Month: October 2016

The official, who asked to remain unnamed, told AFP “we still have not received any requests through official channels to alter our assistance to or cooperation with the Philippines.”
Duterte met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, where he said Thursday, “I announce my separation from the United States.”
The Philippines leader is in China for a four-day trip seen as confirming his tilt away from Washington and towards Beijing’s sphere of influence.

She tackled the gruelling 2,000-kilometre (1,200-mile) migrant trail in a wheelchair, translating along the way for other refugees using English she learned from a US soap opera.
Syrian teen Nujeen Mustafa is not one to shy away from a challenge.
Now living safely in Germany, the 17-year-old has set herself a new goal: to prove Chancellor Angela Merkel right.
“We will do our best to prove to everyone that Germany was right from the beginning,” Nujeen told AFP in a Skype interview from her new home just outside Cologne.
Hers is a story so remarkable that even Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has hailed her as an inspiration.
“She says I’m her hero, which feels a little weird to me because she has shown that girls can change the world,” Nujeen says, almost apologetically.
The young Syrian, who has cerebral palsy, has chronicled her arduous trek from war-ravaged Aleppo across Europe in a moving memoir, co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb.
Nujeen describes the memoir, which she will present at the Frankfurt book fair on Thursday, as an attempt to put a human face on the wave of refugees that has swept across Europe.
“People think of the Syrian crisis as something that is happening really far away and they should not, or do not, care. I know that people just turn into numbers,” she says.
“I hope that it will have an effect on even one person, change even just one idea about refugees.”
The book, “Nujeen”, starts with the early days of the Syrian war and the escalating violence, until it becomes too dangerous for the family to stay.
“Forgive me Syria,” Nujeen whispers as she crosses the border into Turkey.
Too old to travel, her parents stay in Turkey, leaving just Nujeen and her sisters to set off for Germany where two brothers already live.
Nujeen recounts in detail the terrifying boat trip to Greece, with her uncle steering the dinghy based on what he learned from YouTube videos while Nujeen worries that the other passengers will want to throw her wheelchair overboard.
Once ashore, they have to navigate cheating smugglers, crowded camps and closed borders before finally arriving at their destination.
But there are also moments of levity and solidarity, like when fellow migrants help lift Nujeen’s wheelchair over obstacles and volunteers offer them lifts.
Nujeen, who before had barely left her fifth-floor Aleppo apartment, sees much of the month-long journey as an adventure, and feels useful “for the first time” as the English she picked up from watching “Days of Our Lives” suddenly proves invaluable.
She even becomes something of a celebrity when she is interviewed along the way, telling bemused reporters her dream is to be an astronaut.
Since arriving in Germany in September 2015, life has been good. Nujeen is going to school for the first time, she has made friends and has taken up wheelchair basketball.
But the mood towards migrants has changed since her arrival, and Merkel has found herself under pressure over her open-door policy as concerns grow about how to integrate around 900,000 newcomers who arrived last year.
Nujeen says the hardening tone hasn’t changed her high opinion of Germans, whom she praises as very hard-working and punctual, and she pleads for understanding on both sides.
“I can understand why some people would be intimidated though it hurts me that people would be afraid of our country or our region. (Refugees) should understand their position and respect German culture and lifestyle. We are guests and we should give a good impression.”
She said she was proud of the three Syrians who recently made headlines in Germany after they overpowered a Syrian fugitive suspected of planning a bomb attack.
“I sometimes think that our society must be full of people that are frustrated and full of hatred but that’s not true. We can still recognise right from wrong.”
If she could send a message to Merkel, it would be this: “We will show the whole world that the ultimate outcome of this policy will be good and then you can be totally proud and say ‘See, I was right’.”
Nujeen is still waiting for formal asylum approval to come through.
“You have to be patient. That’s Germany, you have to follow the rules exactly and I understand that,” she says, though she is desperately hoping for a passport so she can visit her parents, whom she Skypes daily.
In the meantime she is determined to make the most of her new life in the flat she shares with her two sisters and her sister’s children.
“I get out a lot more now, I visited six museums over the summer holiday,” she beams, excitedly switching from English into fluent German. She adds that her next wish is to visit the fantastical castle of Neuschwanstein in Bavaria.
She says she still want to be an astronaut but if life has taught her anything, it’s that you need a back up plan.
“That’s still Plan A, but I have a Plan B now. I will do everything to achieve my dream but if that doesn’t work then I will just keep writing and become a real author,” she says.
“I have a big imagination.”

Juventus goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon could become a future coach of Italy after revealing he would be tempted by a national team coaching role once he retires.
At 38 years old, 2006 World Cup winner is still going strong for both club and country at the tail end of what has been a hugely successful career.
But the emergence of AC Milan’s talented teenage shot-stopper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who made his Italy debut in a friendly defeat to France last month, has increased speculation surrounding Buffon and when he will retire.
The Italian ‘Superman’ — as Buffon is often portrayed — comes face to face with 17-year-old Donnarumma when Milan host the league champions at the San Siro on Saturday.
But Buffon, who recently became a father for the third time, said the cut and thrust of life as a club coach does not appeal.
“A coaching role and all that it entails on a daily basis wouldn’t appeal to me,” Buffon said in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
“But I wouldn’t exclude a national team coaching role: I would still be involved in the game but have some freedom to dedicate myself to other things.”
Having won almost all of club and international football’s goalkeeping awards and played a crucial role in Italy’s 2006 World Cup triumph, the only trophy missing from Buffon’s cabinet is the Champions League title.
Less than a year after defeat to Barcelona in the 2015 final, Juve boosted their squad with the arrivals of Dani Alves, Miralem Pjanic and Gonzalo Higuain over the summer to emerge among the early season favourites.
Juventus sit top of Group H, level on points with Sevilla, and are expected to sail through to the knockout phase
But Buffon, who saved a penalty as 10-man Juve secured a precious 1-0 Champions League win at Lyon in midweek, said the Turin giants need to improve if they are to challenge more fancied sides like Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
“If you ask me, we have to improve. If we’re to have ambitions in Europe, what we’re doing on the pitch right now isn’t enough,” he added.
“I believe in meritocracy, so if I deserve to win (the Champions League) I will. Otherwise, I won’t.”

A tiny carved wooden clog that once belonged to a woman the Nazis deported to the Auschwitz death camp has been rediscovered after more than 70 years, a local foundation told AFP on Thursday.
Smaller than a matchstick, the charm “is a real piece of art from Auschwitz,” said Agnieszka Molenda, who runs the Foundation of Memory Sites near Auschwitz-Birkenau (FPMP).
“The tiny carved clog is just seven millimetres (0.28 inches) long and hangs on a small chain, indicating that a prisoner wore it as jewellery,” she said, adding that its origin and owner remain a mystery.
Auschwitz prisoners were banned from making or wearing any such items and according to Molenda the charm could have been a tiny symbol of resistance.
It was found this month during maintenance work in the attic of a building of the Budy-Bor Auschwitz subcamp, near the main death camp set up by Nazi Germany during World War II in occupied Poland.
The building was the site of a bloody massacre on October 5, 1942, when camp guards bludgeoned to death 90 French-Jewish female prisoners.
“The clog was most likely hidden between the bricks of wall of the attic where prisoners slept and could have belonged to one of the victims of the massacre,” Molenda told AFP.
Set up in 2013 by private collectors with a passion for local history, the FPMP gathers items related to the death camp and its nearby subcamps that covered some 40 square kilometres (15 square miles).
Working with the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum on the site of the former Nazi death camp in Osciecim, southern Poland, the foundation has collected thousands of items kept in private homes since the war.
In September, it unveiled a porcelain Mickey Mouse figurine that once belonged to a child the Nazis deported to Auschwitz.
One million European Jews died at the camp set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940-1945.
More than 100,000 others including non-Jewish Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and anti-Nazi resistance fighters also died there, according to the museum.
An estimated 232,000 of Auschwitz victims were children.

Marseille’s new American owner on Thursday appointed former Roma and Lille boss Rudi Garcia as the club’s coach on a three-year deal.
Garcia replaces Franck Passi and will take charge for the French giants’ clash against arch-rivals Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.
“Rudi Garcia, 52, has signed a three-year contract. He will take up his role” starting Friday, when he will attend this weekend’s pre-match press conference, Marseille said in a statement.
The appointment, Marseille’s fourth different coach since the start of last season, comes just three days after US tycoon Frank McCourt completed his purchase of the Ligue 1 side from Margarita Louis-Dreyfus.
“When I met Rudi, he told me straight away he wanted to win the Champions League,” said McCourt, who has vowed to restore Marseille to their former glory after the team finished a lowly 13th last season.
“I immediately knew he would be the man for the job,” added the Boston-born former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Garcia guided Lille to a league and French Cup double in 2011 and was last in charge of Roma before he was sacked in January, having steered the Serie A side to successive second-place finishes behind Juventus.
Roma earlier confirmed they had terminated Garcia’s contract by mutual agreement, with the Frenchman then still tied to the Italian club.
McCourt has laid out plans to invest heavily at the Stade Velodrome to reverse the fortunes of the nine-time French champions and swiftly installed Jacques-Henri Eyraud as the club’s new president.
“Rudi Garcia brings together all the required qualities to join our club’s project. He is used to high-intensity environments,” said Eyraud.
“His track record over the last five years is exceptional. He is one of the few French coaches to have succeeded abroad in a major league.”
Marseille currently sit 12th in the table after two wins in their last three matches and are coming off their worst season since 2001.
Marcelo Bielsa resigned as manager after the opening round of matches last term and was succeeded by Passi on an interim basis before former Real Madrid star Michel took over.
The Spaniard was then sacked in April as Passi once more stepped in to fill the vacant role, and Marseille supporters will hope the arrival of Garcia can help resurrect the 1993 European champions.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday called for a “robust and united” European approach to Russian “atrocities” in Syria, as she arrived for her first EU summit in Brussels.
“We must show a robust and united European stance in the face of Russian aggression,” May told reporters.
“It is vital that we work together to continue to put pressure on Russia to stop its appalling atrocities, its sickening atrocities in Syria.”
May said she brought a “clear message” to other EU leaders that Britain would continue to play its part in the bloc until it formally withdrew following June’s shock Brexit referendum.
“The UK is leaving the EU but we will continue to play a full role until we leave and we’ll be a strong and dependable partner after we’ve left,” she said.
“It’s in the interests of both the UK and the EU that we continue to work closely together, including at this summit.”
EU leaders meeting for the two-day talks are set to “strongly condemn” Moscow and call for a permanent end to hostilities in Syria, as Russia and the Syrian army begin a brief “humanitarian pause” in the battleground city of Aleppo.
The leaders of France and Germany warned after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the summit that they could not rule out sanctions over the carnage.

New Zealand bowlers pulled off a thrilling six-run win over India in the second one-day international after skipper Kane Williamson struck a dazzling century to help his side level the series 1-1 in New Delhi on Thursday
The hosts, who were chasing 243 for victory, were bowled out for 236 in 49.3 overs as Hardik Pandya’s fighting 36 went in vain. Speedster Tim Southee claimed three wickets.
Pandya, who starred with three wickets for India on debut in the Dharamsala ODI, looked like completing the chase during his 32-ball knock but Trent Boult got the dangerman in the penultimate over.
With India needing 10 in the final over and a wicket in hand, Southee got Jasprit Bumrah bowled for nought as the visitors celebrated their first win in the five-match series.
Boult’s excellent match figures of two for 25, including two maidens in his quota of 10 overs, was also key in New Zealand choking the Indian chase.
Earlier Williamson’s fluent 118 helped New Zealand post 242 for nine as Indian bowlers checked the visiting total with late strikes.
“A lot of credit to the way we bowled, to create pressure on that surface was key and Trent Boult was outstanding,” said Williamson.
New Zealand bowlers also came back strong to hurt India’s reply with early strikes as the hosts slipped to 73 for four.
Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner got the big wicket of Virat Kohli (9) with wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi taking a great reflex catch down the leg side.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (39) and Kedar Jadhav put on 66 runs for the fifth wicket in their effort to steady the Indian innings with their aggressive style of play.
Jadhav, playing only his ninth ODI for India, counter attacked during his 37-ball 41 as he hit 2 fours and 2 sixes before falling to Matt Henry.
Dhoni looked like anchoring the innings but a superb caught and bowled effort from Southee saw the back of the wicketkeeper-batsman as India slipped further.
Dhoni’s 65-ball knock saw 37 dot deliveries as the runs required grew more than the balls remaining.
Williamson turned to part-time spinner Martin Guptill, who took two wickets in his only over to get into the Indian tail.
But Pandya never gave up as he put on 49 runs for the ninth wicket with Umesh Yadav, who remained unbeaten on 18, as the duo gave the Black Caps a big scare.
“I feel this was one game where we lost wickets against the run of play, it was not that the deliveries were good, we just kept losing wickets,” said a disappointed Dhoni.
Batting first, Williamson and Tom Latham rallied to put on 120 runs for the second wicket as the duo tackled the Indian bowlers with aplomb.
Williamson, who was named the man of the match, led from the front with some assured stroke-making during his 128-ball knock, which was laced with 14 fours and a six.
He made the most of a major let-off when Dhoni failed to glove a deflection off Axar Patel’s bowling. Williamson was on 59.
Latham, who hit 6 fours and a six, played aggressive cricket to thwart the Indian spin and pace attack during his run-a-ball 46.
Off-spinner Jadhav broke the big stand after being brought into the attack in the 21st over as he got the left-handed Latham trapped lbw.
Williamson carried on the good work to record his eighth ODI ton as the crowd at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stood up to applaud the efforts of the opposition captain.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra struck three times at crucial junctures to check New Zealand’s surge, including the all-important wicket of Williamson.
“I think we bowled really well, after the new ball it was key to get reverse swing and put pressure on the batsman, Mishy (Mishra) bowled well and got crucial wickets,” said Dhoni.
Medium-pacer Bumrah’s triple strike in the final five overs of the innings also hurt the visitors’ chances of putting up a bigger total.
The teams now head to Mohali for the third match on Sunday.

