US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart held talks on how to halt North Korea's nuclear drive, but remained at odds over whether to isolate or engage the Pyongyang regime.
	Trump welcomed the newly-elected South Korean President Moon Jae-In to the White House for a formal dinner that preceded the heavier lifting that was to come later in the evening during talks on what to do about their ongoing standoff with the North.
	"We're going to have tremendous discussions tonight," Trump said at the dinner, flanked by his wife Melania and by Moon, on his right. Seated next to Moon at the elegant, flower bedecked table was his wife, First Lady Kim Jung-soon.
	Members of Trump's cabinet and Korean delegation were also seated at the elegant dinner table, which ran the length of the room.
	"I know you've been discussing with our people some of the complexities of North Korea and trade and other things, and we'll be discussing them all as we progress -- and it could be very well 

Trump, S Korean prez hold post-dinner talks on N Korea policy

PTI Automatic

A man was arrested after he drove his vehicle into barriers protecting a mosque in the Paris suburbs today, police said, with Muslim officials describing the incident as an "attempted attack".
	The 4X4 vehicle "struck pillars and barriers in place to protect the mosque of Creteil", in the southeast of the capital, before speeding off and crashing into a traffic island, police said. No-one was injured.
	The driver, who was also the owner of the vehicle, fled but was arrested "without incident" at his home shortly afterwards, police added.
	A search was conducted last night at the driver's home, a source close to the investigation said, adding that the suspect had made "confused remarks in relation" to a string of jihadist attacks that have struck France, killing 239 people since 2015.
	The man is a 43-year-old Armenian who will be subject to psychiatric tests, another source close to the investigation said.
	According to judicial authorities, he was not under the influence of ...

Man held after driving into barriers protecting Paris mosque

US President Donald Trump's temporary ban on refugees and travelers from six mainly Muslim countries came into effect, after the Supreme Court allowed it following a five month battle with rights groups.
	   The Trump administration said late yesterday the ban is necessary to block terrorists from entering the country, but immigrant advocates chargeed that it illegally singles out Muslims.
	   The 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen will allow exceptions for people with "close family relationships" in the United States, which the government has defined narrowly, excluding grandparents and grandchildren, aunts and uncles and others.

US travel ban on six mainly Muslim countries takes effect

US ban on travellers from six mainly Muslim countries

The United States accused Iran of "repeatedly and deliberately" violating a UN resolution that endorsed the landmark 2015 nuclear deal and said the Security Council had failed to respond.
	US Ambassador Nikki Haley yesterday pointed to "repeated ballistic missile launches, proven arms smuggling", purchases of missile technology and a violations of a travel ban on Iranian military officials as proof that Iran was not upholding its international obligations.
	"The Security Council has failed to take even minimal steps to respond to these violations," US Ambassador Nikki Haley told a council meeting called to discuss Iran.
	"These measures are here for a reason.  This council should be here to enforce them," she said.
	The Security Council adopted resolution 2231 two years ago to endorse the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, lifting economic sanctions in exchange for curbs to Tehran's nuclear program.
	The resolution called on Iran not to test ballistic missiles capable of .

At UN, US accuses Iran of flouting resolution

Two women bombers blew themselves up in a refugee camp in southeastern Niger, killing two other people in a suspected attack by Boko Haram Islamists from neighbouring Nigeria.
	Boko Haram's insurgency began in northeast Nigeria and has spread to Chad, Cameroon and Niger, claiming more than 20,000 lives and displacing 2.6 million people. They are increasingly staging suicide attacks using women and girls.
	Wednesday's attack took place in Kabalewa, a village near the southeastern Niger city of Diffa, which is close to Nigeria.
	"Two women suicide bombers infiltrated the refugee camp and blew themselves up, killing two civilians in the camp," an aid worker said.
	Private radio stations said the victims were a man and a woman. A local official confirmed the attack but did not give a toll.
	Boko Haram members have been staging regular attacks in the Diffa region since 2015. There are more than 300,000 refugees and displaced people sheltered in the area.

