More than 10,000 fish died in temporary holding tanks in Brazil during construction of what is being touted as the world's largest freshwater aquarium, local media reported.
	Prosecutors in Campo Grande, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul state, are probing who is at fault after the local government and the company that dealt with the fish blamed each other.
	Billed as "the biggest freshwater aquarium in the world" by the former governor of the state, work on the USD 53-million facility was supposed to have finished at the end of last year but has been delayed, the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported today.
	Since November, the fish had been in quarantine with a firm called Anambi, which won a contract to care for the animals.
	Some of the fish were imported from Africa, Asia and Oceania. An Anambi document from May states that 80 per cent of the fish died from a temperature drop as winter approached in the southern hemisphere country.
	"The transfer of fish was planned between ...

10,000 fish die in delayed Brazil aquarium project

PTI Automatic

About a million worshippers packed the Paraguayan town of Caacupe today to see Pope Francis, who is wrapping up a three-country South America tour in which he has repeatedly spoken up for the poor.
	The pope, 78, paid special tribute to Paraguay's women, largely left widowed and orphaned during the War of the Triple Alliance from 1865 to 1870, which nearly decimated the male population.
	"I would like especially to mention you, the women, wives and mothers of Paraguay, who at great cost and sacrifice were able to lift up a country defeated, devastated and laid low by war," Francis said.
	"You are keepers of the memory, the lifeblood of those who rebuilt the life, faith and dignity of your people," he said.
	Caacupe has become a place of international pilgrimage thanks to the presence of a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary that has been credited with various miracles.
	On the esplanade in front of the Caacupe basilica, delighted crowds played guitar, shook maracas and sipped ...

A million faithful throng Paraguay town for papal visit

Eurozone finance chiefs warned that last-ditch talks today on a bailout deal to stop Greece crashing out of the euro would be "extremely difficult", blaming a collapse of trust in the government in Athens.
	Hardline Germany led a chorus of scepticism as ministers prepared to give a verdict on leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's new reform plan for a third rescue package worth more than 80 billion euros (USD 89 billion).
	But France and some smaller nations said there was a good basis for negotiations on the new proposals of pension cuts and tax hikes, which were approved by the Greek parliament in the early hours of today.
	"We will have extremely difficult negotiations," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters on his way into the talks in Brussels.
	"In the last months hope has been destroyed in an incredible way, even up to just a few hours ago. Definitely we cannot trust promises," he added.
	Schaeuble even proposed during the meeting that Greece take a .

Greece faces 'difficult' talks to stay in euro

Cuban former president Fidel Castro has made a second public appearance in less than a week, state media said today, marking an unusually high-profile spell for the ageing revolutionary icon.
	The communist island's official newspaper, Granma, published photos of the 88-year-old Castro and said he had met on Thursday with military chiefs and civil servants.
	In one of the three photos, Castro appears to be chairing the meeting and is wearing a blue-and-white sports jacket over a plaid shirt. He is flanked by General Leopoldo Cintra Frias and interior minister Abelardo Colome Ibarra.
	Granma said that in a "lively exchange," Castro spoke about rapid population growth and climate change and how water scarcity and international conflicts were affecting commodity prices.
	Castro also appeared publicly on July 4, when he met with Cuban cheese experts.
	Castro, who biographers say has been passionate about cheese-making since the 1960s, was interested in the quality and production levels of 

Fidel Castro makes second public appearance in a week

China's security ministry said today that 109 Uighurs repatriated by Thailand had been on their way to Turkey, Syria or Iraq "to join jihad", state media reported.
	Beijing also criticised the US State Department over its condemnation of Thailand's deportation of the Uighurs to China where it said "they could face harsh treatment".
	Thailand on Thursday said it had deported some 100 Uighurs detained in the country after finding "clear evidence" they were Chinese nationals.
	The deportations triggered condemnation from rights groups and fresh protests in Turkey over China's treatment of the Turkic-speaking, largely Muslim Uighurs in the northwestern Xinjiang region.
	China's ministry of public security said Saturday 13 of the 109 repatriated had fled China after being implicated in "terrorist activities", the official Xinhua news agency reported.
	It said many of them had been radicalised by materials released by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and the World Uygur ...

