The Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo announced that it will end its partnership with football's world governing body FIFA, which has been engulfed by an unprecedented corruption scandal.
     The Nobel centre and FIFA have been partners in the "Handshake for Peace" initiative between team captains and officials since 2012.
     "The board of directors asked management to end cooperation with FIFA as soon as circumstances permit," said centre, an offshoot of the Nobel Committee which awards the Nobel Peace Prize.
     The Nobel statement did not explicitly refer to the accusations of corruption at FIFA that have delivered a body blow to the organisation's prestige.
     FIFA has been increasingly isolated since May, when a US investigation into the corruption allegations brought charges against 14 people.
     The scandal spectacularly brought down FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and has also cast doubt on the fairness of the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, to be staged in Russia ...

Nobel centre severs ties with scandal-hit FIFA

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Secretary of State John Kerry has pressed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to ensure that Moscow respects the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, the State Department has said.
	In a telephone call to Lavrov, Kerry "urged Russia to seize the opportunity of upcoming meetings of the Trilateral Contact Group and its Working Groups to accelerate progress on implementing the Minsk agreements," signed in February, said John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, yesterday.
	Moscow denies supporting the rebel campaign in any way. But it has agreed to terms that by year-end would give Kiev back control back of a 400-kilometre (250-mile) stretch of the Russia-Ukrainian frontier that the insurgents allegedly use to smuggle in weapons and tanks.
	The 14-month campaign has now claimed nearly 6,500 lives.
	In addition to Ukraine, the top diplomats "also discussed Syria, Iran, Yemen, and the Arctic Council," Kirby added.

Kerry urges Lavrov to respect Ukraine ceasefire

Mexico snatched a pulsating 3-3 draw with Chile while Bolivia downed Ecuador in a five-goal thriller as the Copa America laid on a feast of attacking football.
     A dramatic day of action in Group A saw Bolivia secure their first win in the tournament in 18 years with a 3-2 victory over Ecuador in Valparaiso before an epic battle between Chile and Mexico in Santiago.
     Chile, 2-0 winners over Ecuador in their opening game, looked to have booked their place in the quarter-finals after two goals from Juventus star Arturo Vidal helped them into a 3-2 lead.
     But a 66th-minute equaliser from Vicente Vuoso, his second of the match, earned a share of the points for Mexico, who are one of two teams from outside South America invited to take part in this year's tournament.
     Vuoso had given Mexico the lead after only 21 minutes, tucking away Juan Carlos Medina's cross after a sweeping counter-attack, only for Vidal to level a minute later with a thunderous header.
     Mexico ...

Chile held, Bolivia upset Ecuador in Copa goal-fest

A US civil rights activist has resigned from a post at the country's leading African American advocacy group amid allegations she is white but has masqueraded for years as being black.
	Rachel Dolezal's resignation from her job yesterday as president of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People came as her parents, who are white and says she is too, urged her to seek counselling.
	The Washington state chapter of the NAACP posted Dolezal's resignation letter on its Facebook page.
	In it, she writes that her commitment to the "racial and social justice movement" is undiminished but that "the dialogue has unexpectedly shifted internationally to my personal identity in the context of defining race and ethnicity."
	Dolezal, 37, built a career as an activist in the black community of Spokane.
	She rose to become the president of the city's branch of the NAACP and served as an independent mediator for the city's police force.
	Neither ..

'Black' activist resigns helm of US civil rights group

There is "no doubt" that Nigeria- based Boko Haram Islamists were behind the suicide bombings that killed 23 people and injured over 100 others in the Chadian capital, French President Francois Hollande has said.
	"There is no doubt that Boko Haram is responsible and will be brought to justice for this new humanitarian horror," Hollande said at a press conference yesterday in Algiers after meeting his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a visit that focused on the threat posed by jihadists in the region.
	"We have underscored our concern and our solidarity" following "this barbaric attack", Hollande added.
	The Chadian government also blamed Boko Haram for the suicide bombings that targeted two police buildings in N'Djamena.
	They were the first such attacks in the capital of the central African nation, which has been on the frontline of a regional campaign against the jihadist group.

'No doubt' Boko Haram behind deadly Chad bombings: Hollande

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush finally launched his US presidential campaign today, pledging to "run with heart" as he seeks to move beyond his contentious political pedigree.
	"I will take nothing and no one for granted," the 62-year-old Bush, a son and brother of two ex-presidents, told a crowd of supporters at a university in Miami. "I will run with heart. I will run to win.

