Linda Tripp, the Pentagon publicist whose secret recordings of Monica Lewinsky talking about sex with president Bill Clinton led to the his impeachment, has died at 70.
Her former lawyer, Joseph Murtha, confirmed the death, and US media cited family members saying she died on wednesday after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.
Tripp was a public affairs official of the US Department of Defense when her co-worker Lewinsky, who had served as a White House intern in the mid-1990s, told her she had secretly had sexual encounters with Clinton in the Oval Office.
In conversations Tripp secretly recorded, Lewinsky said the two had had sex on numerous occasions and that she had saved a blue dress she wore during one that still had stains of Clinton's semen on it.
Tripp then took the recordings to independent prosecutor Ken Starr, who used them to expand a separate investigation of Clinton.
Clinton at first denied the relationship, declaring from the White House: "I did not have sexual ...

Linda Tripp, who exposed Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal, dead from cancer

PTI Automatic

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday appealed for Iranians to pray at home during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Iran has reported more than 4,100 deaths and 66,000 infections from the novel coronavirus, making the country's COVID-19 outbreak one of the worst in the world.
Khamenei called on Iranians to avoid mass gatherings, such as collective prayers, during Ramadan, which starts later this month.
"In the absence of public gatherings during Ramadan, such as prayers, speeches... which we are deprived of this year, we should not neglect worship, invocation and humility in our loneliness," he said in a televised speech.
"We need to create humility and supplication in our families and in our rooms." Iran, which announced its first COVID-19 cases on February 19, is by far the worst hit by the pandemic in the Middle East, according to official tolls.  But there has been speculation abroad that the real number of deaths and ...

Khamenei tells Iranians to avoid Ramadan gatherings amid virus

A three-man crew blasted off to the International Space Station on Thursday, leaving behind a planet overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Russia's Roscosmos space agency and NASA's Chris Cassidy launched at 08:05 GMT from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where COVID-19 has caused changes to pre-launch protocol.
The crew told ground control that they were "feeling fine" just before they successfully entered orbit, NASA TV reported. They are expected to dock with the ISS at 14:15 GMT.
Under usual circumstances, the departing crew would have faced questions from a large press pack before being waved off by family and friends.
Neither were present this time round because of travel restrictions imposed over the virus, although the crew did respond to emailed questions from journalists in a Wednesday press conference.
Cassidy, 50, admitted the crew had been affected by their families not being unable to be in Baikonur for their blastoff to 

Space station crew blast off despite virus-hit build up

Four people died and at least six were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in a Moscow retirement home, investigators said on Thursday.
Residents at the private care home in the city's northwest pleaded for help from windows as thick smoke filled the building, a source in emergency services told TASS state news agency.
There were more than 50 people in the facility when the fire broke out Wednesday evening, Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes serious incidents, said in a statement.
"As a result, four people died, six were taken to medical facilities suffering from smoke inhalation," it said, while the numbers of injured are still preliminary.
Interfax news agency cited a source as saying that a total of 15 of the injured, who are aged from 66 to 90, were hospitalised in a serious condition and four need ventilators to breathe.  The Investigative Committee said a criminal inquiry would assess whether the deaths had been caused through ...

Fire at Moscow retirement home kills four

Hairstylist "Ah Ping" is back in business now that Wuhan's coronavirus lockdown has been lifted, but his salon has no customers, only empty chairs and lingering fears over a contagion that continues to haunt the city.
Wuhan is waking from its coronavirus nightmare, loosening tight restrictions on movement and business as the global pandemic's launchpad tries to move on.  But full recovery remains hampered by fear of a potential new wave of infections.  Many businesses and all schools are still closed, restaurants aren't allowed dine-in customers, and some neighbourhoods remain sealed off behind barriers.
Residents need to show they have a "healthy" rating on a mandatory phone app to leave their homes, use public transport, or enter most public spaces.  "When people come out, infections will probably rise. I'm really afraid of this," said "Ah Ping", a nickname.
The 43-year-old, who declined to give his full name, also worries about getting his life restarted.
He paid his salon's ...

Wuhan virus lockdown over, but lingering fears slow recovery

France's competition regulator said Thursday that Google must begin talks with media groups demanding payment when the search giant displays their content, the latest move in a long-running copyright battle in Europe.
The agency said it "requires Google, within three months, to conduct negotiations in good faith with publishers and news agencies on the remuneration for the re-use of their protected contents.

French regulator orders Google to negotiate copyright payments with media groups

Iraqi President Barham Saleh nominated spy chief Mustafa Kadhemi on Thursday as the country's third prime minister-designate this year, moments after predecessor Adnan Zurfi ended his bid to form a government.
The nomination ceremony was attended by the country's top political figures, indicating widespread support for Kadhemi that both previous PM-designates had not enjoyed.
Kadhemi, the 53-year-old head of Iraq's National Intelligence Service, has long had close links with the United States but political sources say he has also improved ties with Washington's foe, Tehran, in recent months.

Spy chief named Iraq's third PM-designate this year

Greece must take "decisive action" to tackle chronic overcrowding and staff shortages at its prisons, Europe's top human rights group said on Thursday.
The Council of Europe accused Greek officials of failing to investigate or prosecute ill-treatment of inmates and failing to provide proper medical care, access to hygiene products or hot water in some prisons.
The country had taken "some positive measures" following a 2015 investigation, the Council said, but a delegation that visited last year found that degrading treatment of prisoners by police remained a "frequent practice throughout Greece".
In an official response published alongside the report, Greece cited a string of measures it had taken, including increasing the use of non-custodial penalties such as community service.
Despite this, the Council's delegation found that overcrowding remained a severe issue.
In the country's main maximum security facility at Korydallos on the outskirts of Athens, up to seven people were ...

