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LONDON: Britain’s finance minister on Monday said he did not think "anyone really knows" what a no-deal Brexit would cost the economy.Sajid Javid spoke to BBC radio before his keynote speech at the governing Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester. Chancellor of the Exchequer Javid said he was not sure how much a no-deal Brexit would cost, telling the BBC: "I don’t think anyone really knows a full proper answer to that question."Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists that Britain will leave the European Union at the end of October with or without a deal. Javid declared on Monday that a no-deal Brexit "is not our preferred outcome".He added: "We are working incredibly hard to get a deal by October 31. I absolutely believe that can still happen. It can still be done."But if we do not manage to do that, we do still need to leave the EU on that date. We cannot have any more dither and delay -- and we will leave, if we have to, without a de...

SINGAPORE: An American man who leaked confidential details of thousands of HIV-positive people in Singapore, most of them foreigners, has been jailed in the United States for two years.Mikhy Farrera Brochez was convicted by a Kentucky court in June for trying to extort the Singapore government using the stolen data. The 34-year-old had obtained the data from his partner, a senior Singaporean doctor who also helped Brochez conceal his HIV-positive status to get a work permit for the city-state.Confidential information including the names and addresses of 14,200 people diagnosed with the virus that causes Aids was dumped online.The leak caused anxiety among those with HIV, who have long complained of facing prejudice in socially conservative Singapore. Brochez was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on Friday, said a statement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Kentucky."The defendant’s conduct was serious and significant, affecting thousands of people acr...

PATNA, India: At least 100 people have died in northern India over the last three days in unusually heavy late monsoon rains which have submerged streets, hospital wards and houses, officials said on Monday.Dozens of boats were pressed into service on streets overflowing with gushing rain water in Patna, the capital of the eastern state of Bihar, after torrential downpours far stronger the normal.At least 27 people have lost their lives across the state and another 63 in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh since Friday, authorities said. With more rain predicted, weather experts say September could end as the wettest in more than a hundred years."Patna alone has recorded some 226 millimetres of rainfall since Friday," Bihar disaster response official M. Ramachandru told AFP. Photos showed patients lying on hospital beds in dirty rain water at the state-run Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in Patna.It has also been raining heavily in southern India and in the western state of Gujar...

SANAA: Yemen’s Huthi rebels have freed 290 prisoners, including dozens of survivors from a Saudi-led coalition strike on a detention centre earlier this month, the ICRC said on Monday.The International Committee of the Red Cross hailed the move as "a positive step that will hopefully revive the release, transfer and repatriation of conflict-related detainees" under a deal struck last year between the rebels and Yemen’s government.The Huthis recently announced the capture of hundreds of Yemeni loyalist forces in an August offensive near the Saudi border, but they were not among those freed on Monday. The United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, welcomed the initiative to "unilaterally release detainees"."I hope this step will lead to further initiatives that will facilitate the exchange of all the conflict-related detainees as per the Stockholm Agreement" Griffiths said, referring to the 2018 accord. He called on all parties to work togeth...

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

WASHINGTON: John Bolton warned on Monday that North Korea had not truly chosen to give up nuclear weapons in the hawk’s first public appearance since he left as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.At a think-tank conference on North Korea, Bolton said he could now "speak in unvarnished terms" about the "grave threat" posed by the regime of Kim Jong Un, who has courted Trump. "It seems to be clear that the DPRK has not made a strategic decision to give up its nuclear weapons," Bolton said, referencing the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea."In fact, I think the contrary is true. I think the strategic decision that Kim Jong Un is operating through is that he will do whatever he can to keep a deliverable nuclear weapons capability and to develop and enhance it further," Bolton said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.His comments are at odds with Trump’s rosy depictions of Kim after thre...

MADRID: A Dominican woman was sentenced on Monday to life in prison in Spain for murdering the eight-year-old son of her Spanish partner in a case that shocked the country.A jury in Almeria in southern Spain last month found Ana Julia Quezada guilty of killing the boy, who was the son of her then partner Angel Cruz. A court on Monday handed down a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, the stiffest possible jail term under Spanish law.Gabriel Cruz disappeared on February 27, 2018, after visiting his grandmother in Las Hortichuelas, a village near the coast 50-km east of Almeria. His disappearance triggered a massive search involving hundreds of volunteers which lasted nearly two weeks.But on March 11, the police discovered the boy’s body in the boot of a car belonging to Quezada, who had been seen taking part in the search, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with his face and speaking to reporters in tears.He had been asphyxiated, according to the court. Investigators began to ...

