Month: October 2016

A Ukrainian pilot released from a Russian prison in May was in Moscow on Wednesday to throw her support behind two compatriots jailed in Russia, her lawyer said.
This is the first time Nadiya Savchenko, who was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in absentia during her detention, has visited since her release in a prisoner swap.
Savchenko was at Russia’s Supreme Court to attend an appeal against Moscow’s sentencing of Ukrainians Stanislav Klykh and Mykola Karpyuk, who were slapped with up to 22 years in prison for fighting in the 1990s Chechnya war, lawyer Ilya Novikov wrote on Twitter.
The surprise visit comes as Ukrainian government troops remain locked in a conflict with pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine that has killed nearly 10,000 people since it erupted more than two years ago.
Russian state television showed Savchenko walking through the corridors of the Supreme Court, wearing a traditional embroidered Ukrainian blouse.
“Even if I do not return from Russia alive, I am still going there to support Mykola Karpyuk, Stanislav Klykh and all our guys who are in captivity in Russia,” Savchenko said in a video recorded before her departure, posted on her Facebook page on Wednesday morning.
“I personally know how important it is when you see a Ukrainian in court, when you hear your native language, when someone shouts ‘Glory to Ukraine!'” she added.
Savchenko was sentenced to 22 years in prison in March over the 2014 killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in a high-profile trial that drew international condemnation.
Savchenko — who was fighting in a pro-Kiev militia group against rebels in east Ukraine — insists she was kidnapped by separatist fighters before the journalists were killed in June 2014 and then illegally smuggled to Russia.
She was swapped in May for two alleged Russian soldiers who fought in eastern Ukraine.
In Ukraine, she has become a symbol of resistance against what Kiev calls Moscow’s aggression in the east.
Moscow’s relations with Kiev are in shambles over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its support of a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has denied accusations that it has sent troops and weaponry across its border to fuel the conflict.

An Afghan woman immortalised on a celebrated National Geographic magazine cover as a green-eyed 12-year-old girl was arrested Wednesday for living in Pakistan on fraudulent identity papers.
The haunting image of Sharbat Gula, taken in a Pakistan refugee camp by photographer Steve McCurry in the 1980s, became the most famous cover image in the magazine’s history.
Her arrest highlights the desperate measures many Afghans are willing to take to avoid returning to their war-torn homeland as Pakistan cracks down on undocumented foreigners.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Gul for fraud following a two-year investigation on her and her husband, who has absconded.
Investigators, who have uncovered thousands of fraud cases over the last decade, launched a probe into her application shortly after she procured the card.
“FIA arrested Sharbat Gula, an Afghan woman, for obtaining a fake ID card,” Shahid Ilyas, an official of the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA), told AFP.
Ilyas said the authorities were also seeking three NADRA officials found responsible for issuing Pakistan’s national identity card to Gula, who have been at large since the fraud was uncovered.
He said that Gula faces seven to 14 years in prison and a fine of $3,000-$5,000 if convicted.
In reality she is unlikely to serve such a harsh sentence — many Afghans who have been convicted in similar cases have been deported before they could be sent to prison.
Officials say Gula applied for a Pakistani identity card in Peshawar in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi.
Thousands of Afghan refugees have managed to dodge Pakistan’s computerised system to get an identity card.
The photo attached to her application featured the same piercing green eyes seen in McCurry’s famous image, only older.
The original photograph was taken in 1984 in a refugee camp in northwest Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
McCurry later tracked her down, after a 17-year search, to a remote Afghan village in 2002 where she was married to a baker, and the mother of three daughters.
Pakistan has for decades provided safe haven for millions of Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion of 1979.
The country hosts 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.
The agency also estimates a further one million unregistered refugees are in the country.
Since 2009, Islamabad has repeatedly pushed back a deadline for them to return, but fears are growing that the latest cutoff date in March 2017 will be final.
Meanwhile refugees are increasingly worried about their future in Pakistan as the country cracks down on those who have obtained fake ID cards.
Officials say NADRA has so far reverified 91 million ID cards and detected 60,675 fraudulent cards.
A NADRA official told AFP that 2,473 foreigners, mostly Afghans, had voluntarily surrendered their ID cards which were obtained fraudulently.
Some 18 NADRA officials were under investigation for issuing ID cards to foreigners and eight were arrested, the official said.
More than 350,000 Afghan refugees have returned home from Pakistan this year, UN data shows, with the torrent of people crossing the border expected to continue.
They face an uncertain future in an Afghanistan still at war and already overwhelmed by so many internally displaced people fleeing fighting that officials warn of a humanitarian crisis.

Now after holding off for two years, Royal Media’s hand has been forced by unfortunate circumstances and 120 employees stand to lose their jobs.
In a memo sent to their employees, the group managing director Wachira Waruru stated
Wachira then went on to assure the affected employees that the exercise would be under taken under the provisions of law and the staff would be provided with the necessary support to make this transition easier.
He then went on to add that if the situation changed those who have been axed would be reconsidered.
We have also learned from our sources that winter is coming to Radio Africa as the media house intends on firing more employees.

The adorable picture shows baby Huru’s receiving peeks from his parents while he tries to snuggle between them. Janet Mbugua revealed that she shared the photo as a way of celebrating her son’s birthday.
The proud mum wrote.
 
Janet had earlier teased a few photos and video of baby Huru until this morning when she revealed his face. He now joins the list of the celebrity babies in Kenya and just like his dad, the toddler is pretty handsome.
Checkout the adorable photo of baby Huru and his parents below.
 
 
 

Key moments in the history of Guangzhou Evergrande, who won their sixth consecutive Chinese Super League title last week and are touted as Asia’s first superclub:
Relegated for match-fixing
If ever there was a cloud that had a silver lining. Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals sold the club in February 2010 when it had been relegated after being found guilty of match-fixing back in 2006. Evergrande Real Estate Group Evergrande took over and started signing Chinese international players as well as talented Brazilian star Muriqui. Guangzhou won promotion at a canter and the team has never looked back as the investment continued and the trophies started flowing.
Record-breaking signing
Argentine playmaker Dario Conca was not, and is not, a household name in Europe but his arrival in the summer of 2011 showed the world that Evergrande and China had money to spend. Conca joined from Brazilian club Fluminense in July 2011 for a record Chinese transfer fee of $10 million. But it was his wages that made headlines: his reported $12.5 million a year made him the third-highest paid player in the world. It was the first sign that Chinese football really meant business.
Enter Lippi
Conca proved an astute signing as he helped Evergrande to their first Chinese Super League title in 2011. Then in May 2012, coach Lee Jang-Soo was fired with the team top of the table. The reason was Marcello Lippi. The club wanted a world-class and world-famous coach, and found it in the World Cup-winning Italian. It was felt Lippi could raise the club’s profile, attract better foreign players and win more titles. If Conca raised eyebrows, Lippi made the world sit up.
Breakthrough Asian title
Even before Evergande won their first domestic title in 2011, they had their eyes on Asia. After winning again in 2012 and 2013, the continental crown became the priority. No Chinese team had ever won the AFC Champions League and Evergrande’s 2012 debut had ended at the quarter-final stage. But in 2013, the team went all the way under Lippi. The two-legged final ended 3-3 on aggregate with FC Seoul but Evergrande won on away goals and the city partied all night.
Alibaba buys in
In 2010, real estate company Evergrande paid around $18 million for the club. In June 2014, it sold a 50 percent stake to e-commerce giant Alibaba for $192 million. It gave the team an even firmer financial footing and indicated that the signings and titles were going to continue — expectations that have since been realised.

Six league titles in a row and two Asian trophies along the way could be just the start for China’s Guangzhou Evergrande, who have drawn comparisons with Real Madrid and Manchester United and are eyeing global recognition.
The team from the southern metropolis of Guangzhou have risen from obscurity and corruption to break new ground for Asian football, becoming China’s first AFC Champions League winners in 2013.
That victory earned the sobriquet “Asia’s first superclub” as Evergrande’s spending power and heavily South American squad, then marshalled by World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi, put rivals in the shade.
Another World Cup-winner, Brazil’s Luiz Felipe Scolari, joined in 2015 and duly helped them to their second Champions League trophy, plus a fifth straight league title last year before clinching the sixth on Sunday.
With the Chinese Super League firmly conquered — despite rising competition from other big-spending clubs — and their reputation well established in Asia, Evergrande can target loftier goals.
After Evergrande outlined plans to become one of the world’s top clubs, analysts say they may soon be touring Europe — turning the tables on the current situation, where European clubs visit Asia looking to extend their fanbase.
“At this rate it would not be inconceivable for Chinese clubs to be touring Europe in the next decade,” Jon Stainer, Nielsen Sport’s managing director for the United Kingdom and Ireland, told AFP.
Evergrande are a lesson in what can be achieved with money and determination as just three years before their first Asian title, they were demoted in disgrace from the Super League during a wide-ranging corruption crackdown.
The club was snapped up by Evergrande Real Estate Group, which had become a multi-billion dollar enterprise in China’s property boom, and immediately won promotion back to the Super League. They have been national champions every year since.
“Six in a row is special for any club,” Gary White, head coach of second-tier Shanghai Shenxin, told AFP.
“Guangzhou’s motto is ‘Be the Best Forever’ and they have the resources both financially and emotionally from their stakeholders to become a global brand.”
In August, Forbes valued Guangzhou at $282 million, a figure comparable to many top clubs in Europe — some of which are now being snapped up by Chinese investors.
Shopping empire Suning, owner of Jiangsu, Guangzhou’s closest Super League challenger this year, paid around $310 million for a 70 percent stake in Inter Milan in June.
In March, China’s official Xinhua news agency even rated Evergrande as the world’s richest club, based on a transaction of the club’s shares which implied a market capitalisation of $3.35 billion, a shade higher than Real Madrid and Manchester United.
The ingredients are in place for further success on the pitch: Scolari extended his contract this week and the squad includes Colombian striker Jackson Martinez, Brazilian talents Paulinho and Ricardo Goulart and a number of Chinese internationals.
Evergrande, as well as their wealthy owners, also boast an average attendance of around 45,000 at their Tianhe stadium which is in the midst of the Pearl River Delta, the world’s largest and most populous urban area.
Guangzhou were the first of China’s big spenders, reportedly making Argentina’s Dario Conca one of the world’s best paid players when they signed him in 2011.
They have been followed by clubs like Jiangsu, Shanghai SIPG and Hebei China Fortune who, encouraged by President Xi Jinping’s drive to make Chinese football great, splashed out $400 million on players this year.
Now, with the Chinese Super League broadcast in more than 50 countries, including Britain, there is a growing awareness of Chinese teams in Europe and elsewhere.
This is especially true of Guangzhou with its stable of stars, titles and, according to Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business at Britain’s Salford University, “first-mover advantage”.
“Guangzhou are in some ways the Real Madrid of Chinese football,” said Chadwick. “High value, high profile player signings have become part of the club’s brand narrative.
“To engage with fans around the world, one element a football club brand must have is a record of sustained success. Guangzhou are now building this record and so have the potential to become, in branding terms, globally recognised.”
One element, however, has been glaringly absent so far: world-class football.
While Evergrande are pre-eminent in China, their two visits to the Club World Cup both ended in fourth-place finishes, with 3-0 defeats to Bayern Munich and Barcelona along the way.
It doesn’t mean that better days aren’t ahead for Evergrande, and their brand, owing to the sheer weight of investment if nothing else.
“The level of investment combined with the desire from China to see themselves as a key player in world football is something the industry should certainly take note of and prepare for,” said Stainer.
“There is no doubt that the economy of the wider football industry is shifting.”

