An Argentine man has been detained after police found he kept his wife and adult son locked up in a dungeon for several years with unlawful imprisonment.
They say the filthy cell at the back of Edgardo Oviedo’s home in the coastal city of Mar del Plata had an iron door, locked from the outside.
The room had plates of dog food police believe was given to the woman and her son.
Edgardo Oviedo, 66, put up no resistance when police raided the house on September 4. He denies the charges.
The authorities say the woman has psychiatric problems and her son, who is 32, can barely speak.
Edgardo Oviedo, a construction worker and a former union leader, was arrested after a tip-off from two other sons, who live in the same neighborhood.
They said they had initially been too scared of their father to report him.
Prosecutor Alejandro Pellegrini said the house had “a room in the worst of human conditions”.
Alejandro Pellegrini said he was shocked by what he found: “You read the report but we can’t believe it until you get there.”
At least 10,000 migrants have arrived in Munich after an arduous journey through Hungary and Austria.
German members of the public applauded and offered sweets as some 450 migrants arrived on a special train service.
The plight of the migrants has highlighted the EU’s struggle to deal with a surge of asylum seekers.
Earlier this week there were chaotic scenes in Budapest as Hungary blocked them from travelling onwards.
Photo Getty Images
Many migrants refused to be taken to camps in Hungary to register for asylum, insisting they wanted to travel on to Germany and Austria.
Crowds broke through security lines and began walking 108 miles to the border, many with small children.
Under mounting pressure, Hungary opened its border with Austria, which expects to have received some 10,000 people by the end of the day on September 5.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany can cope with an influx of newcomers, without raising taxes or jeopardizing its budget.
Austria has also said it will not limit the number of migrants crossing its borders.
However, there is little sign of a coordinated EU response to the crisis, despite more than 350,000 migrants having crossed the EU’s borders in 2015 alone.
Germany, backed by the European Commission, has been pushing for a quota system for dividing the people reaching Europe between member states. But this has been opposed by several eastern members.
On September 5, Hungary said that while it had temporarily relaxed restrictions on the transit of asylum seekers, it was pressing ahead with plans to tighten border controls and could send troops to its southern frontier if parliament agreed.
According to a SurveyUSA poll released on September 4, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump leads Democrat Hillary Clinton head-to-head.
The poll finds that matched up directly, Donald Trump garners 45% to Hillary Clinton’s 40%.
Photo Getty Images
In other head-to-head matchups, Donald Trump beats out Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) by 44% to 40%; Vice President Joe Biden by 44% to 42%; and former Vice President Al Gore by 44% to 41%.
The SurveyUSA poll also found that 30% of respondents believe Donald Trump will eventually be the Republican nominee, leading the field.
Jeb Bush came in second, with 20% saying they expect him to win the nomination. Following the former Florida governor in order were retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida).
The poll surveyed 1,000 adults across the United States between September 2 and 3, and it had a margin of error of 3.3%.
According to an official from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the presidential hopeful and her family personally paid a State Department staffer to maintain the private e-mail server she used while heading the agency.
The arrangement helped Hillary Clinton retain personal control over the system that she used for her public and private duties and that has emerged as an issue for her campaign, the Washington Post reported.
However, according to the campaign official, it also ensured that taxpayer dollars were not spent on a private server that was shared by Hillary Clinton, her husband and their daughter as well as aides to the former president.
That State Department staffer, Bryan Pagliano, told a congressional committee this week that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination instead of testifying about the setup.
The private employment of Bryan Pagliano provides a new example of the ways that Hillary Clinton — who occupied a unique role as a Cabinet secretary who was also a former and potentially future presidential candidate — hired staff to work simultaneously for her in public and private capacities.
Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, and Huma Abedin, a close confidant who served as deputy chief of staff, both spent time working for the State Department, the Clinton Foundation or the Clintons personally.
Bryan Pagliano had served as the IT director of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and then worked for her political action committee.
The Clintons paid Bryan Pagliano $5,000 for “computer services” prior to his joining the State Department, according to a financial disclosure form he filed in April 2009.
