IMF's Christine Lagarde should face trial in Tapie case:

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The European Union today formally extended damaging economic sanctions against Russia by six months due to a lack of progress in resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
	The measures target the oil, financial and defence sectors of the Russian economy and were first imposed after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014, blamed on pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.
	"On 1 July 2016, the (European) Council prolonged the economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy until 31 January 2017," the EU said in a statement.
	The EU said in a tweet in Russian that it was rolling over the sanctions because the provisions of the February 2015 Minsk peace deal aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict were "not fully implemented."
	EU ambassadors agreed on the extension in principle on June 21.
	French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefed fellow EU leaders on the progress of the Minsk agreements at a summit this ...

EU extends Russia sanctions to Jan 2017

Germany today warned its citizens to exercise particular caution if they travel to Turkey, following this week's deadly Istanbul airport attack.
	In an updated travel advisory after the bombings and shootings that killed 44 people, the German foreign ministry said "political tensions as well as violent clashes and terrorist attacks must still be expected" in Turkey.
	"Travellers to Istanbul, Ankara and other major cities in Turkey are urged to exercise heightened vigilance," it said on its website.
	"This applies in particular to public places and tourist attractions and generally to large groups of people and public transportation."
	Turkish authorities have blamed Islamic State jihadists for yesterday's assault on Ataturk airport and identified a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national as the alleged bombers.
	Nineteen foreigners were among the dead, with more than 200 people injured.
	Germany had already warned its citizens to avoid crowds and tourist sites in Turkey in January ...

Germany tightens Turkey travel advisory after Istanbul attack

British no-frills airline EasyJet announced today it has applied for an air operator certificate from the European Union to continue flying throughout the bloc after Brexit.
	The carrier said in a statement that it has begun a formal procedure to obtain an air operator certificate (AOC) to keep the status quo after Britain's vote to quit the EU cast doubts over airline routes.
	"EasyJet is lobbying the UK government and the EU to ensure the continuation of a fully liberal and deregulated aviation market within the UK and Europe," it said in a statement.
	"This would mean that EasyJet and all European airlines can continue to operate as they do today.
	"As part of EasyJet's contingency planning before the referendum we had informal discussions with a number of European aviation regulators about the establishment of an AOC in an European country to enable easyJet to fly across Europe as we do today.
	"EasyJet has now started a formal process to acquire an AOC," it added.
	The low-cost ..

EasyJet demands EU flights certificate after Brexit

A Russian spy attempted to recruit Lithuanian officials to bug the home of the Baltic NATO state's president, prosecutors said today.
	The case is the latest in a string of Cold War-style espionage affairs involving Russians in eastern NATO member nations amid intensified East-West tensions.
	Identified only as Russian FSB security service agent NF, the Russian citizen was charged with espionage, document forgery and illegally crossing the border, the prosecutors' office said in a statement.
	Recruitment efforts targeted security officials "in an attempt to install special listening devices" to bug President Dalia Grybauskaite at her home and office.
	The Russian has been under arrest since April 2015 after being detained on his way to Belarus on a train from the Kaliningrad region, Russia's westernmost outpost bordering Lithuania and Poland.
	The announcement, came a week before a NATO summit set to endorse a military build-up in eastern Europe to deter Russia.
	The efforts focus on .

Russia sought to bug Lithuanian president's home: prosecutors

Prince William has paid tribute to a generation lost at the Battle of the Somme, 100 years after the deadliest battle in British history.
	"We lost the flower of a generation and in the years to come it sometimes seemed that with them a sense of vital optimism had disappeared for ever from British life," William said at a ceremony in northern France.
	"It was in many ways the saddest day in the long story of our nation," he added, speaking on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the start of the World War I battle in which some 20,000 British soldiers died on the first day alone.
	William, his wife Kate and brother Prince Harry attended the start of an all-night vigil at the Thiepval memorial to honour the 1.2 million troops of different nationalities who were killed, injured or listed as missing.
	Soldiers from the UK, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, New Zealand and Pakistan will take turns maintaining the vigil until 7:30 AM (1100 IST), the precise time that tens .

