An Egyptian doctor who performed a deadly female circumcision operation on a girl has served a three-month sentence, he and a lawyer said today, in a first since a 2008 ban.
	Raslan Fadl had been sentenced in January 2015 to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and an additional three months for practising female genital mutilation (FGM).
	He remained free, however, until his arrest last April, said lawyer Reda el-Danbouki, who had pursued the case against Fadl.
	"He began the sentence on April 2 and was released on July 2," said Danbouki, the executive director for the Women's Centre for Guidance and Legal Awareness in Egypt.
	Fadl, who denies that he performed the operation, told AFP that he had served a three-month sentence.
	He said the two-year sentence by a court in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura had been suspended after he "reconciled" with the family of the 14-year-old girl who died during the operation.
	"Go to the court and you'll find the sentence has been .

Egypt female circumcision doctor served three-month sentence

PTI Automatic

Dozens of people have been hospitalised and 26 arrested following clashes between police and protesters in Yerevan, Armenian authorities said today.
	Sixty people were taken to various hospitals around the capital to be treated for injuries including burns and broken limbs, the health ministry said.
	The clashes, which began yesterday evening near a police building where an armed pro-opposition group has been holed up for almost two weeks with several hostages, continued into the night.
	There were also gun battles between police and this group yesterday.
	Using truncheons, stun grenades and smoke bombs, police broke up a rally held in support of the gunmen, who are holding three medics.
	Armenian police told AFP that 165 people were detained during the unrest, of whom 26 were later arrested. The rest were released.
	The gunmen -- supporters of fringe jailed opposition leader Zhirair Sefilyan -- stormed the police building on July 17, killing one officer, taking several more hostage ..

Dozens hurt, many arrested in Armenia clashes

Security was stepped up in and around Amsterdam's Schiphol airport today following a threat, local authorities said in a statement, adding that aviation was unaffected.
	"In a joint meeting of the mayor, public prosecution office, chief (of) Royal Military Police and the police of the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in consultation with the (anti-terrorist police) NCTV it was decided to take additional security measures," read a statement issued by the municipality in which the airport lies.
	"The airport and its surrounding area remain accessible and all operations can continue as usual," the statement said. Schiphol airport is one of the busiest in Europe.
	It explained the move was prompted by a "signal" that "fits within the national threat level, which has been substantial since 2013."
	The statement described the additional measures as both "visible" and "invisible," explaining that passengers would see more officers inside the airport.
	Checks on vehicles entering the complex ...

Security stepped up at Amsterdam airport following threat

One of the jihadists who murdered an elderly French priest smiled as he carried out the attack, and nuns who witnessed the grisly murder said the killers spoke about a holy book.
	The two nuns who were in the church when Father Jacques Hamel was killed, his throat slit on the altar, said the men appeared aggressive and nervous during the attack at the Eglise Saint-Etienne in Normandy on July 26.
	Then, one of the attackers seemed pleased.
	"I got a smile from the second (man). Not a smile of triumph, but a soft smile, that of someone who is happy," nun Sister Huguette Peron told Catholic newspaper La Vie yesterday.
	Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, both 19, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and both were killed by police in the shock attack.
	The men stormed the 17th-century stone church during mass in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, taking several hostages before killing the priest and seriously wounding another captive.
	One nun fled the scene and ...

France church attackers 'smiled' and spoke of Koran

Australia will adjust its latitude and longitude, a government science body says, to put the vast country into alignment with global navigation satellite systems.
	The nation's coordinates are currently out by more than a metre, Geoscience Australia says, and the discrepancy could cause major headaches for possible new technologies such as driverless cars which require precise location data.
	"We have to adjust our lines of latitude and longitude... so that the satellite navigation systems that we all use on our smartphones these days can align with all the digital map information," Geoscience's Dan Jaksa told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation this week.
	Australia currently moves north by about seven centimetres each year due to normal tectonic motion and Jaksa said the change was needed "to keep pace with that".
	He said smartphones were already accurate to within 5-10 metres, but shrinking the gap would be crucial in coming years, particularly with greater use of ...

