill could backfire as the White House has warned. "If we're not funding terrorist organizations and killing people, then we don't have anything to worry about," she said. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act had triggered a threat from Riyadh to pull billions of dollars from the U.S. economy if the legislation is enacted. But Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir denied in May that the kingdom made any threats over the bill. He said Riyadh had warned that investor confidence in the U.S. would shrink if the bill became law. "In fact what they (Congress) are doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities, which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle," Al-Jubeir said. The House vote will come two months after Congress released 28 declassified pages from a congressional report into 9/11 that reignited speculation over links at least a few of the attackers had to Saudis, including government officials. The allegations were never substantiated by later U.S. investigations into the terrorist attacks. Brian McGlinchey, director of advocacy website 28pages.org, said making the documents public "strengthened the resolve of 9/11 families and other advocates of justice to bring about the enactment" of the bill. A decision by Obama to veto legislation "that would give 9/11 families their well-deserved day in court would truly stain his legacy," McGlinchey said. In a separate development, a bipartisan group of senators announced Thursday that they've introduced a joint resolution of disapproval to block the Obama administration's proposed sale of more than $1 billion worth of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., cited Saudi Arabia's poor human rights record and the kingdom's role in Yemen's civil war. The war is pitting Yemen's internationally recognized government and a Saudi-led coalition against the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president. The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015. "Selling $1.15 billion in tanks, guns, ammunition, and more to a country with a poor human rights record embroiled in a bitter war is a recipe for disaster and an escalation of an ongoing arms race in the region," Paul said.[SEP]WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday that would allow the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia's government for damages, despite the White House's threat to veto the measure. The U.S. Senate in May unanimously passed the "Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act," known as JASTA. The bill's passage in the House by voice vote, two days before the 15th anniversary of the attacks that killed about 3,000 people, was greeted with cheers and applause in the chamber. "We can no longer allow those who injure and kill Americans to hide behind legal loopholes, denying justice to the victims of terrorism," said Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Fifteen of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers who crashed airliners in New York, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania were Saudi nationals. The Saudi government, which strongly denies responsibility, has lobbied against the bill. Opponents of the measure said it could strain relations with Saudi Arabia and lead to retaliatory laws that would allow foreign nationals to sue Americans for alleged involvement in terrorist attacks. The White House on Friday reiterated that President Barack Obama would veto the bill. [nW1N12802E] If Obama carries out that threat and the required two-thirds of both the Republican-majority House and Senate still support the bill, it would be the first time since Obama's presidency began in 2009 that Congress had overridden a veto. The House passed the measure by voice vote, without objections or recorded individual votes. That could make it easier for Obama's fellow Democrats to uphold his veto later without officially changing their positions. JASTA would remove sovereign immunity, preventing lawsuits against governments, for countries found to be involved in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. It also would allow survivors, and relatives of those killed in them to seek damages from other countries. In this case, it would allow suits to proceed in federal court in New York as lawyers try to prove that the Saudis were involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Backers say passage is long overdue. They argue that if Saudi Arabia, or any other government, is innocent of involvement in attacks, they have nothing to fear from the legislation. A member of the French parliament, Pierre Lellouche, said he would consider such legislation in France, and would anticipate it elsewhere, if the final version of JASTA does not include waivers for countries that are U.S. allies and actively involved in fighting terrorism. "It may trigger similar acts all over the place, and then you enter into a 'state of jungle' where everybody sues everybody," Lellouche, who runs a parliamentary committee on international law, told reporters on a conference call on Friday.

The United States Congress passes a law allowing families of the victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. U.S. president Barack Obama threatens to veto it.

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During Najib’s state visit to Bangkok, the Malaysian leader and his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-O-Cha will discuss building a new stretch of fence along a small section of the border, according to Thailand’s defense ministry spokesman. “It is an effort to prevent the smuggling of contraband, human trafficking and increase security,” Major General Kongcheep Tantravanich told Agence-France Presse, adding that the idea is still at an early stage. Muslim insurgents are thought to routinely slip across the border to seek refuge from Thai troops seeking to quell their fight for greater autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state. The insurgency has killed thousands of people, mostly civilians, since the most recent wave of rebellion erupted in 2004. The Malaysian premier’s visit comes amid a flare-up of violence in the region, with three deadly bombings in the past month. While the violence has historically been contained to the southernmost provinces, analysts believe the rebels were also behind a string of bombings that struck Thai tourist towns further north in August. The Thai and Malaysian leaders will discuss ways to advance dialogue with the insurgents, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Malaysia is currently hosting talks between the Thai government and a group that claims to represent the insurgents, with the latest meeting held in Kuala Lumpur last week. However the talks have yet to bear any fruit and the recent uptick in violence suggests the rebel negotiators have little sway over fighters on the ground. In comments published in the Bangkok Post Friday, Najib stressed the two governments’ commitment to fending off terrorism and said Malaysia was “honored to be the facilitator of the peace process.” The two leaders are also looking to increase trade and strengthen economic ties during Najib’s visit.[SEP]Thailand and Malaysia will discuss plans to build a wall along their shared border, Thai officials said on Thursday, a day before Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is set to meet his counterpart in Bangkok. People-trafficking and the smuggling of drugs and weapons are among the transnational crimes that have flourished along the 640km (398 mile) Thai-Malay border, until a crackdown by Thailand last year disrupted regional trafficking routes. Najib is to meet Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on an official visit that will focus on security cooperation and investment. The wall is on the agenda for the meeting, said a Thai foreign ministry official. “It will be on the agenda during Najib’s visit, but it will not be the biggest item on the agenda,” foreign ministry spokesman Chinawut Setawat said at a regional meeting in the Laotian capital of Vientiane. “It is still at the memorandum of understanding phase,” said Colonel Yutthanam Petchmuang, a spokesman for Thailand’s Internal Security Operations Command. Malaysia’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment. Najib’s visit follows three deadly bomb attacks in southern Thailand over the past month, including a wave of bombs in tourist towns in August that Thai police have linked to Muslim separatists operating in the country’s south. The porous Thai-Malay border has also been a site for the smuggling of weapons, drugs and illegal oil. After taking power in a May 2014 coup, Thailand’s junta promised what it called a “zero tolerance” policy of human trafficking and launched a nationwide crackdown on vice and crime. In January 2004, a shadowy separatist insurgency by ethnic Malays resurfaced in Thailand, after simmering for decades. Since then, 6,500 people have been killed, says Deep South Watch, a body that monitors the violence. Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat were once part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate until they were annexed by Thailand in 1909. Two issues in particular have spurred the interest of Malaysia and Thailand in building a border wall, said Srisompop Jitpiromsri, director of Deep South Watch. “The first is to stop the flow of illegal goods, whether it is petrol, drugs or human trafficking,” he said. “The second reason is that insurgents operating in Thailand regularly cross the border and use Malaysia as a safety base.” Yet, it remains unclear how far the wall will reduce crime. “There are still many logistical issues to address before building the wall,” Srisompop said. “It’s a tremendously long area.”[SEP]The leaders of Thailand and Malaysia agreed on Friday to increase intelligence sharing on security and to move forward the possibly of building a border wall to combat transnational terrorism and smuggling. People-trafficking and the smuggling of contraband, including drugs and petrol, have flourished along the Thai-Malay border for years until a crackdown by Thai officials on human traffickers caused some of the routes to shut down last year. Analysts say that separatist insurgents operating in Thailand's deep south use Malaysia as a base to launch and plan their attacks. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters that security remained "a very important matter" for both countries and that there was an agreement to increase intelligence gathering and sharing to apprehend cross-border terrorism. "We both face security issues including the fight against terrorism, human trafficking and illegal smuggling, that is why we need to address these issues seriously," said Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Mr Najib said that both sides had discussed the construction and extension of a border wall with details to be worked out. "The matter is under consideration but we need to determine the physical dimensions of the wall or fence as well as the sharing of the costs," he said. The news comes as France and the UK announced their intention to build a 'Great Wall of Calais' to keep migrants out of the French port and Donald Trump continues to promote his US-Mexico barrier. Mr Najib's visit follows three deadly bomb attacks in southern Thailand over the past month, including a wave of bombings in tourist towns in August which Thai police have linked to Muslim separatists. Analysts say the attacks were carried out by a separatist insurgent group known as Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) after having been left out of peace talks between the Thai government and a separate separatist umbrella group in Malaysia. Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat were once part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate until they were annexed by Thailand in 1909. Since 2004, Muslim separatists operating in the area have waged a bloody insurgency which has claimed more than 6500 lives, according to the Deep South Watch which monitors the conflict.

Elections in Malaysia are to occur in 2017 as efforts to challenge the legitimacy of Najib Razak mount.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption John Kerry: "If this arrangement holds then we will see a significant reduction in violence across Syria" Russia and the US have agreed to co-ordinate air strikes against Islamist militants in Syria, part of a detailed agreement to reduce the violence there. The plan will begin with a "cessation of hostilities" from sunset on Monday. Syrian forces will end combat missions in specified opposition-held areas. Russia and the US will then establish a joint centre to combat jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State (IS). A Syrian opposition coalition has cautiously welcomed the agreement. "We hope this will be the beginning of the end of the civilians' ordeal," said Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the High Negotiations Committee. "We welcome the deal if it is going to be enforced." In other reaction: Turkey welcomed the plan, and said aid needed to reach those in need "from the first day" EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged the UN to "prepare a proposal for political transition" in Syria British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged Russia to "use all its influence" to ensure the Syrian government "delivers on its obligations" Aid access The announcement follows talks in Geneva between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The plan would need both the Assad government and opposition "to meet their obligations", Mr Kerry said. The opposition had indicated it was prepared to comply with the plan, he said, provided the Syrian government "shows it is serious". Mr Lavrov said Russia had informed the Syrian government about the arrangements and the Syrian government was "ready to fulfil them". Mr Kerry said the cessation of hostilities also involved humanitarian access to besieged areas, including Aleppo. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Aleppo: Key battleground in Syria's civil war Seven days after the start of the cessation of hostilities, Russia and the US will establish a "joint implementation centre" to fight IS and another main group, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Jabhat Fateh al-Sham used to be known as the Nusra Front but changed its name in June and announced it was cutting ties with al-Qaeda. Mr Lavrov said the joint implementation centre would allow Russian and US forces to "separate the terrorists from the moderate opposition". "We have agreed on the areas where such co-ordinated strikes would be taking place, and in those areas, on neutral agreement shared by the Syrian government as well, only the Russian and US air force will be functional," he said. But Mr Lavrov added that "the Syrian air force will be functional in other areas, outside those that we have singled out for Russian-American military co-operation". Layers of conflict Image copyright AP By Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East Editor, Damascus Getting a deal was an achievement, given the sour atmosphere between Moscow and Washington. It offers some fragile hope about stopping the slaughter. But there is scepticism about its chances. That is because a lot is going to have to go right, quite quickly, if the agreement is to work. One necessity is President Assad's consent. A week-long ceasefire might be possible, but a political deal to end the war is still out of sight. The Assad regime's survival depends on the Russians, so he will listen to them. But with Russia's help, the Assad regime is looking more robust. So it is hard to see why the president, or his Russian allies, would want him to go. The war in Syria is made up of layers of conflict, which connect up to regional and global rivalries. That makes it very hard to calm, let alone end. Mr Lavrov and Mr Kerry stressed that the plan could pave the way for a political transition. "The plan is more prescriptive and far-reaching than any proposal to date and, if implemented by all sides, could allow political negotiations to take place on Syria's future," Mr Kerry said. The United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, welcomed the agreement and said the UN would exert all efforts to deliver humanitarian aid. 'Apex of horror' Fighting has recently escalated between Syria's army and rebels in eastern Aleppo, where 250,000 people live. On Sunday, Syrian government forces were reported to have recaptured parts of Aleppo which were lost to rebels last month, placing rebel-held districts in the city's east once again under siege. Mr de Mistura warned earlier on Friday that food and water shortages made the situation in Aleppo even more serious, and that fuel supplies could run out within days. UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien told the BBC conditions in Aleppo had become appalling: "Eastern Aleppo is at the apex of horror, where any one of us, if we were there, would find life barely possible, let alone tolerable." The US and Russia support opposite sides in the conflict that began in 2011: Washington backs a coalition of rebel groups it describes as moderate, while Moscow is seen as a key ally of President Assad.[SEP]The United States and Russia hailed a breakthrough deal on Saturday to put Syria’s peace process back on track, including a nationwide truce effective from sundown on Monday, improved humanitarian aid access and joint military targeting of banned Islamist groups. ‘Today, Sergei Lavrov and I, on behalf of our presidents and our countries, call on every Syrian stakeholder to support the plan that the United States and Russia have reached, to … bring this catastrophic conflict to the quickest possible end through a political process,’ US secretary of state John Kerry told a news conference after marathon talks in the Swiss city. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that despite continuing mistrust, the two sides had developed five documents that would revive a failed truce agreed in February and enable military coordination between the US and Russia against militant groups in Syria. Both sides agreed not to release the documents publicly. ‘This all creates the necessary conditions for resumption of the political process, which has been stalling for a long time,’ Lavrov told a news conference. The deal followed talks that stretched late into Friday night and several failed attempts to hammer out a deal over the past two weeks. The announcement on Friday was delayed as Kerry and US negotiators consulted with officials in Washington. ‘The Obama administration, the United States, is going the extra mile here because we believe that Russia, and my colleague (Lavrov), have the ability to press the Assad regime to stop this conflict and to come to the table and make peace,’ he said. Previous efforts to forge agreements to stop the fighting and deliver humanitarian aid to besieged communities in Syria have crumbled within weeks, with the United States accusing Assad’s forces of attacking opposition groups and civilians. Kerry said the ‘bedrock’ of the new deal was an agreement that the Syrian government would not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the banned Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. ‘That should put an end to the barrel bombs, and an end to the indiscriminate bombing, and it has the potential to change the nature of the conflict.’ Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups, supported by the United States and Gulf States, would halt fighting for a while as a confidence building measure. During this time, opposition fighters will have the chance to separate from militant groups in areas, such as Aleppo, where they have become intermingled. If the truce holds from Monday, Russia and the United States will begin seven days of preparatory work to set up a ‘joint implementation centre’, where they will share information to delineate territory controlled by Nusra and opposition groups. Both warring sides would pull back from the strategic Castello Road in Aleppo to create a demilitarised zone, while opposition and government groups would both have to provide safe and unhindered access via Ramouseh in the south of the city. ‘We must go after these terrorists,’ Kerry said. ‘Not indiscriminately, but in a strategic, precise and judicious manner so they cannot continue to use the regime’s indiscriminate bombing to rally people to their hateful crimes.’ All sides in the conflict would need to adhere to the nationwide truce, Kerry added, cautioning opposition fighters that if they did not separate from Nusra they would not be spared from air attacks. ‘This requires halting all attacks, including aerial bombardments, and any attempts to gain additional territory at the expense of the parties to the cessation. It requires unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to all of the besieged and hard-to-reach areas including Aleppo.’ Pentagon and US intelligence officials have spoken out against the idea of closer military cooperation with Russia, in particular the sharing of locations of opposition groups that have fought to topple Assad. US defense secretary Ash Carter, who only days ago delivered a forceful speech in England criticizing Russia, has long been skeptical of Moscow’s intentions in Syria. The Pentagon said in a statement it would carefully monitor the ‘preliminary understanding’ agreed on Friday and cautioned the Assad regime and its backer, Russia, to stick to deal requirements. ‘Those commitments must be fully met before any potential military cooperation can occur,’ Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said. ‘We will be watching closely the implementation of this understanding in the days ahead.’ The United States and Russia have backed opposite sides in Syria’s civil war, with few signs of an end in sight to more than five years of conflict, which killed more than 400,000 people and drove tens of thousands of refugees into Europe. The United Nations said on Friday the Syrian government had effectively stopped aid convoys this month and the besieged city of Aleppo was close to running out of fuel, making the talks even more urgent. The UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, welcomed the announcement, saying in a statement that it had provided ‘clear rules’ for a cessation of hostilities and would allow warring sides to resume political talks on a transition.[SEP]The new U.S.-Russia deal on the Syrian ceasefire could be a game changer in international efforts to end the bloody war in Syria. Or the deal, the product of marathon talks since mid-June between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, could easily unravel as so many previous agreements have. It faces daunting challenges: a gaping lack of trust between Moscow and Washington, unruly and suspicious local proxies, unhappy outside players in Iran and in the Gulf states, a hodgepodge of legal loopholes and lack of viable enforcement mechanisms. Its successful implementation is hard to fathom, but there is no other plan. For the outgoing Obama administration, it is their final attempt at halting the violence in Syria and creating a breathing space for a negotiated political transition before the new administration takes over in January 2017. The goal is to end the attacks on civilians and freeze the war between the regime forces and moderate opposition groups while carrying on with the central U.S. mission in Syria — defeating the Islamic State — a terror group banned in Russia — and Al-Qaeda. The removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, while still a necessary condition for the political transition, is no longer an immediate U.S. objective. For Kerry, it is a diplomatic mission to secure his legacy. For Moscow, the deal offered by the United States is extremely advantageous and meets most of Russia’s political objectives for its one-year-old military intervention in Syria. It is perhaps the last available off-ramp leading to a dignified political exit from the war Russia could not win. The deal satisfies Moscow’s obsession with achieving the international status of an indispensable global player on a par with the United States. It legitimizes its military intervention to save the Assad’s regime as a joint counterterrorism operation with the United States and recognizes Russia’s future role in Syria as a key partner for the incoming U.S. administration. It helps freeze the military situation on the ground that is advantageous to the Syrian regime and its allies, while creating conditions to further weaken the opposition. There is so much for Moscow to love in this deal that it is surprising it took three months to negotiate. The key part of the new agreement is the dual-key arrangement for the U.S.-Russia targeting selection process which would give Washington veto power over Russian air operations in designated areas where the opposition is intermingled with Nusra fighters, while essentially grounding regime planes over much of Syria. The United States will have a considerable amount of say in where, when and how Russia could strike Syria, vetoing the use of dumb bombs, cluster munitions and air-fuel charges. This is the only way to end the indiscriminate bombing of the civilian areas that fueled the recruitment for the extremists. Moscow, in its turn, would also have a veto over potential U.S. strikes on regime and allied targets, like cratering regime’s airfields with stand-off weapons (although Moscow allows Israel to bomb Syria at will). This dual-key arrangement will not affect freedom of air operations over Islamic State-held territory. The renewed Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) — agreed in February, but since largely ignored by all sides — could create sufficient calm for the UN-sponsored political process to restart. The key requirement would be lifting of all sieges and allowing humanitarian aid deliveries to the besieged towns. Ending the siege of eastern Aleppo by the regime forces appears to be a key part of the agreement, with considerable attention paid to the security and logistical arrangements to deliver aid in a safe and secure way without clearing the city of its inhabitants and opposition fighters. The key problem that could undo this U.S.