Charging bulls injured 14 people, including an Indian, today during the annual San Fermin festival in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, local officials said.
	Those hurt as bulls were let loose through the city's narrow streets included four US citizens, an Indian, a Portuguese a Briton and a South African, according to the local government.
	A South African man, 73, and a 58-year-old Spanish resident of Pamplona were in a serious condition after being gored, the Navarre regional government said on its website.
	Two other Americans and an Indian were also gored without sustaining serious injuries, it said.
	A 53-year-old American woman was hospitalised for trauma.
	Pamplona is host to the most famous of Spain's many bull-running festivals, where hundreds of people try to outrun six charging bulls over 800 metres (yards).
	As often happens, on Friday bulls tossed several people into the air and pinned others to the ground as participants pulled their tails and grabbed their ...

Pamplona bulls injure 14

PTI Automatic

A Nigerian militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, today said it had blown up another oil pipeline in the restive south of the country.
	"At about 3:00 am (0200 GMT) to 5:00 am, the Niger Delta Avengers blew up Nembe 1, 2 and 3 trunkline in Bayelsa/Rivers states," spokesman Mudoch Agbinibo said in a statement.
	Desmond Agu, of the Nigerian Civil Defence and Security Corps (NCDSC) earlier confirmed the attack on the Tebidaba-Brass pipeline.
	"Reports from the swamp area indicate that... A gang of heavily armed youths with two double 200-horsepower speedboats used explosives to blast three different points."
	The pipeline in Bayelsa state, owned by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, a local subsidiary of Italian oil major Eni, has been repeatedly attacked.
	On Monday, an oil well-head operated by Chevron was attacked in Delta state.
	An investigation has been launched to determine the extent of the damage in the latest incident, said Agu.
	The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has claimed ...

Militant group claims another oil pipeline blast in Nigeria

The United States will deploy 1,000 troops and a separate brigade headquarters to Poland, President Barack Obama announced today, as the NATO alliance shores up its defences in eastern Europe.
	The US troops in Poland are part of a larger NATO effort which will see three other battalions led by Canada, Germany and Britain deployed to the three Baltic states to reassure the alliance's eastern allies in the face of a more aggressive Russia.
	"As the Alliance prepares to enhance our forward presence in eastern Europe, I can announce that the United States will be the lead nation for the NATO presence here in Poland,"
	Obama told reporters as Poland's President Andrzej Duda welcomed him to the NATO summit in Warsaw.
	"And that means the United States will deploy a battalion, roughly 1,000 American soldiers here in Poland on a rotational basis to serve shoulder to shoulder with Polish soldiers," he said.
	"In addition, when a new US armoured brigade begins rotating through Europe next ...

US to deploy 1,000 troops for NATO battalion in Poland

US employers added new workers at a surprisingly strong rate in June after an unnerving stall in May, delivering a fresh sign of US economic strength, the Labor Department reported today.
	Private businesses and government authorities generated 287,000 new positions last month, 112,000 more than analysts had expected.
	That largely compensated for the poor numbers from May that had shocked policymakers and markets, sending the dollar lower and contributing to the Federal Reserve's decision last month to put off an interest rate hike.
	May's job creation numbers in fact were revised downward in today's data from the original 38,000 reported to just 11,000.
	June's hiring levels boosted the monthly average of the last three months to a solid 147,000, which economists say is at least adequate to keep up with the steady increase in the size of the US workforce.
	"That economic pause you were worried about? It never happened," tweeted University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers.
	The ..

US adds huge 287,000 jobs in June

US Capitol building on lockdown: official. (AFP)

Six people were killed today when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque in Damboa, northeast Nigeria, the army said, in the latest violence to hit the restive region.
	Nigerian Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said the attack happened at about 5:15 am (0415 GMT) in the town of Damboa, some 90 kilometres (56 miles) southwest of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
	He blamed the attack on "two Boko Haram terrorists".
	"The first suicide bomber targeted Damboa Central Mosque but due to stringent security measures he could not gain entry. Obviously frustrated, he exploded and died near the central mosque," he added.
	"However, the second bomber veered off and gained entry into another smaller mosque and detonated the bomb, killing himself and six other worshippers and injuring one other person.
	The wounded have been evacuated to a hospital while efforts are on to clear the rubble. Troops and other security agencies have been mobilised to the area."
	The attack is the latest ...

