Anti-doping investigation leader Richard McLaren has accused the International Olympic Committee of twisting the conclusions of his bombshell report on state-run substance abuse in Russia.
     The Canadian lawyer, clearly frustrated at reactions to his work, told the Guardian newspaper "people have misconstrued what went into that report, particularly the IOC and international federations."
     The report issued by McLaren on July 18 said Russia's sports ministry was helped by the secret service to manipulate Russian samples at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events in Russia.
     The IOC decided against a blanket ban on Russia and IOC president Thomas Bach has said the report, while "serious", contained "allegations" against the Russian government.
     "I wouldn't put anything in that report that I didn't have evidence of and wouldn't meet the criminal standard in any court around the world," McLaren respondend to the Guardian.
     "Nothing in there is an ...

McLaren attacks IOC 'spin' on doping report

PTI Automatic

Russia's embassy in Brazil denied a report by Rio police that their vice consul in the Olympic host city got in a fight with a mugger who was killed in the struggle.
     Rio de Janeiro's homicide branch said the vice consul "reacted to an attempted assault."
     "The vice consul got into a physical struggle with the assailant and during the fight the aggressor's weapon fired shots. The assailant died of his wounds on the spot."
     The Russian embassy in the capital Brasilia issued a statement saying that "no representative of the Russian consulate general in Rio de Janeiro was involved in an attempted assault ending with the death of the suspect."
     The statement said all diplomatic employees were Russian citizens "with Russian names, which is not the case" in the reported assault.
     According to Rio's police, the fight took place in the western zone of Rio where the Olympic Park and athletes' village are located. It was the latest high profile incident reported in a city ...

Russia denies Rio police report of vice consul's fight with

Once again Michael Phelps leads the mighty United States into battle in the Olympic competition pool, where traditional rivals Australia are just one country with the Americans in their sights.
     Phelps, whose record 22 Olympic medals include 18 gold, caps his career with a fifth Games appearance in Rio.
     But just as he's far from invulnerable at 31, so the United States could find itself hard-pressed to match their 2012 haul of 16 gold medals, nine silver and six bronze.
     Australia, in particular, are aiming to rebound from a shocking London Games -- their first since 1976 without an individual gold.
     Australian coach Jacco Verhaeren, however, said the 2016 squad's mission has nothing to do with atonement.
     "I don't think we're here to make up for any disappointment," he said. "Nobody is busy with what happened or what might happen."
     Australia's Cate Campbell arrives in Rio on a high after breaking the long-standing women's 100m freestyle world record in July, 

Phelps aims to go out on a high note

A would-be mugger in Rio de Janeiro died when Russia's vice consul fought back during the attempted robbery and the assailant was killed by his own weapon, police said.
	The fight, which took place in the same western zone of Rio where the Olympic Park and the Athletes' Village are located, was the latest high profile crime in the city where 85,000 police and soldiers have been deployed to keep the peace during the Games.
	The vice consul, who was not identified by police, "reacted to an attempted assault," a statement from the homicide department said yesterday.
	"The vice consul got into a physical struggle with the assailant and during the fight the aggressor's weapon fired shots. The assailant died of his wounds on the spot."
	Brazilian news site Extra reported that the vice consul is a native of Rio and an expert in jiu-jitsu, a popular martial art in Brazil that specializes in self-defense.
	He was in his car with his wife and daughter in a car when they were ambushed by men on .

Rio mugger dies in fight with Russia vice consul: police

A man wounded in the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice has died of his injuries, hospital officials said, taking the death toll from the massacre to 85.
	Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, rammed a 19-tonne lorry into revellers enjoying a July 14 fireworks display on Nice's seafront Promenade des Anglais before he was shot dead by police.
	The attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, left 434 people injured.
	Nice's Pasteur hospital said the man who died yesterday had been on life support since the day of the attack.
	Local newspaper Le Messager said he was a 56-year-old from France's eastern Haute-Savoie region, whose wife and son were also killed in the attack and whose 14-year-old daughter remains in hospital.
	President Francois Hollande is facing mounting demands to improve security after a string of jihadist attacks, dating back to January 2015, when gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish store.
	Then in November, 130 ...

