Global warming-induced food and water shortages may cause mass migration, competition for resources and state failure, providing fertile ground for conflict and terrorism, analysts warned today.
	In a report entitled: "Climate Change, A Risk Assessment", a global team of scientists, policy analysts and financial and military risk experts painted a grim picture of mankind's future on a much warmer planet.
	As rising temperatures and sea levels shrink areas of productive land, humans will have reasons aplenty for warring with one another, they wrote -- especially in already turbulent parts of the Middle East and Africa.
	Even with average global warming of 0.8 degrees Celsius from the Industrial Revolution to date, the world was facing "significant problems".
	"It seems likely that high degrees of climate change would pose enormous risks to national and international security," said the report.
	"Extreme water stress, and competition for productive land, could both become sources of ...

Global warming to fuel migration, terrorism: report

PTI Automatic

Greek banks will remain shut beyond today, a finance ministry source said as authorities struggled to contain the economic damage from a two-week closure brought about by a cash shortage.
	A new expiration date for the bank holiday would be announced later today, the source told AFP.
	The banks have been closed since June 29, with withdrawals by Greeks limited to 60 euros (USD 66) after the government called a referendum on EU-IMF creditors' terms for an international bailout.
	An even harsher set of terms was accepted by the Greek government today.
	The ECB is currently keeping Greek banks -- and by extension the Greek economy -- afloat via its Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) facility, but it has frozen total aid at 89 billion euros (USD 99 billion).
	The ECB today decided to keep the ELA steady hours after eurozone leaders hammered out a three-year bailout package for Greece worth up to 86 billion euros (USD 96 billion), in return for tax hikes, pension reform and tough ...

Greek banks to remain shut: finance ministry source

Eurozone leaders today struck a deal on plans for a bailout to prevent debt-stricken Greece from crashing out of the euro after Athens bowed to draconian demands for reform.
	After gruelling 17-hour talks during which the future of the European project hung in the balance, leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accepted terms set by his mistrustful partners.
	The deal requires him to push through a raft of market-oriented laws by Wednesday as a sign of good faith, scrutinised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for complicance.
	Only then will the 18 other eurozone leaders start negotiations over what Greece will get in return: a three-year bailout worth up to 86 billion euros (USD 96 billion), its third rescue programme in five years.
	"EuroSummit has unanimously reached agreement," EU President Donald Tusk said.
	"All ready to go for ESM (eurozone bailout fund the European Stability Mechanism) programme for Greece with serious reforms and financial support."
	The ...

European leaders agree tough Greek bailout deal

Four US F-16 warplanes landed in Iraq today, the first batch of a much-delayed delivery aimed at boosting the ailing Iraqi military's capacity, the defence ministry said.
	"Arrival of four F-16s at Balad air base," read a flash on the ministry's website, in an announcement also confirmed to AFP by the prime minister's office.
	Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama's deputy envoy for the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, also confirmed the jets had arrived.
	"After years of preparation & training in the US, Iraqi pilots today landed the 1st squadron of Iraqi F16s in #Iraq," he said on social media.
	The delivery had most recently been delayed over security concerns at Balad, which lies about 70 kilometres north of Baghdad.
	IS fighters were still battling government forces not far from Balad earlier this year, which was deemed to make it unsafe for the US contractors hired to maintain the jets.
	Iraq has ordered a total of 36 F-16 war planes ...

First batch of US F-16 jets delivered to Iraq

Three leaders of an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group blamed for a spate of violence in Tunisia were among five "terrorists" killed last week in a security raid, the interior minister has said.
	Najem Gharsalli said the three jihadists were "heavyweights" from the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigades, Tunisia's main extremist group which had been blamed for the March attack on the Bardo National Museum.
	The assault that killed 21 tourists and a policeman was however claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
	"The operation carried out on Friday by our security forces in cooperation with the army in the region of Gafsa resulted in the elimination of five dangerous terrorists, including three senior leaders" of the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigades, Gharsalli said late yesterday.
	"They were heavyweights, not ordinary (members)," Gharsalli told a news conference.
	The three were named as Tunisians Mourad Gharsalli and Hakim Hazi, and Algerian national Lounis Abou Fath. The other two people killed have not ...