STRASBOURG, France: A Uighur scholar imprisoned in China since 2014 was jointly awarded a top European human rights prize on Monday, an accolade likely to draw the ire of Beijing.Ilham Tohti, 49, is serving a life sentence on charges of separatism for advocating the rights of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China. The Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, named after the Czech ex-president, dissident and writer, was awarded by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to Tohti and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), a group created in 2003 to help foster postwar reconciliation in the Balkans. Rights groups say the Uighurs have suffered a severe crackdown that has seen millions interned in re-education camps whose existence China denied until recently. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2o44LOE

AL-QAIM, Iraq: A border crossing on a vital highway linking the capitals of Iraq and Syria, seized by Islamic State group jihadists in 2014, re-opened on Monday, an AFP reporter said.Iraqi security forces had re-taken the border post near the town of Al-Qaim in late 2017 as part of a massive operation backed by an international coalition against the jihadists’ self-proclaimed "caliphate".On Monday, an AFP video journalist saw trucks hauling cargo across the terminal, which lies on a major highway connecting Baghdad and Damascus. Close to the Euphrates river in Iraq’s restive Anbar province, Al-Qaim faces Albu Kamal in Syria’s vast eastern region of Deir Ezzor.It is the only crossing between the two countries controlled by Syrian regime forces on one side and Iraqi federal authorities on the other. Another crossing was destroyed in fighting, while the rest are controlled by Kurdish forces which have a degree of autonomy in both countries.The roughly 600-km frontier runs throug...

GENEVA: A UN rights expert on Monday criticised Saudi Arabia’s crown prince for trying to create "distance" between himself and journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s execution, even as he appeared to acknowledge the Saudi state was responsible.Agnes Callamard, a United Nations special rapporteur who conducted an investigation into Khashoggi’s murder, was reacting to an interview broadcast by US media on Sunday with Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Speaking to CBS’s 60 Minutes, Prince Mohammed denied ordering or having advanced warning of Khashoggi’s killing on October 2 last year at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, but said he "took full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia".Callamard, whose independent probe found "credible evidence" linking the crown prince to the murder and attempted cover up, dismissed that defence as "problematic". "He is only taking corporate responsibility for the crime, which goes without saying," Callamard told AFP, day...

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s premier has said for the first time that his government had "indications" Israel was behind some attacks on paramilitary bases this summer, but stopped short of making an explicit accusation.The Hashed al-Shaabi force has blamed the series of explosions at its bases and arms depots on Israel and the US, but the central government had so far said it was still investigating. In a first, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi told Al-Jazeera television in an interview aired Monday that those investigations were nearing a conclusion."Some of the investigations carried out by Iraqi authorities provided important indications that Israel was behind some of these attacks," he said, in excerpts of the interview seen by AFP. Abdel Mahdi said he had even "heard from the Americans" that Israel was involved but that his government still lacked "tangible evidence".The blasts at five Hashed bases have been a threat to Baghdad’s precarious balancing act...

BRATISLAVA: One boy was killed and several of his schoolmates injured when strong winds uprooted a tree near Bratislava, police said, as Slovakia and its Central European neighbours issued weather warnings."Strong wind caused a tree to fall on primary school pupils on a sidewalk in Nitra. A 14-year-old boy died on the spot," Slovak police said on their Facebook page, adding that "several others" were injured, one seriously.Slovak authorities issued wind warnings for the whole country, including a hurricane-force alert for the northern High Tatras mountain region where wind speeds could reach 135-km. Howling winds caused power outages for some 30,000 households in the Czech Republic on Monday. Falling trees hampered rail traffic across the country, while a driver escaped with injuries after a tree fell on his truck. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2n3tbrH

KAMPALA: Uganda on Monday designated the red beret and tunic as official military clothing that could land civilians who wear them in jail, essentially banning the uniform of opposition leader Bobi Wine and his supporters.The pop star turned leading opposition figure, who has announced he is running for president against longtime leader Yoweri Museveni in 2021, has made the red beret his signature, calling it a "symbol of resistance".However the beret, also worn by some soldiers, was included in Uganda’s first ever gazette of all military clothing, which states that any member of the public found in possession of the items "is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years." from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2n5EvUg

NEW DELHI: At least 21 people returning from offering prayers at a temple in India’s western state of Gujarat died after their bus overturned on Monday, police said, with heavy rains hindering rescuers. Police said the bus, carrying 70 passengers returning from the temple town of Ambaji to their villages in Anand district. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2nZ77i0

LONDON: A no-deal Brexit “may well happen” on October 31 despite a law aimed at preventing Boris Johnson from taking the UK out of the European Union without an agreement, Chancellor Sajid Javid said.Javid appeared uncertain as to how the UK will leave the EU on October 31 but said he thinks he knows how the Prime Minister intends to achieve it.The Benn Act was rushed through Parliament to require the Prime Minister to seek a delay to Brexit if a deal has not been agreed by October 19, or if MPs have not agreed to leave the EU without one.But there have been suspicions in pro-EU circles that the Prime Minister will try to avoid complying with the requirements.The Chancellor told the BBC: “Of course, every government should observe all laws at all times. We’re taking a careful look at that law. But we’re also very clear that our policy has not changed. We will leave on October 31.“And if you are going to ask me next, how we going to do that? we’re not going to set that out right now. We...

