Month: October 2016

American star Lindsey Vonn has set her sights on more glory in the speed events in alpine skiing’s new season that gets under way at the Austrian resort of Soelden this weekend.
Vonn won’t be present for the giant slalom on Soelden’s Rettenbach glacier, its icy, steep pitch ensuring a no-nonsense return to the demanding World Cup circuit that takes in meets throughout Europe, North America and South Korea, the latter on slopes to be used for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
The 32-year-old American, who holds the women’s record for alpine skiing World Cup victories with 76, has been in the full throes of launching a new book ‘Strong Is The New Beautiful’.
Never one to shy from publicity, Vonn, who dated golfer Tiger Woods for two years, has drawn criticism and praise alike for a series of posed photographs featuring only her and a pair of poles in a wind tunnel.
“Unfortunately I won’t be heading to Soelden for the first race this year,” Vonn said.
“I’m disappointed I won’t be there but my goals for this season are focused more on downhill and super-G races.”
The eight-time World Cup downhill champion will likely have an eye on the February 6-19 World Ski Championships in St Moritz, which are followed by the World Cup finals on home snow in Aspen.
One leading contender for the overall women’s title will also be missing from Soelden.
Austrian Anna Veith, overall women’s ski champion in 2014 and 2015 under her maiden name of Fenninger, missed all last season after sustaining a nasty knee injury.
A nine-month lay-off saw her back on skis in August, but Veith said: “I’ve realised that I need more time.
“Racing as I imagine it is still not possible.”
Switzerland’s Lara Gut claimed the overall globe last season, but insisted that the results were not all that counted.
“If I manage to take pleasure in what I do and express myself to the best of my abilities, the target will be reached,” said Gut.
“I focus solely on the process and not just the result.”
Gut, the reigning Olympic downhill bronze medallist who shot to fame with two world silvers as a 17-year-old in the 2009 worlds, added: “I’m really happy to launch myself into a new season, which I hope will be rich, intense and breathtaking.
“I can’t wait to rediscover the adrenaline of the starting gate and the emotions which follow a successfully-skied race.”
Another big name missing from Soelden will be Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, who will also skip Austria in a bid to regain full fitness.
The 2007 and 2009 World Cup overall champion, a five-time world gold medallist and 2010 Olympic super-G champion, is part of a strong Norwegian team that will hope to throw Austrian master Marcel Hirscher off course.
Hirscher has dominated the men’s World Cup, winning the last five consecutive overall titles — a feat never achieved before.
The Austrian’s domination is built on the back of consistent showings in the technical events of the slalom and giant slalom, opting out of the downhill while competing in the super-G and combined events.
In 178 World Cup races, he has made the podium an incredible 91 times, winning 39.
This season’s World Cup calendar includes a city event in Stockholm and a parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia, innovations men’s race director Markus Waldner said were crucial for generating interest.
“Some of our disciplines developed in a way that is no longer very attractive for normal TV viewers, but only for hard-core ski fans who know the technical details,” conceded Waldner.
“So to activate and involve a wider audience, we need to have an easy and understandable product. The parallel races are a good example, as the head-to-head format is very exciting and easy to understand.”
Waldner added: “In the long term we’ll need to change something in our calendar, and we’re already working on it. No revolution, but steady evolution towards a better World Cup.”

Super Typhoon Haima struck late on Wednesday night with winds similar to those of catastrophic Haiyan in 2013, which was then the strongest storm to strike the disaster-prone Southeast Asian archipelago and claimed more than 7,350 lives.
Haima then roared across mountain and farming communities of the northern regions of the main island of Luzon overnight, causing widespread destruction and killing at least four people who were buried by landslides, authorities said.
“The winds were so strong. They blew away our roof,” said Crecy Ramos, 46, a street stall owner in Ilagan, one of the main northern cities with a population of 130,000 people, as she started to repair her ramshackle home on Thursday afternoon.
“Everyone in our community had their roofs blown away.”
Haima hit coastal towns facing the Pacific Ocean with sustained winds of 225 kilometres (140 miles) an hour, and wind gusts of up to 315 kilometres.
It weakened overnight as it rammed into giant mountain ranges and by Thursday morning had passed over the western edge of Luzon and into the South China Sea, heading towards southern China.
Jefferson Soriano, mayor of Tuguegarao, the capital of Cagayan where Haima made landfall, reported badly damaged schools and gymnasiums where people had sought shelter.
“They are calling for help because the roofs have been torn off. The problem is, our rescuers here are unable to go out and help,” Soriano told DZMM radio before dawn while the storm was still raging.
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday night all possible preparations had been made for Haima, with tens of thousands of people evacuated, but he still struck an ominous tone.
“We only pray we be spared the destruction such as the previous times, which brought agony and suffering,” Duterte said in Beijing, where he was on a state visit.
“But we are ready. Everything has been deployed.”
About 10 million people across the northern parts of Luzon were at risk, the government’s disaster risk management council said on Wednesday.
Authorities said two of those killed, aged 16 and 17, were buried in a landslide while sleeping in a house in Ifugao, a mountainous area that is home to stunning stepped rice terraces that are listed by the United Nations as a World Heritage site.
Two other people were buried in a shanty in another mountainous region, and one person was missing, the disaster risk council’s division in the northern Philippines reported.
The Philippine islands are often the first major landmass to be hit by storms that generate over the Pacific Ocean. The Southeast Asian archipelago endures about 20 major storms each year, many of them deadly.
The most powerful and deadliest was Haiyan, which destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.
The capital of Manila is about 350 kilometres south of where Haima struck land.
However the city, with about 12 million people, was not affected, hit only by moderate winds overnight and little rain.
Haima was the second typhoon to hit the northern Philippines in a week, after Sarika struck on Sunday claiming at least one life and leaving three people missing.
In Hong Kong, the city’ seven million resident were preparing for more heavy rain and disruptive weather as Typhoon Haima approached, following days of monsoon downpours.
Airlines in the regional travel hub warned of likely flight disruptions on Friday and Saturday.

South Korean and US military monitors said the missile — believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan — exploded shortly after take-off at around 6:30 am Pyongyang time (2200 GMT Wednesday).
The attempted launch came just hours before the start of the third US presidential debate — a timely reminder of the challenge North Korea’s fast-moving nuclear weapons programme will pose to the next occupant of the White House.
It also followed a meeting in Washington between the US and South Korean defence and foreign ministers, at which US Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that any use of nuclear weapons by the North would be “met with an effective and overwhelming response”.
It was the second failed launch in less than a week of the Musudan, which has a theoretical range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometres (1,500 and 2,500 miles).
The lower estimate covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on Guam.
The US and its two key Asian allies all condemned the latest launch as a clear violation of UN resolutions banning the North from using ballistic missile technology.
“Our commitment to the defence of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, is ironclad,” said Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said the North was “blatantly threatening” the entire region, while her foreign ministry denounced Pyongyang’s “manic obsession” with nuclear bombs and missile.
The last Musudan test on Saturday was denounced by the UN Security Council, which is currently debating a fresh sanctions resolution against Pyongyang over its fifth nuclear test carried out last month
The missile has now been tested eight times this year — but only once successfully.
A Musudan launched in June flew 400 kilometres into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), and was hailed by leader Kim Jong-Un as proof of the North’s ability to strike US bases across “the Pacific operation theatre”.
Despite the string of failures, some experts believe the missile is moving swiftly towards operational deployment.
According to John Schilling, an aerospace engineer specialising in rocket propulsion, the aggressive launch schedule, while multiplying the risk of failure, also increases the information gleaned from each test.
“If they continue at this rate, the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile could enter operational service sometime next year — much sooner than had previously been expected,” Schilling wrote recently on the 38North website of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
North Korea has been hit by five sets of UN sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.
After Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, the Security Council adopted the toughest sanctions resolution to date, targeting North Korea’s trade in minerals and tightening banking restrictions.
The ongoing negotiations on the new sanctions measure are focused on closing loopholes and zeroing in on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile technology industry, according to Security Council diplomats.

Pakistan can ill-afford any complacency against a dangerous West Indies side when the two teams meet in the second Test starting in Abu Dhabi from Friday.
Normal service will be resumed with a traditional red ball and daylight play after both teams fought out a tension-packed pink ball day-night Test in Dubai, won by Pakistan by a narrow 56-run margin.
Pakistan dominated the first three days after scoring 579-3 declared, courtesy of opener Azhar Ali’s epic career best 302 not out, and then dismissing West Indies for 357.
But leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo turned the match upside down with career best figures of 8-49 to wreck Pakistan for a paltry 123 in their second innings, giving West Indies a target of 346 to win.
Darren Bravo batted out of his skin and when the last session started West Indies needed 114 runs in a possible of 38 overs with Bravo unbeaten on 102 and ready to launch an assault in the final hour.
It needed a leaping catch by leg-spinner Yasir Shah to dismiss Bravo for 116 and 26 runs later Pakistan wrapped up the match to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
“It will be tough. With the kind of confidence the West Indian batsmen have got, it will be difficult to get them out in the second Test,” said Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq.
“I think both teams are used to the red ball and have more idea of it — batsmen and bowlers know how the red ball behaves — spinners and fast bowlers will get more help and there will be reverse swing.”
The pink ball — used for the first time in the first-ever day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand at Adelaide last year — did not help the bowlers in Dubai where excessive evening dew left it wet and soft.
Misbah admitted his team missed experienced left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babab who was left out of the first Test.
“We did miss him,” said Misbah. “The pink ball used to be unplayable when we used it in domestic matches in Pakistan but here it didn’t work like that.”
That hints Babar will replace one of the three seamers, likely Sohail Khan, while Babar Azam will make way for experienced batsman Younis Khan who missed the first Test due to his recovery from dengue fever.
West Indies are likely to remain unchanged as captain Jason Holder takes positives from his team’s fight in Dubai.
“There were a lot of positives from the first Test, so we need to keep that momentum and approach,” said Holder.
“We gave two chances to Ali and paid the price for that so we have to take our chances,” said Holder of the two dropped catches of Ali on 17 and 190.
The third and final Test will be played in Sharjah from October 30-November 3.
Teams (from):
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Azhar Ali, Sami Aslam, Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Babar Azam, Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Rahat Ali, Sohail Khan, Imran Khan
West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Kraigg Brathwaite, Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Shai Hope, Leon Johnson, Alzarri Joseph, Marlon Samuels, Jomel Warrican
Umpires: Michael Gough (ENG) and Richard Illingworth (ENG)
Tv umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS)
Match referee: Jeff Corwe (NZL)

In addition, the ship’s computer systems automatically went into safety mode early Wednesday (5:47 GMT). Unrelated to the main engine, the switchover was due to a malfunction of two helium valves in the fuel pressurization system.
But officials sought to downplay any serious concerns.
Safety mode turns off instruments and some non-critical spacecraft components, and confirmed the spacecraft was pointed toward the sun so solar arrays power up.
?At the time safe mode was entered, the spacecraft was more than 13 hours from its closest approach to Jupiter,? said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
?We were still quite a ways from the planet’s more intense radiation belts and magnetic fields. The spacecraft is healthy and we are working our standard recovery procedure.?
Weighing 3.6 tonnes, Juno is to swing within some 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) of the solar system’s largest planet, the closest any spacecraft has passed.
The next close fly-by is December 11, with science instruments activated.
Juno first swept close to Jupiter when it entered orbit around the planet in July after a nearly five-year voyage to help study the solar system’s origins.
The probe will be examining Jupiter’s many layers to measure their composition, magnetic field and other properties. Scientists hope to learn the source of the planet’s fierce winds and whether Jupiter is made entirely of gas or has a solid core.