Breathing life into a campaign that desperately needed some, with a real gift for inspiring everyday Americans, the Achilles heel of the woman she is defending: Michelle Obama has proven to be Hillary Clinton’s trump card.
Since her arrival at the White House nearly eight years ago, the first lady has maintained her sky-high approval rating. She has in the past stumped for her husband and a number of Democratic candidates.
But in an ugly campaign full of personal attacks and low blows, Obama — who will again make the case for Hillary Clinton on Thursday in Arizona — has stood out, perhaps more than ever, as a potent campaign weapon.
The fiery speech in New Hampshire last week by the 52-year-old first lady forced many Americans to take a breath — and listen.
A fierce look in her eyes, her voice sometimes quivering with emotion, Obama offered a biting takedown of the “frightening” attitude towards women displayed by Clinton’s Republican challenger Donald Trump.
“It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted,” Obama said.
“This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. It is intolerable,” she added, noting that “the shameful comments about our bodies, the disrespect of our ambitions and intellect” had rattled her.
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck, who is anti-Trump but not exactly known for any fondness for the Obamas, called her address “the most effective political speech I have heard since Ronald Reagan.”
Team Clinton wisely learned from the impact Obama had, immediately using snippets of the speech to fire up Democratic voters, who have sometimes questioned their own candidate.
For Jennifer Lawless, a professor of politics at American University in Washington, it is easier for someone not in the race to express “raw emotion.”
“Everything a candidate says is dissected and interpreted as strategic. So it might seem less ‘real’,” she told AFP.
Lawless also pointed out that given that the Obama marriage has never been called into question like the “rocky” union of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michelle was on more solid ground criticizing Trump.
“Michelle can speak to these issues without worrying that her husband’s conduct will be analyzed or she’ll be considered a hypocrite,” the professor said.
Obama’s feisty campaign speech is even more important given that, since her arrival at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she has rarely thrown herself wholeheartedly into political battle.
“It’s easier to dismiss the president’s call for Donald Trump to stop whining about losing the election, which is largely political talk, than it is to dismiss the first lady’s call for Trump to comport himself like a man who respects women,” said Thomas Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland.
He added that such a call “transcends the hurly-burly of campaign politics.”
The first lady’s high-profile campaign appearance has revived speculation about the possible political ambitions of the lawyer with degrees from Princeton and Harvard.
But while she has learned the tricks of the trade and shown some flair for it — straight talk, peppered with bits of humor — Obama has never hidden her aversion for politics.
She has repeated, many times, that she will not follow in the footsteps of the 68-year-old Clinton, who finished up her two terms as first lady 16 years ago.
So for now, and until November 8 when voters go to the polls, Americans can relish the searing speech of October 13, which quickly went viral and earned her praise at home and abroad.
At a state dinner on Tuesday honoring Italy, to which she wore a sultry rose-gold Versace gown that demonstrated how she has become a style icon, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hailed her strong words about women.
“Michelle, after last week, let me be frank — your speeches are better than your tomatoes,” he said, in a joking reference to her White House vegetable garden.
“Thank you so much — as prime minister, but also as father of a small daughter.”

Global wine production this year is expected to be among the lowest for 20 years, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine said Thursday.
Production is likely to reach 259 million hectolitres ?- a decrease of 5 percent compared with 2015 — which ranks among the three poorest years since 2000, according to the OIV’s early estimates revealed at a Paris press conference.
But it said country production figures were “highly contrasting” and blamed the topsy-turvy picture on “climatic events”.
Italy confirmed its place as the leading world producer with 48.8 hectolitres, having knocked France off the top spot in 2015.
France came in second with 41.9 million hectolitres in 2016, following a sharp fall of 12 percent.
Of the top three producing nations, the OIV expects only Spain to show growth in 2016, with a one-percent year-on-year rise to 37.8 million hectolitres.
The United States is fourth with 22.5 million hectolitres, a rise of 2 percent, and Australia is the world’s fifth-largest producer after seeing 5 percent growth to 12.5 million hectolitres.

Facing such devastation, the residents of Chabet, a town in southwestern Haiti, are stuck between leaving or starting from scratch.
Hilaire Servilius paces around what was, two weeks ago, a beach of fine sand. Walking amid rocks carried ashore by the powerful waves unleashed by Matthew, he searches in vain for a telephone signal.
“The area is devastated. There’s nothing at all left — a person doesn’t even have clothes to change into,” said the 55-year-old man, his shirt open and ripped at the shoulder.
“I was born here. I spent all my life here but I must leave,” he said, gesturing to the spot where his house sat before the ocean swept it away.
To rebuild a home, replant banana trees, the thought is unbearable to him. “I should begin the work all over? But no one knows what could happen again, so why do it?”
Resigned to leaving, Servilius survived living under a plastic sheet. He has no money to pay for transportation. “If I find someone to help me get away, I would say ‘Thank you, dear God’ for that would be his plan,” he said, smiling and pointing a finger to the sky.
On the other side of the road hugging the coast at Chabet, in Roche-a-Bateau, the damage is also significant. The ocean carried everything away when Matthew slammed into Haiti on October 4.
At 75, Abraham Roudilhomme remembers several hurricanes but none so catastrophic as this one. The tiny valley where he was living changed into a swamp littered with the trunks of coconut and banana trees.
Only the concrete gravestones resisted the storm.
“I have a son in Port-au-Prince. He came to see me last week. He told me he was coming back, and if he finds me, I’ll leave with him,” Roudilhomme said in a weak voice.
“I no longer have hope. I no longer have anything at all. I have only hunger in my stomach and it hurts,” he sighed.
For Jules Sima, 44, the future lies right here. Dodging fallen branches, he rides his motorcycle every day, traveling 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the city of Les Cayes, where he lives, to Chabet to see his relatives left destitute by the storm.
Sima is sure he will rebuild the houses of his father and his sister.
“Yesterday, I bought some iron bars and I’m going back to Les Cayes and think about what I can do to find cement, tiles, then I’m coming back,” he said.
He refuses to see his 92-year-old father leave the town and is determined to build him a secure home, this time on higher ground. But his small salary as a school supervisor is holding him back from starting the project.
“No place is going to give me a real loan. That leaves me only loan-sharks to consider, with their loan installments at high interest rates,” he said.
“I’m going to knock on every door and make sacrifices: that’s my strategy to save my relatives,” he said with a confident smile.
Motorcycle helmet crooked in his elbow, Sima tells his father to throw away the empty envelopes that are drying on a rickety table, one of the few pieces of furniture on the concrete slab, all that remains of the three-room house.
Starting from scratch in this landscape of dead trees does not scare him.
“There’s a Creole proverb that says ‘As long as the head’s not cut off, it can hope to wear a hat’,” he said.
“You don’t give up.”

The State Department demanded the immediate release of Siamak and Baqher Namazi, both Iranian-American dual nationals, after their sentences were announced on Tuesday.
But foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi told Iranian media: “The government and the Iranian people give no importance to the statements and interference of American officials and their efforts to divide the ranks of the Iranian people.
“The American threats only add to the wall of mistrust Iranians have regarding the United States.”
Washington expressed concern over the health of the elder Namazi, a former UN Children’s Fund employee who also served as the governor of an Iranian province before the Islamic revolution of 1979.
Both were jailed for 10 years for “espionage and collaboration with the American government”, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolat-Abadi announced on Tuesday.
Three other Iranians — Farhad Abd-Saleh, Kamran Ghaderi and Alireza Omidvar — were also sentenced to 10 years on the same charges.
The National Iranian American Council, in a statement, described them as dual citizens but did not specify their other nationalities.
They were sentenced along with a US resident from Lebanon, Nezar Zaka.
Siamak Namazi, a well-connected business consultant who has supported Iranian reformists and sought to promote ties between Iran and the United States, was arrested as he arrived in Tehran a year ago.
His father was detained in February when he came to Iran to seek his son’s release.
Conservatives in Iran have criticised attempts by the moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani to improve ties with the West following a nuclear deal with world powers last year.

Donald Trump will lay out plans Saturday for the first 100 days of his presidency, in what his campaign is calling his “closing arguments” in one of the most bitter election campaigns in US history.
The 2016 election cycle pitting the Republican nominee against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has turned increasingly toxic, with Trump fueling wild conspiracy theories about vote “rigging” and Clinton warning that the provocative billionaire was straying into authoritarianism.
Clinton excoriated Trump as a threat to American democracy Friday for not pledging to honor results of the upcoming presidential election, as the rivals battled for supremacy in battleground states.
“We know the difference between leadership and dictatorship, and the peaceful transition of power is one of the things that sets us apart,” Clinton told a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the key swing states up for grabs on November 8.
“Donald Trump refused to say that he’d respect the results of this election. By doing that, he’s threatening our democracy.”
Her comments marked a stern rebuke to Trump’s bombshell suggestion during their third and final presidential debate that he may not recognize the election result — a surprising rejection of political norms.
Trump, 70, then told a rally crowd that he could launch a legal challenge if Clinton prevails.
His remarks follow weeks of Trump warning about the likelihood of a “rigged” election including massive voter fraud, despite members of his own party disavowing the comments and Trump drawing condemnation from President Barack Obama.
Despite isolated allegations of voter fraud, controversy over the tight 2000 vote and rampant gerrymandering, US elections have been regarded as free and fair.
Invigorated by both her commanding poll numbers and Trump’s eyebrow-raising declarations, the candidate vying to become America’s first female president was in Ohio aiming to block Trump’s efforts to claim the blue-collar heartland state.
Trump, well aware that no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio, campaigned in the Buckeye State Thursday. He is due to head back to the state on Saturday, with running mate Mike Pence.
On Friday, the Manhattan real estate mogul hosted rallies in the battlegrounds of North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
“Eighteen days. You’re going to look back at this election and say this is by far the most important vote you’ve ever cast for anyone at any time,” Trump told a crowd in Fletcher, North Carolina.
On Saturday, he will make a key speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous speeches in American history, delivered during the Civil War in an effort to help unite the country.
“The Donald Trump campaign is a movement unlike anything we’ve seen in our country’s history. Tomorrow’s speech will set the tone for the closing arguments of this election,” Trump’s national policy director Stephen Miller said in a statement.
“Mr Trump is the change agent our country needs and he will speak to every American tomorrow about his positive vision to restore our economy, give government back to the people and outline the immediate steps he will take in the first 100 days to Make America Great Again.”
Trump earlier said he would give the campaign everything he had, “right up until the actual vote.”
“Win, lose or draw… I will be happy with myself,” he added.
Clinton is narrowly leading in polling in North Carolina, a state Obama won in 2008 but lost to Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.
Trump is trailing badly in the polls, and his debate threat opened him up to a stinging attack from Obama at a Miami rally.
“When you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our election, that undermines our democracy,” Obama said Thursday.
“When you suggest rigging or fraud without a shred of evidence… That is not a joking matter.”
Clinton holds leads in several battleground states, ranging from razor-thin, such as in North Carolina, to moderate in Florida and Pennsylvania and commanding in Virginia.
She is even narrowly ahead in Arizona, the traditionally Republican-leaning state where First Lady Michelle Obama — who galvanized voters with a searing attack on Trump last week — campaigned for Clinton Thursday.
If Trump loses Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, Clinton is all but assured of victory, experts have said.
In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump supporters streamed into a convention center to hear him speak in their depressed former steel town, where most mill jobs have evaporated.
Trump promised that he would bring many of them back.
“We don’t make things anymore,” he told the cheering crowd. “When I’m president, we’re going to start making things again in America.”

