News in pictures: Man livestreams death, CBI at Sushant house, Beirut blasts, oil tanker on fire, Biden slams Trump, India COVID cases...news from around the world

HOPE FADES IN SEARCH FOR BEIRUT BLAST SURVIVORS: Rescue teams kept up their search for survivors in Beirut Saturday even as hopes raised by sensor readings of a pulse beneath the rubble of last month's blast began to fade. The cataclysmic August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut killed at least 191 people, making it Lebanon's deadliest peacetime disaster. One month on, seven people are still listed as missing. Above: Chilean rescue dog Flash walks near the collapsed buildings on September 4.

12 KILLED IN BANGLADESH MOSQUE GAS EXPLOSION: A suspected gas explosion tore through a Bangladesh mosque killing at least 12 people while dozens suffered life-threatening burns, police said Saturday. Worshippers were at Friday evening prayers when the blast sent a ball of flames through the mosque in the central district of Narayanganj, emergency services said. Investigators suspected a spark from an air conditioner - which came on after a power cut - set off the gas.

FRENCHMAN TO LIVESTREAM DEATH: A Frenchman suffering from an incurable condition who plans to livestream his death on social media said Saturday he had begun refusing all food, drink and medicine, after President Emmanuel Macron turned down his request for euthanasia. Alain Cocq, who suffers from a rare condition which causes the walls of his arteries to stick together, said he believed he had less than a week to live and would broadcast his death from Saturday morning.

STRICKEN OIL TANKER PUSHED AWAY FROM SRI LANKAN COAST: A fire-stricken oil tanker was pushed away from Sri Lanka's coast and into deeper waters on Saturday, rescuers said, after successfully containing the blaze during a 36-hour operation. The Panamanian-registered New Diamond carrying 270,000 tonnes of crude had drifted dangerously close to the eastern shores of Sri Lanka since issuing a distress message on Thursday morning. The Indian Coast Guard and the Sri Lankan navy said the 330-metre (1,000-foot) vessel was towed overnight to deeper waters some 60 kilometres (37 miles) away from the coast. "There is no oil slick reported," the Indian Coast Guard said after a joint effort by the two countries to contain the blaze.

CBI AT SUSHANT'S HOUSE: India's Central Bureau of Investigation teams on Saturday again reached the Bandra home of the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput in connection with the probe into his death. This time, they were accompanied by the actor's sister Mitu Singh at the Mont Blanc building in Bandra West -- where Sushant was found dead in June 14. The development comes a day after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested Sushant's home manager Samuel Miranda and Showik Chakraborty, the brother of the deceased actor's ex-girlfriend actress Rhea Chakraborty. [https://gn24.ae/a6dcbf8b46e2000]

BIDEN SLAMS TRUMP: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has declared US President Donald Trump ``unfit'' for the presidency, delivering an impassioned reaction to a report that Trump - who never served in uniform - allegedly mocked American war dead. The president and his allies have dismissed the report in The Atlantic as false.

INDIA COVID CASES SURGE: India's coronavirus cases crossed 4 million on Saturday, leading the world in new infections and closing in on Brazil's total as the second-highest in the world. The 86,432 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India's total to 4,023,179. Brazil has confirmed 4,091,801 infections while the US has 6,200,186 people infected, according to Johns Hopkins University. The Health Ministry in India on Saturday also reported 1,089 deaths for a total of 69,561.

RISK OF FAMINE: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that there is a risk of famine and widespread food insecurity in four countries affected by conflict - Congo, Yemen, northeast Nigeria and South Sudan - and the lives of millions of people are in danger. In a note to Security Council members, the UN chief said the four countries rank "among the largest food crises in the world,"' according to the 2020 Global Report on Food Crises and recent food security analyses. But funding to help is very low, he said.

FRANCE SHUTS 22 SCHOOLS: Twenty-two schools and over 100 classes in France were closed due to the spread of the coronavirus, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer announced, three days after the opening of schools across the country.

RUSSIA DEFIES SANCTIONS THREAT: Russia defied threats of new sanctions over the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, as US President Donald Trump said on Friday he had not yet seen proof that the Kremlin critic was a victim of Moscow's Novichok programme. A new crisis in ties between Russia and the West broke out after Germany said this week there was "unequivocal evidence" that President Vladimir Putin's top foe had been poisoned using the Soviet-era nerve agent. Western leaders and many Russians have expressed horror at what Navalny's allies say is the first known use of chemical weapons against a high-profile opposition leader on Russian soil.

US BLACK MAN TRIED SIX TIMES FOR ONE CRIME: US prosecutors dropped charges against a black man who was tried six times and spent more than 20 years in prison for the same murders. Curtis Flowers served 23 years for a quadruple murder committed in Mississippi in 1996. He has always maintained his innocence. The prosecutor in all six trials was ultimately accused last year by the US Supreme Court of trying hard to keep black people off the jury and eventually resigned from the case.

PIANIST LANG LANG SAYS BACH THE REMEDY FOR TROUBLED TIMES: In times of crisis star Chinese pianist Lang Lang believes music is the best medicine, especially Bach, who he says penned the perfect soundtrack for these pandemic-troubled times more than 250 years ago. The globe-trotting performer, born in northeastern Shenyang in 1982, became famous playing the great romantic composers and has been "keeping his hands warm" returning to them in recent months. But mastery of Bach has been the quest of a lifetime, he says.

SERENA HEADLINES DAY SIX AT THE US OPEN: Serena Williams takes on 2017 US Open winner Sloane Stephens for a place in the last 16 at Flushing Meadows on Saturday. The third-round match is the drawcard event on day six at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

TYPHOON HAISHEN HAMPERS SEARCH: Japanese authorities on Saturday resumed searching for dozens of missing sailors from a cargo ship that sank in a typhoon, but high waves caused by an approaching storm prevented boats from joining the operation. The Japan coastguard found a second survivor on Friday after the Gulf Livestock 1, which was carrying 6,000 cows and had 43 crew on board, issued a distress call Wednesday near Amami Oshima island as Typhoon Maysak passed through the area. Typhoon Haishen, a much stronger storm, is expected to affect Japan from late Saturday, with winds of up to 290 kilometres per hour (180 miles per hour), making it a "violent" storm - the top level on the country's classification scale.