Two killed in double suicide attack at Niger refugee camp

A fact-finding mission by the UN's chemical watchdog, the OPCW, concluded that sarin was used as a chemical weapon in the April 4 attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun, a confidential report said.
	The findings by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will now be taken up by a joint UN- OPCW panel to determine whether Syrian government forces were behind the attack.
	"Based on its work, the FFM (fact-finding mission) is able to conclude that a large number of people, some of whom died, were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance," said the report, parts of which were obtained by AFP.
	"The release that caused this exposure was most likely initiated at the site where there is now a crater in the road," it added.
	"It is the conclusion of the FFM that such a release can only be determined as the use of sarin, as a chemical weapon."
	At least 87 people including many children were killed in the attack that the United States, France and Britain have said 

Sarin used in deadly attack on Syria town in April: OPCW

US President Donald Trump and Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto will meet on the sidelines of the G20 summit next week, officials said-- five months after their first official meeting was aborted in a diplomatic spat.
	"The two leaders will review advances on different issues in the bilateral relationship," the Mexican foreign ministry said on Twitter.
	The White House also confirmed the pair would meet on the sidelines of the summit, which will be held in Hamburg, Germany on July 7 and 8.
	In January, Pena Nieto cancelled a trip to Washington in response to Trump's insistence that Mexico pay for his planned border wall, plunging the countries' relations into their biggest crisis in decades.
	Together with Trump's attacks on Mexican immigrants as "criminals, drug dealers and rapists" and his insistence on holding tough new trade negotiations, the cancelled visit has come to represent Mexico's problematic new relationship with its northern neighbor.
	Trump and Pena Nieto first met in August .

Trump, Mexico's Pena Nieto to meet at G20 -- at last

The United States has urged China to respect civil liberties in Hong Kong, including press freedom, as the territory marked the 20th anniversary of its handover to Beijing's rule.
	The State Department said yesterday the success of Hong Kong, which was given a large degree of autonomy when British colonial rule ended in 1997, was due to its unique status.
	"The United States... Admires the city's outstanding achievements, which are the result of its high degree of autonomy, its economic and personal freedoms, and its respect for rule of law," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
	But while Washington valued its "excellent cooperation" with Hong Kong's government it "remains concerned about any infringements of civil liberties in Hong Kong, including intrusions on press freedoms," Nauert added in a statement.
	Recent incidents in Hong Kong -- including the disappearance of five publishers who were known for salacious titles about the Chinese leadership -- have sparked ...

US warns China over Hong Kong freedoms

The Netherlands will send a permanent envoy to war-ravaged Libya, three years after closing its embassy in Tripoli for security reasons, the foreign ministry said.
	But ministry spokesman Chris Bakker said it was "too early to re-open the embassy in the Libyan capital".
	The decision was taken yesterday after a meeting between Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders and his Libyan counterpart as well as the Libyan prime minister.
	"This is an important first step to being represented once again in Tripoli at the diplomatic level," Koenders said, adding that a permanent diplomat was needed to follow the "complex situation" in the North African country.
	The Dutch government had closed its mission in Tripoli in July 2014.

Dutch to send envoy to Libya 3 years after closing mission

The human voice is the most basic of all musical instruments. But when singers come together as choirs, quality standards vary widely around the world.
	A festival in Washington is bringing together top-tier choirs from a dozen countries in a bid to show music's universality -- how the joy of singing together transcends cultures.
	But the festival is also part of an effort to boost training for choral music, which can be rudimentary in many countries.
	The Serenade! Washington DC Choral Festival is the brainchild of Neeta Helms, president of Classical Movements, a company that runs international tours for major music ensembles.
	Helms, who launched the festival in 2011, said she had been struck by an explosion of global interest in choral music -- largely outside the Western canon.
	"I'm not on a mission to change the world through choral singing -- although I think that sometimes we end up doing that. I've seen a need and I've seen I can help," she said.
	"Everybody has a voice -- ...

