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AFP

  • Almost 80,000 sign UK petition for Netanyahu arrest

    The petition was launched earlier this month by British citizen Damian Moran and is posted on the government’s website.

    “Under international law he (Netanyahu) should be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the UK for the massacre of over 2,000 civilians in 2014,” Moran said, referring to the 51-day offensive by Israeli forces in Gaza last year.

    If the number of signatories reaches 100,000, the petition can be considered for debate in Britain’s parliament.

    But Moran told media he doubted it would reach the chamber given the close relationship between Israel and Britain.

    The British government was obliged to respond after the document received 10,000 signatories, saying that “visiting heads of foreign governments, such as prime minister Netanyahu, have immunity from legal process, and cannot be arrested or detained”.

    “We recognise that the conflict in Gaza last year took a terrible toll,” it added.

    “As the prime minister (David Cameron) said, we were all deeply saddened by the violence and the UK has been at the forefront of international reconstruction efforts.

    “However the prime minister was clear on the UK’s recognition of Israel’s right to take proportionate action to defend itself, within the boundaries of international humanitarian law.”

    Britain is pushing for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “will reinforce this message to Mr Netanyahu during his visit” in September, according to the response.

    Any British citizen can launch a petition on the government’s website, asking for a specific action from the government or parliament’s lower House of Commons.

    Only British citizens are meant to sign the petitions, but need only enter a name, email address and valid postcode.

    Israel launched military action in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on July 8 last year, leading to the deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians and 66 Israeli soldiers.

    Pro-Palestinian British lawyers unsuccessfully tried to arrest former Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni following the 2008-2009 Gaza war.

    Israel’s embassy in London called the latest petition a “meaningless publicity stunt”.

  • Five-star Ashwin helps India level Sri Lanka series

    Ashwin grabbed five for 42 as Sri Lanka, set an improbable victory target of 413 runs, were shot out for 134 in their second innings soon after lunch on the fifth day at the P. Sara Oval.

    Leg-spinner Amit Mishra chipped in with three wickets as the hosts lost their last eight batsmen for 62 runs after resuming at 72-2, giving Virat Kohli his first win as captain in his fifth Test as leader.

    A brief spell of heavy rain forced an early lunch with nine wickets down, but the weather cleared for India to finish the match in the second over after resumption.

    The defeat denied retiring Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara a fairytale farewell in his last international match. The left-hander was dismissed for 18 on Sunday.

    India’s emphatic win set the stage for an intriguing finale to the series when the third and final Test starts at the Sinhalese sports club in the Sri Lankan capital on Friday.

    Opener Dimuth Karunaratne made 46, but six batsmen failed to reach double figures as Sri Lanka were bowled out in 43.4 overs.

    Ashwin finished with a match-haul of seven wickets to add to the 10 he took in the first Test in Galle where Sri Lanka fought back from the brink to win by 63 runs.

    Sri Lanka lost captain Angelo Mathews off the first ball of the day, edging fast bowler Umesh Yadav to stand-in wicketkeeper Lokesh Rahul, who dived to his right to hold a low catch.

    First Test hero Dinesh Chandimal began by hooking seamer Ishant Sharma for a six, before he was bowled round his legs by Mishra for 15 to reduce the hosts to 91-4.

    It soon became 111-6 as India grabbed two more wickets in the space of five deliveries.

    Ashwin had Lahiru Thirimanne snapped up at silly point by substitute fielder Cheteshwar Pujara, and in the next over Ishant Sharma forced Jehan Mubarak to edge a catch to second slip.

    The procession back to the pavilion continued when Dhammika Prasad attempted to loft Ashwin out of the ground, but only managed to top-edge a catch to Mishra at mid-on.

    Sri Lanka’s last recognised batsman Karunaratne was bowled by Ashwin before lunch and Mishra sealed the win by trapping both Tharindu Kaushal and Dushmantha Chameera leg-before on either side of the break.

  • China shares plummet more than 8% by the break

    Chinese stocks have tumbled since peaking in mid-June and authorities have launched broad interventions to try to restrain the drops, but concerns over stalling growth and doubts about valuations continue to drag.

    The surprise devaluation of the yuan on August 11 added to fears the world’s second-largest economy is weaker than thought, sparking a sell-off that has wiped more than $5 trillion off world equity markets.

    The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 8.45 percent, or 296.54 points, to 3,211.20 by the break — below its closing level on December 31 last year, wiping out all its 2015 gains — after losing as much as 8.59 percent.

