Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today described as a "revolution" the protests that led to the army ousting his Islamist predecessor, in remarks on the third anniversary of the demonstrations.
	Millions took to the streets of Cairo and other cities on June 30, 2013 to call for the removal of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, whose one-year rule had been deeply divisive.
	Sisi, then the army chief, gave Morsi a 48-hour ultimatum to respond to "the people's demands" before ordering the military to overthrow and detain him.
	Egypt is celebrating "this revolution, with which the Egyptian people have regained their identity and corrected its path... Proved to the whole world that their will cannot be broken nor curbed," Sisi said in a speech broadcast on national television."
	His decision to order the removal of Morsi unleashed protests by the Islamist's supporters, and in turn a crackdown in which hundreds of demonstrators were killed.
	Sisi army chief was elected president a year 

Egypt president defends army overthrow of Islamists

PTI Automatic

Four priests of the Catholic diocese of Lyon in eastern France have been relieved of their duties for sexual abuse, a diocesan source said today.
	A panel of experts recommended the measure, the source added, declining to say whether the clerics had already been named since the diocese's predator priest scandal came to light in March, rocking France's Catholic Church.
	French judicial authorities are aware of all four dossiers, the source said.
	The dismissals come three weeks after Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, was questioned by police over allegations that he covered up the sexual abuse of boy scouts.
	One of France's most powerful Catholic leaders, Barbarin has been accused of failing to remove a priest, Bernard Preynat, from his diocese when he became aware the man had sexually abused young boys 25 years ago.
	Preynat was relieved of his duties last year.
	Pope Francis issued a decree early in June that senior Catholic officials guilty of negligence in child .

France's Lyon diocese sacks four priests for sex abuse

The International Monetary Fund said today that Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union a week ago has created uncertainty that poses a major threat to the global economy.
	"We see the uncertainty right now as probably the biggest risk to the global economy," said IMF spokesman Gerry Rice, calling on European leaders and other policymakers to take "decisive" actions that could lower the threat.
	The European Union and Britain face negotiations on the Brexit that are expected to be difficult and protracted.
	European Union leaders say that until Britain formally begins exit proceedings, no talks can begin - formally or informally - on resetting Britain's ties with the EU, a process meant to last two years.
	British Prime Minister David Cameron, who resigned after the June 23 Brexit vote, has resisted pressure to immediately activate the Article 50 mechanism to leave the EU, saying he is leaving it to his successor, who will not be named until September 9.
	"Brexit has created .

IMF says Brexit uncertainty a top risk to global economy

The US Navy is to discipline eight officers and enlisted personnel after Iran briefly captured two small patrol boats in a humiliating incident in January, an official said today.
	"Eight sailors will face non-judicial punishment," a US Navy official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	A ninth person involved in the case, a captain, has already been fired but will not face additional disciplinary action, the official said.
	A report released today details a litany of problems in the January 12 incident, pointing out a string of leadership and training flaws.
	Ten sailors were briefly held by Iran after their two boats were intercepted in Iranian waters near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.
	Iranian media broadcast humiliating images of the US sailors during their detention, showing them kneeling on their boats at gunpoint with their hands on their heads.
	Though the sailors were held for less than 24 hours, the incident was a major embarrassment for the US Navy and ...

US Navy to discipline eight over capture by Iran at sea

An Egyptian Coptic priest was shot dead today in the Sinai Peninsula where authorities are battling a jihadist insurgency, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
	Raphael Moussa, 46, died instantly when a man shot him in the head as he was standing next to his car in El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai, said Boulos Halim, a church spokesman.
	The Islamic State group's Egypt branch claimed responsibility for the murder in a statement posted on social media, accusing him of "combating Islam".
	Moussa had earlier left a church where he attended mass, Halim said.
	The interior ministry said the priest was gunned down after having gone to an area of El-Arish with mechanics to have his car repaired.
	The IS affiliate in restive Sinai has waged an insurgency that has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.
	It has kept up the attacks, mostly roadside bombings and ambushes, despite a massive military campaign to uproot jihadists from the peninsula bordering ...

