Jailed Al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour has arrived back in Qatar, blaming his controversial two-day detention in Germany on pressure from the Egyptian government.
	Mansour's plane touched down in Qatar at 11:45 pm (local time) yesterday, and he was greeted by a number of Al Jazeera executives and members of his family in the VIP lounge of Doha's Hamad International Airport.
	Speaking to reporters in Arabic, Mansour said: "There are lobbies that promote Sisi in the world and play the role of public relations.
	"They put pressure on the German government because the Egyptian government is rubbish and has no value."
	He added that his arrest had been "political".
	"From the first second, I knew I was innocent, I did not do anything wrong or hurt anyone. Everything for me was clear, I was strong all the time."
	German authorities released Mansour, 52, on Monday, having detained the prominent Arab TV journalist two days earlier at a Berlin airport in a move that baffled and angered ...

Arrested Al-Jazeera journalist arrives back in Qatar

PTI Automatic

New York authorities have agreed to pay USD 6.25 million compensation to an innocent man who spent nearly 25 years languishing in prison for a murder he did not commit.
	Jonathan Fleming, 53, walked free in April 2014 when his conviction was overturned by the Brooklyn district attorney after spending nearly half his life behind bars.
	He had been found guilty of the August 1989 shooting of a friend despite being with his family in Orlando, Florida at the time of the murder.
	"Fleming spent nearly half of his life behind bars for a crime that evidence available at the time proved he could not have committed," said New York city comptroller Scott Stringer.
	"We cannot give back the time that he served, but the city of New York can offer Jonathan Fleming this compensation for the injustice that was committed against him."
	Fleming went to hospital to see his dying mother after signing the settlement, his lawyers Paul Callan and Martin Edelman said.
	"The swift settlement will enable ...

Innocent New Yorker gets USD 6.25 mn for 25 years in jail

A Swedish man who created a malware program that infected half a million computers around the world has been jailed for 57 months in New York for computer hacking.
	Alex Yucel, 25, owned the organization "Blackshades" that sold a sophisticated and pernicious form of malicious software, known as RAT, to several thousand people in more than 100 countries, prosecutors said yesterday.
	The 25-year-old was arrested in Moldova in November 2013 and extradited to the United States. He initially pleaded not guilty to five counts but later confessed to computer hacking in February.
	In exchange, his sentence of less than five years is far below the maximum 17 years in jail that he initially faced by going to trial.
	Nearly 100 people were arrested in joint European and US raids in May 2014 targeting the creators, sellers and users of the malware in 16 countries.
	Two customers and a Blackshades administrator have already been sentenced to between one and two years in prison after pleading ...

Swedish malware creator jailed 57 months in New York

Ten people were killed at a market in northeast Nigeria when a girl thought to be aged just 12 detonated explosives she was carrying, a relative of one of the injured victims and a health worker said.
	The blast happened at about 11:00 am (local time) yesterday at the weekly market in Wagir, in the Gujba district south of the Yobe state capital Damaturu.
	"It was a suicide attack by a girl of around 12 years," Hussaini Aisami, whose relative was among at least 30 people injured by the blast, told AFP.
	"She went into the market and headed straight to the grain section. She detonated her explosives in the middle of traders and customers. Ten people died from the explosion. We brought 30 people to the hospital."
	Yesterday's attack bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram Islamists, who have used young women and girls in the past as human bombs and regularly attacked "soft" civilian targets such as markets.
	On Monday, a girl thought to be aged about 17 killed at least 20 at a bus station ..

10 dead, 30 injured in suicide blast in Nigeria

British police will arrive in Pakistan this week to interrogate two suspects in the London murder of a prominent Pakistani politician, a minister said today.
	Imran Farooq, 50, a founding member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, was stabbed and beaten to death in Edgware in northwest London as he returned home from work in September 2010.
	Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said Pakistan would help the British police in a transparent investigation.
	"We will ensure proper investigation without any prejudice, without any favour," he told reporters.
	The suspects were arrested last week in the southwestern province of Baluchistan near the Afghan border.
	"The suspects are in custody of the Frontier Corps in Quetta. We will bring them to Islamabad and assist the British police in the investigations," the minister said.
	Announcing the arrest last week of Khalid Shamim and Mohsin Ali, Pakistan termed it a breakthrough in the case.
	British detectives said last May they ..