In a flurry tweets, Boniface said that the deputy president was involved in the death of slain businessman Jacob Juma. In addition Boniface accused him of corruption and land grabbing.
He then went on to poke the bear by demanding that Deputy President William Ruto’s wealth be divulged to the public.
Following these incidences, a hashtag #RutoMurdersBonifaceMwangi  has been trending on twitter sparking fears of the worst among fans.
Thankfully Boniface is alive and well as his lawyer Gitobu Imanyara said
With Boniface Mwangi backing up his statement by tweeting “

Huddled under blankets, migrants in the Calais “Jungle” recounted Wednesday how they fled a fire that ripped through tents and shacks in the night after the death knell had sounded for the notorious camp.
A French spokesman said desperate migrants had started the blaze, which occurred just hours after the authorities began to demolish the settlement on Tuesday, although camp residents denied the claim.
Siddiq, a 16-year-old Afghan who said he arrived in the camp in northern France 10 months ago, sat on the icy tarmac with two friends, sheltering under a blanket, after spending the night under a bridge.
“Our tents were burning. Someone set fire to them, though I don’t know who,” he said.
“I have seen many fires before but not like this. First there was a gas canister that exploded, boom! Like a bomb,” he said.
“Then in the middle of the night my neighbour’s tent caught fire. I ran out,” said Siddiq.
The trio queued outside a registration centre where they hoped to be interviewed later to make their case for being allowed into Britain.
The fire ravaged one of the Jungle’s main alleyways, leaving an apocalyptic scene of blackened shrubs and electricity poles, broken glass and a scattering of pathetic belongings.
The only structures that remained were the metal skeletons of the avenue’s makeshift restaurants, some of the many businesses that sprang up during the Jungle’s years-old existence. Those made wood were burned to the ground.
“There were several fires overnight. Every time one fire was put out, another would erupt. There were fires all over the Jungle,” said Mahmoud al-Saleh, a 22-year-old Syrian.
“It was clearly intentional. The firefighters came late. For a long time it was just us, migrants and volunteers, fighting the fires.”
A spokesman for the prefecture — the representative of the state — said firefighters had intervened immediately.
“The fires were apparently started deliberately. They were mainly Afghans who set fire to their tents before leaving. They say the Jungle is finished, and not a scrap should be left behind.”
At another spot in the queue by the registration office, Arman Khan, 17-year-old Afghan, stood wearing a black hooded jacket and bright orange trainers, his hands in his jeans pockets.
“We had to run out in the middle of the night. I left all my things behind, I have nothing now, only the clothes on my back. I have no tent. No other clothes.
“I hope we will be interviewed today so we can sleep in the containers. Otherwise we will be forced to sleep on the street again. And I didn’t really sleep. I am exhausted.”
Gathering in the charred remains of a cafe at the camp exit, a group of Afghan migrants prepared to leave.
“I was asleep when the fires broke out. It is not true we Afghans started them. No one really knows what happened,” said Khan, a 32-year-old who wore a scarf around his head to try to stay warm.
Deeper into the Jungle, demolition work resumed in an eerie quiet as a thick early-morning fog shrouded the camp.
Workers dressed in bright orange jumpsuits dismantled each tent manually, while machinery cleared the area afterwards.
Riot police cordoned off the area where the demolition was under way while aid workers and government officials checked tents to ensure they were empty before demolition work could begin there.
The Jungle sprang up as a makeshift home for migrants — many of them young men from the Middle East, Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa — who saw it as a staging post in their dream to reach Britain.
Lawless and squalid, the camp became detested locally and a deep political embarrassment.
The operation to clear it began on Monday, with its residents being resettled in centres elsewhere that will place them in safer conditions but leave them even farther from Britain, their coveted destination.
Saddiq said that until the fire, he had been unsure about joining the exodus.
“Now I am decided: I will take the bus. What choice do we have? There’s no way we can stay here.”

Controversial gay writer Binyavanga Wainaina suffered a stroke in October last year. His family made public appeal to help them raise money for his treatment.
Amazingly, Binyavanga recuperated and flew to Europe for specialized treatment. His encounter in Germany was however shocking; he was beaten silly by a racist German taxi driver early this year.
 
The renowned author has once again revealed that he encountered racism in Germany; he says he is being treated like trash just because he’s an out gay from Africa.
Binyavanga also hinted he was HIV positive while grumbling about racial discrimination in Germany where he has pitched camp for five months now.
Binyavanga posted on Facebook a few hours ago.
 

Workers ramped up demolition of France’s notorious Calais “Jungle” on Wednesday after fierce blazes cut through a swathe of the camp overnight, sending migrants fleeing for safety.
Wearing hardhats and orange overalls in the morning fog, a team of around 15 workers resumed tearing down tents and makeshift shelters at the camp that has become a symbol of Europe’s migrant crisis.
In the distance, a new fire threw black smoke into the sky as several dozen wood shacks smouldered on a main thoroughfare of the sprawling slum.
“Someone burned our tents. Maybe they used petrol or something, I don’t know, but the fires spread fast. We had to run out in the middle of the night,” said Arman Khan, a 17-year-old Afghan.
“I left all my things behind, I have nothing now.”
Riot police had cordoned off the demolition area while aid workers and government officials checked that the dwellings were empty.
Others carted away the debris and abandoned belongings — mattresses, multi-coloured blankets, supermarket trollies and so on — in small earth-movers.
Gas canisters, sinks, refrigerators and other metal objects lay scattered across the desolate scene.
The fires spread just hours after workers moved in Tuesday to clear the squalid camp that has been home to an estimated 6,000-8,000 migrants, many with hopes of reaching Britain.
A Syrian man was taken to hospital with injuries to his eardrums after a gas canister exploded in the flames.
A local official played down the blazes, telling AFP: “It’s a tradition among communities who set fire to their homes before leaving.”
Located next to the port of Calais, the Jungle has for years been a launchpad for migrants attempting to make it to Britain by sneaking onto lorries or jumping onto trains heading across the Channel.
Since Monday, 3,242 adults have been transferred to centres around France and 772 unaccompanied minors have been moved to shipping containers converted into temporary shelters in the Jungle, the interior ministry said.
The numbers represent around half the camp’s estimated population before the operation began, according to official figures.
The authorities have said those who agree to be moved can seek asylum in France. Those who refuse risk deportation.
The fate of more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors is of particular concern.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday that all those “with proven family links in Britain” would eventually be transferred and that London had committed to reviewing all other cases where it was “in the child’s interest” to settle across the Channel.
British Interior Minister Amber Rudd on Monday pledged to bring eligible children from France to Britain “as quickly and as safely as possible”, without specifying numbers.
The head of Save the Children on Tuesday called for a smooth process to ensure their safety.
“It’s very scary, I think, for kids particularly. You see them coming in with bulldozers. This is where children have been living for weeks and months in some cases,” Carolyn Miles told AFP in New York.
Britain took in around 200 teenagers in the week before the clearance began as an eleventh-hour gesture, with the transfers resuming Tuesday after a hiatus on Monday.
An AFP reporter saw a coach carrying around 30 child refugees arrive at an immigration office in the London district of Croydon.
The curtains on the bus were drawn after pictures of some teenagers reunited with family in Britain sparked accusations that they had lied about being minors.
Back at the Jungle on Wednesday, the line of migrants stretched more than 200 metres (yards) outside the building where the crucial interviews take place.
An Afghan migrant who appeared to be in his late 20s emerged angrily from the hangar. “I’m a minor,” he said in halting English. “I’m 17 and they don’t respect me. I was pushed out of the minors’ line. France is no good!”
Police in Calais have battled near-nightly attempts by migrants to reach Britain over the past year.
The town’s Mayor Natacha Bouchart said seeing people queue to leave the camp was “a great relief”.
But many locals fear more settlements will sprout up in the area once the Jungle is razed.

Shell-shocked Golden State Warriors players and coaches vowed to bounce back after launching their season with a crushing 129-100 defeat at home to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.
A disjointed Warriors team was pummeled relentlessly by San Antonio, who piled up the points through Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge to silence the Oracle Arena crowd.
Warriors reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry described the mauling as a “slap in the face” but vowed to produce a response in Friday’s road game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
“It’s a nice little slap in the face,” Curry said. “First game you want to come out and protect your own court and have that energy of a home opener. I just felt we didn’t have that energy,” added Curry, who finished with 26 points.
“I’m not going to over-exaggerate the vibe but you’ve got to kind of bounce back. We have a lot of work to do, but I think we’re still in a pretty good spot.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he was embarrassed by the scale of the loss.
“I’m sure we’ll be motivated for our next game. I think our guys were embarrassed tonight. I know I was,” Kerr told reporters.
“I didn’t see losing by 29 points coming. We had a pretty good camp, a pretty good exhibition season but that doesn’t really mean a whole lot.
“You can still see we’re still searching for our rotations and patterns. I told the team it’s a long season, we’ve got a long way to go, we’ll come in tomorrow and get a little bit better.”
Golden State’s blockbuster summer signing Kevin Durant, top scorer with 27 points, also attempted to keep the shellacking in perspective.
“We can’t over-react. But we can’t let these games pile up either,” Durant said. “It’s a slap in the face and woke us up a little bit and we’re looking forward to getting better.”
Klay Thompson said the humbling nature of the loss may benefit the team by puncturing the hype ballooning around Kerr’s all-star roster.
“It sucks right now but I really believe in the long run this loss will help us,” Thompson said.
“Everyone was anointing us, expectations are crazy, whatever. In the long run I really believe this will help us. This isn’t the end of the world, far from it. It’s only October 25.
“It shouldn’t have come to this but it’s a long season. I expect us to be much better on Friday night.”

The government of Kyrgyzstan resigned Wednesday after the president’s party quit the ruling coalition, sparking fears the Central Asian country could plunge into instability, the presidency said.
President Almazbek Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party left the four-party ruling coalition on Monday after its other members did not back constitutional reforms.
A statement issued by the Kyrgyz presidency said that Atambayev had signed a decree on the “resignation of the government of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan” that went into immediate effect.
Atambayev is expected to call for the creation of a new coalition by the end of the week and later approve a new cabinet.
The coalition had been formed last year after toughly fought parliamentary elections in a move some thought could shore up stability in the volatile ex-Soviet state of six million.
The country’s parliament in April endorsed a new government led by the country’s sixth prime minister in as many years since a violent revolution claimed hundreds of lives.
In 2010, the country was thrown into turmoil when a bloody popular uprising and ethnic violence left more than 500 people dead.
Despite being the most democratic state in authoritarian Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan has suffered periodic bouts of instability that have hampered its political and economic development.