Egypt Coptic priest shot dead in IS-claimed Sinai attack

Washington and Reykjavik have signed a deal authorising the occasional return of US forces to Iceland -- a NATO member with no military of its own -- amid rising tensions with Moscow, Iceland's foreign ministry said today.
	"The security environment in Europe, including in the North Atlantic, has changed for the past 10 years and Icelandic and US authorities agree on the need to reflect this in a new declaration," Iceland's Foreign Minister Lilja Alfredsdottir said in a statement.
	"In particular, we want, in this new declaration, to highlight the rotational presence of US military forces in Iceland, which constitutes a gradation in our cooperation," she added.
	The United States has guaranteed Iceland's defense since 1951 following an agreement between the two countries.
	During World War II, the Keflavik military base was a key US base and it remained important to the NATO alliance during the Cold War.
	Its usefulness to the alliance then dwindled over the years, prompting ...

US, Iceland beef up defence deal on rising Russian threat

Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has applied to world athletics governing body IAAF to compete at the Rio Olympics despite Russia's ban, athletics authorities in Moscow said today.
     "Isinbayeva sent her application on Wednesday," Alla Glushchenko, the spokeswoman for the Russian athletics federation, told AFP.
     The IAAF voted this month to maintain Russia's suspension over evidence of state-sponsored doping in athletics but left the door ajar for a few clean Russian athletes to compete in Rio as neutrals.
     The IAAF proposed that Russian athletes apply for reinstatement on a case-by-case basis based on drug testing from credible programmes outside Russia.
     Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has said that 67 Russian athletes will submit individual applications but no list of the names has been released.
     Glushchenko said that world champion hurdler Sergey Shubenkov and long jumper Daria Klishina had also submitted their applications to IAAF in the past days.
     ...

Russian star Isinbayeva applies to compete in Rio

- The Bangladesh national cricket board has cleared young paceman Mustafizur Rahman to play for English county team Sussex after fears he was suffering burnout, a senior official said on Thursday.
     The 20-year-old bowling sensation, nicknamed 'Fizz', was scheduled to join Sussex earlier this month after signing as their second overseas cricketer in March for the NatWest T20 Blast tournament and the Royal London One-Day Cup.
     But his participation was thrown into uncertainty by the Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB's) medical team, which feared that the cricketer might be burnt out after gruelling campaigns in the ICC World Twenty20 and Indian Premier League.
     "Our medical team has given a positive report about Mustafizur Rahman's physical condition," BCB spokesman Jalal Yunus told AFP.
     "He is doing fine in training at the moment and we expect him to improve by the time he leaves for the UK. He will leave for England on July 13 subject to visa availability," he said.
    

Bangladesh's Mustafizur gets clearance for Sussex

Apple is being sued by China's media regulator over rights to an obscure patriotic film, a Beijing court said today, in the latest legal battle for the US tech giant in one of its crucial overseas markets.
	China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) claims that Apple has violated its exclusive online broadcast rights to the 1994 movie "Xuebo Dixiao" -- whose title roughly translates to "Blood-Splatter our Strong Enemies" -- by allowing viewers to access the film on the "Youku HD" app downloadable via the company's online store.
	SAPPRFT has filed suit against both Apple and the Chinese video streaming platform Youku, according to a statement posted on the official website of the Beijing Haidian District People's Court, where the case has been received.
	SAPPRFT believed the violation had cost the organization "huge economic losses", the court statement said.
	The little-known movie in question tells the tale of a young patriotic Chinese ...

Apple sued over obscure film by China's media regulator: court

Nine Asian workers were killed and 12 others injured in a fire today at an old building used to house expat labourers in Kuwait City, the health ministry said.
	The ministry, quoted by state news agency KUNA, said all the victims were Indians or Pakistanis. At least five of the injured were in critical condition.
	The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
	Last week, a blaze at the Gulf state's central jail killed one inmate and wounded 56 other people, including a fireman.
	Expatriate workers, mostly from the Indian subcontinent, make up around 70 percent of oil-rich Kuwait's 4.3-million population.