China says repatriated Uighurs 'were on way to jihad'

Greece's eurozone partners were doubtful of a last-ditch bailout deal today, saying talks to stop it crashing out of the euro would be tough because trust in Athens had collapsed.
	Hardline German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble led a chorus of scepticism about Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's new reform plan aimed at a third debt rescue package worth more than 80 billion euros (USD 89 billion).
	Parliament approved the leftist leader's package of pension cuts and tax hikes in the early hours today, but there are doubts that finance ministers meeting in Brussels will back them ahead of a make-or-break EU summit tomorrow.
	"We will have extremely difficult negotiations," Schaeuble told reporters in Brussels.
	"In the last months hope has been destroyed in an incredible way, even up to just a few hours ago. Definitely we cannot trust promises," he added.
	Minister after minister insisted on the need to rebuild trust with Athens after six months of torturous debt deal ...

Greece faces 'difficult' eurozone judgment day

Stuart Broad led England to within three wickets of victory in the first Ashes Test as Australia collapsed either side of lunch on the fourth day at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens today.
     Australia, well-placed at 97 for one, slumped to 106 for five as four wickets fell for just nine runs in 36 balls.
     At tea, the Ashes-holders were 162 for seven, with their hopes of scoring the further 250 runs they need to reach a record-breaking target of 412 all but scuppered.
     Fast-medium bowler Broad had tea figures of three for 22 in 10 overs, with Australia's hopes of salvaging a draw currently resting with Mitchell Johnson (26 not out) and Mitchell Starc (four not out) following the dismissal of all their specialist batsmen.
     No side have made more in the fourth innings to win an Ashes Test than Australia's 404 for three at Headingley back in 1948 when Arthur Morris scored 182 and Donald Bradman, widely regarded as cricket's greatest batsman, an unbeaten 173.
     But Ashes-holders .

Broad strikes as England eye win in Ashes opener

Dozens of Russian soldiers are facing trial for fleeing their unit, fearing deployment to Ukraine, a news site and a lawyer for five of the men said today.
	The popular Gazeta.Ru website said several dozen soldiers would be prosecuted after fleeing a training ground in southern Russia where they were under pressure to "volunteer" to fight in Ukraine.
	The troops had freely enlisted for the army and are not draftees, it said.
	It is the latest report to allege Russian soldiers are being sent to eastern Ukraine despite Moscow's insistence only "volunteers" are fighting alongside the pro-Russian separatists.
	The defence ministry said the soldiers are under investigation for "disciplinary offences", the Echo of Moscow radio station reported.
	Gazeta.Ru cited mothers of two soldiers from the unit, based in the town of Maikop in the North Caucasus, as saying their sons had fled a training ground in the southern Rostov region, fearing being sent to Ukraine.
	A lawyer representing five of ...

Russian troops 'flee unit, fearing Ukraine deployment'

Tunisian authorities have arrested 127 suspected "terrorists" since last month's massacre of tourists at a beach resort, the minister heading the crisis group on the incident said today.
	"Since the attack, the security forces have carried out more than 700 operations resulting in the arrests of 127 suspected members of terrorist gangs," Kamel Jendoubi said.
	The June 26 shooting rampage by a Tunisian student at Port El Kantaoui killed 30 Britons, three Irish nationals, two Germans, one Belgian, one Portuguese and a Russian, and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
	Jendoubi did not specify how many of the 127 people detained were being held for their suspected involvement in the beach attack.
	He had earlier announced the arrest of eight people suspected of having direct links to it.
	The minister stressed the government's determination to protect "the country, citizens and nationals of foreign countries".
	"Today, more than 100,000 police, national guard and civil protection ...

Tunisia says 127 arrests since jihadist beach massacre

The sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 aircraft has been grounded in Hawaii, its crew said today, after a gruelling five-day, fuel-less flight across the Pacific Ocean overheated its batteries.
	The airplane took 118 hours to cross from Japan to Hawaii in the most perilous leg of its goal to circumnavigate the globe without a drop of fuel.
	The flight last week saw Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg smash a record for the longest solo plane flight. But the historic journey also took its toll on the aircraft's batteries, grounding it for repairs until at least August.
	Too much insulation caused the plane's battery temperature to spike on the first day of the flight and there was no way to cool it after Solar Impulse was off the ground, the aircraft's team said.
	"The damage to certain parts of the batteries is irreversible and will require repairs and replacements that will take several weeks to work through," the Solar Impulse crew said.
	"Solar Impulse does not see the possibility for any ...

Solar Impulse grounded in Hawaii for repairs

At least 12 gunmen have died in clashes with Burundian government troops in a northern region near the border with Rwanda, a regional official said today.
	The fighting took place yesterday near Rugazi, 140 kilometres north of the capital Bujumbura and in a thickly forested area on the Rwandan border.
	The attack has been claimed by rebel Burundian army soldiers who attempted but failed to overthrow President Pierre Nkurunziza in a coup in mid-May.
	The central African nation has been gripped by months of unrest over Nkurunziza's plan to stand for a third consecutive five-year term, which opposition groups say is unconstitutional and a violation of a peace deal that ended a dozen years of civil war in 2006.
	"The armed group entered from Rwanda and attacked very early yesterday morning," said Canisius Ndayimanisha, governor of Kayanza province.
	"The local population alerted a military post and there were two battles which left 12 of the attackers dead."
	He added that the group was ..

