NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's bomb squad responded to a suspicious piece of luggage abandoned on a sidewalk in the Times Square neighborhood on Wednesday that was later determined to be harmless, police said.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - The mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday called for calm and peace after 16 officers were hurt and police vehicles were damaged overnight during a demonstration against the police shooting of a black man at an apartment complex in the city.

JERUSALEM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - On the first Friday evening that Jerusalem restaurant Azza 40 opened without a kosher license, allowing it to serve customers on the Jewish sabbath, crowds of ultra-Orthodox Jews protested outside, threatening to smash windows and burn the place down.

(Reuters) - Google-parent Alphabet Inc launched Allo, a messaging app that incorporates Google's search feature and a chatbot that uses machine learning to "improve" itself over time.

LONDON (Reuters) - Mazher Mahmood, one of Britain's best known undercover reporters renowned for his "fake sheikh" sting operations that have even caught out royalty, tampered with evidence in a criminal trial to protect his reputation, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - A Prague court has released an exiled Russian underground artist sought by Moscow and allowed him to stay in the Czech Republic during extradition proceedings, a court spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

FRANKFURT, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Frankfurt Zoo is celebrating a new addition at its enclosures - a baby gorilla.

MANILA (Reuters) - (Please note obscenity in paragraph nine)

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 21 (Reuters) - South African police fired teargas on Wednesday to disperse students marching near the University of the Witwatersrand in downtown Johannesburg to protest at higher tuition fees.