9 Indians, Pakistanis die in Kuwait fire

The US market regulator is examining Japanese mobile giant SoftBank over misconduct allegations lodged against its former president Nikesh Arora, who quit last week, a report said today.
	The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to find out whether Arora had conflicts of interest or engaged in questionable behaviour, Bloomberg News reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
	The watchdog was also eyeing SoftBank's disclosures to investors, it said, adding that the inquiry was a preliminary step and does not guarantee further action against the company or its former executive.
	"SoftBank Group does not comment on press reports of (US) regulatory inquiries," the company said in a statement today in response to the report.
	India-born Arora, once seen as SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son's heir apparent, stepped down last week just two years after being plucked from a high-profile job at Google.
	Son told an annual shareholders meeting he had changed his mind ...

US regulators probe SoftBank over misconduct claims: report

South Africa's Competition Tribunal approved today the blockbuster buyout of SABMiller by the world's top brewer AB InBev, subject to conditions, paving the way towards completion of the huge deal.
	Conditions include the sale of SABMiller's stake in Distell Group, as South Africa's regulator moved to protect competition and prevent job losses in the country's struggling economy.
	AB InBev's acquisition of the London-based SABMiller was valued at USD 121-billion when it was announced in November and in line to be the third largest in history if it clears all regulatory hurdles.
	But it is now worth considerably less given the plunge in the value of the pound after Britain's vote to leave the European Union.
	Current exchange rates put the value of the acquisition around USD 106.5 billion for Belgium-based AB InBev.
	"The Competition Tribunal approved the merger between beer giants Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) and SABMiller plc subject to wide ranging conditions designed to address .

S Africa approves AB InBev takeover of SABMiller

A Taiwanese steel mill has agreed to pay USD 500 million compensation for discharging pollution that decimated Vietnam's fishing industry in several central provinces this year, officials said today.
	Tonnes of dead fish, including rare species that live far offshore, began washing up along Vietnam's central coastline in April and activists have been demanding answers ever since.
	After weeks of investigation, Vietnamese officials laid the blame on Formosa, a Taiwanese conglomerate that is building a multi-billion-dollar steel plant in the area where the fish died.
	"Violation and mistakes" in building the Formosa plant caused the pollution and "abnormal mass fish deaths", according to Mai Tien Dung, chairman of the government's office.
	The plant is still under construction.
	Dung said Formosa, which has a history of environmental scandals spanning the globe, has agreed to pay $500 million in compensation for the incident, which hammered the local seafood industry and sparked public .

Vietnam says Taiwanese steel mill to pay $500m for pollution

A member of Indonesia's notoriously corrupt police is to be honoured for refusing to accept bribes during his 40-year career, instead scavenging garbage to supplement his meagre salary, an official said today.
	While many countries give awards for police bravery, Indonesian authorities have decided to honour policeman Seladi, 57, after he became a media sensation when the story of his determination not to accept kickbacks emerged.
	The police in Indonesia are considered one of the country's most graft-ridden institutions. They are accused of regularly extorting bribes from the public, being involved in the drugs trade, and have been embroiled in numerous high-profile corruption cases.
	But father-of-three Seladi -- who like many Indonesians goes by only one name -- insists he always refused bribes despite only earning the equivalent of about $400 a month and facing much temptation, as he worked in the department that issued driving licences in the city of Malang, on Java island.
	"In .

Indonesian policeman to be honoured for refusing bribes

Hamza Attou, who helped key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam flee to Brussels, has been charged and taken into custody in France, the Paris prosecutor said today.
	   The 22-year-old Belgian has been charged over his role in accompanying Abdeslam back to Brussels shortly after the Islamic State-claimed attacks in the French capital on November 13 left 130 dead and hundreds more wounded.
	   Another man, Mohamed Amri, was in the car, when they got past three police checks in France before crossing the border into Belgium.
	   France is seeking Amri's extradition as well as that of Ali Oulkadi, who dropped Abdeslam off at a Brussels address on November 14.
	   Belgium handed Attou over to France on Wednesday, the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said earlier.
	   Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the 10-man jihadist team that attacked Paris, was extradited to France in April.