Man wounded in Nice attack dies, taking toll to 85

A park ranger died while fighting a blaze in the Canary Islands allegedly sparked by a German man who set fire to toilet paper after defecating in the woods, authorities said.
	Some 700 people yesterday were evacuated from areas near the blaze, which is sweeping through a wooded, mountainous area in La Palma, one of the lesser-known, unspoiled islands of the Spanish archipelago off the coast of Africa.
	Emergency services said a further 1,800 were being moved from their homes yesterday night as the blaze showed no sign of abating.
	"The fire has not come under control yet," Fernando Clavijo, regional president of the Canaries, told reporters.
	"The situation may get more complicated throughout the night. It's not going to be easy."
	The ranger, Francisco Jose Santana, died while working to put out the flames, said Spain's UGT union of which the 54-year-old was a member.
	"He leaves a wife and five children," it added.
	A spokesman for the Guardia Civil police force told AFP a ...

Ranger dies in Spain blaze after German lights toilet paper

Britain's embattled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was accused of failing to provide a credible opposition to the government as he clashed with the man hoping to unseat him in the first debate of a bitter contest.
	Owen Smith, a former member of Corbyn's top team, accused the veteran socialist yesterday of "sloganising" rather than holding the Conservatives to account, and of failing to campaign hard enough to prevent a vote to leave the European Union.
	Corbyn hit back by accusing Smith and other Labour MPs who have rebelled against him in recent months of undermining their efforts to win the next election, telling his rival: "You walked away."
	Labour has been plunged into disarray since the Brexit vote on June 23, when lawmakers dissatisfied at Corbyn's leadership seized upon the turmoil that followed to demand that he step down.
	The 67-year-old refused, noting he was elected only last September on the back of strong grassroots and trade union support -- prompting his critics to back 

UK Labour leader clashes with rival in leadership debate

The Malian defence ministry has that admitted six soldiers have been missing since a deadly jihadist attack in July on a military base in the heart of the country.
	In a raid on a military base in Nampala in central Mali on July 19, 17 Malian soldiers were killed and 35 injured.
	The attack was claimed both by the Islamist Ansar Dine and a newly formed group.
	Ansar Dine is a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and a third local group in early 2012.
	Although the Islamists were largely ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013, sporadic assaults from desert hideouts are common.
	"Following the tragic events in Nampala, a team of investigators was dispatched to the area. The mission concluded that 17 Malian soldiers were killed and 37 injured, and that six others are missing," defence ministry spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Sidibe told reporters yesterday.
	An Ansar Dine .

Mali says six soldiers missing since jihadist attack

Scoreboard at stumps on the second day of the third Test between England and Pakistan at Edgbaston today:
	England 1st Innings 297 (G Ballance 70, M Ali 63; Sohail Khan 5-96)
	Pakistan 1st Innings
	Mohammad Hafeez c Ballance b Anderson        0
	Sami Aslam run out (Vince)                  82
	Azhar Ali c Cook b Woakes                  139
	Younis Khan not out                         21
	Extras (b2, lb12, nb1)                      15
	Total (3 wkts, 90 overs, 387 mins)         257
	To bat: Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Amir, Yasir Shah, Rahat Ali
	Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Hafeez), 2-181 (Aslam), 3-257 (Azhar)
	Bowling: Anderson 19-6-32-1; Broad 19-3-49-0 (1nb); Finn 16-3-44-0; Woakes 19-3-52-1; Ali 15-2-63-0; Vince 1-0-2-0; Root 1-0-1-0
	England: Alastair Cook (capt), Alex Hales, Joe Root, James Vince, Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow (wkt), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, James Anderson
	Match position: Pakistan are 40 runs behind with .

Cricket: England v Pakistan 3rd Test scoreboard

Azhar Ali's century helped keep England at bay before he was out to the final ball of the second day of the third Test at Edgbaston today.
	Azhar's more than six-hour 139, his 10th Test century but first outside Asia, ended when all-rounder Chris Woakes, on his Warwickshire home ground, struck with the new ball to have him edging to England captain Alastair Cook at first slip.
	That left Pakistan 257 for three at stumps, 40 runs behind England's first innings 297.
	Number three Azhar had come in just five balls into today's play after Mohammad Hafeez had fallen for a duck to leave Pakistan none for one.
	Azhar punished England for dropping him twice with his 10th century in 48 Tests.
	Together with recalled opener Sami Aslam, who made 82, he put on 181 for the second wicket.
	Aslam, a 20-year-old left-handed opener, was in sight of a well-deserved maiden Test hundred when he was run out responding to Azhar's poor call.
	Younis Khan was 21 not out, having helped Azhar add 76 for the ...