It's official: Jeb Bush running for president

French President Francois Hollande arrived today in Algeria for a visit aimed at tackling the "common battle" of the once bitter foes against jihadists from Mali to Libya.
	His trip comes after Libya's internationally recognised government said the jihadist mastermind of the 2013 siege of an Algerian gas plant in which 38 hostages died had been killed in a US air strike.
	Speaking to reporters in Algiers, Hollande acknowledged the attack that killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, saying France and Algeria were waging a "common battle... Against this terrible, implacable enemy which we have targeted and again recently in the past few hours".
	Hollande later held more than one hour of talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika which focused on the conflicts in Libya and Mali and other international issues.
	"We discussed all the international questions," including "the situation in the Sahel, the battle against terrorism and what happened in Chad (where 23 people were killed in suicide ...

France's Hollande boosts ties with former foe Algeria

The US said today it was disappointed Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir was allowed to return home from a meeting in South Africa even though he faces an international arrest warrant.
	State Department spokesman Jeffrey Rathke stopped short short of using stronger language. He did not explicitly say that the United States regretted South Africa's failure to arrest Bashir, who faces charges of crimes against humanity.
	Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for alleged war crimes and genocide in the Darfur region, returned home Monday from an African Union summit in South Africa.
	He did so even though a court there had ordered him not to leave, as it mulled whether to arrest him.
	The ICC had in fact asked South Africa to arrest him, and said it was disappointed it had not.
	Rathke said the United States was disappointed that he was able to attend the summit and also that nothing happened to Bashir while he was there.
	"We're disappointed that he was ...

Washington 'disappointed' no action taken against Bashir

Four policemen were killed and several others wounded today in separate clashes with suspected jihadists in Tunisia, which has seen a surge in radical Islam since the 2011 uprising.
	The interior ministry blamed an Al-Qaeda-linked group for one attack and said "terrorists" -- the term it uses for jihadists -- were involved in the second.
	In the first clash in central Tunisia, three policemen and a jihadist were killed when national guardsmen, acting on a tip-off, tried to ambush two armed men who were allegedly planning attacks, it said.
	"The national guard attempted to ambush at dawn two terrorists on a motocycle in Sidi Ali Ben Aoun after obtaining information that (they) were about to launch an operation," ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP.
	He said two officers were killed in the ensuing shoot-out, and that the militants fled before killing a third policeman who had been going to work.
	They were pursued by an elite unit of the national guard, Aroui said.
	"One of ...

Tunisia policemen killed in clashes with jihadists

Nine people were missing in Georgia's capital Tbilisi today, a day after freak floods killed 14 people and swept away zoo animals, some of which were shot after being found prowling the streets.
	The death toll from the worst floods to hit Tbilisi in decades climbed to 14 after rescuers found an elderly man in the rubble of a destroyed house and another dead person in a park, officials said.
	Nine people were still missing as of this evening, a government official said, down from an earlier count of 20.
	The small Vere River running through the city of 1.2 million burst its banks yesterday after hours of torrential rain, paralysing Tbilisi and wrecking the city's zoo.
	More than half the zoo's around 600 animals, birds and fish had perished, a spokeswoman said.
	Many of the animals, including monkeys and penguins, drowned in the muddy waters.
	Others, including lions, tigers and even a hippopotamus escaped but by this evening all the missing animals had either been recaptured or shot .

14 dead, hundreds of zoo animals wiped out in Georgia floods

Several hundred Ukrainians in the country's war-torn east demanded that pro-Russian insurgents remove scores of rocket launchers from crowded city neighbourhoods and stop provoking return government fire on their homes.
	The small but unusual demonstration outside the offices of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic suggested that an undercurrent of resentment with the new authorities was running through the streets of eastern Ukraine's main rebel-held town.
	Districts around Donetsk and Lugansk -- capital of a neighbouring separatist region -- have witnessed the return of intense fighting that has claimed more than 50 lives this month.
	That upsurge followed more than three months of relative calm that came in the wake of a truce agreement brokered in the Belarussian capital Minsk with the direct involvement of the leaders of Germany and France.
	Donetsk residents from a neighbourhood near one of the city's main hotspots -- an airport the insurgents managed to seize after ...