Even after arriving at the State Department in May 2009, Bryan Pagliano continued to be paid by the Clintons to maintain the server, which was in their Chappaqua, New York, home, according to the campaign official and another person familiar with the arrangement, the Washington Post reported.
The private pay arrangement has not previously been reported. The State Department has declined to answer questions about whether the private system was widely known within the agency or officially approved.
Asked in early August about whether Bryan Pagliano had been paid privately to maintain the server, a State Department official said that the agency had “found no evidence that he ever informed the department that he had outside income”.
This week, a different State Department official said he could not clarify Bryan Pagliano’s pay situation, citing “ongoing reviews and investigations” of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail setup.
Bryan Pagliano did not list the outside income in the required personal financial disclosures he filed each year.
The State Department has said Bryan Pagliano concluded his full-time service in February 2013, which coincides with Hillary Clinton’s departure as secretary.
Bryan Pagliano remains a State Department contractor doing work on “mobile and remote computing functions,” according to a State Department spokesman.
The Specials’ trombonist Rico Rodriguez has died at the age of 80, the ska band has announced.
Rico Rodriguez was a ska and reggae musician who played with the band on songs including the 1979 hit A Message to You Rudy.
The Specials announced Rico Rodriguez’s death in a tweet on September 4.
Photo Flickr
The statement said: “Our dear friend Rico passed away today. We offer our deepest condolences to his family. His legacy will go on forever. RIP dear Rico.”
Rico Rodriguez was born in Cuba and grew up in Jamaica, before moving to England in the 1960s, according to the Jamaica Observer.
As well as playing with The Specials, Rodriguez performed as a solo artist, recording albums including Man from Wareika, Blow Your Horn and Brixton Cat with his band Rico and the Rudies.
He worked with many different musicians and producers during a lengthy career, including Prince Buster, Karl Pitterson and Jools Holland in his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.
Rico Rodriguez was made an MBE in 2007 for services to music.
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Tom Brady breaks his silence on the Deflategate scandal by posting a statement on his Facebook page on September 4.
His statement comes a day after District Judge Richard M. Berman vacated the New England quarterback’s four-game suspension in the scandal.
Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots will open the season at home Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Photo Getty Images
“The regular season starts tomorrow morning and I can’t wait to fully commit my energy and emotion to focus on the challenges of the 2015 NFL season,” he said in the statement.
“I want to thank my family, my friends, all of the fans, past and current players and my teammates for the support they have given me throughout this challenging experience. I also want to thank Judge Berman and his staff for their efforts to resolve this matter over the past five weeks. I am very grateful. My thanks also to the union’s legal team who has fought so hard right along with me.
“While I am pleased to be eligible to play, I am sorry our league had to endure this. I don’t think it has been good for our sport — to a large degree, we have all lost. I am also sorry to anyone whose feelings I may have hurt as I have tried to work to resolve this situation. I love the NFL. It is a privilege to be a member of the NFL community and I will always try to do my best in representing my team and the league in a way that would make all members of this community proud.
“I look forward to the competition on the playing field and I hope the attention of NFL fans can return to where it belongs — on the many great players and coaches who work so hard every week, and sacrifice so much, to make this game great. Most importantly, I look forward to representing the New England Patriots on Thursday night in our season opener. I hope to make all of our fans proud this year … and beyond!”
Thousands of migrants have arrived in Austria, after Hungary’s surprise move to take them by bus to the border.
For days, Hungary had blocked them from travelling by train to northern and Western Europe.
On September 5, about 4,000 people crossed the Austrian border. They were received by the Red Cross and are now moving on towards Vienna and Germany.
Austria says the migrants, many of whom had initially fled Syria, can claim asylum there or carry on to Germany.
The move comes as EU countries are struggling to agree on how to deal with an unprecedented surge of asylum seekers.
The Hungarian government eased restrictions on transit after many frustrated migrants overwhelmed police cordons and set off towards the border on foot on September 4.