Cricket: Azhar defies England before Woakes strikes

Geologists have found the first evidence for China's Great Flood, a 4,000-year-old disaster on the Yellow River that led to birth of the Xia dynasty and modern Chinese civilization, researchers said today.
	The findings in the journal Science may help rewrite history because they not only show that a massive flood did occur, but that it was in 1920 BC, several centuries later than traditionally thought.
	This would mean the Xia dynasty, led by Emperor Yu, may also have started later than Chinese historians have thought.
	Yu gained fame as the man who was able to gain control over the flood by orchestrating the dredging work needed to guide the waters back into their channels.
	Restoring order after chaos earned "him the divine mandate to establish the Xia dynasty, the first in Chinese history," said the study, led by Wu Qinglong, professor in the department of geography at Nanjing Normal University.
	Stories about Emperor Yu laid the ideological foundation for the Confucian rulership .

First evidence of legendary China flood may rewrite history

South Africa's local elections delivered a sharp setback to the African National Congress (ANC) today, as partial results showed falling support for the party that ended apartheid.
	With about 80 percent of the vote counted, the ANC was ahead nationwide but it recorded its worst electoral performance since white-minority rule fell 22 years ago.
	The main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) was on course to hold Cape Town and was just ahead in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth.
	The capital Pretoria and the economic hub Johannesburg were a close fight between the DA and the ANC.
	The results, which were expected to be concluded on Friday, open up a new era of local coalition politics in South Africa.
	The ANC has won more than 60 percent of the vote at every election since the country's first multi-racial vote in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president.
	Today evening it was on 54 percent -- down from 62 percent in the last municipal elections in 2011.
	The DA was on 27 ...

ANC suffers major setback in S.Africa local polls

A British sugar trader appeared in a Kenyan court today charged with trafficking 100 kilos (220 lbs) of cocaine from Brazil to the port of Mombasa.
	Jack Marrian denied the charges stemming from the USD 3-million (2.7 million-euro) seizure of drugs found hidden in containers of sugar last Friday.
	The businessman, who is managing director of Kenya and Uganda-based Mshale Commodities, was remanded in custody pending a bail hearing on Monday along with a Kenyan suspect, Roy Francis Mwanthi, who also denies the charges.
	Three men including Marrian were questioned in recent days by a special team of US anti-narcotics agents and their Kenyan counterparts following an Interpol tipoff about the shipment.
	"We are aware of speculation regarding an allegedly compromised shipment consigned to Mshale Commodities," a spokeswoman for Mshale told AFP.
	"We can confirm that Mshale's managing director, Jack Marrian, is assisting the Kenyan authorities to provide them with whatever information they ..

British trader charged in Kenya over USD 3 mln cocaine bust

A Brazilian Senate committee voted today to recommend the full upper house remove suspended president Dilma Rousseff from office in an impeachment trial, sending the nation's political drama into its end game.
	The decision -- passed by a vote of 14 to five -- is non-binding, but delivers Rousseff yet another setback on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.
	Instead of presiding over the opening of an Olympics once meant to showcase Brazil's growing economic power and political stability, Rousseff now takes another step toward what looks increasingly like her political downfall.
	Rousseff is accused of spending money without congressional approval and taking out unauthorized loans from state banks to make the national budget look better than it really was as she campaigned for re-election in 2014.
	She says such maneuvers were common practice under previous administrations, and calls the impeachment procedure a coup in disguise.
	Her allies point out that many of 

Brazil impeachment committee recommends removing Rousseff

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker today rejected Austria's call for the EU to end membership talks with Turkey, warning that it would be a grave error.
	Turkey's longstanding, and recently revived, bid to join the EU has already been hit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's suggestion that he may reintroduce the death penalty after the July 15 attempted putsch.
	But after Austria raised the prospect of slamming the brakes on membership talks, Juncker called for calm.
	"If one gives the impression to Turkey now that, no matter what, the EU is not ready to take in Turkey, then I would say that is a serious foreign policy mistake," Juncker told German public broadcaster ARD.
	"I don't think it would be helpful if we were to unilaterally end negotiations with Turkey," he said, adding that such decisions can only be made with unanimity from all member states.
	"I don't see this willingness among all member states at this point in time" to break off talks, he said.
	At the same ..