East Ukrainians stage rare rally against rebel command

Oil prices slid today as dealers fretted over a collapse in Greece's debt talks, traders said.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery dropped 33 cents to USD 59.63 a barrel compared with Friday's close.
	Brent North Sea crude for July shed $1.47 to stand at USD 62.40 a barrel in late London deals.
	Markets are "closely tracking the Greek debt crisis and the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the big six powers", said Sanjeev Gupta, analyst at business consultancy firm EY.
	Crunch negotiations between Athens and its creditors fell apart on Sunday, fuelling fears the cash-starved government was heading irreversibly into the financial abyss with a huge IMF debt payment due at the end of the month.
	Analysts said oil prices were particularly hit as dealers fled the euro for the dollar on Greek eurozone exit worries, strengthening the greenback. A stronger dollar makes crude more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies.
	Investors are also focusing on Iran ahead of 

Oil prices drop on Greece, Iran

A Pakistani pilot got pulses racing on social media today after photos from the Paris Air Show reminded some of Top Gun star Tom Cruise.
	Squadron Leader Yaser Mudasser became an unwitting Twitter star after shots circulated of him showing off Pakistan's new JF-17 Thunder fighter jet to a diplomat.
	But Mudasser was somewhat less cocky than Maverick, the cult hero played by Cruise in the 1980s hit film, when asked about the surprise attention.
	"It's funny. One never imagines that you'll get this kind of attention when you're training day-in day-out," the pilot told AFP, laughing bashfully.
	Mudasser has clocked up over 600 flights in the JF-17, Pakistan's first-ever home-made jet, which was designed and built with Chinese help.
	"It's superb. It's a treat to fly this aircraft. It's so beautiful and user-friendly," he gushed.
	But it was his colleague, Wing Commander Usman Ali, also channeling his inner Maverick in a pair of aviator shades, who wowed the crowds on the first day of the 

Pakistan's very own Top Gun sets pulses racing on social media

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir flew out of South Africa today, defying a court order for him to stay as judges weighed up whether he should be arrested for alleged war crimes and genocide.
	The International Criminal Court (ICC) said it was "disappointed" at South Africa's failure to heed its calls to detain Bashir on long-standing arrest warrants over the Darfur conflict.
	As his plane took off on the final day of an African Union leaders' summit in Johannesburg, the local high court was still hearing arguments over an urgent application to force the authorities to detain him.
	"Our position has always been that South Africa's obligation is clear and unequivocal. It had an obligation to arrest him," the ICC's chief deputy prosecutor James Stewart told AFP.
	After Bashir had departed, South African Judge Dunstan Mlambo also issued a harsh rebuke of the government for ignoring Sunday's court order, requiring the authorities to keep him grounded.
	"The conduct of the respondents -- ..

Sudan's Bashir flies out of SAfrica, defying court order

Kurdish forces seized a post on Syria's border with Turkey, a vital supply line to the Islamic State group, as they battle for the jihadist-held town of Tal Abyad.
	The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) took up positions on the Syrian side of the border post, an AFP photographer said, after they advanced on Tal Abyad from east and west and cut the road south to Raqa, the IS de facto capital.
	"Tal Abyad is completely surrounded," said YPG commander Hussein Khojer.
	"There is nowhere Daesh can escape to," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
	Sherfan Darwish, a spokesman for the Burkan al-Furat rebel group fighting alongside the YPG, said the anti-IS alliance was on the eastern and southern outskirts of Tal Abyad.
	"There are ongoing clashes and the bodies of 19 IS fighters are on the outskirts of Tal Abyad," he said.
	The advance is a blow to the jihadist group, which is battling to hold onto Tal Abyad and preserve its main supply line between Raqa and the Turkish ...

Kurds seize border post in battle for Syrian town

Israel has approved the reopening of around 70 Palestinian shops which it closed 15 years ago in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, its mayor announced on today.
	"The Israeli army's leadership allowed the reopening of stores on Sahla Street, which runs from the area near the Ibrahimi mosque" through Hebron's old town, Dawud al-Zaatari told journalists.
	"This is the first time the army has allowed these shops to open since the beginning of the second intifada" or uprising in 2000, he added.
	After hearing the news, three owners immediately dashed to their stores to unlock the doors and peer inside, an AFP photographer said, but they were forbidden by soldiers from opening yet.
	"We were informed they'll be allowed to reopen on Friday," Zaatari said, without elaborating.
	The Israeli army would also be easing movement restrictions ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Zaatari said, by opening two roads south of the occupied city which have been closed for years.
	The ...