    The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, slumped 7.61 percent, or 155.24 points, to 1,884.16.

    Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 4.64 percent, or 1,039.92 points to 21,369.7 by the end of morning trading.

    Taipei recorded its biggest-ever intraday drop, at 7.46 percent, while regional markets also slumped, including Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 falling 3.21 percent.

    China
    China’s economy, a key driver of global growth, expanded at its weakest pace since 1990 last yea …

    Oil was trading below the $40 a barrel mark, at its lowest level since 2009.

    “China’s economy is pretty ugly and some sectors have bubbles,” Wu Kan, a Shanghai-based fund manager at JK Life Insurance, told Bloomberg News.

    “Selling pressure around global markets is also weighing on local sentiment. The Shanghai Composite may fall to around the 3,000-point level.”

    China’s economy, a key driver of global growth, expanded at its weakest pace since 1990 last year and has slowed further this year, growing 7.0 percent in each of the first two quarters.

    The yuan devaluation was widely seen as intended to give Chinese exporters — a key sector of the economy — a boost by making their products cheaper abroad.

    Concerns growth is decelerating in the world’s number two economy were fuelled on Friday when the preliminary figure for Caixin’s purchasing managers’ index for August, a key indicator of manufacturing activity, slumped to a 77-month low.

    US and European equities tumbled after the data, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its w …

    US and European equities tumbled after the data, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its worst single-day session in four years and all the benchmark indices on Wall Street losing over three percent.

    “The market is going to drop further,” Qian Qimin, an analyst from Shenwan Hongyuan, told AFP, referring to Shanghai equities. “It’s normal as the markets across the whole world are falling.”

    – ‘Still not cheap’ –

    Chinese shares have been extremely volatile after a huge debt-fuelled rally, which saw the market rise 150 percent in 12 months, collapsed in mid-June.

    Beijing then intervened with a rescue package that included funding the China Securities Finance Corp. (CSF) to buy stocks on behalf of the government and barring major shareholders from selling their stakes.

    In the latest move at the weekend, China said it will allow its huge state pension fund to invest up to 30 percent of its assets — which totalled 3.5 trillion yuan at the end of 2014, according to the official news agency Xinhua — in stocks.

    The market regulator has also issued reassurances that the CSF will continue to soothe market volatility “for several years”, although that has not been enough to reassure investors.

    “The entry of the pension fund will take a long time to happen,” said Qian. “And valuations are still not cheap.”

    Despite recent falls, stocks on the mainland trade at a median 61 times earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, more than three times the multiple of 19 for companies in the S&P 500 index in the US.

    Monday’s fall took the Shanghai index well below the 3,500 mark, which had been seen as a symbolic moat authorities would seek to protect.

    Some analysts predicted more government intervention by the so-called “national team”, a description for entities, including the CSF, that are trading on behalf of the government.

    “If the market falls too much, the ‘national team’ will still step in,” Li Daxiao, chief economist of Yingda Securities, told AFP, adding that the pension fund move was announced “partly to stabilise the market”.

    But others warned that efforts to control prices were ultimately futile. “Government intervention won’t be able to stop the market correction in the long run,” KGI Securities analyst Ken Chen, told Bloomberg News.

  • US sees big surge in close calls with drones

    The unmanned craft flew about five to 10 feet (1.5-3 meters) above the plane, the captain wrote afterward to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System.

    He said the event lasted just one to two seconds, and the silver or blue drone appeared to be of the hobby or home-built type.

    “We notified ATC (air traffic control) and they did a good job of making callouts to other traffic in the area,” the captain wrote.

    “See and avoid. Don’t hit them. Don’t allow them in busy… airspace.”

    As more and more small radio-controlled drones appear in American skies, so do worries that someday, one might bump into a full-sized airplane — possibly with grim results.

    Nearly 700 close encounters with drones have been reported by pilots so far this year, according to Federal Aviation Administration statistics.

    That’s about triple the number for all of last year, The Washington Post newspaper, which first reported the FAA figures, said Friday.

    “Because pilot reports of unmanned aircraft have increased dramatically over the past year, the FAA wants to send a clear message that operating drones around airplanes and helicopters is dangerous and illegal,” the aviation authority said in a statement.

    “Unauthorized operators may be subject to stiff fines and criminal charges, including possible jail time.”

