A Russian-American lobbyist revealed to have attended a meeting by Donald Trump Jr seeking damaging information on Hillary Clinton has strongly denied working for Russian intelligence.
	It emerged yesterday that Rinat Akhmetshin, a Washington lobbyist with dual citizenship, accompanied Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to the June 2016 meeting, at which Trump Jr expected to receive secret information that would hurt Clinton in the 2016 election.
	Several US media described Akhmetshin as former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some US officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence.
	But the lobbyist rejected that allegation as "maliciously false," telling AFP he "never worked for any intelligence service."
	The June 9 meeting has become the focus of allegations that the Trump election campaign collaborated last year with a covert effort by Moscow to turn voters away from Clinton.
	Those allegations are currently under investigation by a high-powered ..

Russia lobbyist at Trump Jr meeting denies spy past

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Donald Trump's administration has vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court after a federal judge dealt a fresh setback to the president's ban on travelers from six mainly Muslim countries and refugees as unfairly excluding the grandparents and grandchildren of people living in the United States.
	Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a strongly-worded statement announcing the appeal yesterday, accused the Hawaii court of having "undermined national security, delayed necessary action, created confusion and violated a proper respect for separation of powers."
	He charged the lower court had "improperly substituted its policy preferences for the national security judgments of the executive branch in a time of grave threats, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the executive branch and the directive of the Supreme Court."
	It was unclear how quickly the Supreme Court -- now in summer recess but able to act on emergency motions -- might be able to respond, and when or if the expanded terms set 

US to appeal ruling weakening Trump travel ban

US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed by Turkey for a failed coup attempt a year ago, today again denied any involvement in what he called a "despicable putsch," and called on Ankara to end its "witch hunt" of his followers.
	"Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless, politically motivated slanders," Gulen, who lives at a compound in rural Pennsylvania, said in a statement.
	"I reiterate my condemnation of the despicable putsch and its perpetrators," he said, while decrying a government "witch hunt to weed out anyone it deems disloyal to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his regime."
	Gulen's statement came a day before Turkey marks the first anniversary of a military-led bid to seize power from Erdogan.
	Some 50,000 people have been arrested and over 100,000 fired or suspended from their jobs as Erdogan seeks to clean house.

Gulen blasts 'despicable' 2016 Turkey coup bid, subsequent

Turkey dismissed more than 7,000 police, soldiers and ministry officials under a new decree published today under a state of emergency imposed after last year's failed coup, state media reported.
	A total of 7,563 people -- including police -- have been dismissed in the latest purge, the Anadolu news agency reported.
	Turkish authorities also stripped 342 retired army personnel of their rank, Anadolu said.
	Earlier, Hurriyet daily reported that 7,348 people including 2,303 police -- were dismissed in total.
	The new decree came a day before Turkey marks the first anniversary of a military-led bid to seize power from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
	Turkey blamed the failed putsch on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who denies the accusations, and vowed to root out his "virus" from state institutions.
	Since then some 50,000 people have been arrested and over 100,000 fired or suspended from their jobs.

Turkey dismisses over 7,000 police, soldiers, ministry

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today called for a national dialogue in Venezuela to end the crisis there just days before a symbolic, opposition- led vote on the government's plan to rewrite the constitution.
	"Our concern regarding Venezuela is more present than ever," Guterres said in a statement.
	"A national dialogue is urgently needed in Venezuela between the government and the opposition."
	The dialogue would focus on ending violence and ensuring agreement on the way forward regarding the constitution, he added.
	The appeal came ahead of a symbolic vote on Sunday, organized by the opposition-led National Assembly, on President Nicolas Maduro's bid to hold an election July 30 for a new assembly tasked with drafting a constitution.
	At least 90 people have died in more than three months of protests against Maduro. His opponents accuse him of authoritarianism as the country faces crippling shortages of food, medicine and other essentials.
	"The way out is through an ...