Everybody has a voice: Festival finds the universal in choirs

Germany booked their place in the Confederations Cup final as Leon Goretzka scored twice in a devastating opening to today's 4-1 semi-final win over Mexico.
	Attacking midfielder Goretzka ran riot in Sochi with goals on six and eight minutes before Timo Werner and Amin Younes netted Germany's second-half goals.
	The world champions will now play Chile in Sunday's final in St Petersburg.

Football: Rapid-fire Goretzka puts Germany in Confed Cup final

The UN Security Council today agreed to a major drawdown of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur as part of a US-led drive to trim hundreds of millions of dollars from the UN budget.
	The council voted unanimously to approve a British- drafted resolution that would cut the number of troops and police serving in the joint African Union-UN mission known as UNAMID by at least 30 per cent.

UNSC agrees to cuts to Darfur peacekeeping force

US-backed forces cut off the last escape route for the Islamic State group from Raqa today, trapping the besieged jihadists inside their de facto Syrian capital.
	But IS fighters hit back with a counterattack that included several suicide bombings against the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters trying to seize control of the city.
	The SDF captured two villages on the southern bank of the Euphrates River that the jihadists had been passing through to withdraw from the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	"The SDF has been able to completely encircle Raqa," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.
	It was the latest setback for IS, also known as ISIS, which declared its "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq three years ago but has since lost most of the territory it once controlled.
	It came too as Iraqi forces announced the recapture of an iconic mosque in IS's 

US-backed forces cut off last IS escape route from Raqa

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis told NATO allies today they must finish the job in Afghanistan or risk terrorist revenge as the alliance readied a troop increase to counter a resurgent Taliban.
	Mattis however refused to give a firm number for how many troops US President Donald Trump would commit under a new strategy, just two years after NATO officially ended its post-9/11 combat role in Afghanistan.
	Recent Taliban gains have shaken confidence in Afghanistan's future and talk of sending NATO troops in has stoked fears the alliance could get sucked back into an unwinnable war just when it faces a host of new threats including Russia, terrorism and cyberattacks.
	"I don't put timelines on war, war is a fundamentally unpredictable phenomenon," the US defence secretary told reporters after meeting his counterparts from the 29-nation alliance.
	"The bottom line is that NATO has made a commitment to Afghanistan for freedom from fear and terror, and freedom from terror demands that you can't ...

Mattis says NATO must finish the job in Afghanistan

Authorities in Bahrain announced today the arrest of seven people suspected of carrying out or plotting attacks in the Shiite majority but Sunni-ruled kingdom.
	Five of those detained were believed to have formed a cell of the Al-Ashtar Brigades militant group and were accused of being behind three attacks on the armed forces, said security chief General Tarek al-Hassan.
	Explosives and chemicals used to make homemade bombs were seized during the arrest operation, the same source said.
	The two other people arrested were accused of carrying out surveillance in preparation for attacks on the security forces.
	Bahrain has been shaken by sporadic unrest since a crackdown in 2011 on protests led by Shiites calling for democratic reforms and an end to their alleged marginalisation.
	Dozens of Shiites, including many regime opponents, have been sentenced in recent years to heavy prison sentences for violence that accompanied the protests.
	The authorities deny any discrimination against ...

Bahrain arrests seven suspected of attacks

Donald Trump unleashed a brutal personal attack today on respected female television host Mika Brzezinski, sparking an instant backlash, in the latest stunning salvo in the president's ongoing war with the media.
	Trump's Twitter outburst -- in which he describes the journalist "bleeding badly from a facelift" -- appears to have been triggered by Brzezinski's sharp comments during the morning show she co-hosts with Joe Scarborough on the left- leaning MSNBC network.
	"I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore)," wrote Trump, an avid cable news watcher.
	"Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" he tweeted.
	In recent days Trump has escalated his attacks on US media outlets -- which he accuses of peddling "fake news" about him -- singling out CNN over the retraction of a story about his ...