Buses began picking up migrants from Keleti train station in central Budapest, where thousands had been camped.
Vehicles were also sent to take those who had decided to walk along a motorway to Austria.
On September 5, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said there would be no more buses or trains to take the migrants on to Austria.
He said the transport had been arranged as a one-off, because of fears for the migrants’ safety.
As the migrants crossed the border on foot, some Austrians displayed welcome signs.
Austrian Red Cross workers at a makeshift centre greeted them with blankets and tea.
The migrants are now being taken by train and bus from the Austrian border town of Nickelsdorf to the capital Vienna.
Many hope to travel on to Germany, which says it expects 6,000 people to arrive over the weekend.
The German government has said Syrians can apply for asylum.
Germany has said it expects to take in 800,000 people this year.
Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann said that after talks with his German counterpart Angela Merkel, the two countries would allow in the migrants due to the “emergency situation” in Hungary.
However, he said he expected Hungary to respect any EU quotas for asylum seekers – something Hungary, along with the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, has rejected.
Hungary has become a major transit nation for people fleeing the Middle East and Africa, and seeking to reach north and west Europe.
The Hungarian parliament on September 4 approved tougher border controls and penalties for migrants, underlining divisions within the EU on how to tackle the crisis.
Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban has said the surge in arrivals was “Germany’s problem”, since that was where most people wanted to go.
However, Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for refugees to be fairly divided among EU members.
Wall Street closed lower after reports that the US unemployment rate fell to 5.1% last month, the lowest since April 2008.
The latest Labor Department figures also showed the US added 173,000 jobs in August. The figure was below expectations, but the totals for June and July were revised up.
The Dow Jones fell 272.38 points, or 1.66%, to 16,102.38, while the S&P 500 dropped 29.91 points to 1,921.22.
The NASDAQ was down 49.58 points at 4,683.92.
The latest jobs report is the last before the Federal Reserve meets later this month to decide whether to increase interest rates.
Hillary Clinton has said she regrets using private email account while serving as secretary of state.
She has also said she wished she had made a “different choice”.
“I’m sorry this has been confusing,” Hillary Clinton told MSNBC.
Her use of private email has generated a barrage of criticism as Hillary Clinton runs for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2016 election.
Critics say that Hillary Clinton’s set-up was not secure, contrary to government policy, and meant to shield her from oversight.
Photo MSNBC
Political analysts – including fellow Democrats – have said the Clinton campaign has stumbled in its response to the controversy and Hillary Clinton had not seemed contrite – at times even making jokes about the email issue.
A more somber Hillary Clinton took full responsibility in Friday’s interview, saying she didn’t “stop and think” about how use of a private email account would be perceived.
It has been a major issue in the presidential race. Polls show an increasing number of voters view her as “untrustworthy” due in part to the questions surrounding Hillary Clinton’s email use.
Under US federal law, officials’ correspondence is considered to be US government property.
Government employees are encouraged to use official email accounts although some top officials have used personal accounts in the past.
In March, Hillary Clinton said she and her lawyers made the decision over what would be considered work-related email when the state department asked for records from former secretaries of state.
The emails deemed work-related were about half of the 60,000 emails she sent in total during her time in office. The emails she deemed personal were deleted, Hillary Clinton said.
Since then, the state department has been releasing the emails to the public in batches about once a month.
Former Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has appeared in court after spending his first night in prison.
Otto Perez Molina, 64, rejected allegations that he was the mastermind of a customs corruption scheme dubbed La Linea, or The Line.
At least 100 people are being investigated over the scheme.
A judge in Guatemala City ordered his detention on September 3 while hearings over the corruption allegations took place.
After a second day of hearings, Otto Perez Molina was again taken from court to a military prison in the capital.
Otto Perez Molina addressed the court on September 4.
“The first thing I want to deny: I don’t belong to La Linea,” he said.
Photo EPA
The former president denied taking any bribes and promised to co-operate with the investigation.
“Your honor, I am not going to risk my dignity, my work, nor all the effort I have made for Guatemala in return for $800,000,” he said, in reference to the amount prosecutors say he received illegally.
