Over 90% of world breathing bad air – WHO

Nine out of 10 people globally are breathing poor quality air, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, calling for dramatic action against pollution that is blamed for more than six million deaths a year.
New data in a report from the UN’s global health body “is enough to make all of us extremely concerned,” Maria Neira, the head of the WHO’s department of public health and environment, told reporters.
The problem is most acute in cities, but air in rural areas is worse than many think, WHO experts said.
Poorer countries have much dirtier air than the developed world, according to the report, but pollution “affects practically all countries in the world and all parts of society”, Neira said in a statement.
“It is a public health emergency,” she said.

Philippines President Duterte seeks death penalty in war on crime

President Rodrigo Duterte has made a case for the restoration of the death penalty in the Philippines, saying the law had previously lost its effectiveness because it was not fully implemented.
Duterte told reporters on Monday that past presidents had succumbed to the pressure of the Catholic church and other “bleeding hearts” who argued against capital punishment “because only God can kill”.
“The problem with that is, I ask you, ‘What if there is no God?’” Duterte said at the presidential palace in the capital, Manila.
“When a one-year-old, an 18-month-old baby is taken from the mother’s arms, brought under a jeep and raped, and killed, where is God,” he asked.
“People in the Philippines no longer believe in the laws, because the fear is not there,” Duterte said in a mix of Filipino and English.
“That is why I said, give me back the death penalty.”

Bomb attacks hit mosque, congress centre in Germany

Traces of smoke can be seen after a bomb attack at the entrance to the Fatih Camii Mosque in Dresden, eastern Germany.(AFP)

Bomb attacks hit a mosque and a congress centre in the eastern German city of Dresden, police said Tuesday, adding that they suspected a xenophobic and nationalist motive.
No-one was injured in the blasts late Monday in a city which has become a hotspot for far-right protests amid Germany’s huge migrant influx.
“Although no-one has claimed the attack, we assume a xenophobic motive,” said Dresden police chief Horst Kretzschmar.
“We also suspect a connection with celebrations next weekend for the Day of German Unity” on Monday, October 3.
The home-made bombs went off around 2000 GMT and damaged the door of the mosque while the imam and his family were inside, forcing the partial evacuation of the hotel at the city’s international congress centre.

Clinton’s name misspelled on souvenir debate tickets

The first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump may be one of the most hyped events in US politics, but the hosts managed overlook one small detail.
The name of the Democratic nominee, the first woman in American history to win a major party nomination for president, was misspelled on souvenir tickets handed out to students at Hofstra University.

Clinton, Trump clash in fiery first debate

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (R) speaks as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) listens during the Presidential Debate at Hofstra University on September 26, 2016 in Hempstead, New York.(AFP)

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump bickered and traded insults in a fiery US presidential debate Monday, as they aggressively pitched their case to tens of millions of American voters.
With the White House rivals in a dead heat six weeks before election day, Clinton from the get-go painted her Republican rival as out of touch and having a tenuous relationship with the truth, willing to say “crazy things” to get elected.
“You live in your own reality” said the 68-year old Democrat, who accused Trump of launching his political career on a “racist lie” — the birther conspiracy theory that questioned President Barack Obama’s citizenship.
Trump, who faces tough questions about his suitability for the Oval Office, started out with a more restrained tone — he even ditched his red power tie for a more statesmanlike blue.
But he quickly went on the offensive, repeatedly interrupting Clinton with verbal jabs.
The celebrity businessman branded Clinton a “typical politician. All talk, no action. Sounds good, doesn’t work.”

France ‘abandoned’ Algerian fighters in independence war – Hollande

President Francois Hollande on Sunday said France “abandoned” Algerians who fought alongside French colonial forces in the Algerian war of independence, honouring a 2012 pledge.
Tens of thousands of the fighters, known as “harkis”, were recruited by French forces but only around 60,000 were allowed to settle in France after French forces withdrew in 1962.
The rest — between 55,000 and 75,000 according to historians — were left in Algeria where they were accused of being traitors and many massacred.
Those who were admitted to France were placed in squalid camps.
In a ceremony in the Invalides in Paris, where France honours its war dead, Hollande finally said what the harkis have waited more than half a century to hear.
“I recognise the responsibility of French governments in abandoning the harkis, the massacres of those who remained in Algeria and the inhuman conditions for those transferred to camps in France,” Hollande said.

Jets pound Aleppo as UN discusses Syria escalation

The United States called Russia’s action in Syria “barbarism” while Moscow’s UN envoy said ending the war “is almost an impossible task now” as government forces relentlessly bombed the besieged city of Aleppo.
The United Nations Security Council met on Sunday at the request of the United States, Britain and France to discuss the escalation of fighting in Aleppo following the announcement on Thursday of an offensive by the Syrian army to retake the embattled northern city.
“What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism,” the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, told the 15-member council.
“Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals, and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive,” said Power.

Trump promises to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s ‘undivided’ capital

Republican candidate Donald Trump pledged Sunday in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital if he is elected president.
Netanyahu met privately with Trump at his residence in Trump Tower a day before the New York billionaire faces off against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for their first presidential debate.
“Trump acknowledged that Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of the Jewish people for over 3000 years, and that the United States, under a Trump administration, will finally accept the long-standing congressional mandate to recognise Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the state of Israel,” his campaign said in a statement.
Israel captured the Arab eastern half of Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and annexed it in 1980, declaring all of Jerusalem Israel’s unified capital.
The United States – and most other UN member countries – do not recognise the annexation and