Australia moving up in the world... Literally

Final scoreboard of the first
Test between Sri Lanka and Australia here today.
     Sri Lanka 1st innings: 117
     Australia 1st innings: 203
     Sri Lanka 2nd innings: 353
     Australia 2nd Innings (overnight 83 for three)
     J Burns b Sandakan               29
     D Warner b Herath                 1
     U Khawaja lbw b D Perera         18
     S Smith lbw b Herath             55
     A Voges c & b Herath             12
     M Marsh lbw b Herath             25
     P Nevill c Chandimal b De Silva   9
     M Starc c & b Sandakan            0
     N Lyon lbw b Sandakan             8
     S O'Keefe b Herath                4
     J Hazlewood not out               0
     Extras:                           0
     Total: (all out; 88.3 overs)    161
     Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-33, 3-63, 4-96, 5-139, 6-140, 7-141, 8-157, 9-161.
     Bowling: Pradeep 6-3-16-0, Herath 33.3-16-54-5, D Perera 13-3-30-1, Sandakan 25-8-49-3, De Silva 11-7-12-1.

Pallekele, Jul 30 (AFP) Final scoreboard of the first

Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath backed up centurion Kusal Mendis' superlative effort to stun top-ranked Australia by 106 runs in the rain-affected first Test here today.
     Herath, 38, grabbed 5-54 to help the hosts bundle out Australia for 161 on the fifth and final day after they were set a challenging 268 in the second innings.
     Australian skipper Steven Smith posted a gritty half-century before Steve O'Keefe and Peter Nevill frustrated Sri Lanka with a 178-ball partnership.
     Herath bagged the last Australian wicket to fall by cleaning up O'Keefe to trigger wild celebration in the Lankan camp. This was Sri Lanka's only second Test win against Australia in 27 matches.
     It was batsman Mendis (176) who set up the unlikely win for Sri Lanka with his superb maiden ton in his team's second innings after the hosts overcame an 86-run deficit.
     The 21-year-old Mendis, the only centurion in a low-scoring contest, played a memorable 254-ball knock laced with 21 fours and a 

Mendis, Herath seal Sri Lanka win over Australia

Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath dismissed four Australian wickets including one from skipper Steven Smith to derail the tourists' chase on the tense final day of the rain-hit first Test in Pallekele today.
     Australia, who started on the day on 83 for three, were 141 for seven at lunch, with the visitors needing another 127 to avoid an embarrassing loss for the top Test side.
     Smith (55) made a gritty half-century before becoming Herath's third victim of the morning session as the Australian batting crumbled on a turning pitch.
     Adam Voges, who survived a successful umpire review on Friday after being judged LBW, was Herath's first wicket of the morning session which started late due to rain.
     Smith, who looked settled during his 125-ball stay at the crease that included a single boundary, then built a 43-run fifth-wicket partnership with Mitchell Marsh (25) to raise some hopes of recovery.
     A persistent Herath trapped Marsh LBW with a successful umpire review ...

Herath's strikes derail Australia chase

Scoreboard at lunch on the fifth and final day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Pallekele today:
     Sri Lanka 1st innings 117 all out (D de Silva 24, K Perera 20; Josh Hazlewood 3-21, Nathan Lyon 3-12)
     Australia 1st innings 203 all out (A. Voges 47; Rangana Herath 4-49, Lakshan Sandakan 4-58
     Sri Lanka 2nd innings 353 all out (Kusal Mendis 176; Mitchell Starc 4-84)
     Australia 2nd innings (overnight 83 for three)
     J Burns b Sandakan               29
     D Warner b Herath                 1
     U Khawaja lbw b Dilruwan Perera  18
     S Smith lbw b Herath             55
     A Voges c&b Herath               12
     M Marsh lbw b Herath             25
     P Nevill batting                  1
     M Starc c&b Sandakan              0
     Extras                             0
     Total (7 wkts; 50.2 overs)       141
     Fall of wicket: 1-2, 2-33, 3-63, 4-96, 5-139, 6-140, 7-141
     Bowling: Pradeep 3-0-16-0, Herath 18-3-49-4, Perera ...

