French President Francois Hollande said his country was doing "everything" it can to save a Frenchman accused of drug offences in Indonesia from the firing squad after he lost an appeal against his death sentence.
	Serge Atlaoui, 51, was due to be executed alongside eight other drug offenders two months ago but won a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
	Yesterday the State Administrative Court in Jakarta dismissed Atlaoui's appeal, in which his lawyers argued that the president rejected the convict's plea for clemency without proper consideration.
	The court upheld its previous decision from April that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the challenge to the clemency plea, which is typically a death row convict's final chance to avoid execution.
	"It will be up to the lawyers to decide what other avenues to pursue" said the French head of state to the press after a European summit in 

Hollande vows to save Frenchman facing death in Indonesia

PTI Automatic

Walmart announced it has decided to remove Confederate flag merchandise from its stores as a debate rages around the banner seen by many as a symbol of racial violence in the wake of a deadly attack on a black church.
	The move by the world's largest retailer came on the heels of a call by the governor of South Carolina for the contentious Civil War battle flag to be removed from its state house grounds.
	The Confederate flag is seen as a symbol of racial violence and oppression by many, while some white southerners romanticize it as a link to the Old South.
	Civil rights activists have long pushed for it to be removed from official use, and the debate around it has returned to the spotlight since last week's massacre in Charleston, which left nine people dead at the hands of an alleged white supremcist.
	"We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer," Walmart spokesman Brian Nick said in a statement.
	"We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the ...

Walmart pulls Confederate flag merchandise after Charleston

Turkey's new parliament today holds its first session after elections in which the ruling party lost its overall majority, with the contours of a coalition government becoming clearer but far from agreed.
	The results of the June 7 vote mean that Turkey is bracing for a coalition for the first time since the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002.
	The opening of the single-chamber parliament, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, is a largely ceremonial affair, with each of the 550 deputies individually swearing oath in a marathon event starting at midday GMT that risks dragging on into the early hours of the morning.
	But the meeting also fires a starting shot for the parties' formal efforts to agree a coalition after an election seen as one of the seismic events in Turkish politics in recent decades.
	It also starts the process to elect the new parliament speaker, with parties set to propose their candidates in the next five days.
	While ...

Turkey's new-look parliament opens as coalition nears

The Philippine capital's decrepit train network will start issuing certificates of delay to tens of thousands who are late for work because of daily breakdowns, the government said today.
	With only seven trains for half a million passengers, Manila's Metro Rail Transit (MRT) is a commuter's nightmare, and creaking locomotives stop mid-track increasingly frequently.
	"This is a transparency measure. People deserve to know what problems occurred, anything that could cause a stoppage from a broken rail to air-conditioning that stopped working," transportation department spokesman Michael Arthur Sagcal told AFP.
	The "incident report", however, will only certify the cause of the delay and will not be worded as an excuse letter for tardiness, Sagcal said.
	"It's up to the requesting individual how to use it," he said, when asked if the document could be used as an excuse letter.
	Commuters walking on overhead rail tracks several storeys high beside stalled trains have become a common ...

Decrepit Philippine trains start issuing delay certificates

British police have arrested the head of Rwanda's intelligence service on an arrest warrant issued by Spain where he is accused of involvement in war crimes linked to the genocide, prompting a furious reaction from Rwanda.
	"We were informed by the Met Police on 20th of June that they had arrested general Emmanuel Karenzi Karake," a Foreign Office spokesman said today.
	The police said the 54-year-old was arrested at Heathrow airport on Saturday by extradition officers and was due to appear in court in London on Thursday.
	Rwanda's foreign minister slammed the arrest.
	"Western solidarity in demeaning Africans is unacceptable!!" Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said on Twitter. "It is an outrage to arrest Rwandan official based on pro-genocidaires lunacy!"
	A British police spokesman said Karake was "arrested on a European arrest warrant on behalf of the authorities in Spain, where he is wanted in connection with war crimes against civilians".
	A Spanish court seven years ago ...