The Former presenter for the Jam 98.4 was a bubbly personality was cherished by especially during her time at Capital where she teamed up with Cess Mutungi and VineO.
Grace Makosewe was found dead in her apartment and further details of her death are yet to be released by her family.
She was also an accomplished event organizer carving a name in the lavish and high end types of events.
 
She was also served as a breakfast show host for the new Radio station, Urban Radio. Self-styled Cocoa Brown, Grace Makosewe was a master at several trades and fields across the showbiz industry.
From presenting to being a Radio Dj, Fashion and marketing, PR and TV shows, she had her fingers in several honey jars and gave her best shot at all.
Celebrities and national personalities are all eulogizing her many remembering either her friendship, charm or the chances and encouragement she gave them.
The entertainment industry is still recovering from the shock of Achieng’ Obura’s death and it has been thrown into morning again. Here are some of the earliest condolence messages to her family.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It’s a hard scene to imagine, a Saudi Arabian king answering before a New York court for the 9/11 attacks, but a new US law threatens to become a Pandora’s Box of diplomatic crises.
Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, overcoming President Barack Obama’s veto, to help the relatives of victims of the September 2001 outrage seek compensation.
But in doing so they struck a blow against sovereign immunity, a previously sacrosanct principle in international relations, and disturbed diplomatic ties with US allies and foes alike.
If Saudi monarchs can be pursued in US courts for alleged support of bombers, could American officials or soldiers face justice abroad for past or future actions in the field?
And if an old ally like Saudi Arabia could find itself in a US judge’s crosshairs, what of other friends with even closer diplomatic, military and economic ties in Europe or Asia?
The law, however, is now the law even if just last week US Secretary of State John Kerry said it “unintentionally, I think… puts our country at great risk.”
Kerry, who was speaking after talks with Saudi Arabian foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, said they had discussed ways “to fix this” without going into detail.
His spokesman later said the administration would work with Congress to advise how the law could be reformed in letter or application — but it is far from clear how this would work.
“Where sovereign immunities are diluted, the international system becomes chaotic, and no country and no government is able to conduct its official business,” Jubeir warned.
Meanwhile some British, French and Dutch lawmakers have threatened retaliatory legislation to allow their courts to pursue US officials, threatening a global legal domino effect.
The text of the JASTA law does not mention Saudi Arabia, but the law’s champions made it clear that its intent is to allow plaintiffs to seek damages for the September 11 attacks.
Official US investigations into the attacks ordered by Saudi-born Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden found no evidence that the kingdom had directly sponsored the onslaught.
But 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, some — coincidentally or otherwise — met with Saudi officials before taking part, and some Saudi private citizens have donated to Al-Qaeda.
Some of the relatives of the dead think they have a case, and some US lawyers and politicians are keen to give them their day in court — whatever the international fall out.
Saudi interests lobbied hard against the JASTA legislation but, even with Obama and Kerry also firmly opposed to its passage, lawmakers sided with public support for the victims.
Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the US partner in a hostile region, was outraged.
“Saudi Arabia is a victim of terrorism as much as the United States is, and by the same terrorist groups,” said Prince Turki al-Faisal, who was head of Saudi intelligence until 10 days before the attacks.
By passing JASTA, Faisal told a Washington conference last week, Congress “has accomplished the terrorist aim of hammering a wedge into the heart of the US-Saudi relationship.”
Faisal reassures himself the 70-year-old US-Saudi alliance is “too big to fail,” but JASTA is on the books and some here have begun to imagine extreme but now plausible scenarios.
“It means the king of Saudi Arabia can be hauled into court in New York and interrogated by an attorney,” said Bernard Haykel, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton.
“So you can imagine the problem. If he does not show up, there would be some judgment against the kingdom,” he warned the conference at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
Such a result would be a blow to relations at any time, but US-Saudi ties are at a low, fed by Obama’s hands-off approach to Syria and his nuclear accord by Saudi foe Iran.
“And this legislation seems to be the icing on the cake,” said Haykel, warning that the kingdom and other US allies would see JASTA as confirming Washington’s abandonment of its friends.
And the crisis could spread beyond the already chaotic Middle East should JASTA provoke retaliatory legislation elsewhere.
The European Union has already warned that some of its members are thinking this way, and reports suggest the Gulf monarchies, Turkey, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan and Iraq may follow.
“It’s very, very close long-term allies of the United States who are disturbed,” scholar Hussein Ibish told the conference, dubbing the law a “Pandora’s Box” of diplomatic disasters.

British banker Rurik Jutting who is accused of murdering two Indonesian women in his upscale Hong Kong apartment was a cocaine addict who had developed drug-induced fantasies, a court heard on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old Cambridge graduate and former securities trader for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch has pleaded “not guilty” to two murder charges, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which was rejected by the prosecution.
Since the trial started Monday, jurors have viewed harrowing iPhone footage of Jutting torturing his first victim, Sumarti Ningsih, 23, for three days before he killed her by cutting her neck with a serrated knife at his apartment two years ago.
Days later, he killed Seneng Mujiasih, 26, cutting her throat.
Mujiasih’s body was found in a pool of blood in Jutting’s living room on November 1, 2014, while Ningsih’s decaying body was discovered stuffed into a suitcase on his balcony.
In court Wednesday, prosecutor John Reading said Jutting had become increasingly withdrawn and “deeply addicted to cocaine”.
Footage from police interviews showed Jutting saying he had started to take more cocaine at weekends for six weeks before the killings.
“I’ve had cocaine previously, but not in such a large amount,” he told police.
“When I started taking it, it started bringing out long and extended fantasies,” he said.
Speaking calmly, he told police that he had killed the two women.
“These are the only two people who have been killed by me,” he told the two interviewing officers.
Jutting told police that he had met Ningsih on the website Craigslist under the “casual encounters” section, storing her name in his phone as “Indo”.
He also said that he had begun to spend time at a hotel near his apartment for three weeks before the killings, and had paid for sex workers to go to his room during those stays.
The jury was shown 20 photos recovered from Jutting’s phone, including pictures of Ningsih bound and gagged, and of her body in the shower.
Forensic pathologist Poon Wai-ming told the court Ningsih had been found in a suitcase in the foetal position, her neck severed.
Ambulance officer To Shing-fai described Jutting as talking to himself and crying in the hallway outside his apartment on the night the bodies were discovered.
Jutting faces a life sentence if convicted of the murders.
The killings shone a spotlight on the seedy underbelly of the finance hub. Jutting’s flat lay streets away from one of the city’s red light districts.
Indonesian migrant organisations in Hong Kong have called for justice for the women, and compensation for their families.

ODM Secretary General Dr. Agnes Zani confirmed that the Cord leader would officially open Raila Education Centre in Kibera on Wednesday October 26.
The facility whose construction started early in the year, was built with money from the international friends of the Raila Odinga Centre and funds from Kibra Constituency Development (CDF)
 
Construction of the facility completed on September 30 but final finishes have been going on to make sure Raila Education Centre lives to the standards of ‘ultra-modern’ educational facility.
The floor of Raila Education Centre has been carpeted with terrazzo tile and carefully polished to give a smooth surface.
 
Cord co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula, Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, Kibra MP Ken Okoth are among high profile guests that are expected to accompany Raila Odinga to the unveiling of Raila Education Centre.
 
 

Sidney Crosby returned from his latest concussion scare on Tuesday to fire the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers.
Crosby, who missed the first six games of the season after being concussed in training earlier this month, scored a goal to launch Pittsburgh’s fight back in the second period.
Crosby had looked off the pace as the Panthers moved into an early 2-0 lead through Reilly Smith and Mark Pysyk.
However Crosby’s power-play goal was followed by goals from Carl Hagelin and Eric Fehr to complete Pittsburgh’s win.
Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan praised Crosby’s performance, saying it augured well for the rest of the season.
“I thought he didn’t miss a beat,” Sullivan said. “He was winning faceoffs, he was battling down low, he scores a big goal for us. I think Sid’s going to be fine.”
Crosby acknowledged some ring rust but is confident his edge will return when he has more practice under his belt.
“Timing and execution, I think I need to work on that a little bit,” Crosby said.
“It’s been tough to get any practices, so I kind of expect that. … It’s going to be a little bit of a process (for a while), but hopefully it can generate some things.”
Crosby has a history of concussions after a collision in the 2011 Winter Classic outdoor game set off a long recovery that shortened two seasons for him.

Opponents of Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro staged mass street rallies Wednesday as he held a crisis security meeting, resisting their efforts to drive him from power.
Tens of thousands of opposition supporters began to gather at points around Caracas in the morning and said they planned to march and join up in the east of the capital.
“This is a way of pressuring Maduro so he understands that he has to go,” said one demonstrator, Klenia Campos, 41.
“Being passive is no use anymore. We have to apply more pressure.”
Pro-government demonstrators also gathered near the Miraflores presidential palace.
It is a key test of strength in a power struggle that is destabilizing the volatile South American oil producer.
The socialist president and center-right-dominated opposition accuse each other of mounting a “coup.”
Venezuela is home to the world’s largest oil reserves but has plunged into economic crisis due to falling crude prices, leading to shortages of food and medicine.
The opposition is furious at the authorities’ decision last week to halt their bid for a referendum on removing Maduro from power.
“Today we Venezuelans are mobilizing in defense of our constitutional rights and against the coup,” leading opposition figure Henrique Capriles said on Twitter.
Maduro for his part held a meeting on Wednesday of his National Defense Council.
In televised comments at the gathering, he called for “political dialogue and peace in Venezuela.”
The council comprises top officials including the defense and security ministers, as well as the speaker of the legislature, senior opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup. He said he would not attend.
“I will not take part in that piece of theater,” he said. “I will not play the part of the fool.”
Analysts have warned of a risk of violent unrest in Venezuela. Clashes at anti-government protests in 2014 left 43 people dead.
On Monday, a students group said 27 people were injured in clashes with police at a protest in the western city of San Cristobal.
The blocking of the referendum “has brought the political conflict to a critical point,” political scientist Luis Salamanca told AFP.
“It is vital to avoid the conflict escalating into bloodshed. If dialogue can serve any purpose, it is to avoid that.”
The head of the armed forces, Vladimir Padrino, who is also Maduro’s defense minister, declared “unconditional loyalty” to the president on Tuesday.
Maduro calls the economic crisis a capitalist conspiracy. The opposition blames his economic management.
A recent poll found that more than 75 percent of Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro. But he has vowed to resist efforts to sack him before his term ends in 2019.
Maduro blasted the opposition-majority legislature on Tuesday after lawmakers voted to stage a “political and criminal trial” against him.
“We will not permit a parliamentary coup of any kind,” he vowed.
The assembly summoned Maduro to appear before it on November 1. But it was doubtful that he would turn up.
The Supreme Court has overruled the National Assembly’s decisions since the opposition majority took control in January.
Maduro’s opponents say he controls the court and the electoral authorities and has used them to block the referendum.
“The MUD has the political capital, but the government has the power,” Salamanca said.
Maduro claims to have the Vatican’s backing to hold a “national dialogue” with opponents from next Sunday.
The offer appeared to sow divisions in the MUD. The coalition is united mainly by its members’ shared hatred of Maduro.
The MUD said it would only agree to talks if the government respected the constitutional right to a referendum and freed its imprisoned activists and leaders, among other demands.
They insisted any talks be held in Caracas — not on the Caribbean island of Margarita as Maduro proposes.