Returning stars jostle alongside Olympic men’s champion Yuzuru Hanyu and women’s world title holder Evgenia Medvedeva as the pre-Olympic figure skating season gets underway at Skate America on Friday.
Less than a year and a half from the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea, skaters will be looking to lay the groundwork for their Olympic bids in the six-leg Grand Prix series and world championships in Helsinki in March.
Skaters compete in two assignments each with the top six in each discipline qualifying for the ISU Grand Prix Final from December 8-11 in Marseille, France.
Skate America will be headlined by young challengers such as China’s Jin Boyang, 19, and Japan’s Shoma Uno, 18, with the women’s event in Chicago including veterans Mao Asada, 26, and 25-year-old Ashley Wagner.
Uno, 18, finished third in last year’s Grand Prix final and scored higher than two-time world champion Javier Fernandez in the pre-season Japan Open this month.
Jin, 19, took bronze at the world championships.
Hanyu, who became the first skater to land a clean quadruple loop ever in competition earlier this month, will compete in Skate Canada from October 28-30, and the NHK Trophy at home in Japan in November.
Hanyu’s training partner Fernandez, 25, begins his campaign at the Cup of Russia from November 4-6, followed by the Trophee de France a week later.
Canada’s Patrick Chan, a former three-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist, competes in Skate Canada and the Cup of China.
Medvedeva, one of a strong contingent of Russian skaters, will be looking to confirm her status as the new star of women’s skating.
Fellow Russian Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, the 2015 world champion, did not defend her title last year but takes part in the Grand Prix series.
In her absence the 16-year-old Medvedeva broke the record for the highest free skate score ever taking the world title in her first senior year in Boston last April.
She warmed up for the season by scoring highest in the Japan Open and will compete in Skate Canada and the Trophee de France.
“It’s only the beginning of the new season,” said Medvedeva, after leading Japan’s Satoko Miyahara and Wagner in Saitama.
“I need to get the feel for my free programme but I believe that over the season it will become much, much better.”
Asada, a three-time world champion, is still chasing Olympic gold after silver in Vancouver 2010 as is Wagner who took her first world medal last year between teenagers Medvedeva and Anna Pogorilaya.
She wants to confirm her first world medal was not a fluke at the Sears Centre Arena in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates.
Russia’s Julia Lipnitskaya withdrew from Skate America injured. Countrywomen Pogorilaya, Tuktamysheva, and Elena Radionova, all former world medallists, are competing in the series, but not Olympic champion Adelina Sotnikova, who controversially won Olympic gold in Sochi ahead of South Korea’s Kim Yu-Na.
In pairs, two-time world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford start their season at home in Skate Canada.
Ice dancing looks set for a battle with former two-time world ice dance champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir returning after their silver in Sochi, winning the Autumn Classic International in Montreal this month.
“What’s surprised me is how much we still enjoy it and we’re hoping we can keep that way all the way through to Korea (the 2018 Olympics),” said Moir, the 2010 Olympic champion.
They will compete at Skate Canada which and the NHK Trophy, where they will come up against France’s Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, the two-time world champions.
ISU Grand Prix series:
Oct 21-23: Skate America at Chicago
Oct 28-30: Skate Canada at Mississauga
Nov 4-6: Cup of Russia at Moscow
Nov 11-13: Trophee de France at Paris
Nov 18-20: Cup of China at Beijing
Nov 25-27: HNK Trophy at Sapporo, Japan
Dec 8-11: Grand Prix final at Marseille, France
March 29-April 2: World Championships at Helsinki

With the November 8 elections just 19 days away, the face-off in Las Vegas was seen as the Republican nominee’s last best chance to turn around a sinking White House bid.
But with millions watching on television, a defiant Trump turned what many thought began as his strongest debate performance yet into a gift to Clinton and another major headache for Republicans.
Asked point-blank whether he would accept the results of the elections no matter what, the 70-year-old reality television star said: “I’ll tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense, OK?”
Clinton declared herself “appalled” by what she said was an attack on 240 years of US democracy.
Quoting her former rival Bernie Sanders, she called Trump the “most dangerous person to run for president in the modern history of America.”
Trump’s shattering of political convention dominated US newspaper headlines and television coverage.
Republicans worried about the impact of Trump’s remarks on Republicans in down-ballot races.
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, offered assurances on MSNBC. “Barring massive voter fraud, of course he is going to accept the results of the elections,” he said.
But Republican Senator Jeff Flake said Trump was “beyond the pale” and onetime presidential candidate Senator Lindsey Graham said if Trump loses, it will be “because he failed as a candidate”.
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, defended the candidate Thursday against charges of undermining US democracy.
“If anybody has added to American democracy in the last year and a half it’s Donald Trump,” she told CNN, while insisting her boss would respect the vote result “absent, widespread fraud or irregularities.”
Democrats called on Republican leaders to repudiate “Trump’s utter contempt for our democracy,” as Nevada Senator Harry Reid put it.
“What he said tonight is part of his whole effort to blame somebody else for his campaign, and where he stands in this election,” Clinton told reporters as she flew home to New York.
Trump left Las Vegas immediately after the debate, heading to swing state Ohio for a day of campaigning.
He meets up with Clinton again at the end of the day in New York at the Al Smith Dinner, an annual charity event where the candidates traditionally engage in a “friendly roast.”
But the animosity between them seems almost certain to get in the way.
They would not even shake hands at Wednesday night’s debate, and at one point Trump interrupted Clinton to call her “a nasty woman”.
Clinton, who is vying to become the first woman president of the United States, told reporters she was “both relieved and very grateful” that the debates were now behind her.
Polls show her leading by more than six points and making gains even in states like Arizona, Texas and Georgia that have long been in the Republican column.
“Hillary Clinton almost certainly will win the election, but the question is what is going to be the effect on Republican Senate, House and other candidates,” said Robert Erikson, a political science professor at Columbia University.
On Thursday, Michelle Obama will be stumping for Clinton in Arizona and President Barack Obama will speak at a rally in Miami.
Obama earlier in the week told Trump to “stop whining” about a rigged election and go try to get people to vote for him.
But the New York billionaire plowed ahead anyway, paying no heed.
“The media is so dishonest and so corrupt and the pile-on is so amazing,” Trump said, referring to reports citing women accusing him of sexual assault, which he said were “fiction” and drummed up by Team Clinton.
He alleged that millions of fake voters had been registered and that the 68-year-old Clinton should not even have been allowed to run because she mishandled classified State Department emails.
The former secretary of state scored an early hit against the Republican real estate mogul, alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin was backing his run for office.
Trump argued that he might have better relations with Moscow than Clinton would, declaring: “Putin, from everything I see, has no respect for this person.”
Clinton’s response was sharp: “Well, that’s because he would rather have a puppet as president of the United States.”
Trump blustered back: “No puppet. You’re the puppet.”

Russia President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow was ready to extend the humanitarian pause in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city already badly damaged by bombing, “as far as possible”.
“We have made clear our intention to extend as far as possible, depending on the current situation on the ground, the halt in our air strikes,” Putin said during a press conference broadcast on Russian television following negotiations on Syria with French leader Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery acknowledged that his team are not yet up to the standard expected of serious Champions League contenders despite their 3-0 win over Basel on Wednesday.
Goals from Angel Di Maria, Lucas and Edinson Cavani, with a late penalty, gave PSG an ultimately comfortable victory that keeps them on course to qualify for the last 16 from Group A.
Quarter-finalists in each of the last four seasons, the French champions will likely secure their place in the next round if they pick up a point when they face Basel again in Switzerland next month.
However, Emery knows they must improve upon what was a patchy performance against unlucky opponents who were denied three times by the woodwork at the Parc des Princes.
“It is an important three points but I am not as happy as I’d like to be,” the Spaniard said after seeing his side struggle in the first half and then improve as the game went on.
“The first half was not good. That’s true. We were saved by the posts but we scored, and at 1-0 the match opened up for us and we had chances.”
PSG missed the injured Thiago Motta but in the veteran Italian’s absence Adrien Rabiot performed well alongside Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi.
“In the second half, after Rabiot and Verratti changed positions, and with a bit of patience, we started to play better,” Emery added.
“Rabiot had a good game. He is a good player who is capable of becoming a top player.”
The PSG players celebrated exuberantly with their supporters at the end of the game after Cavani’s penalty, his 17th goal of the season for club and country, added gloss to the score-line.
But Emery admitted his team “need to work to improve” and he will hope former Real Madrid and Manchester United star Di Maria can start to have more influence on the side after he scored his first goal of the season late in the first period.
The Argentine came off towards the end after asking to be replaced because of a minor injury, but Emery said he did not expect the problem to be serious ahead of this weekend’s meeting with bitter rivals Marseille.
PSG and Arsenal are now level on seven points at the top of Group A, with the Gunners continuing their fine recent form by hammering Ludogorets 6-0 in London.
The two group favourites look certain to progress, leaving Basel to fight it out for third spot and a Europa League place with the Bulgarian club.
“Paris were clinical and we lacked luck when we hit the woodwork three times,” said the Swiss club’s coach Urs Fischer after seeing Michael Lang, Seydou Doumbia and Marek Suchy all strike the frame of the goal.
Renato Steffen was also denied by Alphonse Areola when clean through with the game still goalless.
“Football is not fair. I am very disappointed but I think when we look back on this game there will be a lot of positives,” he added.
“The team played well, but we leave empty-handed and that hurts today.”

Coach Maurizio Sarri says a more “carefree” approach could help Napoli unlock a Champions League last 16 place after a 3-2 defeat at home to Besiktas kept the Italians waiting.
Napoli welcomed the Turkish champions knowing a third consecutive Group B win, along with a Dinamo Kiev-Benfica draw, would secure entry to the knockout phase with three games to spare and set a new competition record.
But despite a promising start at the San Paolo, the hosts were wasteful in front of goal and paid the price for a glaring Jorginho blunder that saw Cameroonian forward Vincent Aboubakar give the visitors a 2-1 lead by the 38th minute.
Manolo Gabbiadini, demoted to the bench in place of Dries Mertens after 3-1 defeat to Roma last weekend, struck the leveller on 69 minutes after Lorenzo Insigne had missed the chance to equalise from the spot shortly after the restart.
But Napoli failed to capitalise on further chances and paid the ultimate price when Aboubakar headed Ricardo Quaresma’s free kick past Pepe Reina four minutes from the end.
Besiktas’ first group win since 2009 kept them in second place to sit just one point behind Napoli and they will be looking to relaunch their last 16 bid with a win next month.
Coach Senol Gunes said: “Now we have to face Napoli at home but it will be hard to get out of this group.”
Defeat for Napoli at the Vodafone Arena in Istanbul would spell disaster for the Azzurri on their first appearance in the group stages since 2013 when Walter Mazzarri’s side were eliminated behind Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal.
After their third consecutive defeat in all competitions, Sarri says a more “carefree” approach to their trademark flowing game could help settle nerves.
“We have to react and try to find a more carefree approach to our game,” said Sarri.
“Tonight we made life difficult for ourselves. We should be enjoying these games without feeling too much pressure. Unfortunately the lads felt the weight of expectation.
“We had the right level aggression and I saw some good stuff in attack, but we have to defend with a little more order.”
Mertens had hit a brace in a 4-2 win over Benfica a fortnight ago and was handed a rare start in the striker’s role after Gabbiadini failed to impress against Roma.
The Belgian was their biggest culprit in front of goal, but he soon vindicated Sarri’s decision to leave Gabbiadini on the bench with a series of early chances, notably firing just over from 12 yards.
But Besiktas breached the Napoli net after just 12 minutes when Adriano powered through to fire Quaresma’s superbly-weighted ball past Reina after the Portuguese capitalised on a defensive mix-up.
Mertens went on to miss three times in succession before powering past his marker to meet Jose Callejon’s perfectly-weighted delivery from the right to sidefoot past Fabri from close range on the half hour.
Eight minutes later Aboubakar pounced Jorginho’s howler to beat Reina for a 38th minute lead.
Sarri refused to blame the Brazilian midfielder, adding: “Jorginho misplaced one pass and unfortunately for us it was a crucial one. But when you make 130 passes in a game, that can happen.”
A Fabri foul on Mertens gave Napoli a penalty just after the restart but Insigne bundled a tame effort straight at the ‘keeper.
Gabbiadini replaced Insigne on 65 minutes and four minutes later coolly stepped up to beat Fabri from the spot after Caner Erkin had fouled Mertens.
Napoli could have wrapped up a great comeback win but Gabbiadini was ruled offside after beating Fabri at the second attempt and Mertens fired a sizzling shot wide of the far post after outfoxing his marker.
The hosts paid the price in the 86th minute when Aboubakar rose at the far post to meet Quaresma’s delivery to beat Reina for the second time.

