Qatar's gas reserves are so vast it can maintain production at current rates for another 138 years, according to an official report published today.
	An "Economic Commentary" from the Qatar National Bank (QNB) said the vast reserves of the tiny Gulf country will ensure it maintains its prominent position in the hydrocarbon sector "for years to come".
	It added that "Qatar has enough gas reserves to maintain production at current rates for 138 years".
	"Looking forward, Qatar is expected to maintain its dominant role in the global hydrocarbon sector," read the QNB report.
	"Global demand for clean energy is expected to continue rising, and Qatar is a leader in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market," it said.
	Qatar is the third largest producer of natural gas in the world behind the United States and Russia.
	Globally, it accounts for just over five per cent of the market.
	LNG is gas cooled to -160 degrees Celsius when it then turns into a liquid, allowing it to be more easily ...

Qatar vast gas reserves 'to last 138 years': report

PTI Automatic

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented new proposals to European leaders today aimed at ending his country's debt crisis, on the eve of a summit that could determine whether Greece crashes out of the eurozone.
	In a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Tsipras detailed a "mutually beneficial deal", the Greek premier's office said in a statement.
	Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi urged the two sides to seize a "window of opportunity", saying all conditions were in place for them to reach a "win-win accord".
	Athens said its new proposals were aimed at reaching a "definitive solution" to the five-month standoff between Athens and its creditors -- the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank -- as fears deepened over a potential "Grexit" from the eurozone.
	The heads of the 19 eurozone countries will hold an emergency summit on the crisis ..

Greece submits fresh plan on eve of EU emergency summit

For Rehana Akhter, rebuilding her life after losing her leg in Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster is an uphill battle, but her struggle is eased slightly by digital technology.
	The 25-year-old has an electronic bank account on her mobile, giving her access to financial services that have traditionally been out of reach for millions of poor in Bangladesh and other developing nations.
	From the capital Dhaka, Akhter sends interest earned on her one million taka (USD 12,820) compensation from the disaster quickly and cheaply to her 10-year-old son and parents back in their village.
	"Life is tough for anyone who's lost a limb. Nobody gives you a job or cares about your pain," she said of her injuries suffered in the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapse that killed more than 1,100 people in 2013.
	"But the pain is partly relieved when you know that there are technologies to help you."
	Started in 2011 by a local company called bKash, the electronic banking service has since ...

Bangladesh's unbanked poor hail 'revolutionary' service

The world's second tallest building, Shanghai Tower, will soon open in the Chinese financial capital with a twist -- a 120-degree twist, to be exact.
	A softened triangular "outer skin" is literally twisted around a circular core, sending the glass and steel tower spiralling 632 metres into the grey sky above the city.
	State-backed developer Shanghai Tower Construction and Development Co views the modern design as a symbol of China's future, a super-tall building in the city's gleaming Pudong financial district, which did not even exist 25 years ago.
	People involved with the project said the building will open this summer, with office tenants moving in first, but the developer declined to comment.
	"This twist is an iconic symbol of looking forward for the Chinese people," said Grant Uhlir, practice area leader and principal for Gensler, the US architecture firm whose design was chosen for the building which broke ground in 2008.
	"It's been referred to as a strand of DNA. It's also 

China gives new twist to world's second tallest building

Boatman Hem Gurung waits listlessly on the deserted banks of Lake Phewa in the shadow of Nepal's spectacular Annapurna mountain range for tourists that do not come.
	"Since the earthquake, Pokhara has been empty," Gurung complained to AFP in the lakeside resort, which once thronged with tourists attracted by its Himalayan vistas and outdoor adventure activities.
	"Without tourists there is no work. I should be making thousands, but at the moment we are lucky to earn a hundred or two (USD 1-2) a day," said the 49-year-old, who has worked as a boatman and tourist guide in Pokhara for 15 years.
	Pokhara's cheery backpacker cafes, hotels and handicraft stores escaped the quake unscathed -- as did the popular Annapurna trekking trails that snake upwards from the resort.
	Yet tourist arrivals have fallen off a cliff since the April 25 disaster, and bookings are 95 per cent down on the same period last year.
	It is a pattern replicated across the desperately poor Himalayan country, which ...