UN chief calls for urgent national dialogue in Venezuela

US forces have killed the leader of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan branch in a raid in the northeastern province of Kunar, the Pentagon said today.
	"US forces killed Abu Sayed, the emir of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) -- in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, July 11," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.
	"The raid also killed other ISIS-K members and will significantly disrupt the terror group's plans to expand its presence in Afghanistan.

Leader of Afghan IS branch killed in US raid: Pentagon

An imaging satellite and 72 micro- satellites were launched into orbit today from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and research centre Glavcosmos announced.
	The Soyuz 2-1A rocket successfully lifted off at 0643 GMT with the satellite payload, Roscosmos said in a statement.
	According to Russian news agencies, Glavcosmos, charged with putting the satellites into orbit, later reported that by 1441 GMT all the satellites had successfully separated. They were released into three different orbits.
	"For the first time in the world, such a complex and large mission has been developed and implemented," said Glavcosmos.
	The primary payload, the Kanopus-V-IK satellite, is to provide wide-angle images of the Earth and will be used especially to detect forest fires or to update the topography of maps.
	The 72 small satellites include those made by Japan, Germany and Canada along with 62 nanosatellites known as CubeSats, developed by the United States.

Russia launches 73 satellites into orbit

Uruguay will allow pharmacies to sell marijuana starting next Wednesday in the final phase of a law making the small South American country the first in the world to legalize and regulate pot from production to sale.
	Under a law approved in 2013, Uruguayans have been allowed to grow their own pot and smoke it in clubs.
	But working out a timetable for pharmacies to sell it -- the third and last conduit called for in the legislation -- proved more tricky. This has now been resolved, the state agency regulating marijuana said in a statement today.
	To buy it in pharmacies people have to sign up on a registry, and so far 4,700 have done so. Uruguay's total population is 3.4 million.
	Pot smokers can buy a maximum of 40 grams a month.
	Under the first phase of the 2013 law, more than 6,600 growers have registered to produce the weed, and 51 smokers' clubs have been authorized.

Pharmacies in Uruguay to start selling pot next week

Ukrainian law enforcement officers today raided property allegedly controlled by a former minister under toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych as part of an USD 800 million corruption probe.
	Ukraine's chief military prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said investigators carried out 183 raids in the capital Kiev on property owned by Olexander Klymenko, the former minister for revenue and duties, who now lives in Moscow.
	Investigators carried out raids in the Gulliver shopping mall and the pro-Russian Vesti media holding, of which Klymenko is a beneficiary.
	Klymenko on Facebook described the raids as "banal banditry" by the government, while saying they had a "political rationale."
	The military prosecutor accused Klymenko of registering a number of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Cyprus between 2011 and 2013 and using offshore accounts to launder money stolen from the Ukrainian state budget.
	The illegal scheme saw USD 788 million transferred to private ...

Kiev raids properties in USD 800 mln ministerial graft probe

- Scoreboard at stumps on the first day of the second Test between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge today:
	   South Africa 1st Innings
	   D. Elgar c Dawson b Anderson             6
	   H. Kuhn b Broad                         34
	   H. Amla c Wood b Broad                  78
	   Q. De Kock c Cook b Broad               68
	   F. Du Plessis c Bairstow b Stokes       19
	   T. Bavuma c Bairstow b Stokes           20
	   V. Philander not out                    54
	   C.

Cricket: England v South Africa 2nd Test scoreboard

Germany today said Turkey once again blocked a visit by its lawmakers to German troops stationed at a Turkish base, a move adding to tension in their relations.
	Turkey asked the legislators to postpone a scheduled visit next Monday to a NATO base in Konya, the German foreign ministry said, adding that it regretted the decision.
	The dispute comes after Germany last month pulled out 260 troops from Turkey's Incirlik base, from where a multinational coalition is fighting the Islamic State jihadist group, and redeployed them and their Tornado surveillance jets to Jordan.
	Some 20-30 German troops have remained at Konya as part of an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACs) mission, part of the coalition's campaign against IS in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.
	The German foreign ministry insisted that all sides, including NATO, remained in talks on setting a new date for a visit.
	Lawmaker Wolfgang Hellmich, head of the parliamentary defence committee, said Turkey's latest move amounted 

