German engineers have created a camera no bigger than a grain of salt that could change the future of health imaging and clandestine surveillance.
	Using 3-D printing, researchers from the University of Stuttgart built a three-lens camera, and fit it onto the end of an optical fibre the width of two hairs.
	Such technology could be used as minimally-intrusive endoscopes for exploring inside the human body, the engineers reported in the journal Nature Photonics.
	It could also be deployed in virtually invisible security monitors, or mini-robots with "autonomous vision".
	3-D printing -- also known as additive manufacturing -- makes three-dimensional objects by depositing layer after layer of materials such as plastic, metal or ceramic.
	Due to manufacturing limitations, lenses cannot currently be made small enough for key uses in the medical field, said the team, which believe its 3-D printing method may represent "a paradigm shift".
	It took only a few hours to design, manufacture and 

Micro-camera can be injected with a syringe

PTI Automatic

Argentines begged Lionel Messi today not to abandon the national team before the 2018 World Cup after he tearfully announced his retirement in frustration at another last-gasp international defeat.
     As Chileans danced in the streets and honked their horns to hail their team's victory by penalties in the Copa American Centenario, the rainy streets of Buenos Aires were deserted.
     Apart from the humiliation of being beaten on penalties for a second time by their neighbors, they were gutted at the news of what online wags were calling "LeoMexit" -- Messi's announced retirement from international service.
     A hashtag in Spanish reading "Don't Go, Leo" spread on Twitter in the hours after the 29-year-old star striker said he was quitting the squad.
     "Don't go," echoed the popular sports newspaper Ole in its front-page headline.
     Messi left the pitch in tears having missed a penalty in Argentina's 4-2 loss in the final shoot-out.
     It was the fourth time he had lost the 

Argentina fans despair at 'Leo Mexit'

Israeli and Turkish leaders today lauded a deal reached at the weekend to restore ties after six years of acrimony over a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
	Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed Israel's maritime blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip would remain after the agreement, though Turkey obtained aid concessions for the Palestinian enclave.
	His Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim said that "to this end, our first ship loaded with over 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid will leave for Israel's Ashdod port on Friday."
	Yildirim also noted Israel's commitment to pay $20 million in compensation over the 2010 raid that killed 10 Turkish activists, in exchange for all claims against Israeli soldiers being dropped.
	Netanyahu pointed to the economic benefits for Israel, with his country in search of regional customers for gas exports and talk of a potential pipeline to Turkey.
	Speaking in Rome after meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry, Netanyahu described the ...

Israeli, Turkish leaders laud deal to restore ties

At least 14 people were killed in a series of bombings today that targeted troops in Yemen's southeastern city of Mukalla, which Al-Qaeda was driven out of in April, a security official said.
	Three simultaneous bombings hit security checkpoints in the coastal city, followed by a fourth which struck the entrance of an army camp, the official said.
	"Fourteen people were killed according to a preliminary toll," he added.

14 dead in bomb attacks on ex-Qaeda bastion in Yemen

A court in ex-Soviet Moldova today sentenced former prime minister Vlad Filat to nine years in jail for corruption and abuse of office.
	Filat was dramatically arrested in parliament last October over allegations that included he had taken bribes worth some USD 260 million as part of a broader scandal that saw a billion dollars vanish.
	Filat has denied the charges and even gone on hunger strike to protest his detention.
	Supporters argue he is being used as a scapegoat by Moldova's murky political elite.
	"During this unprecedented case not one piece of evidence was put forward that proved my client's guilt," his lawyer Igor Popa said. The verdict can be appealed.
	Filat, who served as premier from 2009 to 2013, is facing another three legal cases over the scandal.
	In April 2015 the Central Bank of Moldova discovered that three banks had granted loans worth USD 1 billion, equivalent to around 10 percent of the country's GDP, to unidentified beneficiaries.
	The disappearance of the ..