-Russian agreement is the requirement for the vetted opposition groups to distance themselves on the ground from Nusra units which would then be jointly targeted by Russian and U.S. airstrikes. Nusra is locally embedded in northwestern Syria, particularly in the Idlib province, and is on its way to becoming a Sunni version of Hezbollah. For many rebel groups, distancing themselves from Nusra, much less fighting it, is no longer feasible, as this will weaken their front against the regime. Since the agreement does not ban regime or Russian artillery and missiles strikes against the Nusra-infiltrated targets or require their vetting by the United States, it allows Assad to torpedo the CoH seemingly at will if Russia stands by. The success of the deal will largely depend on Moscow’s eagerness to end the fighting and extricate itself from the war on honorable terms by pressuring Assad into freezing the military situation (the last attempt in February-March 2016 failed miserably) and engaging in meaningful political dialogue with the opposition to secure a transfer of power to an inclusive Syrian government. The odds are heavily stacked against the deal, but there is no better way forward.[SEP]US, Russia seal Syria truce, will carry out joint strikes – Deal raises rebel doubts as fighting rages AMMAN/GENEVA: The United States and Russia reached a breakthrough deal early yesterday to try to restore peace in Syria, but air strikes hours later added to rebels’ doubts that any ceasefire could hold. The agreement, by the powers that back opposing sides in the five-year-old war, promises a nationwide truce from sundown tomorrow – the first day of Eid al-Adha, improved access for humanitarian aid and joint military targeting of hardline groups. But hours later, jets bombed a marketplace in rebel-held Idlib in northwestern Syria, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens, according to locals and rescue workers who said they believed the planes to be Russian. Idlib province has endured escalating strikes by Russian jets in recent months, according to international aid workers and residents, destroying scores of hospitals, bakeries and other infrastructure across rebel-held territory. Aleppo was also hit from the air and fighting continued on the ground. The army attacked rebel-held areas, both sides said, pushing to maximize gains before the ceasefire deadline. Ten people were killed by barrel bombs dropped by army helicopters on the besieged rebel-held east of the city, and jets, either Syrian or Russian, bombed rebel-held towns in the northern countryside along important insurgent supply routes, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Insurgents said they were planning a counter-offensive. “The fighting is flaring on all the fronts of southern Aleppo,” rebel spokesman Captain Abdul Salam Abdul Razak said. Razak, of the Nour al-Din al Zinki Brigades, part of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which is backed by the West, said they were studying the peace deal but feared it merely gave the Syrian army a chance to gather forces and pour more Iranian-backed militias into Aleppo. President Bashar Al-Assad’s government made no comment on the peace deal, but Syrian media were broadly positive. Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the “government has approved the agreement, and a cessation of hostilities will begin in Aleppo for humanitarian reasons”. Citing “informed sources”, it said “the entire agreement was reached with the knowledge of the Syrian government”. Syria’s mainstream political opposition, the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said it had not received a copy of the deal and would only react after consulting members. A spokeswoman had earlier welcomed any deal that spared civilian lives but cast doubt on whether Moscow would be able to pressure Damascus to stop indiscriminate bombing. US Secretary of State John Kerry called on all sides to respect the deal, which was finally reached after several failed attempts over recent weeks. “This requires halting all attacks, including aerial bombardments, and any attempts to gain additional territory at the expense of the parties to the cessation. It requires unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to all of the besieged and hard-to-reach areas including Aleppo,” he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that despite continuing mistrust, the two sides had developed five documents that would enable coordination of the fight against terrorism and a revival of Syria’s failed truce. Both sides agreed not to release the documents publicly. “This all creates the necessary conditions for resumption of the political process, which has been stalling for a long time,” Lavrov said. Previous peace efforts have crumbled within weeks, with the United States accusing Assad’s forces of attacking opposition groups and civilians. Kerry said the “bedrock” of the new deal was an agreement that the Syrian government would not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria which recently changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham. Under the new deal, both sides – Russian-backed government forces and rebel groups supported by the US and Gulf states, – are to halt fighting as a confidence building measure. If the truce holds from tomorrow, Russia and the United States will begin seven days of preparatory work to set up a “joint implementation center”, where they will share information to distinguish territory controlled by Nusra from that held by other rebel groups. “We will jointly agree on strikes against terrorists to be carried out by the Russian and American air forces. We have agreed on the zones in which these strikes will be carried out,” said Lavrov. It will be followed by coordinated strikes against Al Nusra rebels and the Islamic State group – if it holds for a week, Lavrov said. “Only the Russian and American air forces will work in these zones,” Lavrov said. For many FSA rebels, the idea of a clear separation from Nusra is problematic because on several fronts they fight together against the army and allied Iranian-backed militias. Fateh al-Sham has also played a major role in trying to end the siege of eastern Aleppo which many rebels say has boosted its popularity, and discussions are ongoing to possibly unify ranks under a broader opposition army. “Fateh al-Sham is a faction present on the ground and it takes part in most of the military operations, and the matter of separating it is not possible, particularly given that there are attempts to merge, within some factions, with Fateh al-Sham,” Fares Al-Bayoush, head of an FSA group called the Northern Division, told Reuters. – Agencies[SEP]Syrian rebels cast doubt on U.S.-Russian deal, says Moscow will keep bombing AMMAN, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Syria's moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels said on Saturday they saw little chance of the new U.S.-Russian peace deal succeeding because Damascus and Moscow would not abide by it. Fares al-Bayoush, head of an FSA group called the Northern Division, said Russia and Damascus had not observed the last agreement, and the chances of the new deal succeeding were the same as the last one. Captain Abdul Salam Abdul Razak, military spokesman for the rebel Nour al-Din al Zinki Brigades, said the deal would only give the Syrian army an chance to gather forces and pour more Iranian-backed militias into the main battles raging in Aleppo.[SEP]AMMAN/GENEVA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The United States and Russia hailed a breakthrough deal early on Saturday to put Syria's peace process back on track, though the war-torn country's rebels said they doubted it would hold and violence raged on in Aleppo. The agreement reached by the powers backing opposing sides in the conflict promised a nationwide truce effective from sundown on Monday, improved humanitarian aid access and joint military targeting of banned Islamist groups. But only hours after it was announced, Syria's army attacked rebel-held areas in the northern city of Aleppo, both sides said, as the military pushed to maximise gains before the ceasefire deadline. Insurgents said they were planning a counter-offensive. "The fighting is flaring on all the fronts of southern Aleppo but the clashes in Amiryah are the heaviest," Captain Abdul Salam Abdul Razak, the military spokesman of the rebel Nour al-Din al Zinki Brigades said. Syria's 5-year civil war has killed thousands in Aleppo, the main focus of clashes between insurgents, including Western-backed rebels, and pro-government forces backed by Russia and Iran. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on all sides to respect the deal, which was reached after marathon talks in Geneva and several failed attempts to hammer out the details in recent weeks. "This requires halting all attacks, including aerial bombardments, and any attempts to gain additional territory at the expense of the parties to the cessation. It requires unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to all of the besieged and hard-to-reach areas including Aleppo," he said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that despite continuing mistrust, the two sides had developed five documents that would enable coordination of the fight against terrorism and a revival of Syria's failed truce in an enhanced form. Both sides agreed not to release the documents publicly. "This all creates the necessary conditions for resumption of the political process, which has been stalling for a long time," Lavrov told a news conference. Previous efforts to forge agreements to stop the fighting and deliver humanitarian aid to besieged communities in Syria have crumbled within weeks, with the United States accusing Assad's forces of attacking opposition groups and civilians. Kerry said the "bedrock" of the new deal was an agreement that the Syrian government would not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the banned Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups, supported by the United States and Gulf States, would halt fighting for a while as a confidence building measure. If the truce holds from Monday, Russia and the United States will begin seven days of preparatory work to set up a "joint implementation centre", where they will share information to delineate territory controlled by Nusra and opposition groups. Both warring sides would pull back from the strategic Castello Road in Aleppo to create a demilitarised zone, while opposition and government groups would both have to provide safe and unhindered access via Ramouseh in the south of the city. Syria's moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels said on Saturday they saw were sceptical the deal would be enforced as Damascus and Moscow had continued bombing their areas under earlier truces. Razak, from the rebel Nour al-Din al Zinki Brigades, said they were studying the deal but it appeared it would only give the Syrian army a chance to gather forces and pour more Iranian-backed militias into the main battles raging in Aleppo. The U.K. based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jets believed to be either Syrian or Russian also hit rebel-held towns in the northern Aleppo countryside including Anadan and Hreitan along important insurgent supply routes. The monitor confirmed reports by residents and activists in rebel-held eastern Aleppo who said Syrian army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on residential civilian areas in several districts with scores injured and at least four civilians killed. Jets believed to be Russian also hit several areas in rebel held Idlib city in northwestern Syria, targeting a busy market with reports of several dead and injured, residents and the monitor said. (Editing by Andrew Heavens)[SEP]Top three obstacles to US-Russia truce deal on Syria The complex Syria ceasefire deal agreed by the US and Russia faces numerous challenges, from the deep mistrust between rebels and regime to the web of actors drawn into the war. After marathon talks, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the deal late Friday in Geneva. It aims to enforce a cessation of hostilities and increased aid access to desperate civilians, and lays the groundwork for joint US-Russia military action against jihadists. Perhaps the most prominent obstacle to the implementation of the deal is deep mistrust between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebel groups. After five years of war, each side is sceptical of the other's willingness to adhere to a ceasefire and previously attempted truces have failed. Most recently, a cessation of hostilities brokered by the US and Russia in February led to a drop in violence on major fronts but frayed several weeks later. Daily bombardment and indiscriminate attacks on civilians resumed, particularly in the battleground northern city of Aleppo. Syria's regime calls all its armed opponents "terrorists", and Lavrov criticised the opposition for issuing "ultimatums, the refusals to cooperate, et cetera" as he announced the new deal Friday. Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute warned rebels "have little faith in a long-term cessation of hostilities holding". Meanwhile, Syria's opposition High Negotiations Committee said Saturday it did not trust the regime to commit to the truce without Russian pressure. "We don't expect the regime to (comply to the deal) of its own free will. We're not counting on the regime at all," said leading HNC member Bassma Kodmani. As part of the deal, opposition groups must separate themselves from the powerful jihadists of the Fateh al-Sham Front, which changed its name from Al-Nusra Front after breaking its ties to Al-Qaeda. To fight off the regime, rebels and Islamist groups have allied themselves with Fateh al-Sham, particularly in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo. The HNC's Kodmani said rebels had been forced to ally with jihadists because of the regime's use of siege tactics, but they would break that alliance if the truce held. "The moderate groups will reorganise and distance themselves from the radical groups. We will do our part," she said. But experts are more doubtful. Lister said rebels had not indicated willingness to break off that alliance, which they see as "a military necessity". "To them, doing so means effectively ceding territory to the regime... It will be hard to change this mindset," he said. Syria's war has seen the country carved out into zones controlled by competing forces: regime, rebels, Kurds and jihadists. But it has also drawn in a myriad of regional and international powers on different sides of the conflict. The deal won support on Saturday from Turkey, which is a key rebel backer but has recently repaired relations with regime ally Russia. But steadfast Assad supporter Iran has yet to react. "Ultimately, I'd argue that we also need Iran's public agreement just as much as anyone else's," Lister wrote. "If Tehran sees this (deal) as moving towards a US-Russian political compromise in Damascus, it may well prove to be an active spoiler." In announcing the agreement, Lavrov conceded there were "a lot of stakeholders involved inside and outside Syria -- all that, of course, did not help us." And Syria's crisis, Kerry said, "is complex for reasons that we all understand -– the number of stakeholders with different agendas, the wounds that have been inflicted by years of fighting, the ideological and sectarian divides, the urban and suburban war zones, the brutality of extremists, and the unhelpful actions of some outside powers."[SEP]A look at details of US-Russia deal on Syria GENEVA (AP) — A look at some of the key points in an "arrangement" announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, aimed at halting fighting in Syria and moving toward a political transition after 5-1/2 years of combat between President Bashar Assad's forces and opposition rebels: WHAT THE ARRANGEMENT SAYS A nationwide cease-fire by Assad's forces and the U.S.-backed opposition is set to begin across Syria at sundown Monday. That sets off a seven-day period that will allow for humanitarian aid and civilian traffic into Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial capital, which has faced a recent onslaught. Fighting forces are to also pull back from the Costello Road, a key thoroughfare and access route into Aleppo, and create a "demilitarized zone" around it. Also Monday, the United States and Russia will begin preparations for the creation of a Joint Implementation Center that will involve information sharing needed to define areas controlled by the radical Nusra Front and opposition groups in areas "of active hostilities." The center is expected to be established a week later, and is to launch a broader effort toward delineating other territories in control of various groups. As part of the arrangement, Russia is expected to keep Syrian air force planes from bombing areas controlled by the opposition. The United States has committed to help weaken the Nusra Front, an extremist group that has intermingled with the U.S.-backed opposition in places. A resumption of political dialogue between the government and opposition under U.N. mediation, which was halted amid an upsurge in fighting in April, will be sought over the longer term. Syria's civil war has killed as many as 500,000 people and sent millions fleeing their homes within Syria and into exile. Kerry said this "new equation" offers an opportunity to find a peaceful solution and reverse the current trend of "creating more terrorists" and more destruction. Kerry said the U.S.-supported opposition and other fighters will be called upon to set themselves apart from the radical Islamic State group and the Nusra Front. Lavrov said through a translator, "The Syrian government has been informed of these arrangements and is ready to fulfill them." HOW THE ARRANGEMENT CAME TOGETHER The Geneva negotiating session lasted more than 13 hours and capped a flurry of meetings between the two diplomats in recent days. Kerry and Lavrov met four times since a previous Geneva meeting on Aug. 26, and Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin discussed the matter at a summit in China. WHAT MAKES THIS DEAL DIFFERENT The United States and Russia, ultimately, are to find themselves fighting together against the Islamic State and Nusra, and embarking on unprecedented information-sharing — aimed at dispelling longstanding mistrust between the two powers over the Syria conflict. Kerry acknowledged "confusion" between Nusra and "legitimate opposition groups" that had led to a "fraying" of a cease-fire that was shepherded earlier this year by the U.S. and Russia and brought a badly-needed, if temporary, respite to Syrian civilians for several weeks.[SEP]The Obama administration is hailing its new initiative with Russia to halt the warfare in Syria as a potential “turning point” in one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history. But the room for doubt that the complex agreement announced early Saturday will work is enormous, hardened by years of broken promises and cynical gambits by the warring parties and their backers. On paper at least, both the U.S. and Russia come away from marathon negotiations with components they demanded. If the agreement takes hold, Washington and Moscow would form a new military alliance laser-focused on Islamic State and Al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups, a cooperation seemingly unthinkable amid the two countries’ tense relations of late. And it would finally spare the people of Syria — especially in the besieged city of Aleppo, where civilians are being killed daily — from steady bomb attacks and provide them with desperately needed sustenance under a temporary cease-fire and the opening of some humanitarian aid routes. But once again, the world’s top diplomats have punted on the fate of Syria’s widely reviled, Russian-backed leader, President Bashar Assad, setting no clear provisions for his removal. That, in turn, leaves questions unanswered as to a permanent solution for the war in Syria, arguably one of the most vexing and tragically handled crises in the outgoing Obama administration. Secretary of State John F. Kerry acknowledged both the make-or-break nature of the violence in Syria and efforts to decrease it, and the inherent difficulties of success. “No one is building this based on trust,” Kerry said at a brief news conference in Geneva in the wee hours Saturday, with his partner in negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at his side. “But let me be clear: Out of all of this complexity there is emerging now a simple choice between war and peace; between human agony and humanitarian relief; between the continued disintegration of an ancient society and the rebirth of a united and modern nation.” Kerry pointed to two key provisions in the agreement that he says can make a difference over past, failed cease-fires. First, the Assad government will be required to suspend aerial attacks by its helicopters and warplanes on civilian areas. Russia must use its influence to guarantee that, and Lavrov said the Syrian government was on board. Second, the U.S. agreed to pressure “moderate” rebel groups opposed to the Syrian government to fully distance themselves from the Front for the Conquest of Syria, formerly known as Al Nusra Front, which the U.S. considers Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria. But that will be extremely difficult. The front’s militiamen work so closely with several of the U.S.-supported rebel groups that they are, as Kerry put it, “marbleized.” They are among some of the toughest fighters in Syria and are widely regarded as the force that was able to partially break the government’s siege on Aleppo. Under the plan, “a cessation of hostilities” is set to take effect at nightfall Monday, which is also the start of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. If the cease-fire is “genuine” and verifiable, Kerry said, U.S.-Russian military cooperation will begin. That would include the sharing of intelligence ahead of bombing runs and joint selection of targets. Critically, neither Kerry nor Lavrov announced the sort of robust, verification protocols that most experts said would be essential. Nor did the diplomats announce any punishment for violating the cease-fire, part of what caused an earlier such agreement in February to break down within weeks. “With no kind of monitoring mechanism, it will be hard to get Russia and the U.S. to agree on who violated. That was the problem in February, in March, in April,” said Robert S. Ford, the last U.S. ambassador to Syria and now a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “Until the combatants and their leaders decide there is more for them in peace than in fighting, this is not sustainable.” U.S. officials, skeptical of both Russia and Syria’s intentions, had wanted a longer period of calm than just one week but evidently relented. Kerry also agreed to move the Front for the Conquest of Syria higher on the list of targets, insisting that was not a concession because it is a dangerous extremist group. Assad has repeatedly used talks and truces to play for time, according to aid workers, diplomats and military analysts. His ostensible acceptance of the cease-fire in February, coupled with Russia’s entry into the war a year ago, helped government forces gain the upper hand in the five-year war that has killed at least half a million people and turned millions more into homeless refugees. They bombed hospitals and used chemical weapons with impunity, medical personnel and human rights activists say. If Syria’s intentions cannot be trusted, neither can the Russians, some Obama administration officials contend. Kerry encountered stiff resistance to new cooperation with Russia from Defense Department and intelligence officials. Just three days ago, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter delivered a speech in London that was highly critical of Russia’s “coercion and aggression.” He said Russia’s territorial belligerence and its “unprofessional behavior in the air, in space and in cyberspace” made it an unreliable partner. After the agreement was announced in Geneva, the Pentagon remained cautious. Commitments by the Russian and Syrian governments to abide by a sustained cease-fire “must be fully met before any potential military cooperation can occur,” department spokesman Peter Cook said. “We will be watching closely the implementation of this understanding in the days ahead." Privately, senior U.S. defense officials said they were doubtful about the utility of any deal with the Russian military. "Of course, I'm pessimistic. I mean, they're Russians. How could we trust them?" said one U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. Since the beginning of Russian military involvement in the Syrian conflict a year ago, the Kremlin has angled to collaborate with the United States so they can share intelligence and targeting information.[SEP]BEIRUT: Hezbollah has announced its support for a US-Russia truce deal for Syria, where the Lebanese movement has intervened militarily on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad. In a statement published late Saturday on its official media arm Al-Manar, the group’s unnamed “field commander for Syria operations” said Hezbollah “stands with the ceasefire.” “Syria’s allies are completely committed to what the Syrian leadership, government, and security and political forces have decided in terms of the ceasefire,” the statement said. But it pledged to pursue an “open, relentless war against the terrorists” of the Islamic State group and Al-Nusra Front, which changed its name to Fateh al-Sham Front after renouncing its ties to Al-Qaeda. Hezbollah has dispatched between 5,000 to 8,000 fighters to bolster the beleaguered Syrian army. The new ceasefire, agreed as part of a landmark deal brokered by Russia and the US, is set to begin on Monday at sundown. If the truce holds for one week, the US and Russia could start joint operations against jihadists from the Islamic State group and Fateh al-Sham Front.