Scores of teachers, students and workers were packed into the crowded boat when it capsized in the early hours of Saturday as it chugged along the Chindwin River.
More than 150 people were rescued alive, but dozens more perished as the vessel swiftly sank about 72 kilometres (45 miles) north of the city of Monywa.
Dozens of bloated corpses have been swept downriver, while others were found trapped inside the broken shell of the boat as rescue workers hauled it to the surface.
“We lifted the whole sunken boat this morning,” Sa Willy Frient, director of social welfare and resettlement in Sagaing region, told AFP.
“We got 72 dead bodies in total… 14 men and 53 women were taken from the boat, and another five dead bodies which were carried away by the water.
“We have concluded our salvage today.”
Family and friends have identified 44 of the bodies, local authorities said, but the rest were decayed beyond recognition after days in the water.
Four workers on the boat were arrested after it sank, but the boat captain and the owner have fled.
Boat accidents are common in Myanmar, where many people living along its flood-prone river systems rely heavily on often overcrowded ferries for transport.
Regional lawmaker Tun Tun Win said the central government needed to upgrade the boats that operate on the Chindwin River, which most locals rely on for transport.
“This morning, I helped at the funeral of a doctor who died when the boat sank. Her wedding was planned for yesterday,” he said.
“The union government should improve the transport system. These kind of incidents been happening for a long time along the Chindwin River.
“Young people shouldn’t have died,” he added, confirming the final death toll.

Inter Milan coach Frank De Boer could be sacked if the struggling Italian giants fail to claim their first Europa League group win at home to Southampton on Thursday, said reports.
De Boer stepped in to replace Roberto Mancini two weeks before the start of the season with expectations the Nerazzurri would be among the title challengers at home and in Europe.
But Inter have slipped to 12th in Serie A at 10 points behind leaders and champions Juventus after just eight games, and their record in Europe’s second tier competition is even worse.
Inter host the Saints looking to claim their first points in Group K, where they sit bottom after a shock home defeat to Hapoel Beer-Sheva (2-0) and a 3-1 loss away to Sparta Prague.
La Gazzetta dello Sport had De Boer on their front page below the headline: “Inter, De Boer risk everything.”
A report said Inter’s new Chinese owners are already “beginning to have doubts” on De Boer, who was lured to the club by former owner Erick Thohir.
Inter’s woes on the pitch have not been helped by drama off it.
Club captain Mauro Icardi was forced to issue an apology to fans in midweek and promise to reprint his autobiography after including an allegedly distorted description of a 2015 altercation with the club’s hardline ‘ultra’ supporters.
The club’s hardline fans called for Icardi to be stripped of the captaincy while welcoming him to the San Siro on Sunday with a huge banner which labelled him a ‘mercenary’.
Inter were furious with their 23-year-old captain, although they limited their sanctions to ordering the Argentine striker to remove the offending passages from his book and to have it reprinted.
Icardi, who missed a penalty in a 2-1 home defeat to league newcomers Cagliari at the weekend, will be under considerable pressure to make amends later at the San Siro.
Given the circumstances, Southampton should fancy their chances of an away win after beating Slavia Prague 3-0 at home and holding Hapoel to a scoreless away draw last month.

Spain’s Constitutional Court on Thursday cancelled a bullfighting ban in Catalonia in what is likely to exacerbate tensions between Madrid and the separatist region, and drew an outcry from animal activists.
The decision represents a significant victory for supporters of the centuries-old tradition who have long sparred with animal rights organisations that believe bullfighting is a cruel, anachronistic event.
In a statement, the court argued bullfighting was classified as part of Spain’s heritage, and therefore a decision on banning it was a matter for the central government and not for semi-autonomous regions.
The ban has been declared “unconstitutional and void,” it said.
Catalonia’s regional parliament voted to abolish bullfighting from January 1, 2012 after animal rights groups managed to garner 180,000 signatures for a petition.
It was the first region in mainland Spain to ban the tradition, although the Canary Islands abolished bullfighting in 1991.
Critics at the time argued that more than an animal rights issue, Catalonia’s ban was also politically-motivated in a region with its own language, a fierce sense of identity and a desire to seek independence from Spain.
As such, the court decision is likely to increase already-high tensions between Madrid and Catalonia, where the regional government is making moves to separate from Spain and has announced a referendum on the issue next year.
It drew immediate reactions from politicians on both sides of the divide.
“In the Spanish state, it’s unconstitutional to ban the public torture and murder of an animal. Enough said,” tweeted Gabriel Rufian, a Catalan separatist lawmaker in national parliament.
Meanwhile Alicia Sanchez-Camacho, president of the Catalan branch of the ruling conservative Popular Party that took the ban to court, said she “welcomed” the decision.
She tweeted that the party would “continue to defend” freedom and bullfighting.
Even animal rights party PACMA criticised the decision as politically-motivated.
“Once more they have been found to use animals in a political war,” said party member Ana Bayle.
“They don’t know anything about animals, nor do they care.”
The debate does not only touch on Spain’s fraught issue of regionality.
Bullfighting has drawn increasing controversy and protests around Spain in recent years.
While no other region has banned bullfighting since Catalonia made the move, Castile and Leon in Spain’s northwest abolished the killing of bulls at town festivals in June.
The move targeted the region’s controversial Toro de la Vega festival where horsemen chase a bull and spear it in front of onlookers.
Several cities have also put a stop to corridas or annual festivals with bull running over the years.
But supporters of bullfighting, known as “aficionados”, are not giving up without a struggle.
They see bullfighting as an art that is an integral part of Spanish culture, like flamenco.
Spain’s first pro-bullfight lobbying group, the Bull Foundation, made up of breeders, matadors and “aficionados”, also argues that it is beneficial for the economy, maintaining around 200,000 jobs directly or indirectly.
Simon Casas, a former matador whose company now manages bullfighting rings in Madrid and other Spanish and French cities, welcomed the court decision.
“Bullfighting is a form of culture under supervision of Spain’s culture ministry, it’s an art form that is part of the identity of some people and it was totally absurd that a political institution — the Catalan government — was able to ban it,” the Frenchman said.
“The debate wasn’t about liking or not liking bullfighting, being for or against it, it was a constitutional issue and the court sorted it out.”
Other controversial traditions involving animals, such as throwing a live goat off a tall church steeple to a crowd below, have also been banned over the years.
But others continue to take place, such as placing flammable balls on the horns of bulls, setting them on fire and letting the animals loose in the street.

Defending champion Justin Thomas launched the defence of his CIMB Classic title in Malaysia with nine birdies en route to an eight-under-par 64 on Thursday.
The American was joined at the top of the first-round leaderboard by compatriots Derek Fathauer and Keegan Bradley, with England’s Paul Casey one shot back.
Thomas, 23, who clinched his maiden PGA Tour title here in 2015 after a tournament record 26-under-par 262, kept his cool despite hot and humid conditions to card just a single bogey at the TPC Kuala Lumpur course.
“It was a good day… it was solid. If there’s such a thing as an easy eight-under, it was. I wedged it great,” he said.
Anirban Lahiri of India was in range with a 66 while recent Ryder Cup victor Patrick Reed of the USA, the world number seven, was four shots back with a 68.
Adam Scott, the highest-ranked player in the field at number six, was left to rue three bogeys that left him six shots back.
Scott, who finished in the top 10 in his last four tournaments, vowed to come back more aggressive.
“I hit a few bad shots in the round and made some bogeys unfortunately. It’s really good scoring conditions, so that was costly,” said Scott.
“Yeah, I think you need to play aggressive. I really need a low round tomorrow and get up near double digits under par, and try and get back in this thing.”
Ryan Moore, who is bidding to win the CIMB Classic for a third time, stumbled out of the gates to a one-under 71.
The 33-year-old, another member of the winning USA Ryder Cup team, won in 2013 and 2014.
The $7 million tournament is jointly sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the PGA Tour and offers US$1.26 million to the winner.
It is the second event of the PGA Tour’s 2017 schedule, and offers 500 points toward the FedEX Cup championship, as well as an invite to the winners-only 2017 Tournament of Champions.

A serious food crisis in the north of South Sudan is reaching critical levels, as a biting drought across much of east Africa serves up even more woes for the troubled country.
In Northern Bahr Al Gazal it is not the incessant cycles of violence wreaking havoc elsewhere in the country that concerns locals most, but the lack of rain and a deep economic crisis.
At a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the town of Aweil, Lucia Adeng holds her three-year-old son Wek Wol Wek, his breathing shallow and rapid and his skin paper thin around his emaciated arms.
“It’s not always a total lack of food, but there is definitely a shortage. Sometimes we have food at home, and sometimes we don’t,” she says.
Several children like him lie silent in their mothers’ arms, their eyes downcast, as they are poked and prodded by doctors. The clinic is currently recording about 60 cases of malnutrition a week, according to MSF.
Out in the fields, farmer Tong Deng looks miserably at his damaged sorghum crops and tiny yield from the lack of rains. For others, when the rains came, it was too much, with sudden massive downpours in August causing flooding which also ruined their crops.
“Our harvest has been low because during the planting period the hunger situation was very severe for us and we were not able to cultivate much land. We were hungry,” Deng.
“At the same time, what we cultivated suffered a dry spell which didn?t allow a good germination, and later the few crops were affected by the sorghum midge.”
At the local market, several stalls are closed and offerings are meagre.
The World Food Programme (WFP) warns that as many as 4.8 million people ? about 40 percent of the country?s population — were going hungry and that the situation would only get worse.
The Famine Early Warning System Network (Fews Net) last month said some households were already at the “catastrophic” famine level 5, meaning “starvation, death, and destitution are evident.”
Others were going several days without a meal, placing them in “emergency” level.
With roads from Sudan blocked to trade goods, and those to Uganda fraught with danger due to clashes between government and rebel forces, the inflation in prices of certain cereals is as much as 1,000 percent in some states, according to the National Statistics Bureau.
A depreciation of the South Sudanese pound has also hit hard.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) says that more than 70,000 people from the region have migrated to Sudan to escape the harsh conditions.
In other parts of the country, it is fighting between opposition forces loyal to former vice president Riek Machar and his rival President Salva Kiir that has displaced hundreds of thousands, severely impacting the cycle of planting and harvesting.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. According to the reports of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), food insecurity has increased 500 percent since 2012.
The country descended into war over the political rivalry between Machar and Kiir in 2013, and a fragile peace deal signed in 2015 is in tatters, with fighting erupting again in July and a surge of violence in recent weeks.
The Pacific warming El Nino caused one of the worst droughts in decades in 2015 across eastern and southern Africa and the 2016 rainy season has been slow to start, meaning the crisis could drag on for several months.

The National Basketball Association’s international fans will be able to watch highlights in near real-time as part of changes to the league’s subscription service being rolled out for the new season, officials said Thursday.
The new feature known as NBA Rapid Replay will be available through various packages tailored to meet the demands of fans throughout the globe, building on the success of highlight clips previously shown on Twitter.
“It’s one thing to tell our fans that a game is getting close going into the fourth quarter, or that Steph Curry hit a half-court shot at the end of the third tying it up, but it’s another thing for us to use pretty near live video in order to show fans what is happening,” Melissa Brenner, the NBA’s senior vice president of digital media, told AFP.
Brenner said the new feature would allow fans to view highlights in one feed instead of receiving it through disparate social media platforms.
“You can follow not only the game you are watching but everything going on around the league,” Brenner said.
The service will be available through the NBA League Pass International, which makes games available to fans in all corners of the globe.
A new monthly service, NBA Game Choice, allows fans to watch choose any two live games per week — eight per month — for around $10 per month.
“Our International League Pass has been a really successful product for a number of years, allowing our fans to access an enormous amount of content,” Alex Kaplan, senior vice president of global media distribution, said.
“But as our fan base grows internationally, we wanted to make sure we were giving even more fans the opportunity to experience the best of the NBA.”
The league’s willingness to tailor subscription packages is a reflection of the reach of the NBA across the globe as well as the league’s cosmpolitan make-up.
“More than 100 NBA players are from outside the United States,” Brenner told AFP.
“This product allows us to target their home countries.”
The full NBA League Pass International will also feature a range of services include on-demand replays of full-length or condensed games as well as video archives offering access to classic games, interviews and documentaries.