12 killed in Burundi clashes on Rwanda border: official

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said today that last-ditch talks with Greece on a new debt rescue needed to keep it in the eurozone will be "extremely difficult."
	"We will have extremely difficult negotiations," the hardline Schaeuble said as he arrived for an emergency meeting of eurozone finance ministers to decide whether the latest Greek reform proposals go far enough to merit a third bailout.
	Schaeuble accused the leftist Greek government of Alexis Tsipras of completely destroying confidence among his eurozone partners and said Athens had to come up with more than words.
	"At the end of last year we had hope but in the last months, this hope has been destroyed in an incredible way," Schaeuble said.
	"Definitely we cannot trust promises."
	Schaeuble added that in the detail of Greece's proposals there were even bigger gaps than in talks on its two previous bailouts, negotiated in 2010 and 2012 worth 240 billion euros.
	"Up until now we always talked about ending the ..

Greek talks to be 'extremely difficult': Germany's Schaeuble

A former Polish archbishop became ill and was placed in intensive care ahead of the opening of his unprecedented trial on paedophilia charges at the Vatican, officials said today.
	Jozef Wesolowski is accused of sexually abusing minors during his 2008-13 stint as Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic and of possessing child pornography in Rome in 2013-14.
	His case is seen as a test of Pope Francis's push to prosecute sexual predators in the face of accusations that the Catholic Church has not done enough to identify and punish paedophiles in its midst.
	The hospitalisation of the 66-year-old reduced the first day of his trial, which was open to the public, to seven minutes before the judge recessed until a later, unspecified date.
	Wesolowski "was taken ill and was taken to a ... Hospital where he was placed in intensive care," prosecutor Gian Piero Milano told the court, with Vatican officials saying that the former cleric became sick yesterday.
	When the trial reconvenes, ...

Ex-archbishop hospitalised ahead of Vatican paedophilia trial

Three children were killed today when a bomb exploded in the restive southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said.
	The victims, all under the age of 10, had entered an empty shop to shelter from the hot summer sun when a bomb hidden inside went off, killing three and wounding six other children, according to provincial police spokesman Zia Durani.
	"The explosives had been hidden in the shop and went off as the kids, all students of a nearby madrassa, tried to get rest in it," Durani said.
	A spokesman for the provincial governor confirmed the blast, blaming the Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency since late-2001.
	The insurgents launched a countrywide offensive in late April, stepping up attacks on government and foreign targets in what is expected to be the bloodiest fighting season in a decade.
	The Taliban, who promised to "safeguard" civilian lives during their offensive, are known to distance themselves from attacks that result in high civilian ...

Bomb kills three children in south Afghanistan: officials

An angry crowd disrupted a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in Bosnia, hurling stones at Serbia's premier and forcing him to flee the event marking Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
	Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic had just laid a flower at a monument for the thousands of victims identified and buried there when the crowd started chanting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) and throwing stones, forcing the Serbian leader to run for cover shielded by his bodyguards.
	Serbia's Tanjug state-run news agency said Vucic was hit on the head by a stone and had his glasses broken.
	Vucic, whose country backed Bosnian Serbs during and after the 1990s inter-ethnic war in Bosnia, was among numerous dignitaries, including former US president Bill Clinton, and tens of thousands of people attending the commemoration in the eastern Bosnian town.
	Shortly before arriving, Vucic condemned the "monstrous crime" in Srebrenica, where some 8,000 ...

Attack on Serbia PM mars Srebrenica massacre anniversary

Presidential elections in the crisis-hit central African nation of Burundi have been postponed to July 21, nearly a week later than originally scheduled, the presidency announced today.
	A decree signed by President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive five-year term has sparked weeks of civil unrest, said the polls would be moved from July 15 to July 21, with campaigning extended until the evening of July 18.
	The five-nation East African Community (EAC), which has been trying to mediate an end to the crisis, on Monday called for elections to be delayed by two weeks, to July 30, to allow time for more talks between Nkurunziza's ruling CNDD-FDD party and opposition groups.
	Parliamentary polls, in which the CNDD-FDD scored a landslide win, were held on May 29 but boycotted by the opposition and internationally condemned.
	Opposition and rights groups say Nkurunziza's re-election bid is unconstitutional and violates a peace deal that ended a dozen 