The U.S. Obama administration and the Russian Putin administration agree to a Syrian peace deal. The deal is intended to end combat in specified areas and create a joint center of combat to fight ISIL and Al-Nusra Front.

13 dead, 200 injured in Tanzania earthquake: local official At least 13 people were killed and 203 injured in northwest Tanzania when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country Saturday, local authorities told AFP. "The toll has climbed from 11 people dead to 13 and from 192 injured to 203," said Deodatus Kinawilo, District Commissioner for Bukoba, the town close to the epicentre of the quake. "For now, the situation is calm and under control," said Kinawilo, who was reached by telephone. Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity ©Tony Karumba (AFP/File) "Some people have been discharged from hospital," he told AFP. "We don't expect many more injuries. We'll see tomorrow." Residents of Bukoba had said earlier that some houses there had caved in, and Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera province police chief in charge of the Bukoba district, had said "rescue operations are ongoing". The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of the north-western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria, according to the US Geological Survey. Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity. An AFP correspondent in Dar es Salaam whose mother's family lives in Bukoba said 10 family houses had collapsed. "My brother was driving around town, suddenly he heard the ground shaking and people starting running around and buildings collapsing," he said. The quake rattled the entire province of Kagera. Parts of Mwanza region further south also felt the quake but there was no impact, he said. No damage had been reported in the economic capital, Dar es Salaam, which is located some 1,400 kilometres southeast of Bukoba. "It's safe in Dar but we are still worried about the safety of our family," the AFP correspondent added. "The regional hospital is overwhelmed and can't handle any more patients." "Emergency operations are poor and the government isn't saying anything," he said. The earthquake was felt as far away as Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, the US Geological Survey said. "The walls of my home shook as well as the fridge and the cupboards," said an AFP correspondent in the Ugandan capital Kampala.[SEP]Image copyright AP Image caption Major earthquakes are rare in East Africa's Great Rift Valley A magnitude 5.7 earthquake has killed at least 13 people and injured 203 in northern Tanzania, the authorities say. The quake struck close to the border with Uganda and Rwanda near Lake Victoria. Images posted on social media showed significant damage to buildings in Bukoba, a city of more than 70,000 people where most casualties were reported. Tremors were felt as far away as western Kenya. "This incident has caused a lot of damage," Deodatus Kinawila, the district commissioner of Bukoba, told the BBC. "For now, the situation is calm and under control," he said later. Image copyright AP Image caption This boy is one of more than 200 people injured in the quake "Some people have been discharged from hospital," he added. "We don't expect many more injuries." The US Geological Survey says the quake struck at a depth of 10km (six miles) at 15:27 local time on Saturday (12:27 GMT). East Africa's Great Rift Valley runs along a geological fault line but major earthquakes there are rare. A magnitude six quake struck the Tanzanian town of Arusha, east of Bukoba, in July 2007.[SEP]Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity. By Tony Karumba (AFP/File) Dar es Salaam (AFP) - At least 13 people were killed and 203 injured in northwest Tanzania when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the country Saturday, local authorities told AFP.s "The toll has climbed from 11 people dead to 13 and from 192 injured to 203," said Deodatus Kinawilo, District Commissioner for Bukoba, the town close to the epicentre of the quake. "For now, the situation is calm and under control," said Kinawilo, who was reached by telephone. "Some people have been discharged from hospital," he told AFP. "We don't expect many more injuries. We'll see tomorrow." Residents of Bukoba said earlier that some houses there had caved in, and Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera province police chief in charge of the Bukoba district said "rescue operations were ongoing". The earthquake was felt as far as nearby Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, the US Geological Survey said. "The walls of my home shook as well as the fridge and the cupboards," said an AFP correspondent in the Ugandan capital Kampala. The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of the north-western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria. Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity. An AFP correspondent in the Tanzanian capital whose mother's family lives in Bukoba said 10 family houses had collapsed and that the regional hospital was overwhelmed and could not handle any more patients. "My brother was driving around town, suddenly he heard the ground shaking and people starting running around and buildings collapsing," he said. No damage had been reported in the capital, Dar es Salaam, he added.[SEP]Houses damaged following an earthquake measuring 5.7 magnitude which struck Tanzania's northwestern Great Lakes Zone on September 10, 2016. By (AFP) Dar es Salaam (AFP) - At least 16 people died and 253 were injured in a 5.7-magnitude earthquake that struck northwest Tanzania, local authorities said Sunday. As rescuers scrambled to find survivors from the Saturday quake, premier Kassim Majaliwa headed to the worst-hit city, Bukoba, to attend a mourning ceremony at its stadium. President John Magufuli, who is from the region, said he was "deeply saddened." Salum Kijuu, governor of Kagera province where Bukoba is located, told AFP "the current toll is 16 dead, 253 injured, 840 buildings destroyed, including 44 public buildings." He said most of the casualties and damage occurred in Bukoba district itself. A group of 15 boarders at a boys' secondary school was believed to be among the casualties there. The previous toll from local authorities was 14 dead and 200 injured. The quake struck at 1227 GMT in a region near Lake Victoria and the borders of Uganda and Rwanda, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Its epicentre was 23 kilometres (15 miles) east of the northwestern town of Nsunga, in Bukoba district. Bukoba suffered widespread damage, with 270 houses destroyed and electricity disrupted, the Red Cross said in a statement. Its main hospital was stretched to nearly full capacity and had limited stocks of medicine. "Telecommunications have been disrupted and we are trying to get a clear picture of the damage to hospitals and other essential infrastructure," Andreas Sandin, Red Cross operations coordinator in East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, said in a statement. "We ran out immediately, part of my house collapsed," Bukoba resident Jonathan Mbelwa was quoted as saying in Tanzania's Swahili-language Habari Leo newspaper. "Even the old people say they've never seen an earthquake as big as this in these parts," he added. Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity. An AFP correspondent who has relatives in Bukoba said 10 family houses had collapsed. No damage was reported in Tanzania's economic capital, Dar es Salaam, which is located some 1,400 km southeast of Bukoba. "It's safe in Dar but we are still worried about the safety of our family," the AFP correspondent added. "The regional hospital is overwhelmed and can't handle any more patients." The earthquake was felt as far away as Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, the USGS said. "So far, no further damages have been reported in Kenya, and minor damages reported in Uganda," the Red Cross said. But in Rwanda the shaking was felt across the country, with hotel staff and half-dressed visitors seen rushing out of their rooms in the capital, Kigali, when the quake struck. In the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, the president's spokesman, Willy Nyamitwe, tweeted "I just felt an earthquake at 1429".[SEP]An earthquake measuring 5.7 hit Tanzania on Saturday and was felt in nearby Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, the US Geological Survey said, as reports came in of collapsed homes. The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25 kilometres east of the north western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria. There were no immediate reports of casualties but residents of the Tanzanian town of Bukoba, near the epicentre, told AFP some houses there had caved in. In Uganda, the earthquake was most felt in central and the southern parts of the country including the capital Kampala. Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity.[SEP]DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania — A Tanzanian police official says that at least 11 people have died in one town in the 5.7-magnitude earthquake that shook the Lake Victoria region, while the president says that many are dead. Augustine Olomi, regional police commander for Kagera region, said Saturday that the 11 who died were in brick structures in Bukoba. A statement from the Tanzanian president's office says that he was "shocked by reports of the earthquake that caused the death of many people, injury to others and destruction of property." The quake was felt as far as western Kenya and parts of Uganda, which share the waters of Lake Victoria. Tremors were also felt in Kigali, Rwanda.[SEP]At least 11 dead, 100 injured in Tanzania earthquake: police At least 11 people were killed and around 100 injured in Tanzania's Bukoba district when an earthquake hit the country on Saturday, a district police chief told AFP. "We currently have 11 people dead and more than 100 injured, several of whom have been hospitalised... rescue operations are ongoing," Augustine Ollomi, the Kagera province police chief in charge of the Bukoba district said by telephone. Residents of the Tanzanian town of Bukoba, near the epicentre, had earlier told AFP that some houses there had caved in. The earthquake measured 5.7 and was felt in nearby Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, the US Geological Survey said. The epicentre of the 1227 GMT quake was about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of the north-western town of Nsunga on the border of Lake Victoria. "The walls of my home shook as well as the fridge and the cupboards," also said an AFP correspondent in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes region but are almost always of low intensity.[SEP]NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 has shaken Tanzania in East Africa. The U.S. Geological Survey said Saturday that there is a low likelihood of casualties and damage from the quake in the Lake Victoria region whose tremors were felt as far as western Kenya and parts of Uganda, which share the waters of the lake. Tremors were also felt in Kigali, Rwanda. Recent earthquakes in the area have caused secondary hazards such as landslides. The last quake in the region was in 2004 and measured 4.7.[SEP]At least 11 people were killed after an earthquake with a magnitude 5.7 struck the northern part of the country. According to authorities 192 were injured by the earthquake in northern Tanzania. The quake struck close to the border with Uganda and Rwanda near Lake Victoria. Images posted on social media showed significant damage to buildings in Bukoba, a city of more than 70,000 people where most casualties were reported. Tremors were felt as far away as western Kenya. “This incident has caused a lot of damage,” Deodatus Kinawila, the district commissioner of Bukoba, told the BBC. “As we speak now, the number of injuries stands at 192 and 11 dead. Because we are still collecting the information it’s likely to go up. Even the number of injuries is likely to go up.” Rescue workers have told the BBC that local hospitals are full and cannot cope with the number of injured. Buildings have collapsed and people are still trapped underneath the rubble. The US Geological Survey says the quake struck at a depth of 10km (six miles) at 15:27 local time (12:27 GMT). East Africa’s Great Rift Valley runs along a geological fault line but major earthquakes there are rare. A magnitude six quake struck the Tanzanian town of Arusha, east of Bukoba, in July 2007.[SEP]The Tanzanian city of Bukoba suffered widespread damage in the earthquake, with 270 houses demolished and electricity disrupted, the Red Cross said. By Tony Karumba (AFP/File) Dar es Salaam (AFP) - A 5.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Tanzania, close to Lake Victoria and the border with Uganda, has killed at least 14 people and injured 200, local authorities said Sunday. Deodatus Kinawilo, district commissioner for Bukoba, the town close to the epicentre of the quake, said 14 people had been confirmed dead following the quake that struck early afternoon on Saturday. The previous toll from local authorities was 13 dead and 203 injured. A group of 15 boys who were secondary-school boarders in the worst-hit city of Bukoba, which is in Kagera province bordering Uganda and Rwanda, were believed to be among the casualties. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa is to join mourners at the Bukoba stadium later Sunday. The city suffered widespread damage, with 270 houses demolished and electricity disrupted, the Red Cross said in a statement. Bukoba's main hospital was stretched to nearly full capacity and had limited stocks of medicine, the Red Cross said. "Telecommunications have been disrupted and we are trying to get a clear picture of the damage to hospitals and other essential infrastructure," Andreas Sandin, Red Cross operations coordinator in East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, said in a statement. Significant shaking was also felt in parts of nearby Uganda, western Kenya and Rwanda. "So far, no further damages have been reported in Kenya, and minor damages reported in Uganda," the Red Cross said.