Frustration as tourists stay away from quake-hit Nepal

Double defending champion Roger Federer trumped Italian Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 to win an eighth title at the ATP Halle tournament on Sunday.
     The title was the 33-year-old Swiss world number two's fourth of the season after Brisbane, Dubai and Istanbul, and 86th of his career.
     It was also Federer's 15th career title on grass, coming just over a week away from Wimbledon, where he will be bidding to win for an eighth time.
     "I hope this is a good omen for Wimbledon," said Federer, who won the last of his 17 majors at the All England Club in 2012.
     Federer's only defeats in Halle finals came against Australia's Lleyton Hewitt in 2010 and German Tommy Haas two years later.
     Sunday's win meant he also became just the third player in the Open Era to claim at least eight titles in a single tournament, joining Rafael Nadal and Guillermo Vilas.
     Nadal has won nine times at the French Open and eight in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona, while Vilas won the Buenos Aires ...

Federer trumps Seppi for eighth Halle title

Israel's foreign ministry has taken down a video that angered foreign journalists by ridiculing their coverage of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, saying it had been "misinterpreted".
	"The goal of the video was to illustrate the crimes of Hamas. When that was misinterpreted, we decided to remove it," ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said today.
	The 49-second cartoon clip, entitled "Open your eyes about Gaza", was posted on YouTube a week ago. It was also posted on the ministry's website.
	Primarily addressing the coverage of last year's war in Gaza, it drew condemnation from the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel, which called it "inappropriate" and "unhelpful," as well as from Israeli journalists.
	The video featured a blonde-haired television correspondent in Gaza with an American accent declaring before a camera that "there are no terrorists here, just ordinary people", while a masked militant fires off a rocket, presumably towards Israel.
	Another scene has the reporter ...

Israel removes video 'denigrating' foreign press

The visiting minister at the church where nine African Americans were fatally shot last week said the racist shooter failed in his quest to foment hatred and to break their spirit of love and faith.
	"There they were in the house of the Lord, studying your word, praying with one another," said visiting minister Reverend Norvel Goff from the pulpit of the Emanuel AME church, four days after the massacre.
	"But the devil also entered. And the devil was trying to take charge," he said.
	"Thanks be to god, hallelujah, that the devil cannot take control of your people. And the devil cannot take control of your church," he added.

Charleston minister: 'The devil can't take your church'

Pope Francis said today the plight of asylum seekers hoping for a new life in Europe was enough to make him cry, condemning those who treat them "like merchandise".
	Speaking during his first pastoral visit to northern Italy, the pontiff slammed hostility towards migrants arriving by boat from Libya, with European countries bickering over who should be forced to provide shelter to the needy.
	"It brings tears to one's eyes to see the spectacle of these days, in which human beings have been treated like merchandise," he told the crowds.
	He was speaking as Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Milan to discuss the immigration crisis which has seen hundreds of migrants blocked on the border between the two countries.
	The head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics was in the industrial city in the northwest of the country for a two-day visit which saw him spend time with the poor, sick and marginalised, including prisoners and ...

Pope 'moved to tears' by asylum seekers' plight

Nico Rosberg celebrated his 30th birthday with a third win in four races on Sunday when he beat Mercedes team-mate and series leader Lewis Hamilton to triumph in an incident-filled Austrian Grand Prix.
     The German driver, who left his twenties behind on Saturday, repeated his 2014 success when he came home a comfortable 3.8 seconds clear of the defending world champion and reduced his lead from 17 points to 10.
     After eight of this year's 19 races, Briton Hamilton, who picked up a five seconds penalty in the race, has 169 and Rosberg, who won last year's Austrian event, 159. It was Rosberg's third win of the season and the 11th of his career.
     Brazilian Felipe Massa came third, 17 seconds adrift of the two Mercedes men, six-tenths of a second ahead of four- time champion Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, Finn Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams and German Nico Hulkenberg, who one week after winning in the Le Mans 24 Hours race, finished sixth for Force India.
     Venezuelan 

Rosberg wins again to cut Hamilton's lead in title race

Andy Murray swept to a record- equalling fourth Queen's Club title with a majestic 6-3, 6-4 demolition of South Africa's Kevin Anderson in Sunday's final.
     Murray joins John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt as the only four-time winners of the Wimbledon warm-up event in the Open era.
     It is Murray's third ATP title of 2015 after his victories on clay in Madrid and Munich, earning him a cheque for 381,760 euros ($433,507) and continuing his superb form since marrying Kim Sears in April.
     With 34 career ATP titles, including six on grass, Murray moves up to 18th on the Open era list -- level with Arthur Ashe, Michael Chang and John Newcombe.
     Even more significantly, it is Murray's first title on grass since his historic Wimbledon triumph in 2013.
     That career-defining success two years ago came after his third victorious campaign at Queen's and, with Wimbledon just eight days away, Murray's ruthless 64-minute rout of the world number 17 shows ..