100 years on, William pays tribute to lost Somme generation

China cement deal collapses amid oversupply woes

Anhui Conch Cement had offered nearly $600 million for a controlling stake in struggling West China Cement last year

Press Trust of India

Spanish police arrested today three Pakistani brothers who are suspected of spreading Islamic extremist propaganda via social media networks.
	Officers detained the men, aged between 25 and 31, in an early morning raid on their home in the northeastern city of Lleida, a police spokesman said.
	The brothers operated several social media accounts which they used to upload videos praising group executions carried out by Islamic State, the Taliban and other Pakistani extremist groups, police said in a statement.
	Police said the brothers had gathered a large group of followers in their attempts to spread jihadist ideology.
	The raid comes just three days after a gun and suicide bomb spree at Istanbul's Ataturk airport that killed 44 people and which Turkish officials said appeared to have been carried out by the Islamic State group.

Spain holds three Pakistani brothers for promoting extremism

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu today for the first time since Moscow and Ankara mended ties that were shattered by the downing of a Russian jet last year.
	"We hope that this encounter will set the right tone for the normalisation of relations," Lavrov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency at the start of their meeting on the sidelines of a regional economic cooperation conference in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
	Encounter comes after Moscow yesterday ended a ban on the sale of package tours to Turkey in the first step to ending broader sanctions slapped on Ankara after it shot down a Russian fighter jet on the Turkish-Syria border in November.
	The tourism move was agreed in a breakthrough phone call by leaders Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, after the Turkish strongman sent a letter that Moscow said contained an apology.
	Turkey has argued that the Russian plane strayed into its airspace and ignored ...

Russian and Turkish FMs hold first meeting since ties repaired

Six people were killed today when suspected Islamist gunmen fired on two buses in Kenya's far northeast close to the Somalia border, police said.
	"Police on the scene have found six persons shot dead," said police chief Joseph Boinnet. "The hunt for the terrorists is under way."
	Boinnet said two people were also injured. It was unclear whether the casualties were civilians or police officer guards aboard the buses.
	The early morning ambush happened near El Wak in Mandera county, an impoverished rural part of the country where similar deadly attacks in the past have been claimed by the Somali-led Al-Qaeda group, the Shabaab.
	The deadliest raid was in November 2014 when gunmen flagged down a commuter bus, separated passengers by religion and executed 28 non-Muslims.
	A similar raid in December last year left two people dead, after Muslim passengers shielded their Christian fellows.
	The Shabaab has fought to overthrow the internationally- backed government in Mogadishu since 2007, ..

6 killed in Kenya bus ambush

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has piled on around 40 kilos (90 pounds) since he took power four years ago, binging on food and drink, South Korea's spy agency said today.
	The young leader is also suffering from insomnia and is paranoid about his personal safety, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported to a parliamentary committee behind closed doors.
	When he took over from his late father in 2012, Kim's weight was believed to be 90 kilograms.
	He bulked up to 120 kilos in 2014 and then 130 kilos this year, a ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Cheol-Woo told journalists after the NIS briefing for lawmakers.
	"(According to NIS), he is suffering from insomnia", Lee added.
	"He keeps a close tab on any potential threats to his power, including the military, and he is obsessed with ensuring his personal safety".
	"Because of his habitual binge eating and drinking, he is likely to develop adult diseases", Lee said, citing the NIS report.
	On top of being grossly overweight, he .

Binging Kim Jong-Un piling on the pounds: Seoul's spies

Muslim pilgrims joining this year's hajj in Saudi Arabia will have to wear an electronic safety bracelet, newspapers reported today, after more than 2,000 died in a stampede last year.
	The high-tech safety measure will help authorities provide care "and identify people", the Arab News and Saudi Gazette reported.
	At least 2,297 pilgrims died during the stampede on September 24 during last year's hajj, according to data from foreign officials, some of whom expressed concerns about difficulty in identifying the victims.
	Saudi Arabia issued a death toll of 769. It was the worst disaster in hajj history.
	The bracelets are water resistant, connected to a GPS location system, and store each pilgrim's personal information including address and medical records, the newspapers said.
	Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the interior minister who also chairs the hajj committee, ordered a probe immediately after the stampede disaster last year but there has been no word on its findings.
	The ...