A magnitude 5.7 earthquake occurs in northern Tanzania, near Lake Victoria, killing at least 13 people and injuring 200 others. Tanzanian authorities report significant damage in the town of Bukoba. The governments of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda report tremors.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption ABC News footage of the moment President Reagan was shot in March, 1981 John Hinckley Jr, the man who tried to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan, has been released from a psychiatric hospital after 35 years. Mr Reagan and three others were injured in the shooting outside a hotel in Washington in March 1981. Mr Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity but was sent for treatment to a Washington hospital. In July, a judge ruled that Mr Hinckley, now 61, was not a danger to himself or the public. Mr Hinckley had already been spending 17 days a month at his mother's home in Virginia under strict conditions. Associated Press reported that he had arrived at her home having been freed on Saturday. Marking 30 years since Reagan's shooting Life after shooting a US president Image copyright AP Image caption John Hinckley Jr was found not guilty due to his psychiatric problems (file photo from 2003) As part of his release he will: be banned from speaking to the press; have to work three days a week; be allowed to drive no more than 30 miles (48km) from his mother's home, or 50 miles if accompanied; see a psychiatrist two times a month The shooting, just weeks into Ronald Reagan's presidency, shocked the world. Mr Reagan was shot in the lung, but recovered. His press secretary James Brady was shot in the head, suffered brain damage and used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Mr Brady's death in 2014 at the age of 73 was ruled to be a homicide, but no further charges against Hinckley were brought. Two law enforcement officers suffered less serious injuries in the shooting. US District Judge Paul Friedman's judgement points to medical assessments which showed that Mr Hinckley had had "no symptoms of active mental illness" since 1983. He had shot the president in an apparent bid to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had an obsession and whom he had subjected to what would now be termed stalking. John Hinckley Jr's psychiatric history Image copyright AP Image caption John Hinckley Jr (left, seen in 2015) has already been spending a lot of time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia The court order and opinion available on the website of the US District Court for the District of Columbia spell out the terms of Mr Hinckley's release, and detail his psychiatric history and treatment:[SEP]The man who attempted to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan has been freed from a psychiatric hospital after more than 35 years. John Hinckley Jr was discharged on Saturday to live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia. US District Judge Paul L Friedman ruled he no longer poses a danger to himself or others. Local media, including The Washington Post, reported that Hinckley was officially released from St. Elizabeth's on Saturday, the date he was scheduled to be freed. A hospital employee who answered the phone refused to comment on patients to the media. • Horrifying moment dead girl's coffin is reopened after boyfriend hears noises coming from inside her tomb The 61-year-old attempted to assassinate Reagan and shot three others outside the Washington Hilton on March 30, 1981. After his arrest he told police he had tried to kill the President in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster. Doctors have argued for several years Hinckley, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting, is no longer suffering from he mental illness that drove him to carry out the assassination attempt. In late 2003, Hinckley began leaving St. Elizabeth’s hospital for day visits with parents, who now live in Williamsburg. Residents of the town have seemed largely unfazed by the prospect of Hinckley's release, though some have expressed wariness.[SEP]WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — John Hinckley Jr., who shot Ronald Reagan, arrives at mother’s Virginia home after being freed for good from mental hospital.[SEP]NEW YORK, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. was scheduled to be freed from a psychiatric hospital on Saturday, 35 years after he shot U.S. President Ronald Reagan in an attack prompted by a deranged obsession with the actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley, 61, will move in with his elderly mother in a gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he has been making increasingly long furlough visits in recent years under the watchful eyes of the U.S. Secret Service. A federal judge in July ordered Hinckley's release from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, finding that he no longer posed a danger to himself or to others. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a 1982 trial and was diagnosed with depression and psychosis, both of which are now in remission, according to his doctors. Residents of the town have seemed largely unfazed by the prospect of Hinckley's release, though some have expressed wariness. A representative of St. Elizabeth's Hospital could not be reached on Saturday. As a 25-year-old college dropout, Hinckley had grown fixated upon Foster and the Martin Scorsese film "Taxi Driver," in which she played a teenage prostitute. Inspired by the film's main character, who plots to kill a presidential candidate, Hinckley opened fire on Reagan outside a Washington, D.C., hotel on March 30, 1981, in a misguided effort to win Foster's affections. Reagan suffered a punctured lung but recovered quickly. His press secretary, James Brady, was left permanently disabled and eventually died of his injuries in 2014. The shooting left its mark in a number of ways. The Brady shooting helped launch the modern gun control movement, and a 1993 bill named after him imposed background checks and a waiting period. Hinckley's verdict, meanwhile, led several states to rewrite their laws to make insanity defenses more difficult, and the Secret Service toughened its security procedures following the assassination attempt. Hinckley's release has dozens of conditions attached, including a requirement that he work or volunteer at least three days a week, limit his travel, allow law enforcement to track his movements and continue meeting with a psychiatrist. The Reagan family issued a statement in July strongly opposing Hinckley's release. Foster has declined to comment on Hinckley since 1981. (Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)[SEP]The man who shot President Ronald Reagan is scheduled to leave a Washington mental hospital for good on Saturday, more than 35 years after the shooting. A federal judge ruled in late July that the 61-year-old John Hinckley Jr. is not a danger to himself or the public and can live full-time at his mother's home in Williamsburg, Virginia. Hinckley had already been visiting Williamsburg for long stretches at a time and preparing for the full-time transition. He'll have to follow a lot of rules while in Williamsburg, but his longtime lawyer Barry Levine says he thinks Hinckley will be a "citizen about whom we can all be proud." This is what life will look like in Williamsburg for Hinckley: Hinckley will have to work or volunteer at least three days a week. He hasn't yet done paid work in Williamsburg, but he has volunteered at a church and a mental health hospital, where he has worked in the library and in food service. Hinckley will start off living with his elderly mother in her home in the gated community of Kingsmill. The unassuming home is on the 13th hole of a golf course. Hinckley's room has a king-size bed and TV and is decorated with paintings he has done of houses and cats, according to court documents. In the past, he has done chores like cleaning, dishwashing, laundry and leaf-raking. After a year, he may live alone or with roommates. Hinckley will continue to go to therapy while in Williamsburg. For at least the first six months he'll see his psychiatrist twice a month and he'll have to attend weekly group therapy sessions. He'll also see a therapist individually. He'll return to Washington once a month to St. Elizabeths' outpatient department to discuss his mental health and compliance with the conditions of his leave. Hinckley got a driver's license in 2011. The court order in his case lets him drive within 30 miles of Williamsburg by himself, which gets him to Newport News but not Norfolk. He can go up to 50 miles from the city if accompanied by his mom, sibling or a therapist or social worker. He can also drive to and from Washington once a month for his outpatient meetings. Hinckley has long considered himself a musician and an artist. He paints and plays the guitar and has been involved in both as part of his therapy. He'll continue to see a music therapist once a month while in Williamsburg. At court hearings in the case in late 2011 and early 2012, lawyers discussed the fact that Hinckley had recently developed an interest in photography. There are limits to how Hinckley can spend his leisure time. He also can't drink or use illegal drugs. He can surf the web but, at least initially, he's not allowed to search for information about his crimes or victims, among other things. He can't have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn without permission. Once Hinckley lives in Virginia he can register to vote there. Hinckley has expressed an interest in voting in the past and tried unsuccessfully to get a ballot in the 1980s and 1990s. Hinckley's longtime lawyer Barry Levine told a newspaper in early August that he suspects his client will register to vote. Virginia's deadline to register for the November presidential election is Oct. 17. Don't expect to see Hinckley giving any interviews. He's barred from talking to the press.[SEP]John Hinckley, the man who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, was freed from a psychiatric hospital in Washington on Saturday, a report said. Hinckley was released from St. Elizabeths Hospital, the Washington Post reported, citing his lawyer Barry Levine, who had confirmed that his client would leave in the morning, and a witness on the sprawling hospital campus. Phyllis Jones, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Behavioral Health, told AFP that “all discharges planned for today have taken place” but said she could not comment on specific patients. Levine was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP. A federal judge ruled in July that Hinckley, 61, no longer posed a threat to himself or others and would be permitted to live with his 90-year-old mother in her gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia — under a strict set of conditions. Since the 1990s, Hinckley has been permitted gradually longer supervised home visits with his mother, lasting up to 17 days. Secret Service agents have tracked him during each trip. Hinckley, who was declared not guilty on grounds of insanity, said after the March 30, 1981 shooting outside a Washington hotel that he wanted to kill Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster, whom he became obsessed with after watching the film “Taxi Driver.” Reagan’s family and his presidential foundation have consistently opposed Hinckley’s release. Daughter Patti Reagan Davis wrote on her website in 2015 that “I hope the doctors are right when they say that John Hinckley isn’t a danger to anyone, but something in me feels they are wrong.” One thing troubling her, she said, was that while at St. Elizabeths, Hinckley had written to convicted mass murderers Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. But Levine has argued since 2003 that evaluations by the hospital’s officials showed that Hinckley no longer posed any threat. Three other men, including Reagan press secretary James Brady, were badly wounded in Hinckley’s attack. The attempt on Reagan’s life sparked intense debate over gun violence and treatment of the mentally ill. Brady, who was left paralyzed, became a leading advocate for tougher gun controls. When Brady died in 2014, a medical examiner attributed his death to the injuries received 33 years earlier, but no additional charges were filed against Hinckley. The court order places dozens of detailed conditions on Hinckley’s “full-time convalescent leave” from St. Elizabeths, including a ban on contact with Foster, but said they can be phased out after a year to 18 months if he continues to make progress. Hinckley must remain within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of his mother’s home, and cannot travel to any area where a current or former president, vice president or member of Congress is known to be. He must return to St. Elizabeths for monthly monitoring and notify the Secret Service in advance about his intended route of travel. He cannot post any writings or memorabilia on the internet or display them in person without authorization. He also cannot speak to the media. The detailed conditions even include a requirement for monthly music therapy sessions with a board-certified music therapist. St. Elizabeths, Hinckley’s home for most of the past 35 years, opened in 1855, and was the first federally-run psychiatric hospital. Though it once housed as many as 8,000 patients — many of them indigent — the aging facility is being phased out and now holds only a few hundred.[SEP]FILE - In this March 19, 2015 file photo, John Hinckley Jr., left, gets into his mother's car in front of a recreation center in Williamsburg, Va. The man who shot President Ronald Reagan is scheduled to leave a Washington mental hospital for good on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, more than 35 years after the shooting. A federal judge ruled in late July that the 61-year-old Hinckley is not a danger to himself or the public and can live full-time at his mother's home in Williamsburg. (AP Photo/ Steve Helber, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan has been released from a Washington mental hospital for good, more than 35 years after the shooting. A spokeswoman for the District of Columbia's Department of Mental Health said early Saturday that all patients scheduled to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital had been discharged. Hinckley was among those scheduled for discharge. An Associated Press reporter saw a hired car pull into the driveway of the Hinckley home at around 2:30 p.m. Officers from the Kingsmill Police Department chased reporters away. A federal judge ruled in late July that the 61-year-old Hinckley is not a danger to himself or the public and can live full-time at his mother's home in Williamsburg. Hinckley had already been visiting Williamsburg for long stretches at a time and preparing for the full-time transition. He'll have to follow a lot of rules while in Williamsburg, but his longtime lawyer Barry Levine says he thinks Hinckley will be a "citizen about whom we can all be proud." This is what life will look like in Williamsburg for Hinckley: Hinckley will have to work or volunteer at least three days a week. He hasn't yet done paid work in Williamsburg, but he has volunteered at a church and a mental health hospital, where he has worked in the library and in food service. Hinckley's mother lives in the gated community of Kingsmill. The unassuming home is on the 13th hole of a golf course. Hinckley's room has a king-size bed and TV and is decorated with paintings he has done of houses and cats, according to court documents. In the past, he has done chores like cleaning, dishwashing, laundry and leaf-raking. After a year, he may live alone or with roommates. Hinckley will continue to go to therapy while in Williamsburg. For at least the first six months he'll see his psychiatrist twice a month and he'll have to attend weekly group therapy sessions. He'll also see a therapist individually. He'll return to Washington once a month to St. Elizabeths' outpatient department to discuss his mental health and compliance with the conditions of his leave. Hinckley got a driver's license in 2011. The court order in his case lets him drive within 30 miles of Williamsburg by himself, which gets him to Newport News but not Norfolk. He can go up to 50 miles from the city if accompanied by his mom, sibling or a therapist or social worker. He can also drive to and from Washington once a month for his outpatient meetings. Hinckley has long considered himself a musician and an artist. He paints and plays the guitar and has been involved in both as part of his therapy. He'll continue to see a music therapist once a month while in Williamsburg. At court hearings in the case in late 2011 and early 2012, lawyers discussed the fact that Hinckley had recently developed an interest in photography. There are limits to how Hinckley can spend his leisure time. He also can't drink or use illegal drugs. He can surf the web but, at least initially, he's not allowed to search for information about his crimes or victims, among other things. He can't have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn without permission. Hinckley can register to vote in Virginia. He has expressed an interest in voting in the past and tried unsuccessfully to get a ballot in the 1980s and 1990s. Hinckley's lawyer, Barry Levine, told a newspaper in early August that he thinks his client will register to vote. Virginia's deadline to register for the November presidential election is Oct. 17. Don't expect to see Hinckley giving any interviews. He's barred from talking to the press. Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jessicagresko. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jessica-gresko.[SEP]WASHINGTON -- The man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan has been released from a Washington mental hospital for good, more than 35 years after the shooting. A spokesman for the District of Columbia's Department of Mental Health said that all patients scheduled to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital early Saturday had been discharged. John Hinckley Jr. was among those scheduled for discharge. An Associated Press reporter saw a car pull into the driveway of the Hinckley home about 2:30 p.m. Officers from the Kingsmill Police Department chased reporters away. A federal judge ruled in late July that the 61-year-old Hinckley is not a danger to himself or the public and can live full time at his mother's home in Williamsburg, Va. At the time of the shooting, Hinckley was a troubled 25-year-old obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and the movie Taxi Driver. He began stalking Reagan, and on March 30, 1981, shot the president, press secretary James Brady, a U.S. Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer. Brady suffered brain damage and died from his injuries in 2014. The others recovered from their injuries. Hinckley's successful insanity defense before a jury angered many in the country and prompted changes that narrowed the application of that legal strategy. Reagan later forgave Hinckley. Some in Kingsmill, the gated Williamsburg community Hinckley will call home, said forgiveness is beside the point. "It's not a matter of forgiveness but a matter of security," said Joe Mann, a vocal critic of the release who lives about a half-mile from Hinckley's mother. Hinckley had already been visiting Williamsburg for long stretches at a time and preparing for the full-time transition. He'll have to follow a lot of rules while in Williamsburg, but his longtime lawyer Barry Levine said he thinks Hinckley will be a "citizen about whom we can all be proud." In Williamsburg, Hinckley will have to work or volunteer at least three days a week. He hasn't yet done paid work in Williamsburg, but he has volunteered at a church and a mental health hospital, where he has worked in the library and in food service. Hinckley's 90-year-old mother lives in the gated community of Kingsmill. The home is on the 13th hole of a golf course. Hinckley's room has a king-size bed and TV and is decorated with paintings he has done of houses and cats, according to court documents. In the past, he has done chores such as cleaning, dishwashing, laundry and leaf-raking. After a year, he may live alone or with roommates. Hinckley will continue to go to therapy while in Williamsburg. For at least the first six months, he'll see his psychiatrist twice a month and will have to attend weekly group therapy sessions. He'll also see a therapist individually. He'll return to Washington once a month to St. Elizabeths' outpatient department to discuss his mental health and compliance with the conditions of his leave. Hinckley got a driver's license in 2011. The court order in his case lets him drive within 30 miles of Williamsburg by himself, which gets him to Newport News but not Norfolk. He can go up to 50 miles from the city if accompanied by his mother, sibling or a therapist or social worker. He can also drive to and from Washington once a month for his outpatient meetings. Hinckley has long considered himself a musician and an artist. He paints and plays the guitar and has been involved in both as part of his therapy. He'll continue to see a music therapist once a month while in Williamsburg. At court hearings in the case in late 2011 and early 2012, lawyers discussed the fact that Hinckley had recently developed an interest in photography. There are limits to how Hinckley can spend his leisure time. He also can't drink or use illegal drugs. He can surf the Web, but, at least initially, he's not allowed to search for information about his crimes or victims, among other things. He can't have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn without permission. Hinckley can register to vote in Virginia. He has expressed an interest in voting in the past and tried unsuccessfully to get a ballot in the 1980s and 1990s. Levine told a newspaper in early August that he thinks his client will register to vote. Virginia's deadline to register for the November presidential election is Oct. 17. Hinckley is barred from talking to the press. Information for this article was contributed by Jessica Gresko of The Associated Press and by Shawn Boburg and Moriah Balingit of The Washington Post.[SEP]The man who shot President Ronald Reagan is scheduled to leave a Washington mental hospital for good on Saturday, more than 35 years after the shooting. A federal judge ruled in late July that the 61-year-old John Hinckley Jr. is not a danger to himself or the public and can live full—time at his mother’s home in Williamsburg, Virginia. There are limits to how Hinckley can spend his leisure time. He also can’t drink or use illegal drugs. He can surf the web but, at least initially, he’s not allowed to search for information about his crimes or victims, among other things. He can’t have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn without permission. Once Hinckley lives in Virginia he can register to vote there. Hinckley has expressed an interest in voting in the past and tried unsuccessfully to get a ballot in the 1980s and 1990s. Hinckley’s longtime lawyer Barry Levine told a newspaper in early August that he suspects his client will register to vote. Virginia’s deadline to register for the November presidential election is Oct. 17. Don’t expect to see Hinckley giving any interviews. He’s barred from talking to the press.[SEP]A worker at St. Elizabeth's Hospital told CNN he saw Hinckley leave the hospital grounds. Before departing, Hinckley walked around and got into a car with some people wishing him good luck, the worker said. In July, a federal judge decided to grant Hinckley, 61, "full-time convalescent leave" from St. Elizabeth's Hospital. The order allows him to live full time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, but still under certain restrictions. "The very carefully considered decision by the court to release Mr. Hinckley based on the copious evidence by medical professionals and government expert witnesses should give great comfort to a concerned citizenry that the mental health system and the judicial system worked and worked well," Hinckley's longtime lawyer Barry William Levine said in a statement. Reagan shooter to be released from mental hospital Reagan shooter to be released from mental hospital "People of good will should feel good about Mr. Hinckley's recovery and wish him well." Doctors said Hinckley had recovered from the mental illness that drove him to shoot Reagan and three others outside the Washington Hilton in March 1981. , died in 2014 due to injuries from the assassination attempt. , died in 2014 due to injuries from the assassination attempt. James Brady, the White House press secretary hit in the shooting , died in 2014 due to injuries from the assassination attempt. Hinckley has slowly gained some freedoms since he was incarcerated. In 2003, he was allowed day visits with his family, and since then has been granted longer visits and now has been spending about 17 days a month with his mother. He is not allowed to go near any member of the Reagan or Brady families, along with relatives of the Secret Service officer and the D.C. police officer wounded in the 1981 attempt, according to the court order. He also must volunteer or find work.

The District Court for the District of Columbia releases John Hinckley Jr, U.S. President Ronald Reagan's March 1981 would-be assassin, from a psychiatric hospital after 35 years.