MADRID: Hundreds of hotels in Spain are facing imminent closure over the collapse of British travel giant Thomas Cook, the head of the Spanish hotel federation warned on Monday.“There are 500 hotels which are going to close immediately due to the collapse of Thomas Cook and the situation could get worse if the government doesn’t take immediate action,” Juan Molas, head of Spain’s Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation, told business daily Cinco Dias.And the sum in unpaid bills left by the demise of the tour operator would be much higher than the initial estimate of 200 million euros ($220 million), said Molas, whose organisation represents 15,000 businesses.Of those hotels facing immediate closure, 100 were exclusively dependent on Thomas Cook he said while the rest counted on the firm for between 30 and 70 percent of their clients. One hotel in Fuerteventura the second largest of the Canary Islands had recently undergone a 20-million-euro upgrade and was now faced with 700 ...

PARIS: France bid a final adieu to Jacques Chirac on Monday as the former French president received military honours on a national day of mourning that culminated with a memorial service attended by dozens of past and current world leaders.Cutting a solemn figure, France’s President Emmanuel Macron presided over the military ceremony on a mild, sunny morning near the site of Napoleon’s tomb in the courtyard of Les Invalides.A military band played the national anthem, La Marseillaise, before Macron inspected the troops. Chirac’s coffin, covered with a Tricolor flag, was then carried to the centre of the cobbled courtyard.Macron, who did not speak, later attended the final service at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in downtown Paris alongside family members, French politicians and foreign officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, former US president Bill Clinton, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroder and Jordan’s King Abdallah II.. from The News International - World https...

MOGADISHU: The Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a US base in Somalia on Monday, as the European Union confirmed a separate strike against a convoy of Italian advisers.The militants struck the US base at Baledogle, about 70 miles northwest of the capital Mogadishu, with explosives before gunmen opened fire on the compound.In a statement, Al-Shabaab said: “In the early hours of Monday morning, an elite unit of soldiers... launched a daring raid on the US military base”.“After breaching the perimeters of the heavily fortified base, the Mujahideen (holy fighters) stormed the military complex, engaging the crusaders in an intense firefight.”The Shabaab claimed they had killed dozens in the attack, however the US Mission to Somalia and a Somali military official said there were no casualties. “We already had the information about the attackers and simply repelled them before they reached our defence barriers. There was no casualty inflicted on our soldiers or...

MORIA, Greece: Greece said on Monday it wanted to start sending back thousands of migrants to Turkey, a day after a deadly fire sparked riots at an overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos.The decision, taken at an emergency cabinet meeting, came as officials in Greece and abroad called for action to ease the pressure on the crowded migrant camps spread across the Aegean islands.Athens wants to return 10,000 migrants to Turkey by the end of 2020, the government statement said. That would increase the rate from the “1,805 returned in the 4.5 years under the previous (left-wing) Syriza government”, it added.The conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has already announced more naval patrols in the Aegean, closed centres for migrants refused asylum, and plans to overhaul the asylum system, the statement added.Greek officials also confirmed the death of a woman in Sunday’s blaze at Moria, Europe’s largest migrant camp, which has facilities for 3,000 people but houses ...

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NEW YORK: Superstar singer Jessye Norman, an American soprano who showcased her majestic yet intimate voice at opera houses and orchestras around the world, died Monday, her family said. She was 74 years old.One of the contemporary era´s most revered opera singers, the Grammy-winner died "surrounded by loved ones" at a New York hospital due to septic shock and multi-organ failure, the result of complications from a spinal cord injury sustained in 2015, according to a statement obtained by AFP via a spokeswoman."We are so proud of Jessye´s musical achievements and the inspiration that she provided to audiences around the world that will continue to be a source of joy," said her family.Born September 15, 1945 in Augusta, Georgia, Norman grew up surrounded by music as one of five children in a family of amateur artists.She made a foray into gospel at age four, and as a young girl began listening to radio broadcasts of performances at the Metropolitan Opera, where she w...