Accomplice of key Paris attacks suspect charged: prosecutor

Accomplice of key Paris attacks suspect charged:

Google's offices in Madrid were being searched in a tax probe today, an internal source said, just over a month after police raided the US internet giant in Paris in a similar investigation.
	"We obey Spain's tax legislation as we do in every country that we operate in," the company said in an official statement, adding it was currently cooSperating with authorities.
	According to the El Mundo daily, which broke the story, authorities suspect Google -- which has its European headquarters in Ireland -- of not declaring part of its activities in Spain.
	Google is one of several multi-national corporations that have come under fire in Europe for paying extremely low taxes by shifting revenue across borders in an often complex web of financial arrangements.
	Google CEO Sundar Pichai has defended the firm's tax practices in the past.
	"We're advocating strongly for a simpler global tax system," he said in Paris early this year.

Google's Madrid offices searched in tax probe: internal source

Malaysia Airlines, which has been struggling since twin disasters in 2014, has appointed a new CEO following the resignation of a troubleshooter brought in to turn around the ailing carrier.
	Peter Bellew, currently the airline's chief operating officer and a former director of flight operations at Ryanair, will take over effective Friday.
	"His appointment will ensure continuity and further progress of the overall restructuring effort," state investment fund Khazanah Nasional said in a statement.
	German turnaround specialist Christoph Mueller, who was hired last year, launched a painful rescue plan that entailed slashing 6,000 jobs and dramatically trimming the carrier's route network.
	But in April, he said he was leaving, well before the end of his three-year contract, for unspecified "personal reasons".
	Khazanah took Malaysia Airlines private in 2014, as part of a 6.0 billion ringgit (USD 1.5 billion) plan to help it return to profit.
	The devastating MH370 and MH17 disasters in 

New boss for ailing Malaysia Airlines

A British man arrested at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas after trying to grab a police officer's gun was indicted on weapons charges, the authorities said.
	Prosecutors charged Michael Sandford, 20, with two felony counts of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and one count of impeding and disrupting the orderly conduct of government business, the US Attorney's Office in Las Vegas said in a statement yesterday.
	Sandford, who was in the United States unlawfully, tried to grab a police officer's gun while attending a rally for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on June 18 before he was quickly overpowered and removed from the event, the charge sheet said.
	Although an initial complaint filed after his arrest stated that he told a Secret Service agent that he had intended to kill Trump, the indictment does not charge him with plotting to kill the billionaire businessman.
	Sandford went to a gun range in Vegas on the eve of the rally to take shooting lessons 

Briton arrested at Trump rally indicted on weapons charges

Ceasefire monitors in war-torn South Sudan warned today of "appalling" violence in breach of a peace deal, as rivals battle despite the formation of a unity government in the world's youngest nation.
	"The recent incidents and clashes in various parts of the country are clear indication of the fragility of the security situation," said Molla Hailemariam, an Ethiopian major-general heading the internationally backed ceasefire monitoring team.
	Civil war erupted in South Sudan in December 2013 but rebel chief Riek Machar returned to the capital in April as part of a peace deal which saw him become vice president, forging a unity government with President Salva Kiir.
	Fighting continues, including between multiple militia forces who now pay no heed to either Kiir or Machar.
	Tens of thousands have died in the civil war and two million forced to flee their homes.
	Molla, in a speech in the capital Juba, said he was "deeply concerned" at recent fighting with "limited progress" in ...

South Sudan ceasefire monitors warn of violence

A Palestinian attacker stabbed a 13-year-old girl to death at her home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank today before being shot dead by security guards, the Israeli army said.
	The army said the Palestinian killed the girl in her bed after breaking into her house in the Kiryat Arba settlement outside the city of Hebron.
	Security personnel rushed to the house and fired on the attacker, who wounded a guard before being shot dead, said the army.
	The Palestinian health ministry identified the attacker as Mohammed Nasser Tarayra, 19, from the village of Bani Naim, just outside the city.
	Hebron has been a flashpoint in a spate of deadly unrest that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since October last year.
	Several hundred Jewish settlers live in a tightly guarded enclave in the heart of the city of more than 200,000 Palestinians, a persistent source of tensions.
	The violence since October has killed at least 211 Palestinians, 33 Israelis, two Americans, an ...

AFP

AFP

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