Photo: RNZI / Sally Round Photo: RNZI The leaders of Fiji's two opposition parties and a prominent trade unionist remained in police custody on Sunday morning, after they were arrested on Saturday over utterances at a meeting regarding the 2013 constitution in an incident that has alarmed human rights groups. The leader of the National Federation Party, Biman Prasad, and the leader of Sodelpa, Sitiveni Rabuka, were being held, along with the general secretary of the Fiji Council of Trade Unions, Attar Singh, an academic and former politician, Tupeni Baba, and Jone Dakuvula, from the organisation Pacific Dialogue. The leader of the Labour Party Mahendra Chaudhry told RNZ International he was also on his way to speak to police. The police questioning is understood to be over what was said at a public meeting organised by Pacific Dialogue this week regarding the 2013 constitution, which was held without a government permit. The National Federation Party said Professor Prasad's house and the party's headquarters in Suva had been searched by police on Saturday evening. It said a laptop and documents were seized from its offices. Mr Singh's house is also understood to have been searched. RNZ International today interviewed the leader of the Fiji Labour Party, Mahendra Chaudhry, at home in Suva on Sunday afternoon, where he was preparing to go down to the police station for questioning. The former prime minister said he contacted the police because he is a law abiding citizen and heard that they wanted to speak to him. He said the police confirmed they were waiting for him and it was possible he would be at the police station overnight. Mr Chaudhry said he had been invited by Pacific Dialogue to speak in two forums, one on the sugar industry and the other on the country's constitution. Asked if he was acting in solidarity with leaders of other opposition groups who had been arrested, Mr Chaudhry said they were "all in it together". "I was away from Suva, so now that I'm back, I think I should also join the queue." Mr Chaudhry said he would talk to the police "and see what they do". Mr Singh's lawyer, Raman Singh, said the men were being held at different police stations around the capital, Suva, and had not yet been charged. Under Fiji law, police can detain a person without charge for a maximum of 48 hours. Tupou Draunidalo, the president of the National Federation Party, said Professor Prassad remained in good spirits after almost 24-hours in police custody, and had spent Sunday being questioned. Ms Draunidalo said party supporters and family members had formed a vigil outside the police stations in Suva: "Really, today, we just want to show moral support, be there around the police station and check in on him," she said in an interview. "Just to make sure that these gentlemen, who have a reputation of upholding the rule of law, are well and have not been mistreated. That's our concern really, right now." Attar Singh's lawyer, Raman Singh, said his client's questioning related to what was said at the meeting under the provisions of the Public Order Decree, and that Pacific Dialogue's meeting was held without a police permit. In a statement, a police spokesperson, Ana Naisoro, said that officers had taken in "a number" of people regarding "comments uttered" at the discussion. "This is a police process conducted when information is received about possible issues that could affect the safety and security of all Fijians which is why this step is being taken merely to eliminate all doubts and concerns that could stem from speculation," she said. The panelists at the discussion, which Ms Naisoro confirmed did not have a permit, were Professor Prasad, Mr Singh and Mr Dakuvula, as well as an academic, Ganesh Chand, and an economist, Nilesh Lal. But the weekend's events triggered concern among human rights organisations - both in Fiji and internationally - about a possible crackdown on political opposition and a decay in the country's newly re-established democracy. The country held its first elections under a new constitution in 2014, eight years after the then-military commander, Frank Bainimarama, took power in a coup. Mr Bainimarama's Fiji First party won the 2014 election by a landslide. The 2013 constitution was drawn up by Mr Bainimarama's government after it scrapped a draft prepared by a constitutional committee after widespread public consultation. The new constitution had been criticised by opposition politicians and international NGOs, including Amnesty International, for apparent shortfalls on human rights and wide reaching immunities for the former military regime. Prem Singh, an MP for the National Federation Party, who was not at the meeting, said it was unclear how a meeting about this constitution could have jeopardised Fijians' safety and security. He said the response undermined democracy and freedom of assembly. Photo: AFP "This is political persecution," said Mr Singh in an interview. "In a normal democracy you don't have these things just for attending a meeting and conversing with people, trying to find a way forward. As political leaders they have a right to discuss and debate issues of national importance and I think this is a very heavy-handed tactic." The chair of the Fiji Coaltion for Human Rights, Michelle Reddy, said she was deeply troubled by Saturday's events. Ms Reddy said that while it remained unclear exactly why the men had been detained, the restrictions placed on such meetings were of great concern. "It just creates an atmosphere of intimidation and fear, and I think that's exactly a limiting factor because a lot of civil society organisations are going to rethinking about whether they should host an event," said Ms Reddy in an interview. "It definitely is a violation of free speech, and freedom of association as well." Amnesty International also condemned the arrests, calling for all five men to be released immediately. "This is a brazen crackdown on people for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression," said Rafendi Djamin, the NGO's director for South East Asia and the Pacific. "The men appear to have been detained under Fiji's repressive Public Order Amendment Decree which restricts the ability to hold 'public' meetings. There is no evidence to suggest that the event posed any threat to national security. Fijians should be free to openly discuss their supreme law and even criticise without fear of reprisals," he said in a statement. Ms Reddy said the Public Order Decree still remained in place, requiring a permit for public meetings, but many civil society organisations have held discussions without a permit with no repurcussions for years . "Civil Society in general has not applied for permits to convene with other members of the public since the 2012 announcement by the Attorney General. The timing of these arrests is a concern and the further restrictions placed on meetings and events only create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear. The freedom of assembly, freedom of association as well as free of speech are fundamental cornerstones of democracy and rule of law," she said. Tupou Draunidalo said the fact that people could be arrested for discussing the constitution was disgraceful and showed the country's democracy to be a sham. "It's been a sham for the last two years, an absolute sham," she said. "They just do as they please and when the law doesn't suit them they change the law with their majority, and Australia and New Zealand is going along with all that. I really don't know why all of these draconian laws have to continue when we have so-called democracy." Australia and New Zealand have fully restored diplomatic in recent years after Fiji's 2014 elections, which observers said was widely free and fair. New Zealand's foreign minister, Murray McCully, said New Zealand was closely watching events in Fiji and seeking official advice. Mr McCully, who is at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit in Federated States of Micronesia, said he was briefed on events by Fiji's representative there. "Obviously anything that constrains free speech and space for legitimate political debate would be of concern to the New Zealand government," he said. "I've asked him to convey to his government our close interest in how this plays out."[SEP]MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Authorities in Fiji on Saturday detained the leaders of two opposition parties and a senior trade union official after they took part in an event critical of the Pacific island nation’s constitution, an opposition party official said. The leader of the National Federation Party (NFP), Biman Prasad, and a trade unionist, Attar Singh, were taken into custody over their participation in Wednesday’s forum on the 2013 constitution, said an NFP official, Prem Singh. “The arrest is a threat to public assembly and we don’t know why they are being arrested, they are only doing their jobs,” Singh said, but added that no charges had yet been made. In a statement, the Sodelpa opposition party said its leader Sitiveni Rabuka, a former prime minister, had turned himself in to police. Rabuka was involved in two previous coups in 1987 and went on to become prime minister between 1992 and 1999. Police and government officials did not immediately respond to telephone calls from Reuters seeking comment. But a Fiji police spokeswoman, Ana Naisoro, told The Fiji Times that several people were being questioned over comments made at the forum which “could affect the safety and security of all Fijians”. “This step is being taken merely to eliminate all doubts and concerns that could stem from speculation,” Naisoro was quoted as saying by The Fiji Times. Police are also holding a former politician and an official of a non-government body that organized Wednesday’s event, Radio New Zealand said. The event coincided with the tiny nation’s first public holiday for Constitution Day. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the day before the event, Prasad had described the holiday as a “waste of money” and government “propaganda”. “There is nothing much to celebrate about the 2013 constitution, which was opposed to the will of the people,” Prasad said. Prasad’s wife, Rajni Chand Prasad, told Reuters that police had searched their house looking for documents and that police also searched his office and took away a laptop computer. Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama came to power in a bloodless military coup in 2006. He stood down from the military to run as a civilian in the country’s 2014 elections, winning by a landslide.[SEP]Fiji's foreign minister Inoke Kubuabola, filling in for Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama at this weekend's Pacific Islands Forum in Micronesia, confirmed Saturday he has lost his job in a cabinet shake-up. Kubuabola said he was told late Friday he had been moved to the defence and national security portfolios and Bainimarama would take over the duties of foreign minister. "Cabinet positions are decided by the prime minister and it is his prerogative to allocate our responsibilities," he told the Islands Business magazine as he entered the forum leaders' retreat on Saturday. Bainimarama refuses to attend the forum, a regional leaders' summit, because of New Zealand and Australia's involvement. He blames the two regional powers for Fiji being suspended from the forum after he seized control of the island state in a 2006 coup. Since Fiji was invited back into the forum after organising a return to democratic elections in 2014, Bainimarama has sent his foreign minister in his place. Bainimarama said in a statement he wanted to "reinvigorate" his cabinet. "This reshuffle will enhance our ability to continue to provide the high level of service that the Fijian people have come to expect," he said. "I will be assuming the role of foreign minister in addition to my current duties as prime minister, minister for iTaukei (Fijian) affairs and minister for sugar."[SEP]Authorities in the tiny Pacific island nation of Fiji arrested the leader of an opposition party and a senior trade union official on Saturday, and issued arrest warrants for several other opposition politicians, New Zealand media reported. Radio New Zealand said the leader of the National Federation Party, Biman Prasad, and a trade unionist, Attar Singh, were arrested on Saturday afternoon. The arrests were related to public meetings held last week to discuss Fiji's constitution, it added. Police had taken Prasad for questioning, the National Federation Party said in a message from its official account on social network Twitter. It gave no further details. Reuters could not immediately confirm the arrests or the reason for them.[SEP]Fiji opposition MPs freed after what Amnesty calls "brazen crackdown" on rights SYDNEY, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Fijian police have released three opposition lawmakers detained over the weekend for criticising the constitution in what Amnesty International described as a "brazen crackdown" on freedom of expression. Police on Saturday and Sunday detained leaders of three opposition parties and three other organisers and participants involved in a forum on constitutional reform in the Pacific island's capital of Suva last week. All have since been freed without charge, but the case has been referred to the public prosecutor, police said in a statement issued on Sunday evening. Police said the detentions were carried out in response to "issues that could affect the safety and security of all Fijians". There is widespread concern among Fiji's opposition parties that the constitution gives too much power to a government originally installed in 2006 through a bloodless military coup. "I think it's politically motivated," Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry told Reuters by phone shortly after he was released on Monday. "The regime here is very sensitive to criticism. They have seen all three political parties in opposition coming together in one forum and I think they feel a bit jittery about it." Opposition MPs wore black ribbons at Monday's opening of parliament and some boycotted the ceremonial session in protest over the detentions. A spokeswoman for Fiji's Director of Public Prosecutions declined to comment. A spokesman for Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After seizing power in 2006, Bainimarama stood down from the military to run as a civilian in the country's 2014 elections, winning by a landslide. His opponents say the constitution, drawn up in 2013, concentrates too much power in the prime minister's office. Jone Dakuvulua, who organised the reform forum and chairs non-government organisation Pacific Dialogue, said his arrest highlighted some of these problems. "It's an indication that even though we have a so-called parliament, we do not have democracy," Dakuvulua told Reuters by phone. Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International's director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said the detentions were "a brazen crackdown on people for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression". (Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Nick Macfie)[SEP]OPINION: Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama didn’t show his face at the Pacific Islands Forum but that didn’t stop him stealing the show. There’s one hell of a power struggle going on in the Pacific and it’s never more evident than when the leaders all gather in one place for the annual leader’s retreat. Last year in Papua New Guinea that strong-arming was clear when Prime Minister John Key and then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott turned up to the post-forum press conference - a media event usually fronted by smaller Pacific nations. Key and Abbott were there to keep a lid on the growing tensions between them and smaller nations over the lacklustre targets being set heading into the Paris climate change conference only a few months later. Nobody was more surprised than the Kiwi and Aussie media contingent when they waltzed in and the heat coming off then Kiribati President Anote Tong - the Pacific poster boy for climate change - raised the temperature in the room ten-fold. This year that power play has continued with some smaller Pacific nations not wanting French Polynesia and New Caledonia to join the forum. Key and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull were supportive of the bid and after years of trying, the French finally got their foot in the door this year. This is an opportunity for France to join the big boys table and exert some power in the region as well. The biggest threat to all of this is Bainimarama and he’s been beavering away forming a sub-group within the Pacific as he tries to claw back some of the control - he’s also trying to keep Samoa at bay as they continually push for a greater presence. So what better timing for Bainimarama than the night before the leader’s retreat - which he never planned to turn up at - to orchestrate a Cabinet reshuffle that saw his foreign minister in Pohnpei stripped of the role while he’s sat at the same table as Key and Turnbull. Ratu Inoke Kubuabola is seen as a threat by Bainimarama and he knew he had to cut off his oxygen. He then proceeded to start arresting Opposition MPs letting it rain chaos in Fiji at the exact same time the leaders were meeting in Pohnpei. What better way to steal the headlines from what is going on at the forum table than throw a match on the fire in your own country. Bainimarama is never going to come back to the forum table but that’s not going to stop him going in for the kill - only problem is he now has the French to contend with as well.[SEP]Pacific Island leaders are pushing back against letting the French into their annual forum but Prime Minister John Key says he supports the bid. Both New Caledonia and French Polynesia, whose foreign policy and security is controlled by France, have been vying for a seat at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The issue is expected to generate fiery debate at the leader's retreat in Pohnpei on Saturday with several nations, including Nauru, believed to be angry at the idea of the two countries joining. "When the French Prime Minister was in New Zealand recently I made the point that I thought there was actually a case for both of them to have admission to PIF," Key said. "You could make a case they don't perfectly fit the criteria but in the end this is ultimately a collection of countries who get together every 12 months to discuss Pacific issues." Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said several nations were against the bid because of strong concerns regarding how their foreign policy was handled from France. Key dismissed suggestions he supported the bid because it would prompt France to contribute aid to the region - New Zealand and Australia provide the bulk of the money at the moment. "France has had, because of its territorial rights, a long term interest in the Pacific and it will continue to be a significant supporter of those economies," he said. "I don't think we'll be expecting France to change from that perspective, it's more about what they can do to the overall debate of discussion that takes place." "The debate in my opinion at the forum would be stronger for their admittance," he said. Federated States of Micronesia President Peter Christian, who is hosting the forum in Pohnpei, also supports the French bid. He says the forum deals with "issues with no borders yet in this particular case there are those who would like to build a wall". One leader with a seat at the retreat who chooses not to be there is Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama. On Friday Bainimarama removed his foreign minister, Ratu Inoke, from the job and gave the portfolio to himself in a major Cabinet reshuffle. Inoke is already at PIF representing Fiji in place of his leader, who hasn't attended since he was banned in 2009 following a military coup. Key said he was personally disappointed about Inoke's demotion as he'd found his a "really effective person to deal with". "We've had a series of issues over the last decade with Fiji where it's been important to have open dialogue." Another issue expected to be raised at the leader's retreat is the ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua. The issue was widely debated at PIF in Papua New Guinea last year and ended with the host Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, being asked to discuss with Indonesian officials the possibility of a fact-finding mission. That mission has never gone ahead and given the close ties between some Pacific nations, in particular Fiji, and Indonesia, it's unlikely to get across the line. McCully said last year's approach wasn't overly "productive" and it's likely any conversations with Indonesian officials would be handed over to foreign ministers to pursue.[SEP]There will be a French influence at the Pacific Islands’ Forum in Samoa next year after leaders voted to give New Caledonia and French Polynesia full membership. At the leader’s retreat in Pohnpei on Saturday Prime Minister John Key and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pushed the case for the two French territories to be let in, after years of knocking on the door. “The thing I like about it is these are two countries that have quite developed economies. They’re quite active in the issues that matter - tourism, renewable energy and fisheries for instance,’’ Key said. Fundamentally it gives the forum “more weight,’’ he said. New Zealand changed its tune after previously agreeing with other Pacific nations that the two French territories not having control over their foreign policy and defence meant they shouldn’t be allowed full membership. “We’ve changed our position over time,’’ Key said. Ahead of the retreat Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully had warned that the motion probably wouldn’t pass because of opposition from members. On Sunday McCully said he was “pleasantly surprised” leaders had worked through their differences and got it over the line so quickly. Bubbling away behind the scenes of the forum was the chaos breaking out in Fiji where Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has had a Cabinet reshuffle and ordered for some Opposition MPs, including the leader, to be arrested. Bainimarama isn’t at the forum in the Federated States of Micronesia after refusing to attend since he was banned in 2009 - instead he sent his foreign minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, who he's since strippped of the role while he’s in Pohnpei. McCully met with Kubuabola on Sunday where he told him New Zealand was “very closely interested in developments in Fiji’’. The arrests are understood to relate to “a question of whether there were permits given for a gathering at which some of these individuals were panelists,’’ he said. “Anything restraining free speech would be a concern to the New Zealand government.’’ McCully said a lot of good things have happened since the disarray in Fiji after Bainimarama led a military coup in 2006 and “we want to keep encouraging those who move things in a good direction’’. Key said New Zealand is closely observing what is going on and hoping it will remain calm. “The Government won an election reasonably recently. We thought they’d just get on and run the country, they’ve got the support of the people so they don’t need to do anything particularly silly,’’ he said. Before the forum wrapped up on Sunday Key announced a $10 million Pacific Sporting Partnerships programme aimed at getting more children in Pacific countries playing sports and being healthy. “The long term benefits might also be that we’ll continue to have a great crop of Samoan players that can add to the mighty All Blacks from time to time,’’ Key joked to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi. The programme will initially focus on netball and rugby in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. Malielegaoi said all four nations were grateful for the support and hoped it would extend to include cricket in the future. “Over 50 per cent of our population comprises of young people. Many are not employed but have talents in playing sport. “Sport is no longer looked at as a leisure activity, it’s employment for our youths,’’ he said.

Fiji authorities detain two opposition party leaders, a prominent trade unionist, and another opposition activist, following their participation in Wednesday's forum on the Pacific island's 2013 constitution. A police spokesperson told the Fiji Times that several people were being questioned about comments made at the forum that, "Could affect the safety and security of all Fijians."

