The US Justice Department announced plans to launch an inquiry into the police response that followed last month's Orlando gay nightclub massacre that left 49 dead and 53 wounded.
	The agency's unit dedicated to supporting community policing through grant funding and other assistance yesterday said it would conduct a "comprehensive after-action assessment" of the Orlando Police Department's response to the June 12 mass shooting, after a request by its chief, John Mina.
	"The lessons learned from this independent, objective and critical review of such a high-profile incident will benefit not only the Orlando Police Department and its community," said Justice Department Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) chief Ronald Davis.
	"It will also serve to provide all law enforcement critical guidance and recommendations for responding to future such incidents."
	Lone gunman Omar Mateen - a 29-year-old American of Afghan descent - opened fire at about 2:00 am in the Pulse ...

US officials to probe police response to Orlando attack

PTI Automatic

The world oil market see-sawed this week as traders tracked growing investor risk appetite, fluctuations in the dollar and stubborn supply glut worries.
	"Oil prices are continuing their rollercoaster ride," wrote Commerzbank analysts in an oil research note.
	Crude futures began on the back foot on Monday, sliding as an increase in US drilling activity and a strong dollar reversed gains from last week's better-than-forecast US jobs report.
	A strong greenback makes dollar-priced commodities like oil more expensive for those using other currencies. That tends to weigh on demand and price levels.
	Oil then rebounded Tuesday as OPEC forecast an easing of the global oversupply that has weighed on the market in recent years.
	Traders bid up crude oil after Monday's rout, in what some analysts said was due partly to a technical correction.
	Sentiment also brightened on speculation over possible global central bank stimulus measures following Britain's recent referendum vote to leave the ...

Oil market gains capped by glut woes

Turkey's top general 'held hostage' at military HQ: state

Turkey army says has taken power over country: TV. (AFP)

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve today said he could not confirm that the Nice truck attacker was motivated by religious extremism.
	Asked on TF1 television if he was in a position to draw a link between radical Islam and the carnage that left 84 dead, the minister responded: "No.

'No confirmed link between Nice attacker and radical Islam'

President Barack Obama strongly condemned a "repugnant" proposal by a top Republican to test every Muslim living in the United States and deport whoever believes in sharia law, following the deadly truck attack in Nice.
	"In the wake of last night's attacks, we've heard more suggestions that all Muslims in America be targeted, tested for their beliefs, some deported or jailed," Obama said, referring to a proposal by former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
	"And the very suggestion is repugnant and an affront to everything that we stand for as Americans. We cannot give in to fear or turn on each other or sacrifice our way of life.

Obama slams 'testing' Muslims in US as 'repugnant'

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim today denounced what he said was an "illegal attempt" by elements in the military after bridges were partially shut down in Istanbul and jets flew low over Ankara.
	"We are working on the possibility of an attempt. We will not allow this attempt," he told NTV television by telephone, without expanding on the nature of the move but saying it was by a group in the Turkish military.
	"Those who are in this illegal act will pay the highest price," he added, saying it would not be correct to describe the move as a "coup".

Turkey PM denounces 'illegal attempt' by 'group' in military

A Turkish court today released five out of 18 defendants on the first day of the trial for the January bomb attack blamed on Islamic State jihadists which killed 12 German tourists in Istanbul, local media reported.
	A Syrian suicide bomber targeted the heart of the city's Sultanahmet district, popular with tourists and home to the Blue Mosque, in the January 12 attack which left 16 others injured.
	Former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at the time that the suicide bomber, named as Nabil Fadli, was a member of the Islamic State (IS) group.
	The five men were released by an Istanbul court today because of the nature of their alleged offences, the available evidence and the length of time in custody, Dogan news agency reported.
	The court said that the defendants faced the possibility that their charges could be changed as well, Dogan said.
	The five men were named by the news agency as Mustafa Sraiwel, Muhannad Hendawi, Ibrahim El Ibrahim, Muhammed Izghib and Muhammet Isa. The ...