Turkey again blocks German MPs visit troops: Berlin

Syrian government air strikes on two rebel-held areas near Damascus killed seven people including two children today, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.
	The Britain-based monitor said five of the deaths, including the children, were in strikes on Ain Terma in the Eastern Ghouta region, the largest rebel enclave around the capital.
	The two other deaths were in Zamalka, which neighbours Ain Terma, the group said, adding that warplanes had carried out around 20 air strikes on the two areas today.
	The strikes also injured at least 15 people, some of whom were in serious condition, the monitor said.
	In recent weeks, government forces have been heavily bombarding Ain Terma, which links the Eastern Ghouta area to the opposition-held Damascus neighbourhood of Jobar.
	They are pressing a military operation intended to try to sever Jobar from Eastern Ghouta, leaving it isolated.
	The Eastern Ghouta region is one of the areas covered in a ceasefire plan agreed in May by ...

Syria regime strikes kill 7 near Damascus: monitor

The former chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee today justified awarding Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with the 2010 peace prize which Beijing slammed as "blasphemy".
	"The struggle for Human Rights is peace building," Thorbjorn Jagland, who is still a member of the Nobel committee, said on Twitter.
	"That's why the Committee I chaired awarded #Liu Xiaobo the Peace Price (sic)," he added.
	The prominent democracy advocate died aged 61 in China yesterday while still in custody following a battle with cancer.
	Liu, a former figurehead of the 1989 democratic movement of Tiananmen Square, was honoured with the Nobel peace prize for "his long nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".
	Liu was not able to attend the Nobel award ceremony in Oslo in 2010 as he was serving an 11-year prison sentence for allegedly "attempting to undermine political order".
	The former head of the Nobel committee placed that year's peace prize on an empty chair to honour Liu.
	Liu became ...

Former Nobel chairman stands by Liu award after China

Their handshakes are becoming a talking point of every encounter and US President Donald Trump and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron didn't disappoint today.
	In their first meeting at a NATO summit in May, 39-year- old Macron crunched Trump's knuckles in a show of power he said was deliberate to underline how he wouldn't be intimidated in their talks.
	At a G20 summit last weekend, the two had another energetic tug-of-war, while their talks in Paris today finished with a 25-second powergrip in which neither man looked like they wanted to let go.
	Bidding goodbye to each other on the Champs-Elysees after two days of talks in Paris, Trump appeared to get the better of Macron in the early stages of the handshake when he briefly pulled the French president off balance.
	It ended with both men stood face-to-face looking like they were having an armwrestle nearly half a minute later. Trump even kissed goodbye to Macron's wife Brigitte without letting go of her husband.
	During the US ...

Macron-Trump tussle in new 25-second handshake duel

Croatia's Marin Cilic reached his first Wimbledon final at the 11th attempt today with a 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 win over America's Sam Querrey.
     The seventh-seeded Croatian, who was US Open champion in 2014, will face either seven-time Wimbledon winner Roger Federer or Tomas Berdych in Sunday's final.
     "It's unbelievable. I have played really well from the start of the tournament," said 28-year-old Cilic.
     "Sam played at a high level especially in the first set. I was 4/1 up in the tie-break and didn't convert.
     "But after that I was better in the return games. I thought the level was really high.
     "I'm feeling a positive on the court. It's extremely important. My emotions are helping me a little bit."
     Cilic fired 25 aces and 70 winners past world number 28 Querrey, the man who ended Andy Murray's reign as Wimbledon champion in the quarter-finals.
     Cilic trails Federer 6-1 in head-to-head meetings and is level at 6-6 against Berdych.
     Whoever ..

