Top News Stories –

Eight of Iran’s women’s football team ‘are men’ –
Eight of Iran’s women’s football team are actually men awaiting sex change operations, it has been claimed. The country’s football association was accused of being “unethical” for knowingly fielding eight men in its women’s team. Mojtabi Sharifi, an official close to the Iranian league, told an Iranian news website: “[Eight players] have been playing with Iran’s female team without completing sex change operations.” On Wednesday, authorities reportedly ordered gender testing of the entire national squad and leading league players. The names of the players thought to be male were not revealed. [Daily Telegraph]

Electricity from the air – Drayson’s big idea –
Free energy from the air. It sounds like a fantasy but that is what the entrepreneur and former science minister Lord Drayson has just unveiled at London’s Royal Institution. He claims that a technology called Freevolt can be the power source for the “internet of things”, allowing low energy devices from wearables to sensors to operate without being plugged in. The technology involves harvesting radio frequency energy from existing wireless and broadcast networks, from 4G to digital television. Lord Drayson says it’s a world first: “It doesn’t require any extra infrastructure, it doesn’t require us to transmit any extra energy, it’s recycling the energy which isn’t being used at the moment.” The technology was demonstrated in the lecture theatre at the Royal Institution, where Michael Faraday worked on electromagnetism in the 19th Century. Lord Drayson first showed how much radio frequency energy was in the room, and then used his Freevolt system to power a loudspeaker. [BBC]
Lord Drayson

Caitlyn Jenner will not be charged in fatal car crash: prosecutors –
Former Olympic champion and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner will not be charged in connection with a crash in Malibu earlier this year that killed a 69-year-old woman, Los Angeles prosecutors said on Wednesday. Based on the facts in the case, prosecutors lacked evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jenner’s conduct was unreasonable, according to documents provided by Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Jenner, 65, was driving a Cadillac Escalade along Pacific Coast Highway and towing a trailer carrying a dune buggy when she slammed into two other cars, according to authorities. During the crash, a white Lexus being driven by 69-year-old Kim Howe was shoved by Jenner’s sport-utility vehicle across a center divider and into oncoming traffic, where it was struck head-on by a Hummer. [Reuters]

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Why Is There a Magnet Inside My Dog?

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War, Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  • The upper chamber of the Russian parliament approves a law allowing the use of the Russian Armed Forces outside its borders, following a request by Russian President Vladimir Putin. (The News Hub)
  • Russia begins airstrikes against ISIL positions in Syria following a request from President Bashar al-Assad. A U.S. official said the air attack struck near the Syrian city of Homs, where the official said ISIS currently does not have a major presence.(NPR), (ABC News), (Washington Post)
  • The Western-backed Syrian rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, says one of its ‘leading officers’ has been killed in a Russian airstrike in the central Homs Governorate. (AP)
• War in Afghanistan (2015–present), Battle of Kunduz
  • The U.S.-led coalition dispatches American troops to Kunduz to help Afghan forces combat Taliban militants. (The Washington Post)
• 2006 Mumbai train bombings
  • An Indian court sentences five suspected Islamic militants to death and seven others to life imprisonment for bombing attacks nine years ago on seven Mumbai commuter trains that killed 188 people and wounded more than 800. (AP via ABC News),(Reuters), (BBC)
• At least six people are killed and dozens injured in explosions at 15 locations in Liucheng County in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The explosives were reportedly concealed inside express delivery packages. Chinese officials have identified a suspect, but the motive is not yet known. (South China Morning Post), (UPI)
• 2015 Hajj stampede
  • Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns Saudi Arabia of “harsh” measures if the Kingdom fails to promptly repatriate the bodies of more than 200 Iranian pilgrims killed in last week’s Hajj stampede. (AP via Denver Post), (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • An Iranian fishing boat loaded with weapons, including rockets and anti-tank shells, is intercepted and seized in the Arabian Sea, 150 miles southeast of the Omani Port of Salalah, by Arab coalition forces. Saudi Arabia has previously accused Iran of supplying weapons to Houthi militants in Yemen. (BBC)

Arts and culture

• The Dalai Lama, following his routine check-up at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, cancels his U.S. speaking engagements in October after doctors advised him to rest. The 80-year-old Tibetan Buddhist leader is scheduled to return home to Dharamsala, India, Saturday. (The Times of India), (Radio Free Asia)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, Effects of global warming on oceans
  • A hurricane warning is in place in The Bahamas as Tropical Storm Joaquin approaches the islands. Joaquin (max. winds 70 mph) will pass over ocean with temperatures near 86°F (30°C) – the warmest since record keeping began in 1880, and is forecast to become a hurricane today. Joaquin is expected to produce 5 to 10 inches of rain with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches possible over San Salvador and Rum Cay. The storm is predicted to accelerate and be several hundred miles off the North Carolina coast Sunday morning. (National Hurricane Center), (UPI), (Reuters)
  • Tropical Storm Joaquin strengthens to a Category 1 hurricane (75 mph winds) as it nears The Bahamas. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says additional strengthening is expected over the next two days. (USA Today), (NHC)
  • With maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, Joaquin is upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane. It is expected to pass The Bahamas Thursday, bringing tropical-storm-force winds, storm surges, coastal flooding and 5-10 inches of rain. While the European forecast model suggests Joaquin will avoid the U.S. East Coast, the American model predicts it will ram into Virginia, Maryland or North Carolina this weekend. (NBC News), (NHC)
  • Governor Terry McAuliffe declares a state of emergency as Virginia prepares for potentially dangerous flooding from a separate Nor’easter storm system and the possible landfall of Hurricane Joaquin. (Virginia), (Inside Northern Va.)
  • Hurricane Joaquin reaches maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and becomes a Category 3 hurricane. The storm, with additional strengthening expected, should linger over the The Bahamas through October 2 before heading toward the U.S. (ABC News), (NHC)
• An earthquake strikes the Dutch province of Groningen, damaging some buildings. (NL Times)

International relations

• Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, states that Palestine will no longer abide by the Oslo accords and claims that Israel has not been complying with them. (CNN)
• The black, white, red, and green flag of the State of Palestine is raised above the grounds of the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the first time. (Newsweek), (The Guardian)

Law and crime

• The American state of Georgia executes Kelly Gissendaner for her role in the murder of her husband despite several appeals and a plea for clemency by Pope Francis. (AP via News 12), (Daily Mail)
• Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issues a 37-day stay of Richard Glossip’s execution that was scheduled for today to allow the American state time to address questions about chemicals and protocol. Pope Francis, who spent last week in the U.S., askedArchbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, to intercede with the governor and request she commute Glossip’s sentence. (CNN), (Reuters)

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