3 leaders of Qaeda-linked Tunisia group killed: minister

An Indonesian orangutan trader has been jailed for two years after he was caught trying to sell a baby ape from a backpack, a rare conviction for wildlife crime in the country, authorities said today.
	A court in Medan, on western Sumatra island, also ordered Vast Haris Nasution to pay a 10 million rupiah (USD 750) fine after he was found guilty last week under laws that ban the trade in orangutans.
	Authorities detained him in February in North Sumatra province with the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan in his bag, according to the local resource conservation office, which is responsible for monitoring wildlife crime in the area.
	"I hope the sentence can be a deterrent and that other courts across Indonesia follow suit to punish traders as harshly as possible," John Kenedie, conservation office head, told AFP.
	There are estimated to be only 6,000 to 7,000 Sumatran orangutans remaining in the wild, with hundreds dying every year due to poaching and deforestation.
	The rescued 

Indonesia jails orangutan trader caught with baby ape

A thief struck by misfortune since stealing two artefacts 20 years ago has returned them along with an appeal to others to refrain from plundering antiquities, the Israel Antiquities Authority said today.
	The 2,000-year-old sling stones, which were taken from the ancient city of Gamla on the Golan Heights, were left last week in a bag in the courtyard of the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures in Israel's southern city of Beersheba, said the IAA.
	"These are two Roman ballista balls from Gamla, from a residential quarter at the foot of the summit," the thief wrote in a note distributed by the Authority.
	"I stole them in July 1995, and since then they have brought me nothing but trouble. Please, do not steal antiquities!" said the note written in Hebrew.
	The thief did not detail the nature of his or her misfortune.
	The Antiquities Authority said nearly 2,000 such stones were found in Gamla. They were used by the Romans against the Jews attempting to prevent the conquest of .

Thief struck by misfortune returns loot 20 years on

British authorities today confirmed an outbreak at a farm of a strain of avian flu that is both highly contagious and potentially deadly for birds, but said the risk to people was very low.
	"A case of H7N7 avian flu has now been confirmed in Lancashire" in northwest England, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
	The strain involved is highly pathogenic and can infect people, but the government's chief veterinary officer, Nigel Gibbens, said there was little risk of that happening.
	"Public Health England has confirmed that the risk to public health from this strain is very low. The Food Standards Agency has said there is no food safety risk for consumers," he said in a statement.
	Birds at the farm near the city of Preston are being culled and a 10-kilometre restriction zone has been imposed, in which the movement of any birds or other animals is prohibited.
	Defra stressed that Britain had a "strong track record" of dealing with bird flu, including in 

Britain confirms bird flu outbreak, 'low' public risk

Gunmen suspected to be gang members shot dead five local residents at the weekend near Nigeria's oil city of Port Harcourt, the police said today.
	Rivers state police spokesman Ahmad Mohammed said assailants on motorbikes opened fire yesterday in the Agbonchia Eleme area, near the country's largest oil refinery.
	"Five persons lost their lives," Mohammed told AFP in a text message.
	"Preliminary investigations revealed the incident is related to cult (gang) activities. Investigations continue," he added.
	Eleven suspects, including an alleged "vicious and notorious cultist" wanted by police, were later arrested during a police raid on the gunmen's hideout, said Mohammed.
	Items recovered from the scene of the shooting included a jeep, two motorcycles and 20 expended shells of 7.62 mm ammunition, he added.
	Oil-rich Rivers state, of which Port Harcourt is the capital, is notorious for kidnapping, oil theft and criminal activities by gangs.

Five killed in gang shoot-out in Nigeria's Port Harcourt

French special forces evacuated 18 people from a mall near Paris today after gunmen tried to hold up a Primark store inside, in what is believed to be an attempt to rob the shop, police said.
	The gunmen -- one of whom was thought to be a Primark employee -- were still on the loose and believed to be inside the Qwartz mall in Villeneuve-la-Garenne just north of Paris.
	"Around 6:30 am, three armed criminals went into the Primark store for what we think was initially an attempt at armed robbery," said a police source, who wished to remain anonymous.
	"But we don't know whether they are still there."
	An employee first alerted her boyfriend of the hold-up at around 7:00 am when she sent him a text message saying they had been taken hostage by two armed men, another source said.
	The area around the mall was shut down, all traffic stopped and other stores in the vicinity closed up as special forces rushed to the scene.
	The mall was promptly evacuated but according to police, some 18 ...