Ex-Moldova PM sentenced to 9 years for graft

Jordanian intelligence officials stole millions of dollars of weapons that the CIA and Saudi Arabia had supplied for Syrian rebels, then sold them on the black market, reports said.
	The military equipment had been shipped into Jordan as part of the Central Intelligence Agency's secret program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to fight troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, The New York Times and Al Jazeera reported.
	Citing unnamed American and Jordanian officials, the Times and Al Jazeera reported today that some of these weapons were used in a November shooting at a police training facility in Amman.
	Two American contractors, two Jordanians and one South African were gunned down in the attack.
	The Times and Al Jazeera said the FBI has been investigating the case for months.
	The stolen weapons include Kalashnikov assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades and the black market is newly awash with arms, the reports said.
	Investigators aren't sure what 

Jordanian officials sold CIA-supplied weapons to arms dealers

A string of suicide bombings killed at least five people shortly before dawn today in a Lebanese village near the volatile border with war-ravaged Syria.
	The attacks came just hours after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed seven soldiers on Jordan's border with Syria.
	Today's deadly blasts struck Al-Qaa, a predominantly Christian village nestled in a hilly border area shaken by violence since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011.
	At least four suicide bombers hit the village, the army said. "The first attacker knocked on one of the homes in the village, but after the resident became suspicious, he blew himself up," a military source told AFP.
	Three other suicide attackers had detonated their own explosives as people began gathering to treat the wounded.
	Security forces were seen cordoning off the site of the blasts, which lies on a main road linking the Syrian town of Al-Qusayr to Lebanon's eastern Bekaa valley.
	The road cuts through a ..

Suicide blasts kill five near Lebanon border with Syria

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny told a special meeting of parliament today that the national interest would be his main concern in any negotiations concerning the UK's exit from the EU, and that he did not expect an imminent formal withdrawal.
	"I think that in other governments there is a full understanding that there has been a political earthquake in the UK, the consequences of which will take some time to work out.
	"I expect that there will be broad consensus that we will need to await the entry into office of a new British prime minister before a formal exit notification can be made."
	Kenny announced the parliamentary recall after an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday following the result of the Brexit poll. He noted Ireland has more to lose than other EU members from a Brexit but said the government had drawn up contingency plans.
	"The stakes have always been higher on this issue for Ireland than for any other EU member state," he said.
	"Our contingency management ...

Irish PM tells parliament UK formal exit not imminent

Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki today kicked off his corruption trial by denying he falsified parliamentary rules to get elected.
	The influential Nigerian politician has been charged with two counts of criminal conspiracy and forgery and was in the dock alongside his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, at the high court in Abuja.
	The clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, and his deputy, Benedict Efturi, are also facing the same charges.
	According to the charge sheet, the defendants "with fraudulent intent forged" parliamentary documents and used them to get Saraki and Ekweremadu elected in June last year.
	Conviction carries a maximum 14-year jail sentence.
	Judge Yusuf Halilu granted all four men bail and adjourned the case until July 11.
	Saraki, from Buhari's governing All Progressives Congress, became president of Nigeria's upper chamber of parliament unopposed after securing backing of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
	But he was not the APC's first ...

Head of Nigerian Senate in court on corruption charges

New lawyers representing the son of slain Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi announced today they will ask the International Criminal Court to quash the case against him as he has now been tried and convicted by a Libyan court.
	Seif al-Islam, who has been in a five-and-half-year legal tug-of-war between the ICC and Tripoli, is wanted by the tribunal in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity relating to the bloody repression of the 2011 uprising that toppled his father.
	Seif, 44, has been held in the northern hilltop stronghold of Zintan since his arrest in November 2011.
	Last year, in a move heavily criticised by the UN, he was sentenced to death by a Libyan court for trying to put down the deadly revolt that saw Moamer Kadhafi's 40-year rule end in his own murder.
	Now he has appointed his own defence team for the first time, after his earlier lawyers were assigned by the ICC.
	The new lawyers told journalists in The Hague that they will ask the ICC's judges to scrap the ..

Kadhafi son's new lawyers urge ICC to drop case

Britain's shock decision to leave the EU forces German Chancellor Angela Merkel into action to save the bloc, but true to her reputation for prudence, she has pledged to avoid both haste and vitriol.
	Outraged by the result of the British vote, the bloc's leaders have multiplied calls for London to leave the European Union swiftly.
	Britain's planned departure was "not an amicable divorce" said European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, stressing that it should be quick.
	Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault also joinly called for ambitious steps to strengthen the European Union.
	But in the heated cacophony, the leader of Europe's biggest economy made a strong call for calm.
	In her first statement Friday as the outcome of Thursday's referendum hit home, Merkel warned against drawing "quick and simple conclusions" saying they would "only further divide Europe".
	Speaking today, she said Europe could "not afford to have a long ...