A British journalist arrested in Mogadishu while on a reporting assignment has been released by Somalian security forces, his employer Al-Jazeera said on its website Thursday.
Hamza Mohamed was arrested on Tuesday along with a driver, fixer and cameraman. He had been in the country for a week.
Somali authorities had earlier informed Al-Jazeera that they had detained the journalist but that he had not been charged with anything.
Hamza Mohamed had frequently travelled to the country over the past few years from where he had reported “with accuracy and integrity”, Al-Jazeera said in an online report.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had said Hamza and his colleagues were arrested on their return from a trip outside the capital, during which they were suspected of visiting territory controlled by the radical Islamist group Shabaab to interview senior Shabaab leaders.
“Journalists are constantly caught in the crossfire of the war between government forces and Al-Shabaab’s armed militants. They are either the victims of deadly reprisals by the militants or they are arrested by the authorities on suspicion of collaborating with Al-Shabaab,” said RSF.
RSF said the arrest came just days after the detention of Abdi Aden Guled, editor-in-chief of the daily Xog-Ogaal who was arrested on Sunday and freed on Tuesday.
Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries for journalists: 45 Somali reporters were killed between 2007 and 2015, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The main threat is from Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab fighters trying to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, however authorities are also accused of numerous violations.
RSF lists Somalia as 167th out of 180 countries in its 2016 press freedom index.

A German police officer died on Thursday of gunshot injuries sustained in a raid against a member of the shadowy far-right group “Citizens of the Reich”, authorities said.
Police in the southern state of Bavaria said “the critically injured officer died in the early morning hours in hospital” after the standoff on Wednesday.
The 49-year-old gunman belonging to the so-called Reichsbuerger movement, identified only as Wolfgang P., was also slightly injured in the struggle with officers in the town of Georgensmuend and taken into custody.
Local authorities had ordered the seizure of the man’s arsenal of about 30 firearms after his permits were rescinded due to a determination that he was psychologically “unsound”.
The 32-year-old dead officer was part of a special forces unit dispatched to the scene to enforce the order. Three other officers were injured in the confrontation, one of them seriously.
The suspect, who previously ran a martial arts school, immediately opened fire when the officers entered his home. He now faces a murder charge.
The officer had been wearing a bulletproof vest but the shot entered his body through his shoulder, police said.
It was the second serious incident in three months involving the Reichsbuerger group, which does not recognise the legitimacy of the German republic and believes in the continued existence of the German empire or “Reich”.
As a result, many refuse to pay taxes and fines owed to the state.
In August, a member of the group — a former Mister Germany pageant winner — opened fire on police carrying out an eviction order at his house in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The 41-year-old gunman was seriously wounded and three police officers suffered light injuries.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic security watchdog, which keeps tabs on extremist groups, said it had no current figures on the number of Reichsbuerger members.
But an interior ministry spokesman said Wednesday that the movement was seen as “fragmented”, with a few hundred members spread throughout the country.

An Indonesian Islamic State group supporter was jailed for 10 years on Thursday for helping make a bomb used in a deadly attack in Jakarta, as the country faces an increase in IS-linked assaults.
Dodi Suridi, 23, was found guilty of committing an act of terror over his links to the attack in the Indonesian capital in January, which killed four assailants and four civilians and was claimed by IS.
A second IS supporter, 48-year-old Ali Hamka, was also jailed for four years over the attack for trying to find guns and ammunition to use in the assault.
The attack — the first claimed by IS in Southeast Asia — saw dramatic scenes as a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Starbucks and security forces battled gun-toting militants.
It was the first major attack in Indonesia for seven years.
Asked whether he accepted the decision, Suridi was unrepentant and told the court: “That’s the risk of being a terrorist, I accept the verdict.”
As court officials led him away, he yelled “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is greatest”, and flashed a smile at journalists.
The world’s most populous Muslim-majority country has long struggled with Islamic militancy and Indonesians have flocked to fight with IS.
Also on Thursday, police shot dead a man carrying knives, suspected pipe bombs and an IS symbol after he launched an attack on officers near Jakarta.
Other IS-linked incidents this year include a foiled plan to launch a rocket at an up-market Singapore waterfront district from an Indonesian island and a botched suicide attack on a police station, which killed only the assailant.
Analysts believe the January 14 assault was organised by a militant group led by a jailed pro-IS cleric.
Suridi, who was arrested a day after the attack, altered a gas canister to be used as a bomb.
The militant transported the canister and a casing for a pipe bomb to Jakarta, where he handed them to another man, who blew himself up as he attacked a police post during the assault.
Although Suridi, who pledged allegiance to IS in 2014, did not directly participate in the assault, presiding Judge Achmad Fauzi said his actions had “disturbed the community and shaken the life of our nation”.
Hamka, who was jailed by the same court, did not manage to find any weapons to pass to the attackers but was found guilty of breaking anti-terror laws.
A number of people have been arrested over suspected involvement in the incident.
The first conviction over the attack was in March when a 15-year-old boy was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention for harbouring a man allegedly linked to the attack.

“Pregnancy is neither a crime nor a mental illness,” insists Imelda Bosuala, a 15-year-old who was turned away by her school in Equatorial Guinea after falling pregnant.
When the school term began last month, the government had put in place a new rule — in order to enrol, all teenage girls must take a pregnancy test.
And a positive test means no more education.
Speaking on state television, deputy education minister Maria-Jesus Nkara said the tough new measure sought to encourage schoolgirls to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies.
A month into the new term, it is still too early to tell how many girls have been affected by the ban in a country where teenage girls come under heavy pressure to start a family.
World Bank figures show that in 2014, the birth rate among Equatorial Guinean adolescents aged 15-19 was 110 in 1,000.
The figure is substantially higher than the global average of 44 per 1,000, but lower than in other African nations such as Niger (204), Mali (175) and Angola (167).
Rights organisations have criticised the authorities for violating the right to education, slamming the measure as another example of repression in this tiny oil-rich nation whose president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has ruled with an iron fist since seizing power in a 1979 coup.
But opinions within the country are divided.
“This is a good decision,” said 13-year-old Sabina in the playground of Bioko Norte high school in the capital, Malabo.
“Coming to class while you’re pregnant shows a lack of respect.”
Even Bosuala herself is in two minds. “Pregnancy is also not a good example to set in the school environment,” she admits.
But French teacher Gerardo Ndong believes the decision was “foolish”.
And Trifonia Melibea, a sociologist and teacher at the National University of Equatorial Guinea, was also dismayed by the decision.
“These adolescents are being deprived of the fundamental right to education. That’s an insult,” she said.
She also warned that the measure could push teenagers into seeking abortions in “inhuman conditions”.
In the former Spanish colony of 800,000 people, pregnancies can be legally terminated only if there is a threat to the health of the mother and with the authorisation of the spouse or parents.
Efua, whose 14-year-old daughter is expecting a baby, believes the government should open a dedicated school “especially for young pregnant girls” so they can keep up their studies.
Early pregnancies are most common in poor families, where adults might even consider sending a daughter out as a sexual offering.
“Some parents use their daughters as items of trade, asking them to go out with rich men to help the family survive,” said 19-year-old Ana Rita.
Sociologist Martin Ela pointed to increasing pressures from consumerism since oil production began in the 1990s.
“These little girls go out with someone who is able to give them a smartphone because they want to be on Facebook or WhatsApp,” Ela said.
Melibea said teenage girls were particularly vulnerable to pressure.
“In Equatorial Guinea, if a girl reaches the age of 18 without having a child, everybody starts saying she’s barren,” she said.
The high number of teen pregnancies can also be linked to the absence of legislative protection for minors against sexual harassment, meaning abusive men can operate with impunity.
Sierra Leone introduced a similar ban on pregnant teens last year, prompting a sharp reaction from Amnesty International.
“Excluding pregnant girls from mainstream schools and banning them from sitting crucial exams is discriminatory and will have devastating consequences,” the London-based rights group said in a study released in November 2015.
“Education is a right and not something for governments to arbitrarily take away as a punishment.”
The report said the prohibition, which was sometimes enforced through “humiliating physical checks”, was likely to affect an estimated 10,000 young girls and risked destroying their future life opportunities.
The ban has yet to be lifted.

Europe’s second attempt at reaching the Mars surface appeared in peril Thursday as initial analysis suggested a lander dubbed “Schiaparelli”, a test-run for a future rover, may have plummeted to its demise.
While holding out faint hope, ground controllers said it seemed the paddling pool-sized lander’s parachute may have been discarded too early, and its fall-breaking thrusters switched off too soon.
Schiaparelli fell silent seconds before its scheduled touchdown, while its mothership Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) entered Mars’ orbit as planned — part of a joint European-Russian quest for evidence of life on the Red Planet, past or present.
“We are not in a position yet to determine the dynamic condition at which the lander touched the ground,” European Space Agency (ESA) head of solar and planetary missions Andrea Accomazzo told a webcast press briefing at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.
Further analysis must be done of some 600 megabytes of data Schiaparelli sent home before its signal died, to “know whether it survived structurally or not.”
If not, this would be Europe’s second failed Mars landing in a row, joining a string of unsuccessful attempts by global powers to explore our planetary neighbour’s hostile surface.
The British-built Beagle 2 robot lab disappeared without trace after separating from its mothership, Mars Express, in 2003. Its remains were finally spotted in a NASA photograph last year.
Schiaparelli had travelled for seven years and 496 million kilometres (308 million miles) onboard the TGO to within a million kilometres of Mars on Sunday, when it set off on its own mission to reach the surface.
The pair comprise phase one of the ExoMars mission through which Europe and Russia seek to join the United States in probing the alien Martian surface.
The TGO is meant to sniff atmospheric gases potentially excreted by living organisms, while Schiaparelli’s landing was designed to inform technology for a bigger and more expensive rover scheduled for launch in 2020.
The six-wheel rover will be equipped with a drill to look for remains of past life, or evidence of current activity, up to a depth of two metres.
While life is unlikely to exist on the barren, radiation-blasted surface, scientists say traces of methane in Mars’ atmosphere may indicate something is stirring underground — possibly single-celled microbes.
“Schiaparelli” was scheduled to touch down at 1448 GMT Wednesday after a scorching, supersonic dash through the thin atmosphere of Mars, some 170 million kilometres from Earth.
For a safe landing, it had to brake from a speed of 21,000 kilometres (13,000 miles) per hour to zero, and survive temperatures of more than 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,730 degrees Fahrenheit) generated by atmospheric drag.
It was equipped with a discardable, heat-protective “aeroshell” to shield it, and a parachute and nine thrusters with which to brake its fall.
A crushable structure in its belly was meant to cushion the final impact.
“It could be that this parachute phase has been terminated too early then we were far too high, or we have had a behaviour during the parachute phase that led the lander to be far too low,” Accomazzo said.
“The thrusters were confirmed to have been briefly activated, although it seems likely that they switched off sooner than expected,” added an ESA press statement.
Since the 1960s, more than half of US, Russian and European attempts to operate craft on the Martian surface have failed.
Europe has budgeted 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for its share in the ExoMars project.
ESA director-general Jan Woerner stressed the successful orbit-insertion of the TGO, scheduled to start its gas-sniffing science mission in 2018.
“We have an impressive orbiter around Mars ready for science,” he said, adding that Schiaparelli’s primary role was to test landing technology.
“Recording the data during the descent was part of that and it is important that we can learn what happened, in order to prepare for the future.”

French President Francois Hollande warned Thursday that Islamic State jihadists under attack in the Iraqi city of Mosul are already fleeing to Raqa, their stronghold in neighbouring Syria.
“We can’t afford mistakes in the pursuit of the terrorists who are already leaving Mosul for Raqa,” Hollande told an international conference in Paris.