Hajj pilgrims to get e-bracelets for safety: media

With a cannon blast and a piercing whistle, Britain and France today marked 100 years since soldiers emerged from their trenches to begin one of the bloodiest battles of World War I at the River Somme.
	Under grey skies, unlike the clear sunny day that saw the biggest slaughter in British military history a century ago, the commemoration kicked off at the deep Lochnagar crater, created by the blast of mines placed under German positions two minutes before the attack began at 7:30 am on July 1, 1916.
	A lone piper walked around the edge of the crater at the ceremony, to be followed by a main event attended by the British royal family and Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as French President Francois Hollande and former German president Horst Koehler.
	The commemoration ceremony will be held at the Thiepval Memorial, which honours more than 72,000 missing servicemen.
	Just over a week after Britain's vote to leave the European Union, Hollande highlighted the friendship that saw ...

Britain, France mark 100 years since bloodiest WWI battle

Tens of thousands joined pro-Palestinian rallies in Tehran today, as the annual Quds Day protests take on broader meaning for a region mired in bitter disputes and war.
	Israel and its perceived supporters in the United States and Britain are still the main bogeymen of the Quds (Jerusalem) Day protests, which saw thousands more rally across Iran and in allied countries.
	But the focus has also turned to the deepening rivalry with Saudi Arabia and jihadists such as the Islamic State (IS) group.
	Sajad Saber, a 24-year-old student, said it was the first time he had attended the rally in Tehran - triggered by the death of a friend who had gone to fight in Syria.
	"(He) was my buddy and lived in our neighbourhood. He was killed by Daesh recently in Aleppo," said Saber, using the Arabic name for IS.
	Iran is fighting IS and other jihadist groups in Syria as part of its support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
	Huge groups of protesters converged on Tehran University under a blistering ...

Iran anti-Israel protests reflect regional tensions

A woman was killed and three children wounded when their car was hit by shrapnel from a bomb in a restive Shiite-majority district outside the Bahraini capital Manama, police said today.
	The evening blast struck in the village of East Akar yesterday, one of a string of suburbs of the capital that have seen persistent unrest since the Gulf state's Sunni minority rulers crushed Shiite-led protests for a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.
	Most of the disturbances have involved demonstrators throwing petrol bombs at police, who have deployed heavily in Shiite areas as authorities have carried out an intensifying crackdown on the majority community's leaders.
	A police statement carried by the official BNA news agency gave no other details of the explosion.
	A court's decision last this month to strip the kingdom's Shiite spiritual leader, Sheikh Isa Qassim, of his citizenship sparked protests in his home village outside Manama.
	The authorities' crackdown has 

Bomb shrapnel kills woman, wounds 3 kids: Bahrain police

A California jury today ordered business software giant Oracle to pay Hewlett Packard Enterprise USD 3 billion dollars for backing off a promise to support data servers powered by Itanium chips.
	Oracle said it had acted properly in the situation and that it planned to appeal to a higher court.
	"Two trials have now demonstrated clearly that the Itanium chip was nearing end of life, HP knew it, and was actively hiding that fact from its customers," Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley said in a released statement.
	"Five years ago, Oracle made a software development announcement which accurately reflected the future of the Itanium microprocessor."
	HPE argued that Oracle breached a contract when it decided in 2011 to stop offering products running on HP servers powered by Itanium chips made by Intel.
	Oracle contended it never believed it had a contract to indefinitely make its software work on Itanium servers, noting that HP and Intel stopped developing the systems years ago.
	An ...

