W O R L D

31 hikers feared dead after volcano erupts in Japan
Tokyo, September 28
Thirty-one persons were presumed dead on Sunday near the peak of a Japanese volcano that erupted unexpectedly a day earlier while it was packed with hikers out to admire autumn foliage, sending a huge cloud of ash and rock tumbling down its slopes.

White smoke rising from Mount Ontake as Japan’s volcano Ontake erupts in Nagano prefecture. AFP

US-led air strikes hit refineries in Syria
Beitut/Istanbul, September 28
Air strikes believed to have been carried out by US-led forces hit three makeshift oil refineries in Syria's Raqqa province early on Sunday as part of an assault to weaken Islamic State (IS) militants.

Turkish military forces block the acces to the Mursitpinar crossing gate near the Syrian border as Syrian Kurdish people try to pass in the southeastern town of Suruc. Reuters

HK uses tear gas to clear protesters
Hong Kong, September 28
The Hong Kong police used tear gas today to clear thousands of pro-democracy protesters who had gathered outside government headquarters in a challenge to Beijing over its decision to restrict democratic reforms for the city.


Police fire tear gas upon pro-democracy demonstrators near the Hong Kong government headquarters on Sunday. AFP

Turkey bans tattoos, piercings in schools
Istanbul, September 28
Turkey's Islamic-rooted government has banned pupils from wearing tattoos or body piercings in schools, a measure denounced by opponents as oppressive and unenforceable, reports said on Sunday.

Maharaja Ranjitsinhji had illegitimate son in UK?
London, September 28
Maharaja Ranjitsinhji, the first Indian to play Test cricket for England, may have fathered an illegitimate son with his Cambridge University tutor's daughter over a century ago, according to a media report today.

31 hikers feared dead after volcano erupts in Japan

Tokyo, September 28
Thirty-one persons were presumed dead on Sunday near the peak of a Japanese volcano that erupted unexpectedly a day earlier while it was packed with hikers out to admire autumn foliage, sending a huge cloud of ash and rock tumbling down its slopes.

The police said the 31 persons were found in "cardiopulmonary" arrest but declined to confirm their deaths pending a formal examination, as per Japanese custom. An official in the area said rescue efforts had been called off due to rising levels of toxic gas near the peak, as well as approaching nightfall.

Hundreds of people, including children, were stranded on the mountain, a popular hiking site, after it erupted without warning on Saturday, sending ash pouring down the slope for more than 3 km.

Most made their way down later on Saturday but about 40 spent the night near the 3,067-metre peak. Some wrapped themselves in blankets and huddled in the basement of buildings.

"The roof on the mountain lodge was destroyed by falling rock, so we had to take refuge below the building," one told NHK national television. "That's how bad it was." More than 40 people were injured, several with broken bones.

Earlier, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency had said authorities were trying to confirm the whereabouts of 45 people.

It was not clear whether those 45 included the 31 people found in cardiopulmonary arrest.

Satoshi Saito, a 52-year-old hiker who climbed Ontake on Saturday and descended less than an hour before the eruption, said the weather was good and the mountain, known for its fall foliage, was crowded with people carrying cameras.

"There were no earthquakes or strange smells on the mountain when I was there," Saito, who usually climbs Ontake several times a year, told Reuters. He also said there were no warnings of possible eruptions posted on the trail. — Reuters

First fatalities in Japanese volcanic eruption since 1991

• Volcanoes erupt periodically in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active nations
• There have been no fatalities since 1991, when 43 people died in a pyroclastic flow, a superheated current of gas and rock, at Mount Unzen in southwestern Japan
• Ontake, Japan's second-highest volcano 200 km west of Tokyo, last erupted seven years ago. Its last major eruption was in 1979
• The volcano was still erupting on Sunday, pouring smoke and ash hundreds of metres into the sky

US-led air strikes hit refineries in Syria

Beitut/Istanbul, September 28
Air strikes believed to have been carried out by US-led forces hit three makeshift oil refineries in Syria's Raqqa province early on Sunday as part of an assault to weaken Islamic State (IS) militants.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks occurred shortly after midnight, adding that they also hit a plastic factory.

Islamic State fighters have control over oil produced in eastern Syria and have set up small, makeshift refineries to distil the crude into fuel, one of their main sources of income.

"These so-called refineries are not a real target and they do not weaken Islamic State as they do not have any financial value for them," Rami Abdelrahman of the Observatory told Reuters.

The United States has been carrying out strikes in Iraq since August 8 and in Syria, with the help of Arab allies, since Tuesday, in a campaign it says is aimed at "degrading and destroying" the Islamist militants who have captured swathes of both countries.

Abdelrahman said that destroying the makeshift refineries has led to a sharp increase in the price of diesel, adding that for residents in Syria's northern Aleppo province, for example, the price has more than doubled. — Reuters

Al-Qaida’s Syrian franchise threatens coalition

The Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaida's Syrian franchise, has threatened reprisals against nations participating in air strikes against the Islamic State group, denouncing them as "a war against Islam." Group spokesman Abu Firas al-Suri said in a video posted online on Saturday that the states involved had "committed a horrible act that is going to put them on the list of jihadist targets throughout the world." Seven targets were hit in Syria, the Pentagon said.