French forces evacuate staff from mall after gunmen attack

A Hong Kong pro-democracy protester allegedly assaulted by police -- in a beating captured on video -- was given the green light today to challenge a decision not to identify his assailants.
	It is nine months since the attack on Civic Party activist Ken Tsang, footage of which was beamed around the world at the height of mass protests for free leadership elections in Hong Kong.
	Since then little progress has been made in the case and the authorities have withheld the identities of the attackers, believed to be plainclothes policemen.
	Seven officers were arrested in November and suspended from duty over the attack -- but no charges have been laid and they have not been officially named.
	Judge Thomas Au today allowed Tsang to go ahead with a legal challenge against the police, granting permission for a judicial review over the identification of his attackers.
	Tsang and his legal team argue that if the names are revealed to them they can pursue the case privately, in the event that .

Hong Kong protester wins first step in legal fight

The United Arab Emirates carried out a rare execution today, putting to death by firing squad an Emirati woman convicted of the jihadist-inspired murder of a US school teacher, media reported.
	Alaa Bader al-Hashemi, 30, was executed at dawn after President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan approved the death sentence against her, said the official WAM news agency, citing prosecutors.
	The National, an English-language daily, said Hashemi had been put to death by firing squad.
	Hashemi was sentenced to death last month for stabbing to death mother of three Ibolya Ryan, 47, in a toilet of an Abu Dhabi shopping mall on December 1, 2014.
	Dubbed the "Reem Island Ghost" after the location of the mall, Hashemi was also convicted of placing a handmade pipe bomb outside an Egyptian-American doctor's home in Abu Dhabi.
	The device failed to explode.
	In the verdicts issued in June, the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi said Hashemi had used an Internet account to spread information that was 

UAE executes woman convicted of US teacher's murder

The number of people who have fallen ill after eating a batch of 'poisoned' candy in the Philippines has risen to nearly 2,000, authorities said today as they worked to identify the source of the contamination.
	At least 1,925 people in the southern Philippines, most of them schoolchildren, were sick after eating the fruit-flavoured candy and 66 remain hospitalised, health department spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy said.
	The department's experts "are trying to investigate and consider all possible causes. It could be intentional, it could be mishandling," he told AFP.
	The victims complained of stomach cramps, diarrhoea, vomiting and headaches after consuming the durian-, mango- and mangosteen-flavoured treats that were sold by vendors outside schools.
	The number of people affected jumped by 600 from those initially reported when hospitals on the southern island of Mindanao began treating patients on Friday.
	The government's Food and Drug Administration said it was looking into possible ..

Philippines 'poison' sweets sicken nearly 2,000

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani will address the nation on state television tonight, an official statement said, amid reports a nuclear deal with world powers could be imminent.
	Rouhani's appearance scheduled for 10:00 pm (1730 GMT) was announced by the culture ministry in a notice sent to media which said he would talk about the negotiations taking place in Vienna.
	There had been optimism a deal would be clinched over the weekend but positive statements have been followed by talk of unresolved issues between the two sides.
	Finalising a framework accord struck in April has proved difficult, with talks stumbling on the exact timing of sanctions relief and Iran's desire to have a UN conventional arms embargo lifted.
	Deadlines of June 30 and July 7 have been missed but Iran and the six powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany -- have continued to talk in the Austrian capital.
	Rouhani late Sunday again raised expectations an agreement to end the ...

Iran president to address nation on nuclear talks

Dutch beer giant Heineken announced today it has opened a multi-million-dollar brewery in Myanmar, seeking to cash in on one of Asia's high-growth markets.
	"Heineken has opened a 60 million dollar brewery in Myanmar, which has a total capacity of 330,000 hectolitres per year and which will directly employ more than 200 local people," it said in a statement issued from Amsterdam.
	"The new brewery's opening further expands Heineken's exposure to high growth markets," it added.
	Myanmar is emerging from decades of isolation as a former junta-run nation, and has one of the largest populations in southeast Asia with more than 53 million people.
	Heineken, quoting Asian Development Bank figures, said the country is now undergoing rapid urbanisation and a brisk expansion of its middle class consumer base.
	Myanmar clocked up GDP growth of 7.7 per cent for the 2014 year ending March this year, and was targeting further increase of 8.3 per cent in the coming fiscal year, Heineken ...