In Brexit fallout, Merkel opts to keep calm and carry on

Poland today called for EU institutional reforms that would make Europe "a superpower" through creating a confederation of nation states under a president in charge of a powerful military.
	Poland's rightwing leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a strong opponent of European federalism, insisted that after Britain voted to leave the bloc, it was imperative "to preserve a Europe of nation states".
	"A confederation would be best," he told the Rzeczpospolita broadsheet daily.
	Describing Brexit as something "very bad", Kaczynski warned that pushing ahead with the old Franco-German model of ever-closer political and economic integration could "end in catastrophe".
	Although he holds no cabinet post, the leader of the governing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party is widely regarded as the real powerbroker in the government that swept to power on an anti-migrant and populist spending platform in October elections.
	Kaczynski also insisted that an EU-wide president be chosen through a "process of ...

Poland wants 'superpower confederation' of European states

World number one Novak Djokovic got his campaign for a third successive Wimbledon title off to a winning start with a 6-0, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 victory over Britain's James Ward today.
     The 29-year-old Serb, the holder of 12 Grand Slams after clinching a first French Open earlier this month, is on target for the record books.
     A fourth Wimbledon title would make him just the second man since Don Budge in 1938 to win five straight majors.
     It would also put him three-quarters of the way to becoming the first since Rod Laver in 1969 to complete the calendar Grand Slam.
     Top seed Djokovic, who holds all four majors, goes on to face France's Adrian Mannarino for a place in the last 32.
     "The first nine games were flawless," said Djokovic, who raced out into a 6-0, 3-0 lead before Ward, ranked at 177, steadied the ship.
     "James had a few nerves but he was playing better in the second set. Overall it was a solid performance for me. It's always special to come back to the ..

Djokovic races through Wimbledon opener

Poland would like to see Britain hold a second in-out referendum on EU membership, the leader of the country's ruling party said today, warning however the bloc would have to "radically change" for Britons to want to return.
	"Our idea for today... Foresees efforts aimed at making Britain return, including a second referendum," Poland's powerful rightwing leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said.
	But, he cautioned, the "EU would have to radically change" for this scenario to be feasible.
	"Britain today risks falling apart", he added, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.
	Kaczynski is the first European leader to make an outright call for a second referendum.
	In contrast, other leaders in the bloc have pressured London for a speedy divorce.
	Although he holds no cabinet post, as the leader of the governing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party Kaczynski is widely regarded as the government's real powerbroker.
	The government swept to power in elections last October on an anti-migrant and ...

Poland wants 2nd in-out Brexit referendum: ruling party leader

Britain's vote to leave the European Union has triggered a surge in applications for Irish passports, which would allow their holders to remain EU citizens, officials said today.
	A spokeswoman for the UK Post Office, which handles passport applications, said: "We have seen an unusually high number of people in Northern Ireland seeking Irish passport applications, though we do not have exact numbers or a breakdown by branch."
	Britain voted in a referendum last Thursday by 52 per cent to 48 per cent to leave the 28-nation EU, whose citizens enjoy free movement rights.
	They can also seek employment in other EU states without the need for a work permit, use public healthcare facilities across the bloc and benefit from welfare and other rights.
	The process of Britain actually leaving the bloc is expected to take at least two years, and will only start when London formally triggers the Article 50 of the EU's 2007 Lisbon Treaty.
	Discussion about applying for an Irish passport has been ..

Brexit vote sparks surge in Irish passport applications

Top Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson said there was no need to rush pulling Britain out of the EU, as he sought to reassure Britons abroad and EU citizens in Britain with a message of continuity today.
	Johnson also urged Brexit backers to "build bridges" with those who voted for Britain to stay in the EU after Thursday's bitterly divisive referendum and played down the prospects of Scottish independence.
	"The only change - and it will not come in any great rush - is that the UK will extricate itself from the EU's extraordinary and opaque system of legislation," Johnson wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph.
	"EU citizens living in this country will have their rights fully protected, and the same goes for British citizens living in the EU," wrote Johnson, the former mayor of London and a favourite to succeed the outgoing Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron.
	"British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and settle ..