Bravo was sent-off with City trailing just 1-0 for saving Luis Suarez’s effort when outside his area after gifting the ball to the Uruguayan striker, putting Guardiola’s decision to jettison England number one Joe Hart under more scrutiny.
“Until the last day I am a coach I will try to play from the goalkeeper,” said Guardiola.
“Of course you cannot play all the time, but it was a mistake and it sometimes happens.”
Bravo enjoyed two almost faultless years at Barca before joining City in August, but has endured a shaky start under Guardiola’s firm instructions to build City’s attack from the back.
“He (Bravo) has a lot of experience, he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world for the last 10 years, but he will learn and is the first one in the dressing room to apologise.”
Bravo’s gaffe was just one of many City defensive howlers on the night as Messi took advantage of Fernandinho’s slip to give Barca an early lead.
Messi curled home a second before Ilkay Gundogan’s misplaced pass played in Suarez, who squared for Messi to complete his hat-trick.
The scoreline could have been even more embarrassing for City had substitute goalkeeper Willy Caballero not saved a penalty from Neymar before the Brazilian made amends with a brilliant fourth.
“It is always difficult to play in Barcelona with 11 players and with 10 the game was over,” added Guardiola.
“We created enough chances, we arrive at the byline many times, but with their strikers when they arrive they punish you.”
Guardiola won his first 10 games in charge, but City have now failed to win any of their last four matches and the Catalan lamented the series of error-strewn performances affecting his side.
A 3-3 draw at Celtic was followed by a 2-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur before City missed two penalties in a 1-1 draw with Everton on Saturday.
“Starting in Glasgow, own goals in White Hart Lane (against Tottenham), missing penalties, we give a lot for the opponents,” he added.
Guardiola, who won 14 trophies in four years in charge of Barca, has now lost on both occasions he has returned to the Camp Nou after losing 3-0 in 2015 when with Bayern Munich.
However, Guardiola’s former teammate and Barca boss Luis Enrique agreed Bravo’s dismissal changed the game.
“The sending-off was decisive and conditioned the game a lot,” said Enrique.
“Teams that try to play from the back know those errors can happen and you have to accept it. In the long-run it is more beneficial.”
Messi has now scored two hat-tricks in as many games in this season’s Champions League as the Argentine showed no signs of rust on his first start for a month after a groin injury.
“We have seen the calm that Messi has to finish inside the area as if he was in the school yard,” added Enrique.
“If there is anything you can expect of Messi it is that. It doesn’t matter how many days he has been out or the games he has missed.”

The Germans arrived in Glasgow with a horrendous injury list and struggling for form following defeats by Manchester City and Barcelona in their opening Group C fixtures.
However, the Bundesliga side dominated the match and second-half goals from captain Lars Stindl and Andre Hahn helped them inflict only Celtic?s fourth home defeat in 26 Champions League games.
The result leaves the Hoops bottom of Group C with just one point from three games ahead of their return match with the Germans next month.
?It is very difficult for us now,? Rodgers said.
?The game in Germany was always earmarked as a game that was going to be tough for us away from home and the home games were going to be important for us.
?It wasn?t to be tonight and we just didn?t cope with them. Our next game is over there which I expect will be very tough again and we will try to do the very best that we can.?
Better had been expected from the Hoops after an intense performance on match day two against Manchester City had helped them claim a 3-3 draw with the English Premier League giants.
However, the Monchengladbach players seemed to have the measure of them from the start as they controlled proceedings.
Former Liverpool boss Rodgers admitted his side were still a work in progress after helping them to the Champions League group stages for the first time in three years.
?The best team won -? I don?t think there is any argument about that,? Rodgers, whose side face rivals Rangers in the League Cup semi-final on Sunday, said.
?My players will learn a lot from that defeat. No matter how good we play there are still elements we need to be able to compete consistently at this level.
?I said from day one that we are in the process of building something here.
?It was absolutely brilliant to qualify and we gave absolutely everything out there but sometimes teams are better than us and tonight — no disrespect to my players — that was the case.
?They had a World Cup winner out there in midfield and a lot of other very good players so we have to be honest and hold our hands up and say we were beaten by the better team.?
Monchengladbach had taken the lead in bizarre circumstances. Kolo Toure was caught trying to usher the ball out inside the six-yard box but Hahn?s perseverance allowed him to dig the ball back into ball for the advancing Stindl who lashed the ball through the legs of Craig Gordon.
Another costly mistake from Toure allowed the visitors to increase their advantage.
The experienced defender was caught dithering on the ball by Hahn who robbed him of possession near the halfway line and raced away to blast a strike into the top right-hand corner of Gordon?s net.
?The only disappointment was the manner of the two goals,? Rodgers said.
?The frustration is that if we don?t concede the goals we find ourselves at 0-0 and give ourselves a chance to win the game.
?If you make a mistake it is punished heavily at this level. Top players will hurt you and that?s what happened.
?They didn?t create so much here. Although they did look dangerous at times on the counter-attack like most German sides do, we gifted them two goals.
?We had some good spells in the game as well but we just were beaten by a side that is technically very good, strong, fast and has good power in their team.?

Bayern bounced back in emphatic style on Wednesday at the Allianz Arena with winger Arjen Robben in outstanding form.
Goals by Thomas Mueller and Joshua Kimmich put Bayern ahead before Luciano Narsingh netted for Eindhoven before the break.
But Bayern dominated the second-half with Robert Lewandowski putting them 3-1 up before Robben, who had set up two of their goals, added the fourth.
The German media had spoken of a ‘mini-crisis’ after Bayern’s Bundesliga draws with Cologne and Eintracht Frankfurt in the wake of their 1-0 defeat at Champions League Group D leaders Atletico Madrid.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had branded their attitude in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Frankfurt as “unacceptable”, but Ancelotti was pleased with his side’s response against PSV.
“That was the reaction I expect from the team, the attitude was good, we learnt our lessons from Frankfurt,” said the Italian, who had won his first eight games in charge before the Madrid defeat.
“We very happy to have Manuel Neuer,” Ancelotti added after the Germany goalkeeper pulled off a string of good saves to deny Eindhoven’s attack.
Bayern face PSV away in a fortnight, then travel to face Russian side Rostov before hosting Atletico in their final group match on December 6 in a game likely to decide who wins the pool.
“We played well, but we have to give our best in the next few games to make sure we play Atletico for first place,” warned Ancelotti.
Robben said Bayern deserved the win, but need to build on the performance when the Bundesliga leaders return to domestic duty at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.
“We started very well, dominated straight away and put them under pressure,” said the Dutchman as Mueller and Kimmich both netted in the first 21 minutes.
“We didn’t hold them very well after we went 2-0 up and you have to always be careful.
“Eindhoven were dangerous two or three times, but they we got back on top and deserved to win.
“We knew we had to start well, and be aggressive and play with self-confidence at home, after our three games without a win.
“We should have scored more in the first half, perhaps that is our only criticism, and we have to keep playing well like this.
“It was nice to get the header, but it was down to the beatiful pass from Thiago, he deserves the credit,” added the 32-year-old added after scoring his first headed goal in the Champions League.

Arsene Wenger warned his Arsenal stars not to get carried away after they gave another demonstration of their sky-high confidence with a 6-0 demolition of Ludogorets in the Champions League.
Wenger’s side are in peak form at present and Bulgarian minnows Ludogorets were powerless to prevent their hot streak extending to seven successive victories in all competitions.
Alexis Sanchez scored a sublime opener and Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were also on the scoresheet at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday before Mesut Ozil hit a second half hat-trick.
With Arsenal top of their Champions League group after three matches and sitting pretty in the Premier League, where they are behind leaders Manchester City on goal difference, Wenger and company are finally feeling good about themselves after a troubled time last term.
But the Gunners boss knows over-confidence could be fatal to Arsenal’s chances of winning major silverware and he urged his players to stay humble.
“Let’s not be too quick on the verdict. We have a strong squad and a strong spirit, but you have to take care of it and keep your feet on the ground,” Wenger said.
“Maybe the confidence is high, we have a good balance at the moment in the team.
“In this game a lot is linked with confidence. I feel that at the moment because we win game after game, maybe we get through dodgy periods with less psychological damage.
“The only way to win something big is to focus on the next one and work on humility.”
Despite leading 3-0 by the 46th minute, Wenger’s team kept their foot on the gas and the Frenchman had no qualms about running up the score because he believes fine-tuning his attack will pay dividends in the long run.
“We are taking more of our chances. Is that because our final ball is better or the finishing is better? It’s difficult to analyse,” he said.
“In the first half it looked a different game because Ludogorets were dangerous going forward, but in the second half they suffered a lot physically.
“We took control completely and could have scored more. We have a risky game so it’s important to take our chances.
“As long as we score three the opponent has to score four to beat you. Lets keep scoring and get any lapses out of our game.”
Key to Arsenal’s hopes of winning the Premier League and thriving in Europe will be maintaining the current purple patches of Sanchez and Ozil.
Both Chile forward Sanchez and German midfielder Ozil are seeking improved contracts and made persuasive cases of bumper deals with their latest dominant displays.
Wenger was especially encouraged with the way Ozil go forward in the hunt for goals after spending much of his time at Arsenal content to supply assists from midfield.
“It looks like he gets a taste to score. In the past he would come deep for the ball to be a provider, but now he gets forward more. That’s what we want to encourage,” Wenger said.
Wenger also insisted Sanchez would be fit to face Middlesbrough in the Premier League on Saturday after the former Barcelona star came off in the 73rd minute.
“I just wanted to give him a breather but physically he is fine,” Wenger said.

