Afghan president Ashraf Ghani on Monday welcomed as an "achievement" the renewed funding commitment from NATO for his country's fledgling security forces amid increasing Taliban insurgency.
	On Saturday NATO countries agreed at a summit in Warsaw to maintain troop numbers in Afghanistan and reiterated a funding pledge of USD 5 billion a year for local security forces until 2020.
	"Afghanistan returned successfully from the Warsaw summit and I congratulate the nation for that," Ghani told reporters in Kabul.
	"We achieved what we wanted to achieve and we are thankful to the world for that," he said.
	About 12,000 NATO troops, of which the bulk are American, are currently stationed in Afghanistan under Operation Resolute Support, to train and assist Afghan security forces.
	But the Afghans have struggled to contain a resurgent Taliban and have suffered brutal losses -- more than 5,000 local police and troops were killed in 2015, and this year is proving as deadly.
	Attacks by the ...

Afghanistan welcomes NATO's renewed security pledge

PTI Automatic

It is time for China to do a #CHexit from the South China Sea, social media users and activists in the Philippines said Monday on the eve of a crucial tribunal ruling.
	Inspired by the Brexit term coined for Britain's vote to leave the European Union, the catchy new reference for China has quickly gained currency on Facebook, Twitter and protest placards ahead of Tuesday's verdict on Beijing's claims to most of the sea.
	"We ask our friends from other countries, especially our brothers and sisters in Southeast Asia, to call for a #CHexit," Mong Palatino said as he protested with a small group of people outside the Chinese consulate in Manila.
	"China should stop bullying its neighbours."
	On social media, some of the messages were more blunt.
	"China, get out of Philippine territory! #CHEXIT," wrote @emiletabiar on Twitter.
	"The West Philippine Sea is not for you to own. #CHexit," said @rmcocoba.
	Other Filipinos were not amused.
	"'CHexit'?!?!? Cringing on this one," said ...

China urged to #CHexit from South China Sea

British finance minister George Osborne was today holding talks with Wall Street investors, kicking-off a series of visits to leading international financial centres to build post-Brexit economic ties.
	"Vital work will begin today on building stronger economic and trade relationships with the UK's closest trading partners," the Treasury said in a statement as Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne headed to New York to meet investors on Wall Street.
	And Osborne will next week lead a trade mission to Singapore and China after Britain last month voted in a referendum to exit the European Union, the Treasury added.
	"While Britain's decision to leave the EU clearly presents economic challenges, we now have to do everything we can to make the UK the most attractive place in the world to do business," Osborne, who voted for Britain to remain in the EU, said in the statement.
	"We will continue to be a beacon for free trade, democracy and security, more open to that world than ...

Osborne heads to Wall Street for post-Brexit talks

The Dallas gunman was plotting a major bomb attack, authorities said, urging calm as hundreds of people were arrested in weekend protests in US cities over police violence against African-Americans.
	Demonstrators marched demanding justice for two black men shot dead by cops in Minnesota and Louisiana, their dying moments captured in video that went viral online.
	Peaceful marches attracted large crowds in major US cities, but became especially unruly in St. Paul, Minnesota and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where police killed the two men.
	Scores of people were arrested in both cities on Saturday and Sunday.
	The demos come days after black army Afghan war veteran Micah Johnson, 25, used a high-powered rifle to kill five police officers and wound seven in a sniper attack at a protest in Dallas, Texas late Thursday.
	Johnson said before he was killed that he wanted to murder white cops in revenge for the black deaths.
	Seeking to restore calm, President Barack Obama, scheduled to speak in ..

US demo arrests swell as police describe Dallas bomb plot

Virgin Atlantic announced today that it has made firm orders for twelve wide-bodied Airbus A350-1000 jets, worth USD 4.4 billion at list prices, in the first major announcement at Farnborough.
	"Virgin Atlantic has selected the Airbus A350-1000 for an order of 12 beginning 2019 to 2021 to be our large widebodied aicraft," Craig Kreeger, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, told reporters at the show held near London.
	The airline added it would purchase eight of the jets for deliveries starting in 2019, and four new aircraft on long-term leases from (leasing firm) ALC from 2020.
	Airlines typically negotiate big discounts on large aircraft orders so the actual value of the deal is likely to be smaller.
	Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson added that the order did not mean that they were cancelling six options on the Airbus A380 superjumbo.
	The airline currently has ten A330s and 11 A340s in their fleet.
	The bumper Airbus order was hailed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, ..