Johnson says no rush to pull Britain out of EU

Bahrain today jailed five Shiites on charges linked to "terrorism" and revoked their citizenships, the prosecution said, as authorities in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom crack down on the opposition.
	Three defendants were found guilty of joining the clandestine "Al-Mukhtar Brigades" Shiite group, possession of weapons for use in "terror" attacks and assaulting police, a prosecution statement said.
	The criminal court sentenced each to 15 years in jail and stripped all three of their  Bahraini citizenships, the statement said, adding that one of them is a fugitive on the run in Iraq.
	The same court also jailed two alleged members of the outlawed Wafa Islamic Movement to 10 years and three years respectively after convicting them of taking part in a "terrorist" bombing carried out by the group, the prosecution said, adding that their nationalities were also revoked.
	The verdicts were the latest in a series of rulings meted out against members of Bahrain's Shiite majority by the ...

Bahrain jails 5 Shiites, revokes their citizenships

South African President Jacob Zuma should pay back USD 500,000 of public funds used to upgrade his private residence with facilities including a chicken coop and swimming pool, the treasury said today.
	In March, the country's highest court found that the president had violated the constitution by defying an ombudswoman's order to repay some of the money in one of several scandals that have dominated his presidency.
	The court asked the national treasury to determine the value of the non-security upgrades at Zuma's homestead in rural KwaZulu-Natal province.
	The work included a swimming pool, which was claimed to be a fire-fighting facility, a chicken run, a cattle enclosure, an amphitheatre and a visitors' centre.
	The National Treasury said in a statement that Zuma should pay back 7,814,155 rand (USD 509,000).

Zuma should pay back $500,000 of public funds: SA treasury

A UN peacekeeper has been killed in the troubled Central African Republic, where both blue helmets and French soldiers have been mired in sex abuse scandals, the UN mission in the country said today.
	"A blue helmet was killed on June 24 in Bangui in the Central African Republic by unidentified armed men," a statement from the MINUSCA mission said.
	"The body was found in the general hospital of Bangui, in unclear circumstances," it added.
	A MINUSCA source said the soldier was from Senegal.
	A 2013 coup in the CAR unleashed a wave of sectarian violence pitting Muslims against Christians that drove half a million people from their homes and saw thousands killed, prompting former colonial ruler France to send peacekeepers, followed by the African Union and the UN.
	The UN mission known by its French acronym MINUSCA is made up of 12,600 foreign police and soldiers, as well as more than 500 foreign civilian staff.
	It took over from an African Union force in September 2014 as the country 

UN says peacekeeper killed in C Africa

Taiwan plans to test-fire its newest anti-missile system for the first time in the US next month as relations with rival China deteriorate, a defence source and media reports said today.
	Relations between China and Taiwan have cooled rapidly under the island's new Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen, who took office in May, ending an eight-year rapprochement.
	The test of the US-made Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system will be launched at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in early July, a defence ministry source told AFP, in a move likely to irk Beijing even though it was arranged before Tsai took the helm.
	According to the source, the test will be conducted in the US to avoid China collecting information about it, and due to space restrictions in Taiwan.
	The American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy, would not comment on the test, which was also reported in Taiwan's Liberty Times newspaper.
	Despite having no official diplomatic ties with Taipei ...

Taiwan 'to test-fire missiles in US' as China tensions rise

US Secretary of State John Kerry today urged European Union members not to "lose their head" or be "revengeful" after Britain's shock referendum decision to leave 28-nation bloc.
	"I think it is absolutely essential that we stay focused on how, in this transitional period, nobody loses their head, nobody goes off half-cocked, people don't start ginning up scatterbrain or revengeful premises," Kerry said in Brussels.
	He said Washington and Europe must "look for ways to maintain the strength that will serve the interests and the values that brought us together in the first place. And that is what is important."
	Kerry also stressed that despite Britain's decision on Thursday, these common values would endure, and that a "strong EU" remained vital for Washington.
	"The United States cares about a strong EU," he said. "It is through the strength of those countries coming together that we are able to make good things happen."
	Kerry was speaking before heading to London to meet outgoing ..

AFP

AFP

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