Lewis Hamilton’s behaviour on and off the circuit will go under a sharp media microscope as he bids to keep his title challenge alive at this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
Back at the scene of his crushing title-winning triumph in 2015, when he scored a belligerent victory to end Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg’s challenge, the 31-year-old Briton this time faces a very different scenario.
It will begin on Thursday when, two weeks after his controversial Snapchat antics in Japan, he returns to appear before the international media at a mandatory pre-event news conference.
At Suzuka, he played on his camera and complained that the media session was “killing me” and the furore that followed resulted in him walking out of a team news briefing two days later.
That led to more media uproar that many believed undermined his concentration and led to his poor race start that saw him fall from second on the grid to eighth.
He can ill afford any similar slip this time as he goes into the first of the final four races of a roller-coaster season with a 33-point deficit behind Rosberg.
The defending three-time world champion may be seeking his 50th career win at one of his favourite circuits, but he knows that Rosberg wants revenge after being forced off track last year.
Rosberg, also 31, has the luxury, however, of knowing that he does not have to win again this season to clinch his first world title. Four second-place finishes behind Hamilton will be enough.
As to his media commitments, Hamilton has been confirmed, by his Mercedes bosses, as a participant in each and every one at the Circuit of the Americas despite suggesting, in Japan, that he might not answer any more questions from reporters.
All this -? and the news this week that he is to be a character in the next edition of the video game ‘Call of Duty’ -? suggests that Hamilton is relishing his back-to-the-wall last-ditch bid for glory in a land where he feels at home and is widely popular.
‘Extension of life’
As usual, it has been impossible for the Englishman to escape being the main story ahead of this race while Rosberg, winner of four of the last five races in which Hamilton has struggled, has been subdued.
“Every now and then I’ve seen people have an opinion about how emotional I get,” said Hamilton, who has three wins in four appearances in Austin.
“It’s like I should be more happy — even when I’ve lost.
“But I think people forget how heavily invested I am in this sport. It’s the same for anyone whatever they are doing, it’s about how much investment they have put in and my heart has been invested in this for 23 years.
“This has been part of my life since I was eight; it is an extension of my life and my body.”
As to the championship, Hamilton added: “We’ve got four races left to make the most of it and that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
Rosberg knows what he has to do in the title run-in and will be looking for something better than last year?s disappointment.
“Last year this race obviously didn’t work out so great for me, so I’m looking forward to getting back and doing my best to get it right this time,” he said.
Both men, however, will be mindful of the challenge from a much-improved Red Bull outfit and possibly Ferrari.
A nervy and tense weekend is in prospect.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday voiced hoped that a political deal reached in the Democratic Republic of Congo to delay an election until 2018 will help improve human rights and lead to a credible vote.
The main opposition has rejected the deal signed Tuesday that would keep President Laurent Kabila in power until the election in April 2018.
Kabila was due to step down at the end of 2016 to make way for the vote this year.
Ban “takes note” of the accord and “hopes that the implementation of the agreement will contribute to a more conducive climate for the respect of fundamental rights and freedoms essential to political debate and credible elections,” the UN statement said.
The UN chief urged the government to continue confidence-building measures with the opposition, particularly the release of political prisoners and respect for the right to peaceful assembly.
Anti-Kabila demonstrations in Kinshasa last month turned violent, killing some 49 people.
Ban called on “political groups who were not part of the national dialogue to seek to resolve their differences peacefully.”
He stressed the “crucial importance of peaceful and credible elections for the stabilization and consolidation of constitutional democracy in the DRC.”
One of Africa’s biggest and most resource-rich countries, the DR Congo has been ruled by Kabila since 2001, when his father Laurent was assassinated.
He was elected in 2006 to his first five-year term under a constitution that sets a two-term limit for presidents.
An opposition call for a protest strike on Wednesday was heeded in Kinshasa, where most shops were closed, but the appeal was ignored in the second city of Lubumbashi and Bukavu.
The United Nations is moving hundreds of peacekeepers from the east of the country to Kinshasa to help deal with a possible outbreak of violence, UN officials said.

The leaders of France and Germany lashed out at President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s bombardment of Syria’s Aleppo and refused to rule out imposing sanctions on Russia.
“What is happening in Aleppo is a war crime, one of the first demands is that the bombardments by the regime and its (Russian) backers must end,” French President Francois Hollande said after a meeting between the three leaders in Berlin.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the air raids on Syria’s second city as “inhumane and cruel”.
Both leaders warned that they could not exclude imposing sanctions on Russia, hours ahead of an EU summit where Russia’s role in Syria is set to be discussed.
“Everything that can constitute a threat can be useful,” Hollande said at a press conference, while Merkel added that “we cannot remove this option”.
Turning to a planned ceasefire due to begin in Aleppo later this morning, Hollande said that Putin appeared to be ready to extend the truce, set to last for 11 hours.
“We came out of the meeting with the impression that there could be an extension of the truce, but it’s up to the Syrian regime and Russia to show it,” he said.
A truce of just a few hours would not be enough to deliver the necessary humanitarian aid and allow civilians to leave the area, Hollande added.
The Syrian army separately said that the ceasefire would last three days.
Aleppo, held by rebels determined to oust President Bashar al-Assad, has come under heavy bombardment since the Russian-backed military announced an offensive in late September to regain control of the east.
Air strikes there have flattened numerous residential buildings and civilian facilities, in a campaign the European Union said could amount to war crimes.

US officials are scrambling to end a dispute between Ankara and Baghdad that threatens to derail a carefully developed plan to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group.
Officials fear a war of words between Turkey and Iraq’s central government could jeopardize a fragile pact that would keep rival sectarian and ethnic militias out of the northern Iraqi city’s center.
“There is a lot of tension and the public rhetoric has gotten a bit out of hand,” a senior administration official told AFP. “It’s an extremely troubling scenario.”
Defense Secretary Ash Carter will visit Turkey on Friday to make sure the plan stays on track.
The long-awaited battle to retake Iraq’s second city began on Monday and will probably take months to complete.
“We are trying to make sure that those tensions are not going to create such a chaotic situation that the military success would simply be overshadowed,” the official said.
A dizzying array of ethnic and sectarian groups are already jockeying for influence “the day after” the Islamic State (IS) group is ousted.
The United States has brokered a deal to keep powerful Shiite and Kurdish militias on the outskirts of the majority Sunni Arab city, hoping to avoid more of the sectarian bloodletting that has plagued Iraq since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.
Amnesty International has accused Shiite paramilitaries of carrying out war crimes during the recapture of Tikrit from the IS group, including the torture and execution of thousands of civilians.
The Iraqi military will take the lead in Mosul.
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have jettisoned the tacit agreement, saying it was unthinkable for Ankara or its allies to stay on the sidelines.
“We will be in the operation and we will be at the table,” he said in a televised speech. “Our brothers are there and our relatives are there. It is out of the question that we are not involved.”
Turkey is concerned about the influence of anti-Ankara Kurdish militia and Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
Around 700 Turkish troops are already deployed in Bashiqa, in northern Iraq, and Ankara backs a number of Sunni and Turkomen militias active inside the country.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi responded angrily, calling for Turkey to withdraw troops and stop violating Iraqi sovereignty.
A senior US administration official warned that, in the worst case, the war of words could provoke clashes between Turkish and Iraqi government forces as well as a factional free-for-all that would see Shiite militias pile into the city.
“This is part of what we are telling the Turkish government,” the official said. “The more their rhetoric escalates, the more their actions — if they were to take actions — the more it’s going to give both pretext and justification for the PMF to demand a more active role.”
“Unilateral actions, in the worst circumstance, could lead to direct clashes between Iraqis and Turks and between the Shia militia and Turks.”
But keeping the Iraqi military at the tip of the spear will be essential if President Barack Obama’s administration is to avoid repeating past failures in Iraq.
“Yes, it’s a campaign to defeat ISIL militarily, but the president’s goal by the end of the administration is to put ISIL on the path to lasting defeat,” the senior administration official said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State group.
“That meant taking steps to ensure that in the aftermath of whatever military liberation of territory or defeat of ISIL that we wouldn’t be in a position where the level of destruction, marginalization, alienation, either from a humanitarian point of view or from a governance point of view, that you would just be planting the seeds of the next generation of extremist or terrorist group.”
More than a decade of war in Iraq has seen one Sunni insurgent group defeated, only to be replaced by another.
There are also fears in Washington that the spat with Erdogan could weaken Abadi, who is already in a difficult position at home.
The moderate US-backed Shiite leader faces a stiff challenge from hardliners, including former president Nuri al-Maliki, whom the White House has blamed for many of Iraq’s sectarian woes.
“The more you see this spiral between Turkey and Baghdad, the harder it is going to be for Abadi to resist calls by his Shia base,” the US official said.
“If Abadi appears too weak in the face of Turkey, then he is going provide too much of an opportunity for some of his rivals to pick up the mantle and be more nationalistic.”

A “roadmap” for applying the Minsk peace accords for Ukraine will be presented by the end of November, President Petro Poroshenko announced Thursday.
“Between now and the end of November we have to approve a roadmap,” the Ukraine leader said after talks in Berlin with his Russian, French and German counterparts.
“It will be a document on the implementation of all the Minsk accords,” he added in comments cited by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The Cleveland Indians are going to the World Series for the first time since 1997 after a 3-0 victory over the Blue Jays in Toronto.
The Indians won the best-of-seven American League Championship Series four games to one and will host game one of the World Series on Tuesday against either the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Cubs knotted the National League Championship Series at two games apiece with a 10-2 victory in Los Angeles.
Carlos Santana and Coco Crisp belted solo home runs for the Indians, who are seeking their first World Series title since 1948 and third overall.
They have lost the World Series in 1954, 1995 and 1997.
Rookie pitcher Ryan Merritt, making his post-season debut and his second start in five major-league appearances, allowed just two hits in 4 1/3 innings. The left-hander surrendered no walks and no runs, striking out three.
He needed only 31 pitches in retiring nine straight hitters over the first three innings.
“The emotions out there were kind of crazy at first,” Merritt admitted. “But it settled down, just trusted myself, stayed within myself, tried not to let the crowd get to me too much, trusted my defense and just be myself out there.”
Cleveland jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a two-out single from Francisco Lindor and a double by Mike Napoli. Toronto leftfielder Ezequiel Carrera mis-handled the ball coming off the wall so the run was scored as unearned.
Santana’s second homer of the playoffs came on a 1-0 pitch with one out in the third, and Crisp hit his second homer of the post-season on a drive to right with two out in the fourth.
This year will mark the first time in Indians club history that they will serve as hosts in the opening game of the World Series.
On the same night, the Cleveland Cavaliers will raise their championship banner on the opening night of the new NBA season — the first crown for any Cleveland sports team in 50 years.
“I can’t wait to see what it’s like in Cleveland, honestly,” said Indians relief pitcher Andrew Miller, who was named Most Valuable Player of the series after producing 14 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings while allowing two hits, no walks and no runs. “Obviously they got a taste of the basketball championship. The crowds for the playoff games at home have been special. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
While the Indians’ dry spell is the longest in the American League, the Cubs have endured a mythic drought since last winning the World Series in 1908.
The Cubs looked to be in trouble after two straight shutout losses to the Dodgers put them in a 2-1 hole.
“I can’t get over the top and take a trip to negative town now just because we’ve had two bad days,” Maddon said before the game, and his players rewarded his confidence.
After 21 scoreless innings, they exploded for four runs in the fourth inning that included a two-run homer by Addison Russell.
The Dodgers’ 20-year-old rookie Julio Urias, who became the youngest pitcher to start a post-season game, had held the Cubs without a hit through three innings.
But Ben Zobrist led off the fourth with a bunt single, and moved to second on a base hit from Javier Baez. Zobrist scored on a single by Willson Contreras as the throw from leftfielder Andrew Toles was off target.
Baez scored on Jason Heyward’s ground out and then 22-year-old shortstop Russell, who was 1-for-24 this post-season, homered to right-center.
Urias would depart before the end of the fourth, charged with four runs on four hits with four strikeout.
Pedro Baez replaced him and gave up a leadoff homer to Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo in the fifth.
The Dodgers pulled back two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but the Cubs continued to pour it on with five runs in the sixth, aided by some sloppy Dodgers defense.
“We’ve just got to keep fighting, and we know that,” Rizzo said. “We know what we’re capable of doing in any inning. … We put up a five-spot there. We know we can do that at any given time and we believe in that.”

Somalian security forces have arrested a British journalist working for Al-Jazeera, the Qatari news channel said Wednesday.
Hamza Mohamed was arrested in Mogadishu on Tuesday along with a driver, fixer and cameraman. He had been in the country for a week on a reporting assignment.
Al-Jazeera said it had been in touch with Hamza Mohamed since his detention and was “hoping … that he will be released without further delay”.
Somali authorities had informed Al-Jazeera that they had detained the journalist but that he had not yet 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), meanwhile, 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.
“We call on the Somali authorities to immediately free Al-Jazeera correspondent Hamza Mohamed and the two cameramen, who have been held by the intelligence services since yesterday (Tuesday),” RSF said.
“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.”
The men’s detention by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) was also confirmed to Radio Dalsan by Abdifatah Halane, a spokesman for the government of Banadir, the region that includes the capital, RSF said, adding that their equipment was also seized.
A British foreign ministry spokeswoman told AFP: “We are looking into reports that a British national has been detained in Somalia and we are ready to provide consular assistance if needed.”
Shabaab fighters are trying to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.
In December 2015, at least 20 people were killed and 120 wounded in an eruption of violence between rival militia groups from Puntland and Galmudug that forced more than 90,000 people to flee.

