Syria has given approval for humanitarian convoys to reach all of the country's 19 besieged areas by the end of the month, the UN said today, while warning that "approval... Does not mean delivery".
	"We were informed by our team in Damascus that basically there has been a permission, an approval... By the government of Syria for all 19 besieged areas," the United Nations envoy to the war-racked country, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters.
	He stressed that Syria has given such approvals in the past before ultimately blocking convoys from distributing life-saving supplies.
	He made the comments after the weekly meeting of the Syria humanitarian taskforce, co-chaired by the United States and Russia, which has for months been trying to boost aid supplies to millions of Syrians in need.
	That taskforce has faced pressure, including from France and Britain, to start air-dropping aid into besieged areas, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military continuing to block road convoys.
	De 

Syria approves aid convoys to all 19 besieged areas: UN

PTI Automatic

Nuwan Pradeep captured the prize wicket of England captain Alastair Cook as Sri Lanka reduced the hosts to 165 for five at tea on the first day of the third Test at Lord's today.
     Left-handed opener Cook was closing in on his 29th Test century when he played round his front pad to the paceman, bowling from around the wicket, and was was plumb lbw for 85.
     Cook's exit ended a 173-ball innings including nine fours.
     It also halted a fifth-wicket stand of 80 with Jonny Bairstow, 44 not out at tea, that had helped England recover from 84 for four.
     Cook's wicket was no more than Pradeep deserved after having Bairstow dropped when on 11.
     Moeen Ali, fresh from his Test-best 155 not out in the second Test at the Riverside, was one not out.
     England had already won this three-match series at 2-0 up.
     But Cook insisted in the build-up to this match that England were determined to correct their habit of losing 'dead' Tests in series they'd already won following ...

Pradeep snares Cook as Sri Lanka fight back

Pakistan cricket authorities today confirmed fast bowler Mohammad Amir has been issued a British visa, clearing him to play in England for the first time since being convicted of spot-fixing six years ago.
     The 24-year-old was named in Pakistan's squad for the four-match Test series due to start at Lord's from July 14, the same venue where his deliberate no-balls caused a furore in the cricket world in 2010.
     Amir, along with then Test captain Salman Butt and new-ball partner Mohammad Asif, were charged for bowling deliberate no-balls in return for money.
     The trio was banned from playing cricket at all levels for five years and jailed for six months in the UK in 2011.
     The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had made a special request for Amir's visa, which was accepted.
     "The PCB has been officially informed that the UK Government has approved the Visa for Amir," the  PCB said in a statement.
     Pakistan will hold a training camp in Hampshire before opening the tour ..

Pakistan confirms Amir UK visa for Test series

Pakistan's Supreme Court today bailed a mother and daughter who had been in jail for two months for allegedly sending "vulgar" texts and pictures to another woman, a defence lawyer said.
	Maria Naz, 19, and her mother Shazia Begum were arrested in Rawalpindi, a garrison town adjoining the capital, Islamabad, by the Federal Investigation Agency after Naz's aunt lodged a complaint claiming she had received offensive texts from them, defence lawyer Zulfiqar Bhutta told AFP.
	The court granted bail "as the prosecution admitted that it had found no incriminating material from the cell phones of both", Bhutta said. His statement was confirmed by court officials.
	He said the women had been "wrongly" framed to pressure them into withdrawing a civil case regarding a property dispute with Naz's aunt.

Pakistan court bails women jailed for 'vulgar' texts

Sri Lanka today announced plans to lift six-decade-old restrictions on foreign exchange flows and allow free transfer of money in and out of the island, to encourage investment in the struggling economy.
	The island tightly controls foreign currency transactions under a 1953 law that does not allow the free repatriation of capital, in an effort to protect its modest foreign reserves.
	Under the present strict rules, exporters must bring back their foreign earnings within a short period of time or face penalties. Analysts say the policy deters investors.
	"We can remove exchange controls before the next budget (in November)," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in parliament.
	"We are strong enough to do that. We have that confidence."
	Last week, Sri Lanka received the first tranche of a USD 1.5 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to shore up the island's economy, left reeling after a spending spree by the new government.
	The premier said Sri Lanka's ...