    Several close calls

    Since the start of August, there have been at least 75 close calls, including a dozen this past Sunday alone, in every corner of the nation.

    In California, at least 13 incidents have been reported in which drones are said to have disrupted efforts to put out wildfires.

    Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger — who famously splash-landed a US Airways Airbus A320 onto the Hudson River in New York with no loss of life after a mid-air run-in with migrating birds — is among those who sense danger for the flying public.

    “Because they are easy to get and they’re relatively inexpensive, these devices are becoming ubiquitous,” Sullenberger told CBS television’s “Face the Nation” earlier this month.

    “It allows people to do stupid, reckless, dangerous things with abandon… (but) it has been difficult to catch them in the act. This must stop.”

    In a report this past week, Lloyd’s of London cited “negligent or reckless pilots” as well as “patchy” regulation as key considerations for insurers as drones become increasingly commonplace worldwide.

    The Consumer Electronics Association expects global sales of consumer-oriented drones to approach 425,000 units this year, up 65 percent from 2014.

    The FAA is still drafting a comprehensive set of regulations for drones in US skies, in anticipation of their widespread use for tasks as varied as agricultural surveying to parcel delivery.

    But for recreational drone pilots, the rules now are clear: no higher than 400 feet, always within sight and nowhere near an airport without prior permission.

    “As more people buy remote controlled drones, we need to make sure they act responsibly — especially near airports and flight paths,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate transportation committee that oversees the FAA, said Friday on his Twitter feed.

    Legislation in the works

    Blumenthal is co-sponsor of a proposed Consumer Drone Safety Act that would establish a more thorough set of rules on when, where and how recreational drones are flown.

    Rich Hanson, government and regulatory affairs director for the Academy of Model Aeronautics, told AFP on Friday there is no doubt that some drone operators are acting irresponsibly.

    “But the vast majority that are being seen flying inappropriately are doing so just because they don’t know any better,” said Hanson, whose organization is part of a “Know Before You Fly” educational campaign to spread the gospel of safe drone flying.

    Hanson, a drone enthusiast who also holds a commercial pilot’s licence, cited another factor: the dubious reliability of GPS devices that are appearing on a growing number of small drones.

    While the technology is bound to improve over time, it’s not uncommon for a drone to lose a GPS signal and zoom off on its own, its operator helpless to control it.

    As for a mid-air collision, Hanson said the prospect of a small drone — defined as being 55 pounds (25 kilograms) or smaller — knocking out a commercial airliner is “highly unlikely.”

    “The idea that we have a catastrophic failure on the horizon that’s going to kill hundreds of people, I think, is certainly overstated,” he said.

    That said, if just one drone collides with an aircraft, “it’s one too many,” Hanson added.

  • ‘Straight Outta Compton’ outguns box office rivals

    The biopic about pioneering rap group N.W.A raked in $26.8 million in box office receipts over the weekend after an $60.2 million haul its first week in movie theaters, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations reported.

    The movie, named after the 1988 studio album that gave birth to the gangsta rap genre, appears to have struck a chord at a time when protests over racism and police shootings are back in the headlines.

    It outpaced “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation,” the fifth installment of the Tom Cruise action thriller franchise, which was number two for a second week running, pulling in $11.7 million.

    It has piled up $157.8 million in sales over the past four weeks, according to Exhibitor Relations.

    Number three was “Sinister 2,” making its debut with a $10.6 million box office take over the weekend.

    The horror flick, about a child’s nightly visitations from ghoulish kids, stars James Ransone and Shannyn Sossamon.

    Also new this week was “Hitman: Agent 47,” an action number about a genetically engineered killer, coming in fourth with $8.2 million in estimated weekend ticket sales.

    “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” a reboot of the ’60s TV spy series, slid to fifth place from third, picking up $7.4 million its second week out.

    Violent action comedy “American Ultra,” about a stoner who doesn’t know he’s a trained killer for the CIA, took in $5.5 million its first week in theaters, enough to make sixth place. It stars Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg.

    Seventh with $4.3 million in ticket sales was psychological thriller “The Gift,” starring Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall.

    Marvel action flick “Ant-Man” from Disney was eighth, bringing in about $4.1 million its sixth week out, for a cumulative total of $164.5 million.

    Its seventh week in theaters animated comedy sequel “Minions” was ninth with a weekend take of $3.7 million for a cumulative total of nearly $320 million.