Virgin Atlantic orders 12 Airbus A350-1000s worth $4.4bn

North Korea said today it would close one of the last remaining channels of communication with the US in protest at sanctions on leader Kim Jong-Un for human rights abuses.
	The North's foreign ministry notified the US government that it would effectively halt all communications with Washington through the North's office at the United Nations in New York, state-run KCNA said.
	"We...Have notified the US that we would completely end all official communications through New York," it said.
	The North's UN office has long served as a rare avenue of formal and informal communications with the US including past talks on nuclear disarmament in the North.
	In the message sent through its UN office Sunday, Pyongyang said all bilateral issues would be handled based on its wartime laws from now on, including two Americans currently detained in the North.
	Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old college student, was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour in March for stealing a propaganda banner from a hotel. ..

N Korea says to cut UN office-based channel to US

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter arrived in Baghdad today for talks with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on the fight against the Islamic State group and plans to recapture Mosul from the jihadists.
	Carter's unannounced visit -- his fourth to Iraq since beginning his job in February 2015 -- comes two days after Iraqi forces captured an airbase to the south of Mosul that is seen as an important step toward the eventual battle for the country's second city, which has been under IS control since June 2014.
	More than two years after IS overran large parts of Iraq as well as territory in neighboring Syria, Carter wants to highlight successes, even as the jihadists have fought back with devastating attacks in Iraq and abroad.
	"What I'll be discussing with Prime Minister Abadi and our commanders there are the next plays in the campaign, which involve the collapse and control over Mosul," Carter told reporters aboard a military plane ahead of his visit.
	The ultimate goal, he added, was "the ...

Pentagon chief in Baghdad for talks on IS fight

The Solar Impulse 2 left southern Spain today on its way to Egypt for the penultimate leg of the solar-powered airplane's landmark round-the-world journey.
	The experimental aircraft took off from Seville at 6:20 AM (0420 GMT) for a flight that should last about 50 hours and will take it over the Mediterranean Sea.
	Swiss national Andre Borschberg was at the controls for the journey that will pass through through Algerian, Tunisian, Italian, Maltese and Greek airspace. Solar Impulse is to land in Cairo yesterday.
	The plane, which is no heavier than a car but has the wingspan of a Boeing 747, will then set out for Abu Dhabi on the final leg of its voyage. It took off from the United Arab Emirates capital on March 9, 2015 with the aim of promoting clean, renewable energy.
	Solar Impulse is being flown on its 35,400-kilometre (22,000-mile) trip around the world in stages, with Borschberg and his Swiss compatriot Bertrand Piccard taking turns at the controls of the single-seat ...

Solar plane leaves Spain for penultimate leg of world tour

Oil prices eased in Asia today as an increase in US drilling activity and a strong dollar reversed gains from last week's better-than-forecast US jobs report.
	The commodity eked out modest gains Friday after data showed the world's top economy created 287,000 jobs in June following a dismal rise in May.
	However, the gains - which were small compared to a near five per cent drop the day before - were wiped out today as the number of active US drilling rigs, a barometer of future output, rose by 10 to a 12-week high of 351 last week, the fifth gain in six weeks.
	At about 1215 IST, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was down 40 cents, or 0.88 per cent, at USD 45.01 while Brent fell 36 cents, or 0.77 per cent, to USD 46.40.
	"When those rig numbers are up, we will see weakness in the oil price because it will bring on new supply," David Lennox, an analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney told Bloomberg News.
	"Anything where it shows that supply is potentially able to come back on-stream ...

Oil prices dip in Asia as US rig count jumps

A Thai journalist and four activists were charged today under a draconian law banning criticism of the junta's new constitution which will be voted on in a referendum next month.
	Taweesak Kerdpoka, a reporter with the news outlet Prachatai, was arrested yesterday morning alongside four members of the New Democracy Movement, one of the few activist groups that dare to challenge the military since generals seized power two years ago.
	"Their actions were violating the referendum bill article 61 clause 2," police colonel Amnuay Pongsawat, from Ban Pong district in central Ratchaburi province, told AFP.
	He did not elaborate on how their actions had broken the law, but the men face up to ten years in prison if convicted.
	The clause outlaws critical discussion of the junta's new draft constitution, which if passed will become Thailand's 20th in less than a century.
	Prachatai editor Chiranuch Premchaiporn said Taweesak was travelling in the same car as the activists to report on their ...

