The annual fasting month of Ramadan is due to begin tomorrow in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, religious authorities in the four Muslim countries said.
	The announcement was made on Sunday after the sighting of the crescent moon.
	Other Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa are also expected to begin observing Ramadan on Monday or on Tuesday.
	During Ramadan, Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk.
	The break the fast with a meal known as iftar and before dawn they have a second opportunity to eat and drink during suhur.
	Ramadan is sacred to Muslims because tradition says the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed during that month.
	Ramadan is followed by the Eid al-Fitr festival.

Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts from tomorrow in Gulf

PTI Automatic

The five letters of his last name boldly adorn buildings around the United States. But if he makes it to the White House, Donald Trump says he won't be doing much redecorating.
	"No, I wouldn't... It's a special place and building," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told CNN in remarks aired Sunday.
	So no big Trump sign atop the storied house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that has been home to all American presidents since John Adams in 1800?
	"It will be beautiful, well maintained," the real estate mogul said. "I'm going to be working. I'm not going to be decorating."
	"I'm going to make the country rich again and make our country great again," he added.
	The billionaire also said that, if he wins the November 8 election, he has no plans to move into a hotel he is building just blocks away.
	"No, the White House represents something so important," he said.
	Trump and his wife Melania currently live in a marble triplex at the top of the Trump Tower on New York's Fifth ...

Trump says he wouldn't redecorate the White House

The bodies of 132 migrants trying to reach Europe have been found on western Libyan beaches over the past four days, the Red Crescent and a local official said today.
	All except three washed up on beaches in the town of Zuwarah, while the rest were found on a beach in Mellitah 20 kilometres (12 miles) further east.
	"The total number of migrant bodies found on the beaches of Zuwarah since Thursday has gone up to 129," Red Crescent spokesman Mohammad al-Misrati told AFP.
	He said 117 bodies were found on Thursday, confirming earlier reports, and said 12 more were found on Friday.
	Zuwarah council member Khaled Ben Khalifa said three other bodies washed up on a beach in Mellitah, near a gas plant, bringing the total to 132.
	People smugglers have exploited the chaos gripping Libya since the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi to traffic migrants across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
	It is a lucrative business for the smugglers who cram migrants into boats that are ..

More migrant bodies wash up on Libyan beaches

The family of boxing legend Muhammad Ali prepared today to accompany his body on the journey back to his hometown Louisville, ahead of a public funeral procession and service expected to draw huge crowds in honor of "The Greatest."
	Former president Bill Clinton and comedian Billy Crystal are among those due to speak Friday at a memorial in a huge arena in the Kentucky city where Ali -- a three-time world heavyweight champion -- grew up and threw his first punches.
	The charismatic Ali, a dazzling fighter and outspoken civil rights activist who became one of the 20th century's most towering figures, died on Friday at age 74 after health problems complicated by a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
	On Sunday, family members were expected to accompany his body from Arizona, where he died, to his home state in the southern United States.
	"Our hearts are literally hurting. But we are happy daddy is free now," one of Ali's nine children, daughter Hana, wrote on Twitter.
	Louisville ...

Ali family set for solemn trip home to Louisville

French President Francois Hollande acknowledged today there was a threat of an attack during the Euro 2016 football championship but said the country must not be intimidated.
	"This threat will last for a long time," he told public radio France Inter. "But we must do everything to ensure that the Euro 2016 is a success.

Hollande acknowledges threat of Euro 2016 attack

US President Barack Obama is weighing whether to attend the public memorial services for boxing legend Muhammad Ali later this week in Louisville, the Kentucky city's mayor Greg Fischer said today.
	Louisville, the largest city in the southern US state, is preparing to welcome massive crowds on Friday, June 10, for a public procession and memorial service to honor Ali, who died Friday at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
	"We've been dreading this day for quite some time," Fischer said.
	"We've also been planning -- as The Champ has been sick -- for quite some time, and we handle big crowds in this city," said the Democratic mayor of Louisville, which hosts the Kentucky Derby every year.
	On Obama's possible presence, Fischer said: "I know he is considering it."
	The White House did not offer a comment Sunday on his plans.
	"A lot of this is going to materialize throughout the week, but clearly the interest" is huge, Fischer said.
	"I don't know if we have ever seen 

