Family of Steven Sotloff Grieving After News of his Beheading by Isis

Steven Sotloff is shown in the video with a thicker beard and longer hair.(YouTube)

A family spokesman has said that Steven Sotloff's relatives are aware of the beheading video by the Islamic State (formerly known as Isis) and are grieving, according to an AP report.

In the video, a masked man describes the act he is committing as retribution for US air strikes. The executioner appears to be the same man who killed James Foley – known as 'Jihadi John' - and tells the camera: 'I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State... despite our serious warnings."

"We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone."

The video ends with the black-clad militant threatening to kill a captive, believed to be British hostage, David Haines.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "If the video is genuine, we are sickened by this brutal act."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: "Our thoughts and prayers, first and foremost, are with Mr Sotloff and Mr Sotloff's family and those who worked with him."

He added that the US would be closely scrutinising the video. "If there is a video that's been released, it's something that will be analysed very carefully by the US government and our intelligence officials to establish its authenticity."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron described the apparent beheading as an "absolutely disgusting, despicable act".

Sotloff, of Florida, was abducted while reporting in Syria in 2013, sources told Checkpoint last month. He had reported from several other dangerous countries, including Yemen and Libya. He had worked for Time magazine, Foreign Policy and the Christian Science Monitor, and reported from Egypt, Libya and Syria.

The journalist had lived in Yemen for many years and spoke good Arabic.

At the time of his capture, his family chose not to go public with details, on the advice of officials.

Last month a video was released showing the beheading of James Foley. Sotloff is shown at the end, as an Islamist militant gives the warning that his fate depends on President Obama's next move.

Foley's family released a statement after Sotloff's execution, calling it "just horrific," according to WHDH-TV.

On Thursday, Sotloff's mother Shirley Sotloff went on television to make a direct appeal for her son's life. She addressed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-claimed caliph of Isis.

"My son is in your hands," Ms Sotloff said. "As a mother I ask Your Justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over. I ask you to use your authority to spare his life."

The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, first reported about the video's existence. Unlike Foley's beheading, which was widely shared on Twitter accounts affiliated with the Islamic State group, the video purporting to show Sotloff's killing was not immediately posted online, though several jihadi websites told users to expect it on Tuesday.

Robin Hood Monkey Steals Thousands and Gives Cash Away in India

Macaque monkey handed out stolen cash in Indian holiday resort of ShimlaGeoff Gallice, Wikimedia Commons

Stunned holidaymakers in India were showered with money by a monkey who stole a wad of cash from a house, last weekend.

Banknotes were falling from the sky in a popular tourist spot in the Shimla forest, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.

It happened when a macaque monkey broke into a house in search of food, but instead grabbed a paw full of rupees.

The primate then fled the scene and took up position on a tin roof, where it began throwing away the notes one by one.

Delighted passers-by were chasing the notes around, which totalled around 10,000 rupees, for up an hour, reported the BBC.

Eye-witness Amit Kanwar said: "Surprised by the attention it was attracting, the cash-loaded monkey then decided to move into the thick pine trees. But as it continued to shower notes, the money collectors naturally followed it."

No surprise then that macaque monkeys have now been listed as a menace in Himachal Pradesh province, despite being sacred in the religion of Hinduism.

Pakistan Reforms up in Smoke as Protests Strangle Economy

Anti-government demonstrators beat a riot policeman in Islamabad(Reuters)

Pakistan could struggle to meet promises it made to the International Monetary Fund in return for a multi-billion dollar bailout, according to government officials.

Anti-government protests have brought parts of the capital Islamabad to standstill, as demonstrators fought running battles with state security services.

Some have staged sit-ins near the country's parliament and even overran parts of Parliament House on August 30 after crashing through the outer fence.

Amid the chaos, an IMF team cancelled a planned visit to Pakistan, and the country's commerce minister said the government could fail to deliver the agreed reforms as a result.

"The government has very painstakingly been building a house of international confidence, and the foundation of this was the IMF package and abiding by our reforms' promises," Khurram Dastgir Khan told Reuters news agency.

"But... our struggles of 14 months have gone up in smoke in a matter of 14 days. We are pushed to a point where we have to go back to the drawing board," the minister said.

Protesters loyal to the former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan and opposition cleric Tahir ul-Qadri had camped out in the Pakistani capital for two weeks, before advancing on government buildings.

Both the leaders have called on the government to resign, saying that last year's landslide election victory was rigged and that the system is corrupt and favours a select, elite group.

The country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has refused to resign, saying he will protect democracy in Pakistan. His 2013 election was the first democratic transition of power in the country's history.

The crisis has temporarily halted two planned visits from foreign heads of government, while Sharif has expressed concerns that China's President Xi Jinping could cancel his visit due in September.

"These people should realise they have disrupted the journey to progress," Sharif told reporters. "We want to set up many energy plants and electricity projects in Pakistan in partnership with Chinese corporations. They may also be disrupted."

A year ago, the IMF agreed to lend Pakistan $6.6bn (£4bn, €5bn) over a three-year period. The release of the funds was dependent on the government passing wide-ranging reforms, including privatising a range of state companies.

Philippines Foils Anti-China Group's Bomb Attack on Manila Airport

Three Filipino men detained over illegal possession of incendiary bombs in Manila.(JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Filipino authorities said they have foiled a bomb attack against Manila airport by an anti-Chinese nationalist group named after a World War II US army command in south East Asia.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said three men were arrested in a van which was full of improvised explosive devices at a parking lot outside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the capital.