Montenegro’s longtime leader Milo Djukanovic will not continue as prime minister in the next government, his party said Wednesday after topping the country’s recent parliamentary polls.
The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) announced that Djukanovic’s deputy and former national security chief, Dusko Markovic, had been chosen as the candidate to form a new governing coalition.
The move will end the rule of Europe’s current longest-serving head of government, who has dominated the small Adriatic state for more than 25 years — but Djukanovic is widely expected to remain a powerful force.
The 54-year-old, who has twice before stepped down only to return to power two years later, remains head of the DPS party and is closely allied with Markovic.
Djukanovic “is ever-present in Montenegro,” Balkans specialist James Ker-Lindsay told AFP, saying that the news should be “taken with a pinch of salt”.
The premier led Montenegro to independence from Serbia in 2006 and has since brought it to the doorstep of NATO and European Union membership, but his critics accuse him of corruption, cronyism and links to widespread organised crime.
Analysts said his latest withdrawal was likely a result of pressure from the West over his grip on power — the DPS has topped all elections in Montenegro since 1991.
The EU made an “unofficial demand” because “Montenegro cannot become an EU member without experiencing a democratic change of government,” said Zlatko Vujovic, director of Montenegro’s Centre for Monitoring and Research.
Djukanovic rose to prominence in the communist party in the late 1980s when Montenegro was part of Yugoslavia, becoming prime minister for the first time in 1991 at the age of 29.
The six-time premier and one-time president stepped down from power in 2006 and again in 2010 but on both occasions retained his position as party leader.
After facing large anti-government rallies last year, he pitched October 16 election as a choice between ties with the West or with traditional Slavic ally Russia, whom he accused of funding opposition parties.
The DPS won 36 of the 81 seats in parliament, meaning 58-year-old Markovic will have to negotiate with smaller parties to form a government.
In the statement released after a meeting of senior party members, the DPS said Djukanovic had personally chosen his successor.
“Djukanovic said he was confident that Markovic was capable of finishing Montenegro’s integration with NATO and the European Union,” the statement said.
Montenegro’s election day was marred by the arrest of 20 Serbians accused of planning anti-government attacks. Their detentions were dismissed by the opposition as DPS propaganda.
Fourteen of the those arrested, including a retired Serbian police commander, have been placed under one-month detention while the other six were released.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic initially questioned the timing of the arrests, but said this week that authorities in Belgrade had also made detentions over “illegal activities” prepared for Montenegro.
Montenegro was invited to join NATO in December, a decision yet to be ratified by Podgorica and existing member-states.
The Democratic Front, Montenegro’s main opposition bloc which won 18 seats, openly calls for closer ties with Russia and Serbia and is against membership of either the EU or NATO, calling for a referendum on joining military alliance.
The issue of NATO accession divides the country’s 620,000 people, who remember the alliance’s 1999 bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of which Montenegro was then part.
Joining the EU, which is under negotiation, is a more popular prospect.
Moscow has meanwhile been trying to boost its influence in the Balkan region.
On Wednesday, Russia’s security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev visited Belgrade to discuss “improved cooperation” on security matters, Serbia’s interior ministry said.

Militants linked to Islamic State jihadists abducted and killed around 30 civilians, including children, in central Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday, raising concerns about the group’s expanding presence beyond its eastern stronghold.
The killings occurred late Tuesday north of Firoz Koh, the capital of Ghor province, with the local government calling it a revenge attack after a local IS commander was gunned down.
IS, which controls territory across Syria and Iraq and is making steady inroads in Afghanistan, has so far not officially claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Our security forces with the help of locals conducted an operation and killed a Daesh (IS) commander yesterday. Daesh fighters in return abducted around 30 villagers, mostly shepherds,” Ghor Governor Nasir Khazeh told AFP.
“Their dead bodies were found by local people this morning.”
Abdul Hameed Nateqi, a Ghor provincial council member, gave a similar account to AFP, adding that the assailants were Taliban renegades who had sworn allegiance to IS.
The killings underscore Afghanistan’s unravelling security situation as the resurgent Taliban continue a push into urban centres 15 years after they were toppled from power.
IS fighters have been trying to expand their presence in Afghanistan, winning over sympathisers, recruiting followers and challenging the Taliban on their own turf, primarily in the country’s east.
In March Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced that the Islamists had been defeated after local security forces claimed victory in a months-long operation against the group.
But IS militants have continued to launch deadly strikes in the country.
The latest devastating attack in Ghor represents a major escalation for IS, which has so far largely been confined to the eastern province of Nangarhar where it is notorious for brutality including beheadings.
“(IS) announces its emergence in Ghor by murdering dozens of civilians,” said Borhan Osman, a researcher with the Afghanistan Analysts Network in Kabul.
Osman added that the IS group in Ghor comprised mainly of former Taliban fighters.
The Afghan government is currently in the middle of an operation, backed by NATO airstrikes, against IS in the province.
NATO recently said the group’s influence was waning as it steadily lost territory, with fighters largely confined to two or three districts in Nangarhar from around nine in January.
“Right now we see them (IS) very focused on trying to establish their caliphate… inside Afghanistan,” John Nicholson, the top US and NATO commander in the country, told reporters on Sunday.
“Of course with our Afghan partners we have been able to reduce that territory significantly and inflict heavy casualties on them.”
In July, IS jihadists claimed responsibility for twin explosions that ripped through crowds of Shiite Hazaras in Kabul, killing at least 85 people and wounding more than 400 others.
The bombings marked the deadliest single attack in Kabul since the Taliban were ousted from power in a 2001 US-led invasion. The killings sparked an avalanche of global condemnation, with the United Nations labelling the direct assault on civilians a “war crime”.
The Taliban, who are in the middle of their annual summer offensive and are more powerful than IS, denied any involvement in the Ghor killings.
The militant group, which has stepped up nationwide assaults on the Western-backed government, is known to distance itself from attacks that result in large civilian casualties.

Derrick Rose called on his New York Knicks teammates to develop a mean streak after they slumped to a season-opening loss against Cleveland on Tuesday.
Rose’s move to New York from Chicago was one of the biggest trades of the off-season, with the Knicks hoping the 28-year-old former NBA MVP can lead the franchise into a brighter future.
But the Knicks’ new-look roster – which also included new signing Joakim Noah – suffered a stinging reality check as LeBron James and the Cavs romped home 117-88.
Rose, who finished with 17 points, said the defeat should be a wake-up call for the Knicks.
“Tonight left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth,” Rose said, saying the team needed to learn to foul tactically.
“We’ve got to put people down. We’ve got to foul. Not put them down, but for sure we have to foul them in the open court to make sure (James) doesn’t get the crowd into the game.
“Little things like that, we just have to learn.”
Rose’s former Chicago teammate Noah meanwhile finished with zero points from his 19 minutes on court in his competitive debut.
Knicks star Carmelo Anthony believes the team will learn from its mistakes.
“I think more of our focus should be on defense now rather than offense,” Anthony said.
“We’ve just gotta figure out who we want to be defensively as a team. But it will all come together eventually.”

Cleveland pitcher Corey Kluber and catcher Roberto Perez humbled the hard-hitting Chicago Cubs in Tuesday’s World Series opener, but will be called upon again as the Indians try to end a 67-year title drought.
Both made historic efforts in their World Series debuts to give Cleveland the first opening shutout since 1990 in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship final.
Perez, in addition to telling Kluber which pitches to throw and where, became the first player to smash two home runs from the last spot in a batting order in a World Series game.
“His hands are so soft and he’s confident to boot. That’s a good combination,” said Indians manager Terry Francona. “What he did at the plate, my goodness. That was exciting to watch.”
Kluber struck out nine over six scoreless innings, retiring eight over the first three innings to set a World Series record.
Only one other pitcher since 1919 has thrown six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts in his World Series debut.
“He prepares so well before the game, his routines and work ethic,” Francona said. “That’s why we’re here late into October and the needle on the gas tank doesn’t point towards empty.”
It’s also why Francona might rely upon Kluber to possibly pitch on short rest in game four and a possible game seven rather than go on his usual break in game five.
“We need him and we’re going to need him more,” Francona said regarding why he lifted the right-hander after only six innings. “We’re planning on bringing him back so I didn’t want to overextend him.”
In his first career attempt pitching on short rest against Toronto in the American League finals, Kluber allowed two runs on four hits in five innings to take the loss.
“I’ll pitch whenever he asks me to,” Kluber said. “It’s all about doing whatever we can to get to four wins before they do. If that means pitching on short rest, then I’m more than willing to do that.”
Kluber and Perez were connecting on their signals and precision pitches, Kluber’s deceptive breaking balls mystifying Cubs batters as Perez ordered his throws well.
“He did an unbelievable job. It’s almost like he knew what they were looking for,” Kluber said of Perez. “He had them off balance for the majority of the night. Really, the only time they got hits was when I didn’t execute.
“His confidence, you can see it growing every day, every game with him and with the team.”
The Indians have been a distant second to the Cubs in attention, Chicago trying to end an American sports record title drought since 1908 overshadowing the Tribe’s 1948 mark.
But Francona, who managed the Boston Red Sox in 2004 when they snapped a title drought dating to 1918, played for the Cubs in 1986 and understands why long-suffering Cubs fans have become America’s darlings.
“I actually think they deserve it,” said Francona. “They have won 103 games. And the Cubs are the Cubs. I get it. I played there. That’s just the way the Cubs are.”
But Francona warns that Cleveland, which had its first sports title since 1964 when the NBA Cavaliers won the crown last June, craves an end to baseball misery with its own special passion.
“If we can win,” he said, “this city will go bananas.”