Sri Lanka to abolish strict forex regulations

Scoreboard at tea on the first day
of the third Test between England and Sri Lanka at Lord's today:
     England 1st Innings
     A Cook lbw b Pradeep                 85
     A Hales c Mathews b Herath           18
     N Compton c Chandimal b Lakmal        1
     J Root lbw b Lakmal                   3
     J Vince b Pradeep                    10
     J Bairstow not out                   44
     M Ali not out                         1
     Extras (LB-3)                         3
     Total (For 5 wkts in 58 overs)      165
     Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-67, 3-71, 4-84, 5-164.
     Bowling: Eranga 14-2-38-0; Lakmal 11-1-38-2; Pradeep 14-4-48-2; Mathews 7-5-6-0; Herath 12-2-32-1.

London, June 9 (AFP) Scoreboard at tea on the first day

A research vessel with an underwater robot is set to begin searching the Mediterranean "as from Friday" for the wreck of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, according to the French aviation safety agency BEA.
	Egypt has hired the "John Lethbridge", which is owned by the private Deep Ocean Search company, to comb the ocean floor for the Airbus A320 that went down with 66 people aboard en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19.
	The ship is en route and "should arrive in the area as from Friday," BEA director Remi Jouty told reporters.
	A French navy vessel using deep-water listening devices picked up signals from one of the black boxes over a week ago, but so far it has failed to locate either it or the second recorder.
	"For the moment we are hopeful of managing to locate these recorders while they continue to emit (pings)," Jouty said, acknowledging "we have to be quick".
	The the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have enough battery power to emit signals for four .

'Deep-sea robot to join search for Egyptair wreck from Friday'

Uber was fined 800,000 euros (USD 900,000) in France today, half of which was suspended, over its UberPOP ride-sharing service.
	Two of UberPOP's senior executives in Western Europe were also fined 30,000 euros and 20,000 euros, with half of those sums also suspended.
	The use of UberPOP in France was halted last July amid a storm of opposition to the service from taxi drivers.

France fines Uber 800,000 euros over ride-sharing service

Singapore has warned Google, Facebook and Goldman Sachs not to interfere in the conservative city-state's internal affairs after they and other multinational corporate giants sponsored a gay rights rally at the weekend.
	The government "will take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence such events held at the Speakers' Corner", the interior ministry said in statement, referring to Singapore's only legal protest area.
	The warning against foreign involvement with the annual Pink Dot rally comes as Singapore's government is taking an increasingly conservative stance against gay rights.
	The ministry said it had released the statement on Sunday in response to media queries about whether foreign companies can legally provide sponsorship for the event, which was held this year on June 4 and also sponsored by Twitter, BP and major banks Barclays and JP Morgan.
	"The Government's general position has always been that foreign entities should not ...

Singapore tells foreign firms not to back gay rights rally

Ethiopia has said that its soldiers deployed in Somalia killed 101 Shabaab fighters who today attacked an army base used by the African Union force fighting the al-Qaeda linked group.
	The Shabaab movement earlier announced a major assault on the base in Halgan in the central Hiran region of the arid Horn of Africa nation, via its Telegram messaging platform.
	Ethiopian government spokesman Getachew Reda dismissed a claim by the Shabaab that they had killed dozens of soldiers, while losing just 16 of their own fighters.
	"There was an attempt by al-Shabaab to attack our forces in central Somalia but... Our forces killed 101 militants and destroyed heavy weaponry," Getachew said.
	"We are still assessing how many people got hurt on our side but their claim that they have killed 43 Ethiopian soldiers is an absolute lie. This is a figment of their imagination," he added.
	"The Mujahideen fighters stormed the base and massacred many of the Ethiopians," the Shabaab claimed on Telegram, ...