Trump slammed over 'facelift' outburst against TV host

Saudi Arabia released five Iranian fishermen held for over a year, news agencies in Iran reported today, in a rare sign of conciliation between the regional rivals.
	The five fishermen were said to have been in custody since they strayed into Saudi waters in May 2016.
	"Two fishermen from Genaveh (in southwestern Iran), who are father and son, have been freed and are returning to Genaveh," said Abdolali Sayyadi, head of the local branch of the Red Crescent NGO, according to the IRIB news agency.
	"Three other fishermen from Bushehr (a nearby Iranian port), who were freed by Saudi Arabia, are returning to Bushehr by a boat sent to them from the Foroozan oil field," he added.
	"These fishermen were arrested in May last year by Saudi marine guards when they unknowingly entered Saudi coastal waters."
	The release comes just a week after Iran demanded that three other fishermen detained by Saudi Arabia earlier this month be freed.
	Riyadh claimed they were members of Iran's elite ...

Saudi releases Iran fishermen held for over a year

Iraq declared the Islamic State group's "caliphate" was coming to an end after it recaptured Mosul's iconic Nuri mosque today, three years to the day after it was proclaimed by the jihadists.
	The jihadist group announced its self-styled "caliphate" on June 29, 2014, encompassing swathes of territory its fighters overran in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
	Its rule since then has been marked by repeated atrocities including mass beheadings and other executions documented in photos and videos that its supporters share online.
	"Counter-Terrorism Service forces control the Nuri mosque and Al-Hadba (minaret)," said Iraq's Joint Operations Command.
	Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi hailed the recapture of the mosque as a sign of IS's impending defeat.
	"We are seeing the end of the fake Daesh state," Abadi said in an English statement on his Twitter account, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
	The US-led anti-IS coalition also said the end was near.
	"I can't put a timeline on that for them, but .

Iraq sees end to 'caliphate' as Mosul mosque recaptured

Barcelona will play Brazilian side Chapecoense, whose team was all but wiped out in an air crash last November, in a friendly match at the Camp Nou on August 7.
     The match will "help pay tribute to the 71 people who died in the accident on November 28th, 2016, as well as their families," the Spanish giants said on their website.
     "Barca hopes to help Chapecoense rebuild institutionally and recover the competitive level it had before the tragedy," it added.
     The winner of the match will receive the Joan Gamper Trophy, named after the Swiss founder of Barcelona.
     Nineteen Chapecoense players and 24 club officials died on November 28 when the team's plane crashed into a mountainside in Colombia.
     Unsung Chapecoense had been on their way to face Atletico Nacional in Medellin for the biggest match in their history, the final of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's second- biggest club tournament.
     After the tragedy, Atletico ceded the title to Chapecoense in ...

Barcelona to face Brazil's Chapecoense on August 7

Portugal's superstar captain Cristiano Ronaldo revealed today he will not play in the Confederations Cup third-place match this weekend as he will finally meet his newborn twin boys.
     Hours after Wednesday's 3-0 defeat to Chile in a penalty shoot-out in Kazan, Ronaldo said he had been given permission to miss the play-off in Moscow, against either Germany or Mexico, to meet his new arrivals.
     Ronaldo, 32, is believed to have fathered the twins with a surrogate mother in the United States and already has a seven-year-old son, Cristiano Ronaldo Jnr, from a previous relationship.
     The Real Madrid forward says he gave his "body and soul" for Portugal in the semi-final, which finished goalless after extra time, "even though my two sons were born".
     "The President of the Portuguese Football Federation and the national coach have an attitude that has touched me and I will not forget," the four-time world player of the year wrote on his official Facebook page.
     "I'm very ..

AFP

AFP

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