Kawhi Leonard inspired the San Antonio Spurs with 35 points as the Golden State Warriors’ much-hyped “super team” crashed to a season-opening 129-100 thrashing on Tuesday.
A packed house at Oakland’s Oracle Arena had arrived hoping to see new signee Kevin Durant take his place amongst the most potent offense in the NBA.
But while Durant enjoyed a solid enough scoring league debut, with 27 points, the Warriors were comprehensively outplayed by a Spurs side who looked sharper in almost every department.
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson both failed to hit the heights of their best form of last year, when they helped the Warriors to a historic NBA record of 73 wins against only nine losses.
Thompson was particularly off-color, making only one three-pointer from six attempts with Curry sinking only three of 10 in his haul of 26 points.
Instead it was San Antonio who seized control from the contest early on, grabbing a 31-20 lead by the end of the first quarter which they were never to relinquish.
By half-time the Spurs had taken a commanding 64-46 lead and were always able to keep the Warriors at arm’s length as they sought to rally thereafter.
While Leonard was outstanding, demonstrating his readiness to step into the leadership role vacated by the retired Tim Duncan, the Spurs also benefited from a dazzling performance from LaMarcus Aldridge, who chipped in with 26 points, 14 rebounds and three assists.
Jonathon Simmons also stood out with 20 points from his 28 minutes on the court while veteran Manu Ginobili also made double figures with 10 points.

The comments follow a series of anti-American tirades by the firebrand leader, who has repeatedly attacked the US while cosying up to Beijing, upending his nation?s foreign policy in comments that have sometimes been quickly retracted.
“I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops,” Duterte told an economic forum in Tokyo, in a clear reference to US forces.
“I want them out and if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, I will,” he added.
The US, which once operated sprawling bases in the country, now has a small number of Special Forces on the southern island of Mindanao to aid in counter-terrorism operations.
Duterte has previously said he wants US troops out of Mindanao because their presence stokes tensions on the island where Islamic militants have waged a decades-long separatist insurgency.
The acid-tongued leader arrived in Tokyo Tuesday on his first visit to Japan since taking office June 30, looking to persuade executives his country is “open for business”, after overturning Manila’s traditional diplomatic alliances.
The 71-year-old has also slammed Washington for questioning his violent crime crackdown, which has claimed some 3,700 lives and attracted widespread international criticism.
Duterte has also insulted President Barack Obama, calling him a “son of a whore” and announcing a “separation” from the US during a visit to Beijing last week.
Although he quickly walked back from his comments, saying that “separation” did not mean he would “sever” ties, he reiterated his calls on Wednesday for an end to all joint war games with the US.
“This will be the last manoeuvre war games between the United States and the Philippines’ military,” he said of an event hosted in recent weeks by the Philippines.
Duterte is set to hold a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later on Wednesday and will also meet with Emperor Akihito during the trip.
Although his Japanese hosts depend on the US for security, Tokyo has so far not responded to Duterte’s diatribes, while Washington has taken a calm approach.
“We’re going to take the long view,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.
“We’re not going to react and respond to every bit of rhetoric,” he added.
Abe had worked to improve bilateral relations with Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino, providing patrol boats to support Manila in its territorial row with Beijing over rival claims to the South China Sea.
The Philippines took Beijing to an international tribunal over its extensive claims in the region and won a resounding victory in July.
But Duterte has not pressed the issue with Beijing, instead working to improve ties and attract billions of dollars in Chinese loans and investments.
Duterte also attempted to calm worries in Japan over his trip to China, assuring his audience that he was not seeking military ties with Beijing, just a closer economic relationship.
“We did not talk about arms, we did not talk about stationing of troops,” he said. “We avoided talking about alliances, military or otherwise.”

Australia coach Ange Postecoglou on Wednesday named two uncapped midfielders and a handful of A-League players in an extended squad for their World Cup qualifier against Thailand, where cheering has been banned.
There was uncertainty about whether the game would go ahead after the death of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, with fans advised to wear white, black or grey clothing. They are blocked from any activities “that are considered joyful”.
Postecoglou said the match in Bangkok on November 15 was vital for the Socceroos, who are second in a tight group behind Saudi Arabia. Japan are third.
He added that the inclusion of five domestic-based players in the 30-man squad, which will be trimmed after this weekend’s A-League games, reflected the depth of the team.
“It is yet another good sign of the depth we are creating and when we announce the team after this weekend there will be players who miss out that are playing well enough to be part of the squad,” Postecoglou said.
The Socceroos have so far contested its qualifiers with foreign-based players apart from veteran talisman Tim Cahill, who now plays with Melbourne City after 18 years overseas.
Aside from Cahill, the other four A-League players are the uncapped Luke Brattan of Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory’s Jason Geria, Josh Risdon of Perth Glory and Brisbane Roar’s Tommy Oar.
Uncapped Austrian-based midfielder James Jeggo is also included.
Australia – Aziz Behich (Bursaspor/TUR), Luke Brattan (Melbourne City/AUS), Nathan Burns (F.C. Tokyo/JPN), Tim Cahill (Melbourne City/AUS), Milos Degenek (1860 Munchen/GER), Adam Federici (Bournemouth/ENG), Jason Geria (Melbourne Victory/AUS), Alex Gersbach (Rosenborg/NOR), Apostolos Giannou (Guangzhou R&F/CHN), Craig Goodwin (Sparta Rotterdam/NED), Chris Ikonomidis (Aarhus Gymnastikforening/DEN), Jackson Irvine (Burton Albion/ENG), Mile Jedinak (Aston Villa/ENG), James Jeggo (SK Sturm Graz/AUT), Tomi Juric (FC Luzern/SUI), Robbie Kruse (Bayer Leverkusen/GER), Mitchell Langerak (Vfb Stuttgart/GER), Mathew Leckie (FC Ingolstadt/GER), Massimo Luongo (Queens Park Rangers/ENG), Ryan McGowan (Henan Jianye/CHN), Mark Milligan (Baniyas/UAE), Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield Town/ENG), Tommy Oar (Brisbane Roar/AUS), Josh Risdon (Perth Glory/AUS), Tommy Rogic (Celtic/SCO), Mathew Ryan (Valencia/ESP), Trent Sainsbury (Jiangsu Suning/CHN), Brad Smith (Bournemouth/ENG), Matthew Spiranovic (Hangzhou Greentown/CHN), Bailey Wright (Preston North End/ENG)

Vatican finance chief George Pell has been interviewed by Australian police in Rome over sexual assault claims, authorities said Wednesday, but no charges have yet been laid.
It follows explosive allegations against Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in July, which he strongly denied.
Victoria state police said in a statement that three officers “travelled to Rome last week where Cardinal George Pell voluntarily participated in an interview regarding allegations of sexual assault”.
“As a result of the interview further investigations are continuing. We are not prepared to comment further at this time.”
The allegations came from two men, now in their 40s, who said they were groped by Pell in summer 1978-79 at Eureka pool in Ballarat, Australia, where the cleric had grown up and worked.
The broadcaster also alleged Pell was naked in front of three young boys, believed to be aged eight to 10, in a surf club changing room in summer 1986-87.
The ABC said there were also complaints relating to Pell’s time as Archbishop of Melbourne and his conduct with choirboys at St Patrick’s cathedral in the 1990s.
Pell has denied the allegations and suggested there was a conspiracy against him.
The claims came just months after Pell admitted he “mucked up” in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria state in the 1970s, while giving evidence to an Australia inquiry into institutional responses to child sex abuse.
In August, Pope Francis told reporters: “We must avoid a media verdict, a verdict based on gossip” when asked about the allegations against the cardinal.
Pell was ordained in Rome in 1966 before returning to Australia in 1971 and rising to become the nation’s top Catholic official.
He left for the Vatican in 2014 after being hand-picked by Pope Francis to make the church’s finances more transparent, although his powers were reined in earlier this month.

While the Chicago Cubs returned to the World Series after a 71-year wait, the Cleveland Indians made sure they would wait even longer for a Series victory.
Cleveland’s Roberto Perez smashed two home runs and pitcher Corey Kluber struck out nine batters over six shutout innings to spark the Indians over Chicago 6-0 in the opening game of the 112th World Series.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a night like that. It was huge,” Perez said. “For me it means a lot. I’ve come a long ways. I’m playing with confidence right now.”
The Cubs own America’s longest sports championship drought, having not won the Major League Baseball crown since 1908, while the Indians have the second-longest futility streak in the major leagues, having last taken the title in 1948.
The best-of-seven showdown that will end one team’s misery continues Wednesday at Cleveland before the scene shifts to Chicago’s iconic 102-year-old Wrigley Field.
Major League Baseball advanced Wednesday’s start by one hour to 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) due to forecasts of heavy rain by late evening.
The Indians managed the first shutout in a World Series opener since 1990. Game-one winners have gone on to capture the World Series in 17 of the past 19 years.
“You have that extra level of intensity and focus,” Kluber said. “I’m really just trying to treat it like any other start. Obviously there’s more riding on each game.”
The Cubs, who led the major leagues with 103 regular-seasson victories, lost in their first World Series appearance since 1945, a 25,948-day gap, before 38,091 spectators.
“I’m not disappointed by any means except for the fact we did not win,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “We actually did better than that all looked.
“The quality of at-bats were not that bad. I have no concerns. We were ready to play. Our guys looked really good. We’re fine.”
Perez, making his World Series debut, blasted a three-run homer off Cubs reliever Hector Rondon in the eighth inning after a solo round-tripper off the metal railing atop the left-field wall in the fourth inning.
The 27-year-old Puerto Rican catcher became the first player hitting last in the batting order to blast two homers in a World Series game.
“I was just trying to control my emotions,” he said. “To make something happen, it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Kluber, now with 12 consecutive triumphs when the Tribe score at least two runs, struck out eight of the first 11 batters he faced, baffling Cubs hitters by painting the inside edges of the strike zone.
“He had good late movement on his fastball and breaking ball,” Indians manager Terry Francona said.
The 30-year-old right-hander, an 18-game winner this season, set a World Series record for most strikeouts over the first three innings.
“Kluber was outstanding,” Maddon said. “He gets such great movement both directions with his cutter and comebacker. He was hitting his edges. He pitched well. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit.”
Cubs left-handed pitcher Jon Lester, who had lost only once since June 3, allowed only one run in taking three prior World Series starts but stumbled early.
Francisco Lindor singled, stole second, took third on two Lester walks and scored when Carlos Ramirez dribbled a ground ball halfway to third base for an infield single.
Lester then hit Cleveland batter Brandon Guyer with a pitch with the bases loaded to force home another Indians run.
Kluber was removed in the seventh but Indians reliever Andrew Miller shut down Cubs rally bids in the seventh and eighth innings, striking out Addison Russell and Ross to end the seventh and Kyle Schwarber to escape the eighth, stretching his streak of scoreless playoff relief innings to 13 2/3.
Schwarber, out since April with a knee injury, became the first non-pitcher to make his first hit of a season in the World Series.