HK uses tear gas to clear protesters

Hong Kong, September 28
The Hong Kong police used tear gas today to clear thousands of pro-democracy protesters who had gathered outside government headquarters in a challenge to Beijing over its decision to restrict democratic reforms for the city.

After spending hours holding the protesters at bay, police lobbed canisters of tear gas into the crowd this evening. The searing fumes sent protesters fleeing down the road, but many came right back to continue their demonstration.

Students and activists have been camped out on the streets outside the government complex all weekend.

Students started the rally, but by early today leaders of the broader Occupy Central civil disobedience movement said they were joining them to kick-start a long-threatened mass sit-in to demand an election for Hong Kong's leader without Beijing's interference.

Authorities launched their crackdown after the protest spiralled into an extraordinary scene of chaos as the protesters jammed a busy road and clashed with officers wielding pepper spray.

The protesters were trying tried to reach a mass sit-in being held outside government headquarters to demand Beijing grant genuine democratic reforms to the former British colony.

The demonstrations, which Beijing called "illegal", were a rare scene of disorder in the Asian financial hub, and highlighted authorities' inability to get a grip on the public discontent over Beijing's tightening grip on the city.

The protesters reject Beijing's recent decision to restrict voting reforms for the first-ever elections to choose Hong Kong's leader, promised for 2017. The use of the tear gas angered the protesters, who chanted "Shame on CY Leung" after it was used, referring to the city's deeply unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying. — AP

Turkey bans tattoos, piercings in schools

Istanbul, September 28
Turkey's Islamic-rooted government has banned pupils from wearing tattoos or body piercings in schools, a measure denounced by opponents as oppressive and unenforceable, reports said on Sunday.

While tattoos are frowned upon by conservative elements in Turkey's diverse society, they are highly fashionable among secular urban youth, including school-age teens. The measure is the latest hugely controversial measure taken by the government in education, after it allowed girls in high schools to wear the Muslim headscarf, a move critics said eroded Turkey's secular principles.

The ban, which was published in Turkey's official gazette on Saturday and reported by local media Sunday, also forbids the dyeing of hair, make-up, as well as moustaches and beards for boys.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) co-founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking to restore traditional values in Turkey, a drive seen by opponents as a bid to Islamise the country.

The head of the Egitim Is education union Veli Demir denounced the measure as impossible to enforce, given that tattoos could not be removed like a piece of clothing. "Are they going to strip off their skin?" he asked, quoted by the Radikal online newspaper. — AFP

Maharaja Ranjitsinhji had illegitimate son in UK?

London, September 28
Maharaja Ranjitsinhji, the first Indian to play Test cricket for England, may have fathered an illegitimate son with his Cambridge University tutor's daughter over a century ago, according to a media report today.

Ranji, as he was affectionately known and after whom the Ranji Trophy has been named, was born in Nawanagar and went on to become its ruler as Maharaja Jam Sahib in 1907.

According to 'The Sunday Times', he had an affair with his Cambridge University tutor's daughter, which was hushed up to avert a scandal in Victorian England.

Ranji made his debut for England against Australia in July 1896, scoring 154 runs in a scintillating debut innings, more than half of the side's total of 305.

During that season, Ranji scored a total of 2,780 runs in first-class cricket, breaking the record of WG Grace and prompting one cricket writer to describe him as "the midsummer night's dream of cricket".

The paper said that within months of breaking the record, Ranji is believed to have fathered a son with Edith Borissow, the eldest daughter of Reverend Louis Borissow, his tutor at Cambridge.

According to the birth certificate, Borissow's son Bernard Kirk was born on May 22, 1897. The father's name was not recorded in the certificate. He died in 1976, aged 79. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Serbia hosts first gay Pride since 2010
BELGRADE: Gay rights activists in Serbia held their first Pride march in four years on Sunday, walking through Belgrade streets emptied of traffic and pedestrians by a massive security operation. Authorities banned Pride for the next three years, citing security concerns. But with Serbia setting out on talks to join the European Union, the bloc has made clear it sees Pride as a litmus test of the country's commitment to defend the human rights of all. reuters

Diamond ring worth $500,000 stolen in Australia
Melbourne: A rare diamond ring worth half-a-million dollars was stolen on Sunday from an auction site in broad daylight in Australia. The pink argyle and white diamond ring, valued at 577,000 Australian dollars, was taken from a display counter at Theodore Bruce Auctions in New South Wales. It is estimated that around 100 people walked through the auction centre during that time. Pti

Iran builds surface-to-surface missile: Report
Tehran: A news agency in Iran is reporting that the Islamic Republic has built a new surface-to-surface cruise missile capable of being launched from an airplane. The report on Sunday by the semi-official Fars news agency quotes Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the airspace department of the elite Revolutionary Guard, as saying that the missile has a range of 700 km. AP

Commemorating Iran-Iraq War: Missiles are displayed during an exhibition on the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, as part of the “Sacred Defense Week” commemorating the eight-year war in Tehran on Sunday. Afp