Heineken opens USD 60 million brewery in Myanmar

The death toll from a suicide attack at a military base in eastern Afghanistan rose to 33 today, as casualties from the Taliban's insurgency continue to mount despite nascent peace talks.
	The bombing came at a military roadblock near Camp Chapman in Khost province, where both Afghan and foreign troops are stationed, shortly before iftar, the meal breaking the Ramzan fast.
	Mubarez Zadran, a spokesman for the provincial governor, and a senior police official confirmed the new toll, which included 27 civilians and six Afghan security personnel -- up from 18 reported killed earlier.
	"Twelve children and three women are among the dead," said Zadran.
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Taliban -- who last week held their first face-to-face peace talks with the Afghan government -- have often targeted Afghan and foreign troops.
	At least 12 civilians were also killed in twin roadside bomb blasts over the weekend, officials said, blaming the attacks on the ...

Toll from suicide attack on Afghan base rises to 33: officials

At least five people, all elderly men, were killed and 17 wounded in shelling that struck a residential neighbourhood in Libya's restive city of Benghazi, a hospital said today.
	Al-Jalaa hospital said on Facebook it had received the bodies of four men in their 70s and one aged 65 killed yesterday evening in "indiscriminate shelling of Beirut Street" in central Benghazi.
	Seventeen other people were brought to the hospital suffering from various wounds, it added.
	Benghazi has been reeling from more than a year of near-daily clashes between pro-government forces and armed groups, including Islamists, battling for control of the eastern city.
	Almost 1,800 people have been killed in the violence since early 2014, according to the Libya Body Count watchdog.
	Libya was plunged into chaos after the overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi's regime in 2011, with rival militias fighting for their own territorial and financial interests in the oil-rich country.

Shelling kills five elderly men in Libya's Benghazi

Twenty-three Russian soldiers were crushed to death by rubble after their military barracks collapsed in Siberia, the Russian defence ministry said today.
	All four floors collapsed in one section of the building in the Siberian city of Omsk last evening as 42 Russian paratroopers were resting.
	"All 42 soldiers who were under the rubble have been found. Twenty-three of them are dead," said defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
	President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the accident in Omsk, located about 2,200 kilometres east of Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman said.
	In footage shown on Russian television, soldiers formed a human chain to pass bricks and other debris from one to another in order to clear the mountain of rubble.
	"Half of the heap has been cleared now," acting commander of Russian paratroopers Nikolai Ignatov said in televised remarks.
	Teams of rescue workers, search dogs, and a plane with medical equipment from Moscow have been dispatched to the scene, along .

23 Russian soldiers killed in military barracks collapse

Gunmen were holed up inside a Primark store near Paris today with some 10 people inside after what appears to be an attempt to rob the shop, police said, adding special forces had been dispatched to the scene.
	"Around 6:30 am (0530 GMT), two or three armed criminals went into the Primark store for what we think was initially an attempt at armed robbery," a police source, who wished to remain anonymous, said of the incident at Villeneuve-la-Garenne.

Gunmen hold up store with 10 people inside near Paris: police

Bangladesh today rewarded young left-arm fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman for an outstanding one-day debut by including him for next week's first Test against South Africa.
     The 19-year-old has claimed 16 wickets in his first five matches during which he steered the Tigers to a 2-1 win over former world champions India at home in June.
     On Sunday, Mustafizur took three important wickets as Bangladesh thrashed the mighty South Africans by seven wickets to level the three-match series.
     Mustafizur is the only new face in the 14-man squad announced for the first of two Tests against the Proteas which starts in Chittagong on July 21.
     "He (Mustafizur) has already shown what he is capable of. He is probably the brightest find for us in recent times," chief selector Faruque Ahmed told reporters.
     "He has been playing in all formats this season and we are confident he will adjust quickly to the demands of Test cricket."
     Faruque added Mohammad Mahmudullah's return from ..

Bangladesh call up Mustafizur for South Africa Test

Greece reached a desperately- needed bailout deal with the eurozone today after marathon overnight talks, in a historic agreement to prevent the country crashing out of the European single currency.
	The country's leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to tough reforms after 17 hours of gruelling negotiations in return for a three-year bailout worth up to 86 billion euros (USD 96 billion), Greece's third rescue programme in five years.
	EU President Donald Tusk announced the deal for debt- stricken Greece on Twitter, ending a bitter six-month struggle between Tsipras's anti-austerity government in Athens and the rest of the eurozone.
	"EuroSummit has unanimously reached agreement," former Polish premier Tusk said. "All ready to go for ESM programme for Greece with serious reforms and financial support."
	Greece applied last week for a third programme from the eurozone's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, after its previous bailout expired on June 30, leaving it ...

AFP

AFP

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