Obama 'considering' attending Ali funeral: mayor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Moscow tomorrow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, the premier's office said, with the two having held talks in recent months over the conflict in Syria.
	Netanyahu's two-day trip is his third to Russia since September and also comes as the two nations mark 25 years since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations.
	The Israeli premier's office said the two leaders would discuss "implementing the understandings reached during Netanyahu's visit to Moscow in April".
	They will also discuss "regional issues, including those pertaining to the fight against global terror, the situation in Syria and its surroundings, and the prospectives for the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians", a statement read.
	With both Israel and Russia having carried out military operations in war-torn Syria, the two countries have sought to coordinate their actions to avoid accidental clashes.
	Russian forces back Syrian President ...

Netanyahu set for third Russia visit in recent months

Israeli prosecutors charged a Gaza teenager today with membership of the military wing of Hamas, after he was said to have provided information about the group's tunnel network, officials said.
	The Shin Bet security service said the 17-year-old had been arrested last month after crossing from the Gaza Strip into Israel "on his own".
	The suspect, who as a minor cannot be identified, was the second Gazan 17-year-old allegedly involved in tunnelling to be charged by Israel in a month.
	In addition to those two, another man, 29-year-old Mahmud Atawnah, was also charged over his alleged part in the militant group's tunnel network in May.
	The Israeli army said the minor charged on Sunday was a member of the northern Gaza "Beit Lahiya battalion of Hamas's military wing".
	"The perpetrator conveyed valuable information regarding Hamas activities in the northern Gaza Strip and especially Hamas's offensive tunnels," a statement said.
	It alleged that "it was also revealed that Hamas is ...

Israel charges second Hamas teen tunneller

Novak Djokovic captured a first French Open at the 12th time of asking on Sunday, becoming just the third man in history to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
     The world number one downed old rival Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 to claim a 12th career Major and join Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver, in 1962 and 1969, as the only players to simultaneously possess the French Open, Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon trophies.
     Djokovic, 29, also put himself halfway to the calendar Grand Slam, last achieved by Laver 47 years ago.
     But he did it the hard way as the final reached its conclusion, being broken in the eighth game of the fourth set as he served for the title and then squandering two Championship points in the 10th before he sealed victory when Murray netted a backhand.
     "It's a very special moment, the biggest of my career," said Djokovic, one of only eight men to complete the career Grand Slam and who had lost his previous three finals in ...

Djokovic wins French Open, completes non-calendar Grand Slam

Israeli police deployed in large numbers in Jerusalem today for an annual march marking the country's 1967 seizure of the Palestinian-dominated eastern half of the city.
	This year's march came as Muslims prepare to begin observing the fasting month of Ramadan, when many Palestinians visit the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City.
	The Israeli march for "Jerusalem Day" was also passing through the Muslim quarter of the Old City before arriving at the Western Wall, which is directly below the Al-Aqsa compound, leading to fears of tensions.
	Some 30,000 demonstrators were expected at the march which began at around 5:15 pm .
	"We shall be there in very large numbers," Israeli police spokesman Asi Aharoni said ahead of the march.
	"We have more than 2,000 police just for the Jerusalem Day events."
	Israeli rights group Ir Amim had asked the supreme court to bar the march from entering the Old City through the Damascus Gate, the main entry used by Palestinians.
	The court ...

Security tight as Israelis mark 1967 capture of east Jerusalem

Explosions ripped through a key military ammunition depot just outside Sri Lanka's capital today leading police to evacuate residents and seal off roads in the area, police said.
	There were no immediate reports of casualties at the Salawa military camp where security forces are known to store some of their heavy weaponry and ammunition, including rockets, police said.
	Residents in Salawa, 36 kilometres (26 miles) east of Colombo, were seen leaving their homes as police reported shrapnel hitting the main highway.
	The night sky was lit with an orange glow and the area shook at regular intervals. Flying debris could be seen from three kilometres away, an AFP photographer said.
	"We have closed the road and asked all residents to leave out of consideration for their safety," a police officer at the scene told AFP.
	Firefighters were stopped from reaching the camp as it was unsafe for them to get close to the source of the explosions. The cause of the blasts was not yet known, said the .