    Rounding out the top ten was “Fantastic Four,” another comic book action film reboot, which dropped from fourth place last week. It brought in $3.6 million its third week out.

  • France train gunman ‘dumbfounded’ by terrorism allegations

    The alleged attacker, named as 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayoub El Khazzani, on Friday evening boarded a high-speed train in Brussels bound for Paris armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter.

    Suspected attacker Ayob El Khazzani

     

    Witnesses say he opened fire, injuring a man before being wrestled to the floor by three American passengers and tied up, until the train stopped in the northern French city of Arras where he was taken into police custody.

    Intelligence services in several countries had previously flagged him as a radical Islamist, and French investigators who are questioning him are focussing on an extremist attack.

    But Khazzani has denied any intention of waging a jihadist attack, saying he had merely stumbled upon a weapons stash and decided to use it to rob passengers, according to Sophie David, a lawyer assigned to his case at the beginning of his detention in Arras.

    Another picture of Ayob El Khazzani (R) circulating on the social media.

     

    Suspect denies shots fired

    “He is dumbfounded that his act is being linked to terrorism,” she told BFM-TV, adding the suspect who is believed to have lived in Belgium describes himself as a homeless man.

    “He says that by chance he found a suitcase with a weapon, with a telephone, hidden away,” said David, who is no longer representing him as Khazzani has been transferred to Levallois Perret near Paris where he is being questioned by counter terrorism officers.

    “He said he found it in the park which is just next to the Midi Station in Brussels, where he often sleeps with other homeless people.

    “He says that the Kalashnikov didn’t work and he was brought under control immediately without a single shot being fired,” David added.

    Under French law, suspects in probes related to alleged terrorism can be questioned for up to 96 hours, which means Khazzani could remain in custody until Tuesday evening.

    Armed with the weapons, the attacker exited a toilet cubicle on the high-speed train just after it crossed from Belgium into northern France.

    A French passenger who happened to be there tried to disarm Khazzani — described as “small, slim, not very strong” — but he got away and fired at least one shot, wounding a Franco-American traveller in his 50s.

    But the attack was quickly stopped when two off-duty US servicemen and their friend charged the gunman and restrained him.

    “I looked back and saw a guy enter with a Kalashnikov. My friends and I got down and then I said ‘Let’s get him’,” Alek Skarlatos, a 22-year-old member of the National Guard in Oregon who recently returned from Afghanistan, told France’s BFMTV.

    Spencer Stone, who serves in the US Air Force, was first to the gunman, who slashed him in the neck and almost sliced off his thumb with a box-cutter.

    “At that point I showed up and grabbed the gun from him and basically started beating him in the head until he fell unconscious,” said Skarlatos.

    His friend Anthony Sadler, a 23-year-old student at Sacramento State University, and a British business consultant, Chris Norman, then helped keep the man subdued.

    French President Francois Hollande is to thank the group for their courage at the Elysee Palace on Monday.

    Suspect well-travelled

    A Spanish counter-terrorism source said Khazzani had lived in Spain for seven years until 2014.

    During his time in Spain, he came to the attention of authorities for making hardline speeches defending jihad, and was once detained for drug trafficking, according to the source.

    Spanish intelligence services say he went to France, from where he travelled to Syria, but the suspect has reportedly denied going to the conflict-ridden country where the Islamic State group controls swathes of territory.

    A source close to the French probe, meanwhile, said he “lived in Belgium, got on the train in Belgium with weapons likely acquired in Belgium. And he had identity papers issued in Spain.”

    French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Spanish intelligence services had tipped off France over his ties to “radical Islamist movements”, but it is unclear whether he lived in France at any time after leaving Spain.

    German security services, meanwhile, flagged Khazzani when he boarded a flight from Berlin to Istanbul in May this year and in Belgium, Justice Minister Koen Geens confirmed Khazzani was “known” to the country’s intelligence services.

    France has been on high alert since Islamist gunmen went on the rampage in January, killing 17 people in Paris, and authorities have since thwarted several other attacks.

  • India uncertain on fate of planned high-level Pakistan meets

    Pakistan said late Saturday it could not accept India’s “preconditions” for the talks which had been scheduled for Sunday in New Delhi, effectively cancelling them.

    Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said Saturday that apart from Sunday’s meeting two other high-level meetings of officials had been planned to discus border and ceasefire violations.

    Cross-border shelling in Kashmir this month has caused several civilian deaths on both sides.