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping awarded medals and honorary titles to an array of domestic and international "heroes" on Sunday, including a former French prime minister and a centenarian Canadian educator.The award ceremony is part of China’s celebrations to mark 70 years of Communist rule, which will kick off on Tuesday with a massive military parade in Beijing aimed at showcasing the country’s emergence as a global superpower."The heroes and role models are all devoted to the cause of the Party and the people... and hold fast to working for the happiness of the Chinese people," said Xi in a speech following the presentation of awards.Isabel Crook, a Canadian anthropologist and educator born in 1915, was the oldest awardee present and had lived in China since before the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, according to official news agency Xinhua. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2nIQSFx

BERAT, Albania: Albania’s sole Jewish history museum reopened in southern Berat on Sunday, thanks to a businessman who rescued it from the brink of closure.The small "Solomon Museum", which tells the story of how Muslim and Christian Albanians sheltered hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust, was the passion project of a local professor, Simon Vrusho.Vrusho opened the museum in 2018 and funded it with small donations left in a box by the door -- and his own pension. When the 75-year-old died in February of this year, the future of the exhibit was thrown into limbo.After reading an AFP report about its uncertain fate, French-Albanian businessman Gazmend Toska decided to finance the museum and move it to a larger site in the city, where scores of people gathered on Sunday for its opening."It was deeply moving to see the response to AFP’s coverage of this museum," Gazmend Toska told a crowd at the ceremony. France’s ambassador to Albania, Christina Vasak, praised "...

BEIJING: At least 36 people died and 36 others were injured in east China when a packed coach with a flat tyre collided with a truck, authorities said on Sunday.The bus was carrying 69 people -- its maximum capacity -- when it crossed into oncoming traffic and hit the freight truck on an expressway in eastern Jiangsu province on Saturday morning, the Yixing public security bureau said.A preliminary investigation determined that the accident was caused by a flat tyre on the left front wheel of the bus, the bureau said in a statement. Nine people were seriously injured, 26 were slightly hurt and one was discharged from hospital.The Changchun-Shenzhen expressway reopened after eight hours of rescue work. Deadly road accidents are common in China, where traffic regulations are often flouted or go unenforced.According to authorities 58,000 people were killed in accidents across the country in 2015 alone, the last available figures. Violations of traffic laws were blamed for nearly 90 percen...

MEXICO CITY: Two people were killed and two more injured when a rollercoaster carriage derailed at a theme park in Mexico, authorities have said.Early reports suggest a mechanical problem caused the carriage to become detatched from the ride and fall some 10 metres to the ground, the public prosecutor said in a statement. It is believed the two men died as a result of head injuries, it added, while two woman were taken to hospital -- one of them in a serious condition.The accident happened at La Feria amusement park in the capital Mexico City on Saturday. In a Twitter post, the theme park said it "deeply regrets the terrible accident" and it has launched an investigation into the incident. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2osiVtj

ISLAMABAD: The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) has decided to probe the ongoing lockdown in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK) and the dissolution of its legislature, which had been a member of the CPA.It has asked Pakistan to submit a written application for an investigation in this matter, said a press release received here on Sunday.This was stated by the President of the General Assembly of the 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, Rebeca Alitwala Kadaga, the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda and the host of the conference. Her statement came in the wake of the powerful interventions made by Pakistan’s delegates, led by Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza. Dr Mirza was followed by MNA Dr Aisha Ghous Pasha, who strongly objected to the continued siege of Kashmir by the Indian occupation forces, calling the valley of Kashmir “world’s largest open-air prison”.Drawing the attention of the General Assembly, Dr Mirza said the legislature of the...

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is raising a large chunk of the money for his border wall with Mexico by deferring several military construction projects slated for Guam.About 7 per cent of the funds for the 3.6 billion dollar (£2.9 billion) wall are being diverted from eight projects in the US territory. Guam, which has a population of around 160,000, is a a strategic hub for US forces in the Pacific.The administration has vowed it is only delaying the spending, not cancelling it. But Democrats in Congress, outraged over Trump’s use of an emergency order for the wall, have promised they will not approve money to revive the projects. “The fact is, by literally taking that money after it had been put in place and using it for something else, you now put those projects in jeopardy,” said Carl Baker, executive director of Pacific Forum, a Honolulu-based foreign policy think tank. The Senate on Wednesday passed a measure blocking Trump from raiding the military construction budget fo...

RIYADH: A prominent bodyguard to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman was shot and killed in what authorities described as a personal dispute, state TV has reported.Tributes poured in across social media for Major General Abdulaziz al-Fagham, with many including images of the bodyguard at work. One included him bending down to apparently help tie the shoes of King Salman, the 83-year-old ruler of the oil-rich kingdom.Others show al-Fagham in the background of events with both King Salman and his predecessor, the late King Abdullah. Details remained vague. While officials posted condolences for al-Fagham, the first official word of his death came in a single tweet by Saudi state television.“Major General Abdulaziz al-Fagham, bodyguard of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, was shot dead following a personal dispute in Jeddah,” the tweet read. State TV offered no other details. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2mdLjP8