Cameroon forward Vincent Aboubakar hit a brace as Ricardo Quaresma-inspired Besiktas ended Napoli’s dreams of making Champions League history with a 3-2 win at the San Paolo on Wednesday.
Napoli welcomed the Turkish champions knowing a third consecutive win in Group B, along with a draw between Dinamo Kiev and Benfica, would secure their entry to the last 16 with three games to spare and set a new competition record.
But despite a promising start, Maurizio Sarri’s men were wasteful in front of goal and paid the price for a glaring Jorginho blunder that saw 24-year-old Aboubakar give the visitors a 2-1 lead by the 38th minute.
Napoli clawed their way back when Manolo Gabbiadini, demoted to the bench after 3-1 defeat to Roma last weekend, struck the leveller on 69 minutes after Lorenzo Insigne had missed from the spot shortly after the restart.
But Napoli failed to capitalise on further chances and paid the ultimate price when Aboubakar headed Quaresma’s delivery past Pepe Reina four minutes from the end.
Besiktas’ first group win since 2009 kept them in second place to sit just one point behind Napoli, whose next game in the competition is an away trip to the Vodafone Arena in Istanbul next month.
Coach Senol Gunes said: “It wasn’t east paying against the top team in the group. They have such a strong attack, so we made a few tweaks and worked really hard on our defensive game.
“Napoli played well but we did well to score first and then we played on the counter-attack. It’s a great win, I’m very happy.”
Napoli will have to wait longer than anticipated before booking their place in the knockout phase, and Belgian forward Dries Mertens, drafted in as a replacement for injured Poland striker Arkaduisz Milik, was among the most disppointed.
“It’s horrible to lose like this. We left everything out there, but we were unlucky,” he told Premium Sport,
“Physically and mentally we were fine… but they had three chances to score and put them away. Missing Milik wasn’t the problem. We had plenty of chances.”
Mertens was handed a rare start in the striker’s role and although he was their biggest culprit he soon vindicated Sarri’s decision to leave Gabbiadini on the bench with a series of early chances, notably firing just over from 12 yards.
But Besiktas breached the Napoli net after just 12 minutes when Adriano powered through to fire Quaresma’s superbly-weighted ball past Pepe Reina.
Mertens went on to miss three times in succession to pull the hosts level, notably glancing a header wide from Lorenzo Insigne’s smart delivery on 29 minutes.
Th Belgian finally made good a minute later when he powered past his marker to meet Callejon’s perfectly-weighted delivery from the right to sidefoot past Fabri from close range.
But eight minutes later Aboubakar pounced on an incredibly poor passback by Jorginho to beat Reina for a 38th minute lead.
Wasteful in open play, Napoli were also off target in dead ball situations.
When Fabri fouled Mertens in the area the referee pointed to the spot, but the Besiktas ‘keeper recovered to stop Insigne’s tame effort four minutes after the restart.
Gabbiadini replaced Insigne on 65 minutes and four minutes later coolly stepped up to show his club-mate how it is done, beating Fabri from the spot after Caner Erkin had fouled Mertens.
Napoli could have wrapped up a great comeback win but Gabbiadini was ruled offside after beating Fabri at the second attempt and Mertens fired a sizzling shot wide of the far post after outfoxing his marker.
The hosts paid the price in the 86th minute when Aboubakar rose at the far post to meet Quaresma’s delivery to beat Reina for the second time.

Celtic’s Champion League hopes were in tatters on Wednesday as Borussia Monchengladbach produced a clinical performance to inflict a 2-0 home defeat on the Scottish champions.
The Germans arrived in Glasgow with a horrendous injury list and struggling for form following defeats by Manchester City and Barcelona in their opening Group C fixtures.
However, the Bundesliga side dominated the match from the start as they played with the kind of intensity that had helped Celtic claim a thrilling 3-3 draw with Manchester City on match day two.
Following a goalless first half, captain Lars Stindl rifled his side into a deserved lead in the 57th minute after a mistake from veteran defender Kolo Toure.
The former Liverpool defender was caught out again 20 minutes later as Andre Hahn pounced to grab the second and inflict only Celtic?s fourth home defeat in 26 Champions League games.
Monchengladbach move to within one point of Manchester City in second, who lost 3-0 to Group C leaders Barcelona thanks to a Lionel Messi hat-trick on Pep Guardiola?s return to the Nou Camp, while Celtic are rooted to the bottom on one point.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said he had no complaint about the result.
“The best team won ?- I don’t think there is any argument about that,” Rodgers said.
“My players gave everything but tonight they were up against a top side and the only disappointment was the manner of the two goals.”
Monchengladbach coach Andre Schubert was delighted to see his side pick up their first points.
“I am extremely happy to get the win and it gives us more security in the group,” Schubert said.
“We still have to prove our quality at home but we have taken our first steps and gained our first three points.”
Much was made of the visitors? injury problems with key forwards Raffael, Thorgan Hazard and Josip Drmic missing, but their replacements were impressive as twice within the opening minutes the Celtic defence was torn apart.
Only a last-ditch block from Toure prevented a Hahn shot from reaching Craig Gordon, but the ?keeper didn?t have to wait long to be tested.
Ibrahima Traore?s effort had the Hoops stopper at full-stretch to make a fingertip save before he smothered the danger as Hahn looked to pounce on the loose ball.
The Bundesliga side seemed to cut through Celtic with ease and Jonas Hoffman was next to try his luck but his rising shot failed to trouble Gordon.
The Hoops looked to be in trouble as Stindl latched on to a poor backward header by Bitton, but the Foals? captain over hit his pass to Hahn whose shot from a tight angle was tipped over by Gordon.
The Celtic fans, who seemed to drive their side forward against Man City with their raucous support, were silenced as their side struggled to cope with the relentless pressure from the Germans.
However, they came alive again just before the break as Rogic?s clever pass behind the Borussia defence played in Sinclair but the English forward sent his effort sailing over the bar.
The home support tried their best to rouse their side at the start of the second half but the Germans? slick one-touch passing play stifled their opponents.
The visitors took a deserved lead in bizarre circumstances. Toure was caught trying to usher the ball out inside the six-yard box but Hahn?s perseverance allowed him to dig the ball back into ball for the advancing Stindl who lashed the ball through the legs of Gordon.
Another costly mistake from Toure allowed the visitors to increase their advantage. The experienced defender was caught dithering on the ball by Hahn who robbed him of possession near the halfway line and raced away to blast a strike into the top right-hand corner of Gordon?s net.

Lionel Messi spoiled Pep Guardiola’s homecoming by scoring a hat-trick in Barcelona’s 4-0 win over 10-man Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday, while Bayern Munich shook off their recent patchy form to defeat PSV Eindhoven 4-1.
Messi pounced on a Fernandinho slip to nudge Barca in front on 17 minutes, and the Argentine doubled his tally on the hour following the dismissal of City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
The Chile international, who left the Camp Nou in August to replace Joe Hart at City, was sent off for a blatant handball outside the area having knocked his misplaced clearance straight to Luis Suarez.
Messi swept in a third on 69 minutes to complete a second straight hat-trick in Europe, while Barca also finished the game a man down after substitute Jeremy Mathieu picked up a second booking.
Neymar missed a late penalty but atoned with Barca’s fourth soon after as the Spaniards made it three wins from three to take control of Group C, with second-place City five points adrift.
“At that level it is hard, but until 10 against 11 it was open and we were competing against a team with a big personality,” Guardiola told BT Sport.
“But after the (red) card it was over. I spoke with (Bravo), he was disappointed but it’s part of the game.”
Lars Stindl and Andre Hahn both capitalised on mistakes from Kolo Toure to gift Borussia Moenchengladbach their first points of the competition with a 2-0 win at Celtic.
In Munich, Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern dismissed concerns about their performance of late by ending a three-match winless run at home to PSV Eindhoven.
Thomas Mueller grabbed a 13th-minute opener at the Allianz Arena before fellow Germany international Joshua Kimmich netted his seventh goal in all competitions this season.
Luciano Narsingh gave PSV hope when he halved the deficit shortly before the break, but Poland striker Robert Lewandowski eased fears of another setback with Arjen Robben netting Bayern’s fourth.
However, the Bundesliga giants still trail Atletico Madrid in Group D after Yannick Carrasco’s second-half strike steered last year’s finalists to another 1-0 victory away to Russian side Rostov.
Mesut Ozil notched a second-half hat-trick as Arsenal thrashed Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria 6-0, the German piling on the misery for the visitors after goals from Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“It will be difficult not to be satisfied, we scored a lot of goals and kept a clean sheet. We were fast and dangerous. We are confident and we must stay focused in every single game,” said Gunners boss Arsene Wenger.
Paris Saint-Germain also have seven points in Group A, but the French champions rode their luck in a 3-0 win over Basel.
The Swiss outfit twice hit the woodwork at the Parc des Princes before Angel di Maria fired the hosts ahead just before half-time.
Brazilian Lucas doubled PSG’s lead on 62 minutes, with Basel defender Marek Suchy then heading against the post, before Edinson Cavani netted his 17th goal for club and country this term courtesy of a stoppage-time penalty.
Napoli’s hopes of becoming the first side through to the last 16 were dashed as Vincent Aboubakar struck twice in Italy to earn Besiktas an impressive 3-2 victory.
Adriano put the Turkish champions ahead on 12 minutes in Naples, but Belgian winger Dries Mertens replied on the half hour.
Aboubakar restored Besiktas’ lead before the interval only for Manolo Gabbiadini to cancel it out from the penalty spot, with Lorenzo Insigne having seen an earlier spot-kick kept out by Fabri.
But Cameroon international Aboubakar struck again four minutes from the end to move Besiktas to within a point of leaders Napoli in Group B.
Benfica also registered their first win thanks to an Eduardo Salvio penalty and a Franco Cervi goal in their 2-0 triumph away to Dynamo Kiev.

Bayern Munich broke their three-game winless streak with an emphatic 4-1 win at home to PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday in the Champions League with winger Arjen Robben outstanding.
Thomas Mueller and Joshua Kimmich put Bayern ahead at the Allianz Arena before Luciano Narsingh netted for Eindhoven before the break, but Robert Lewandowski made it 3-1 on the hour mark.
Robben, who created two goals, capped an eye-catching display with a fourth goal as Bayern got their Group D campaign back on track after their 1-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid three weeks ago.
“We started well and created good chances to go 2-0, we weren’t that dominant and we had to be careful at the back. They showed what they can do on the counter,” said Robben.
“We dominated in the second and deserved the high win.”
After talk from the German media of a ‘mini-crisis’, following three games without a win in all competitions, this was the result and performance Bayern needed.
But the German league leaders were aided and abetted by an Eindhoven defence which left acres of space to exploit, especially early on, allowing Bayern 28 shots on goal, while the Dutch managed only eight in reply.
Robben, 32, scored his first header in the Champions League, but credited the goal to Thiago Alcantara’s superb chip.
“It was nice to get the header, but it was down to the beatiful pass from Thiago, he deserves the credit,” said Robben.
Bayern remain second in Group D, three points behind leaders Atletico, who won 1-0 at Rostov, while Eindhoven are third with a single point.
Bayern coach Carlo Ancelotti had hinted at changes from the side which drew 2-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, a Bundesliga performance chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had branded “unacceptable”.
Lewandowski was the only change to the starting line-up in a 4-3-3 formation as Mueller switched to the wing and Kingsley Coman dropping to the bench.
Eindhoven coach Phillip Cocu made two changes from their 1-1 Dutch league draw with Heracles Almelo as Netherlands striker Narsingh and Mexico winger Andres Guardado returned.
Bayern needed just 12 minutes to take the lead thanks to quick thinking from Mueller and Robben, who fired in a short pass from a corner.
Eindhoven goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet parried Mueller’s shot, but the Germany international snapped up the rebound and slotted home off his right foot.
“It’s my eighth season playing with Thomas,” explained Robben.
“I often know what he’s going to do, and we work on things like that in training and we used the chance well.”
Bayern exploited the space Eindhoven generously gave them at the back.
David Alaba’s cross clipped a defender, but Kimmich tracked the looping ball to header over the line on 21 minutes for his seventh goal in eight games.
Eindhoven then tightened their defence and started to attack.
Uruguay winger Gaston Pereiro had the ball in the Munich net on their first meaningful attack on 39 minutes, but the goal was incorrectly ruled off side.
The Dutch clawed one back two minutes later when Narsingh’s superb shot from outside the area crashed in off the post to the annoyance of Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to make it 2-1 at the break.
Lewandowski fired wide in the first two minutes after the break, but only Neuer’s reflex save denied Pereiro at the other end.
Just as PSV were gaining momentum, Bayern extended their lead.
Robben beat two defenders before Zoet parried his shot before Lewandowski headed in the rebound on 59 minutes.
Zoet’s saves, to deny Alaba and Mueller, kept the score respectable before Thiago Alcantara’s chip saw Robben nudge the ball over the Eindhoven keeper on 84 minutes.