Blasts rock Sri Lanka military ammunition depot

A female journalist was shot dead today in the Somali capital Mogadishu, adding to the lengthening death toll among media in the violence-torn East African country, her colleagues said.
	Sagal Salad Osman, a presenter and producer for state radio station Muqdisho, was gunned down by unidentified men who then fled, they said.
	"One of my colleagues, Sagal Salad Osman, was shot dead near a university at Hodon district. She died instantly and the perpetrators have escaped after the shooting," said Ali Abdulkadir, who works at the station.
	"We are very much devastated about the news of her death and we don't know why she was killed."
	Several other colleagues confirmed the death.
	"It was shocking, I was told she has been studying at the university nearby where she was killed. This is horrible indeed," said Mohamed Salad, another journalist.
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
	Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media workers.
	 According to the .

Female journalist gunned down in Somalia

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today urged Turkish women to have at least three children, saying a woman's life was "incomplete" if she failed to have offspring.
	Erdogan's comments were the latest in a series of controversial remarks aimed at encouraging women to help boost Turkey's population, which had already risen exponentially in the last years.
	The president emphasised he was a strong supporter of women having careers but emphasised that this should not be an "obstacle" to having children.
	"Rejecting motherhood means giving up on humanity," Erdogan said in a speech marking the opening of the new building of Turkey's Women's and Democracy Association (KADEM).
	"I would recommend having at least three children," added the president.
	"The fact that a woman is attached to her professional life should not prevent her from being a mother," he added, saying that Turkey had taken "important steps" to support working mothers.
	Erdogan had on Monday said that family planning and ...

Have 'at least 3 kids', Erdogan tells Turkish women

It's a snapshot from another political era. Forty-one years ago, in Britain's last referendum on Europe, Margaret Thatcher hit the campaign trail clad in a woolly jumper emblazoned with a Union flag.
	But the 1975 poll, which saw Britain embrace membership of what was then the Common Market, has plenty in common with the current bitter and closely-fought debate.
	It also carries lessons for politicians ahead of the June 23 vote on whether to stay in or leave the European Union -- not least that the referendum may not resolve the issue for long.
	Labour prime minister Harold Wilson called the referendum on June 5, 1975, as a way of trying to appease the eurosceptic wing of his fractured party, and urged Britons to stay in after securing concessions from Brussels.
	This time around, it is Conservative premier David Cameron who is holding a vote to try to heal party splits, and who is campaigning to "Remain" on the basis of a renegotiated EU settlement.
	For Tim Bale, politics professor .

UK Brexit debate has echoes of 1975

Dozens of Syrian regime strikes on Aleppo killed at least 16 civilians today, a monitor said, and caused huge damage to one rebel-held district targeted by a barrel bomb.
	The crude, unguided explosive device hit the Qaterji neighbourhood, where an AFP photographer saw a street strewn with rubble as residents ran for safety and a rescuer rushed a bloodied child into an ambulance.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said nine civilians were killed in Qaterji and two others, including a child, were killed in the Mayssar neighbourhood of the northern city.
	Another five civilians were killed in two other districts and on the city's outskirts.
	In Qaterji a man stood in the middle of a road surrounded by debris and shouting angrily: "There are only civilians here, there are no rebels!"
	Further down the street two women and two children scrambled for safety past the mangled iron shutters of shops and buildings badly damaged by the barrel bomb, the AFP photographer said.
	The rescuer, 

Syria regime raids on Aleppo kill 16 civilians: monitor

Swiss voters were on course Sunday to flatly reject a radical proposal to provide the entire population with a basic income, no work required, initial results and projections showed.
	National projections showed 78 per cent of voters had opposed the initiative, according to numbers provided by the gfs.Bern polling institute to public broadcaster RTS an hour after polls closed at noon (1000 GMT).
	Most Swiss vote in advance by post, so a large majority of ballots had already been counted, and gfs.Bern put the margin of error at just plus/minus three per cent.
	In a global first, the Swiss were asked whether they wanted all citizens, along with foreigners who have been legal residents for at least five years, to receive an unconditional basic income, or UBI.
	Supporters say providing such an income would help fight poverty and inequality in a world where good jobs with steady salaries are increasingly hard to come by.
	The group behind the initiative has suggested paying 2,500 Swiss ...