BROWNSVILLE, United States: Elon Musk has unveiled a SpaceX spacecraft designed to carry a crew and cargo to the moon, Mars or anywhere else in the solar system and land back on Earth perpendicularly.In a livestreamed speech from SpaceX’s launch facility near the southern tip of Texas, Musk said the space venture’s Starship is expected to take off for the first time in about one or two months and reach 65,000 feet before landing back on Earth.He said it is essential for the viability of space travel to be able to reuse spacecraft and that it is important to take steps to extend consciousness beyond our planet. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2mUWEUy

LONDON: The Christian Friends of Pakistan, writing on behalf of the Pakistani Christian community in the UK, congratulated Prime Minister Imran Khan for speaking boldly to the world leaders at the UN General Assembly about the burning issue of Kashmir, and to awaken the conscience of the world community.“Sir, you wisely drew attention of the world leaders to the blatant violations of international, humanitarian and human rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and their right of self-determination,” stated Councillor Dr James Shera, Dr Peter David, Councillor Morris Johns, Rev John Bosco, Michael Massey and Bishop Yousaf Nadeem Bhinder in a joint letter to Prime Minister Khan. “You also rightly warned the world leaders about the dangers of the world sleep walking into a nuclear war...”They called on the international community to take effective measures to ensure that the Modi government takes necessary steps to immediately release the Kashmiri political leadership from imprisonment...

LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of squeezing the thigh of a woman journalist under the table during a private lunch.Charlotte Edwardes said the incident took place at the offices of The Spectator magazine in London shortly after Johnson became editor in 1999. After the lunch, she said she had confided in the young woman who was sitting on the other side of Johnson, who told her: “Oh God, he did exactly the same to me.”Writing her first column for The Sunday Times, Edwardes said: “I’m seated on Johnson’s right; on his left is a young woman I know. More wine is poured; more wine is drunk. Under the table I feel Johnson’s hand on my thigh. He gives it a squeeze. His hand is high up my leg and he has enough inner flesh beneath his fingers to make me sit suddenly upright.” Downing Street has not commented on the report. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2oqG13w

NEW YORK: Pakistan has submitted a rejoinder to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in response to India’s criticism of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech that exposed Indian atrocities and gross violations of human rights in Kashmir.Zulqarnain Chheena, a diplomat of the Pakistani mission, while exercising his right to reply stated on Saturday night that Prime Minister Khan had exposed the real cruel face of Indian state terrorism before the world community.“It is obvious that India neither wants to face up to the truth about its abominable policies and actions, nor does it want others to see it,” Zulqarnain told the 193-member assembly while responding to an Indian representative, who described Prime Minister Khan’s well-reasoned address as “hate speech.”He outlined the Pakistani Premier had only put a spotlight on New Delhi’s “indefensible actions against the Kashmiris and its minorities across the country.”“India is committing state terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir for...

WASHINGTON: A US federal judge has dealt a new blow to President Donald Trump´s anti-immigration efforts, blocking a measure meant to relax the criteria for deporting undocumented migrants.The ruling concerns a policy known as expedited removal under which migrants previously found within 100 miles of the border within 14 days of their arrival were deported without appearing before an immigration judge.In July, the Department of Homeland Security implemented a policy to expand the measure to include immigrants found within two years of arrival and located anywhere in the United States. The decision issued late Friday evening by US District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson prohibits the DHS from applying the expanded criteria.The move, she said, would leave those affected by the expansion “irreparably harmed.” “The Trump administration intended to deport as many noncitizens as possible using a process that is profoundly flawed and puts noncitizens, including asylum-seekers, at serious ...

BEIJING: China hopes Beijing and Washington will resolve their trade dispute “with a calm and rational attitude”, Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said on Sunday, ahead of talks in two weeks between the two sides, a UK based news agency reported.The United States and China have been locked in an escalating trade war for over a year. They have levied punitive duties on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods, roiling financial markets and threatening global growth.A new round of high-level talks between the world’s two largest economies is expected in Washington on Oct. 10-11, led from the Chinese side by President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, Vice Premier Liu He.He said he hoped both sides would find ways to resolve their differences. “We believe this will benefit both countries’ people and the world,” he added.The Trump administration is considering radical new financial pressure tactics on Beijing, including the possibility of delisting Chinese companies from U...

JERUSALEM: An NGO accused Israeli security forces Sunday of torturing a Palestinian arrested on suspicion of leading a cell allegedly behind a West Bank bomb attack that killed an Israeli teenager.Israeli police and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said late Saturday they had arrested three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine several weeks ago for the August 23 bombing.The explosion near a spring close to the Jewish settlement of Dolev, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and wounded her father and brother. Shin Bet identified the cell leader as Samer al Arbeed. It said the cell "was preparing other attacks when the arrests occurred, notably gun attacks and a kidnapping".On Sunday, Palestinian prisoner support group Addameer said that Arbeed was hospitalised after suffering a "serious health deterioration due to torture and ill-treatment during interrogations."According to a statement by Addam...