Colombia’s government and FARC rebels must reach a new political deal quickly to prevent the peace process from unraveling, the UN envoy warned Wednesday.
The historic peace accord that ended the decades-old conflict suffered a setback when it was rejected in a referendum earlier this month, sending both sides back to the drawing board for fresh negotiations.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has said he will extend a ceasefire with the FARC until December 31 and hopes to have a new agreement before that date.
“We need an agreement fairly quickly because while we are absolutely convinced that the two sides at the highest level have made a decision to end the war, things can start to unravel,” Jean Arnault, the UN envoy for Colombia, told a news conference.
“We all know we need to move towards a political agreement as soon as possible,” he said, urging a “serious effort” to reach out to those who voted ‘no’ in the referendum.
Arnault stressed that while there was strong agreement by all sides that there should be no return to war, the referendum outcome had injected uncertainty in the process.
The envoy, who also heads a new UN mission to monitor the ceasefire, said the deployment of monitors would continue to reinforce peace efforts.
“There is a sense of uncertainty so further deployment of the UN mission to observe the ceasefire will be an important factor,” he said.
The Security Council on Tuesday agreed that the UN mission could continue to monitor the ceasefire after both sides made that a request and asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to come up with recommendations on that mechanism.
Arnault said Ban will recommend that the mission continue its verification work, but it will not begin work on disarmament of the FARC rebels until a new agreement is in place.
About 400 UN monitors will be deployed in some 50-60 sites throughout the country.
Under the peace accord that was rejected in the referendum, the FARC’s estimated 7,500 fighters are to disarm under UN supervision.
Santos launched talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after taking office in 2010, with the two sides sealing a historic deal on August 24 to end the conflict, which has claimed 260,000 lives.

Cunha, 58, was photographed being led to an airplane in the capital Brasilia under the eye of several guards.
One of his minders was a man in typical hipster regalia — blue jeans, T-shirt, carefully coiffed beard and long hair done up in a tight bun.
Never mind the corruption charges against Cunha or the potential political fallout. The handsome hipster was the big news for some.
“The new Internet mystery is to discover who the hipster policeman next to Cunha is,” said one tweet.
O Globo newspaper’s website quickly discovered the answer: the hunky hipster is Lucas Valenca and he’s an “Instagram muse,” Globo said.
Instagram posts published by Globo show the policeman on the beach, nuzzling up with dogs, or getting that now famous beard tended to by a barber.
For Folha newspaper, the fascination over the no-longer-undercover cop could provide Brazilians with a badly needed replacement for their last anti-corruption symbol.
A policeman of Japanese origin pictured escorting several other corruption suspects became a full blown folk hero, epitomizing the fight against the crooked and powerful.
The likeness of “the Japanese,” as he was universally known, appeared on T-shirts, carnival masks and banners at anti-corruption demonstrations.
Sadly, the hero himself was arrested in June on smuggling charges.

Angel Di Maria’s first goal of the season set Paris Saint-Germain on their way to a 3-0 Champions League victory against an unlucky Basel side at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
Di Maria grabbed the opener late in the first half and Lucas doubled PSG’s lead just after the hour mark before Edinson Cavani’s late penalty sealed the victory as the French giants moved closer to qualifying for the last 16 from Group A.
They remain level on seven points at the top of the group with Arsenal, who crushed Ludogorets 6-0 in London, with Basel and the Bulgarians both six points behind.
A draw when they play Basel away in their next outing will likely secure their progress to the next round, and yet the outcome of this game could have been very different, with the Swiss side hitting the woodwork three times.
“Fortunately we had luck and Alphonse (Areola) on our side, and good posts as well,” midfielder Adrien Rabiot told Canal Plus after the game.
“You need luck in these matches. But we controlled the game too and the main thing is that we won.”
The home side were without the injured Thiago Motta, and while the elegant Rabiot started in his place, they missed his ability to dictate the tempo of a game and keep possession.
Indeed, a side that had appeared so accomplished in previous seasons under Laurent Blanc again looked a shadow of their former selves for much of this game.
Paris have not yet convinced under Unai Emery and they could not afford to underestimate a Basel outfit utterly dominant in their domestic league and who have pulled off some impressive results in Europe.
The visitors were the better team in the first half but missed several chances, first when Birkir Bjarnason kept alive a corner at the back post and Michael Lang headed against the bar.
Ivory Coast striker Seydou Doumbia then outmuscled Thiago Silva before releasing Renato Steffen, but Alphonse Areola came out to deny the winger before Doumbia fired over the loose ball.
Di Maria did flash a volley just past after being teed up by Lucas on a quick breakaway but Basel hit the woodwork again in the 36th minute, this time from a Doumbia header after a Matias Delgado cross.
Rabiot was denied by Tomas Vaclik seconds later but Paris were poor, and yet they went in front five minutes before the interval.
Cavani tried to convert a low ball in by Blaise Matuidi but his touch turned into an assist for Di Maria, who finished emphatically.
Cavani saw a header graze the near post on its way past as he connected with a Di Maria free-kick at the start of the second half.
He then robbed Eder Balanta and bore down on goal but could not beat Vaclik. Instead, it was Lucas who made it 2-0 moments later, slotting low into the net after Basel failed to cut out a Serge Aurier centre.
It was not Basel’s evening, and they hit the frame of the goal for the third time in the 66th minute. Marek Suchy’s header following a free-kick struck an upright and then rebounded off an unwitting Areola on the line.
Cavani then added gloss to the scoreline by converting a stoppage-time penalty for his 17th goal this season for club and country after he had been fouled in the box.

Manchester City’s Claudio Bravo and Pep Guardiola endured a nightmare return to Barcelona as Lionel Messi’s hat-trick spearheaded a 4-0 Champions League rout for the Spanish champions on Wednesday.
Guardiola led Barca to 14 trophies in a glorious four-year reign between 2008 and 2012, but his homecoming was undone by a series of shocking defensive errors and Messi’s clinical touch on his return from injury.
Messi pounced on Fernandinho’s slip to give Barca a half-time lead before goalkeeper Bravo was sent off for handling Luis Suarez’s shot outside the area.
Two more sumptuous Messi finishes soon followed and Neymar made amends for missing a penalty with a brilliant individual run and finish for Barca’s fourth after Jeremy Mathieu’s red card left both sides with 10 men.
City now trail Barca by five points at the top of Group C.
Guardiola’s decision to jettison England number one Joe Hart to bring in Bravo at the start of the season will once again come under the spotlight as the Chilean’s difficult start to life at City cost the visitors dearly.
“It is always difficult to play in Barcelona with 11 players and with 10 the game was over,” said Guardiola.
“He (Bravo) has a lot of experience, he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world for the last 10 years, but he will learn and is the first one in the dressing room to apologise.”
Early on it looked as if Guardiola was to get one over on his former teammate, Barca coach Luis Enrique, as City hemmed the hosts inside their own half and enjoyed the vast majority of possession.
The course of the game changed with one huge error on 17 minutes, though, as Fernandinho’s untimely slip left Messi free inside the area and he calmly rounded Bravo to slot home on his first start for a month after a groin injury.
“It is an exaggerated result due to the clear errors and against the players we have they are decisive,” said Enrique.
City could easily have pulled themselves level as Marc-Andre ter Stegen turned Nolito’s angled drive behind before the German made a stunning stop from international teammate Ilkay Gundogan.
Bravo’s moment of madness ended any hopes of a fightback eight minutes into the second half when he gifted possession to Suarez and then saved the Uruguayan’s effort whilst outside his box to prompt an obvious red card.
City were still reeling from that blow when Messi curled home at the near post — a finish reminiscent of his opening goal when Guardiola also suffered a 3-0 drubbing on his only previous return to the Camp Nou as a visiting coach with Bayern Munich two seasons ago.
By contrast, Ter Stegen continued to shine at the other end as he produced another stunning save to turn Kevin de Bruyne’s low effort to safety.
Messi completed his second hat-trick in as many Champions League games this season 21 minutes from time thanks to another City gift.
Gundogan this time presented the ball to Suarez, who unselfishly squared for Messi to slot home.
Mathieu picked up two yellow cards in three minutes to balance up the numbers on each side.
But by then the damage had already been done as after winning his first 10 games in charge, Guardiola’s men have now gone four matches without a win.
Willy Caballero looked to have saved City from further embarrassment as he stopped Neymar’s penalty three minutes from time.
But the Brazilian responded in style by dancing past a series of tired City defenders before slotting into the far corner.

Israel must face consequences for its failure to heed international appeals to stop building Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, the Palestinian envoy to the UN told the Security Council on Wednesday.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour accused Israel of eroding prospects for a future Palestinian state and creating a “one-state reality” that was tantamount to apartheid.
“The global calls for cessation of Israeli settlement activities and crimes against the Palestinian people must be backed with serious, practical measures to compel Israeli compliance with the law,” Mansour told a council debate on the Middle East.
“There must be consequences if Israel continues to violate international law.”
The United Nations maintains that settlements are illegal and has repeatedly called on Israel to halt them, but UN officials have reported a surge in construction over the past months.
UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the council that Israel was pressing ahead with new settlements, citing a recent decision to build an initial 98 out of 300 housing units in Shilo, in the West Bank.
Mladenov said this planned settlement will “drive a wedge between north and south in the West Bank and jeopardize the contiguity of a future Palestinian state.”
Arab governments are discussing a proposed draft Security Council resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlements, even though a similar measure was vetoed by the United States in 2011.
Arab ministers are to meet later this month in Cairo to decide on whether to move forward with such a measure and present it to the council.
Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon did not mention settlements in his remarks, but he took a swipe at “calls for a one-sided resolution against Israel.”
Danon slammed a resolution adopted this week at the UN cultural agency UNESCO condemning Israel’s actions restricting access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, known as the Temple Mount to Jews.
“These attempts to cut us off from our homeland and our heritage will not succeed. We will remain in our land and in our capital of Jerusalem, forever,” Danon said.