Investigators say the scheme involved businesses paying bribes to government officials and customs officers in return for being allowed to evade import duties.
Otto Perez Molina reminded the court that he had rejected much higher bribe offers from the fugitive Mexican drug lord, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman in 1993.
The former president led the operation that led to his arrest in Guatemala.
“After his capture, I was offered 10, 15 times more than that amount in bribes [to let him go]. I didn’t do it because that goes against my principles,” Otto Perez Molina said.
Shorty Guzman, who is the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was extradited to Mexico, but escaped from a high security jail for a second time earlier this year.
Guatemala’s Congress stripped Otto Perez Molina of his immunity from prosecution on September 1.
That opened the way for criminal charges to be brought against him.
Vice-President Alejandro Maldonado was sworn in as interim head of state ahead of elections on September 6 after Otto Perez Molina resigned on September 3.
Alejandro Maldonado is expected to govern until the new president is sworn in on January 14.
Guatemalans go to the polls on September 6 to take part in scheduled general elections.
Otto Perez Molina is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.
Alejandro Maldonado had only been in the post of vice-president since mid-May, when his predecessor Roxana Baldetti resigned.
Roxana Baldetti is accused of involvement in the same corruption scheme that Otto Perez Molina is said to have masterminded. She is also being held in prison.
Otto Perez Molina’s resignation on September 3 and arrest are a huge victory for an unprecedented anti-corruption protest movement that had swelled in recent months, with regular marches in Guatemala’s major cities.
About 1,000 migrants stuck at Budapest’s Keleti train station for days have set off on foot, saying they intend to walk to the Austrian border.
Hungarian authorities are trying to contain thousands of people desperate to reach Western Europe.
Meanwhile, EU states are struggling to agree a common strategy to deal with the crisis.
The Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian and Polish prime ministers have rejected quotas for EU nations.
In a statement they rejected “any proposal leading to introduction of mandatory and permanent quota for solidarity measures”.
The chaotic scenes in Hungary – a main transit country for those seeking to claim asylum in Germany and other countries in northern and Western Europe – have continued for another day.
Some of the migrants who had been waiting days at Keleti train station grew frustrated with the lack of international trains, and decided to walk to Austria – a distance of 110 miles.
Hungarian police seem to be escorting but not stopping them.
Some of those walking have been holding large photographs of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Under EU regulations, anyone wishing to seek asylum must do so in the first EU country they reach.
However, many of those who have arrived in Hungary do not wish to be registered there because it is more likely to send migrants back, and has a relatively small population and economy.
They want to continue on to seek asylum in Germany and other richer countries.
Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban warned on September 4 of “the end of Europe”.
“Today we are talking about tens of thousands but next year we will be talking about millions and this has no end,” Viktor Orban said.
The Department of Labor has reported on September 4 that the US economy added 173,000 jobs in August.
This is the last unemployment report before September’s interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve.
The number of jobs was below the 217,000 predicted by analysts, although the Labor Department said that figures for August tend to be revised higher subsequently.
The unemployment rate fell to 5.1% – down from the July figure of 5.3%.
The rate is the lowest since April 2008.
Wall Street headed lower following the numbers, with the S&P 500 falling 1.3% and the Dow Jones industrial average shedding more than 200 points or 1.2%.
Photo Boomberg
European stock markets, which had been trading lower before the data was released, extended their losses, with the FTSE 100 in London down 2% and indexes in Paris and Frankfurt dropping about 2.6%.
There were upward revisions to the number of jobs created in the previous two months, which added another 44,000 jobs. The revised figure for July was 245,000 jobs.
The weaker-than-expected August number could make Fed officials think twice about increasing rates when they meet on September 16-17.
Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said the decline in the unemployment rate could be the clincher for a September rise.
However, he added: “The most likely scenario is one where the Fed waits a little longer in the light of recent economic and financial market instability, instead merely testing financial market reactions with rhetoric that a rate rise is increasingly imminent.”