Swiss say 'no thanks' to basic income for all

Mixing spices in a searing hot pan, cooking naan in the tandoor oven and juggling takeaway orders, restaurant owner Saiful Alam is short-staffed and stressed -- a situation he hopes Brexit will improve.
	Like many of those running Britain's 12,000 curry houses, the Bangladeshi chef is struggling to find suitable staff as new immigration rules have made it harder to hire people from Bangladesh and India.
	The issue has taken on political heat ahead of the June 23 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, after the Vote Leave campaign claimed that the problem was the fault of uncontrolled EU migration pushing up numbers of arrivals.
	It said that a so-called Brexit would herald a "fairer" immigration system that treats EU and non-EU workers, particularly from former colonies in the Commonwealth with family ties to Britain, equally.
	The argument resonates with Alam as he puts together dishes on his own in the kitchen of the Prince of Bengal, a modest restaurant in ...

Curry house crisis hots up Brexit debate

Israel today released a correspondent in the Golan Heights for Iran's Arabic-language television after four days of detention, police said.
	Bassam al-Safadi, a journalist for the Al-Alam news channel, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of "supporting a terrorist organisation and incitement to violence and terrorism," police said.
	A court in Nazareth in northern Israel extended his remand until Sunday, when he was released "under limitations, including a five-day house arrest," police said.
	In an interview with Beirut-based Al-Alam on Sunday, Safadi said he was "accused of incitement to terrorism, supporting terror organisations and standing behind terror organisations."
	The 43-year-old was described by police as Arab Israeli, but many Arab residents of the Golan, who are from the Druze community, consider themselves Syrians.
	Iran is an ally of Syria, which is technically at war with Israel, and a sworn enemy of the Jewish state.
	Hussein Mortada, head of Al-Alam's office in ...

Israel releases Iran TV correspondent: police

Six Czech tourists were injured when their bus was hit by gunfire while travelling through southeastern France, a prosecutor said today.
	The bus was carrying 75 Czech tourists from Spain to the Czech Republic when the incident described as an "isolated act" occurred on a highway on Saturday night.
	"An initial shot smashed the front windscreen and a second exploded the rear window of the vehicle a few seconds later," said prosecutor Valence Alex Perrin.
	Six passengers were hurt by broken glass, including a woman whose eye was seriously damaged, and a child.
	Perrin said initial investigations had revealed the shooter used a hunting rifle. One of the bullets was found inside the bus.
	"We don't have any reason to believe this bus was targeted instead of any other," said Perrin.
	All the passengers who were not hospitalised have returned to their home country.

Bus carrying Czech tourists hit by gunfire in France

An outspoken former property tycoon disciplined by China's ruling Communist Party for questioning its media controls made a rare public appearance today, months after authorities shut down his hugely popular microblog.
	The government-ordered closure in February of Ren Zhiqiang's Sina Weibo account, which had some 37 million followers, was seen as a sign of ever-tighter restrictions on freedom of speech under President Xi Jinping.
	Ren, nicknamed "The Cannon" for his outspoken opinions, did not mention the incident in a speech at a forum on environmentalism delivered to dozens of media and entrepreneurs.
	"We should say no to firms which pollute the environment during the production process," Ren said in a speech lasting some 20 minutes and broadcast online.
	Asked by an AFP reporter if he could discuss his microblog's closure, he replied gruffly: "I can't."
	The Cyberspace Administration of China ordered the closure of Ren's blog after he questioned Xi's policy of tighter party ...

Silenced China tycoon makes quiet return to limelight

- The Philippines' president elect Rodrigo Duterte urged the public to join his anti-crime crackdown, offering people huge bounties for killing drug dealers.
	His announcement late yesterday came as other officials began paying bounties for slain suspected criminals in an apparent attempt to ride on Duterte's success.
	Duterte won the presidential election last month, running on a platform of a ruthless anti-crime campaign.
	After previously saying he would unleash the military and police on criminals, Duterte said the public could go after them as well.
	"If they are there in your neighbourhood, feel free to call us, the police or do it yourself if you have the gun. You have my support," he told his cheering followers.
	"If he fights and fights to the death, you can kill him," he said, adding: "I will give you a medal."
	He stressed that drug addicts could not be rehabilitated and warned, "if you are involved in drugs, I will kill you. You son of a whore, I will really kill ...

AFP

AFP

Page 1646 - Afp