Burkina Faso authorities have released Colonel Mamadou Bamba, the officer who announced last year’s abortive coup, a judicial source said Wednesday.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), Colonel Bamba left prison. He has been granted provisional freedom,” a high-ranking military magistrate told AFP.
Bamba went on television to announce the coup on September 17, reading a statement saying the army had seized control from a transitional government which took office after former president Blaise Compaore fled in October 2014 to Ivory Coast.
Bamba was not a member of Compaore’s presidential guard which was behind the putsch but was jailed along with coup leader Gilbert Diendere.
In all, 85 people have been charged with organising the coup and warrants have been issues for the arrest of a further ten. Around 40 suspects have been granted temporary release, according to an AFP count.
The military judiciary has meanwhile called for International Criminal Court (ICC) expert Hermann Kuenzel to analyse a recorded telephone conversation between the president of Ivory Coast’s national assembly Guillaume Soro and former Burkinabe foreign minister Djibril Bassole.
In the course if the conversation, Soro is understood to have implicitly given backing to the coup officers as they struggled to push through their operation which collapsed within days.
A warrant for the arrest of Soro brought relations between Abidjan and Ouagadougou to a low ebb and pursuit of the former rebel leader was scotched.
French expert Norbert Pheulpin, brought in by Bassole’s defence team, said the recording was a splicing together of “three or four different phone conversations” between Soro and Bassole.
The military magistrate contacted by AFP indicated Kuenzel would present his findings on October 27.

The protesters — mostly women, but also some men — marched in memory of Lucia Perez, a high school student who died on October 8 after drug dealers allegedly raped her and impaled her on a spike.
“If you touch one of us, we all react,” said signs carried by many of the protesters, who staged an hour-long strike starting at 1:00 pm (1400 GMT).
It was the latest in more than a year of mass marches to protest violence against women in Argentina, where according to government figures domestic violence kills one woman every 36 hours.
Perez’s killing was just the latest horrific episode.
Last year in June, protests broke out nationwide over a trio of gruesome killings: a kindergarten teacher whose estranged husband slit her throat in front of her class; a 14-year-old girl whose boyfriend allegedly beat her to death because she got pregnant; and a woman whose ex-boyfriend stabbed her to death in broad daylight at a Buenos Aires cafe.
“The case of Lucia Perez acted as a trigger to demand justice for all women who suffer sexist violence,” said one protester in downtown Buenos Aires, Gabriela Spinelli.
Organizers said the goal was to condemn not only Perez’s killing, but a culture that values women less than men — which they said can be seen in statistics such as the unemployment and poverty rates.
Brutal rapes are the product of a society where boys are not raised to respect women, said demonstrator Karina Munoz.
“A rapist isn’t a monster. He’s not sick. He’s a healthy child of this system, which produces men who don’t respect it when women say no,” she told AFP.
Despite a rain storm that likely dented turnout in Buenos Aires, demonstrators managed to block off several avenues in the capital, as supporters applauded from office buildings.
In Spain, hundreds of women protested in solidarity in Madrid and Barcelona. Demonstrations were also held in various cities across Latin America, including Lima and Mexico City.

A critically endangered gorilla species in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo has lost more than three-quarters of its population and risks disappearing in the next five years, experts warned Wednesday.
Just 3,800 Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) are left in the wild, according to the study in the journal PLOS ONE, describing the world’s largest primates’ “catastrophic decline.”
Prior to the civil war which broke out in 1996 in the former Zaire, there were nearly 17,000 of these gorillas.
“While we knew that Grauer’s gorilla was in trouble nobody had realized how much they had declined,” said lead researcher Andrew Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The unrest that erupted in the region 20 years ago has made it hard to count the gorillas, which have been increasingly hunted for bushmeat by armed miners.
These great apes were among two subspecies of Eastern gorillas that were listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List in September.
The other subspecies, known as Gorilla beringei, has dwindled to 5,000.
Researchers fear that the Grauer’s gorilla could be lost from many parts of its range within five years, unless more is done to save them.
Some strategies could include halting mining in protected areas and encouraging the military to protect wildlife, researchers said.

Ivory Coast will start their defence of the Africa Cup of Nations against Togo in January, according to the draw made Wednesday.
Ivory Coast, who beat Ghana on penalties in the 2015 final, are in Group C against Togo, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Hosts Gabon, who saw political turmoil after a disputed election in August, will stage the opening match in Libreville on January 14 against Guinea-Bissau, who make their first appearance in the 16-nation tournament.
Cameroon and Burkina Faso are also in Group A.
The other group favourites, Algeria and Ghana, start against Zimbabwe and Uganda respectively.
Algeria have the toughest first round in Group B where they also take on Tunisia and Senegal for one of the two qualifying places for the quarter-finals.
Ghana are the team to beat in Group D. Apart from Uganda, they will take on Egypt, making their return to the contest after missing three finals, and Mali.
The final is in Libreville on February 5.
The draw produced three groups containing three of the top 10 ranked football nations in Africa, according to FIFA.
Algeria (2), Senegal (3) and Tunisia (4) are in one mini-league, Ivory Coast (1), DR Congo (6) and Morocco (10) in another and Ghana (5), Egypt (7) and Mali (9) in a third.
A lot of teams will get to know each other extremely well, too, as Ivory Coast and Morocco also share a 2018 World Cup qualifying group, as do Ghana, Egypt and Uganda.
Ivory Coast were not impressive in qualifying, drawing three of four matches against Sierra Leone and Sudan, and Morocco are probably a team they wanted to dodge.
The Moroccans are coached by Herve Renard, the charismatic Frenchman who masterminded the Ivorians’ triumph in Equatorial Guinea last year.
He then left for a brief, unsuccessful spell in the French Ligue 1 before being hired by Morocco, and they became the first qualifiers for the 2017 tournament.
Renard has won the Cup of Nations twice, taking no-hopers Zambia to the title in Gabon four years ago.
“If I had to name teams I wanted to avoid before the draw, I would have said some of the teams in our group,” admitted Renard.
“To face Ivory Coast is difficult, especially as we have had the chance to know their players, it’s practically the same squad.
“But we have to be competitive. The match against Claude Le Roy (coach of Togo) will be something that again will be difficult for me.
“But over 90 minutes I have to forget everything this man did for me and do everything in order to beat him.”
Veteran Le Roy has won the Cup of Nations once, with Cameroon in 1988, and Gabon will mark his ninth appearance at the Cup of Nations finals.
He has failed to reach the knockout stage only once.
Being grouped with Ghana offers Egypt yet another chance to avenge one of their most humiliating results, a 6-1 thrashing by the Black Stars in a 2014 World Cup qualifier.
No team will be more excited about going to Gabon in January than Uganda — the last time they qualified was in 1978 when the notorious Idi Amin ruled the east African state.
Uganda coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic said: ?This is a tough and competitive group, but I believe in the players and the team.
“We have a realistic chance to get good results and reach the knockout stage.”
Although Gabon are the second lowest ranked team among the 16 contenders, they look set to make the last eight, probably with four-time champions Cameroon.
The hosts rely heavily on 2015 African Footballer of the Year Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, a prolific goalscorer with German giants Borussia Dortmund.
During the draw ceremony, Gabonese officials emphasised that the country was ready to host a tournament they co-staged with neighbours Equatorial Guinea in 2012.
A disputed presidential election victory by incumbent Ali Bongo two months ago triggered riots with opposition parties claiming vote fraud.
New prime minister Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet said: “We will not back away from the tournament. We are ready and will organise an exceptional tournament.”

A new convention centre in Rome that has been hailed as one of acclaimed architect Massimiliano Fuksas’s most ambitious buildings yet was unveiled to the international media Wednesday, ahead of its long-awaited opening next week.
The Italian’s latest work resembles a giant, rectangular glass box encasing an interior dominated by a fluid, cloud-like structure that seems to float above the centre’s lower levels and houses its auditorium.
Made from steel and clad in cream-coloured fibreglass the centrepiece of the new centre is the size of two giant zeppelin airships.
It has been dubbed Fuksas’s “nuvola” (cloud in Italian), and its creators hope the innovative design will help turn the new facility into a popular destination on the money-spinning international conference circuit.
The project has had a chequered history since Fuksas’s won the competition to build the new centre in 2000 with a design based on an idea he had while watching clouds from a beach.
Located in the Mussolini-created EUR district of Rome, the project was initially supposed to be privately funded but failed to attract investors.
Publicly-backed construction finally got underway in 2007 only to be repeatedly interrupted due to a combination of red tape and cash constraints.
The building has finally been completed at a total cost of 353 million euros ($390 million) thanks to additional funds raised last year by the sell-off of four Mussolini-era buildings, said Enrico Pazzali, the head of EUR Spa, the public body behind the project.
“The architect’s wonderful vision has been realised 100 percent,” he told AFP, adding he was confident the centre would deliver its objective of delivering a major boost to Rome’s visitor-based economy.
“Our estimates are that the economic benefits to the city and the surrounding area could be between 250-350 million euros a year,” he said.
Built over three levels, the new centre will be able to accommodate audiences of up to 6,000 people in its 9,000 square-metre plenary hall.
Construction required 39,000 tons of steel – the equivalent of nearly five Eiffel towers and expanses of glass equivalent to eight soccer fields, Pazzali said.
Fuksas, 72, is one of the giants of contemporary Italian architecture.
His past projects include the futuristic new airport terminal at Shenzhen, China, Ferrari’s ultra-modern headquarters and Armani stores on 5th Avenue, New York and in Ginza, Tokyo.
The EUR district takes its name from Esposizione Universale Roma, the world fair Italian dictator Benito Mussolini planned to stage there in 1942.
That plan had to be scrapped because of World War II with many of the buildings only half-finished.
They were mostly completed in the 1950s and 1960s after the Roman authorities decided to turn the area into an edge-of-town business district that became a model for London’s Docklands and La Defense in Paris.
The rectangular exterior of Fuksas’s new work references the rationalist architecture of many of the surrounding buildings.

A Pakistani tea merchant with velvet eyes saw his life changed this week when his portrait spread around the Internet, sparking ardent debates on class, objectification, and the place of ethnic Pashtuns in society.
Arshad Khan had no idea he had set the Internet alight from Pakistan to India and beyond: he has no phone, and cannot read.
“It was a real surprise,” the young “chai wala”, or tea seller, told AFP.
“I was aware that I am handsome but you can’t do anything when you are poor,” he said, adding that the image has “changed the way I think.”
In the candid photograph, snapped by a passing photographer and posted on Instagram, Khan prepares Pakistan’s ubiquitous milk tea, his blue green eyes looking frankly into the camera.
It set social media users swooning, with the 18-year-old’s image shared tens of thousands of times since October 14.
By Tuesday, the Islamabad market where photographer Javeria Ali took the fateful shot was swarmed by dozens eager to gawk at the young worker.
But in a country where women have long fought for rights and rarely express their feelings publicly, that fervour soon morphed into an intense debate on what it meant to reduce a poor man to a beautiful object.
“We are more used to seeing this happen to women, it is still creepy whan it happens to a boy,” feminist columnist Bina Shah told AFP.
“Just because people are bored does not mean you can play with someone’s life.”
Columnist Maria Amir concluded that “reverse sexism is still a form of sexism” on the website of Pakistan’s biggest-selling English language newspaper, Dawn.
But she also echoed many in noting that the true “ick factor” was in social class rather than gender.
“The elite getting excited over a hot #ChaiWala reeks of class privilege and the objectification of working class men,” tweeted @nidkirm, who described herself as a sociologist based in Lahore.
And in a column in the Express Tribune Farahnaz Zahidi mocked the “surprise” that someone poor could be good-looking.
“(T)he upper tier bourgeois of Pakistan have come to believe that even looks and God-gifted attributes are co-dependent on money and affluence?” she wrote.
Indeed, in his first appearance on television, viewers laughed at Khan’s awkward speech and the Western suit in which he appeared uncomfortable.
“No girl would agree to marry him,” wrote Twitter user @ItsMahah.
Even the colour of Khan’s cool gaze provoked discomfort in some like columnist Amir, who wrote “apparently there is no expiry date on our colonial baggage”.
Light skin and eyes are the attribute of many Pashtuns, tribal inhabitants of northwest Pakistan and southern Afghanistan, romanticised as warriors by the British.
Others expressed concern about the risk of exploitation of a young man so little armed for success. A local brand was quick to publish pictures of him, but Khan said he has not signed any modelling contract.
The third of 17 children, Khan has never been to school. He said he hoped his newfound fame would allow him to “move forward”.
Vegetable seller Saeed Ahmed worked in the market alongside Khan. “His eyes were so beautiful that we used to make fun of him and call him ‘cat eyes’,” he told AFP.
“But we never even thought that he would one day become famous like this.”
Indian newspapers were the first to seize on the “Cinderella story”, bringing frivolity to recent tensions between the rival neighbours with tweets calling Khan a “nuclear bomb”.
“I send a message of peace to my Indian fans,” Khan said.