Turkey frees five in January Istanbul IS attack trial: report

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to fire one of his advisers whom he accused of calling for Israelis to be murdered.
	In a video posted on YouTube and subtitled in Arabic, Netanyahu -- speaking in English -- urged Abbas to dismiss Sultan Abu al-Einein.
	Late last month, asked by the Palestinian news site Dunya al-Watan about Palestinian leaders taking part in conferences in Israel, Einein said: "If you ask me my position in theory, I would answer that as soon as there is an Israeli, cut his throat."
	Referring to a Palestinian taking part in a conference in Israel, he added that "he has my full confidence -- he carried our voice to them (the Israelis).
	"It is essential to maintain relations with this society so it is not held hostage by a group of extremist settlers."
	Netanyahu in his YouTube video demanded that the adviser be sacked.
	"Your adviser, Sultan Abu al-Einein, recently called to slit the throat of every Israeli. 

Israel PM urges Abbas to sack aide over 'murder call'

Pakistan's education budget has doubled in recent years -- to almost as much as the military's -- but literacy and dropout rates remain abysmal and "ghost schools" persist, a new report said.
	A staggering 24 million children are not in school and more than half of eight-year-olds cannot read despite the budget growing twofold to USD 07.5 billion in the last six years, the report from the US-based Wilson Center released yesterday found.
	Pakistan's poor report card comes even as the number of so-called ghost schools -- which receive funding but have no teachers or students -- has declined in some areas.
	Nationwide there were fewer ghost schools than in the early 2000s when up to 20 percent of all schools across the country were empty, the study called "Pakistan's Education Crisis: The Real Story" said.
	The United States, Britain and the World Bank have poured money into Pakistan's stagnating public education sector, seen as a key weapon against religious extremism and rising income .

'Ghost schools' haunt Pakistan despite budget boost

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls said today that the military resources of the international coalition battling the Islamic State group would be boosted after the truck attack in Nice.
	"Next week there will be a big meeting" in Washington, Valls told France Television the day after 84 were killed during the attack in the French Riviera city.
	"We are going to reinforce the coalition's reosurces" to fight against IS in Syria and Iraq, he added.

Global coalition to add military resources to IS fight: France

A Tunisian-born man zigzagged a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice, killing at least 84 and injuring dozens of children, an attack that plunged the country again into grief and anger.
	Prime Minister Manuel Valls today called the man who rammed his truck into the crowd in Nice a 'terrorist' with probable links to radical Islam.
	At least 10 children and teenagers were among the dead, mown down as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel ploughed his lorry through the festive crowd of thousands watching fireworks for France's national day last night.
	Anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins said the Tunisian attacker was "completely unknown" to the intelligence services but that the assault was "exactly in line with" calls from jihadist groups to kill.
	Valls said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, 31, was "probably linked to radical Islam in one way or another".
	As France was left reeling from its third major attack within 18 months, President Francois Hollande warned that .

Tunisian 'terrorist' kills 84 in Nice truck attack

20 Libyan unity government fighters were killed and more than 100 wounded today in clashes with the Islamic State group in the jihadists' coastal stronghold of Sirte, pro-government forces said.
	Fighting was fiercest around Sirte's conference centre, which has become a command headquarters for IS at the heart of the city, a statement from forces loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) said.
	It said 20 fighters were killed and 105 wounded, updating an earlier toll of seven dead and 49 wounded.
	Pro-GNA forces launched an operation in May to recapture Sirte, 450 kilometres east of Tripoli, after the jihadists overran the city in June last year.
	Its fall would be a major blow to IS, which has faced a series of setbacks in Syria and Iraq.
	The two-month battle for Sirte has killed around 250 pro-government fighters and wounded more than 1,400, according to medical sources at the unity forces' command centre.
	The pro-GNA forces are mostly made up of militias from ...

20 loyalist troops killed fighting IS in Libya's Sirte

President Barack Obama today decried the deadly truck attack in Nice as a "tragic and appalling" on freedom and pledged firm US support for France.
	He promised once again to "destroy" the Islamic State group, all while "staying true to our values, values of pluralism and rule of law and diversity and freedoms... The very freedoms that the people of Nice were celebrating last night on Bastille Day.