Ethiopia says army killed 101 jihadists in Somali raid

China's propaganda department, tasked with controlling the media and arts, has been given a slap on the wrist for not being good enough at shaping public opinion, according to a report on a government website.
	The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) posted an article on its website yesterday that described findings from its two-month-long probe of the ruling Communist party's propaganda department, which began in February.
	Leaders in the department did not feel a sufficient sense of responsibility for undertaking ideological work, the piece cited CCDI member and investigation spokesman Wang Huaichen as saying.
	Art was not directed clearly enough towards socialist aims and political thought not emphasised enough in universities, he was quoted as saying.
	News propaganda was not targeted or effective enough, especially in the field of new media, where the department had failed to fully implement the principle of "the party controlling the media", the post cited him as 

China propaganda department not good enough at propaganda:govt

Suranga Lakmal rocked England with a double strike shortly before lunch as Sri Lanka fought back on the first morning of the third Test at Lord's today.
     At lunch, England, who had been 56 without loss, were 71 for three after paceman Lakmal (two for 22 in seven overs) had accounted for both Nick Compton (one) and Joe Root (three).
     England captain Alastair Cook, who won the toss in ideal sunny batting conditions and on a placid pitch, was 48 not out, with James Vince unbeaten on three.
     England had already won this three-match series at 2-0 up.
     In the build-up Cook insisted they were determined to correct their habit of losing 'dead' Tests in series they'd already won following heavy defeats at the end of victorious campaigns at home to Australia in 2015 and away to South Africa earlier this year.
     Fielding an unchanged side from the team that thrashed Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the second Test at the Riverside, England made a serene start.
     Sri Lanka, who .

Lakmal double stuns England

Scoreboard at lunch on the first
day of the third Test between England and Sri Lanka at Lord's today:
	   England 1st Innings
	   A Cook not out                       48
	   A Hales c Mathews b Herath           18
	   N Compton c Chandimal b Lakmal        1
	   J Root lbw b Lakmal                   3
	   J Vince not out                       3
	   Extras (LB-1)                         1
	   Total (For 3 wkts in 28 overs)       74
	   Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-67, 3-71
	   Bowling: Eranga 7-0-28-0; Lakmal 7-1-22-2; Pradeep 6-3-17-0; Mathews 4-4-0-0; Herath 4-0-6-1.

London, June 9 (AFP) Scoreboard at lunch on the first

More than 130 Islamic State group fighters have been killed in a US-backed offensive on the key jihadist-held city of Manbij in northern Syria, a monitoring group said today.
	US-led coalition air strikes supporting the assault by Kurdish and Arab fighters, launched on May 31, have also left 30 civilians dead, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
	The Syrian Democratic Forces have been pushing west from the Euphrates River and have nearly encircled Manbij, a key point along IS's main supply line from the Turkish border to its eastern Syrian stronghold of Raqa.
	The SDF alliance has surrounded the city from the north, east and south. Early on Thursday its fighters were advancing towards the main road leading west out of Manbij, according to Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
	A statement today by the SDF's Manbij operations centre said its fighters were now close enough to target IS positions inside the city.
	The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of ...

130 IS fighters killed in battle for Syria's Manbij: monitor

Turkey's prime minister has ruled out talks with the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after a spate of attacks blamed on the militants killed at least 17 people this week.
	Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the outlawed group had made a bid for dialogue after almost a year of renewed violence that ended a two-and-a-half year truce, adding that the government had no interest in responding.
	"These days news comes, directly or indirectly, from the terrorist organisation saying 'we can negotiate, we can lay down arms, we should talk'," Yildirim said.
	"There's nothing to discuss," he said late yesterday, quoted by the Dogan news agency.
	Car bombings targeting Turkish police in Istanbul and in the Kurdish-majority southeast have claimed at least 17 lives so far this week alone, shattering festivities for the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
	A strike against the security forces Tuesday in the heart of Istanbul claimed 11 lives, including several police officers.
	The number ..

Turkey PM says 'nothing to discuss' with PKK after attacks

A quarrel over meal times during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan likely sparked an arson attack that destroyed a German refugee shelter, said a report today quoting prosecutors.
	The huge blaze in the western city of Duesseldorf on Tuesday completely levelled a hall that housed 282 male asylum seekers mostly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and North African countries, with 28 people suffering from smoke inhalation.
	Police have detained eight men allegedly involved in the dispute, including two men suspected of arson, both Moroccans aged 26, one of whom allegedly poured a flammable liquid onto a mattress and set it alight.
	Witnesses reported that there had been recurring tensions between followers of different religions in the Red Cross-run facility.
	"During this time of Ramadan, there was one group that wanted to strictly observe the fast, and another that insisted on the usual timetables and usual servings," said Ralf Herrenbrueck, spokesman for the prosecutors service.
	"This had .

