INTERNATIONAL
Pressure mounts on Malaysian PM
Thousands gathered for a second day of protests on Sunday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak over a multi-million-dollar financial scandal, their spirits lifted by unexpected support from Malaysias longest-serving leader.
Hundreds slept out overnight in central Kuala Lumpur after the first day of a rally that has brought into the streets a political crisis triggered by reports of a mysterious transfer worth more than $600 million into an account under Najibs name.
Najib, who denies wrongdoing, has weathered the storm and analysts say the two-day rally is unlikely to inspire broad public support for him to quit because it lacks a strong leader.
Security remained tight and anti-riot trucks stood ready. The first day passed without reports of violence and the rally resumed in a festive mood on Sunday with group exercises, a mass at the city cathedral and interfaith prayers.
City authorities rejected an application by pro-democracy organization Bersih for a protest permit, raising fears of a repeat of a 2012 rally when police used water cannon and teargas to disperse protesters.
The government blocked access to Bersihs website and banned the wearing of its signature yellow T-shirts, although the crowd of protesters was a sea of yellow.
The protesters, whose numbers swelled into the tens of thousands on Saturday, were thrilled when former leader Mahathir Mohamad made a surprise appearance.
Bersih said the open support from Mahathir, a deeply respected 90-year-old who was once Najibs patron and is now his fiercest critic, could add momentum to its movement.
Its a boost for us that he recognizes that corruption is not good for the economy. Its a show of support for Bersih, said the groups leader, Maria Chin Abdullah.
Saudi-led coalition air strike kills 36 Yemeni
An air strike by a Saudi-led coalition killed 36 civilians working at a bottling plant in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah on Sunday, residents said.
The process of recovering the bodies is finished now. The corpses of 36 workers, many of them burnt or in pieces, were pulled out after an air strike hit the plant this morning, resident Issa Ahmed told Reuters by phone from the site.
The alliance intervened in Yemens war in March and has waged an air campaign that has rolled back some of the territorial gains of Iranian-allied Houthi forces with the goal of restoring exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Human rights group Amnesty International said in a report this month that the campaign had left a bloody trail of civilian death which could amount to war crimes.
Air raids killed 65 people in the front-line city of Taiz last Friday, most of them civilians, and the bombing of a milk factory in Western Yemen in July killed 65 people including 10 children.
Members of Yemens exiled government and Saudi officials have said they are cautious to avoid civilian casualties and cite reports by human rights groups that accuse the Houthis of shelling and blockading civilian areas.
Over 4,300 people have been killed in five months of war in Yemen while disease and suffering in the already impoverished country have spread.
Iraq stampede deaths near 1,000
Almost 1,000 people died in a stampede of Shia pilgrims in northern Baghdad, this week ten years ago.
So far, there have been at least 965 confirmed deaths, making the incident the single biggest loss of Iraqi life since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The incident happened on a river bridge as about a million Shias marched to a shrine for a religious festival.
Witnesses said panic spread over rumours of suicide bombers.
Radical Sunni groups have often targeted Shias in the past, but Iraqi officials said the tragedy had nothing to do with sectarian tension.
Many victims, mostly women, children or elderly, were crushed or drowned.