British police to visit Pakistan to quiz murder suspects

Al-Qaeda's north African branch has released footage of a jihadist with an English accent parading two Western hostages he says are being held in "new territory" under its control.
	South African Stephen Malcolm McGowan and Swede Johan Gustafson were abducted in Timbuktu, northern Mali, in November 2011 and have been held since by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
	The film appears to have been shot in early April, according to McGowan's family, around the time that a Dutch hostage kidnapped with the pair was rescued in a raid by French special forces.
	The 19-minute clip, uploaded to YouTube, shows McGowan and Gustafson sitting by the roadside in a forested glade with their wrists bound.
	They are led into the shade to discuss their situation by a dark-skinned, balaclava-clad militant, who gives the impression of being a native English-speaker.
	McGowan and Gustafson, heavily-bearded and dressed in tunics, appear in good health in the video, entitled "A Trip to Interview Two ...

English-accented jihadi parades Westerners in Al-Qaeda video

South Africa threatened today to withdraw from the International Criminal Court after an outcry over the government's refusal to detain Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on genocide charges.
	Bashir flew out of Pretoria last week after attending a meeting of the African Union despite a court order that barred his departure, sparking international criticism of President Jacob Zuma's government.
	In a heated parliamentary debate, the lead speaker for Zuma's ruling African National Congress said South Africa would press for reforms of the ICC, accusing it of losing credibility because countries such as the United States had failed to place themselves under the control of the Hague-based organisation.
	"The ANC reserves the right to raise these reform packages and if rejected we will have no alternative but to review our membership of the ICC," said Obed Bapela, deputy minister of traditional affairs.
	The opposition Democratic Alliance had accused the government of a serious breach of ...

S Africa threatens to quit ICC over Bashir

Facebook announced today it has been using a new security tool to help detect and remove malicious software for users of the world's biggest social network.
	Facebook said it was working with Kaspersky Lab, bolstering a program implemented with other online security firms including ESET, F-Secure and Trend Micro.
	"Thanks to the collaboration with these companies, in the past three months we have helped clean up more than two million people's computers that we detected were infected with malware when they connected to Facebook," said Trevor Pottinger, a Facebook security engineer.
	"In these cases, we present a cleanup tool that runs in the background while you continue using Facebook, and you get a notification when the scan is done to show you what it found."
	Pottinger said the program uses "a combination of signals to help find infections and get the malware off of your computer for good, even if the malware isn't actively spreading spam or harmful links."
	Kaspersky Lab's Kate ...

Facebook reveals new security tool

Egyptian-born Al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour today blamed his controversial two-day detention in Germany at Cairo's request on pressure that the "tyrannical regime" had placed on Berlin.
	German authorities yesterday released Mansour, 52, having detained the prominent Arab TV journalist on Saturday at a Berlin airport in a move that baffled and angered rights and media groups.
	The German foreign ministry blamed a mishap, saying officials were not initially aware Mansour was a journalist or that there was a "political background", while Mansour suggested Berlin willingly acted on Cairo's behalf.
	"I am sorry that (the Egyptian government) succeeded in using some people in the German government for its purposes," the Egyptian-British dual national charged during a press conference, according to the German translation.
	Mansour pointed out that he was detained weeks after German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on June 3.
	"I fear that the ...

Jazeera's Mansour blames Berlin detention on Egyptian pressure

Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has confirmed death sentences for two suspected Saudi Al-Qaeda members convicted of murdering four Frenchmen in 2007, a newspaper reported today.
	They had been sentenced by a special "terrorism" tribunal in January of last year, in verdicts now upheld by the highest court, the Arryadh daily said.
	The pair were convicted of shooting dead the French nationals -- one of whom was a teenager -- near the western city of Medina while they were on a desert excursion from their homes in the capital Riyadh.
	Another 12 men convicted of helping the attackers were jailed for between three and 23 years.
	Police killed the suspected mastermind of the attack, Walid Motlaq al-Raddadi, a 23-year-old Saudi, in Medina about two months after the murders.
	Authorities in the kingdom set up specialised courts in 2011 to try dozens of Saudis and foreigners accused of belonging to Al-Qaeda or of participating in a wave of attacks that swept the country from 2003.
	Those ...

Saudi confirms death penalties for murders of 4 French

Iran's parliament approved a controversial bill today that it said would protect the country's nuclear programme, but which could also hinder final negotiations on a deal with world powers.
	The move re-exposed persistent tension between President Hassan Rouhani's government and lawmakers in Tehran, where hardliners routinely voice doubt about the merit of talking to the West.
	One of Rouhani's vice presidents said the bill, which still has to be signed into law by Iran's Guardian Council, was unconstitutional and would not help its negotiators at "a sensitive point" in the talks.
	The move, just one week before the deadline for an international agreement on the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme, lays down terms for MPs' accepting it.
	Rouhani, a moderate who aims to end Iran's diplomatic isolation, wants an agreement that can lift sanctions that have hobbled the economy.
	However, critics of his nuclear policy, including members of the conservative-dominated legislature, .