The Gambia has become the latest African nation to announce its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, accusing the war crimes tribunal of “persecuting” Africans.
The shock move announced late Tuesday was condemned by rights groups as a “drastic blow” for victims of serious crimes across the world.
Banjul’s decision follows similar action by South Africa and Burundi this month that have shaken the only permanent international war crimes court.
Gambian Information Minister Sheriff Bojang charged that the ICC had been used “for the persecution of Africans and especially their leaders” while ignoring crimes committed by the West.
“Not a single Western war criminal has been indicted,” he said on state television, naming former British prime minister Tony Blair as one who should have faced prosecution in the court.
“The ICC, despite being called International Criminal Court, is in fact an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans,” he said.
The Hague-based court, set up in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and has struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States, which has signed the court’s treaty but never ratified it.
Banjul’s announcement will be a personal blow to the tribunal’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer and former justice minister.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman said the body had not received any official communication from either The Gambia or Burundi but added that Ban would “very much regret it” if they left.
“The ICC is a key component of the international justice system,” he said.
“There is obviously a debate going on about the functioning of the ICC but those concerns should be raised within the assembly of state parties before taking any drastic action like leaving the ICC.”
Human Rights Watch said The Gambia’s withdrawal “is perhaps not surprising,” accusing its government of having a “long track record of abuse, including torturing and forcibly disappearing political opponents and journalists”.
Babatunde Olugboji, HRW’s deputy programme director, said the move “risks being a real loss for victims. Withdrawal from the ICC would block a crucial path to justice when national courts fail to act.”
Amnesty International said the move would deal a “drastic blow” to victims all over the world.
“Rather than joining this drastic march away from justice, other African states should follow the lead of Botswana and many concerned African member states which have encouraged countries to work constructively with the Court to resolve any legitimate issues,” it said in a statement.
The Gambian information minister’s critique of the ICC runs counter to comments in May by President Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled the poor West African country since taking power in a 1994 coup.
“From what I hear, the ICC is not especially targeting Africa,” he told Jeune Afrique magazine.
“Let those who want to leave the ICC go, but if African countries were less weak and more united, we could have more clout inside the court.”
The Gambia has been trying without success to use the court to punish the European Union for the deaths of thousands of African migrants trying to reach its shores.
The announcement comes just weeks before a December 1 presidential election in which the opposition is to field a single candidate against Jammeh, who is seeking a fifth term.
South Africa’s bombshell announcement on Friday followed a dispute last year when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country despite being the subject of an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes including genocide.
The ICC has appealed to both South Africa and Burundi to reconsider.
“I urge them to work together with other States in the fight against impunity, which often causes massive violations of human rights,” Sidiki Kaba, president of the assembly of state parties to the ICC’s founding treaty, said in a statement Monday.
Before The Gambia’s announcement, former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo accused Burundi and South Africa of giving leaders on the continent a free hand “to commit genocide”.

LeBron James notched a triple-double as the Cleveland Cavaliers launched the defence of their National Basketball Association crown with a 117-88 blowout of the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
Kyrie Irving topscored with 29 points but NBA Finals MVP James stole the show with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists on a night when the Cavs were formally presented with their 2015-2016 championship rings.
James was de facto master of ceremonies before the tip-off as the Cavs hoisted the championship banner from their epic 2015-2016 season, which culminated in the historic comeback victory over Golden State in the finals in June.
A packed house at the Quicken Loans Arena roared their appreciation on a night when Cleveland became the epicenter of the US sporting universe — the city’s Indians baseball team were hosting the Chicago Cubs in Game One of the World Series at the same time.
News of the Indians’ opening runs against the Cubs were greeted with deafening cheers and chants of “Let’s Go Tribe!” throughout the game.
James, who returned to the Cavaliers in 2014 on a mission to lead his hometown team to NBA glory, issued a stirring rallying cry during the pre-match ceremonies.
“If you’re not from here, live here, play here, or get yourself to Cleveland, then it makes no sense for you to live at this point,” James said.
“Cleveland against the world!”
Each of the victorious Cavs players, coaches, front-office and owners were presented with diamond-encrusted 6.5 carat rings to mark last season’s win, which ended Cleveland’s 52-year wait for a major US sporting title.
“It was a great moment, to be able to relive our accomplishment from last year one more time, something that’s always going to be with us. It was an unbelievable atmosphere tonight,” James said after the win.
With the Quicken Loans Arena in party mode, the Cavaliers were in a buoyant mood against a new-look Knicks side who handed starts to summer signings Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.
The Cavs quickly jumped out to an early lead, with Kevin Love’s superb three-pointer putting them 28-18 up as the buzzer sounded for the end of the first period.
But the Knicks rallied in the second period and turned around at half-time only two points down, trailing 44-42.
The Cavs rapidly turned the screw in the second half, pulling clear once more to run out convincing winners.
“I just tried to pick up where I left off last year and try and get my body back into form,” James said of his own performance.
“We’ve got a great team, we were a little rusty in the first half with some careless turnovers in the second quarter. But we sharpened up in the third and fourth quarter and it was a good win for us.”
James said the Cavs were now intent on delivering more success for the franchise’s fans after last season’s breakthrough.
“We want to keep ’em on that high horse. We want to keep our fans on cloud 20. If we can do that we’ve done our job,” he told a television interviewer.

The violence took place during demonstrations called by a coalition of civil society groups protesting against United Nations peacekeepers.
The demonstrators demanded the withdrawal of the UN’s more than 10,000-strong MINUSCA mission over alleged failures to stop a rise of armed militias.
Among those injured as gunfire and looting broke out were five UN peacekeepers.
In a statement, Ban welcomed “the determination of the government to ensure that the perpetrators and instigators of these attacks are brought to justice.”
“The actions of those seeking to destabilize the government and harm the country’s prospects for peace and stability must not undermine the important work of rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, promoting social cohesion, reconciliation and economic recovery, strengthening the rule of law, and creating opportunities for all,” he said.
The top UN diplomat said he was confident that a November 17 donors’ conference in Brussels will rally international support for these priorities.
Earlier this month, 30 people were killed and 57 wounded when fighters from the Muslim Seleka militia group staged an attack in the central town of Kaga Bandoro.
A few days later, 11 people were shot dead in a camp for displaced people in Ngakobo, northeast of Bangui.
The MINUSCA force is seeking to support the administration of President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who was elected in February.

A top US Army general flew in to an airbase south of Mosul that will prove vital in Iraqi forces’ offensive on the Islamic State-held city.
US Army General Joseph Votel, who heads the military’s Central Command, arrived at the base, which boasts a newly repaired runway, on a cargo plane to see the facility and receive an update on the battle for Mosul, now in its second week.
Qayyarah West, located about 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of the city, has been resurrected after jihadists smashed it to pieces when they seized much of northern Iraq in 2014.
A dusty wasteland of twisted reinforcement bars, booby traps and smashed buildings until only a few months ago, much of the airfield has been restored by US Air Force engineers and turned it into a key military installation for Iraqi security forces pushing north.
IS were chased from the area around Qayyarah in July, and now about 500 Americans are stationed here, along with the Iraqis and other members of the US-led anti-IS coalition including France and a small British team.
Votel’s C-130 cargo plane touched down in total darkness, one of the first fixed-wing aircraft in years to land at the base.
“This is where supplies will come into, it’s where Iraqi forces will come into. Being able to sustain the fight for the Iraqi forces will be critical, and this airfield will play a very important role,” Votel told reporters travelling with him.
The four-star general was accompanied by Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, who heads the coalition effort supporting and training Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga units as they attack IS.
They said the campaign to recapture Mosul is continuing apace, but cautioned IS defences will grow stronger the closer Iraqi forces get to the city.
The Islamic State group “has used an extraordinary amount of indirect fire — mortars, artillery and rockets — and an exceptional number of VBIEDs over the last eight days,” Townsend said, referring to vehicle-borne suicide car bombs.
IS fighters have refined their use of suicide bombers in recent days, he said, and are hiding custom-armoured cars behind walls and inside structures.
Jihadist drivers then race these vehicles toward advancing Iraqi security forces at the last minute, instead of attempting to drive across open plains where they can be quickly destroyed by missiles.
Qayyarah is also being used to stage artillery units and HIMARS rocket launchers that aim north to help clear the way for Iraqi troops moving toward Mosul.
Early in Votel’s visit, the base reverberated with the sound of a French howitzer blasting out of the base.
Military officials say the Mosul operation is going quicker than planned in some places, and on Tuesday units of Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism force were just six kilometres (four miles) from Mosul, where IS two years ago proclaimed its “caliphate”.
As forces have closed in on Mosul, IS has set fire to oil wells, torched tyres inside the city and set up a defence system around it that includes burning oil trenches to blind their enemy’s air and satellite assets.
Soldiers at Qayyarah said some of them have worn respiratory masks, especially after IS set a sulphur plant ablaze.
But by Tuesday night, shifting winds meant the air at the base was reasonably clear.
What will become of the base after the presumed defeat of IS remains to be seen.
US officials stressed that whether the United States will maintain a military presence there is for the Iraqis to decide.

England coach Trevor Bayliss has backed Ben Stokes to become one of cricket’s all-time greats, joking the combative allrounder is likely to deck anyone who dares give him a rest.
With star paceman Jimmy Anderson currently sidelined, Stokes is emerging as one of the keys to England’s chances on a marathon tour of the sub-continent which will see them play five Tests in India in November and December after wrapping up a two-Test tour of Bangladesh.
Stokes was named man of the match after Monday’s dramatic finale to the first Test in Chittagong which saw England edge home by 22 runs in a nail-biting contest.
In a match otherwise dominated by spin, Stokes took six wickets with a mixture of classic seam and reverse swing that underlined his growing intelligence as a bowler and importance to the pace attack.
But he also scored 85 in the second innings in a sixth-wicket partnership with Jonny Bairstow worth 127 runs which effectively turned the course of the game.
Bayliss said the 25-year-old was still at a relatively early stage in his career but had the potential to be an all-time great.
“It’s going to be easier to judge the longer he goes. The potential of the guy — he could be right up there with some of the all-time best all-rounders,” Bayliss told reporters in Chittagong.
“Only time will tell, but certainly, the strides he’s made here on the subcontinent playing spin have been top class. It wasn’t all that long ago we were wondering how he might go on spin-friendly wickets, but he’s a guy that works extremely hard in the nets.”
Since the retirement of Andrew Flintoff nearly a decade ago, England have been lacking a top-quality pace bowler who can also bat up the order and give them an ideal balance to the side.
Stokes’ career best 258 against South Africa at the start of the year suggested his batting class but he had been seen as vulnerable to spin — a facet of his game he has worked exhaustively to improve.
“I think it’s his defence to spin that has improved out of sight,” said Bayliss.
“We know that if he gets a bad ball, he can hit anything over the fence but you’ve got to be there to get that loose ball,” he added ahead of the team’s departure for the second Test in Dhaka which begins on Thursday.
“He’s a guy that in the past probably hasn’t had a lot of footwork -? plays from the crease a little bit and backs his eye and hands.
“But as we saw in the one-dayers and this Test, he defended really well off the front foot, got right forward and smothered the ball before it had a chance to spin and jump past the outside edge.”
While England’s management say they may have to rotate players during the tour to keep them fit and fresh, Stokes has made clear he will reject any offer to put his feet up and the selectors will have to drop him instead.
Asked if Stokes could play all seven Tests, Bayliss said it would took a brave man to bet against it and indicated that he would more likely be given a breather between the Tests.
“I’m not sure we’re game enough to drop him out anyway, might get a thump in the head,” said Bayliss of a player who once broke his wrist when he smashed his locker in a fit of anger.
“He’s a very resilient person, let alone cricketer. We’ve got to watch what he does between the Tests to make sure he is available for all the matches.”