BANGKOK: Thirteen people, most of them students, were killed when a pick-up truck flipped over while trying to change lanes on Sunday in the Thai capital, police said.Graphic CCTV footage shows passengers riding in the back being hurled out of the vehicle onto the road in Bangkok's suburbs. "Twelve people died instantly and one later died at the hospital," police officer Samran Chaytao told AFP, adding that nine of them were college-age students finished mechanical training for a local company. A total of 18 people were in the truck, which was coming from an evening out with students and company officials celebrating the end of their training, Samran said. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2mXh13g

BEIJING: At least 36 people have died and 36 others were injured in east China after a coach collided with a truck, state media said Sunday. The bus was carrying 69 people when it hit the truck on an expressway in eastern Jiangsu province on Saturday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said.The accident was caused by a flat tyre on the bus, according to a preliminary investigation, Xinhua said. Deadly road accidents are common in China, where traffic regulations are often flouted or go unenforced. 58,000 people were killed in accidents in 2015 alone. - from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2mVQQdh

RIYADH: Five people were injured in a fire that broke out at a new high-speed train station in Saudi Arabia´s western city of Jeddah on Sunday, state television reported, with huge palls of smoke seen rising into the air.The station serves the main Haramain High Speed Rail system. The route opened to the public in October last year, transporting passengers between Makkah and Madina, Islam's holiest sites."Five people who sustained minor injuries because of the fire were transported to hospital," Al-Ekhbariya state television reported. The General Directorate of Saudi Civil Defence said in an earlier tweet that it was working to extinguish the fire.A video uploaded on Twitter by the Makkah provincial government showed plumes of grey smoke rising from what looked like the inside of the complex. An AFP correspondent said security forces closed the main road linking Mecca and Jeddah and cordoned off the site. The blaze erupted at 12:35 pm local time, according to the Haramain...

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: After a bruising week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson entered the warm embrace of his Conservative party's annual conference on Sunday vowing to "get Brexit done".Despite a string of parliamentary setbacks and a defeat in the Supreme Court, Johnson insists he will take Britain out of the European Union next month, with or without a deal with Brussels."What we need to do is to move on. And the way to do that is to get Brexit done on October 31," he told BBC television in Manchester, northwest England, where the conference is taking place.His tough stance has put him at odds with many of his own MPs in the House of Commons, who helped passed a law blocking a "no deal" exit -- an outcome they fear would be hugely disruptive.But the tough talk resonates with the pro-Brexit party members who elected him in July, and who held up signs on the conference floor with the "Get Brexit Done" slogan.In what is likely to be...

BEIRUT: Hundreds of people protested in Lebanon´s capital Sunday over increasingly difficult living conditions, amid fears of a dollar shortage and possible price hikes.A skirmish broke out as protesters tried to break through security barriers in front of the cabinet office and anti-riot forces pushed them back with shields and batons, an AFP photographer said.Demonstrators briefly cut off several Beirut thoroughfares, some with burning tyres emitting billowing black smoke.Around 500 people, some carrying Lebanese flags, had gathered earlier in the capital´s central Martyrs´ Square to march to the seats of government and parliament, the photographer said. "Revolution, revolution," cried some of the protesters.Outside parliament, dozens of men and women streamed in from a side street under the watchful eye of security forces, another AFP reporter said. "Government, parliament... Thieves, thieves!" they chanted.Others chanted a popular refrain of the 2011 Arab Spring...

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NEW DELHI: At least 44 people were killed and thousands moved to relief camps because of flooding caused by torrential rains in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state, officials told AFP on Saturday.Densely populated regions on the banks of two main rivers in the state, which are overflowing because of incessant rainfall in the last 24-48 hours, are among the worst hit. "We had confirmed 44 deaths till late yesterday night. The authorities are focusing on rescue and relief work in the affected regions," Ravindra Pratap Sahi, vice chairman of the state disaster management authority, told AFP."We have moved thousands to relief shelters as there is forecast of heavy rains in the next 48 hours in most of the affected districts of the state," Sahi said. Officials and local media reports said most people lost their lives for a variety of reasons including wall collapses, drowning, lightning and snake bites. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2mL1GD1

DUBAI: The British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero headed into port in Dubai on Saturday after being held off the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas for more than two months, according to authorities and a tracking website.The ship’s seizure was widely seen as a tit-for-tat move after authorities in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar detained an Iranian tanker on suspicion it was shipping oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.Tehran repeatedly denied the cases were related.The Stena Impero sailed from Iran and into international waters of the Gulf on Friday morning, according to local authorities."Despite the vessel’s clearance, its legal case is still open in Iran’s courts," Hormozgan province’s maritime organisation in southern Iran said on its website. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2mIx5Ga