Kerber is the first German to win the US Open since Steffi Graf in 1996 Germany's Angelique Kerber backed up her status as the new world number one with a thrilling win over Czech Karolina Pliskova in the US Open final. Kerber, 28, won 6-3 4-6 6-4 in New York to add the US Open to her victory at the Australian Open in January. Pliskova's semi-final win over Serena Williams had already ensured the German will top the new rankings on Monday. "All my dreams came true today and I'm just trying to enjoy the moment," said Kerber. "It's incredible. I'm standing here with a second Grand Slam trophy and it means so much to me." Kerber was appearing in her third Grand Slam final of 2016, and the German played with the authority of a world number one in waiting. Pliskova, 24, went into the final with a WTA Tour-leading 447 aces this year and on an 11-match winning streak that included victory over Kerber in last month's Cincinnati final. Kerber won in Australia and the US, and finished runner-up at Wimbledon The Czech had never been past the third round of a major before this tournament and made 17 unforced errors in the first set, but fought back with 17 winners in the second before powering 3-1 ahead in the decider. It looked as though Kerber's athleticism and defensive skills would not be enough, but she levelled at 3-3 and then roared as a blistering forehand winner helped her move ahead once again. At 4-4 in the final set it came down to a test of nerve, and Kerber's was rock solid as she held impressively before Pliskova fell 0-40 behind and blazed a forehand wide on match point. "It's always tough to play against her," said Kerber. "I was trying to stay in the moment, be aggressive, I was just trying to enjoy the final. It's an amazing stadium. "It means a lot to me. When I was a kid, I was always dreaming to be the number one player in the world and to win Grand Slams, and today's the day." Media playback is not supported on this device US Open 2016: Winning tournament is incredible - Angelique Kerber Pliskova said: "I found out I can play my best tennis on the big stages. She proved she's the world number one. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I found myself some power in the second set." Kerber is the first German to win the US Open since Steffi Graf in 1996 and her ascent to the top of the rankings is the result of a spectacular year. She began 2016 ranked 10th in the world after failing to get past the third round of any of the Grand Slams in 2015, but Saturday saw her claim a Tour-best 54th win of 2016. Kerber won her first major titles in Australia and the US, as well as reaching the Wimbledon final, where she lost to Williams, and the Olympic final, where she lost to Monica Puig. The German began the season with a shock win over Williams in Melbourne, which was only possible after she had saved a match point against Japan's Misaki Doi in the first round.[SEP]The 28-year-old German -- who will rise from second to first in the rankings Monday, ahead of Serena Williams -- became the first female player other than Williams to win two majors in a season since Justine Henin in 2007. Indeed it has been a stellar year for Kerber, who opened her grand slam account at the Australian Open by defeating Williams, made the final at Wimbledon -- losing to Williams -- and won silver at the Rio Olympics last month. "When I was a kid I was always dreaming to be No. 1 and win grand slams," Kerber, a breakthrough artist at the US Open five years ago in reaching the semis, said during the trophy presentation. "All the dreams came true this year and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment on court and off court. "Everything started here in 2011, and now I'm here in 2016 and I'm standing with the trophy, second grand slam trophy, and it means so much to me." Kerber won most of the big points in the first set-and-a-half against the tall, powerful Pliskova, who was appearing in a first grand slam final. But Pliskova broke late in the second and then led 3-1 in the third. Kerber broke back for 3-3 before Pliskova -- who has a tennis playing twin sister -- cracked at 4-5, getting broken to love in a flood of errors. Kerber fell to the court on a first match point when Pliskova's forehand -- which was inconsistent throughout -- sailed both wide and long. Later she picked up a check for $3.5 million. 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪! @AngeliqueKerber is the first German woman to win the #usopen since Steffi Graf in 1996. pic.twitter.com/Bg2PyL105x — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 10, 2016 The Czech had become the first player in six years to beat Serena and Venus Williams -- who own a combined 29 singles majors -- at the same tournament but was unable to overcome the counter-punching Kerber three weeks after downing the left-hander in Cincinnati. "I was just happy that I took it to a third set and even though I couldn't get the win I'm really proud of myself, the way I was playing in the last two weeks," said Pliskova. "Hopefully many more finals to come." Prior to this fortnight, the 24-year-old had never been beyond the fourth round at a major despite being an established player the previous two seasons. "I found out that I could play my best tennis on the biggest stages against the top players," said Pliskova. The men's final will be decided Sunday, when world No. 1 Novak Djokovic plays No. 3 Stan Wawrinka.[SEP]The 28-year-old German -- who will rise from second to first in the rankings Monday, ahead of Serena Williams -- became the first female player other than Williams to win two majors in a season since Justine Henin in 2007. Indeed it has been a stellar year for Kerber, who opened her grand slam account at the Australian Open by defeating Williams, made the final at Wimbledon -- losing to Williams -- and won silver at the Rio Olympics last month. "When I was a kid I was always dreaming to be No. 1 and win grand slams," Kerber, a breakthrough artist at the US Open five years ago in reaching the semis, said during the trophy presentation. "All the dreams came true this year and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment on court and off court. "Everything started here in 2011, and now I'm here in 2016 and I'm standing with the trophy, second grand slam trophy, and it means so much to me." Kerber won most of the big points in the first set-and-a-half against the tall, powerful Pliskova, who was appearing in a first grand slam final. But Pliskova broke late in the second and then led 3-1 in the third. Kerber broke back for 3-3 before Pliskova -- who has a tennis playing twin sister -- cracked at 4-5, getting broken to love in a flood of errors. Kerber fell to the court on a first match point when Pliskova's forehand -- which was inconsistent throughout -- sailed both wide and long. Later she picked up a check for $3.5 million. 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪! @AngeliqueKerber is the first German woman to win the #usopen since Steffi Graf in 1996. pic.twitter.com/Bg2PyL105x — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 10, 2016 The Czech had become the first player in six years to beat Serena and Venus Williams -- who own a combined 29 singles majors -- at the same tournament but was unable to overcome the counter-punching Kerber three weeks after downing the left-hander in Cincinnati. "I was just happy that I took it to a third set and even though I couldn't get the win I'm really proud of myself, the way I was playing in the last two weeks," said Pliskova. "Hopefully many more finals to come." Prior to this fortnight, the 24-year-old had never been beyond the fourth round at a major despite being an established player the previous two seasons. "I found out that I could play my best tennis on the biggest stages against the top players," said Pliskova. The men's final will be decided Sunday, when world No. 1 Novak Djokovic plays No. 3 Stan Wawrinka.[SEP]SAN DIEGO (AP) — All-Star shortstop Javier Báez could return to the Chicago Cubs if they reach the playoffs. Báez saw a hand specialist in Chicago who confirmed the slugger has a hairline...[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) — NEW YORK (AP) —A look at Saturday's play in the $46.3 million U.S. Open tennis championships: WEATHER: Mostly sunny, hot and humid. High of 90. RESULTS: Women's Singles Final: No. 2 Angelique Kerber won her second career Grand Slam singles title, both this year, beating No. 10 Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Men's Doubles Final: Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares beat Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-3 to win their second Grand Slam title of the year. ON COURT SUNDAY: Men's Singles Final: No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 3 Stan Wawrinka; Women's Doubles Final: No. 1 Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic vs. No. 4 Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova. STAT OF THE DAY: 9 — The number of years since Justine Henin won two Grand Slam singles titles in one year, the last time a woman other than Serena Williams accomplished the feat until Angelique Kerber won on Saturday. Kerber also won the Australian Open in January. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It means a lot to me. When I was a kid, I was always dreaming to one day be the No. 1 player in the world, to win Grand Slams. I mean, all the dreams came true this year, and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment on court and also off court." — Angelique Kerber ON THIS DATE (Sept. 11, 1977): Guillermo Vilas beat Jimmy Connors 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0 to win the men's singles title in the last U.S. Open match played in Forest Hills.[SEP]The 28-year-old German -- who will rise from second to first in the rankings Monday, ahead of Serena Williams -- became the first female player other than Williams to win two majors in a season since Justine Henin in 2007. Indeed it has been a stellar year for Kerber, who opened her grand slam account at the Australian Open by defeating Williams, made the final at Wimbledon -- losing to Williams -- and won silver at the Rio Olympics last month. "When I was a kid I was always dreaming to be No. 1 and win grand slams," Kerber, a breakthrough artist at the US Open five years ago in reaching the semis, said during the trophy presentation. "All the dreams came true this year and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment on court and off court. "Everything started here in 2011, and now I'm here in 2016 and I'm standing with the trophy, second grand slam trophy, and it means so much to me." Kerber won most of the big points in the first set-and-a-half against the tall, powerful Pliskova, who was appearing in a first grand slam final. But Pliskova broke late in the second and then led 3-1 in the third. Kerber broke back for 3-3 before Pliskova -- who has a tennis playing twin sister -- cracked at 4-5, getting broken to love in a flood of errors. Kerber fell to the court on a first match point when Pliskova's forehand -- which was inconsistent throughout -- sailed both wide and long. Later she picked up a check for $3.5 million. 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪! @AngeliqueKerber is the first German woman to win the #usopen since Steffi Graf in 1996. pic.twitter.com/Bg2PyL105x — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 10, 2016 The Czech had become the first player in six years to beat Serena and Venus Williams -- who own a combined 29 singles majors -- at the same tournament but was unable to overcome the counter-punching Kerber three weeks after downing the left-hander in Cincinnati. "I was just happy that I took it to a third set and even though I couldn't get the win I'm really proud of myself, the way I was playing in the last two weeks," said Pliskova. "Hopefully many more finals to come." Prior to this fortnight, the 24-year-old had never been beyond the fourth round at a major despite being an established player the previous two seasons. "I found out that I could play my best tennis on the biggest stages against the top players," said Pliskova. The men's final will be decided Sunday, when world No. 1 Novak Djokovic plays No. 3 Stan Wawrinka.[SEP](CNN) Already assured of the No. 1 ranking, things got even better for Angelique Kerber at the US Open. Kerber beat Karolina Pliskova in a thriller, 6-3 4-6 6-4, to win the US Open and claim her second grand slam title of 2016. The 28-year-old German -- who will rise from second to first in the rankings Monday, ahead of Serena Williams -- became the first female player other than Williams to win two majors in a season since Justine Henin in 2007. Indeed it has been a stellar year for Kerber, who opened her grand slam account at the Australian Open by defeating Williams, made the final at Wimbledon -- losing to Williams in a high-quality encounter -- and won silver at the Rio Olympics last month. "When I was a kid I was always dreaming to be No. 1 and win grand slams," Kerber, a breakthrough artist at the US Open five years ago in reaching the semis, said during the trophy presentation. "All the dreams came true this year and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment on court and off court. "Everything started here in 2011, and now I'm here in 2016 and I'm standing with the trophy, second grand slam trophy, and it means so much to me." Kerber won the big points in the first set-and-a-half against the tall, powerful Pliskova, who was appearing in a first grand slam final. But 11th-ranked Pliskova broke late in the second and then led 3-1 in the third. Kerber fell to the court on a first match point when Pliskova's forehand -- which was inconsistent throughout -- sailed both wide and long. She took time to reflect in her chair, weeping in joy, and later picked up a check for $3.5 million. The Czech had become the first player in six years to beat Serena and Venus Williams -- who own a combined 29 singles majors -- at the same tournament but was unable to overcome the counter-punching Kerber three weeks after downing the left-hander in Cincinnati. She dwelled on the positives, though. "I was just happy that I took it to a third set and even though I couldn't get the win I'm really proud of myself, the way I was playing in the last two weeks," said Pliskova. "Hopefully many more finals to come." Prior to this fortnight, the 24-year-old had never been beyond the fourth round at a major despite being an established player the previous two seasons. "I found out that I could play my best tennis on the biggest stages against the top players," said Pliskova. Kerber, drawing on her experience, enjoyed the better start, however. Pliskova missed a seemingly easy volley and was broken to begin with after popping a string. In the ensuing game, Kerber saved a break point with a forehand winner. Pliskova was always threatening on the Kerber serve, without breaking through, and the pattern continued early in the second. At 1-1, Pliskova erred on a forehand on break point and came up empty when holding a 15-30 advantage on the Kerber serve at 2-2. Pliskova, meanwhile, had fully settled on serve, holding with ease. She finally took her opportunity at 3-3, instinctively hitting a lob volley winner when Kerber couldn't put away a forehand. The crowd -- wanting a third set -- cheered on Pliskova. Both players producing more winners than unforced errors through two sets, matters became predictably tense in the third. The errors rose -- but so did the drama. Kerber found herself in trouble, behind 3-1. She took advantage of a shaky Pliskova to get back level, with a pivotal game following at 3-3. Overall Kerber went 4-for-5 on break points, better than Pliskova's 2-for-7. Kerber trailed 0-30, got to 30-30, then executed a high-risk forehand down the line. She celebrated, sensing it was a momentum changer. Unfortunately for Pliskova -- always outwardly calm on court -- she couldn't handle the pressure of serving to stay in the contest. The men's final will be decided Sunday, when world No. 1 Novak Djokovic plays No. 3 Stan Wawrinka. It promises to be dramatic, too, since four of their past five duels at majors have gone five sets.[SEP]The 28-year-old German -- who will rise from second to first in the rankings Monday, ahead of Serena Williams -- became the first female player other than Williams to win two majors in a season since Justine Henin in 2007. Indeed it has been a stellar year for Kerber, who opened her grand slam account at the Australian Open by defeating Williams, made the final at Wimbledon -- losing to Williams -- and won silver at the Rio Olympics last month. "When I was a kid I was always dreaming to be No. 1 and win grand slams," Kerber, a breakthrough artist at the US Open five years ago in reaching the semis, said during the trophy presentation. "All the dreams came true this year and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment on court and off court. "Everything started here in 2011, and now I'm here in 2016 and I'm standing with the trophy, second grand slam trophy, and it means so much to me." Kerber won most of the big points in the first set-and-a-half against the tall, powerful Pliskova, who was appearing in a first grand slam final. But Pliskova broke late in the second and then led 3-1 in the third. Kerber broke back for 3-3 before Pliskova -- who has a tennis playing twin sister -- cracked at 4-5, getting broken to love in a flood of errors. Kerber fell to the court on a first match point when Pliskova's forehand -- which was inconsistent throughout -- sailed both wide and long. Later she picked up a check for $3.5 million. 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪! @AngeliqueKerber is the first German woman to win the #usopen since Steffi Graf in 1996. pic.twitter.com/Bg2PyL105x — US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 10, 2016 The Czech had become the first player in six years to beat Serena and Venus Williams -- who own a combined 29 singles majors -- at the same tournament but was unable to overcome the counter-punching Kerber three weeks after downing the left-hander in Cincinnati. "I was just happy that I took it to a third set and even though I couldn't get the win I'm really proud of myself, the way I was playing in the last two weeks," said Pliskova. "Hopefully many more finals to come." Prior to this fortnight, the 24-year-old had never been beyond the fourth round at a major despite being an established player the previous two seasons. "I found out that I could play my best tennis on the biggest stages against the top players," said Pliskova. The men's final will be decided Sunday, when world No. 1 Novak Djokovic plays No. 3 Stan Wawrinka.[SEP]HIGHLIGHTS-Tennis-Day 13 at the U.S. Open Sept 10 (Reuters) - Latest news from the 13th day of the U.S. Open tennis championships on Saturday (all times GMT): Men's doubles fourth seeds Jamie Murray of Britain and Brazil's Bruno Soares beat the Spanish duo of Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2 6-3 in the final. Murray and Soares also triumphed in the 2016 Australian Open. The men's doubles final kick started play at the Arthur Ashe Stadium on the 13th day of the U.S. Open on a bright day at Flushing Meadows. New No. 1 Kerber eyes revenge against Pliskova in final 'Tired' Nishikori takes positives out of Open despite loss Not before 2000 GMT/4PM ET 10-Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) v 2-Angelique Kerber (Germany) (Compiled by Nivedita Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Both)[SEP]NEW YORK (AP) — NEW YORK (AP) —A look at Saturday's play in the $46.3 million U.S. Open tennis championships: WEATHER: Mostly sunny, hot and humid. High of 90. RESULTS: Women's Singles Final: No. 2 Angelique Kerber won her second career Grand Slam singles title, both this year, beating No. 10 Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Men's Doubles Final: Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares beat Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2, 6-3 to win their second Grand Slam title of the year. ON COURT SUNDAY: Men's Singles Final: No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 3 Stan Wawrinka; Women's Doubles Final: No. 1 Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic vs. No. 4 Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova. STAT OF THE DAY: 9 — The number of years since Justine Henin won two Grand Slam singles titles in one year, the last time a woman other than Serena Williams accomplished the feat until Angelique Kerber won on Saturday. Kerber also won the Australian Open in January. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It means a lot to me. When I was a kid, I was always dreaming to one day be the No. 1 player in the world, to win Grand Slams. I mean, all the dreams came true this year, and I'm just trying to enjoy every moment on court and also off court." — Angelique Kerber ON THIS DATE (Sept. 11, 1977): Guillermo Vilas beat Jimmy Connors 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0 to win the men's singles title in the last U.S. Open match played in Forest Hills.

In tennis, German Angelique Kerber defeats Czech Karolína Plíšková in three sets to win the 2016 US Open women's singles title.