Pallekele, July 30 (AFP) Scoreboard at lunch on the fifth and final day of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Pallekele today:

US Democrats said they had been targeted by yet another cyber attack, while Hillary Clinton's campaign confirmed that an analytics programme it used was breached in an earlier intrusion.
	A hack on Democratic National Committee servers resulted in last week's embarrassing leak of emails that revealed how party leaders sought to undermine Clinton's Democratic White House rival Bernie Sanders.
	Clinton's campaign has blamed Russia for hacking the emails, which were made public by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
	The Kremlin dismissed the allegations as absurd, but President Barack Obama has refused to rule out the possibility that Russia is trying to sway the presidential election in favor of Republican Donald Trump.
	Clinton's campaign said yesterday the hack on the DNC had accessed an analytics data program that it used. The programme was maintained by the DNC, it said.
	"Our campaign computer system has been under review by outside cyber security experts," campaign spokesman Nick ...

New cyber attack hits Democrats,Clinton camp reports intrusion

How big a threat is genetic doping to clean competition in sport?
     "It's a bit like sea serpent," mythologised, potentially capable of causing serious harm, "but not so present", said Martial Saugy, former director of the Swiss Laboratory for Doping Analyses.
     The lab is in Lausanne, near the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee, which put Saugy on the frontline of efforts to purge drug cheats from global sport.
     In an interview with AFP ahead of the August 5 start of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Saugy said anti-doping labs had to keep pace with new methods developed by doping cheats that multiple scandals involving Russia have proved are still a major threat.
     But he cautioned against putting too much focus on the still undetermined threat of genetic doping, when other dangers -- like micro-doses -- are far more pressing.
     - Looking for 'indicators' -
     ============================
     Doctors have for years been experimenting with ways to ...

Genetic doping - the 'sea serpent' of cheating

An Olympic medal winning swimmer linked to Russia's state-run doping scandal has tested positive for the banned meldonium, the US Anti-Doping Agency announced.
     Nikita Lobintsev was already one of seven Russian swimmers banned from competing in the Rio Olympics by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) and USADA did not impose a new ban over the case.
     On Thursday, the University of South California said it had suspended Russians Lobintsev and Vladimir Morozov from competing with its team.
     USADA said the 27-year-old Lobintsev had been using meldonium for the past seven years. It was prescribed by Russia team doctors, who told him it would help strengthen his heart. Meldonium was added the World Anti-Doping Agency's banned list at the beginning of 2016.
     "The disturbing pattern of use associated with this performance-enhancing drug appears to be one more example of growing practice in sport in which coaches ask for, physicians prescribe, and athletes use ...

USADA says banned Russia swimmer failed drug test

Russia's eight-strong Olympic Games weightlifting team was banned from the Rio Games in the latest doping-related blow to the sporting powerhouse.
     "The integrity of the weightlifting sport has been seriously damaged on multiple times and levels by the Russians, therefore an appropriate sanction was applied in order to preserve the status of the sport," said a statement by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).
     There are now 117 Russian competitors banned from the Games -- including 67 track and field athletes -- from the 387 initially nominated by the Russian Olympic Committee.
     The eight weightlifters originally selected were Oleg Chen, Adam Maligov, Ruslan Albegov, David Bedzhanyan and Artem Okulov in the men's competition and Tatiana Kashirina, Tima Turieva and Anastasia Romanova in the women's.
     Okulov is a world champion while at the London Games in 2012, Albegov claimed a bronze medal and Kashirina took home a silver.
     Kashirina and Romanova both 

Russian weightlifting team banned from Rio

Brazil's political uncertainty must be resolved by the end of August -- its Olympic-hosting month -- by reaching a verdict in the impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff, her interim replacement said.
	Michel Temer, the vice president who has been acting head of state since May, said he expected Rousseff would be definitively booted from office. That would make him president until the next elections in 2018.
	His comments came during a briefing with international news agencies including AFP just one week before Brazil declares the 2016 Olympic Games open in Rio de Janeiro.
	"The world needs to know who is the president" of Brazil, Temer said yesterday.
	He argued an impeachment trial verdict was necessary for Brazil to decide who would represent it at a G20 summit in China on September 4 and 5.
	"We are hoping that the resolution of the impeachment comes between August 25 and 26, because if it takes to September 4, 5 or 6, Brazil will not be able to go to the G20 ...