KABUL: A former World Bank economist, an ophthalmologist, a spy chief and a one-time warlord are among the 15 candidates vying for the presidency as Afghanistan heads to the polls on Saturday.Eighteen candidates are set to appear on the official ballot, although three have since dropped out and officials say there is not enough time to update the ballot papers.The run-up to the poll has been chaotic, with little in the way of campaigning and large swathes of the country unable to vote due to Taliban threats.Here is a rundown of the main candidates:President Ashraf Ghani has variously been described as visionary, short-tempered, academic and overly demanding.The former World Bank economist and finance minister has long nurtured dreams of rebuilding Afghanistan, and firmly believes he is one of the few people -- perhaps the only one -- capable of handling the responsibility.Despite a lack of credible polling, he is widely perceived as the overall favourite, though he has made little head...

CHINGFORD: Universal Credit (UC) would be scrapped under Labour plans to replace the Tories’ flagship welfare reforms with a social security system to support jobseekers with “dignity and respect”.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called the much-criticised reforms an “unmitigated disaster” as he outlined proposals to depart from a system designed to “punish and police”. The benefit cap and two-child limit would be immediately ditched, which Labour says would bring 300,000 children out of poverty.The punitive sanctions regime criticised for forcing people to use food banks would also be scrapped if Labour won a general election. Charities welcomed significant reform but warned against “further upheaval”, as the Tories rejected the proposals outright.Announcing the reforms on Saturday, Corbyn told a crowd of supporters that the welfare state had been “sliced apart, cut apart and destroyed”.“Universal Credit drives people into debt by a five week wait,” the Labour leader told reporters followi...

FRANKFURT: An urban climber known as the “French Spiderman” faces a fine after scaling a high-rise building in the German city of Frankfurt.It took Alain Robert 20 minutes to scale the 502ft Skyper building in the heart of Germany’s financial capital early on Saturday.Upon his descent from the gleaming glass structure, the 57-year-old was met by German police who escorted him away.Robert has climbed many of the world’s tallest buildings, often without permission. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2nxKfG9

LONDON: Opposition parties could stage a vote of confidence in the government next week in a bid to thwart a no-deal Brexit, a senior SNP MP has said.Stewart Hosie said the plan — to put in place an interim government to secure a Brexit extension — appeared to be the only way to ensure Britain did not “crash out” of the EU on October 31. However, he acknowledged that in order to succeed, it would require all the opposition parties to get behind it.But while the SNP have indicated they could support a temporary government led by Jeremy Corbyn, the Liberal Democrats and many of the Tory rebels who had the whip withdrawn have made clear they are not prepared to put the Labour leader in No 10.Hosie however warned that they may have no other option if they were serious about preventing a no-deal Brexit and securing a further extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process. “We have to do that because there is now no confidence that the Prime Minister will obey the law and seek the extension ...

LONDON: A combination therapy that uses two powerful drugs to help the immune system fight melanoma can increase a patient’s long-term survival chances by 50 per cent, a study suggests.Results from a new trial led by the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has revealed when taken together, ipilimumab (Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo) can stop or reverse the progression of advanced melanoma — a form of skin cancer known for their mole-like appearance caused by uncontrolled growth of pigment-producing cells in the skin — for five years or more in one in two patients. Both are immunotherapy drugs that work by helping the immune system find and destroy cancer cells as they spread. This treatment is recommended by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and is available in this combined way on the NHS, following assessments by doctors.Professor James Larkin, consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and a professor at the Institute of Cancer Research, sa...

HONG KONG: Renewed clashes broke out in Hong Kong Saturday night as police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse hardcore protesters hurling Molotovs and bricks after tens of thousands rallied peacefully in a nearby park.Huge crowds had gathered to mark the fifth anniversary of the “Umbrella Movement”, the failed pro-democracy campaign that laid the groundwork for the massive protests currently engulfing the finance hub.Tens of thousands crammed into a park outside the city´s parliament, the same site that was the epicentre of the 2014 protests.But smaller crowds took over a main road opposite the building with groups of hardcore activists in masks throwing bricks and petrol bombs at the nearby Central Government Offices.Police responded with water cannon laced with pepper solution and tear gas volleys, though the crowds soon dispersed at the sight of riot police.The scenes were reminiscent of the Umbrella Movement, which exploded when huge crowds came out after police fired tear ...