Rwandan spy chief Karake arrested in London: official

All commercial and civilian aircraft in New Zealand were grounded today due to a fault in the South Pacific nation's air traffic control system, an official said.
	Airways New Zealand, which manages air traffic control, said all flights, including international and domestic services, were affected.
	A spokeswoman for the government agency said technicians were working to find the cause of the problem but it was impossible to say when it would be fixed.
	"There has been a radar failure that has occurred at 2.48pm (local time) this afternoon, we are working on the issue at the moment," she told AFP.
	"The impact is that all aircraft have been held on the ground. There are no aircraft taking off across the country. The aircraft that are in the air have been cleared to land."
	Airways NZ's website says it manages 30 million square kilometres of airspace, handling about one million aircraft movements annually.
	Auckland airport, the country's largest, warned travellers to expect delays.

Radar fault grounds all aircraft in New Zealand: official

Germany and France both booked their tickets to the 2016 Rio Olympics on Monday as two of the best European teams in the Women's World Cup in Canada.
     Norway's 2-1 loss to England -- who do not compete in the Olympics -- in the last 16 ensured that Germany and France have two of the three places.
     The Netherlands could join the duo at the Olympics if they beat Japan in their last-16 match on Tuesday.
     "It's very, very good news for everyone," France coach Philippe Bergeroo told AFP.
     "We're going to the Olympics, but first of all we're focusing on our quarter-final against Germany.
     "The girls are all delighted. There's a lot of joy, but we have to refocus very quickly."
     In the event where results from the Women's World Cup do not clearly identify the third best team from Europe, a play-off with the two remaining teams -- in this instance Netherlands and Norway -- will be organised by UEFA.
     Sweden will miss out on the Olympics for the first time after ...

Germany, France book tickets to 2016 Olympics

Japan marks the 70th anniversary today of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest episode in the Pacific War, which killed a quarter of the island's population.
	Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to speak at a ceremony in Itoman, at the southern tip of the island, near to the spot where terrified locals jumped or were pushed to their deaths on the orders of Imperial soldiers taught never to surrender.
	More than 100,000 Okinawans and 80,000 Japanese troops died in the 82-day battle for the strategically placed island chain.
	Over 12,000 American soldiers also perished in what many feared was a foretaste of the fight they would have to wage for the Japanese mainland.
	That invasion never came, partly because of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; a cowed Japan surrendered in August 1945. Okinawa was the only part of Japan in which battles were fought.
	Entire families were wiped out, and almost everyone on the subtropical island lost at least one relative.
	Many .

Japan marks 70th anniversary of Battle of Okinawa

Canberra was today working to verify reports that two of Australia's most wanted Islamic State group fighters, notorious for being pictured holding severed heads, have been killed.
	The Australian Broadcasting Corporation cited people close to the families of Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar as saying the pair died in fighting in the Iraqi city of Mosul in the past week.
	Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed there had been recent drone strikes in the area but said she was still awaiting "absolute verification" they were dead.
	"The likelihood of verification in relation to Mr Elomar is probably imminent, however in relation to Mr Sharrouf, we're still seeking to verify the reports," she said.
	Sharrouf gained global infamy last year when he posted pictures on his Twitter account showing himself and his seven-year-old, Sydney-raised son holding up the severed heads of slain Syrian soldiers.
	Dressed like any other youngster in blue checked trousers, a blue shirt and baseball cap, .

Two notorious Australian IS fighters reported dead

A stunning second-half winner from defender Lucy Bronze booked England a spot in the Women's World Cup quarter-finals with a 2-1 win over Norway on Monday.
     England, ranked sixth, had fallen behind to a 54th-minute goal for 1995 champions Norway off a Solveig Gulbrandsen header.
     But second-half goals from Steph Houghton and Bronze gave England their first win in the knockout round of a Women's World Cup.
     "Bronzie was outstanding today. She recovered from a couple of errors in the first half that nearly cost us and KB (goalkeeper Karen Bardsley) came to our rescue," said coach Mark Sampson.
     England next play hosts Canada on Saturday in Vancouver.
     "It's a real sense of pride for the team, to show that character and resilience to come back from a goal down in this tournament," said Sampson.
     "We're ready for a big quarter-final and determined to keep this journey going."
     Sampson made four changes to his starting lineup with midfielder Katie Chapman, ...