Brazil impeachment must be settled by Aug 26: Temer

Five people were sentenced to prison in Panama over a 2006 poison cough syrup scandal in which hundreds of people died after unwittingly ingesting a toxic compound found in antifreeze.
	The verdict capped years of investigation and a convulsion of shock at the many deaths in this small Central American nation.
	Officials say 400 people died when they drank the adulterated cough syrup, which had been mixed and distributed by the national health agency using an ingredient supplied by a private company, Medicom.
	Some Panamanian organisations believe as many as 10,000 people may have died from the medicine.
	Medicom had bought the ingredient, labeled "TD glycerin", from a Spanish pharmaceutical firm, Rasfer International, which had purchased it from a Chinese group, CNSC Fortune Way Company, which had sourced it from the Taixing Glycerine Factory.
	In reality, the ingredient contained high amounts of diethylene glycol, a poisonous, practically odorless liquid which has a sweetish ...

Panama prison for 5 over toxic cough syrup

The UN Security Council agreed to deploy a UN police force to Burundi, its strongest move to date to try to end more than a year of violence in the African country.
	The council adopted a resolution drafted by France on dispatching up to 228 UN police to the capital Bujumbura and throughout Burundi for an initial period of a year.
	Burundi has said it would not accept more than 50 UN police, drawing a question mark over whether the proposed force will have the strength in numbers to make a difference on the ground.
	Four countries on the 15-member council abstained from the vote, which passed with 11 votes in favor.
	The abstentions came from China, Egypt, Angola and Venezuela, which cited the need to secure Bujumbura's consent for the police force.
	The council resolution requested UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ensure a "progressive deployment" of the new force to monitor human rights violations and abuses.
	The Security Council is under pressure to take action in Burundi, where ..

UN decides to send police force to Burundi

An Istanbul court has remanded 17 Turkish journalists in custody over links to the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who is blamed for this month's failed coup, charging them with membership of a "terror group".
	Twenty-one journalists had their cases heard by the court, with four being freed and 17 placed under arrest ahead of trial, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. Those held include the veteran journalist Nazli Ilicak, it added.

Turkey remands 17 journalists in custody over links to Gulen

A strong but deep 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific today, but triggered no tsunami alert, US monitors said.
	The quake struck at a depth of 212 kilometre at 7:18 am (local time) some 31 kilometre southwest of the island of Agrihan, according to the US Geological Survey.
	No tsunami warning was issued.

7.7-magnitude quake off Northern Marianas, no tsunami alert

7.7-magnitude quake off Northern Mariana Islands; no

Australian athletes briefly had to evacuate their apartments after a small fire in the troubled Rio Olympics Village.
	The Australian delegation, preparing to compete in the Games that start August 5 in Rio de Janeiro, went into the street until given the all clear. No one was hurt and there was no serious damage.
	"There has been a small fire in the basement of the team building in the Olympic Village. All athletes and staff were evacuated and are fine," the team said in a Tweet yesterday.
	Team spokesman Mike Tancred told AFP "there was a lot of smoke and we had to evacuate. The fire fighters came, it was controlled and we returned."
	"There was no big drama," he said.
	Tancred did not know the cause of the fire. The Australian team initially refused to move into its Village accommodations last weekend, citing shoddy conditions, including blocked toilets and dangerous wiring.
	Workers have been fixing the defects all week and the Australian team chief, Kitty Chiller, has said the ...

Small Olympic Village fire forces Australia evacuation

The United States has said it is "skeptical" of a Russian announcement that it had opened humanitarian corridors in Aleppo, with Secretary of State John Kerry fearing a potential "ruse."
	Russia, a key ally of the Syrian regime in the five-year war, announced Thursday several corridors for civilians and surrendering fighters to leave the northern Syrian city, which has been under heavy assault for weeks.
	Besieged residents were cowering indoors, afraid to use what some called "death corridors."
	Kerry -- who has spoken twice with Moscow in the past day and met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday in Laos -- said cooperation between Moscow and Washington could turn sour if the announcement proves deceitful.
	"It has the risk, if it is a ruse, of completely breaking apart the level of cooperation," Kerry said. "On the other hand, if we're able to work it out today and have a complete understanding of what is happening and an agreement on the way forward, it could ...

AFP

AFP

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