Burundi presidential vote postponed to July 21: presidency

Eleven people were killed in a Boko Haram raid on a remote village in northeast Nigeria, residents and a civilian vigilante assisting the military against the Islamists told AFP.
	"We had just finished our evening prayers when Boko Haram gunmen invaded our village," said resident Kyari Sanda from Ngamdu, 100 kilometres south of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
	"They opened fire instantly. We lost 11 people and now almost half our village was set ablaze. They took all of our supplies."
	Danlami Ajaokuta, from the civilian militia force, confirmed the attack, which happened yesterday at about 8:00 pm local time and is the latest in northeast Nigeria in recent weeks.
	The attack -- and a botched suicide bombing on a bus station in Maiduguri on Saturday morning -- took the death toll from Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria to nearly 580 since May 29, according to AFP reporting.
	Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated as president on that day and has vowed to end the Islamist insurgency, which ...

11 killed in Boko Haram raid on NE Nigeria village: residents

Moeen Ali struck on the stroke of lunch to dismiss David Warner after he had led a bold start to Australia's mammoth run chase on the fourth day of the first Ashes Test against England today.
     Warner's exit for 52 left Australia 97 for two at the interval at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens and needing a further 315 runs to reach what would be a new Ashes record fourth-innings winning total of 412.
     Steven Smith, the world's number one ranked Test batsman, was 29 not out after off-spinner Ali had Warner lbw as he shuffled across his stumps to a ball that came in on the angle rather than turned away from the left-hander.
     It had seemed Australia, bidding for their first Ashes series win in Britain in 14 years, would get through the session for just the loss of Warner's fellow left-handed opener Chris Rogers.
     The most any side have made to win in the fourth innings of an Ashes Test was Australia's 404 for three at Headingley back in 1948 when Arthur Morris scored 182 and Donald 

Ali snares Warner to check Australia's victory bid

A dominant all-round performance by Mohammad Hafeez steered Pakistan to a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first one-day international here today.
     The off-spinner shrugged off concerns about his bowling action to grab four wickets as Pakistan, electing to field after winning the toss, kept Sri Lanka down to 255-8 in 50 overs.
     Hafeez then hammered a stroke-filled 103 to lead the tourists past the target in 45.2 overs, giving them the lead in the five-match series.
	Ninth-ranked Pakistan need to win the series to stay in contention for a place in the eight-nation Champions Trophy in England in 2017.
	Sri Lanka, currently ranked fifth, are assured of taking part in the tournament.
	Hafeez, who was reported for a suspect action during the preceding Test series and underwent tests in Chennai last week, took the field only because he is allowed to play till the results are declared.
	The 34-year-old seized the opportunity to finish with his best one-day figures of four for 41 .

Under-scanner Hafeez seals Pakistan win

Serbian premier Aleksandar Vucic was forced to flee a Srebrenica memorial today when an angry crowd hurled stones at him at the 20th anniversary commemoration of Europe's worst mass killing since World War II.
	Vucic had just laid a flower at a monument for thousands of victims identified and buried there when the crowd started to chant 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) and hurled stones, forcing the prime minister to run for cover shielded by his bodyguards.
	Serbia's Tanjug state-run news agency said Vucic was hit on the head by a stone and had his glasses broken.
	Vucic, whose country backed Bosnian Serbs during and after the 1990s inter-ethnic war in Bosnia, was among numerous dignitaries and tens of thousands of people attending the commemoration in the eastern town.
	Shortly before arriving, he condemned the "monstrous crime" in Srebrenica, where some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces who captured Srebrenica in July 1995, near the end of the ...

Serbian PM flees Srebrenica as stones, insults fly

North Korea named the four-star general appointed to the vacant post of defence minister today, three months after his predecessor was reportedly executed.
	The country's KCNA news agency referred to General Pak Yong-sik as "head of the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces", the country's defence minister equivalent, in a report on military talks held with the government of Laos.
	Pak has appeared in numerous state media reports in recent weeks as part of the entourage of leader Kim Jong-Un, fuelling speculation he was to take the position.
	The defence minister is thought to rank the second or third highest in the country's military hierarchy, South Korea's Yonhap agency said.
	Pak was promoted to major general in the North's army in 1999, according to Yonhap, rising to become a four-star general in May.
	It is the first time the North has confirmed that a replacement has been chosen after the purging of the previous defence minister, Hyon Yong-chol, in April.
	South Korea's spy ...

AFP

AFP

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