Bronze winner sends England to quarter-finals

A US airstrike in northern Iraq has killed an Islamic State operative who was a person of interest in the 2012 Benghazi attack, the Pentagon has said.
	Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said yesterday Tariq bin al-Tahar bin al-Falih al-'Awni al-Harzi of Tunisia was killed in Mosul on June 15.
	The US Treasury and the State Department had designated him as a terrorist operating for or on behalf of IS.
	"His death degrades ISIL's ability to integrate North African jihadists into the Syrian and Iraqi fight and removes a jihadist with long ties to international terrorism," Warren said.
	Harzi was considered a person of interest in the militant attack on the US mission in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on September 11, 2012, that killed the American ambassador and three other Americans.
	The fighter was also said to operate closely with IS-affiliated militants throughout North Africa and the Middle East.
	In its terrorist designation in September, the US Treasury described Harzi 

US airstrike kills IS operative in Iraq: official

The Islamic State group has hanged two youths after accusing them of eating during daylight hours in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said.
	"Residents of the village of Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor province reported that IS hanged from a crossbar two boys aged under 18 near the HQ of the Hissba", the jihadist police, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP yesterday.
	"The children have been suspended by ropes from a pole since noon, and they were still there in the late evening," he said.
	"Apparently, they were caught eating."
	A placard was attached to the bodies reading "They broke the fast with no religious justification".
	Throughout the month of Ramadan, which began on Thursday, believers abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn until sunset.
	IS, which controls swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq where it has created a self-proclaimed "caliphate", advocates an extreme view of the application of Islamic ...

IS hangs 2 boys for eating in Ramadan: monitor

Veteran Syrian opposition figure Oday Rajab died today of kidney failure following beatings he suffered in a government prison, a monitoring group said.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Rajab, 52, was arrested in April in the western city of Tartus at a military intelligence checkpoint.
	"For eight days he was tortured and beaten," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that he was later moved to a hospital where he died today of renal failure.
	Rajab had been imprisoned for six years under the regime of Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria's current President Bashar al-Assad, for membership of an outlawed communist party.

Syrian opposition figure dies after 'torture': monitor

More than half of current and former smokers who can pass basic lung function tests may suffer from lung diseases that have gone undiagnosed, researchers said today.
	The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine included nearly 9,000 people, aged 45-80, who had smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day for 10 years.
	About half of those in the study "were considered disease-free based on their lung-function tests," said the JAMA article.
	But when researchers looked at other criteria, including respiratory symptoms, CT scans, medications use and quality of life issues, they found that "55 per cent of the 'disease-free' study participants had some form of respiratory related impairment."
	Many were in the early stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, which is the third-leading killer in the United States.
	Forty-two per cent had emphysema or airway thickening, while 23 per cent had significant shortness of breath.
	"Smokers ...

Millions of smokers may have undiagnosed lung disease

Venezuela will hold legislative polls on December 6, officials said today, setting a date after weeks of pressure from opposition groups hoping to deal President Nicolas Maduro's Socialist party a crippling defeat.
	With Venezuela's economy in recession, oil revenues plunging and consumers facing chronic shortages of basic goods, Maduro's approval rating has sunk to 28 per cent, a crisis for the movement founded by his late mentor, leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez.
	Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies risk of losing the National Assembly for the first time since Chavez came to power in 1999, according to an April survey, which found the PSUV and its allies had 25 per cent support against 45.8 per cent for the opposition.
	The opposition's fragile coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), had accused election officials of dragging their feet on setting an election date because of Maduro and the PSUV's poor poll numbers.
	The head of the National ...

Venezuela to hold legislative polls on December 6

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif today said that talks with top international powers on Tehran's contested nuclear programme could be completed by a June 30 deadline or slightly later.
	"There is a political commitment on the part of everybody to move forward," Zarif said on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
	"There is the possibility that we can finish this by the deadline or a few days after the deadline," he said.