Obama decries 'tragic and appalling attack' in Nice

The living held their hands. They knew they were dead, but they could not bring themselves to let go.
	Hours after unspeakable horror was visited on families who had gathered to watch the Bastille Day fireworks on the Nice seafront, the dead still lay scattered across the Promenade des Anglais.
	Here and there people sat with them, sometimes alone, sometimes in little huddles of family and friends.
	Some had only the comfort of strangers in the aftermath of yesterday evening's massacre.
	One victim, a small child who like so many others had been allowed to stay up late to see the fireworks, lay dead on the tarmac with a doll close by.
	"You would think you could do something to help by being there. But we were useless," said Tarubi Wahid Mosta, who tried to do what he could in the aftermath of the attack.
	"All these families who have already spent a long time at their sides are likely -- given the horrible number of the dead -- to spend hours on the ground holding the cold hands of ..

Shock, horror and the comfort of strangers in Nice

Obama decries 'tragic and appalling attack on freedom' in

The United States probed links between the Saudi government and the 9/11 attacks, finding multiple suspicions but no proven ties, documents declassified today showed.
	Following a decision by President Barack Obama, the so-called "28 pages" of findings were made public, showing that intelligence agencies were not able to "identify definitively" Saudi links to attacks on US soil including the 2001 plane strikes on New York and Washington.

US inquiry: no conclusive proof of Saudi govt link to 9/11

The 31-year-old driver of a truck who killed scores of people on the Nice seafront was a Tunisian petty criminal described by neighbours as an unfriendly loner who showed no outward sign of being a devout Muslim.
	Investigators were today piecing together a picture of the father-of-three who slammed into crowds who had been watching a Bastille Day fireworks display, killing 84 people including 10 children and adolescents.
	Anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins identified him as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, "a delivery man, of Tunisian nationality, married and with children" adding that he had a criminal record but no known terrorist connection.
	His identity papers and a bank card were found in the truck and his identity had been confirmed by fingerprints, he said.
	Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by police at the wheel of the 19-tonne lorry.
	As forensic scientists, backed by armed police, searched his apartment in a four-storey block in a working-class neighbourhood of Nice, ...

Investigators piece together picture of Nice truck attacker

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said today that the man behind the Nice truck attack is a "terrorist" who was probably linked to radical Islam.
	"He's a terrorist who is probably linked to radical Islam in one way or another," Valls told French television the day after 84 people were killed at a Bastille Day fireworks display in the French Riviera city.

Nice attacker 'probably linked to radical Islam': French PM

South African state prosecutors today moved to oppose a court order to reinstate almost 800 dropped corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma.
	The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) applied to the country's highest court for leave to appeal a high court ruling to restore the charges, set aside in 2009, shortly before Zuma came to power.
	Zuma has battled several corruption scandals while in office. In the run-up to next month's local elections, he has faced growing criticism over record unemployment levels and poor economic growth.
	The 783 charges relate to alleged corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering over a multi-billion dollar arms deal in the 1990s.
	"The appeal papers were filed today with the Constitutional Court," an NPA spokeswoman told AFP.
	In 2009, state prosecutors justified dropping the charges by saying that tapped phone calls between officials in then-president Thabo Mbeki's administration showed undue interference in the case.
	The move cleared 

SAfrica prosecutors oppose order to restore Zuma graft charges

Air raids today killed at least 11 civilians in a region of eastern Syria controlled by the jihadist Islamic State group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
	"At least 11 civilians -- among them four women and four children -- were killed in Syrian or Russian air raids on the Al-Boulil region that is controlled by the Islamic State group in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor," the Britain-based monitor said.
	The area is some 30 kilometres southeast of the provincial capital Deir Ezzor city, which has been largely under IS control since 2013.
	Syria's state news agency SANA reported that government aircraft destroyed "two sites containing weapons and military equipment of the Daesh (IS) terrorists" southeast of Deir Ezzor.
	IS has been trying to take the entire province, where part of the capital and the military airport are still under the control of government forces.
	Yesterday, the jihadist group said it had shot down a regime MiG warplane south of the provincial ...

AFP

AFP

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