Gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked government targets in the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk and killed 16 at an Iranian-run construction site further north today as troops advanced on jihadist bastion Mosul.
	There was no immediate claim for the attacks but nearly all such raids have been carried out by the Islamic State group, which is attempting to defend its last major Iraqi tronghold against a massive military offensive.
	In one attack, three bombers infiltrated a power plant being built by an Iranian company near Dibis, a town about 40 kilometres northwest of Kirkuk, the mayor said.
	"Three suicide bombers attacked the power plant at around 6:00 am (0830 IST), killing 12 Iraqi administrators and engineers and four Iranian technicians," Dibis mayor Abdullah Nureddin al-Salehi told AFP.
	A police lieutenant colonel confirmed the casualty toll.
	The mayor said the attack led to clashes with security forces, who managed to kill one of the bombers before he detonated his vest. ..

Suicide bombers in deadly twin raids in northern Iraq

PTI Automatic

A strong 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit western Japan today, the US Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami risk.
	The quake, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, struck shortly after 2:00 pm (0500 GMT) in Tottori prefecture.
	Initially, the USGS had pegged the quake's magnitude at 6.6 before downgrading it.
	Public broadcaster NHK quoted local officials as saying they had received reports that a house collapsed in the town of Yurihama, while fires broke out in another part of the prefecture, without giving details.
	In Kurayoshi City, the fire department reported receiving seven emergency calls for injuries.
	Television images showed severe shaking in the region.
	"We felt fairly strong jolts, which I think were the biggest in years, but we have not seen any damage or things falling," Suminori Sakinada, a local government official, told AFP.
	Bullet train services were suspended in the area, while nearly 40,000 homes were left without electricity as the quake damaged power ...

6.2 quake hits western Japan: USGS

Suicide attackers stormed the site of a power plant being built by an Iranian company in Dibis in northern Iraq today, killing at least 16 people, the mayor and security officials said.
	"Three suicide bombers attacked the power plant at around 6:00 am (0830 IST), killing 12 Iraqi administrators and engineers and four Iranian technicians," Dibis mayor Abdullah Nureddin al-Salehi told AFP.

Suicide attackers kill 16 at Iraq power plant: officials

Suicide attackers kill 16 at Iraq power plant: officials.

Western Japan hit by 6.6 magnitude quake: meteorological

Hundreds of police have taken to the streets of Paris for a third night of demonstrations calling for reinforcements and stiffer penalties following a string of attacks on officers.
	Protests also took place in other French cities last night despite the government's efforts to contain growing anger among police as the issue of safety of law enforcement officers enters the presidential race.
	Around 500 officers, most dressed in civilian clothes and some with their faces partly covered, protested near the Eiffel Tower.
	"Police officers need recognition," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said earlier yesterday.
	"They are loved by the French people, and not only since Charlie," he added, referring to an outpouring of sympathy for police following the attack last year on the Charlie Hebdo magazine.
	The execution-style killing of a police officer during the assault by two extremists became one of the emblematic images of the tragedy, the first in a string of Islamist-inspired attacks that ...

Third night of police protests in France

Paul Pogba struck twice as Manchester United invigorated their Europa League campaign with a classy 4-1 home victory over Turkish giants Fenerbahce.
     France midfielder Pogba scored a penalty and curled in from distance to take his tally to three goals since his world-record 89 million pounds (USD 109.1 million, 100 million euros) return from Juventus.
     Anthony Martial, with another penalty, and Jesse Lingard were also on target as Jose Mourinho's team secured a win that left them level on six points with Feyenoord at the top of Group A.
	Fenerbahce replied late on through United old boy Robin van Persie, who tucked in a cross from substitute Emanuel Emenike and was rewarded with applause from all four corners of Old Trafford.
	The result vindicated Mourinho's decision to make seven changes to the team that had held in-form Liverpool to a 0-0 draw on Monday.
	The likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford are likely to return for Sunday's Premier League trip 