Colombia’s government hopes to open a new front Thursday in efforts to bury a half-century armed conflict, starting talks with the country’s second-biggest rebel force.
An accord with the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) was meant to be the icing on the cake of a historic agreement signed last month with Colombia’s biggest rebel group, the FARC.
That was until voters surprised the government by rejecting the FARC accord in a referendum on October 2.
Now, President Juan Manuel Santos is trying to salvage the FARC accord while also talking with the ELN.
His government plans to formally establish negotiations Thursday in the Ecuadoran capital Quito with the ELN, Colombia’s second-biggest insurgent group.
Like the FARC, the ELN formed in 1964 and is blamed for killings and kidnappings during a multi-sided 52-year civil war.
A dispute over the last hostage held by the ELN, former congressman Odin Sanchez, has threatened to delay the start of talks, however.
The government insisted the ELN free all its hostages before talks could begin — just as it had at the start of negotiations with the FARC in 2012.
The ELN bristled this week after the government’s lead negotiator Juan Camilo Restrepo issued an ultimatum for Sanchez’s release
But a Catholic Church spokesman close to the negotiations said on Tuesday that moves were under way to free him in time.
“All the protocol is being observed and the proceedings are on track,” said Dario de Jesus Monsalve, archbishop of the city of Cali.
“The operation is under way and I hope they will make an effort to hand him over before October 27,” he said on Caracol Radio.
The rebel force said on Twitter late Monday: “Overcoming difficulties, the ELN delegation for the peace talks is getting ready to be in Quito.”
Analyst Camilo Echandia of Colombia’s Externado University said the ELN was reluctant to accept the release of hostages as a condition for talks, even though that would show a “will for peace.”
“That is the big difference between the ELN and the FARC,” he told AFP. “These negotiations are going to be very complicated.”
Incidents involving ELN forces have kept tensions high over recent months.
The Colombian army blamed the ELN for a non-fatal explosion at an oil pipeline near the Venezuelan border on Sunday.
“The ELN guerrilla group comes strengthened to the negotiations with the government. Over the past three years this group has increased its level of violence,” Colombia’s Conflict Analysis Resource Center (CERAC) said in a report this month.
“This public phase of negotiations comes in the midst of the conflict, so the ELN will probably maintain a high level of violent action.”
Colombian authorities estimate the ELN currently has some 1,500 members. The army says hundreds have deserted or been captured over recent months.
Its activities are restricted mainly to parts of the north and west of the country, according to CERAC.
It said it has seized tonnes of cocaine and marijuana from the ELN and destroyed drug laboratories under its control.
Colombia’s territorial and ideological conflict has drawn in various guerrilla and paramilitary groups, drug gangs and state forces over the decades.
The conflict has killed more than 260,000 people and left 45,000 missing, according to Colombian authorities.

A resurgent Rory McIlroy is looking to end 2016 in style, starting by winning the prestigious World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai this week.
But the PGA Tour’s newly-crowned FedEx Cup champion will have to overcome all four of 2016’s first-time major winners and 40 of the world’s top 50 players in a star-studded field if he is to lift the title for the first time.
The list of champions of the tournament dubbed “Asia’s Major” reads like a who’s who of golf.
But the Northern Irishman’s illustrious name is missing from a WGC-HSBC Champions roll of honour featuring Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson, something McIlroy would love to put right.
“Here, yes, I’d love to tick that one off,” McIlroy told AFP.
“I’ve won in Hong Kong before. I’ve won in Shanghai but it wasn’t an officially sanctioned event at the time (the Shanghai Masters in 2011).
“I’d love to win in China again and I’ve played well enough on this golf course to win but just haven’t really done enough when it mattered. Hopefully this year will be the year to change that.”
The good news for McIlroy is that he appears finally to have put his injury-wracked 2015 behind him.
McIlroy ripped ankle ligaments playing football and had to miss his British Open defence and a large chunk of last season.
And so wretched were his 2015 fortunes that when he got to Shanghai a year ago he was floored by a dodgy sandwich and severe food poisoning which meant he could not practise.
McIlroy did manage to tee off 12 months ago — albeit 10 pounds lighter — and finished tied 11th, the only time he has failed to make the top six at Sheshan.
“I’ve avoided the club sandwich this week,” joked McIlroy.
“The aim is to get out of China in one piece. I’m taking every precaution to be in good shape,” he laughed.
McIlroy still went on to win the Race to Dubai and it seemed his game had turned the corner, more so when he won the Irish Open in May.
But he missed the cut in two majors — the US Open and the US PGA championship — largely because of an inability to find the cup with the putter.
But his mojo returned on the greens during the FedEx Cup series last month as he stormed to two wins in four events — the Deutsche Bank Championship and the season-ending Tour Championship — and a $10 million bonus.
“After the FedEx Cup and the Ryder Cup I wanted to take some time off as it was a busy stretch of golf,” said former number one McIlroy.
“I went to Dubai last week for a few days to practise and, yeah, the game’s feeling really good and I’m really happy with where I’m at.
“I’d love to do the double (FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai). There’s a lot of ground to make up but that’s nothing a couple of wins wouldn’t fix.”
Masters champion Danny Willett leads the Race to Dubai standings and has great memories of the 7,261-yard Sheshan course on the western outskirts of Shanghai’s seething metropolis of 24 million people.
The Englishman shot a flawless 62 with 10 birdies in the final round a year ago to finish in a share of third place.
British Open champion and Olympic silver medallist Henrik Stenson lies second in the European Tour standings and will be looking to close the gap with McIlroy lurking in third.
US Open Champion Dustin Johnson took his first big tournament win at the WGC-HSBC Champions in 2013 while US PGA Champion Jimmy Walker completes the full house of 2016 major winners in China this week.
Justin Thomas, who retained his PGA Tour CIMB Classic title in Kuala Lumpur last week, plus US Ryder Cup talismen Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler and defending champion Russell Knox are also in the hunt for a share of the $9.5 million prize fund — the richest in world golf outside America and the majors.

The much-needed aid was being unloaded from a Colombian ship at the port in the southwestern town of Dame-Marie when a stampede occurred on the dock in the afternoon.
“The Brazilian peacekeepers who were there supporting the Haitian national police fired rubber bullets and two tear-gas grenades,” Mourad Wahba, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, told AFP.
National police fired live ammunition at the crowd demonstrating over the slow pace of aid some three weeks after Hurricane Matthew struck southern Haiti, killing at least 546 people and leaving 175,000 without homes.
The girl who died was struck in the chest by a bullet and three other victims suffered gunshot wounds, Wahba said, adding that a UN investigation was under way.
The exact circumstances surrounding the death, however, were not immediately clear.
A spokesman for Haiti’s national police said he was unable to confirm details surrounding the fatality.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recently voiced distress and disappointment at scant emergency aid reaching the struggling nation.

Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Lithuania, whose budgets were flagged for different reasons, have also been sent letters by the EU executive seeking explanations. The countries’ responses are due by Thursday.
“For Italy, Cyprus and Finland, we have a real problem,” a European source said, adding that the three countries could potentially see their budgets rejected by Brussels.
Italy, the eurozone’s third biggest economy, is notably forecasting a budget deficit of 2.3 percent of GDP in 2017 — significantly higher than that expected by Brussels — due to a deadly earthquake in August as well as the costs of dealing with a huge influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.
“We will need clarifications on the amounts included on the draft budget for consideration as ‘exceptional expenditures’,” commissioners Valdis Dombrovskis and Pierre Moscovici wrote to Rome.
The Commission also wrote to the governments of Belgium and Portugal — even though their budgets are in line with EU rules — because their ability to stick to them is in doubt.
Spain and Lithuania have also been requested to send updated budgets “in the coming days”, as both are in the process of forming new governments.
Spain and Portugal, both of whom have let their budgets slide, have until now avoided sanctions from Brussels, but they remain under threat of having their funding cut.
The European Commission is seeking by Monday to either approve or reject the draft budgets presented in mid-October by the eurozone countries.
In the event of a rejection — which would be unprecedented — “the Commission would seek a revised budget within three weeks”, a European source said.

Two children had a “miracle” escape when a raft flipped at an Australian theme park killing four adults, police said on Wednesday, as claims emerged that safety concerns had been raised at Dreamworld last year.
Two women and two men died when two rafts on the Thunder River Rapids ride at the Gold Coast tourist attraction collided Tuesday, tipping one backwards, with police saying the victims were “caught in machinery”.
But a boy and a girl, aged 10 and 12, on the six-person circular raft survived. Police initially identified them as two girls.
Reports, which police would not confirm, said they were the children of one of the dead women.
“It seems, from what I’ve seen, almost a miracle that anybody came out of that,” Queensland Police assistant commissioner Brian Codd told reporters after viewing CCTV footage of the tragedy.
“If we’re going to be thankful for anything, I’m thankful for that.”
He said it had been “absolutely traumatic” for the children who were now being cared for by family, as floral tributes were laid outside Australia’s largest theme park, which is hugely popular with domestic and overseas tourists.
Two of those who died were identified in local media as Canberra-based brother and sister Kate Goodchild, 32, and Luke Dorsett, 35, with their mother, who was holidaying with them, distraught.
“We are just devastated, absolutely devastated,? Kim Dorsett told the Brisbane Courier-Mail.
“I have three children and have lost two of them — my whole family has been wiped out.”
Queensland Ambulance officials said on Tuesday the ride, marketed as a family-friendly thrill, malfunctioned and Codd stressed a thorough investigation was underway to find out what went wrong.
Thirty detectives were at the scene with rafts taken away by a forensic team.
“There will be a broad range of things examined -? policies, procedures, maintenance schedules and the actual, I guess, the make-up of the whole ride itself in terms of compliance about contemporary engineering,” he said.
Ben Swan, the Queensland secretary of the Australian Workers Union, said the organisation voiced serious concerns about the operation and maintenance of some equipment at Dreamworld last year, although not the river rapids ride.
“I don’t want to inflame the situation,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“However, we do think that in the interests of workers at that facility, but also to the patrons of that facility… it is important there is a full inquiry.”
The Australian newspaper reported that a series of mechanical problems were plaguing the water ride hours before the accident.
Codd said he was aware of the reports and added: “I would imagine that would be an important area of interest for the coroner”.
The Gold Coast, which hosts the Commonwealth Games in 2018, is a major tourist destination and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pleaded with holidaymakers not to turn their backs on the area.
“The Gold Coast is safe,” she told the Seven Network.
“Please don’t alter your holiday plans. Please continue to show your support. We will get to the bottom of this.”
Dreamworld, which opened in 1981 and has over 40 rides and attractions, said in a statement late Tuesday its whole team was “devastated and shocked”.
“We are working closely with the authorities to understand exactly what occurred.”
The park remained closed Wednesday.