Thai journalist charged under draconian charter law

Thousands of hectares of mangroves in Australia's remote north have died, scientists said today, with climate change the likely cause.
	Some 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres), or nine per cent of the mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria, perished in just one month according to researchers from Australia's James Cook University, the first time such an event has been recorded.
	The so-called dieback -- where mangroves are either dead or defoliated -- was confirmed by aerial and satellite surveys and was likely to have been the result of an extended drought period, said Norm Duke, a mangrove ecologist from James Cook University.
	"This is what climate change looks like. You see things push the maximums or minimums... What we are looking at here is an unusually long dry season," Duke told AFP.
	"The reason that there's dieback now is because of this drought. Droughts are normal, but not so severe, and that's the difference," he said.
	Local rangers told scientists they were seeing creatures ..

Australian mangrove die-off blamed on climate change

The floppy hair he had as a teenager may have been replaced by a shorter cut and the once clean-shaven face is now home to a goatee beard.
     But there was no mistaking the whippy left-arm action as Mohammad Amir ran into bowl against Somerset at Taunton last week or the "airplane" celebration that greeted his three first-innings wickets.
     It was a sight many fans would have been forgiven for thinking they would ever see again on an English field after Amir's career came to a dramatic and possibly terminal halt at Lord's in 2010.
     During that year's Test against England, Amir and Pakistan new-ball partner Mohammad Asif bowled no-balls to order on the instructions of their captain Salman Butt as part of a sting operation carried out by a tabloid newspaper.
     All three received five-year bans from cricket and, together with sports agent Mazhar Majeed, jail terms.
	There was a sense of shock and anger among cricket fans, although in Amir's case there was also an overwhelming 

Amir's career set to come full circle

Central Lisbon was taken over by dancing fans, faces painted red, green and yellow and waving national flags after Portugal's stunning win over France in the Euro 2016 final.
     Tens of thousands of screaming supporters flooded the streets to celebrate Portugal's 1-0 victory -- the country's first international title delivered even as superstar Cristiano Ronaldo watched injured from the touchline.
     "Champions, we are the champions of Europe!" crowds chanted in a fan zone in Lisbon.
	"Words fail me. We deserved it. We finally silenced the French and everyone who spoke ill of us. We proved that we are stronger," said 22-year-old Ruben Sardinha, a Portuguese flag tied around his neck.
	Fellow fan Carla Martins, with tears in her eyes, said she didn't doubt her team for a second.
    	"Portugal! Portugal!" she screamed before losing her voice. "I believed in us right until the end. We deserved it!"
    	But not everyone was so confident throughout. The crowd shuddered with fear ...

Elated Portugal fans dance to sweet victory

North Korea threatened today to take "physical action" after Washington and Seoul announced they would deploy a sophisticated US anti-missile defence system to counter the growing menace from Pyongyang.
	Seoul and Washington on Friday revealed their decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in the South following recent North Korean missile and nuclear tests.
	The two allies have not yet revealed exactly when and where the system, which fires projectiles to smash into enemy missiles, would be deployed but said they were in the final stage of selecting a potential venue.
	"The DPRK will take a physical counter-action to thoroughly control THAAD... From the moment its location and place have been confirmed in South Korea," the artillery bureau of the North's military said in a statement, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
	North Korea's military, which has "sufficient latest offensive strike means", will take "more merciless and .

N Korea threatens action over US anti-missile system

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has called on New Zealand to take urgent action to save the world's rarest dolphin from extinction, voicing "grave concern" about its future.
	Population numbers of the Maui's dolphin, the world's smallest and scarcest sub-species found only in waters off New Zealand's North Island, have dwindled to less than 50, prompting fears it could reach the point of no return without strong action, including a ban on fishing in its habitat.
	The IWC, in a report released over the weekend, said not enough was being done to prevent the dolphins becoming "bycatch" to the commercial fishing industry.
	"The IWC scientific committee expressed continued grave concern over the status of this small, severely depleted sub-species," it said.
	"Existing management measures in relation to bycatch mitigation fall short of what has been recommended previously."
	The IWC said Wellington had been saying since 2013 that it was researching the issue, but it had not taken 