Six killed in 'Boko Haram' suicide attack in NE Nigeria: army

Spanish investigators today dropped a corruption case against Brazilian superstar Neymar and his father in relation to the player's 2013 transfer to Barcelona.
     The case had been brought by the Brazilian investment fund DIS, former owners of the player's rights.
     But a judge ruled that the case "cannot be pursued in the criminal courts", according to a statement by Spain's High Court.

Spanish investigators drop Neymar case

The Philippines is willing to share natural resources with Beijing in contested South China Sea areas even if it wins a legal challenge next week, Foreign Secretary said today.
	Yasay said President Rodrigo Duterte's administration hoped to quickly begin direct talks with China following Tuesday's verdict, with the negotiations to cover jointly exploiting natural gas reserves and fishing grounds within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.
	"We can even have the objective of seeing how we can jointly explore this territory: how we can utilise and benefit mutually from the utilisation of the resources in this exclusive economic zone where claims are overlapping," Yasay told AFP in an interview.
	The Philippines, under Benigno Aquino's previous administration, filed in 2013 a legal challenge with a UN-backed tribunal in The Hague contesting China's claims to nearly all of the strategically vital sea.
	China's claims reach almost to the coasts of the Philippines and some other ...

Philippines willing to share South China Sea: Govt

Among the crowds thronging the Euro 2016 fanzone at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate are new faces cheering in beginners' German -- refugees who have discovered their hosts' unbounded passion for the beautiful game.
	"In Iraq, this would be completely impossible, the danger of a bombing is too great" said Zaid Al-Ahmed, a 22-year-old Iraqi, as he stood among the black, red and gold-clad mass -- the colours of the German flag -- during Thursday's semi-final against France that saw the nation's hopes of a World Cup-Euro championship double dashed.
     "It's not uncommon for there to be brawls among fans of opposing teams. In Germany, people are there to celebrate, it isn't violent," the young man from the city of Al-Hillah adds.
	Ahmed followed the first few games of the tournament on a donated flat-screen TV in the refugee hostel where he lives.
	But he could not have imagined the fervent support for the side -- known universally as "Die Mannschaft", the team -- that he would encounter at ...

Germans' football passion delights refugees

South Korean swimming star Park Tae-Hwan, who was barred from the Olympics for doping, will compete for the national team in Rio after the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) ruled in his favour.
     The multiple Olympic medallist had sought "an urgent ruling" from the Lausanne-based body against his doping ban by July 8 -- the deadline for South Korea to select their Rio swimming team.
	"We will include Park Tae-Hwan in the list of national athletes who will take part in the Rio Olympics", Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) Secretary General Cho Young-Ho was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
	Park, 26, was slapped with an 18-month suspension after testing positive for an anabolic steroid in out-of-competition controls before the 2014 Asian Games.
	The ban lapsed in April, but Park remained barred from the 2016 Olympics under a KOC rule which prohibits athletes from representing the country for three years after a doping ban expires.
	CAS ruled Friday that KOC's extended ban ...

S Korea to include Park for Rio Olympics

US President Barack Obama today warned it was in no one's interest that talks on Britain leaving the European Union be drawn out or difficult.
	"No one has an interest in protracted, adversarial negotiations," Obama said after meeting European Council head Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker at a NATO summit dominated by Britain's post-EU future.
	The two-day NATO summit gathering 28 member state leaders in Warsaw was initially meant to focus on Russia after the Ukraine crisis but Britain's shock vote to quit the EU was on everyone's mind as the potential political, security and economic repercussions become clearer.
	Obama said that despite the problems posed by Brexit, European integration was crucial and the United States had a major interest in its continued success.
	"Even as we face the difficulties of this moment we cannot lose sight of the extraordinary achievement that European integration continues to be," he said, praising the bloc's shared values .