'Ramadan row' behind fire at German refugee shelter

A Russian military pilot was killed today after his fighter jet crashed near Moscow, the defence ministry announced, with sources saying the warplane belonged to the air force's aerobatic display team.
	The Su-27 aircraft did not have any weapons onboard at the time and the crash did not cause any damage on the ground, according to the defence ministry.
	"(A) jet of the Russian air force crashed as it was returning to its home aerodrome in the Moscow region after a planned flight. The pilot died," the ministry said in a statement carried by news agencies.
	Sources told news agencies that the jet was from the Russian Knights display team - the country's equivalent of Britain's famed Red Arrows - and ploughed into the ground some 35 kilometres northeast of the capital as it was flying in formation with five other planes.
	An unnamed source told TASS news agency that the dead pilot was Sergei Yeryomenko, who appears on the website of the Russian Knights as a member of the team.
	This is .

Pilot killed as Russian military plane crashes near Moscow

The US administration today endorsed a plan to cede its oversight of the gatekeeper of Internet addresses to the broader online community.
	Commerce Department assistant secretary for communications and information Lawrence Strickling told AFP that the proposal from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meets the criteria set by the US administration.
	The plan aims to maintain Internet governance under a "multi-stakeholder" model which avoids control of the online ecosystem by any single governmental body.
	"The Internet's multi-stakeholder community has risen to the challenge we gave them to develop a transition proposal that would ensure the Internet's domain name system will continue to operate as seamlessly as it currently does," Strickling said.
	US oversight of ICANN had "irritated" some governments, which used what was Strickling depicted as a mainly clerical responsibility to vie for greater control of the Internet.
	The plan comes in response to the 

US agency endorses plan to cede Internet oversight

The Australian cricketers' players union today urged the sport's national governing body to ensure conditions for this year's two pink ball Tests are upgraded to produce high quality matches.
     South Africa this week overcame their reservations and agreed to play a day-night pink ball Test against Australia in Adelaide in November, while Pakistan are scheduled to experience the new concept in Brisbane in December.
     Australian Cricketers' Association chief Alistair Nicholson said he had stressed to Cricket Australia (CA) the need for significant work to get the revolutionary format right after last year's inaugural day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand finished inside three days.
     Players from both teams complained about the pink ball's movement and durability, as well as the difficulty batsmen faced seeing it under floodlights.
     "The concerns of the players run deep, and with (England captain) Alastair Cook's comments we see they also run internationally," ...

Aus players union urges upgrade for pink ball Test conditions

Israel clamped down on Palestinian movements and boosted security today after two Palestinians shot dead four people at a popular Tel Aviv nightspot, the deadliest attack in a months-long wave of violence.
	Officials said they were suspending entry permits for 83,000 Palestinians during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in a move that was likely to further stoke tensions following the shooting last night that shocked Israelis.
	The attack saw two Palestinians dressed in black open fire as patrons sat at a cafe terrace at the Sarona Market in Israel's commercial capital, police said.
	A witness said it seemed at least one of the gunmen had been sitting at the cafe before standing with a rifle and firing.
	Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld could not confirm reports that the attackers were disguised as ultra-Orthodox Jews, but said they had been wearing black suits.
	Five people were wounded in addition to the four killed, and the shooting spread panic, with police clearing the area and ...

Israel clamps down after deadly Tel Aviv attack

A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of central Indonesia today, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
	The undersea quake hit about 300 kilometres  south of the popular holiday island of Lombok at 12:13 pm (local time), at a depth of 29 kilometres, said the US Geological Survey.
	Indonesia's disaster agency said officials were checking to see if the quake had any impact.
	Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where tectonic plates collide.

AFP

AFP

Page 1635 - Afp