Iran lawmakers pass bill to protect nuclear programme

An Islamic State group video released today showed the jihadists murdering 16 men by drowning them in a cage, decapitating them with explosives and firing a rocket-propelled grenade into a car.
	The video, apparently shot in Iraq's Nineveh province, was one of the most brutal yet in a series released by the jihadists of killings of opponents in areas under IS control.
	IS has executed hundreds of people by gunfire, dozens by beheading, stoned some to death, thrown others from buildings and burned a captured Jordanian pilot alive.
	Videos of the killings are a key propaganda tool of the jihadists, used to shock and terrify their enemies as well as to draw in new recruits seeking the most brutal and active militant group.
	The men killed in the latest video are said to be "spies", with some of them making recorded "confessions".
	First, the militants lead four men to a car and close the doors, after which one fires a rocket-propelled grenade under the vehicle, setting it alight.
	A ...

IS drowns, decapitates 'spies' in brutal new video

At least 39 people were killed and dozens wounded in 24 hours of clashes in the southern Yemeni cities of Aden and Dhaleh, officials said today.
	In Aden, Yemen's second city, seven civilians died and 94 were wounded after Shiite Huthi rebels fired rockets on neighbourhoods controlled by troops loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, the city's health chief Al-Khader Laswar told AFP.
	The fire destroyed several houses, according to Aden vice-governor Nayef al-Bakri.
	Further north in Dhaleh, fierce clashes between Huthi fighters and loyalist troops killed 24 rebels and eight in the pro-Hadi camp, including a local commander, a local official said.
	Both camps used heavy weapons after the rebels attacked pro-government positions in the northern and eastern areas of the city, the official said, adding that there were dozens of wounded on either side.
	Fighting has dragged on for several months in Aden, where Iran-backed Shiite rebels have battled pro-Hadi loyalists since the ..

39 killed, dozens wounded in south Yemen clashes

Austria will next week officially file a legal complaint in Brussels against state subsidies for Britain's planned new Hinkley Point nuclear power plant, the government in Vienna said today.
	"We cannot accept that a technology such as this being portrayed through subsidies as being modern, sustainable and future-oriented," Chancellor Werner Faymann said after a cabinet meeting.
	The complaint, which Vienna had already threatened in September and which will be filed next Monday, "is also of symbolic value against nuclear power," the centre-left Faymann said.
	The Hinkley Point project in southwest England, where France's EDF is to build two reactors, is a major boost to the nuclear industry four years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
	Despite opposition from activists and several member states, the European Commission approved the project in October after Britain modified funding plans for the USD 26 billion deal.
	Environmentalists see Hinkley Point as an unnecessary ...

Austria to file EU complaint against UK nuclear plant

The United States and China must be "honest and direct" about future ties, US Vice President Joe Biden said today, warning Beijing that the world's seaways must remain open for trade.
	Welcoming a top delegation of Chinese officials to Washington for annual strategic and economic talks, Biden said Beijing must be at the table in all important global negotiations.
	"I believe that the future of China's success and global influence is directly tied to the extent to which it acts as a responsible stake-holder," Biden said.
	"Essential to this is to find new ways to work together even as we seek to manage future competition."
	But he delivered a sharp warning to Beijing amid territorial disputes with Asian neighbours over the South and East China Seas that the world's waterways must remain "open and protected" for trade.
	"Responsible countries adhere to international law and work together to keep international sea-lanes open for unimpaired commerce. Eighty percent of all the commerce ...

US, China must be 'honest, direct' about future ties

Paris entered the race for the 2024 Olympics today, proclaiming the bid on Olympic Day in what promises to be a tightly fought contest.
     Paris, which failed in bids for the Olympics in 2008 and 2012, joined the US city of Boston, Rome and Germany's Hamburg as candidates for the Games in 2024, 100 years on from the last time the Olympics were staged in the French capital.
     Bids must be officially submitted by September 15 this year and the International Olympic Committee will only make a decision at a congress in Lima on September 15, 2017.
     Bernard Lapasset, chairman of World Rugby and future head of the bidding committee, said he wanted Paris 2024 to "innovate, smile, move and win" in a ceremony announcing the launching of the candidacy process.
     Bid-backing Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo invited all Parisians to show their support for the French capital's initiative by gathering along the banks of the river Seine later Tuesday.
     Paris will roll out an Olympic ...