WASHINGTON: US special representative on Ukraine Kurt Volker resigned Friday after Congress ordered him to answer questions in an impeachment investigation on President Donald Trump, a source said.A person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity confirmed Volker´s resignation, which was first reported by the student newspaper at Arizona State University, where he directs an institute.A whistleblower complaint released on Thursday said Volker met senior Ukrainian officials on how to “navigate” Trump´s demands of President Volodymyr Zelensky.The complaint accused Trump of pressuring Zelensky in a July 25 phone call to supply dirt on former US vice president Joe Biden, the favorite to represent Democrats against Trump in the 2020 presidential election.Committees in the Democratic-led House of Representatives ordered Volker to appear next Thursday to answer questions.In a letter released Friday, the lawmakers pointed to a tweet by Rudy Giuliani, Trump´s personal lawyer, in which h...

COLOMBO: Wildlife officials found three more dead wild elephants in central Sri Lanka Saturday, raising the number believed to have been poisoned by angry villagers to seven. The animals were found at a forest reserve near Sigiriya, a fifth-century rock fortress and UNESCO-protected heritage site, police said. “Since Friday, we have found the remains of seven cow elephants, including a tusker,” police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said. Nearly 200 elephants are killed every year on the island, many by farmers after the animals stray onto their land. Marauding elephants kill roughly 50 people annually, mostly when the creatures stray into villages near their habitat. A pregnant female and a male were among the four carcasses found on Friday. Wildlife experts and vets will carry out autopsies, said a police official in Sigiriya, north of Colombo, as they suspect the animals may have been poisoned. Police said there had been a spate of incidents involving wild elephants storming villages and...

ISTANBUL: Dozens of women protested in Istanbul on Saturday to denounce rising violence against women and the government´s failure to stop brutal attacks across the country. They gathered in the Kadikoy neighbourhood on the Asian side of Istanbul, recounting harrowing stories of women recently murdered across the country, including Emine Bulut, whose killing by her ex-husband in August sparked outrage. “Stop the murder of women!”, “Stop male violence!” and “Do not watch violence, do something,” they shouted. Bulut´s murder in front of her daughter sent shockwaves across Turkey after a video of the attack was published online. The 38-year-old was stabbed to death in a cafe on August 18 by her former husband in the central Anatolian city of Kirikkale. Bulut, who had divorced him four years ago, died in hospital. Her name was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter and “I don´t want to die” (#olmekistemiyorum) was widely quoted on social media. “The murder of Emine Bulut sparked frustration...

CAPE TOWN: Meghan Markle has visited the site where a young female student was murdered in South Africa last month in a show of solidarity with victims of gender violence in one of the world´s most dangerous countries for women. The Duchess of Sussex tied a yellow ribbon in memory of 19-year old Uyinene Mrwetyana, brutally raped and killed in the coastal city of Cape Town, where she was attending university. The visit took place secretly this week but was announced on the official Sussex Royal Instagram page on Saturday. “Visiting the site of this tragic death and being able to recognise Uyinene... was personally important to The Duchess,” said the Instagram post, adding that Meghan also met her mother to relay her condolences. South Africa is plagued by gender-based violence, with at least 137 sexual offences committed per day, according to official figures. In August alone, more than 30 women were killed by their spouses. Mrwetyana´s murder is among a handful of recent cases that spa...

PALU, INDONESIA: Thousands attended a mass prayer in the devastated Indonesian city of Palu on Saturday, one year after a quake-tsunami swallowed up whole neighbourhoods and killed more than 4,000 people.Many in the crowd sobbed as they remembered victims of the 7.5 magnitude quake and subsequent deluge that razed swathes of the coastal city on Sulawesi island last September.Some 4,300 people were listed as dead or missing while nearly 60,000 people are still living in makeshift accommodation after their homes were destroyed, according to the Red Cross.The force of the impact saw entire neighbourhoods levelled, with the earth turning to quicksand.Elsa Lawira, whose seven-year-old son died in the disaster, was among some 3,000 people at Saturday´s vigil, which was held in badly-hit Balaroa district.“The past year has been traumatic,” the 36-year-old Lawira told AFP as she sobbed. “My only wish is that God will protect my son and a disaster like this never happens again.”Former Balaroa r...

STOCKHOLM: Survivors and relatives of those who died in the Estonia ferry disaster called Saturday for a fresh inquiry into what happened, at memorial ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the incident.Former lawmaker Kent Harstedt, one of the survivors, spoke at a ceremony in Stockholm for the 852 people who perished when the ferry sank in the Baltic Sea.“The time for justice has come...,” he told those gathered at the garden of remembrance.“There has not been any international, independent inquiry, no one has had to assume their responsibilities.”The Estonia sank in a storm on September 28, 1994, on route from Stockholm to the Estonian capital Tallin. Only 137 people out of the 989 passengers and crew members on board survived.There were 501 Swedish nationals among the dead and 285 Estonians.Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven and members of the royal family took part in the Stockholm ceremony.In Tallinn, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid joined hundreds of people, many of th...