One of the officials who will help make that decision said on September 4 that the US labor market had recovered sufficiently to warrant raising rates soon.
Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, who had called for a rate increase in June, said the US economy no longer needed rates to be so low.
Fed officials will also take into consideration volatile global financial markets and slowing growth in China.
When you are a driver, you have a responsibility to the people around you. If you are unsafe on the roads, you could cause people some severe harm. Often, people fail to think about this issue. To some people, driving is second nature, and so they don’t worry about a thing. It may surprise you to learn that there is a growing trend in the UK. Each year, there are more and more fatal car accidents than ever. That means that more people are dying from crashes than they used to. One of the areas that have seen the most growth in this trend is Kent. The southern region has seen a massive surge in dangerous driving and accidents.
When you compare the stats from 2013 to the ones from 2014, there is a massive difference. In Kent, there has been an 11% rise in fatal accidents. If the crashes don’t leave the victim dead, they can often leave lasting damage. Many people suffer from brain injuries after they have been in a collision. That means that their lives are never the same again. It is unclear why this trend has continued in this way. When you compare the stats to those of similar regions, such as Dover, there is a big difference. You could say that Kent is one of the most dangerous places for drivers.
Most common vehicle crashes
Of course, it is not just cars that have crashes; there are many types of vehicles that can have issues. Motorcycle drivers are always at risk since they don’t have much protection. When they end up in a crash, they often suffer serious injuries or die. That means that drivers should be careful when they see a motorbike on the road. Aside from that, trucks tend to be a risk as well. In recent years, there has been a surge in semi truck accidents in the UK. These accidents could threaten people’s lives every single day.
What causes car collisions?
So, what are the main causes of these accidents? Well, if you look at the figures, it is clear to see that there has also been an increase in drink-driving. It could be that more and more people are risking their safety when they have had some alcohol. There are other reasons that accidents happen on the road. When people find that they have a distraction, they can often stop paying attention to other cars. In a short amount of time, this can put them in a great deal of danger.
How to be safe on the roads
While you can’t control the actions of other drivers, you can learn to be safe on the roads. If you want to make sure that you are a sensible driver, you need to avoid any distractions in the car. That means that you should not have anything there that will take your attention away. You may also want to have refresher driving lessons so that you can keep up to date with your driving.
According to the latest official figures released by Commerce Department, the US trade deficit with the rest of the world fell to a five-month low in July.
The US trade deficit declined 7.4% to $41.9 billion, compared with $45.2 billion in June, the US Commerce Department said.
It represents the difference between the value of what the US exports to the rest of the world and what it imports.
Exports rose 0.4% to $188 billion, helped by stronger global sales of US cars. Imports fell 1.1% to $230.4 billion.
For much of the year, the US trade deficit has been about 3.6% higher than the previous year as a result of lower export sales.
Some in the US remain concerned that economic growth will be hurt by further declines in exports as a result of a stronger dollar and continued overseas weakness in the world’s second-largest economy, China.
Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, forecast trade would continue to drag on US economic growth over the next year. He added a stronger dollar would harm exports and boost demand for imports by making foreign goods cheaper for US consumers.
A sharp slowdown in China in recent market has led to volatile financial markets in recent months, as investors have become concerned that China’s slowdown could have an adverse impact on global growth.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on September 2 that China’s slowdown, volatile financial markets and falling raw materials prices could lead to “a much weaker outlook'” for global growth.
The price of raw materials such as oil and copper has fallen sharply, increasing the economic problems of Brazil, Russia and other commodity exporters.
The July trade report showed that America’s deficit with China rose 0.4% in July to $31.6 bn, the highest level in nine months.
So far this year, the US deficit with China is 8.5% higher than in 2014 and is on track to notch up another annual record. The US trade gap with China is its largest with any country.
Elsewhere, the US trade deficit with the EU climbed to a new record high of $15 billion, as US exports to the EU fell by 5%.
In August, China allowed its currency to devalue, a move that was largely seen as a way to boost exports. But the move will also widen its deficit with nations such as the US.