IWC demands action on rare New Zealand dolphin

The European Championship ended with Portugal's stunning victory over France in the final -- the last shock in a tournament of giant-killing romance, vicious and gentle fans, the rise of Antoine Griezmann as an international star and Cristiano Ronaldo stretchered off in tears and still winning.
     Euro 2016 was not a classic for football purists but pure joy for anyone who revels in sporting upsets. For France, Euro 2016 was an antidote to terror attacks and weeks of social unrest until the final. Russian hooligans tested the hosts' security forces but Irish Republic fans sang their way into the hearts of French police.
     Expanded to 24 teams for the first time, some had expressed fears that the little nations would not be up to it. But Iceland, Wales and Portugal answered UEFA's prayers.
	Iceland beat England 2-1 in the last 16 in one of the biggest shocks in football history. Iceland scorer Ragnar Sigurdsson said England "panicked". English Football Association chief Martin ...

A Euro of giantkillers, Ronaldo and hooligans

A thundering out-of-the-blue shot by substitute Eder gave Portugal a shock 1-0 win over France in the European Championship final, delivering the country's first international title as superstar Cristiano Ronaldo watched injured from the touchline.
     Ronaldo was stretchered off in tears in the first half and limped on crying with joy again after his side delivered the final knockout blow in the month-long tournament of upsets.
     Hosts France dominated the game, as they had nearly every match since the start. But they could not break down a Portuguese defence in which man-of-the-match Pepe was majestic and goalkeeper Rui Patricio produced a string of dramatic saves.
     "It was not the final I wanted but I am very happy. It is a trophy for all Portuguese, for all immigrants, all the people who believed in us so I am very happy and very proud," said Ronaldo.
    	Up against a French team with a whole nation behind them, Portugal healed their own football wound from a shock they ..

Ronaldo's Portugal deliver final KO in Euro 2016 of shocks

Cristiano Ronaldo cried twice in the Euro 2016 final, once when he was stretchered off injured and again when he limped back on in joy after his Portugal teammates claimed a historic win over France.
     When he succumbed to a knee injury midway through the first half at the Stade de France last night, it looked set to be a miserable night for the three-time World Player of the Year.
     But substitute Eder's extra-time goal saw Portugal triumph 1-0 to stun the hosts and finally win their first major international trophy.
    	"Today I felt sadness and happiness. What I can say is that it was one of the happiest moments of my life. I cried," said Ronaldo, who later, despite his injury, danced his way through the mixed zone in Paris with several teammates, without stopping for waiting reporters.
    	In Ronaldo's absence it was the Lille forward Eder who emerged as the unlikely hero and the Real Madrid superstar insisted he had a feeling that would happen.
    	"I felt it would be ...

Ronaldo's Euro final turns from despair to joy

Strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake shakes Ecuador: USGS.

French police fired tear gas during clashes with a group of football supporters denied entry to a packed Eiffel Tower fan zone showing the Euro 2016 final between France and Portugal.
	The clashes took place outside the fan zone, which was closed before kick-off after reaching a maximum capacity of 90,000, causing disappointment and anger among those waiting to be admitted.
	The base of the Eiffel Tower was engulfed in clouds of tear gas as riot police repelled the youths, who started fires on the pavement and threw bottles and other objects at the police lines, AFP photographers said yesterday.
	Some of the demonstrators wore French flags knotted around their necks in a sign of support for the home side.
	The police, who had posted a message on Twitter and issued warnings in the metro informing supporters the fan zone was full, used water cannon to extinguish the blazes.

Clashes outside Eiffel Tower fan zone during Euro final

The UN's cultural agency met today in Istanbul to consider adding over two dozen new sites to its prestigious global heritage list, and called for a strong global response to the threats posed by extremism.
	The meeting of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO comes less than two weeks after the main airport in Istanbul was hit by a triple suicide attack that left 47 people dead and was blamed on Islamic State (IS) jihadists who have already destroyed irreplaceable heritage in Turkey's neighbours Syria and Iraq.
	UNESCO director general Irina Bokova told the opening ceremony of the 11-day session that world heritage was under threat in countries riven by unrest from Mali to Yemen.
	"Our response should be strong on the ground and also strong in a moral sense," she said.
	Bokova said the fact the committee was holding the meeting in Istanbul -- a city for centuries controlled by Christian Byzantines and since the Ottoman conquest by Muslims -- was a "strong symbol" of support to ...

AFP

AFP

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