    The minister said the meetings plan had been agreed by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif when they met in the Russian city of Ufa last month.

    “We have already described the cancellation of NSAs (national security advisers) meet by Pakistan as unfortunate,” a senior foreign ministry official told AFP on Sunday, referring to an earlier Tweet by the ministry.


    Pakistan gives befitting reply to India

    “Now, the fate of those other two meetings is also not clear… it will take a few days for some more clarity.”

    Swaraj had given Islamabad till Saturday midnight to agree to restrict the NSA talks to “terrorism only” after a row over Pakistan’s plan to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders and its insistence on broadening the scope of the talks.

    Swaraj insisted that what Pakistan described as “preconditions” were actually “the agenda for NSAs meet which both leaders agreed to in Ufa”.

    In response to Swaraj’s comments, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said “the scheduled NSA-level talks cannot be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India”.

    “We have come to the conclusion that the proposed NSA-level talks between the two countries would not serve any purpose, if conducted on the basis of the two conditions laid down by the minister,” it said in a statement.

    Last year India cancelled talks with Pakistan because of a meeting between Islamabad and Kashmiri separatist officials, a move that set back already tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

    Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region since both gained independence in 1947, and it remains a major source of tension.

    About a dozen militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for either the independence of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.

  • India establish 157-run lead over Sri Lanka

    Murali Vijay was unbeaten on 39 and Ajinkya Rahane was on 28, the pair having added 67 runs for the second wicket after Lokesh Rahul was dismissed off the fifth ball.

    India will begin the fourth day’s play on Sunday with a lead of 157 runs and nine wickets in hand.

    Sri Lanka were all out for 306 after tea in reply to India’s first innings total of 393, with skipper Angelo Mathews making 102, his sixth Test century.

    Leg-spinner Amit Mishra finished with four wickets, while seamer Ishant Sharma and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin claimed two each.

    Sri Lanka lead the three-match series, having won the first Test in Galle by 63 runs.

  • Asteroid will not destroy Earth next month: NASA

    Blogs and off-beat news sites have claimed a major asteroid will impact earth in mid-to-late September near Puerto Rico, causing major destruction throughout the region.

    But that theory is entirely baseless, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a post this week, trying to damp down the Doomsday predictions.

    “There is no scientific basis — not one shred of evidence — that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates,” said the manager of the Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Paul Chodas.

    The lab explained that all known hazardous asteroids have a less than .01 percent chance of impacting Earth in the next 100 years.

    “If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now,” he said.

    NASA pointed out that Doomsday theorists have made similar predictions in the past, including the Mayan calendar claim in 2012, all of which were not backed up by science and turned out to be false.

    “Again, there is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth,” Chodas said.

  • Pakistan rules out Butt, Asif early return

    The players are eligible to return to the sport on September 2 after serving five-year bans for bowling no-balls to order during a Test match in England in 2010.

    But the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) chief selector Haroon Rasheed effectively ruled out their return against England in October or in a proposed series with India, both in the United Arab Emirates.

    “No time frame can be given by the selection committee at this point in time with regards to their future involvement in cricket at any level until and unless proper policy guidelines are issued by PCB,” Rasheed told AFP.

    In February 2011 an anti-corruption tribunal of the International Cricket Council (ICC) imposed a ban of five years on Amir, seven years on Asif — of which the final two years were conditionally suspended — and 10 years on Butt — of which the final five years were conditionally suspended.

    They were charged with violating the ICC code of conduct by receiving money in return for arranging deliberate no-balls during the Lord’s Test against England in 2010.

    Amir has already made a steady, if unspectacular, return to domestic cricket and he, Butt and Asif have all expressed a desire to eventually return to the national side.

    But Rasheed, a former middle-order batsman, said that could take some time.

    “After having been out of cricket for the last five years, one cannot judge them merely on some good performances in (a) couple of matches,” he said.

    “The PCB has already issued a statement in this regard and is waiting for a detailed reply from (the) ICC on Butt and Asif in this regard before a policy on the selection or participation in the domestic cricket of these players is formulated.”

    Amir was cleared to play domestic matches in January this year after the ICC amended its code of conduct which allowed banned players to feature in home matches six months prior to end of their punishment.

    Butt and Asif were due to feature for Lahore and Sialkot respectively in the National Twenty20 event starting from September 1 but their participation has still to be cleared by the PCB.