Japan’s stock market fell as much as 3% on September 4, touching a seven-month low, as the yen strengthened against the dollar ahead of much-anticipated job numbers from the US due later.
Japan’s Nikkei share index eventually closed down 2.15% at 17,792.16.
The dollar was buying 119.10 yen in afternoon trade, its weakest point since late last month.
A stronger yen is not good for Japanese exporters as it makes their goods more expensive to buy overseas.
Photo Reuters
Among big exporters, shares in Toyota dropped 2.5% while Panasonic fell 4%.
Analysts said the yen has strengthened because investors were looking to put their money into safer assets.
Other Asian shares headed lower for much of the day, despite stocks on September 3 getting a boost from the European Central Bank’s (ECB) hints about extending its stimulus program.
The ECB cut its growth and inflation forecasts on September 3, paving the way for an expansion to its asset-buying plan.
South Korea’s Kospi closed down 1.5% at 1,887.61, while in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 closed up 0.25% at 5,040.60.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index closed down 0.45% at 20,840.61, while China’s mainland markets were closed for a holiday to commemorate the end of World War Two.
ISIS has blown up three funerary towers at the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdul Karim has said.
Maamoun Abdul Karim told the AFP that “the best preserved and most beautiful” had been destroyed.
Photo Flickr
The multi-storey sandstone monuments, standing outside the city walls in an area known as the Valley of the Tombs, belonged to rich Palmyrene families.
Their demolition comes only days after ISIS blew up Palmyra’s two main temples.
The group, which captured the UNESCO World Heritage site from government forces in May, has previously destroyed two Islamic shrines near Palmyra, which they described as “manifestations of polytheism”.
The statue at Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine has been repaired after damages caused by last month’s deadly bomb attack in the city.
The Erawan Shrine’s centerpiece is a four-faced golden statue of the Hindu god Brahma. It was damaged in at least 12 places, most obviously the chin of one of the faces.
The shrine is also considered sacred by Thai Buddhists, and attracts many foreign visitors. The unveiling of the repaired shrine on September 4 was attended by worshippers and Thai soldiers.
The repairs were carried out by the culture ministry’s fine arts department.
At the opening ceremony, Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat said the statue would help “create confidence and raise the morale of Thai people and tourists”.
People have continued to visit the shrine since it reopened shortly after the bomb blast on August 17.
Two people have been detained in connection with the blast, both foreign, and a number of arrest warrants have been issued. But no individual or group has yet claim responsibility for it.
Vice-President Joe Biden says he does not know if he has the “emotional energy” to run for president in 2016.
Joe Biden, 72, said at a foreign policy lecture in Atlanta: “I can’t look you straight in the eye and say now, <<I know I can do it>>.”
The Democrat lost his son, Beau Biden, to cancer earlier this year.
The media have watched and waited for weeks for a hint that Joe Biden will challenge the Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton.
He told those gathered in Atlanta: “The most relevant factor in my decision is whether my family and I have the emotional energy to run. The factor is, can I do it?
“The honest to God answer is I just don’t know.”
Some Democrats have urged Joe Biden to run as Hillary Clinton’s campaign appears to be struggling with questions over her use of emails when she was Secretary of State.
Joe Biden failed in his bids for the White House in 1988 and 2008 before becoming Barack Obama’s running mate.
Donald Trump has signed a GOP loyalty pledge agreeing not to run as an independent candidate if he loses the Republican nomination for the 2016 elections.
The presidential hopeful said on September 3: “I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and the conservative principles for which it stands.”
Donald Trump had earlier refused to rule it out.
The billionaire business mogul, who has been soaring in the polls, has come under pressure in recent weeks from the Republican Party to sign the pledge.
Donald Trump’s announcement will be seen as a victory for the party, who may have seen a split in its support and given the Democrats a boost had Trump pressed ahead as an independent candidate.
He said he had received nothing for signing the loyalty pledge, aside from the assurance that he would be treated fairly in the race.