Saudi Arabia raised $17.5 billion in its first international bond offering, HSBC said Thursday, reflecting strong interest as the kingdom seeks to diversify its oil-dependent economy.
The bond issue — the first time Saudi Arabia has turned to international markets for financing — was hailed as historic by investors and according to official media was nearly four times oversubscribed.
“It was the biggest syndicated issue ever by any country,” said Jean-Marc Mercier, co-director of the debt capital markets division at HSBC, which took part in the transaction and confirmed the figure.
The world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia is seeking financing as it moves to diversify its economy following the global collapse in crude prices.
The kingdom is projecting a budget deficit of $87 billion this year after a fall in oil revenues, which still account for most of its income.
It has taken a series of austerity measures, including subsidy cuts and reductions in cabinet ministers’ salaries, and earlier this year announced an ambitious plan to diversify its economy.
A veteran banker in the kingdom told AFP the issue would be considered a major achievement.
“The rate came in at good levels. It’s got to be viewed as a big success for the country,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Saudi Arabia divided the issue into three tranches with maturities of five, 10 and 30 years, HSBC said.
The $5.5 billion in five-year bonds carries a coupon that pays annual interest of 2.375 percent.
A further $5.5 billion in 10-year bonds carries a coupon of 3.25 percent, and the $6.5 billion in 30-year bonds has a coupon of 4.5 percent.
The effective annual interest rate is 2.588 percent on the five-year bonds, 3.407 percent on the 10-year bonds,and 4.623 percent on the 30-year bonds.
The official Saudi Press Agency reported that total subscription requests amounted to $67 billion, or almost four times the $17.5 billion offered.
Saudi Arabia had previously issued domestic bonds but that led to a tightening of bank liquidity, according to Patrick Dennis, lead Middle East economist at Oxford Economics in London.
“That’s the main reason why they’re now borrowing overseas,” he told AFP.
Saudi banks’ loan-to-deposit ratio rose for the fifth consecutive month in August, reaching 90.8 percent, because of faster growth in credit relative to deposits, Riyadh’s Jadwa Investment said in a report this month.
While bank stress may be a factor, the veteran banker in Saudi Arabia said an international bond sale fits with the kingdom’s global outreach.
“A lot of international investors don’t like to buy the local currency,” preferring US dollars, he said.
Borrowing abroad also reduces the drain on the kingdom’s foreign reserves.
Official figures show those reserves declined to $562 billion in August from $732 billion at the end of 2014.
London-based Capital Economics said in a briefing paper that Saudi reserves are now “unlikely to fall much beyond their current level in the coming years” because the bond issue will finance around a third of next year’s budget deficit and almost all of the current account shortfall.
In April the kingdom released its wide-ranging Vision 2030 for diversifying the economy.
At its heart is a plan to float less than five percent of state oil company Saudi Aramco on the stock market.
Proceeds would help form what will become the world’s biggest state investment fund, with around $2 trillion in assets.
The veteran banker said Saudi Arabia’s first global bond sale is a “small start in the big picture” and is likely to be repeated.

More than 2,800 Britons applied for citizenship in the 18 countries who provided data during the first eight months of 2016 ? a 250 percent increase on the same period in 2015.
Denmark recorded the sharpest post-referendum spike, noting a tenfold increase in applications from 30 to 300.
Italy, Ireland and Sweden also reported a sharp rise in applications following the June 23 vote, which has thrown into severe doubt the ability of Britons to move freely between European Union nations.
Applicant Ravi Bhatiani, who has been living in Brussels for nine years, told the Guardian that Brexit was the prime driver behind the spike.
“I started the application process on 24 June, the day after the EU referendum,” he said.
“As soon as there was a risk to the freedom of movement and therefore a risk to my ability to work in Belgium and do the job I enjoy doing, I decided to apply for citizenship.”
Sweden received the highest number of applications in the eight-month period, with more than 1,100, peaking in the week after the referendum.
Ireland earlier this month said applications for Irish passports from July to September jumped to 37,306 from 20,360 over the same period last year.
There are at least 1.2 million British citizens living in other parts of the European Union, according to census data.

European Union leaders warned Russia at a summit on Thursday that they will consider sanctions over its role in the Syrian conflict if Moscow does not stop “crimes” in the devastated city of Aleppo.
As the bloc’s 28 leaders met in Brussels for a crucial discussion on their future strategy to deal with Moscow, EU President Donald Tusk said they should “keep all options open, including sanctions.”
French President Francois Hollande said that “all options are open for as long as there is not a ceasefire that is respected and for as long as there is an intention to destroy this town, Aleppo, a town of martyrs.”
The leaders in a draft summit statement said the EU was weighing sanctions against supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime if they fail to stop atrocities.
“The EU is considering all options, including further restrictive measures targeting individuals and entities supporting the regime, should the current atrocities continue,” the draft EU summit statement said.
“The European Council strongly condemns the attacks by the Syrian regime and its allies, notably Russia, on civilians in Aleppo,” it added.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, arriving for her first EU summit since the June Brexit vote, called for a united European approach to “sickening atrocities” in Syria,
“We must show a robust and united European stance in the face of Russian aggression,” May told reporters. “It is vital that we work together to continue to put pressure on Russia to stop its appalling atrocities, its sickening atrocities in Syria.”
The EU leaders were to discuss their long-term Russia policy over dinner but deep cracks over how tough to be with Moscow remained evident.
Some warned there was no unity on adding sanctions over Syria to those that the EU has already imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
“One option is sanctions. I don’t think there’s unity but I think it should be on the table, that this should be an option for the future,” Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told reporters.
Luxembourg premier Xavier Bettel meanwhile said that “certain people were talking about sanctions” but “we have to find solutions around the table.”
Russia had upstaged the summit by announcing earlier in the week that it would halt hostilities over Aleppo on Thursday just as the 28 leaders were gathering in Brussels.
It said Thursday it would extend the truce by 24 hours, without specifying when it would end. The UN had said earlier it had received a pledge from Moscow to extend it until Saturday.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said only a permanent ceasefire was acceptable.
“What is happening in Aleppo with Russian support is completely inhuman,” she told reporters.
“That is why we have to work as fast as possible to get a ceasefire in place — and not only one over several hours a day.”
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg joined the chorus of outrage, saying that a Russian aircraft carrier battlegroup heading to Syria could join attacks on Aleppo.
“We are concerned Russia’s carrier group will support military operations in Syria in ways which increase human and civilian suffering,” Stoltenberg said at NATO headquarters in Brussels
Moscow is Assad’s strongest ally and came to his rescue last year when rebels appeared to be gaining ground.
The EU is already embroiled in an angry standoff with Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, complete with punishing economic sanctions on both sides.
Relations with Russia were put on the agenda of the two-day summit in Brussels months ago amid expectations of progress on Ukraine.
Since then, the deepening of the Syrian crisis has poisoned the atmosphere while Berlin talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday produced no real progress.
After the Berlin meeting, Merkel and Hollande both refused to rule out sanctions, with the chancellor saying “we cannot remove this option.”

A painful defeat on penalties is driving Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors as they prepare to take on Al Ain in the AFC Champions League final, their coach said.
The K-League outfit beat domestic rivals FC Seoul 5-3 on aggregate late Wednesday to go into next month’s two-legged title match against the Emirati giants.
Jeonbuk coach Choi Kang-Hee said memories remained fresh of their loss in the 2011 Asian final, when they went down on penalties to Qatar’s Al Sadd.
“We still feel the pain of five years ago,” said Choi, according to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) website. “These are painful memories and we are delighted to have the chance to play in another final.”
He added: “The final of this kind of competition is a big game and failing to win is hard. You can try to forget about it but it stays in your mind for a long time.”
FC Seoul won Wednesday’s second leg 2-1, but Jeonbuk went through 5-3 on aggregate courtesy of their thumping 4-1 victory in the home leg late last month.
The 2006 champions reach their third Asian final despite a domestic scandal. They were deducted nine points and fined after one of their scouts was convicted of bribing referees.
“When we gathered for pre-season in January, I told the players that our target was to win the AFC Champions League. To get to the final is a big deal for us,” said Choi.
Standing in their way are Al Ain, the inaugural winners in 2003 who are led by dazzling playmaker Omar Abdulrahman — who promised his focus would be on the team’s victory, rather than personal honours.
“My focus is always on helping Al Ain win titles and championships,” Abdulrahman told UAE’s The National. “The most important thing for me as a player is to defend the badge of this great club.
“Winning the Asian player of the year award is a goal ?- if I win it is thanks to all the players at Al Ain and with the national team for helping me to always shine.”

New Zealand will do all they can to keep Aaron Cruden with the All Blacks, coach Steve Hansen revealed Thursday as the fly-half weighs up a lucrative offer to join French club Montpellier.
Reports from France indicate the 27-year-old, who is off contract with New Zealand Rugby next year, has been offered a deal worth more than a million dollars.
Cruden, named on the bench for Saturday’s Test in Auckland against Australia after an injury lay-off, has refused to discuss the issue other than confirm he has options to consider.
“I’ve got a few decisions to make but the time is probably not right now to be making those decisions after an injury lay-off,” he said.
“My focus is on the game this weekend and trying to make sure I nail my role when I get back on the field. I haven’t put too much thought into (the offer).”
However, Hansen said they have made it clear to the 42-Test pivot that New Zealand Rugby do not want to lose him.
“He knows we want him to stay and that discussion will probably happen while we’re away,” Hansen said with the All Blacks to leave soon on a northern hemisphere tour.
“He’s a big part of where we are and what we do. He’s in our leadership group and he’s definitely a good enough player to be a strong Test player so we won’t want to lose him.”
Player retention has been a problem for New Zealand Rugby, which fights big money offers from off-shore by stating players must play in New Zealand to qualify for All Blacks selection.
Cruden was the understudy to Dan Carter for several seasons before taking over as the All Blacks’ first choice fly-half this year when Carter retired from international rugby to join Racing 92 in France.
However, his groin injury has seen him slip behind Beauden Barrett in the All Blacks pecking order.
The French reports indicate Cruden is being considered as a possible replacement for Demetri Catrakilis when New Zealander Vern Cotter takes over as Montpellier coach next season.

A wide array of Iraqi and international forces are involved in the fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran the country’s second city in 2014.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the much-awaited operation on Monday and anti-IS forces have already retaken several villages and significant swathes of land from the jihadists.
These are the main forces that are operating in the wider Mosul theatre or may do so. Not all will play a role in the fighting inside the city:
Heavily armed jihadists who have had years to prepare their defences in Mosul, which IS seized before sweeping through cities and towns to the south in 2014.
Iraqi forces have since regained significant ground, and Mosul is the last city the jihadists hold in the country.
Iraq’s elite force which have spearheaded most key battles against IS. But constant reliance on these troops over the past two years has taken a toll.
The Iraqi army has begun playing a more successful role in operations against the jihadists since it was revitalised by US-led training after several of its divisions collapsed during the IS offensive two years ago.
Includes special forces units, paramilitary federal police and provincial police. Many Iraqi police forces have played roles more akin to those of soldiers in the war against IS.
A US-led international alliance is carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria, and providing training, arms and equipment to forces opposing the jihadists.
There are more than 7,500 coalition military personnel deployed in Iraq, over half of them from the United States.
Most are in advisory or training roles, but special forces soldiers who have fought the jihadists on the ground have been deployed and coalition forces near Mosul have also targeted IS with artillery.
The peshmerga are the armed forces of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. They nominally answer to the federal government but in practice operate independently, battling IS along a long front in the country’s north.
Forces from Iran’s Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) are embedded in some peshmerga operations. It is separate from other Iranian Kurdish rebels groups that have also been active on the Iraqi side of the border such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK).
An umbrella organisation created in 2014, which includes a dizzying array of paramilitary forces who vary widely in skill and in the degree to which they are actually under government control.
The main groups are Iranian-backed Shiite militias, including Ketaeb Hezbollah, Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Badr. The Hashed has played a major role in the anti-IS fight in Iraq but forces within it have also carried out abuses.
It includes recently trained Sunni tribal forces sometimes referred to as “tribal mobilisation” or “national mobilisation”.
Iranian forces have provided advice and other assistance, including funding for various militias fighting IS in Iraq.
Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards foreign operations wing, has been repeatedly pictured in Iraq during the war.
Deployed at a base near Mosul from which they have carried out artillery strikes against IS. Turkish troops are also present inside Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
The federal government has demanded their withdrawal, with the prime minister vowing that they will not take part in the operation to recapture Mosul, but Turkey has declined to do so.