Scores of people have died following a series of airstrikes in the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Idlib - hours after the US and Russia announced plans for a nationwide ceasefire to begin on Monday. In Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 58 people were killed in a series of bombings, including one on a vegetable market, with 13 children among the dead. Footage showed the corpses of a charred child and other victims being pulled mangled bodies from beneath rubble. "The market was full of shoppers going to buy presents for their kids, they were all civilians," said Salem Idlibi, a civil defence worker. Rebel-held areas have also been attacked in Aleppo, which was hit from the air as fighting continued on the ground. Advertisement At least 30 people died when barrel bombs were dropped from army helicopters in the east and further civilian deaths were reported elsewhere in the city and across the province. Both sides appear to be trying to maximise gains before the cessation of hostilities begins at sundown on Monday, which is the start of the Muslim Eid al Adha holiday. Kerry And Lavrov Declare Syria Ceasefire Plan The Syrian government has told Moscow it is prepared to comply with the deal, and opposition forces have also said they will fulfil the peace plan's requirements if the government demonstrates it is serious about ending the bloodshed. Syria's moderate Free Syrian Army said they saw little chance of the deal's success, with a spokesman for one of its brigades saying that Damascus and Moscow had not observed the last agreement so were unlikely to observe this one. "We hope this will be the beginning of the end of the civilians' ordeal," Bassma Kodmani, a leading member of the opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee, said. Peace Deal Struck For Syria But Captain Abdul Salam Abdul Razak, a spokesman for the rebel Nour al-Din al Zinki Brigades, said the deal would only help the Syrian army to gather forces and send more Iranian-backed fighters into Aleppo. Truces agreed in the past have collapsed after both sides failed to hold up their ends of the bargain. If the planned cessation of hostilities holds for seven days, it will be followed by an unlikely military partnership between the US and Russia to target Islamic State and al Qaeda. 11 August: Aleppo - The Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis "Going after Nusra is not a concession to anybody," US Secretary of State John Kerry said. "It is profoundly in the interests of the United States to target al Qaeda, to target al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, which is Nusra, an organisation that is opposed to a peaceful transition, an organisation that is an enemy of the legitimate opposition, an organisation that is currently plotting attacks beyond Syria's borders, including against the United States." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added: "I want to stress that distinguishing between terrorists and moderate oppositions has been written as a priority into the document that we agreed today." Turkey targeted Islamic State on Saturday, reportedly killing at least 20 militants as buildings and vehicles near the town of Tel el-Hawa were destroyed, according to reports. Syrian Rebels Form 'New' Front Washington has been tasked with persuading "moderate" rebels to break away from the Nusra Front and other extremist groups. Mr Kerry said the deal the was a potential "turning point" in the long-running civil war which has killed as many as 500,000 people and displaced millions of others. However, he warned the plan could be described as nothing more than an opportunity until it is successfully enforced. Mr Lavrov said the deal would allow efficient co-operation in the struggle against terrorism, and expand humanitarian access to Syria's worst-hit towns and cities. Turkey, which made a major military incursion into the north of Syria two weeks ago, said it was preparing aid for Aleppo once the truce was in place. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson welcomed the plan, adding a call for "all parties to the Syria conflict and all countries with influence upon them to do what is needed to end violence and lift sieges".[SEP]Story highlights Eyewitness: "The jets arrived over Idlib and we heard three explosions" At least 28 children are among the dead The US and Russia agreed to a ceasefire plan that starts Monday (CNN) At least 90 people were killed in airstrikes that rained down on northwestern Syria on Saturday and Sunday, a rights group said. The surge in violence came just hours after the US and Russia announced a new ceasefire plan. The airstrikes landed in the rebel-held areas of Idlib in the northwest and Aleppo in the north of the country, according to the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The worst strikes were in Idlib, where at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in an attack that targeted a crowded market, an activist who witnessed the bombing and its aftermath told CNN. The activist, who asked to be identified as Omar for security reasons, said he was in Idlib to cover the atmosphere a day ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday. Omar took a detour to the city since the roads near the markets were closed as a security precaution, and that probably saved his life, he said. "We heard a whistling sound then the explosions," Omar said. The jets arrived around 12:30 p.m. local time, he said. "Two or three rockets landed in middle of the market. We left the car where we were and headed towards the site of explosion." Read More[SEP](IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – At least 90 persons were killed in airstrikes on the rebel-held areas of Idlib and Aleppo in Syria on Saturday and Sunday, hours after the US and Russia announced a new ceasefire plan. An activist who witnessed the bombing and its aftermath revealed, “The worst strikes were in Idlib, where at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in an attack that targeted a crowded market,” adding that, “We heard a whistling sound then the explosions, and the jets arrived around 12:30 p.m. local time.” “Two or three rockets landed in middle of the market. We carried 30 people dead from the ground and transferred some other 40 injured,” he said. The activist added, “Those injured, they were clear and visible on the ground and not hidden behind cars or inside rubble, then we carried them and started taking them to field hospitals. This is when the civil defense rescue teams started arriving and carrying and helping the injured as well the ones trapped under the rubble.” The airstrikes came just days before a ceasefire that is scheduled to go into effect on Monday.[SEP]Its initial aims include allowing humanitarian access and joint targeting of jihadist groups A nationwide ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect in Syria on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-old civil war. The Syrian army, announced the truce at 7 pm (1600 GMT), the moment it took effect, saying the seven-day “regime of calm” would be applied across Syria. It reserved the right to respond with all forms of fire-power to any violation by “armed groups”. Rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar Al-Assad did not immediately declare publicly whether they would respect the ceasefire, but rebel sources said they would do so, despite reservations about a deal they see as skewed in Mr. Assad’s favour. A rebel commander in northern Syria said there was “cautious calm” at the start of the ceasefire. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said calm prevailed on most front-lines after the ceasefire took effect. Russia is a major backer of Mr. Assad, while the United States supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him. The agreement’s initial aims include allowing humanitarian access and joint U.S.-Russian targeting of jihadist groups, which are not covered by the agreement. The agreement comes at a time when Assad's position on the battlefield is stronger than it has been since the earliest months of the war, thanks to Russian and Iranian military support. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed in the conflict and 11 million made homeless in the world's worst refugee crisis. Hours before the truce took effect, an emboldened Assad vowed to take back all of Syria. In a gesture loaded with symbolism, state television showed him visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb long held by rebels but recaptured last month after fighters surrendered in the face of a crushing siege. “The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists,” Mr. Assad said in an interview broadcast by state media, flanked by his delegation at an otherwise deserted road junction. Earlier he performed Muslim holiday prayers alongside other officials in a bare hall in a Daraya mosque. He made no mention of the ceasefire agreement, but said the army would continue its work “without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances”. The ceasefire deal is backed by foreign countries ranging from Mr. Assad’s ally Iran to Turkey, one of the main supporters of groups fighting to overthrow him. But maintaining the ceasefire means overcoming big challenges, including separating nationalist rebels who would be protected under it from jihadist fighters who are excluded. The rebels say the deal benefits Mr. Assad, who took advantage of the aftermath of the last failed truce hammered out by Washington and Moscow in February to improve his forces’ position on the battlefield. The capture of Daraya, a few kilometres from Damascus, has helped the government secure important areas to the southwest of the capital near an air base. The army has also completely encircled the rebel-held half of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, which has been divided into government and opposition-held zones for years. In the hours before the ceasefire took effect, fighting raged on several key front-lines, including Aleppo and the southern province of Quneitra. Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups are expected to halt fighting for a while as a confidence building measure. Opposition fighters are expected to separate from militant groups in areas such as Aleppo. — Reuters[SEP]BEIRUT (Reuters) - A nationwide ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia came into effect in Syria on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-old civil war. The Syrian army, announced the truce at 7 pm (1600 GMT), the moment it took effect, saying the seven-day "regime of calm" would be applied across Syria. It reserved the right to respond with all forms of firepower to any violation by "armed groups". Rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad had decided to respect the ceasefire, while expressing their deep reservations about the overall agreement, said Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel faction Fastaqim. "Regarding a truce, a ceasefire, the delivery of aid, this is a moral question and there is no debate around this, we absolutely welcome this, but there are other articles around which there are reservations," he told Reuters. Combatant sources on both sides said calm was prevailing in the first hours of the ceasefire. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, shared that assessment. Russia is a major backer of Assad, while the United States supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him. The agreement's initial aims include allowing humanitarian access and joint U.S.-Russian targeting of jihadist groups, which are not covered by the agreement. Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that aid to the besieged city of Aleppo would start immediately. The agreement comes at a time when Assad's position on the battlefield is stronger than it has been since the earliest months of the war, thanks to Russian and Iranian military support. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed in the conflict and 11 million made homeless in the world's worst refugee crisis. Hours before the truce took effect, an emboldened Assad vowed to take back all of Syria. In a gesture loaded with symbolism, state television showed him visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb long held by rebels but recaptured last month after fighters surrendered in the face of a crushing siege. "The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," Assad said in an interview broadcast by state media. Earlier he performed Muslim holiday prayers alongside other officials in a bare hall in a Daraya mosque. He made no mention of the ceasefire agreement, but said the army would continue its work "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances". The ceasefire is the boldest expression yet of hope by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama that it can work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war. All previous diplomatic initiatives have collapsed in failure. The Obama administration opposes Assad but wants to shift the focus of fighting from the multi-sided civil war between Assad and his many foes to a campaign against Islamic State, an ultra-hardline jihadist group that controls swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq. The ceasefire deal is backed by foreign countries ranging from Assad's ally Iran to Turkey, one of the main supporters of groups fighting to overthrow him. But maintaining the ceasefire means overcoming big challenges, including separating nationalist rebels who would be protected under it from jihadist fighters who are excluded. The rebels say the deal benefits Assad, whose military position has improved since the last truce brokered by Washington and Moscow collapsed earlier this year. The capture of Daraya, a few kilometres from Damascus, has helped the government secure important areas to the southwest of the capital near an air base. The army has also completely encircled the rebel-held half of Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, which has been divided into government and opposition-held zones for years. In the hours before the ceasefire took effect, fighting raged on several key frontlines, including Aleppo and the southern province of Quneitra. The Observatory said an air strike in rebel-held Idlib province killed at least 13 people. Under the agreement, Russian-backed government forces and opposition groups are expected to halt fighting for a while as a confidence building measure. Opposition fighters are expected to separate from jihadist groups in areas such as Aleppo. But distinguishing protected rebels from jihadists is difficult, particularly with regards to a group formerly called the Nusra Front, which was al Qaeda's Syria branch until it changed its name in July. The group, which now calls itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, has been playing a vital role in the battle for Aleppo allied with other rebel factions. It remains excluded from the ceasefire, and other rebel groups say government forces or their allies can use its presence as an excuse to hit other targets. Russia's foreign ministry said it was concerned that some opposition groups including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham, which fights in close coordination with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, had refused to respect the ceasefire. However, a source in the opposition told Reuters that Ahrar al-Sham, would back the cessation of hostilities in an announcement later on Monday. Washington has said the ceasefire includes agreement that the government will not fly combat missions in an agreed area on the pretext of hunting fighters from the former Nusra Front. However, the opposition says a loophole would allow the government to continue air strikes for up to nine days. Nationalist rebel groups, including factions backed by Assad's foreign enemies, wrote to Washington on Sunday to express deep concerns. The letter, seen by Reuters, said the ceasefire shared the flaw that doomed the previous truce: a lack of guarantees or monitoring mechanisms. It also said Jabhat Fateh al-Sham should be included, as the group had not carried out attacks outside Syria despite its previous ties to al Qaeda. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham said the deal aimed to weaken the "effective" anti-Assad forces, and to "bury" the revolution.[SEP]The attack targeted a market in the rebel-held city of Idlib, according to the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Thirteen children and 13 women were among those killed as people shopped during the holiday Eid al-Adha. Tens of others were wounded. The death toll is expected to rise, according to the monitoring group. The ceasefire plan, announced Friday, calls for the Syrian government and the opposition to respect a nationwide ceasefire. It is scheduled to go into effect at sundown Monday. The Syrian regime announced its support of the ceasefire deal Saturday, according to the state-run TV. Syrian men evacuate a victim from the rubble of a building following an airstrike on the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib on September 10, 2016. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the accord would prevent President Bashar al-Assad's air force from flying combat missions anywhere the opposition is present, calling this provision the "bedrock of the agreement." He labeled the Syrian air force the "main driver of civilian casualties" and migrant flows. People search for victims at the scene of the airstrikes. In February, a cessation of hostilities negotiated between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov fell apart within weeks, and efforts to reach a political settlement in the war-torn country have been on the verge of collapse.[SEP]BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A nationwide ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect in Syria on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year civil war. The Syrian army, announced the truce at 7 p.m. local time, the moment it took effect, saying the seven-day "regime of calm" would be applied across Syria. It reserved the right to respond with all forms of firepower to any violation by "armed groups." Rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad issued a joint statement listing deep reservations with the agreement they described as unjust, echoing concerns outlined in a letter to the United States on Sunday. While the statement did not explicitly back the ceasefire, rebel sources said the groups were abiding by it. "Regarding a truce, a ceasefire, the delivery of aid, this is a moral question and there is no debate around this, we absolutely welcome this, but there are other articles around which there are reservations," Zakaria Malahifji of an Aleppo-based rebel faction told Reuters. Combatant sources on both sides said calm was prevailing in the first hours of the ceasefire. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, shared that assessment. Russia is a major backer of Assad, while the United States supports some of the rebel groups fighting to topple him. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said early reports suggested there had been some reduction in violence. He told reporters at the State Department that it was too early to draw a definitive conclusion about how effective the truce will be, and that there would no doubt be some reports of violations "here and there." The agreement's initial aims include allowing humanitarian access and joint U.S.-Russian targeting of jihadist groups, which are not covered by the agreement. Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that aid to the besieged city of Aleppo would start immediately. Besher Hawi, a resident of opposition-held Aleppo, said the city had been calm since the ceasefire came into force, after a heavy day of bombardment. "It's excellent but I certainly have no confidence in the regime. It could bomb at any moment," he told Reuters from Aleppo, speaking via a web-based messaging system. The agreement comes at a time when Assad's position on the battlefield is stronger than it has been since the earliest months of the war, thanks to Russian and Iranian military support. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed in the conflict and 11 million made homeless in the world's worst refugee crisis. Hours before the truce took effect, an emboldened Assad vowed to take back all of Syria. In a gesture loaded with symbolism, state television showed him visiting Daraya, a Damascus suburb long held by rebels but recaptured last month after fighters surrendered in the face of a crushing siege. "The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," Assad said in an interview broadcast by state media. Earlier he performed Muslim holiday prayers alongside other officials in a bare hall in a Daraya mosque. He made no mention of the ceasefire agreement, but said the army would continue its work "without hesitation, regardless of any internal or external circumstances." The ceasefire is the boldest expression yet of hope by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama that it can work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war. All previous diplomatic initiatives have collapsed in failure. The Obama administration opposes Assad but wants to shift the focus of fighting from the multi-sided civil war between Assad and his many foes to a campaign against Islamic State, an ultra-hardline jihadist group that controls swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq. The ceasefire deal is backed by foreign countries ranging from Assad's ally Iran to Turkey, one of the main supporters of groups fighting to overthrow him.[SEP]A ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States took effect in Syria at sundown Monday, but there was deep scepticism over whether it would take hold. The initial 48-hour truce entered into force at 7:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) across Syria except in areas held by jihadists like the Islamic State group. Its fragility was underscored in the hours leading up to sundown, with opposition forces yet to formally sign on and President Bashar al-Assad vowing to retake the whole country from "terrorists". The deal, announced Friday after marathon talks between Russia and the United States, has been billed as the best chance yet to halt the bloodshed in Syria's five-year civil war. As well as bringing a temporary end to the fighting, it aims to provide crucial aid to hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians. Just before the truce came into force, senior Russian military official Sergei Rudskoi said the ceasefire would cover all of Syria except "terrorist targets". "Today from 1900 (local time) the cessation of hostilities is being resumed across all the territory of Syria," Rudskoi said at a briefing, adding that Russia would "continue to carry out strikes against terrorist targets." Under the agreement, fighting will halt in areas not held by jihadists and aid deliveries to besieged areas will begin, with government and rebel forces ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access in particular to divided Aleppo city. The ceasefire will be renewed every 48 hours and, if it holds for a week, Moscow and Washington will begin unprecedented joint targeting of jihadist forces. World powers have thrown their weight behind this new deal after several rounds of peace efforts failed to end the conflict that has killed more than 290,000 people. But Syria's opposition and rebels are deeply sceptical that Assad's regime will abide by the truce agreement, and demanded guarantees before endorsing a deal. "We are asking for guarantees especially from the United States, which is a party to the agreement," Salem al-Muslet from the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition umbrella group, told AFP Monday. "We fear that Russia will classify all the Free Syrian Army (rebel factions) as terrorists," as it was unclear how the deal defined "terrorist groups", he said. Rebel groups on Sunday sent a letter to the US saying they would "deal positively with the idea of the ceasefire" but listed several "concerns" and stopped short of a full endorsement. "The clauses of the agreement that have been shared with us do not include any clear guarantees or monitoring mechanisms... or repercussions if there are truce violations," they said. Ahmad al-Saoud, who heads the US-backed Division 13 rebel group which signed the letter, said they had received no response. Just moments before the ceasefire came into force, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that three people were killed in regime shelling in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus. Questions remain about how the ceasefire will apply in parts of Syria where the jihadist Fateh al-Sham Front, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, is present. A crucial part of the deal calls for rebels to distance themselves from the group before joint US-Russian operations against it begin. But Fateh al-Sham cooperates closely with many of Syria's rebels, including the powerful Ahrar al-Sham faction, which on Sunday issued a scathing condemnation of the Russian-US deal. In a message marking the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, Ahrar al-Sham's deputy leader Ali al-Omar said Syria's "people cannot accept half-solutions". Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told state-run news agency RIA Novosti that peace talks could resume within a month. "I think that probably at the very beginning of October, (UN envoy Staffan) de Mistura should be inviting all parties" to talks, he said. Syria's government and its allies including Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement have backed the truce. But on Monday Assad made clear he was intent on recapturing all of Syria. "The Syrian state is determined to recover every area from the terrorists," he said as he toured Daraya, a former rebel stronghold that surrendered last month after a four-year government siege. "The armed forces are continuing their work, relentlessly and without hesitation, regardless of internal or external circumstances," he added. The run-up to the truce has also seen a spike in violence, with at least 74 people killed in strikes on Aleppo and Idlib cities over the weekend. Fresh raids hit Aleppo Monday, an AFP correspondent said, where residents have struggled to celebrate Eid amid shortages created by a renewed government siege. Aleppo has been divided between rebels in the east and regime forces in the west since mid-2012. In August, rebels broke a weeks-long regime siege of the east, but Assad loyalists restored the blockade on September 8. "We hope there will be a ceasefire so that civilians can get a break," said east Aleppo resident Abu Abdullah. "Civilians have no hope any more."[SEP]A Syrian woman prays over the grave of her son at a cemetery in the rebel-held town of Douma on September 12, 2016 (AFP Photo/Sameer Al-Doumy) Damascus (AFP) - An internationally backed ceasefire for Syria came into effect at sundown Monday as part of a hard-fought deal to bring an end to the war between rebels and regime fighters. The truce, brokered by the United States and Russia, entered into force at 7:00 pm local time (1600 GMT) across Syria except in jihadist-held areas. While the Syrian government and its allies have signed on to the deal, opposition forces have yet to formally respond.