Closing EU door to Turkey 'serious mistake': Juncker

Baseball won a return to the Olympics as youth-friendly surfing, skateboarding, climbing, as well as karate, also got places among five sports approved for Tokyo 2020.
     The International Olympic Committee voted unanimously for the proposal which applies only to the Tokyo Games, where 33 sports will now be contested.
     "This is really a milestone in the innovation of the Olympic programme which we can then experience in four years from now in Tokyo 2020," IOC president Thomas Bach told delegates in Rio de Janeiro.
     The five extra sports -- with women-only softball bracketed with baseball -- make up 18 events and 474 athletes in the Tokyo roster, and give it a strong experimental flavour.
     IOC members voted 85-0 in favour but not before some concerns were raised about baseball, whose US-based stars are not confirmed for the Games.
     "At this moment we are not sure that in the days of the baseball competition in Tokyo... That the athletes playing in the United States ...

Baseball, surfing among five sports in for 2020

The FBI today arrested more than 40 alleged mobsters from four prominent crime families associated with the mafia in coordinated raids up and down the East Coast, US officials said.
	The 41 suspects were arrested in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation told AFP.
	The suspects belong to an organized, East Coast criminal enterprise whose members engaged in crimes including extortion, arson, fraud, firearms trafficking and assault, according to court papers.

FBI arrests more than 40 alleged East Coast mobsters

In a birthday editorial today, US President Barack Obama described himself as a feminist and urged renewed effort to break down gender stereotypes.
	The father of two girls, who was raised by a single mother, penned an essay for Glamour magazine, declaring "this is an extraordinary time to be a woman."
	"I say that not just as President but also as a feminist."
	Listing strides made by women, from gaining the vote to cracking open previously off-bounds careers, Obama said "the most important change may be the toughest of all -- and that's changing ourselves."
	He said raising Sasha, 15, and Malia, 18, had opened his eyes to the pressure girls are under.
	"You see the subtle and not-so-subtle social cues transmitted through culture. You feel the enormous pressure girls are under to look and behave and even think a certain way."
	"We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive, that criticizes our daughters for speaking out and our .

Obama declares himself a 'feminist'

Brazil's presidential impeachment drama entered its end game today as a Senate committee met to vote on whether to recommend removing elected president Dilma Rousseff from office.
	The vote in the capital Brasilia on the eve the Olympic opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro is non-binding but will send a loud message to the Senate plenary, marking yet another step in what looks increasingly like Rousseff's political downfall.
	The committee is expected to vote overwhelmingly in favor of Rousseff's ejection on charges that she broke budget laws.
	"The president will be removed from office for the extremely serious crimes she committed," said Senator Cassio Lima of the opposition PSDB party.
	"It was the biggest fiscal fraud in the country's history."
	Rousseff is accused of spending money without congressional approval and taking out unauthorized loans from state banks to make the national budget look better than it really was as she campaigned for re-election in 2014.
	She says such ...

Brazil impeachment committee to vote today

A Pakistani government helicopter crash-landed in eastern Afghanistan today, their embassy in Kabul said, with local authorities saying all six people on board were taken hostage by the Taliban.
	The insurgents have not so far commented on the incident in Azra district in the restive province of Logar.
	"An Mi-17 transport helicopter belonging to the Punjab government was scheduled to fly to Russia for repair. We think the same chopper crash-landed in Logar," Pakistani embassy spokesman Akhtar Munir told AFP.
	"We don't know anything about the fate of those on-board or why it crash-landed."
	The local district governor Hamidullah Hamid said six people on board had been taken hostage by Taliban insurgents.
	"They have been taken to an unknown location," he said.
	The helicopter caught fire after it crashed, said Logar governor's spokesman Salim Saleh.
	Russian-made Mi-17s are used by the Pakistani military.
	There was no official comment from the Pakistani military or Afghan defense ...

Hostages taken in Pakistan helicopter crash in Afghanistan

Scoreboard at tea on the second day of the third Test between England and Pakistan at Edgbaston today:
     England 1st Innings 297 (G Ballance 70, M Ali 63; Sohail Khan 5-96)
     Pakistan 1st Innings
     Mohammad Hafeez c Ballance b Anderson        0
     Sami Aslam batting                          69
     Azhar Ali batting                           72
     Extras (b2, lb10, nb1)                      13
     Total (1 wkt, 55 overs)                    154
     Fall of wickets: 1-0
     Bowling: Anderson 13-4-22-1; Broad 12-3-24-0; Finn 12-3-33-0; Woakes 12-1-31-0; Ali 6-0-32-0.

AFP

AFP

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