Moeen Ali survived five reviews to hit an unbeaten half-century and help revive England after teenage debutant Mehedi Hasan stunned their top order to give Bangladesh the upper hand in the first Test on Thursday.
Teenage off-spinner Mehedi and experienced left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan shared five wickets between them as Bangladesh reduced England to 173-5 at tea on the opening day in Chittagong.
Moeen, batting at number five, struck eight fours and a six on his way to 61, but not before a string of nervous reviews kept his innings afloat.
He was given out three times by umpire Kumar Dharmasena but his decisions were overturned on each occasion.
He was given out on 17 off Shakib before lunch — and then twice on the same score, in the first over after the break, off the same bowler. Two separate reviews from Bangladesh failed.
Bangladesh reduced England to 81-3 in the first session and struck again through persistent bowling from Mehedi, who removed Joe Root for 40 after Shakib’s eventful over.
Root had looked in good touch until he edged one that took a deflection off wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim’s gloves before being grabbed by Sabbir Rahman at slip.
Shakib then bowled Ben Stokes (18) for his second wicket, but Jonny Bairstow stood firm with an unbeaten 26 to give Ali some company in their unbroken 67-run sixth wicket stand.
Earlier, in the opening session, 18-year-old Mehedi bowled Ben Duckett for 14 before trapping Gary Ballance for one.
Shakib removed Alastair Cook for just four, in a disappointing start for the skipper as he became England’s most capped player with 134 Tests.
After Cook won the toss and elected to bat in the first of the two Tests, England immediately faced a barrage of spin bowling on a pitch offering plenty of turn.
Mehedi opened the attack for the hosts, beating Duckett on several occasions before he spun one beautifully to hit the middle stump as soon as the England debutant offered some room.
Three balls later Cook was also gone, attempting a sweep shot off Shakib only for the ball to hit him on the forearm and then the body before smashing onto the stumps.
Ballance was initially given not out lbw, but Bangladesh reviewed the decision in their favour, with the replay showing the ball had struck his pad on the back foot first before touching the bat.
England have included Gareth Batty in the side, giving the Surrey captain his first national cap in more than 11 years, while Bangladesh have handed batsman Sabbir his debut.

The Turkish military said its jets conducted 26 raids on Wednesday night that killed 160 to 200 militants from the People’s Protection Units (YPG),
However the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll much lower.
The army, quoted by the official news agency Anadolu, said the raids hit 18 targets north of the battered city of Aleppo in areas recently recaptured by YPG forces from the Islamic State group.
The Observatory told AFP in Beirut that at least 11 fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)– a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters — were killed and 24 wounded.
The UK-based monitor added there were at least 25 Turkish raids targeting many villages and towns northeast of Aleppo, including Maarrat Umm Hawsh.
These areas were recaptured by the SDF from IS jihadists in the last 48 hours, the Observatory said.
The agency said nine buildings used as YPG headquarters, meeting points, shelters and weapons depots were destroyed as well as four vehicles.
Ankara considers the YPG and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as terror groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PKK, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
In a statement, the Kurdish Rojava region in Syria condemned Ankara’s actions as “blatant aggression”, calling for the United Nations, Moscow and Washington to “put direct pressure on Turkey to stop its attacks”.
The strikes come on the eve of a visit to Turkey by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter to discuss developments in the region and security challenges.
Tensions between the US and its NATO ally Turkey have heightened over Ankara’s actions against the YPG, which Washington views as an effective force against IS in Syria.
Ankara has repeatedly said it will not allow a “terror corridor” on its southern border and wants to prevent the joining of the Kurdish “cantons” of Afrin and Kobane.
The strikes were part of Turkey’s military operation in northern Syria launched on August 24. Ankara has sent in tanks and has been striking jihadist targets while supporting Syrian opposition fighters in their battle to retake IS-controlled territory.
The goal of the operation was to remove IS from the Turkish border — which last month Ankara said it achieved — while also aiming to halt the westward advance of the YPG.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey would not “wait for terrorist organisations to come and attack us”.
“These organisations, wherever their activities are, wherever they are nesting, we will go (there),” he said in a speech in Ankara.
“Instead of dealing with the flies, we will drain the swamp.”
Erdogan has previously said he wants to create a 5,000-square-kilometre (1,900 square-mile) safe zone in Syria by pushing further south in the operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield”.

Maximiliano Ruiz was not expecting a call from Argentina’s National Commission for the Right to Identity. He already knew his identity — or so he thought.
He was 40, the happy son of middle-class parents. The first person in his family to become a doctor.
Then, in May, the call came. His parents, the commission suspected, were not his biological ones. His younger sister Marina was not his blood sister.
His father was a Marxist guerrilla, murdered by military dictators.
The governmental commission searches for people who were taken from their mothers as babies and adopted by other families under the 1976-1983 regime.
“I was surprised by the call. But I was sure it wasn’t me they were looking for,” Ruiz told AFP.
“I had not suspected it. I did not even know that the parents who raised me were not my biological parents.”
Genetic tests were recommended. The call had sowed doubt in his mind, and he agreed.
Last month the results confirmed that he was one of hundreds of so-called “stolen babies” born to left-wing dissident parents in custody.
They call him “Grandson Number 121,” the latest to be identified out of around 500 children thought to have been forcibly adopted under the regime.
Ruiz learned the results of his DNA test on October 3 from the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a renowned rights group working for victims of the dictatorship.
He learned he had an elder brother, Ramiro Menna, who looks just like him, and a long-lost Aunt Alba.
“This is a happy experience for me. The strongest feeling I have is one of gratitude,” Ruiz said.
“I am grateful to have survived, despite being born in difficult circumstances — to have had the family that raised me, and then to meet this family that was looking for me.”
Ramiro is a left-wing activist who worked as a missionary in Ethiopia.
He was two when his mother was arrested and an aunt and uncle looked after him. He later spent decades trying to find the baby his mother had been carrying in her womb when she was imprisoned.
“When I met Ramiro there was an immediate charge of affection — a feeling of happiness, of overwhelming love. It was as if we had known each other all our lives,” Ruiz said.
“I am not replacing one family with another. I feel I am expanding my family.”
Ruiz has a wife, Maria, a lawyer, with whom he has two children: Mauricio, six, and Carmela, four.
He has told his own children they may soon change their surname.
“I told them I had not come out of Grandma Monica’s tummy as they thought, but my mother had died and the grown-ups did not tell me, because they did not want me to be sad.”
The first thing little Carmela asked was: “Mommy, did I come out of your tummy?”
Argentina’s military dictators, backed by the United States in the midst of the Cold War, jailed, killed and “disappeared” tens of thousands of their opponents.
Ruiz’s biological parents, he learned, were Ana Maria Lanzillotto and Domingo Menna, a medical student and commander of a Marxist guerrilla group.
They are just two of some 30,000 people that rights groups estimate were “disappeared” in Argentina, as did many more under right-wing dictatorships in various other Latin American countries.
“Here in Argentina it was the worst dictatorship around. It used perverse methods,” Ruiz said. “But I think on the left too, in those armed groups, things were also done.”
Numerous officers of the regime have been jailed for atrocities.
Those convictions have been largely driven by the “Grandmothers.”
The “identity” commission, part of the Argentine justice ministry, formally investigates cases of babies born to women in custody under the regime.
The commission stumbled on Ruiz’s case while investigating a midwife accused of forging birth certificates during that period.
Examining his birth record, it found inconsistencies that led his story to unravel.
“My (adoptive) mother had been trying for years but had not managed to get pregnant,” he said.
She was referred to a clinic which proposed that she adopt a newborn baby delivered there.
His adoptive parents did not know the truth about Maximiliano’s parents.
The clinic told them the baby had been born to a 15-year-old girl who did not want a child.
“That had a strong effect on my mom and dad. It was a surprise for them too,” he said.
“Not the fact that I wasn’t their biological son — they knew that already — but the truth about where I came from,” Ruiz added.
“I understand what they went through. I love them very much. I have nothing but gratitude for them.”

Some 200 people watched the debate late Wednesday at the Mexican-American-owned barbecue joint in Mexico City whose name refers to an insult against Americans (“damn gringo”).
The crowd was a mix of American expats and Mexicans, highlighting the deep interest and concerns that the US election has generated in Mexico — especially after Trump caused so much anger with his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
“I abhor him. This man has no respect,” said Juana-Ines Abreu, a 77-year-old retired Mexican museum director, who sat with friends on one of the restaurant’s long table benches.
“What worries me is that he has awakened the ‘ugly American,'” she said. “He’s a xenophobe. He’s a vulgar man. He’s a dangerous man.”
During the “final pinche presidential debate” — as a restaurant sign put it — people were encouraged to raise their glass and cheer when Mexico was mentioned, which they obliged a handful of times.
Clinton, the Democratic candidate and former secretary of state, clearly had more fans at “Pinche Gringo” than the New York Republican billionaire.
Some in the crowd laughed during the discussion on immigration when Trump used the Spanish word for man: “We have some bad ‘hombres’ here, and we’re going to get them out” of the United States.
But Aline Salazar, a 31-year-old Mexican communications and social media strategist, saw little humor there.
“It goes back to the same point of intolerance and little openness to minorities,” she said.
The patrons booed when Trump called Clinton a liar but they raised their glasses and cheered when he triggered the key word by complaining that US jobs were fleeing to “Mexico.”
Clinton was applauded when she said that illegal immigrants were paying more federal income taxes than Trump, who has admitted to not paying them in around two decades.
Dan Defossey, an American who co-owns Pinche Gringo with a Mexican partner, estimated that the crowd was about half Mexican, half American, at the restaurant, which serves dishes like barbecue ribs, brisket and macaroni and cheese, and has a brick wall decorated with wooden planks painted as the US flag.
“This election is not important just to the US, it’s vital to Mexico as well,” Defossey said, noting that the peso has dropped or gone up according to how Trump has fared in opinion polls. “Mexicans are interested, just as much as we are.”
Jorge Mondragon, a 32-year-old graphic designer, had beer during the debate, which inspired him at the end to draw an unhappy face and the phrase, in English, “Don’t let that bastard be president.”
Trump is despised by many in this country for calling Mexican migrants rapists and drug dealers and demanding that their government pay for a giant wall across the border.
But many Mexicans are also unhappy with their own president, Enrique Pena Nieto, for meeting with Trump in Mexico City in August and not forcefully condemning him during a joint press conference.
Jose Manuel Ruiz, a 25-year-old lawyer who wore a “Hillary for president” T-shirt, said it was important for Mexicans like him to see the debate because “we have many links to the United States” thanks to immigration and economic ties.
Ruiz was interested in the discussion about Supreme Court nomination — a fairly domestic US issue — but he had a dim view of Trump’s wall idea.
“It’s a stupid idea. It’s impossible to go through with it,” he said, because the border is so massive and the project would be too expensive.
But Clinton was not his first choice. Ruiz would have preferred her primary rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, to have won, but compared to Trump, “the least worst is Hillary Clinton.”

Threatened by habitat loss and hunting, Madagascar’s lemurs, a critically endangered species, are finding refuge in a private sanctuary on this vast Indian Ocean island.
At Nahampoana game reserve, one of the wide-eyed creatures — the island’s signature primate — appears between long bamboo stems, while a little further down three others play in the trees on a riverbank.
Nearly two decades ago, this 50-hectare (123 acre) former French colonial garden was turned into a privately run game reserve.
It is now home to 150 lemurs.
“Bamboo lemurs come here naturally, because it’s quiet and they are protected in the reserve, and the numbers are increasing,” Leonard Dauphin, the sanctuary’s supervisor, told AFP.
There are around 100 known species on Madagascar, but only six are found in the park, among them the iconic ring-tailed lemurs which are probably the most widely recognised.
It is only on this island that lemurs appear in the wild, having evolved separately from their cousins the African ape over millions of years, and in the grounds of the reserve they roam freely among the frogs, turtles and crocodiles also living there.
The main threat facing Madagascar’s lemurs is deforestation, which is one of the most serious environmental issues facing Africa’s largest island.
“Before, it was paradise. The clouds would flirt with the mountains because of the forests,” says Gauthier, a park guide pointing to Saint-Louis, the area’s highest mountain.
“Now it’s a desert. The trees are being cut everyday.”
For nearly two decades, Nahampoana reserve has survived thanks to sponsor Aziz Badouraly, who owns a travel agency in the nearby town of Fort-Dauphin.
Around 3,000 tourists visit Nahampoana reserve every year — but the numbers are not enough to keep it afloat, and Badouraly says it needs help from the government.
“We would like the state to help us more, or at least build a good access road from the city to the reserve,” he says.
But authorities on the island, where nine out of 10 people live below the poverty line, can barely spare any funds to implement national biodiversity conservation and protection programmes.
Julio Razafindramaro Pierrot, who governs the southeastern Anosy region where the sanctuary is situated, acknowledges the problems caused by the widespread practice of destroying forest to make way for crops, but says the state’s hands are tied.
There is a need “for agricultural infrastructure be put in place to allow the villagers to grow (crops) and reduce pressure on the forest,” he says, pointing to the “huge potential” for other forms of agriculture.
“But the region… does not have the means to embark upon projects of this nature.”
Conservation experts say there is a dire need for funding to ensure the survival of the lemurs, with fewer than 10,000 left on the island.
Estimates from the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) suggest 94 percent of lemur species are threatened with extinction.
“Because lemurs are only found in one place on earth, it is critical that we figure out how to save them along with other animals and plants that can only be found there,” Jeff Flocken, a director with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), told AFP.
Trade in lemurs is prohibited by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) because the species are critically endangered.
“If they are not protected, (they will end up) like many species that we can’t find anymore,” says Gauthier.
“They are our natural wealth.”
Around Nahampoana, local efforts to try to educate the villagers — who claim the lemurs damage their crops — appear to be beginning to bear fruit.
“We are working well with the villagers,” says Dauphin.
“For example, we sell them lychees from the reserve at a price which is three times cheaper than at the market. In exchange, we ask them to respect the animals,” he says.
“It’s in everyone’s interest.”