Photo Reuters
Donald Trump was booed by audience members during the Republican presidential debate last month after he refused to rule out a third-party run. He was the only candidate not to commit to back the winner of the party’s primaries.
The Republican Party National Committee has since sought a loyalty pledge from each of its presidential hopefuls, in what is believed to be a first for the party.
“The best way forward… to win, is if I win the nomination and go direct against whoever (the Democrats) happen to put up. So for that reason, I have signed the pledge,” Donald Trump told reporters gathered at his campaign headquarters in New York’s Trump Tower.
“I see no circumstances under which I would tear up that pledge,” he added.
The Republican Party pledge asks presidential candidates to “endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is”.
Donald Trump has come under attack from his rivals in the race who have questioned his conservative credentials and liberal leanings in the past.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said on September 3 Donald Trump’s views on illegal immigration were “too pessimistic”, despite vowing to support his rival if he won the party race.
Some of the measures Donald Trump has outlined to combat illegal immigration include raising visa fees to pay for a wall along the Mexican border and ending the automatic right to citizenship for US-born children of families living illegally in America.
The latest poll by Monmouth University puts Donald Trump way ahead with support from 30% of Republicans, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson running a distant second with 18%.
The rest of the Republican pack is trailing far behind, with Jeb Bush currently tied with Texas senator Ted Cruz at 8%.
According to French prosecutors, the plane wing debris found on Reunion Island in July certainly came from Malaysia Airlines missing flight MH370.
The wing section, known as a flaperon, had been examined in France by international aviation experts.
French authorities launched searches on and around Reunion for more debris but none was found.
MH370 flight carrying 239 people veered off its course from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.
The Malaysian government had previously said it believed that the flaperon belonged to MH370.
French investigators had until now been more cautious on the provenance of the debris.
However, on September 3 they said a technician from Airbus Defense and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which had made the part for Boeing, had formally identified one of three numbers found on the flaperon as being the same as the serial number on MH370.
The magistrate charged with conducting the investigation and an aviation expert had gone to ADS-SAU headquarters on September 3.
The families of those aboard – who were mostly Chinese – have been angered by the apparent discrepancies in statements by French and Malaysian officials, and have accused the authorities of hiding the truth.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has been co-ordinating the deep-sea search in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to have gone down, thousands of miles east of Reunion.
Australia’s PM Tony Abbott has said that the search would continue as “we owe it to the hundreds of millions of people who use our skies”.
Japan stock market closed higher for the first time in four days, spurred by a rally on Wall Street.
US shares snapped a two-day losing streak overnight, rebounding from Tuesday’s steep losses as the S&P 500 and Dow Jones rose nearly 2%.
An upward revision in US productivity data ahead of the jobs report on September 4 boosted sentiment among investors rattled by slowing growth in China.
Photo AFP/Getty Images
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.5% to 18,182.39 – leading Asian gains.
Chinese markets are closed on September 3 and 4 for a holiday to commemorate the end of World War II.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 index ended down 1.3% at 5,035.70. Shares in department store operator Myer Holdings dived 24% after it announced plans to raise 221 million Australian dollars ($154 million) through a rights issue.
In South Korea, shares closed flat after revised second quarter growth figures came out in line with earlier estimates released in July.
The country’s economy grew a seasonally-adjusted 0.3% from April to June from the previous three-month period, while it expanded 2.2% from a year earlier.
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index finished at 1,915.53.
Actor Mel Gibson will not be charged over allegations that he pushed and verbally abused Daily Telegraph’s photographer Kristi Miller in Sydney.
“At this stage, based on the evidence gathered, no formal action will be taken,” said a statement by New South Wales police.
Kristi Miller, 39, complained to police about an incident outside a movie theater on August 23, saying she thought Mel Gibson was “going to punch me”.
Mel Gibson’s publicist said the actor was “satisfied” at the police decision.
Photo Daily Telegraph
The star’s lawyer in Sydney, Christopher Murphy, was informed of the police decision not to press charges on September 3.
“Mel Gibson has totally denied from the onset these disgraceful allegations,” said a statement issued by publicists Rogers and Cowan.