Pogba purrs as Man United trounce Fenerbahce

Two workers died in a fire at a crude oil facility near Riyadh, state oil company Saudi Aramco said today, giving more details about the blaze which occurred a day earlier.
	"We sadly announce the tragic loss of two workers and 16 injured from a fire incident near Alwesa," the Saudi company said on its Twitter account.
	Yesterday Saudi Aramco said only that several workers were injured, and operations were unaffected.
	It has not given the cause of the blaze.
	The company is at the heart of Saudi Arabia's wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan to wean the economy of the world's biggest petroleum exporter off oil.
	The kingdom plans to float less than five percent of Saudi Aramco on the stock market.
	The proceeds would help form what will become the world's biggest state investment fund, with around USD 2 trillion in assets.

Fire at Saudi oil facility killed two: company

A Mexican judge rejected today drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's bid to block his extradition to the United States, authorities said.
	The attorney general's office said in a statement that a court in Mexico City ruled against Guzman, but his lawyer immediately told AFP he would appeal the ruling to a higher court.
	The foreign ministry had approved the Sinaloa drug cartel chief's extradition in May, but his lawyers fought the decision in district court.
	The tribunal in the capital "decided to reject the protection" sought by Guzman, the attorney general's office said.
	The national security chief, Renato Sales, said last week that the government hopes to extradite Guzman by January or February.
	One of Guzman's lawyers, Andres Granados, said he would pick up court documents on Tuesday and that from there he would have 10 business days to appeal to a "college" of judges.
	He also vowed to seek a Supreme Court hearing.
	"We are not defeated," Granados told AFP, adding that he ...

Mexican judge approves drug lord Guzman's US extradition

Another woman came forward today claiming that Donald Trump groped her and made inappropriate sexual remarks, adding to accusations of nine other women that have emerged in recent days.
	Karena Virginia, 45, a New York-area yoga instructor, said at a news conference that the celebrity billionaire and Republican presidential nominee had made an unwanted sexual advance at the 1998 US Open tennis tournament.
	Virginia, reading from a written statement, said Trump pointed at her to other men and said "'hey, look at this one. We haven't seen this one before. Look at those legs' as if I was an object rather than a person."
	Virginia, who was 27 at the time, said that Trump grabbed her by the arm and touched her breast.
	"'Don't you know who I am, don't you know who I am?' he said," according to Virginia's statement.
	"I felt intimidated and I felt powerless," she said, adding that she "felt ashamed" for wearing a short dress and high heels.
	"That feeling of shame stayed with me for a ...

New Trump accuser said he groped her at 1998 tennis event

A member of the US military was killed in a bomb blast in northern Iraq today, officials said, as Iraqi forces in the region continued their push on Mosul.
	"A US service member died from wounds sustained in an improvised explosive device blast in northern Iraq," Pentagon officials and the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said.
	They did not immediately identify the service member, or say whether he or she was one of the more than 100 US troops advising Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga as they push toward the IS-held city of Mosul on multiple fronts.
	The death is at least the fourth time a US military member has been killed in combat in Iraq since operations against IS began there in 2014.

US service member killed in northern Iraq blast

European Union president Donald Tusk warned the bloc would be incapable of negotiating new trade deals if Belgium fails to approve the accord with Canada by tomorrow.
	The deal, known as CETA, "could be our last free trade agreement, if we are not able to convince people that we negotiate to protect their interests," Tusk said as he arrived today for a two-day EU summit to discuss trade issues.
	Tusk spoke as the head of the French-speaking Belgian region of Wallonia still refused to sign off on the EU-Canada trade accord and asked that a signature next week with Canadian premier Justin Trudeau be delayed indefinitely.
	"I hope that Belgium will once again prove that it is a true champion in compromise making, that on Friday we will have an agreement that paves the way for CETA," Tusk said.
	Negotiations were ongoing however with Magnette mulling the latest proposal by the European Commission, the EU's executive, in his offices in Namur, 70 km southeast of Brussels.
	An EU official ...