Obama warns against 'adversarial' Brexit negotiations

A Japanese satellite recorded unprecedented observations of the Perseus galaxy before it disappeared from contact, scientists said, offering precious new information about how gas travels in the faraway cluster.
	The pricey ultra-high-tech "Hitomi" -- or eye -- was launched in February to find X-rays emanating from black holes and galaxy clusters.
	But in March researchers said they had lost control of the satellite and after desperate attempts to reestablish communication gave up their salvage effort the following month.
	Though a major disappointment, scientists say the endeavour was not a total flop: Hitomi's quarter-of-a-billion dollar kit managed to observe the Perseus galaxy cluster, some 250 million light years from Earth, with its X-ray spectrometer.
	The satellite "observed movement of gas at the cluster's heart for the first time," the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a statement yesterday.
	"With the observed data, we learnt that the movement of the gas was ...

Japan satellite made 'surprise' find before failure

Ferrari ended months of speculation on Friday when they confirmed that their popular Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen is to stay with the team next year.
	   Ferrari made the announcement at the British Grand Prix where they are bidding to stop Mercedes' domination of the 2016 season.
	   The announcement puts a stop to all the rumours that had seen several rival drivers linked with his seat alongside four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.
	   Raikkonen said: "I've always said I would not be here if I didn't enjoy it, or felt that I can't drive, or do it 100 per cent.
	   "If I wasn't motivated, I wouldn't be here wasting my own time or the team's time. I've always said, nearly 10 years ago, that my last team would be Ferrari and it's still like that.
	   "What happens in the future I don't know. Time will tell, but I usually don't make plans for a very long future."
	   Raikkonen won the 2007 world championship with Ferrari in his first stint before rejoining from Lotus in 2014.
	   He ...

Raikkonen to stay at Ferrari next year

Five soldiers have been killed in a shootout in South Sudan's capital Juba, army and former rebel officials said today, in the latest blow to a shaky peace deal.
	"There were military clashes yesterday (Thursday) around 8 pm. Five soldiers have been killed in the incident," said Nyarji Roman, a spokesman for rebel leader turned vice president Riek Machar.
	The clashes took place two days before South Sudan marks the fifth anniversary of its independence from Sudan.
	Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told reporters that five soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir were killed and two wounded in the shootout at a checkpoint in the city's Gudele neighbourhood.
	An August 2015 peace deal was supposed to end the civil war that began in December 2013 when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup. But Machar did not return to the capital until April, and fighting has continued despite the establishment of the unity government.
	Yesterday's violence is believed to be the first direct clashes between 

Five soldiers killed in S Sudan clashes

Thirteen people have died in Sudan when two buses collided on a highway south of the capital Khartoum, police said.
	The crash that left another 28 people injured occurred on a highway connecting Khartoum and the state of Jazeera late yesterday.
	The collision came as people continued to mark Eid al-Fitr festival after the ending of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
	Deadly road crashes are a regular occurrence in Sudan with road accidents often seeing a surge during Ramadan.
	According to Sudanese media this year the country's traffic police deployed additional personnel to monitor traffic on highways between Khartoum and other states.

13 dead in Sudan road crash: police

Singapore police said today they are hunting a man who managed to steal more than USD 22,000 from a bank using nothing but a piece of paper.
	The suspect, described as caucasian, strolled into a Standard Chartered branch in an expatriate enclave of the city around lunchtime yesterday and handed staff a note with his demands.
	Minutes later, he walked out of the branch with SGD 30,000 (USD 22,200) in cash, said a source close to the investigation, who asked not to be named.
	A police spokesman confirmed the robbery and said no weapon was used, but gave no details of the note's contents.
	The local Straits Times newspaper said police were searching for an Australian man.
	Bank robberies are rare in Singapore, whose tough stance against crime and strict ban on private gun ownership have made it one of Asia's safest cities.
	The last attempt was in November 2008 when a man disguised himself as a woman threatened tellers with what he called a "bomb" in a paper bag. He was restrained by ...