Paris enters race for 2024 Games

A 25-year-old paranoid schizophrenic who beheaded an elderly woman during a 45-minute rampage through London back gardens was today found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and locked up indefinitely.
	Nicholas Salvador, a six-foot-tall cage fighter, believed that 82-year-old Palmira Silva was Nazi leader Adolf Hitler or a demon when he stabbed her repeatedly before cutting off her head and holding it aloft.
	The random attack took place last September in Edmonton, north London, where Salvador went on a rampage while staying with friends living three doors away from Silva.
	He armed himself with a wooden pole and a machete and killed two of his hosts' cats before running through back gardens on the street, kicking down neighbours' doors.
	Silva, an Italian-born cafe owner, had approached Salvador over the wall of her garden when she was brutally murdered.
	Salvador was Tasered six times by police before they could bring him under control, and afterwards was recorded repeating .

Schizophrenic locked up after beheading London woman

Officials from Iran, Iraq and Syria will meet next week in Baghdad to strengthen their joint fight against the Islamic State jihadist group, media reports said today.
	Representatives of the three countries "will have a meeting next week in Baghdad to reinforce their cooperation in the fight against terrorism," Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign affairs adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today.
	Velayati spoke after meeting Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad al-Chaar, who is visiting Tehran, Iranian state TV said.
	"Iran has brotherly and historic relations with these two countries (Iraq and Syria). Next week, we will bear witness to an important evolution in the relationship among these three countries," Velayati said.
	Citing Chaar, Syrian pro-government daily Al-Watan said the meeting would aim "to discuss the mechanisms of strategic cooperation and coordination to combat terrorism."
	"The terrorists of Daesh are active in Syria and Iraq, so we have to ...

Iran, Iraq, Syria to strengthen cooperation against IS

The European Space Agency announced today that its historic comet-chasing mission Rosetta had been extended until the end of September 2016.
	"The adventure continues," the ESA declared.
	"ESA's Science Programme Committee has given formal approval to continue the mission for an additional nine months."
	In a final flourish, the spacecraft Rosetta may be "landed" on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet it has been shadowing, the agency said.
	In doing so, the mothership would rejoin the tiny lab it has nurtured in an odyssey spanning billions of kilometres.
	Launched in 2004, the mission has been applauded as a milestone in space exploration.
	It comprises an orbiter, Rosetta, carrying a robot lab, Philae, which seek to unveil the secrets of comets -- primordial clusters of ice and dust that may shed light on the formation of the Solar System and on how life developed on Earth.
	After a 10-year chase, the pair caught up with 67P last August.
	In November, Philae was landed on the ...

Rosetta comet-chasing mission extended to September 2016

Police detained nearly 240 people in the Armenian capital today after using water cannon to disperse a protest against electricity hikes in the impoverished ex-Soviet nation.
	Some 4,000 protesters angered by the planned price hikes marched on the presidential palace yesterday, accusing President Serzh Sarkisian government of failing to combat poverty in the landlocked Caucasus nation.
	Several hundred of them remained on the street overnight, holding a sit-in and blocking traffic.
	In the early hours today, hundreds of riot police moved in to disperse the demonstrators, using batons and water cannon to break up the rally in the most serious confrontation between protesters and police in the past few years.
	Plainclothes police also beat up journalists and destroyed or confiscated their equipment, an AFP correspondent reported.
	The overnight rally was the culmination of several days of protests aimed at forcing Sarkisian to cancel the tariff hikes, with protests also taking place ...

Nearly 240 detained in Armenia after protests over price hikes

Italy denied any involvement today in the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" of an Egyptian imam kidnapped in Milan in 2003 on charges of terrorist connections.
	Abu Omar was kidnapped "exclusively" by CIA agents and "was never in the hands of the Italian authorities," Paolo Accardo, lawyer for the Italian government, told the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
	Omar, also known as Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, brought the case after kidnapping convictions against top Italian spies were overthrown on appeal last year.
	His was one of the most notorious cases of the West's "extraordinary rendition" programme, in which terrorist suspects were kidnapped and taken to countries where they could be tortured and illegally detained with impunity.
	Omar was taken to Egypt, where he was held in secret for more than a year and says he was tortured.
	The kidnapping in broad daylight by an ally of Italy became a scandal in the country when it was revealed.
	In 2012, 22 CIA agents and a US ...

AFP

AFP

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