EU's Tusk warns Canada trade deal 'could be our last'

Rebel violations mean there is "no ceasefire" in Yemen, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said today, the first day of a truce under a UN plan.
	"There is no ceasefire at all," Major General Ahmed Assiri told AFP.
	Huthi rebels and their allies had breached the truce since it took effect at midnight yesterday, including by firing mortars and rockets across the border into southern Saudi Arabia, he said, forcing coalition forces to respond.
	"This is the same situation as the previous time when we called a ceasefire," Assiri said.
	Since the coalition intervened in March 2015 to support Yemen's government, five previous ceasefires attempts failed.
	This time there were more than 43 violations along the border, "in which snipers and various weapons were used, including missiles and projectiles," the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
	In one attack, a man and his daughter were wounded in the kingdom's Jazan region, according to Saudi civil defence authorities.
	Assiri said ...

Arab coalitiofn says Yemen rebels breaching truce

A bus plunged off a steep road in a mountainous area north of Costa Rica's capital today, killing 11 people on board and injuring 12, rescue officials said.
	The passengers were retired staff members of Costa Rica's National University on their way to an indigenous reserve to carry out social work, the institution's rector said.
	"It looks like the bus's brakes failed," Esteban Gonzalez, the son of one of the survivors, told a Costa Rican television network.
	The accident occurred near Cinchona, a village around 25 kilometers north of the capital San Jose, on a road winding between two volcanos.
	Hector Chavez, director of the fire service, confirmed the accident toll.
	TV images showed the pancaked blue and white bus lying on a lower stretch of road where it had come to rest. Stunned survivors sat by the side of the road, some with bandages.
	Helicopters were used to transport the more seriously injured to hospitals in San Jose.

11 killed, 12 injured in Costa Rica bus plunge: officials

A Brazilian federal prosecutor announced aggravated manslaughter charges today against 21 people, including senior executives, allegedly responsible for the deadly collapse of the Samarco iron ore mine dam last year.
	The prosecutor, Jose Leite Sampaio, made the announcement in a televised press conference in Belo Horizonte, near the site of the disaster on November 5, 2015, when the failed dam unleashed a torrent of muddy water killing 19 people. It was branded Brazil's worst ever environmental disaster.
	"There was a setting aside of security for the pursuit of wealth," Sampaio said.
	The accused included the CEO of Samarco at the time of the tragedy, Ricardo Vescovi, as well as operations managing director Kleber Terra, and three operations managers.
	Representatives from Samarco, which operated the mine, and its giant owners Brazil's Vale and Anglo-Australian BHO Billiton were all among the accused.
	In Brazil, aggravated manslaughter convictions can result in prison sentences of .

Brazil charges 21 over deaths in mine dam collapse: prosecutor

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch today dismissed Donald Trump's claim the upcoming presidential election could be rigged in favour of Hillary Clinton.
	Speaking in Rome just before Trump's latest controversial comments on the subject, the top US justice official said there was no reason to think that there was a realistic risk of false ballots being cast in significant numbers, voters being impeded or counts being falsified.
	Trump has repeatedly claimed the American establishment is so desperate for Clinton to win the election that the result could somehow be doctored in her favour.
	In his latest comments, in Delaware, the Republican White House hopeful said today he would accept a "clear election result" next month, but reserved the right to legally challenge the outcome if he felt it was "questionable," sticking to an unprecedented defiance of US democratic norms that has drawn broad-based criticism.
	Lynch, asked about similar comments Trump made in today's head-to-head debate ..