Murray crowned king of Queen's for fourth time

A cat bit a woman in Germany, sending her into such a rage that she then repeatedly bit and beat her boyfriend, the owner of the pet, police said today.
	A police spokesman said that the 26-year-old woman was attacked by her 39-year-old partner's feline in the western city of Hagen in the early hours yesterday.
	After she tried in vain to discipline the cat, "a fight between the bitten person and the cat's owner ensued in which the 39-year-old was hit and bitten several times," the spokesman said in a statement.
	The injured man tried to ring the police but his partner repeatedly ripped his mobile phone from his hand until the man was able to escape and make the call.
	He was taken to hospital for treatment while the woman, who was charged with domestic violence, was slapped with a 10-day restraining order barring her from the flat.

Cat bites woman, woman bites man: German police

The South African government secretly plotted to ensure safe passage out of the country for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir despite an international warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges, a newspaper reported today.
	Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the conflict in Darfur, was able to fly out of Pretoria last Monday despite a court order blocking his departure.
	South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, revealing what it said was a secret meeting of top ministers to discuss protecting Bashir, said he was escorted to his plane by President Jacob Zuma's own police.
	The ICC had called on South Africa -- which is a signatory to the court -- to detain Bashir while he was in the country for an African Union summit.
	But security ministers agreed at a meeting before the Sudanese leader arrived that South Africa would "protect Bashir by any means necessary -- even if it meant flouting court rulings 

S Africa ministers 'plotted to protect Sudan's Bashir'

A Kuwaiti court sentenced a female rights activist to three years in jail today after convicting her in absentia of publicly criticising the oil-rich Gulf state's ruler.
	The lower court convicted Rana Jassem al-Saadun of repeating parts of a speech made by prominent opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak for which he is serving a two-year jail term, according to the ruling.
	In the speech, delivered at a public rally in October 2012, Barrak warned Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah against amending the electoral law to help the government control parliament.
	Saadun was outside the country when the verdict was delivered, the court said. Activists online reported that she was in Lebanon.
	In April 2013, the lower court sentenced Barrak to five years in jail for insulting the emir and undermining his authority. The sentence was later reduced to two years.
	Opposition groups had staged demonstrations to protest the sentence and dozens of activists repeated parts of Barrak's speech in ...

Kuwait orders female activist jailed for criticising emir

The Afghan Taliban have announced a 24-hour telephone "hotline" and email addresses for any government employees wishing to defect to them, as the tech-savvy militants try to bolster public support.
	"The Islamic Emirate will provide safety to anybody who defects from the Kabul puppet regime," the Taliban said in a statement on their website today, using their formal name.
	"They can get in touch with us 24/7 through these phone numbers and email addresses," it added, listing two for each.
	The move demonstrates the Taliban's efforts to boost public support for their resilient but unpopular insurgency following a string of defections to the Islamic State group in recent months.
	It marks a rare attempt by the Taliban to reach out to government officials, frequently targeted in growing insurgent attacks that have sent casualties soaring.
	When AFP called one of the numbers, a militant representative who identified himself as Mullah Jalid said they had received more than 20 calls from ..

Afghan Taliban offer govt workers 'hotline' number to defect

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will visit his European counterparts this week to take stock of cooperation with NATO in the wake of Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine.
	The visit comes as officials say Washington's relationship with the Western military bloc is at its strongest in decades.
	"This month the US and NATO have achieved their highest operational tempo of training and exercises since Cold War," a US defense official said Friday.
	The US official said Carter's visit is a chance to "acknowledge" how NATO member nations have responded to Russia's actions in the region, and also to discuss "what we need to continue doing."
	Carter is set to travel to Germany Monday and to Tallinn, Estonia, Tuesday before moving on to Belgium, where he will attend a NATO defense ministers meeting, his first NATO ministerial since taking over as Pentagon chief in February.
	While in Tallinn, Carter will meet with defense ministers from Baltic States Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the 