Israel allows 70 Hebron shops to reopen after 15 years

The International Energy Agency on today warned temperatures could jump by as much as 4.3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century and urged countries to improve their pledges on reducing emissions.
	In a report ahead of a climate change conference in Paris this year, the IEA said more should be done to reach the goal of keeping the increase in average global temperature below 2C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
	Current pledges "will have a positive impact on future energy trends but will fall short of the major course correction required to meet the 2C goal," said the report, which was presented in London.
	Instead it estimated there would be an average temperature increase globally of around 2.6C by 2100 and said the rise could be higher at 4.3C for countries in the northern hemisphere.
	"The energy sector must play a critical role if efforts to reduce emissions are to succeed. Energy production and use accounts for two thirds of the world greenhouse gas emissions," the IEA's executive ..

IEA warns of 4.3C temperature jump from climate change

Eight hours after Bim Bahadur Gurung started walking along a mountain path, carrying his severely injured daughter on his back and hoping to find a hospital, a second earthquake struck already-devastated Nepal.
	As the rocks tumbled and the earth shook, Gurung never thought of stopping, desperate to see 10-year-old Maya receive a prosthetic replacement for her leg, crushed when their house collapsed in the first quake.
	"I could see landslides, but what could we do? I had to get her to a hospital, otherwise her life would be over," the father-of-four told AFP.
	Gurung finally reached the hospital on the outskirts of Kathmandu where he had been told Maya could be fitted with an artificial limb. Her leg was healing well after doctors amputated below the knee following the disaster.
	Maya is among thousands of Nepalese who face a daunting future after suffering loss of limbs, spinal and other permanent injuries in the twin quakes that claimed more than 8,700 lives.
	Although they ...

Long, hard road for Nepal's disabled quake survivors

Nuclear armed states continue to upgrade their stockpiles despite an international trend towards disarmament, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported today.
	Between 2010 and 2015 the number of warheads fell from 22,600 to 15,850 according to the institute's annual disarmament report which said the US and Russia represented the bulk of the reduction.
	The institute also pointed to "extensive and expensive long-term modernisation programmes" in the world's two largest nuclear powers which account for 90 per cent of the weapons.
	"Despite renewed international interest in prioritising nuclear disarmament, the modernisation programmes under way in the nuclear weapon-possessing states suggests that none of them will give up their nuclear arsenals in the foreseeable future," SIPRI researcher Shannon Kile said in a statement.
	The other three nuclear armed states legally recognised by the 1968 Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty -- China (260 warheads), France ...

Nuclear weapons states upgrade warheads despite disarmament

At least 20 people were killed and 100 wounded today in Syrian rebel rocket fire on government-held parts of the city of Aleppo, Syrian state media said.
	"The number of martyrs in the massacre carried out by terrorists in Aleppo has risen to 20 dead and more than 100 hurt," state television said in a breaking news alert.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the rocket fire, putting the toll at 13, including two children, and adding that it was expected to rise.
	The group also said around 100 people were wounded, among them 20 children.
	The Britain-based monitor said rebels had fired some 250 rockets at several districts in western Aleppo city in just four hours, causing massive damage including the collapse of an entire building.
	State television broadcast gruesome footage of the wounded being brought into hospital.
	One stretcher carried the body of an adult whose face was covered with blood, and a dead child, ghostly with white dust.
	Once Syria's economic ...

20 dead, 100 wounded in rebel fire on Aleppo: Syria TV

The bodies of 32 Spanish victims of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps in March were flown back to Spain today aboard a specially fitted plane.
	The MD11 transport plane, operated by Germanwings parent company Lufthansa, took off from the southern French city of Marseille en route to Barcelona at 4:00pm local time (1400 GMT).
	"The firm's aim is to be able to repatriate all the bodies by the end of the month," said a Lufthansa representative on the scene.
	Last week, a similar flight carried home 44 German victims of the crash which was deliberately initiated by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.
	In total, all 150 people aboard the ill-fated Barcelona to Duesseldorf flight died,  including 72 Germans and 52 Spaniards.
	On Thursday, the French prosecutor leading the investigation into the disaster said he had opened up a probe to see if anyone could be held liable for manslaughter.
	Lubitz, whom prosecutors said suffered from "psychosis", saw 41 doctors over the course of .

AFP

AFP

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