US legal chief dismisses Trump ballot claims

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg expressed concern today that a Russian aircraft carrier battlegroup could join attacks on Syria's besieged city of Aleppo.
	Warships from NATO member Britain were shadowing the battle group through the North Sea and Stoltenberg said NATO navies would closely monitor the warships in "a responsible and measured" way as it headed to the Mediterranean.
	"We are concerned Russia's carrier group will support military operations in Syria in ways which increase human and civilian suffering," Stoltenberg said at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
	"What creates concern now is that this group may be used to... Increase attacks on Aleppo," the former Norwegian premier said after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
	"NATO navies will in a normal way monitor Russian ships and do so in a responsible and measured way as they always do because this is the way we follow Russian military actions," he added.
	A Royal Navy spokesman told AFP earlier the eight-strong ..

NATO 'concerned' Russian carrier group may join Aleppo attacks

Europe's second attempt to reach Mars' surface appeared in peril today as initial analysis suggested the latest lander may have plummeted to its demise.
	While holding out faint hope, ground controllers said it seemed the paddling pool-sized lander's parachute may have been discarded too early, and its fall-breaking thrusters switched off too soon.
	The lander, dubbed Schiaparelli, was on a test-run for a future rover that will seek out evidence of life, past or present, on the Red Planet.
	But it fell silent seconds before its scheduled touchdown, while its mothership Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) entered Mars' orbit as planned -- part of a joint European-Russian project.
	"We are not in a position yet to determine the dynamic condition at which the lander touched the ground," European Space Agency (ESA) head of solar and planetary missions Andrea Accomazzo told a webcast news briefing at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.
	Further analysis must be done of some 600 megabytes of data ...

Did it crash or land? Search on for Europe's Mars craft

The United States and Saudi Arabia today imposed sanctions on alleged Hezbollah members and financial backers, accusing them of funneling money to the Lebanese militant group or engaging in terrorism.
	The US Treasury Department said it targeted four individuals and one company, effectively freezing their US assets and blocking any transactions with them, while also announcing related action by Saudi Arabia.
	In a related action, the US State Department also blacklisted alleged Hezbollah commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai, alias Abu Ali al-Tabatabai, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
	The State Department declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 1997 and long-standing US efforts have sought to disrupt the organization's funding.
	Founded in the 1980s in Lebanon, the Shiite militant organization and political party has provided military support to President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian conflict, and American officials blame it for attacks stretching back to the ...

US, Saudi Arabia blacklist Hezbollah members, financiers

Global wine production in 2016 is expected to be among the lowest in 20 years, an industry body said today, suggesting climatic events such as El Nino could be to blame.
	The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) estimated this year's output at 259 million hectolitres, a year-on-year drop of five per cent.
	This worldwide annual total, released at a news conference in Paris, is among the three lowest since 2000.
	OIV said weather was partly to blame. "The El Nino climate phenomenon seems to be back in Latin America, where production was affected by fairly exceptional weather, with lots of rain," said IOV's CEO, Jean-Marie Aurand.
	The El Nino weather phenomenon, which occurs every four to five years, affects rainfall patterns and causes both drought and flooding.
	As it recedes the Pacific cooling trend known as La Nina typically begins, often causing increased rainfall, storms and snow across the globe.
	Most of the fall in wine output occurred in the southern hemisphere: 

El Nino suspected as world wine output drops

An Israeli Arab couple appeared in an Israeli court today on "terror" charges for going to Iraq with their children and joining the Islamic State group, officials said.
	It was the first known case of an entire Israeli Arab family joining up with the jihadist organisation, said a spokeswoman for the Shin Bet domestic security agency.
	Wissam, 41, and Sabreen Zbedat, 30, from the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin, flew to Romania in June 2015 with their children aged three, six and eight, the Shin Bet and Israeli police said in statements.
	From there they travelled to Turkey, Syria and on to Iraq, where IS recruited them, the authorities said.
	The police said it was Sabreen, the wife, who convinced her husband to join and he then received religious instruction and military training before going into combat.
	Wounded in the leg, he was hospitalised in the IS stronghold of Mosul where his family was staying.
	Sabreen worked at a hospital in the northern city and the children attended ...

AFP

AFP

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