Elite Iraqi forces retook a town on the eastern edge of Mosul on Thursday while Kurdish peshmerga fighters opened a new front in the offensive to wrest back the jihadists’ last bastion in Iraq.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told an international meeting in Paris that the four-day-old offensive was “advancing faster than expected”.
France and Iraq were co-chairing the meeting on the future of Mosul, which observers have warned could raise even greater humanitarian and interconfessional challenges than the massive military operation to retake it.
In some areas, the Iraqi advance was met by a trickle of civilians fleeing both the fighting and the jihadists who ruled them for two years, but the feared mass exodus from Mosul had yet to materialise.
The counter-terrorism service (CTS), Iraq’s best-trained and most battle-seasoned force, retook full control of Bartalla, a town that lies less than 15 kilometres (nine miles) east of Mosul.
“I announce to the people of Bartalla and Mosul we have complete control over Bartalla,” CTS commander Taleb Sheghati al-Kenani told reporters from the town.
“Its residents, its churches and all of its infrastructure are now under the control of CTS,” he said of the small Christian town that IS seized when it swept across the Nineveh plain in August 2014.
Some 120,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes at the time.
Further north Kurdish peshmerga forces opened a new front with a multiple-pronged assault on the town of Bashiqa.
“The objectives are to clear a number of nearby villages and secure control of strategic areas to further restrict ISIL’s movements,” the peshmerga command said, using an alternative acronym for IS.
At dawn, bulldozers flattened a path for forces in armoured vehicles to carve their way down towards Bashiqa.
As tanks and personnel carriers prepared to advance, a shadow glided above them and one peshmerga shouted “drone!”
Fighters opened fire at it with every weapon available, causing an almighty din and lighting up the dim morning sky, until the drone fell to the ground and the troops resumed their advance.
An AFP reporter in the village of Nawaran near Bashiqa saw the downed drone, a Raven RQ-11B model similar to a booby-trapped one that killed two Kurdish fighters and wounded two French soldiers a week ago.
Iraqi federal forces and the peshmerga have not divulged casualty figures in this offensive.
On Thursday, IS released a short video showing the bodies of what it said were two peshmerga, hung by their feet from a bridge in central Mosul.
A US service member was killed Thursday when an improvised explosive device went off, the coalition said.
A US defence official said the incident occured north of Mosul but did not specify whether the dead service member was one of the more than 100 US troops advising Iraqi forces as they push toward Mosul.
To the south, Iraqi forces were making steady gains, working their way up the Tigris Valley and meeting small numbers of fleeing civilians heading the other way.
Dozens of men, women and children who escaped from the village of Mdaraj, south of Mosul, some on foot and others in vehicles, were waiting as police searched their belongings.
“We snuck out,” said a man who gave his name as Abu Hussein.
The huge plumes of black smoke from fires lit by IS to provide cover from air strikes had helped them slip out unnoticed, he said.
The UN fears up to a million people still trapped inside Mosul could be forced to flee by the fighting, sparking a humanitarian emergency.
But Iraqi forces are still some distance from the city limits and no major outflows of civilians have been reported yet.
Some Mosul residents who fled before the start of the offensive have crossed into neighbouring Syria and are now sheltered at a camp in Al-Hawl.
A Kurdish official at the camp said 500 people had entered the camp in the past two weeks and 2,000-3,000 Iraqis were waiting at the border.
Bulldozers were busy expanding the camp, which staff there feared could be submerged by as many as 30,000 displaced Iraqis when the Mosul battle intensifies.
The Iraqi prime minister told the Paris meeting on Mosul that the operation to retake it was making progress.
“We are advancing faster than we had expected and planned,” he said by video link.
French President Francois Hollande told the meeting that jihadists were already leaving for Raqa, their stronghold in neighbouring Syria.
“We cannot allow those who were in Mosul to evaporate,” Hollande said.
Mosul, Iraq’s second city, was seized by IS in June 2014.
Its capture touched off an offensive that saw the jihadists conquer about a third of the country and declare a “caliphate” straddling Iraq and Syria.
IS’s rule has seen some of the worst war crimes in recent history and the task of reconciling all the components of the area’s complex religious and ethnic mosaic is daunting.
“Given the sheer size of Mosul — and its experience of savage rule at the hands of the Islamic State — revenge killing will likely be an issue in the days and months ahead,” according to the Soufan consultancy.
“A massive effort will be required to begin to heal what is a truly fractured city and society,” it said.

If Americans entered the debate concerned about what happens the day after this brutally fought election, Trump did little to assuage their fears.
An hour into the 90-minute battle, the Republican nominee was asked whether he would respect the election result and concede if he lost. His answer will go into the history books.
“I’ll look at it at the time. What I’ve seen is so bad,” he said, repeating unfounded allegations of vote rigging.
Fellow Republicans rushed to denounce him, and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton declared herself “appalled” by what she said was an attack on 240 years of US democracy.
Asked about embarrassing leaked emails, Clinton pivoted to Trump’s much scrutinized relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Republican’s refusal to pin the leaks on Moscow.
Clinton suggested Putin wanted a “puppet” in the White House, which prompted a remarkable exchange.
“No puppet. No puppet,” said Trump, talking over Clinton. “You’re the puppet!”
“No, you’re the puppet,” he continued.
Composing himself, Trump said “I never met Putin. This is not my best friend. But if the United States got along with Russia, it wouldn’t be so bad.”
Both Clinton and Trump threw plenty of meat to their core political bases — ticking boxes on guns, abortion and taxes.
Trump was again on the defensive over his policy of forcibly deporting millions of illegal migrants.
“We have some bad hombres here, and we’re going to get them out,” he said.
Clinton described that as an idea “that would rip our country apart.”
Some of the sharpest exchanges came when Trump accused Clinton and her campaign team of drumming up allegations that he has groped several women.
“I believe,” Trump said, “she got these people to step forward,” accusing Clinton of running a “very sleazy campaign” and adding of the claims aired by several women dating back decades: “It was all fiction.”
Trump boasted, “I didn’t even apologize to my wife,” saying he did nothing wrong and so had nothing to apologize for.
Later, when the topic turned to taxes, Clinton suggested that Trump might try to wriggle his way out of paying.
“Such a nasty woman,” Trump said, leaning into the microphone.

Teenage debutant Mehedi Hasan claimed five wickets for 64 runs to stun England’s top order and give Bangladesh the upper hand in the first Test in Chittagong on Thursday.
Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow scored half-centuries each as England reached 258-7 at stumps on the first day, after skipper Alastair Cook elected to bat first at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium.
Moeen survived five reviews on his way to smashing 68 runs and Bairstow made 52 as England steadied against some superb bowling from Bangladesh’s spinners to post a respectable score.
Chris Woakes was 36 not out and Adil Rashid unbeaten on five.
Experienced left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan finished the day with 2-46 to complement 18-year-old Mehedi, who became the seventh Bangladeshi bowler to take five wickets in his Test debut.
“I never expected such a debut of this kind,” Mehedi said. “I thought that I would pick up two wickets and score 30 runs but what happened is something I will remember all my life.”
Mehedi, named player of the tournament at the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, made an immediate impression, bowling Ben Duckett for 14 before trapping Gary Ballance for one in his opening spell.
Shakib removed Cook for just four, in a disappointing start for the skipper who became England’s most capped player with 134 Tests.
Mehedi opened the attack for the hosts, beating Duckett on several occasions before he spun one beautifully to hit the middle stump as soon as the England debutant offered some room.
Three balls later Cook was also gone, attempting a sweep shot off Shakib only for the ball to hit him on the forearm and then the body before smashing onto the stumps.
Ballance was initially given not out lbw, but Bangladesh reviewed the decision in their favour, with the replay showing the ball had struck his pad on the back foot first before touching the bat.
Moeen was given out three times by umpire Kumar Dharmasena but his decisions were overturned on each occasion.
He was given out on 17 off Shakib before lunch — and then twice on the same score, in the first over after the break, off the same bowler. Two separate reviews from Bangladesh also failed.
Mehedi struck soon after Shakib’s eventful over by removing Joe Root for 40.
Root had looked in good touch until he edged one that took a deflection off wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim’s gloves before being grabbed by Sabbir Rahman at slip.
Shakib then bowled Ben Stokes (18) for his second wicket, but Bairstow joined Moeen for a 88-run sixth wicket partnership to revive England’s innings.
Moeen, who hit eight fours and a six in his 170-ball knock, was finally dismissed when Mehedi beat him with a turn to induce an edge that Rahim gladly accepted.
Mehedi bowled Bairstow to complete his five-wicket haul shortly after the England wicketkeeper-batsman brought up his 11th Test fifty, a composed innings that featured eight fours.
“Not bad on a day after losing three wickets very early. It was pretty tough but in the end we are pretty happy,” said Moeen.
“Definitely I did not think it would spin so much as it did today,” he added.
England have included Gareth Batty in the side, giving the Surrey captain his first national cap in more than 11 years, while Bangladesh have handed batsman Sabbir his debut.

A ceasefire in the Syrian army’s Russian-backed assault on rebel-held Aleppo appeared to expire Saturday with the UN saying it had been unable to evacuate anyone from the ravaged city.
Moscow had extended the unilateral “humanitarian pause” into a third day until 1600 GMT on Saturday, but announced no further renewal of the truce despite a UN request for longer to evacuate wounded civilians.
Neither residents nor rebels in the opposition-held part of the city heeded calls from Syria’s army and Moscow to leave, after weeks of devastating bombardment and a three-month government siege.
The pause began on Thursday, and came after Moscow announced a temporary halt to the Syrian army’s campaign to recapture the divided city.
The army opened eight corridors for evacuations, but just a handful of people crossed through a single passage, with the others remaining deserted.
“Members of popular civil committees from regime districts entered the eastern neighbourhoods to try to evacuate the injured but failed,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Saturday.
Syrian state media and Russian authorities have accused rebels in the east of preventing civilians from leaving and using them as “human shields”.
More than 2,000 civilians have been wounded since the army launched its offensive to drive the rebels out of the eastern districts they have held since 2012. Nearly 500 people have been killed.
The United Nations had hoped to use the ceasefire to evacuate seriously wounded people, and possibly deliver aid.
But a UN official said on Saturday that the requisite security guarantees had not been received.
“You have various parties to the conflict and those with influence and they all have to be on the same page on this and they are not,” said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian office.
The UN had drawn up a four-day plan that would start with two days of medical evacuations to west Aleppo, rebel-held Idlib province, and Turkey, and continue with more evacuations as well as aid deliveries.
No aid has entered Aleppo since July 7 and food rations will run out by the end of the month, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday.
The UN had asked Moscow to consider extending the pause until Monday evening, but there was no word of any extension as the 1600 GMT deadline passed.
Moscow accuses rebels of preventing civilians from leaving.
“The terrorists are using the ceasefire in their interests,” said senior Russian military official Sergei Rudskoi.
“We are seeing them massing around Aleppo and preparing for another breakthrough into the city’s western neighbourhoods.”
Russia is a key ally of Syria’s government and began a military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad last September.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview set to air Saturday evening that the intervention was meant to “liberate” Syria and keep Assad in power.
“Either Assad is in Damascus, or Al-Nusra is,” he said, referring to former Al-Qaeda affiliate the Fateh al-Sham Front. “There is no third option here.”
The Observatory said both rebels and regime forces appeared to be reinforcing their positions in preparation for renewed fighting if the truce ended.
“The regime and the rebels are both bolstering their forces, which raises fears of a massive military operation if the ceasefire fails,” Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Elsewhere in Aleppo, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels were carrying out heavy shelling of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces in several villages.
Turkey considers the Kurdish militia that leads the SDF to be a “terrorist” organisation, and began an operation in Syria in August targeting the militia and the Islamic State group.
On Friday, the UN human rights council called in a resolution for “a comprehensive, independent special inquiry into the events in Aleppo”.
It also demanded that warring parties provide unrestricted humanitarian access to desperate civilians and “end immediately all bombardments and military flights over Aleppo city”.
Also Friday, UN experts said the Syrian army was responsible for a March 2015 chemical weapons attack on the village of Qmenas.
But they said they were unable to determine who was responsible for two other chemical weapons attacks, one in the same month and the other in April 2014.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Saturday urged the UN Security Council to issue a “clear condemnation” of chemical weapons use in Syria in a resolution “that places the perpetrators under sanctions”.