Cilic into first Wimbledon final at 11th attempt

Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock shared an unbroken century stand as South Africa advanced to 179 for two at tea on the first day of the second Test against England at Trent Bridge today.
     Amla was 65 not out, having become just the fourth South African after Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers to score 8,000 Test runs, and free-scoring left-hander de Kock, promoted to number four, 68 not out.
     Their partnership was so far worth 113.
     South Africa's sound position was a vindication of returning captain Faf du Plessis's bold call to bat first after winning the toss, with the Proteas 1-0 down in the four-match series after a 211-run defeat inside four days at Lord's last week.
     Trent Bridge has a reputation for aiding swing bowling and Du Plessis, who did not play at Lord's following the birth of his first child, admitted it had been a "tricky decision" to bat under cloudy skies.
     South Africa did lose an early wicket, however, when Dean Elgar, their ...

Amla and De Kock turn on style against England

US-backed forces have captured a new district from jihadists in Syria's Raqa but struggled today to hold their positions against suicide car bombers, a fighter in the city and a monitor said.
	The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, seized the eastern Batani district from the Islamic State group yesterday.
	"Late yesterday, they began an offensive on neighbouring Al-Rumeilah," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
	Clashes were raging on today as IS deployed its typical defensive tactics: weaponised drones, snipers, and improvised explosive devices, Abdel Rahman told AFP.
	On the ground in the Al-Mashleb and Al-Senaa neighbourhoods in the city's east, an AFP correspondent saw buildings entirely destroyed by air strikes and others peppered with bullet holes.
	Spent bullet casings were scattered along streets of the neighbourhoods along with the burnt-out carcasses of cars.
	There were no civilians in either ...

US-backed forces in new push against IS in Raqa

Scoreboard at tea on the first
day of the second Test between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge today:
     South Africa 1st Innings
     D. Elgar c Dawson b Anderson             6
     H. Kuhn b Broad                         34
     H. Amla not out                         65
     Q. De Kock not out                      68
     Extras (LB-6)                            6
     Total (For 2 wkts in 52 overs)     179
     Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Elgar), 2-66 (Kuhn)
     Bowling: Anderson 12-2-34-1; Broad 11-2-26-1; Wood 11-3- 39-0; Stokes 11-2-45-0; Dawson 3-0-19-0; Ali 4-1-10-0.

Nottingham, July 14 (AFP) Scoreboard at tea on the first

The United Nations has said it will ask countries to voluntarily hand over USD 40.5 million remaining from the budget of the soon-to-close mission in Haiti to help victims of cholera there.
	The General Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing a proposal from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who is facing a major shortfall in the $400 million needed to help Haiti recover from the epidemic.
	Haiti has been in the grips of a raging, years-long cholera epidemic that has claimed some 9,500 lives, after infected UN peacekeepers from Nepal introduced cholera. The peacekeepers were sent to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
	Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was forced to apologize to the Haitian people for the cholera outbreak, but the United Nations insists it is not liable for the damage.
	The UN mission in Haiti known as MINUSTAH will shut down in October, ending a 13-year operation that fell out of favor with Haitians.
	Guterres will ask all contributors to the ...

UN asks countries to shift $40 mn to Haiti cholera fund

Former US president Jimmy Carter was released from a hospital in Canada today after being treated for dehydration while working on a charity construction project, the Carter Center said.
	The ex-president, 92, suffered the brief health scare Thursday while helping to build a house at a Habitat for Humanity construction site.
	Carter returned to the site Friday, the Carter Center said.
	"He and Mrs. Carter extend their appreciation for the many well-wishes he received worldwide," the center said.
	Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981 as the 39th US president, has been in remission from cancer since undergoing surgery in 2015 to remove a small mass on his liver.
	He and his wife Rosalynn were in Canada this week working with Habitat for Humanity to help build 150 homes in honor of the country's 150th anniversary, with a focus on Edmonton and Winnipeg provinces.

Former US president Carter released from Canada hospital

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said today he cannot confirm whether or not Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, after reports from Syria that the jihadist leader had been killed.
	"If we knew, we would tell you -- right now, I can't confirm or deny it," Mattis said.
	"Our approach is we assume he's alive until it's proven otherwise, and right now I can't prove it otherwise."
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a longtime conflict monitor, said earlier this week it had heard from senior IS leaders in Syria's Deir Ezzor province that Baghdadi was dead.
	There was no official confirmation or denial of the news on IS-run social media outlets.

AFP

AFP

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