“He is now satisfied that the police, after speaking to witnesses and reviewing CCTV footage and other evidence, have found there is no substance to the claim.”
Kristi Miller claimed Mel Gibson launched into a tirade after she took pictures of the actor and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Rosalind Ross, leaving an Israeli Film Festival screening at the Palace Verona Cinema in a suburb of Sydney on August 23.
Mel Gibson is currently shooting World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge in Australia.
Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina has resigned hours after a judge issued an arrest warrant against the leader in connection to a growing corruption scandal that has plunged the country into its worst political crisis since the end of a brutal civil war.
Presidential spokesman Jorge Ortega has confirmed in a statement on September 3 that the president has stepped down.
On September 1, Guatemala’s congress voted to remove Otto Perez Molina’s immunity from prosecution amid corruption allegations.
Prosecutors accuse the president of masterminding a scheme to defraud the customs service of millions of dollars, allegations he denies.
The judge has barred Otto Perez Molina from leaving the country.
The president, whose term runs out in January, will now be summoned to appear before a court.
The detention order was signed by Judge Miguel Angel Galvez, the prosecutor’s office said.
On September 1, all members of congress present at the vote endorsed a move to strip Otto Perez Molina of his immunity.
They included members of the president’s own party.
A previous vote to remove Otto Perez Molina’s immunity failed last month.
Since then, more details of the corruption scandal have emerged and calls for the president to resign have increased.
Investigators allege that government officials received a cut from bribes paid by businesses seeking to evade import duties.
Guatemala’s VP Roxana Baldetti and a string of top officials have been forced to resign over the scandal.
Roxana Baldetti is in jail awaiting trial on charges of taking millions of dollars in bribes.
Otto Perez Molina was stripped of his immunity just days before presidential elections on September 6.
Some protesters have demanded that the polls be postponed, but officials argue that it would be against the law.
Otto Perez Molina is barred by the constitution from standing again.
Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban says the migrant crisis facing Europe is a “German problem” since Germany is where those arriving in the EU “would like to go”.
He said Hungary would not allow migrants to leave its territory without registering.
Viktor Orban’s comments came as Hungarian authorities opened Budapest’s main rail station to hundreds of migrants after a two-day stand-off.
One train left, but then stopped near a migrant reception centre.
Migrants resisted efforts by police to get them off the train at Bicske, about 25 miles west of Budapest. Some were banging on the windows and shouting “Germany, Germany”.
EU rules place responsibility for assessing asylum claims on the country where a migrant first arrives.
Many of the migrants currently in Hungary have been refusing to register there, in order to continue their journeys to Germany before seeking asylum.
The migrants stuck at Budapest’s Keleti station were prevented from boarding trains on September 1 and 2. Some were involved in scuffles with police.
They had bought tickets after Hungary briefly appeared to abandon efforts to register migrants on August 31, allowing huge numbers to board trains to Vienna and southern Germany.
After the station opened on September 3, rail staff said international trains were indefinitely suspended, but international tickets would be accepted on internal trains.
The number of migrants entering Europe has reached record levels, with 107,500 arriving in July alone. Germany expects to take in 800,000 migrants this year – four times last year’s total.
The surge in numbers has created tension and disagreement over EU migration policy. Germany has been prepared to accept large numbers of asylum seekers, but other countries have not.
Viktor Orban, who heads the anti-immigrant Fidesz party and was in Brussels for talks, said border control was “the number one issue”.
During a tense press conference with European Parliament President Martin Schulz, PM Viktor Orban said that “nobody would like to stay in Hungary, neither in Slovakia nor Poland nor Estonia”.
“All of them would like to go to Germany,” he said.
“Our job is only to register them.”
Martin Schulz countered: “What we are seeing for the time being is egoism instead of common European sense.
“To say <<yeah, you know we have refugees all over in Europe but they all want to go to Germany and therefore we are not concerned>> is effective, but wrong. And therefore I think we need a fair and just distribution.”