High Court Judge Isaac Lenaola has been nominated as Supreme Court Judge by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to replace retired Justice Philip Tunoi.
the commission’s Vice Chairperson Margaret Kobia said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
Lenaola’s name will now be sent to President Uhuru Kenyatta who will forward it to the National Assembly for vetting.
However, the National Gender and Equality Commission has opposed the nomination and called for the JSC to rescind its decision.
The commission argued that the nomination of Lenaola to the apex court went against the two-thirds gender principle and was therefore unconstitutional.
the commission said in a statement signed by its chairperson Winfred Lichuma.
Article 27(8), a provision in the Bill of Rights, provides that the state shall take legislative and other measures to implement the principle that not more than two-thirds of the members of elective or appointive bodies shall be of the same gender.
Should Justice Lenaola’s name be approved by parliament, the Supreme Court will have five men out of the seven judge bench that includes the new Chief Justice David Maraga who is also the president of the court.
This will only leave two women, Lady Justice Njoki Ndung’u and Lady Justice Philomena Mwilu who is awaiting parliament’s approval to be the country’s next Deputy Chief Justice.

Guardiola has frozen Toure out of the first-team picture after the Ivorian’s agent, Dimitri Seluk, said his client had been “humiliated” when he was left out of City’s Champions League squad.
City visit Manchester United in the League Cup fourth round on Wednesday, giving Guardiola a chance to rotate his squad, but he said that until Seluk apologises, Toure will remain on the sidelines.
“You know the situation from Yaya,” Guardiola told reporters at his pre-match press conference.
“I would like to come with Yaya, believe me, but you know the situation.”
Guardiola is seeking to end a run of five matches without victory — the joint-longest such sequence of his glittering managerial career.
Toure, 33, has been at City since joining from Barcelona in 2010 and has won two Premier League titles, two League Cups and one FA Cup during that time.

Nikola Ninkovic, Leonardo Pavoletti and a Juraj Kucka own goal ended 10-man AC Milan’s chances of going top of Serie A after crashing 3-0 to Genoa on Tuesday.
Milan travelled to the Luigi Ferraris buoyed by a weekend victory over Juventus that closed the gap on the Italian champions and Serie A leaders to just two points.
But Genoa had won the last two editions of this fixture 1-0 and by the end fully deserved what was just their fourth win of the season.
It moved them up to seventh, six points off the lead, while Milan remain third, ahead of the remaining midweek fixtures on Wednesday and Thursday.
Injuries in defence forced Milan coach Vincenzo Montella to turn midfielder Andrea Poli into a makeshift right-back, while Keisuke Honda was given his first start of the season in midfield.
It took Genoa just 11 minutes to find a way past Gianluigi Donnarumma. Ninkovic, on his first start for the club, rushed in to meet Tomas Rincon’s chip with a diving header that beat Milan’s teenage goalkeeper.
Milan defender Alessio Romagnoli produced the visitors’ best chance of the half when he unleashed a drive that flashed just wide of the near post, while M’Baye Niang’s volley from Carlos Bacca’s knock-down flew over.
Milan’s chances of launching an unlikely fightback collapsed 10 minutes after the restart when Gabriel Paletta lunged with both feet at Luca Rigoni.
The veteran defender made little contact with the Genoa forward, but the referee immediately produced a red card.
When Rigoni fired low into the area 10 minutes from the end, Kucka stuck his leg out to deflect the ball past Donnarumma as Pavoletti lingered.
Six minutes later Pavoletti got his name on the scoresheet with a fine curling strike from the edge of the area after turning Romagnoli inside out.

Haitians displaced by Hurricane Matthew are living in “inhumane” conditions in government-run shelters, a United Nations expert said Tuesday.
The powerful storm crashed ashore in southwestern Haiti on October 4 packing winds of 145 miles (230 kilometers) per hour. At least 546 people were killed, and more than 175,000 people were displaced.
Three weeks after the storm, Gustavo Gallon, an independent UN human rights observer in Haiti, described his shock at the living conditions for storm refugees in shelters.
Gallon, who is wrapping up a nine-day tour of Haiti, visited Nord Alexis school, which is housing some 3,000 storm refugees, or 525 families, in the town of Jeremie.
They are surviving in “difficult conditions: no food, no access to health services, no drinking water, and without clean installations and proper toilets,” Gallon said.
“These people are squeezed into 20 classrooms. They are hungry. There are two babies that were born there without help for delivery, and there are around 20 pregnant women there,” said Colombian-born Gallon.
Warning of the psychological effects of the trauma, Gallon recalled how a young woman told him “we all became mentally ill.”
“The conditions in which these people find themselves in are inhumane and should be resolved immediately,” he added.
According to Haiti’s Civil Protection service, the hurricane destroyed or heavily damaged more than 770 schools, and the schools that were unaffected have been taken over by thousands of displaced families.
Given the great stress suffered by storm refugees, many of whom lost everything, Gallon was perplexed by Haitian authorities’ orders to prepare to resume classes.
Education officials notified the Nord Alexis school principal to prepare to restart classes in two weeks.
“He doesn’t see how he can meet these demands,” Gallon said.
Gallon is an independent expert who is not on the UN staff and “serves voluntarily and independently of any government or organization,” according to his official biography.
He was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to his post in June 2013, and has since visited Haiti six times.

“This operation has taken millions of dollars and hundreds of weapons out of the hands of organised crime and potentially terrorist groups as well,” Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said in a statement.
The four-week operation, codenamed Chimera, launched on September 19 and involved 70 countries. Stock said it “clearly shows what can be achieved through close cooperation”.
Focusing on express courier and mail services, the operation targeted the illicit trafficking of small arms, cash, cheques, traveller’s cheques, bearer bonds and postal orders.
Among the key seizures was a record interception of $450 million made by customs officers in Toluca, Mexico, said France-based Interpol, which coordinated the operation with the World Customs Organization (WCO).
Interceptions were made at key border points in the participating countries, Interpol said, without going into details.
Operation Chimera now moves into a second phase with the WCO and Interpol analysing the results so far in order to target the criminal networks behind the seized cash and weapons, the statement added.

Pacquiao returns to the ring to face World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Vargas on November 5, three months after ending his four-month “retirement”.
But the 37-year-old eight division world champion said he has not thought about his plans after the Vargas fight as he continues to juggle the demands of the sport and his duties as a newly elected member of the Philippines Senate.
“Right now my focus is on this fight. Then I go back and do my job, then I could think about 2017,” Pacquiao told reporters on a conference call.
Asked if he expected to fight again, he added: “I don’t know yet. One fight at a time. I cannot say yes right now.
“Today, Jessie Vargas is the most important fight of my career.”
Pacquiao’s veteran promoter Bob Arum believes that the Filipino icon will remain in demand if he produces a convincing win over Vargas.
“If Manny comes in and dominates this fight and looks like the old Manny, and wants to continue fighting, there will be certain opponents that will be considered,” he said.
“If he decides that it’s too much juggling two careers, then he shouldn’t continue.
“If he is determined to continue and his performance suffers because of his work in the Senate, I would have to look in the direction of somebody else for an opponent.”
Pacquiao meanwhile admitted that juggling his workload as a pugilistic politician had proven demanding.
“I can say that working in the Senate is not easy, especially, along with training,” he said. “You need to manage your time and that’s what I did in training for this fight while I am working in the office.
“I don’t have time really for any other activities -? all of my time is with working and training.”
Pacquiao’s long-time trainer Freddie Roach, who oversaw a camp in the Philippines before the duo returned to Los Angeles last weekend, said he had detected a more serious side to the boxer.
“I know it’s been a very difficult camp with the Senate and so forth,” Roach said.
“Manny has always been a busy person but because of the Senate he seems to be a lot more serious than anything else he has done. He is in Senate sessions on some nights until 7:30 or 8:00 at night and when he is done we go right to the gym.”

Daniel Sturridge served a reminder of his worth to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp with both goals in a 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in England’s League Cup on Tuesday.
Sturridge has started three of Liverpool’s last four Premier League games on the bench, but he seized his chance at Anfield to send last season’s beaten finalists into the quarter-finals.
Arsenal also progressed, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scoring twice in a 2-0 win over Reading, while Hull City won 2-1 at second-tier Bristol City.
“Overall summary, it was a deserved win,” Liverpool manager Klopp told Sky Sports.
“Big number of chances and a wonderful goalkeeper from Tottenham (Michel Vorm). All good. I think it was entertaining.
“He (Sturridge) did what he has to do and it was brilliant. He could have scored three or maybe four, but it was really good. That’s his big strength and he showed it again.”
Klopp and Spurs counterpart Mauricio Pochettino between them made 21 changes to their starting line-ups, with visiting midfielder Eric Dier the only player to keep his place from the weekend fixtures.
Klopp gave a debut to 18-year-old right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and a full debut to midfielder Ovie Ejaria, 19, while 18-year-old Cameron Carter-Vickers started at centre-back for Tottenham.
Liverpool, who lost on penalties to Manchester City in last season’s final, took a ninth-minute lead when Marko Grujic’s deflected cross from the right was stabbed in by Sturridge.
Spurs stand-in goalkeeper Vorm repelled long-range efforts from Sturridge and Divock Origi before Georginio Wijnaldum freed the England striker to score his second goal in the 64th minute.
Dutch striker Vincent Janssen reduced the arrears with a 76th-minute penalty after Lucas Leiva took an unnecessary nibble at Tottenham substitute Erik Lamela.
But it was the home side who came closest to scoring again, with Vorm saving spectacularly from Sturridge and substitute Danny Ings.
“I’m pleased with the performance, but not the result. We fought until the end and created chances,” said Spurs manager Pochettino.
“It was a great experience and we can take a lot of positives.”
Arsenal joined Klopp’s men in the last eight after seeing off second-tier Reading, who are managed by former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam.
Oxlade-Chamberlain struck twice for Arsene Wenger’s much-changed team, drilling home in the 33rd minute and netting again with the aid of a deflection with 12 minutes to play.
Headers from centre-backs Harry Maguire and Michael Dawson took Hull through at the expense of Bristol City, who replied through Lee Tomlin’s 50-yard solo goal in stoppage time.
Aleksandar Mitrovic and Mohamed Diame each scored twice as Championship leaders Newcastle United routed 10-man Preston North End 6-0 at St James’ Park.
Leeds United twice came from behind and survived playing extra time with 10 men, after making all their substitutions and losing a player to injury, to edge Norwich City 3-2 on penalties following a 2-2 draw.
The tie of the round takes place on Wednesday, when Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola resume hostilities as Manchester United tackle Manchester City at Old Trafford.
Chelsea visit London rivals West Ham United and Southampton host the Premier League’s bottom club, Sunderland.