De Lima said the three planned to set off a bomb there in what was supposed to be the first of a series of attacks in protest to the government's alleged "soft" stance towards Beijing.

Other targets of the group included the Chinese embassy and a major shopping mall in Manila owned by an ethnic Chinese billionaire.

De Lima described the arrested as members of a "misguided group" of utra-rightist "frustrated over the stance of the government against China".

She said they claimed to be defenders of the Filipino people and considered China and wealthy ethnic Chinese businessman as enemies.

"They want this administration to espouse a tougher stance," she said.

Beijing and Manila are embroiled in a bitter dispute over territories in the South China Sea.

The attackers, identified as Grandeur Pepito Guerrero, Emmanuel San Pedro and Sonny Yohanon, were caught by government agents thanks to an informer's tip-off.

According to an investigation by the Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) the three claimed to be members of a secretive organisation with links to police and military figures named United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), De Lima said.

USAFFE was a US army formation that operated in the Philippines under the command of General Douglas MacArthur during WWII and included Filipino troops.

De Lima said that detectives were investigating how many people are involved in group and its political agenda.

"We want to know how big this group is, what is their capacity really to create all this havoc, and what is their real agenda," she said. "Are they on their own or are there [people] behind them? We will investigate all these."

Authorities said they were filing charges of illegal possession of explosive materials against the three, who are likely to also face charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Sinopec Ranked No. 1 Revenue Generator in China for 10th Straight Time

Sinopec LogoReuters

State-owned oil giant Sinopec was ranked first for the tenth consecutive time on a list of top 500 Chinese enterprises based on 2013 revenues.

In the latest edition of the Top 500 Chinese Enterprises list released by the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association, Sinopec claimed the top spot with total revenues of 2.95tn yuan ($478.48bn, €364.36bn, £288.1tn).

Another oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation, was ranked second, while China's largest electric utilities company, State Grid, became No. 3. The top three companies had 2013 revenues more than 2tn yuan.

The top 10 list, comprised entirely of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), also include another oil giant, a construction group, a telecom operator and four major banks.

The companies that were ranked No. 4 to No. 10 are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, China State Construction, China Mobile, Bank of China and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

All companies on the list reported revenues above 20bn yuan for 2013, with the lowest-ranked company having revenues of 22.86bn yuan. A total of 131 companies recorded revenues more than 100bn yuan, according to the list.

The top 500 companies recorded combined revenues of 56.68tn yuan for 2013, up 13.31% year on year. The amount is almost equivalent to the country's 2013 GDP figure of 56.88tn yuan.

Meanwhile, they had total profits amounting to 2.4tn yuan, up 10.6% from the previous year.

There were about 300 SOEs on the list, and 42 out of them recorded combined losses of 72.66bn yuan in 2013. In contrast, only one out of the 200 private companies on the list recorded a loss for the year.

While aggregate revenues of the SOEs increased at a pace of 10.6%, with profits improving by 5.84%, private firms recorded 14.51% and 17.62% growth in aggregate revenues and earnings, respectively.

China: Home Prices Drop Further in August

Tourists visit at an upside-down house at Fengjing Ancient Town, Jinshan District, south of Shanghai, in May.Reuters

China's home prices fell further in August over the previous month, two private surveys showed.

Prices of new homes in 288 cities were down 0.3% in August from July, the fifth straight drop on a monthly basis, a survey by real estate services firm E-House China Holdings showed.

However, prices in August were still up 3% when compared to a year ago.

A separate survey by China Real Estate Index System (CREIS) showed average prices in 100 of the biggest cities dropped 0.6% in August from July, the fourth successive monthly drop.

However, prices were still up 3% in August when compared to a year ago, CREIS said.

China's property price growth will slow further, despite an expected improvement in sales in the remainder of 2014, a Moody's report said.

Price rises will probably be constrained as property developers are more willing to keep prices low to attract buyers, amid a rich supply of new projects in the coming months, the report added.

Government data showed China's home prices dropped 0.9% in July from June but were still up 2.5% when compared to a year ago.

Home prices in the world's second largest economy have been falling for several months, particularly after the government stepped in to control price rise in what was, a year ago, a red-hot property market.

Yemeni al-Qaeda Executes Three Suspected Spies

Police troopers ride atop a police vehicle as they secure a pro-government demonstration in SanaaKhaled Abdullah Ali Al Mahdi/Retuers

The Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has executed three suspected spies for allegedly helping US forces to launch drone attacks against Islamist militants in Yemen.

The three suspected spies were executed in the eastern Hadramout province, said local reports.

"The greatest help they give to the crusaders against the warriors is the placing of trackers for American spy planes," the al-Qaeda group, which is widely regarded as the most powerful and active al-Qaeda arm, said in an online statement.

The men had "become the eyes of the infidels ... (who) use their aircraft from the sky," said the militant group, adding: "We say to ... whoever considers becoming an eye and guide for the Americans and other infidels that the hands of the mujahedeen will reach every spy."

The US-operated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) usually require ground assistance to pin-point their target and such drone strikes have been inflicting serious damage on the dreaded Islamists in Yemen.

"Al-Qaeda militants executed the three men with gunfire after having tortured them," a Yemeni security official told AFP.

It is unclear whether the slaughtered men were civilians or local security personnel.

The American drone attacks evoke a mixed response among the Yemeni government and forces. Though the strikes are helpful in getting rid of the Islamist extremists, Yemen says many civilians are also killed.