Singapore police hunt bank 'note' robber

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due today to meet South African President Jacob Zuma on the second leg of an African tour aimed at boosting ties in a region where rival China has a strong presence.
	Modi, who arrived from Mozambique, will head on to Tanzania and Kenya on an itinerary aimed at demonstrating India's engagement in the continent.
	"South Africa is an important strategic partner, with whom our ties are historical and deep-rooted," he said ahead of his arrival in Pretoria.
	Modi will attend a thousands-strong Indian diaspora gathering at a stadium in Johannesburg in the evening before visiting Durban, the heart of the Indian community in South Africa, tomorrow.
	India's economic footprint in Africa is dwarfed by that of China, whose trade with the continent topped USD 200 billion last year.
	India is gaining ground, however, led by private entrepreneurs with a keen interest in the continent's burgeoning energy sector.
	"China has been far more active for many years .

India's Modi to meet Zuma on Africa tour

Dior today named Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri as its new creative director, making her the first woman to lead the iconic French fashion house.
	The 52-year-old left the Italian label Valentino today, paving the way for her appointment.
	She will present her first show in Paris on September 30, the company said, following in the steps of legendary founder Christian Dior and such designers as Yves Saint Laurent, Gianfranco Ferre and John Galliano.
	Dior has been without a leader since the shock departure of the Belgian Raf Simons last October, which sparked soul-searching in the industry about the pressure creators were now under.
	Valentino will now be in the sole charge of Chiuri's longtime creative partner Pierpaolo Piccioli.
	Together, Chiuri and Piccioli were credited with giving Valentino back its fizz, making it one of the most profitable designer brands in Europe.

Maria Grazia Chiuri named Dior's new creative director

Germany coach Joachim Loew refused to commit himself to stay beyond the next World Cup campaign as he picked through the wreckage of the country's Euro 2016 exit.
	Antoine Griezmann scored twice in Marseille on Thursday to guide France to a 2-0 win and book a place in Sunday's European Championship final against Portugal.
	The world champions crashed out, but Loew said Germany had been the better team on the night.
	"We were the better team, we invested a lot (in the match)," said Loew.
	Asked about whether he intended to stay on after the 2018 World Cup in Russia, he said: "I'm still disappointed so I don't want to think about that tonight.
	"How I cope with that is difficult to answer, we haven't discussed beforehand what we would do after a loss, we will talk about that in a few days.
	"We'll talk about it on the flight home, but this has been a good tournament for us."
	Loew and his players were bitterly disappointed at the defeat having had the lion's share of possession in a ...

Beaten Loew keeps Germany future open

He rejected comparisons with Michel Platini but Antoine Griezmann is fast becoming a France legend after a two-goal haul against Germany fired the hosts into Sunday's Euro 2016 final against Portugal.
	   Amid the controversial absence of Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, France have found a new hero in the diminutive striker.
	   With six goals already in his first European Championships, Griezmann is only three short of equalling Platini's record of nine goals at the 1984 tournament.
	   The 25-year-old Atletico Madrid forward showed grit, courage and an embarrassment of skill on his way to a second man-of-the-match performance in the 2-0 victory.
	   "He's a great player. He showed what kind of generous player he is tonight," said France coach Didier Deschamps.
	   "In this Euro, he's been decisive for us. He can score, and he can help others score."
	   Benzema, who was sidelined from the squad before the tournament over his alleged role in the sextape blackmail of teammate ...

Griezmann is France's new 'Mr Extra'

Nineteen people, including 12 Pakistani nationals, have been arrested in Saudi Arabia following suicide attacks on Monday, including one near Islam's second-holiest site in the city of Medina, the kingdom's Interior Ministry said today.
	Seven people are believed to have been killed and two wounded in three separate attacks -- in Medina, at a Shiite mosque in Qatif, and in western Jeddah, the economic capital, not far from the US consulate.
	A 26-year-old Saudi man, Naer Moslem Hammad al-Balawi, who had a "history of drug use" had been identified as the perpetrator of the Medina attack, the ministry said in a statement published by the official SPA news agency.
	The Qatif attack, it added, was carried out by three "terrorists," including one man named as Abderrahman Saleh Mohammed al-Amr, 23, who it said was known to the security services for taking part in protests.
	The Jeddah attacker was a Pakistani man identified as Abdullah Qalzar Khan, a driver who had been living in the city ..

AFP

AFP

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