Indonesian police shot dead a man carrying knives, suspected pipe bombs and a symbol of the Islamic State group after he launched a daylight assault on officers near Jakarta on Thursday, an official said.
The man was shot three times as he stabbed wildly at officers on a busy intersection in Tangerang, a satellite city outside the capital, Jakarta police spokesman Awi Setiyono told AFP.
Setiyono said the perpetrator threw two suspected pipe bombs at the officers, but neither detonated, and displayed an IS symbol on a nearby traffic pole during the frenzied attack.
“A man suddenly stuck an IS logo sticker on a traffic police post, took a machete from his bag and blindly attacked our personnel,” he said.
The attacker — believed to be a member of a local hardline group — was also carrying a turban, along with knives and the suspected bombs, Setiyono added.
The 21-year-old attacker later died from his wounds, the spokesman said.
He said police investigating the case had discovered that two of the attacker’s brothers were police officers in Tangerang.
Three officers were injured and taken to hospital.
Police have often been the target of attacks by extremists in Indonesia, a country that has long struggled with Islamic militancy.
In January, police officers were targeted by gunmen and suicide bombers at a traffic post in central Jakarta. The IS-claimed attack left four civilians and four militants dead, and injured several police officers.
Police and military personnel have also been killed in clashes with extremists in a remote part of Sulawesi, where for years a ragtag militant group has been waging a conflict against security forces from their jungle hideout.
Indonesia suffered significant attacks in the 2000s including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.
A sustained crackdown weakened the most dangerous networks but IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for Indonesia’s radicals, stoking fears that militants fighting with the group could seek to organise attacks back home.

New Zealand have warned Australia they won’t let any provocation stand in the way of Saturday’s date with destiny when they hope to break the 47-year-old record for consecutive Test wins.
Victory to the world champions in Auckland would give them their 18th consecutive win, a new record for a top-tier nation, and see them acknowledged as the best side in rugby history.
The current record of 17 successive wins was set by the 1965-1969 All Blacks, equalled by South Africa in 1997-1998 and the All Blacks again in 2013-2014 before their current unbeaten run which began in August last year.
Coach Steve Hansen said that with both the Bledisloe Cup series against Australia and the Rugby Championship already in the bag, the All Blacks have set their sights on being crowned the best ever side.
“Once you embrace something like that it becomes a challenge and this group has shown they like challenges especially big ones like this one, like no one’s ever done it,” he said.
“This in an opportunity. It’s there right in front of us.”
The Wallabies have already been whipped twice by the All Blacks this year, and they have not won in New Zealand since 2001.
Australia last won at Eden Park 30 years ago — but they do have a reputation for snapping All Black winning streaks.
In 2010 they stopped a run of 15 All Blacks victories. They halted a 16-match winning streak in 2012 and two years later, a 12-12 draw in Sydney left the All Blacks stranded on 17.
The last time the two sides met, when the All Blacks won 29-9 in Wellington two months ago, it was an ill-tempered affair which only settled down when Wallaby lock Adam Coleman was yellow-carded for a late charge at the end of the first half.
New Zealand hooker Dane Coles warned if there is any niggle this time, the men in black will not allow themselves to be side-tracked again.
“We’ve got to react a little bit faster than we did in the Wellington Test and be a bit more task-focused. If they do bring it we’ll match it in the rules but we’re keen to play footy and get on with the job,” he said.
“There’s a bit of history on the line and (it) being the last Test at home this year is pretty motivating.”
The Wallabies showed against Argentina and South Africa in the latter part of the Rugby Championship that they had vastly improved, particularly in the forwards, from their earlier timid efforts against the All Blacks.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, who has delayed naming his side until late Thursday, said the All Blacks believe the result is a foregone conclusion.
“They’d be thinking they’ll do it easy,” he said, before adding: “We haven’t really tested them this year… I look forward to it. Bring it on.”
Hansen was taking no chances with his line-up, putting together his most experienced available players.
The only change to the run-on side that thrashed the Springboks 57-15 two weeks ago sees the bruising Julian Savea return to the left wing in place of Waisake Naholo.
Two changes are made on the bench with a fit-again Aaron Cruden returning along with centre Malakai Fekitoa.
Hansen has also stuck with Matt Todd at openside flanker in place of the injured Sam Cane and ahead of the promising Ardie Savea, who is on the bench.

Duterte is in China for a four-day trip seen as confirming his tilt away from Washington and towards Beijing’s sphere of influence — and its deep pockets.
“I announce my separation from the United States,” he said to applause at a meeting in the Chinese capital.
“America does not control our lives. Enough bullshit,” he added in a rambling speech that flipped between languages.
“How can you be the most powerful industrial country when you owe China and you are not paying it?”
His comments came after he met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, with the two men pledging to enhance trust and friendship, while playing down a maritime dispute.
Xi called the two countries “neighbours across the sea” with “no reason for hostility or confrontation”, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Under Duterte’s predecessor Benigno Aquino the two countries were at loggerheads over the South China Sea but since taking office in June the new head of state has changed course.
In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry cited Xi as telling Duterte that difficult topics of discussion “could be shelved temporarily”.
Duterte called the meeting “historic”, it added.
In Washington, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US considered Duterte’s comments “inexplicably at odds with the very close relationship” between the two countries.
“We are going to be seeking an explanation of exactly what the president meant when he talked about separation from the US,” he said.
A senior US administration official said the Philippines has so far made no formal request to modify its cooperation with Washington.
Duterte’s visit to Beijing capped a series of recent declarations blasting the US, its former colonial ruler, and President Barack Obama.
Addressing the Filipino community in Beijing Wednesday, the firebrand leader said the Philippines had gained little from its long alliance with the US.
He also repeated his denunciation of Obama as a “son of a whore”.
Last month Duterte sparked a diplomatic storm when he used the term to refer to Obama after being told the US president would raise rights concerns at an Asia meeting.
On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters gathered at the US embassy in Manila to voice support for Duterte’s recent anti-US rhetoric and call for American troops to leave the country.
Duterte has also suspended joint US-Philippine patrols in the strategically vital South China Sea, and has threatened an end to joint military exercises.
The South China Sea is of intense interest to Washington and it has repeatedly spoken out on the various territorial disputes between China and its neighbours over the waters.
Tensions have risen between the US and China over Washington’s so-called “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific, a move that Beijing says is intended to contain it.
In 2012, China seized control of Scarborough Shoal, a fishing ground in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
In a case brought by Aquino, the Philippines won a resounding victory at an international tribunal earlier this year over Beijing’s extensive territorial maritime claims in the area, infuriating the Asian giant.
But Duterte, who took office in June, shortly before the tribunal ruling, has made a point of not flaunting the outcome.
Asked whether the leaders had discussed the South China Sea, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson Hua Chunying said they had a “candid and friendly exchange of views on how to resolve relevant disputes”.
The meeting between Xi and Duterte marked a “full recovery” of the “traditional friendship” between the two countries, Chinese vice minister Liu Zhenmin said, according to a transcript released by the Philippine president’s office.
They oversaw the signing of 13 bilateral cooperation documents on business, infrastructure, and agriculture, among other fields, he added.
Beijing has also offered the Philippines a $9 billion soft loan for development projects, a statement from the Philippine presidential press office said.
About $15 million of the promised loans will be earmarked for drug rehabilitation programmes amid Duterte’s anti-drug campaign, which has killed thousands of people and raised concern abroad of human rights violations.
China will also lift bans on 27 Philippine tropical fruit export companies. Previous sanctions on fruit were intended to punish Manila for its South China Sea stance.

Developing economies stand to win an extra $21 billion (19 billion euros) if they improve girls’ health and sex education, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said Thursday.
Girls in developing countries are less likely than boys to complete schooling because of forced marriage, child labour and female genital mutilation, risking the opportunities presented by their largely young populations, said the study, launched in London.
“Over the next 15 years alone, developing countries together stand to gain or forfeit at least $21 billion, depending on whether or not they invest in the well-being, education, and independence of their 10-year-old girls today,” it said.
“When the right policies and institutions are in place to build young people’s human capital, a developing country can see dramatic economic growth… leading to a demographic dividend, a unique opportunity for economic progress and poverty reduction”.
Girls are currently less likely to be enrolled in secondary education in Arab countries and most of Africa -? home to 70 per cent of the world’s 10-year-olds today.
Sixteen million girls aged between six and 11 will never start school — twice the number of boys.
“For 10-year-old girls, a potential tripling of their lifetime income is at stake. For the societies the girls are a part of, the reduction of poverty is at stake,” said the report.
Many girls fail to finish their education after getting married in early adolescence, and UNFPA urged countries to impose a minimum age of marriage of 18.
Every day, an estimated 47,700 girls get married before that age, they said.
Comprehensive sexuality education programmes should also be expanded to 10-year-old girls in order to protect their health and take control of their own fertility, it advised.
“Many girls may not have a safe forum in which to ask questions about these topics, which in many communities are still considered taboo,” it said.
“Access to contraceptives for adolescents and women of childbearing age is crucial.”
Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, stressed at the report’s launch that “boys are also important” but that “they get many more opportunities than girls”.
“This is an unforgivable injustice and a violation of girls’ fundamental rights,” he added.
The study gave India and China as examples of the progress possible if developing countries harnessed their youthful populations.
Such booms can lead to increased labour force participation, increased earnings, increased longevity and smaller families, but will only materialise with swift action, warned the study.

May will use the leaders’ working dinner in Brussels to confirm her plan to start formal exit talks by the end of March, paving the way for Britain to leave the bloc by early 2019.
The timetable, set out earlier this month at her Conservative party conference, was welcomed by European leaders who had been pressing for a swift divorce since the referendum vote to leave in June.
But May also angered many member states by stating her intention to control EU migration into Britain while at the same time seeking “maximum freedom” to operate in the EU’s single market.
European leaders have repeatedly said that the two demands are incompatible, and have warned that London should expect to pay a heavy price for its decision to leave.
The face-off has caused the pound to plunge to historic lows and raised global economic fears about the impact of a so-called hard Brexit.
May will make clear to EU leaders that Brexit is irreversible but will urge them to help make it work for both sides, a source in her office said.
“She wants the outcome to be a strong Britain as a partner of a strong European Union,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“She doesn’t want the process of the UK leaving to be damaging for the rest of the European Union. We want our departure to be a smooth, constructive, orderly process, minimising uncertainty.”
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has said there will be no negotiations before Britain triggers Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon treaty, which begins a two-year countdown to leaving.
May was excluded from the last EU summit in Bratislava last month, and a senior EU official said that there would be no debate after her address to leaders on Thursday.
“It will be for the 27 to discuss Brexit and what sort of reactions they should have,” the official said.
But the British premier, who took over in July following the resignation of David Cameron, will likely use the event to sound out potential allies.
She has already visited Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, and will hold bilateral meetings in Brussels with the leaders of Estonia and Romania.
“The UK will be desperate to start pushing other member states to define what they’re prepared to countenance from the Brexit negotiations, before they reach a common position,” said Professor Iain Begg from the London School of Economics.
In a sign of the complexity of the discussions ahead, May indicated Wednesday that she could seek to extend the negotiation process, telling lawmakers it might take “two years or more”.
One problem May faces is that even her own government cannot agree on its strategy for Brexit, with some ministers pushing for a clean break with the EU and others seeking continued ties to protect the economy.
Despite her tough talk at the Conservative conference, there were media reports this week that Britain may consider paying for single market access for key industries, such as the City of London financial sector.
Her timetable also risks being upset by a legal challenge at the High Court over her refusal to allow parliament a vote before she triggers Article 50.
A decision is due by the end of the year.
Another domestic headache is Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU and whose nationalist government is threatening a second referendum on independence if it is forced to leave the bloc.
“I suspect they will take the line at the summit that May has got to get her internal house in order before they even start talking,” noted Professor Catherine Barnard, of the University of Cambridge.