Pentagon chief seeks NATO spending boost to counter Russia

Islamic State group militants have laid landmines and explosives at the site of the ancient ruins in Syria's Palmyra, a monitor said today, adding the purpose of the move was unclear.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said explosives were laid at the site of the Roman ruins at the town in central Homs province yesterday.
	"But it is not known if the purpose is to blow up the ruins or to prevent regime forces from advancing into the town," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
	He said regime forces had launched heavy air strikes against the residential part of Palmyra in the past three days, killing at least 11 people.
	"The regime forces are to the west outside the city, and in recent days they have brought in reinforcements suggesting they may be planning an operation to retake Palmyra," he added.
	Islamic State group fighters captured Palmyra, which is famed for its extensive and well-preserved Greco-Roman ruins, on 

IS lays mines in Syria's ancient Palmyra ruins: monitor

Iran's parliament curtailed its own power to block a nuclear deal with world powers today, effectively removing a longstanding threat that a final accord could be torn up by lawmakers.
	A draft bill presented on Wednesday, which laid down strict criteria for Iran to accept any agreement, had threatened to complicate talks on a final accord, which are due to be finalised by June 30.
	However, in a boost to President Hassan Rouhani's government, key amendments to the proposed legislation will now move the formal supervision of a deal out of the hands of lawmakers.
	The original text had set three key criteria that parliament would require to say had been met for an agreement to be binding.
	But the amended bill instead gives that right of supervision to the country's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
	The council comprises government ministers, military commanders and other top officials appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
	It is chaired by Rouhani, who is ...

Iran lawmakers curtailed on power to veto nuclear deal

Two children and five adults have been injured in a shooting at a block party in Philadelphia, when a suspect randomly opened fire on a crowd, according to officials and local media.
	Philadelphia Police Lieutenant John Walker told NBC affiliate WCAU that a gunman shot down a street where people were gathered for a party yesterday.
	"It appears that everybody was here for the picnic and everybody just ran... It looks like they just randomly fired down the street and just hit whoever was in their way," Walker said.
	He said the incident was "just a terrible situation".
	The news station said one of the victims was an 18-month-old baby who was grazed with a bullet in the neck. The other was a 10-year-old boy.
	The other five victims, aged 15 to 25, were taken to hospitals after the shooting, which occurred around 10:00 PM (0730 IST) in the largest city in the northeast state of Pennsylvania.
	Meanwhile, in a similar incident in Detroit yesterday, one person was killed and nine others ...

Baby among seven wounded in Philadelphia party shooting

The Philippines has stockpiled food supplies in case of evacuations after a volcano emitted ash and smoke six times in recent weeks, officials said today.
	In addition to the emergency food packs, authorities are closely watching communities near Bulusan volcano 390 kilometres southeast of Manila, said presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma.
	The latest emissions came on Friday, with two other eruptions earlier last week.
	"The government continues to monitor the behaviour of Mount Bulusan... So we can safeguard the welfare of about 34,000 affected residents in 22 villages and five towns," said Coloma.
	The government volcano monitoring institute said that so far, the emissions have been caused by groundwater mixing with hot rocks inside the 1,565-metre volcano.
	These "phreatic eruptions" have sent ash and smoke into the air, covering the volcano's slopes and nearby towns, said Winchelle Ian Sevilla, the officer heading a team monitoring Bulusan.
	He said that as long as people stay .

Philippines takes precautions as volcano turns lively

A Chinese woman has paid over USD 1,000 to save 100 canines from being eaten during a dog meat festival, media said today, as activists have lashed out at the event labelling it cruel.
	Animal-loving Yang Xiaoyun paid about 7,000 yuan (US$1,100) to save around 100 dogs in the southern city of Yulin yesterday, web portal Netease reported.
	 The city holds an annual festival devoted to the animal's meat on the summer solstice, which has provoked an increasing backlash from animal protection activists.
	Reports said that Yang, 65, plans to rehouse the dogs at her home nearly 2,000 kilometres away in Tianjin.
	Pictures posted online showed her browsing a market in Yulin where the dogs were kept in cages.
	Activists, who say the festival is cruel, have in the past travelled to the city to hold demonstrations, sometimes buying dogs to save them from the cooking pots.
	Locals have been quoted as saying that animals are killed in a humane way for the festival, where their meat is then served .

AFP

AFP

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