Before a ceasefire takes effect tomorrow, over 100 people have been killed and over 100 injured in airstrikes on rebel-held Idlib.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Forces loyal to east Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar on Sunday seized at least two key oil ports from a rival force loyal to the U.N.-backed government, risking a new conflict over the OPEC nation’s resources. A general view of pipelines at the Zueitina oil terminal in Zueitina, west of Benghazi April 7, 2014. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Ahmed al-Mismari, a spokesman for Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), said its fighters had full control of Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Brega and Zueitina after launching an early morning military operation on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid. The attacks on Libya’s major oil ports by Haftar, who opposes the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), could derail efforts to restart production. Those efforts are seen as critical to saving Libya’s economy and helping the GNA survive. The National Oil Corporation in Tripoli confirmed LNA control of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, while the situation in Brega and Zueitina could not be independently verified. Armed conflict, political disputes and militant attacks have reduced Libya’s oil production to about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the 1.6 million bpd it was producing before an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Western states have backed the GNA to stabilize a country where chaos allowed Islamist militants and migrant smugglers to operate across swathes of territory. But Haftar, a former army general who has been a divisive figure in post-Gaddafi Libya, has resisted attempts to integrate him into unified armed forces and overcome divisions between factions in the east and west. Many in western Libya and Tripoli criticize Haftar as a former Gaddafi ally bent on establishing a military dictatorship, but he has become a political figurehead for many in the east who feel abandoned by the capital. A government and parliament based in the east still resist the GNA’s authority in Tripoli and they have in the past tried to sell crude themselves. In a statement released late on Sunday, the GNA’s leadership, or Presidential Council, called the attacks an “unjustified escalation” that would “prolong the period of conflict” in Libya. EXPORT QUESTIONS The ports targeted by the LNA were previously under the control of the Petrol Facilities Guard (PFG), whose leader, Ibrahim Jathran, struck a deal with the GNA in July to end its blockade of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina. But although the National Oil Corporation (NOC) recently offered two cargos for export from Ras Lanuf, there had been little sign of any rapid resumption of production in recent weeks, and control by Haftar’s brigades could make the deal irrelevant. Mismari said the LNA had been able to seize Ras Lanuf and Es Sider quickly because it had won over local tribes before staging a rapid advance. “This force was being prepared for a long time, and it entered without any resistance from Jathran’s forces,” he told Reuters. One witness said there had been a heavy deployment of LNA armored vehicles around Ras Lanuf and Es Sider. Akram Buhaliqa, a second LNA spokesman, said there had been no casualties among LNA forces, although the NOC said a small fuel tank for power generation had been set ablaze in Es Sider. General view of the industrial zone at the oil port of Ras Lanuf March 11, 2014. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo On Sunday afternoon, residents said LNA forces had taken control of a large house belonging to Jathran’s family in a residential district of Ajdabiya following clashes. Jathran’s exact whereabouts were not clear but in an appeal broadcast on a pro-Haftar TV station, the leader of the eastern Magharba tribe, Saleh al-Ateiwish, called on Jathran to return to the tribe and “to ask his people to surrender and let them go to their families without any losses”. Ras Lanuf and Es Sider were badly damaged earlier this year in attacks by Islamic State militants based in Sirte, where they are on the verge of defeat by forces aligned with the GNA backed by U.S. air strikes.[SEP]The United States and five European powers called on Monday on forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to withdraw from several key oil ports seized from a rival force over the weekend. "We call for all military forces that have moved into the oil crescent to withdraw immediately, without preconditions," said the statement from the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain. Forces loyal to Haftar took control of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Brega ports, displacing a force that is allied to the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.[SEP]BENGHAZI, Libya, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar took control of key oil ports in Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Brega on Sunday, said Ahmed al-Masmari, a spokesman for the forces. But an official from the force that previously controlled the ports, the Petrol Facilities Guard, said there was still fighting at Ras Lanuf. Masmari said clashes were continuing at another oil port, Zueitina, and around the nearby town of Ajdabiya. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Patrick Markey)[SEP]This file photo taken on January 8 shows smoke billowing from a petroleum storage tank after a fire was extinguished following fighting at Al Sidra oil terminal, near Ras Lanuf in the so-called ‘oil crescent’ along Libya’s northern coast (AFP photo) BENGHAZI, Libya — Forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar on Sunday seized at least two key oil ports from a rival force loyal to the UN-backed government, risking a new conflict over the OPEC nation’s resources. Ahmed Al Masmari, a spokesman for Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), said LNA fighters seized control of Es Sider, Ras Lanuf and Brega, but still faced resistance at the port of Zueitina and around the nearby town of Ajdabiya. The attacks on Libya’s major oil ports by Haftar, who opposes the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), pushes the North African state towards a broader battle over its oil resources and disrupts attempts to restart production. Armed conflict, political disputes and militant attacks have reduced Libya’s oil production to about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 1.6 million bpd it was producing before an uprising and fall of Muammar Qadhafi in 2011. Haftar, a former army general who has been a divisive figure in Libya since Qadhafi was toppled, has resisted attempts to integrate him into a unified armed forces and overcome divisions between the east and west regions. Many in western Libya and Tripoli criticise Haftar as a former Qadhafi ally bent on establishing a military dictatorship, but he has become a political figurehead for many in the east who feel abandoned by the capital. The state-run National Oil Corporation confirmed Ras Lanuf and Es Sider were under full control of Haftar forces while Zueitina was still held by loyalist forces. The attacks complicate Western attempts to bring together Libya’s rival armed factions under the GNA and stabilise a country where chaos allowed militants and migrant smugglers to operate across swathes of territory. Control by Haftar’s brigades will also raise questions for the market about the legality of crude exports by a force opposed to the internationally recognised government in Tripoli. A government and parliament based in the east still resist the GNA’s authority in Tripoli and they have in the past threatened to try to sell crude themselves. The ports targeted by the LNA were previously under the control of the Petrol Facilities Guard (PFG), which struck a deal with the GNA in July to end its blockade of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina. A port engineer confirmed that Haftar’s forces had entered Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, Libya’s largest, and said a tank at Es Sider had been set alight in the clashes. The NOC said the blaze was in a small fuel tank for power generation. The LNA’s claims of control could not immediately be verified and Ali Al Hassi, a PFG spokesman, said fighting was continuing at Ras Lanuf. In recent weeks, as the PFG struck its deal with the GNA to try to restart exports, the LNA mobilised in the area leading to fears of a struggle for control. Libya’s National Oil Corporation has been removing oil stored at Zueitina because of fears it could be lost during any clashes. Ras Lanuf and Es Sider were badly damaged earlier this year in attacks by the Daesh terror group militants based in Sirte, where they are currently on the verge of defeat by forces aligned with the GNA backed by US air strikes.[SEP]BENGHAZI, Libya, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar launched attacks at ports in Libya's oil crescent on Sunday and clashed with guards who control the terminals, a guards spokesman and a resident said. Petrol Facilities Guard spokesman Ali al-Hassi said Haftar's forces had attacked at Zueitina, Ras Lanuf, and Es Sider ports, as well as the nearby town of Ajdabiya, and clashes were continuing. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Andrew Heavens)[SEP]Forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar launched attacks at ports in Libya’s oil crescent on Sunday and clashed with guards who control the terminals, a guards spokesman and a resident said. Petrol Facilities Guard (PFG) spokesman Ali al-Hassi said Haftar’s forces had attacked at Zueitina, Ras Lanuf, and Es Sider ports, as well as the nearby town of Ajdabiya, and clashes were continuing. A port engineer confirmed that Haftar’s forces had entered the oil ports of Ras Lanuf and El Sider, Libya’s largest, and said one of the storage tanks at Es Sider had been set alight in the clashes. Both ports have been closed since late 2014 but the Petrol Facilities Guard recently struck a deal with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli to reopen them and attempt to resume exports. The PFG also said it would reopen Zueitina, but Haftar’s forces, known as the Libyan National Army (LNA), mobilised in the area leading to fears of a struggle for control. Haftar and other power brokers in the east have opposed the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), preventing it from extending its authority to eastern Libya. The GNA entered Tripoli in March. No one from the LNA could immediately be reached for comment on Sunday. Ras Lanuf and Es Sider were badly damaged earlier this year in attacks by Islamic State militants based in Sirte, where they are currently on the verge of defeat by forces aligned with the GNA backed by U.S. air strikes. Libya’s National Oil Corporation has been removing oil stored at Zueitina because of fears it could be lost during clashes.[SEP]Western powers call on Libyan forces that seized ports to withdraw TUNIS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The United States and five European powers on Monday urged forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to withdraw from several key oil ports seized from a rival force over the weekend. Fighters loyal to Haftar took control of the ports of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Brega, displacing a force allied to the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli. The seizure threatened to reignite conflict over Libya's oil resources and disrupt efforts by the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord to revive oil production and exports. "We call for all military forces that have moved into the oil crescent to withdraw immediately, without preconditions," the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain said in a joint statement. The western powers condemned the attacks on the ports and affirmed their intent to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution designed to prevent what they called "illicit" oil exports. Eastern Libyan factions allied to Haftar had previously tried to export oil independently of the government and the National Oil Corporation in Tripoli. Libya's oil infrastructure, production and export must remain under the control of the corporation acting under the Government of National Accord, the western countries said in their statement. U.N. Libya envoy Martin Kobler, in a separate statement, expressed "grave concern" at fighting around the oil ports, and called on forces who seized the terminals to refrain from further military escalation. "Attacks on the oil terminals further threaten the stability and lead to a greater division of the country," Kobler said. "They further restrict the oil exports and add to people's suffering."[SEP]TUNIS/BENGHAZI, Libya, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Libyan forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar said on Monday they had tightened their control over four major oil ports, casting a Western-backed project to unite Libya and revive oil exports into deep uncertainty. Haftar's forces met little resistance as they seized the terminals at Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Brega in an operation launched on Sunday, displacing a rival armed faction aligned with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. The advance is the latest power struggle over the OPEC nation's energy assets, after the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi and the chaos that followed left the North African country splintered into competing rival armed factions. Haftar opposes the Tripoli government and has resisted its attempts to integrate his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) into unified armed forces. His seizure of the ports risks a response from powerful western brigades allied with the government and a deepening of regional divisions. But Tripoli may seek a deal with Haftar - similar to the agreement it struck with the armed faction he has displaced - to restart the oil exports it needs to stave off a financial crisis that could paralyse government operations. Conflict and political disputes have reduced Libya's oil output and exports to a fraction of the level seen before an uprising toppled late dictator Gaddafi five years ago. In a statement signalling a willingness to get oil flowing, Haftar's LNA said late on Sunday it would secure the ports to "return operational responsibility to the National Oil Corporation with a guarantee of non-interference by armed forces in operational activities and exports". Just a year ago, Libya had two rival governments, one in Tripoli and one in the east, each backed by competing factions of armed brigades and laying claims to the country's oil resources. A unity deal brokered by the United Nations, signed by rival factions in December despite opposition from hardliners, was meant to end the divide. As a result of the agreement, the GNA arrived in Tripoli in March, backed by Western powers to stabilise a country where lawlessness allowed Islamist militants and migrant smugglers to operate across swathes of territory. Since then, however, some political and tribal leaders in the east have withheld their support, worried that the new government is a vehicle for opponents in the west. The LNA has strengthened its position, making military gains in and around Benghazi against Islamist-led opponents before taking control of the ports. Many people in Tripoli and western Libya criticise Haftar as a new dictator in the making, but he has become a political figurehead for many in the east who feel abandoned by the capital. In seizing the ports, the LNA displaced units of Libya's Petrol Facilities Guard (PFG) led by Ibrahim Jathran, which struck a deal with the GNA in July to end its three-year blockade of the Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina terminals. The LNA took Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, Libya's biggest export terminals, in a dawn operation on Sunday it dubbed "Swift Lightning". Clashes broke out in Zueitina, but the LNA said overnight that it had secured that port as well as confirming its control of a fourth port, Brega. Residents in Zueitina and Brega told Reuters that LNA forces were in control on Monday. A commander allied to the LNA said an attempted counter-attack at Ras Lanuf by Jathran loyalists had been blocked on Monday. Jathran had lost much local support after switching allegiances to the GNA; there were few casualties during the port seizures as many of his men appeared to have responded to a call from eastern tribal leaders to hand over control peacefully. Haftar's forces could face a renewed backlash from Islamist-leaning groups in the east as result of the raids, but they have suffered heavy losses in previous battles with the LNA. His opponents in the western city of Misrata could prove the bigger threat. Misratan forces are close to finishing a four-month campaign to oust Islamic State from its former North African stronghold of Sirte. But the campaign has been costly, and Misrata also has to sustain a military presence in several other parts of the west, including Tripoli, where it has provided support for the GNA. If the LNA retains military control over the terminals, eastern factions it is allied with could make a fresh attempt to export oil independently from the National Oil Company (NOC) in Tripoli. But previous efforts to do this through the NOC office in Benghazi and funnel money to an eastern branch of Libya's central bank have been blocked by international opposition. Claudia Gazzini, a Libya expert at International Crisis Group, said it was in Haftar's interests to have a working relationship with the NOC. "I think this is what he's aiming for - to be the one who reopens the terminals," Gazzini said. "The unexpected outcome is that the terminals could open earlier than expected if there's no military counter attack." Still, a deal between the LNA and the state oil body could face stiff political opposition from Haftar's opponents in the GNA's leadership, or Presidential Council, which late on Sunday called the attacks an "unjustified escalation" that would prolong conflict in Libya. The Council consists of nine members who were selected on the basis of Libya's political and geographical divisions and are often divided among themselves. The return to the Council of Ali Gatrani, a member representing the east who had suspended his membership for months, opens a potential channel to Haftar and his allies in the east as the government seeks to win their backing. In the past, however, eastern factions have said they will not join the GNA without greater representation, guarantees over the leadership of the military, and the relocation of the NOC to Benghazi - demands they are likely to press with more confidence now. "The view of the LNA is that, now they are taking control and making advances, they will want to see an improvement in their funding, they will want to see this reflected economically and politically in their benefit," said Mohamed Eljarh, an analyst with the Atlantic Council. In such a scenario, he said, Misrata leaders could refuse to deal with Haftar, adding: "There we could really see the faultlines for the division of the country." (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London; Editing by Pravin Char)[SEP]Libya's two key oil export terminals are Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra, 650 kilometres (400 miles) east of the capital, which are together capable of handling 700,000 bpd. By Leon Neal (AFP/File) Tripoli (AFP) - A spokesman for the forces led by a controversial Libyan general said on Sunday that they had seized key oil export terminals in the country's east. General Khalifa Haftar's forces took control of the Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf ports, the LANA news agency loyal to the internationally recognised parliament reported Colonel Ahmad Mesmari as saying. Haftar, one of the most powerful military figures in Libya, has refused to endorse a national unity government and remains loyal to the rival administration based in the east of the country.[SEP]A spokesman for forces led by a controversial Libyan general on Sunday that they had seized two key oil export terminals in the country's east. General Khalifa Haftar's forces took control of the Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf ports, the LANA news agency loyal to Libya's internationally recognised parliament reported Colonel Ahmad Mesmari as saying. Haftar, one of the most powerful military figures in Libya, has refused to endorse a UN-backed national unity government and remains loyal to the rival administration based in the east of the country. Haftar's forces took the Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra terminals, together capable of handling 700,000 barrels of oil per day, from installation guards loyal to the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNA). "Clashes are now ongoing near the Zuwaytina port" further east, Mesmari said. The oil-rich area around Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra is seen as a vital source of income for the GNA and key to the economy of the North African country. In late July, the oil installation guards announced the reopening of Ras Lanuf and Al-Sidra ports after an agreement with the GNA to resume oil exports. The ports had been closed for months following attacks by the jihadist Islamic State group in January. IS has taken advantage of the turmoil in Libya since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi, with rival authorities and militias vying for control of the country. A UN-brokered deal in December led to the GNA starting to work in Tripoli, but it has since struggled to assert its authority over the country.

Forces loyal to Libyan general and former US citizen Khalifa Haftar, commander of the elected Council of Deputies military, seize control of the ports of Sidra, Ra's Lanuf, Brega and Zuwetina.