Oracle told to pay HP $3 billion in chip dispute

Serbia's Viktor Troicki launched a vintage tennis rant at Wimbledon on Thursday, blasting an umpire as an "idiot" and lambasting him for being "the worst in the world".
     Fiery Troicki, the 25th seed, slumped to a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 defeat to Spain's Albert Ramos Vinolas after slipping to match point down on a controversial over-rule by umpire Damiano Torella.
     A serve from the Spaniard had been called out but the decision was corrected making it an ace. Troicki was furious, carrying the ball back to the chair on Court 17, telling the official to "look at it".
     "No white, look at it!" shouted Troicki, as he pleaded with the official to look for chalk dust.
     "Come on please, look at it, once, once! Look at it. You're the worst umpire in the world, you're so bad," screamed Troicki, who received a code violation for his behaviour after smashing the ball in question out of the court.
     He lost the match on the next point but continued his rant as Torella climbed ...

Troicki in 'you're an idiot, worst in world' Wimbledon rant

Venus Williams called on Wimbledon schedule makers to treat female stars with the same respect as male champions after she was shunted out to unglamourous Court 18 on Thursday.
     Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion, was a surprise choice to play on one of the All England Club's smaller outside courts for her 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 over Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari.
     Former Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova tweeted "it stinks" when she learnt of the scheduling move.
     Venus, 36, was followed on to the court by Australian Open champion and fourth seed Angelique Kerber, while on Centre Court, Japan's Kei Nishikori faced France's Julien Benneteau in a match between two players without a Major title.
     On Court One, Wimbledon's second largest arena, Grigor Dimitrov and Gilles Simon clashed, while Dominic Thiem and Jiri Vesely also played -- with none of them having won a Grand Slam.
     In contrast, Venus has seven Major titles to her credit and, while she said she had no ..

Venus calls for court equality at Wimbledon

Brazilian striker Neymar will sign a new five-year contract with Barcelona this week, his agents said Thursday, ending speculation over his future at the Spanish champions.
     The international, 24, is widely regarded as one of the finest talents in world football and is part of the much-feared attacking trident alongside Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez at Barcelona.
     "The athlete, along with his family, has decided to stay with FC Barcelona and will renew his contract for five more years," said NN Consultoria, the agency representing the international forward, 24.
     "The contract will be formalised this week. The decision puts an end to speculation about the star's future."
     Neymar wrote on Twitter:"I am very happy to continue living this dream. Long live Barca and long live Catalonia!"
     The Catalan club's president Josep Maria Bartomeu had earlier rejected rumours over Neymar's possible transfer to another club, with Manchester United among the teams supposedly chasing 

Neymar agrees new five-year Barcelona deal

Vicente del Bosque quit as Spain's coach after the defending champions crashed out of Euro 2016, ending one of football's most successful managerial dynasties.
     Del Bosque, 65, won a World Cup and a European Championship in a glorious era for Spanish football. He also won the Champions League twice with Real Madrid.
     His legacy was tainted by Spain's disastrous first round exit at the 2014 World Cup and now their defeat in the last 16 at the European Championship. Some of the team's greatest players are also expected to retire soon.
     "Without a doubt, I have no intention to remain as coach, but you have to be discreet," Del Bosque told Spanish public radio RNE late on Thursday.
     "No matter what the result of the Euros, I had no doubt about what my future would be. I have handled this issue discreetly. But it is a decision that was taken in advance."
     Spain were eliminated from Euro 2016 on Monday after a meek 2-0 defeat to Italy.
     Marca newspaper said ...

Del Bosque quits after Spain fail at Euro 2016

Europe's titans clash on Saturday when Germany and Italy meet in the plum Euro 2016 quarter-final with huge stakes for both countries.
     Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is poised to make his first start in the Bordeaux match, while Italy's veteran defender Daniele de Rossi faces a race to be fit.
     Like two heavyweight boxers eyeing up their opponent before the first bell, both teams have talked up the respect factor and down played the significance of Italy winning the last eight meetings at major tournaments.
     In the most recent matches, Italy claimed a 2-1 win in the Euro 2012 semi-finals while Germany romped to a 4-1 win in a meaningless friendly in March.
     Joachim Loew's Germany insists they have no 'Italy trauma' as they look to beat the Azzurri at the ninth attempt on a big stage and throw off their Italian shackles.
     Antonio Conte's Italy has compared taking on the world champions as football's equivalent of 'climbing Everest'. Italy have their own ...

AFP

AFP

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