Iranian FM says nuclear talks can end within days of deadline

Sudan is facing a huge nationwide outbreak of measles, with at least 2,500 confirmed cases so far this year, mostly children, and 38 deaths due to the disease, the United Nations said today.
	The number of cases reported up to June in 17 of Sudan's 18 states is more than four times the figure for the whole of last year.
	"The outbreak this year is huge and we more than 2,500 confirmed cases of measles" since January, UN interim humanitarian coordinator for Sudan Geert Cappalaere told AFP.
	"Measles is something we see in Sudan every year, but we see yearly not more than 500 or 600 cases over the whole year," he said.
	"The second point of alarm for us is that the outbreak is countrywide. For the moment 17 out of 18 states have confirmed cases of measles," Cappalaere said.
	The government, with support from the UN children's fund UNICEF and other aid agencies, has launched a campaign to vaccinate 7.9 million children under 15 against the disease.
	Some 72 percent of the 2,511 confirmed 

Sudan facing measles outbreak with 2,500 cases nationwide: UN

A prominent Saudi comedian who has mocked the Islamic State group and Islamists in the ultra-conservative kingdom has said he shall not be deterred after receiving online threats.
	Nasser al-Qasabi, who appears in a new satirical television sitcom titled "Selfie" aired by the Saudi-owned MBC network, said in remarks published today that he has "the right to express an opinion".
	"Allah will protect us. It is the job of the artist to say the truth, even if that is at his own expense. This is the price we have to pay," Qasabi said in remarks posted on MBC's website.
	It is not known who has made the threats against him.
	A wave of support has hit social media networks, including Arabic hashtags on Twitter saying "we are all Nasser al-Qasabi" and "Qasabi mocks Daesh", the Arabic acronym for IS.
	In his sitcom that is aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Qasabi is a Saudi father who pretends to want to join the militants in Syria in order to bring back his jihadist ...

Saudi comedian shrugs off threats after mocking IS

The Syrian army has reopened a key oil supply route near Islamic State-controlled Palmyra, as the jihadist group has mined the city's ancient UNESCO-listed ruins.
	However, the advance toward the central city from the west, reported by a pro-government newspaper and a monitoring group, and stepped up air strikes, do not indicate an imminent offensive to retake it.
	IS overran Palmyra on May 21, sparking fears that the radical Sunni Muslim group might repeat the sort of vandalism it has carried out in Iraq and destroy one of Syria's most famous archaeological sites.
	"The infantry has made tangible progress in the area of Biyarat al-Gharbiyeh," west of Palmyra, which had previously been in IS hands, said Al-Watan newspaper.
	And the army had "intensified" its operations against IS in Palmyra and the surrounding area, the newspaper added.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has been monitoring the conflict, said the army was now 10 kilometres (six miles) away ..

Syrian army advances west of IS-controlled Palmyra

Ukraine today reported the death of two soldiers in the past day of fighting with pro-Russian insurgents across the industrial east.
	Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said three servicemen were also wounded in rebel artillery and sniper fire across the separatist Lugansk and Donetsk provinces.
	Lysenko said the situation remained "very tense" around the industrial Sea of Azov port of Mariupol that the rebels are believed to covet as a potential export gateway for the steel and coal mines they now control.
	The violence has pushed to nearly 60 the number of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians killed this month.
	The separatists have called government forces' own shelling of the rebel bastion of Donetsk a "grave" violation of Minsk agreement that Russia and Ukraine signed during February negotiations spearheaded by the leaders of Germany and France.
	The four countries' foreign ministers are due to meet in Paris tomorrow in the hope of calming the latest upsurge of violence and ending ...

Two Ukraine troops killed ahead of peace talks

Israeli Druze today blocked and threw stones at an army vehicle they believed was transferring wounded Syrian rebels for treatment, police said.
	The incident took place as concern grew for the fate in neighbouring Syria of members of the Druze minority, traditional allies of President Bashar al-Assad, who are surrounded by rebels in the country's more than four-year civil war.
	"A group of people, Druze residents, blocked the road in front of a military vehicle, attempting to check the identity of its occupants" in the northern Israeli town of Horfish, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
	The Druze threw stones at the vehicle as it tried to drive off, she said, adding that one Druze was moderately injured in the incident.
	Samri told AFP the Druze had thought the vehicle was an army ambulance transferring wounded Syrian rebels from across the frontier for medical treatment.
	She did not elaborate, and the army had no immediate comment.
	Israel shares a ceasefire line ..

AFP

AFP

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