Pep Guardiola dropped top scorer Sergio Aguero to the Manchester City bench on his return to Barcelona for Wednesday’s Champions League clash, whilst Lionel Messi will make his first start in a month for the Spanish giants at the Camp Nou.
Guardiola oversaw a glorious four-year spell in charge of Barca between 2008 and 2012, but lost on his only previous return as a visiting boss with Bayern Munich in 2015.
With Aguero sidelined, Kevin de Bruyne is expected to play an unfamiliar role in the middle of an attacking trio flanked by another former Barca player Nolito and Raheem Sterling.
Messi is joined by Luis Suarez and Neymar as Barca’s superstar front three start together for just the fourth time this season.
The Argentine needed just three minutes to net on his return from a groin injury as a substitute in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Deportivo la Coruna.
However, Barca suffered an injury setback as Sergi Roberto isn’t fit to take his place at right-back where Javier Mascherano or Samuel Umtiti will deputise.
Barca lead City by two points at the top of Champions League Group C after two games.

Brazil, Greece and Indonesia are among five countries facing censure from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over flaws in their drug testing programs, the watchdog announced on Wednesday.
A statement said the three countries, along with 2015 European Games host Azerbaijan and Guatemala, risked being declared non-compliant with the agency’s code when WADA’s Foundation Board meets in Glasgow on November 19.
WADA said its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) set up in 2015 had reported last month that the National Anti-Doping Organizations of each country were not in compliance with the agency’s rules.
The five countries have been given until November 10 to prove their compliance with WADA’s anti-doping code.
If they are unable to do so, the “CRC will submit recommendations of non-compliance to the Agency?s Foundation Board,” WADA said.
Brazil has faced a rocky 12 months after being placed on a WADA watchlist in November 2015.
The 2016 Olympic hosts were given the all clear in March after Brazil’s then-president Dilma Rousseff signed legislation that brought the country into line with anti-doping regulations.
However, WADA hit out at Brazil in August after it emerged the country had failed to test its Olympic team in the build-up to the Rio de Janeiro Games, branding the situation “unacceptable.”

The Mexican authorities are seeking to arrest a former governor who has disappeared as he faces charges of organized crime and money laundering, officials said Wednesday.
Javier Duarte has not been seen for days after he resigned as governor of the crime-plagued eastern state of Veracruz last week.
A judge issued an arrest warrant for him on organized crime and money laundering charges, Attorney General Arely Gomez said.
He is among nine people sought by the authorities, two of whom were detained on Tuesday, Gomez added.
Duarte was last seen in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said, adding that “security and intelligence agencies are working to locate him.”
The National Migration Institute has no record of him leaving the country, he said.
“That is why we believe that he could still be in the country,” Osorio Chong told Radio Formula.
But the government will also request an international arrest warrant from Interpol, he said.
The attorney general’s office is investigating Duarte on allegations of illegal enrichment, embezzlement and breach of official duty.
The federal tax agency is looking into claims that his administration signed $174 million in contracts with dozens of shell companies.
Duarte has rejected the allegations, and vowed to fight the charges when he resigned on October 12, less than two months before his six-year term was set to end.
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) suspended Duarte’s party rights last month.
Veracruz, an oil-rich state on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, has been marred by drug cartel violence, the murder of 19 journalists and a wave of disappearances in the past six years.
Term limits barred Duarte from running for re-election in June and the PRI lost the gubernatorial race to a left-right coalition candidate who took down the ruling party in a state it had governed for decades.
Governor-elect Miguel Angel Yunes, set to take office on December 1, has alleged that Duarte left Veracruz in a helicopter, but did not offer serious proof.
Osorio Chong denied that the Pena Nieto administration let Duarte flee.

German high-pressure hose manufacturer Kaercher has appealed to candidates in the French presidential campaign to stop using its name in discussions about crime.
The name Kaercher entered French political language in 2005 when the then interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy visited a Parisian suburb where an 11-year-old boy had been shot dead.
He promised residents a crackdown on crime, saying: “Starting tomorrow, we’re going to clean this estate with Kaerchers.”
The company says that even 11 years later its name has been used “in association with a political, controversial or negative issue” and said it “harms our company, its values and its clients”.
Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, is bidding to win the right-wing nomination to make a bid to regain the presidency.
In a letter sent to Alain Juppe, who is leading Sarkozy in the right-wing field, Kaercher said: “For several months, we have noticed that our company’s name has been regularly used on the political scene, in relation to subjects which are sensitive to say the least.”
The letter went on: “We hope you will help bring a stop to this trend by respecting our trademarks and by only using the term Kaercher to refer to our products.”
Juppe’s right-hand man Gilles Boyer posted the letter on Twitter, adding the comment: “I understand your concerns but I think you have sent it to the wrong person.”
Sarkozy, Juppe and five other candidates will battle it out for the right-wing nomination in a two-round primary next month.

Belgium summoned the Russian ambassador to Brussels on Wednesday in a spat over Moscow’s claim that Belgian jets killed six civilians near Syria’s Aleppo.
The diplomatic summons was issued after Russia said two Belgian F-16s from the US-led coalition had been identified in the region where the deadly air strike took place Tuesday.
The Russian envoy will be called to appear at the Belgian foreign ministry on Thursday, ministry spokesman Didier Vanderhasselt told AFP, as Brussels issued a fresh denial of involvement in the incident.
“No Belgian Air Force aircraft have been operating over the Aleppo province over the last few days. These accusations are therefore totally groundless and unsubstantiated,” Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and Defence Minister Steven Vandeput said in a joint statement.
“Belgium deeply regrets that no prior consultation has taken place with a view to establishing the facts, before accusations were made in public.”
Russia’s defence ministry said two of Belgium’s F-16s fighting Islamic State jihadists in Syria had been identified in the area where the deadly strike took place.
“Six people were killed and four people injured to various degrees as a result of bombing that destroyed two homes” in the village of Hassajik in the Aleppo region, it said in a statement.
Belgian defence ministry spokeswoman Laurence Mortier earlier denied the country’s air force was active in the area at the time.
But responding to the Belgian summons, Russian defence minister spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Moscow was confident of its information.
“Russia has effective air defence capabilities, allowing it to carry out 24-hour monitoring of air activity practically over the whole territory of Syria and beyond its limits,” he said.
“We would like to remind you that for the countries of the international coalition that Belgium is part of, such errors in designating targets are not at all something impossible and unfortunately are happening regularly,” he added.
Moscow had announced on Tuesday that the Russian and Syrian air forces had stopped bombing Aleppo to pave the way for an eight-hour truce on Thursday.
Russia said Wednesday it was extending the eight-hour truce in Aleppo to 11 hours to allow civilians and rebels to leave the city’s rebel-held east.
Moscow also said its planes and Syria regime jets were keeping 10 kiloetres (6.2 miles) away from Aleppo.
The government offensive against rebel-held eastern Aleppo — which has destroyed hospitals and other civilian infrastructure — has plunged Syria into some of the worst violence of the five-year war that has claimed over 300,000 lives.
The West has accused Russia of potential war crimes over its bombing campaign in Aleppo in support of the regime offensive.
The US State Department voiced scepticism regarding Moscow’s planned truce while welcoming a halt in the bombardments.
President Vladimir Putin is set to face Western pressure over the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine at international talks in Berlin on Wednesday as Russia comes under increasing criticism over its support for Damascus.

England captain Dylan Hartley is aiming to make his first appearance in six weeks when Northampton travel to Castres in the European Champions Cup on Saturday.
The New Zealand-born hooker, who earlier this year led England to a Six Nations Grand Slam and a 3-0 series win in Australia, has been out of action since September 11 following a series of back spasms.
However, he has now returned to full training and Northampton backs coach Alan Dickens said Wednesday: “Dylan’s been injured. He’s on the route back.
“He trained fully last week. He’s trained fully this week, it’s just dependent on how he reacts. He’s there or thereabouts,” he added of this weekend’s match awa to French club Castres.
Hartley’s increasing fitness is welcome news for both Northampton, looking to back up their 16-14 win in last week’s Champions Cup opener against Montpellier, another French club, and England, who open their end-of-year Test series against South Africa at Twickenham on November 12.

Rafael Nadal insists he can still compete with the best in the world for “many years to come” after opening his tennis academy alongside Roger Federer in Mallorca on Wednesday.
Nadal and Federer have slipped down the world rankings this season due to a lack of form and fitness respectively.
However, the 30-year-old Spaniard insists two of the most successful players in the history of the sport can make it back to the top.
“Roger and I haven’t forgotten how to play tennis and we are working to get back to competing at the highest level,” said Nadal.
Federer won’t play again this year due to ongoing rehabilitation on a knee injury, whilst Nadal refused to confirm if he intends to play again in 2016.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion suffered a shock second round defeat to Victor Troicki at the Shanghai Masters last week.
Yet, at sixth in the world rankings, Nadal is still well-placed to qualify for the end of season ATP Tour Finals.
“Sometimes continuing to play is not the solution. Sometimes the solution is to stop and restart a training programme,” he added.
However, Nadal also hinted he could return at the Swiss Indoor tournament in Basel next week.
The stunning academy complex in Nadal’s home city of Manacor in the Balearic Island boasts 26 clay courts, as well as a fitness centre, two swimming pools and 10 paddle tennis courts.
“I still have many years to come in tennis, but there is a future and this academy is part of that future,” said Nadal.
“We were very excited to create something so special and even more so in Manacor, it is a dream come true.
“We hope the kids enjoy it as much as possible. We want this facility to be a success at the professional level for them, but also on a human level.”

Lebanon’s powerful ex-premier Saad Hariri is expected to endorse Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun for president, a post that has been vacant for almost 30 months, a senior politician said Wednesday.
Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the mandate of Michel Sleiman expired, amid deep rivalries among Christian and Muslim politicians exacerbated by the conflict in Syria.
Since then parliament, which has twice extended its mandate, has met on 45 occasions to elect a president but deep rivalries and disagreements saw most deputies boycot the sessions.
The assembly is due to convene next week for the 46th time amid high expectations that a president will be elected and that the job will go to Aoun, a Maronite Christian and former army commander.
“Since Hariri has decided to endorse him, and save any last minute change, Michel Aoun will be elected by parliament on October 30,” said the senior politician, who declined to be named.
Hariri, a former Sunni Muslim prime minister whose party belongs to a Western and Saudi-backed political bloc, had fiercely opposed Aoun’s candidacy.
Aoun is allied with the Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and has dispatched fighters to neighbouring Syria to bolster the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
On Wednesday Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to Hezbollah, said that Hariri had informed his political bloc and his allies of his decision to endorse Aoun.
“All that’s left is to officially announce it,” added Al-Akhbar.
Aged 81, the ex-general Aoun is a controversial figure.
He served as head of the armed forces and briefly as prime minister during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war and was then a staunch opponent of Syrian military presence in Lebanon.
But he shocked many by brokering an alliance with Hezbollah in 2006, a year after his return home from exile in France and after Syria pulled its troops from Lebanon.
According to a source close to Hariri, the ex-prime minister struck a deal with Aoun to endorse him in exchange for his return as premier.
Lebanon’s president is elected by parliament, and the post is always reserved for a Maronite Christian under a power-sharing agreement.
The post of prime minister is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, while the speaker of the parliament is a Shiite Muslim.