Greece must tackle cramped, unruly prisons: rights body

Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto, the originator of Football Leaks, who is facing trial for attempted blackmail has been placed under house arrest after leaving precautionary detention, his lawyers told AFP.
Pinto, 31, was extradited from Hungary in March 2019 for allegedly attempting to blackmail an investment fund, asking for between 500,000 and one million euros (USD 1.08 million) in return for not publishing documents he had obtained illegally from the computer systems of the firm Doyen Sports and of Sporting Lisbon.
According to documents sent to AFP by legal representatives he "is now the subject of house arrest and is banned from using the internet."
Pinto had "already left the buildings of the prison establishment" near to the Lisbon police headquarters his lawyers Francisco Teixeira da Mota and William Bourdon said.
They claim he had abandoned his blackmail attempt on his own initiative and say he is a "very important European whistleblower".
The Football Leaks revelations allowed 

'Football Leaks' hacker Rui Pinto placed on house arrest

The trial date for the gender discrimination lawsuit brought by US women players against the US Soccer Federation has been pushed from May 5 to June 16.
US District Judge Gary Klausner issued the order postponing the trial on Wednesday after both parties sought guidance on preparing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
California governor Gavin Newsom has issued a statewide stay-at-home order in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.
Klausner also pushed back a pretrial conference scheduled for April 20 to June 1.
Players for the US women's national team sued the federation last year alleging gender discrimination, demanding $66 million in back pay under the Equal Pay and the Civil Rights Act.
They claim they have not been paid fairly compared to players on the men's national team -- a claim the federation has denied.
US Soccer sparked outrage in March with language in a legal filing in the case that the job of playing on the men's team required "greater skill based on speed and ..

US Soccer gender discrimination lawsuit delayed

Bangladesh has imposed a "complete lockdown" in Cox's Bazar district -- home to over a million Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar -- to halt the spread of coronavirus, officials said Thursday.
Experts have warned that the disease could spread quickly through the cramped, sewage-soaked alleys where the persecuted Muslim minority are housed in canvas and bamboo shacks.
No cases have been confirmed in the camps but one infection has been recorded nearby.
And with the official number of cases doubling to more than 200 nationwide in the last five days, including 20 deaths, officials ordered a lockdown of the district from late Wednesday.
The area "will be put under complete lockdown -- no entry, no exit -- until the situation improves," the directive said.
Police and soldiers set up roadblocks on the main roads of the district, home to 3.4 million people including the Rohingya refugees, and were conducting patrols inside and around the camps on Thursday.
Refugee commissioner ...

Rohingya camps in Bangladesh put under 'complete lockdown'

Widower Per Leif Rolid lives alone on his farm, a two-hour drive from Oslo. His sense of isolation has mounted with the COVID-19 pandemic, but a simple screen is helping him stay in touch -- without requiring any computer know-how.
Aged 87, Rolid has never owned a computer, smartphone or tablet. But that has not stopped him from getting messages, photos and video calls from his grandchildren scattered around the world.
The secret? A screen that looks like a mix between an old-fashioned television and radio, placed next to his TV.
There is no keyboard, login or password. And there is just one button to turn the machine on and adjust the volume, like an old-fashioned radio.
On the other end, relatives can take a few minutes out of their day to reach out to the family patriarch via an app.
"I can see them while talking to them. I keep in touch with family at home and abroad, on travels. I feel like I can be with my family all the time," Rolid says with a smile.
The tech revolution that ..

How technology is tackling virus-induced isolation in Norway

A two-month-old baby who was believed to have been Italy's youngest COVID-19 patient has been released from hospital after overcoming the disease, media reports said Thursday.
The baby was no longer running a temperature or fever and was released with her mother, who has recovered from a bout of pneumonia, the reports said.
The two were hospitalised in the southern city of Bari on March 18.
Italy has officially attributed 17,669 deaths to COVID-19, more than any other country.  The government is now weighing how and when to ease social distancing measures that have helped see daily death tolls slowly come down from a high of 969 last month.

'Italy's youngest patient' recovers from virus: media

A plane carrying 90 tons of UN health, water and sanitation aid arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday to help the cash-strapped country fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The shipment includes 28,000 Personal Protective Equipment kits for health workers, oxygen concentrators, pediatric beds, water quality control products and hygiene kits, the UN said.
"This is the first United Nations humanitarian shipment in support of the Venezuela COVID-19 outbreak," said Peter Grohmann, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Venezuela.
Venezuela, suffering from a crippling economic crisis that has led to shortages of basic food and medicine and forced some five million people to flee the country, has 167 confirmed cases of coronavirus and nine deaths.
The aid donations are part of an initial phase of the response to the pandemic and will go to help "children, women and vulnerable families" at 14 designated hospitals, 50 outpatient clinics and child development centers, according to UNICEF's Venezuela ...

UN delivers 90 tons of COVID-19 aid to Venezuela

A three-man crew successfully blasted off to the International Space Station Thursday, footage on NASA television showed, leaving behind a planet overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Russia's Roscosmos space agency and NASA's Chris Cassidy left at 0805 GMT from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where COVID-19 has caused changes to pre-launch protocol.

Three-man crew blasts off for ISS: NASA TV

Australia's National Rugby League is set to return on May 28, but exactly how the competition will go ahead under coronavirus restrictions remains unclear, officials said Thursday.
A return of the NRL was announced in Sydney on Thursday afternoon, but the exact structure and detail of how the game will proceed during the pandemic were still being worked out, Australian Rugby League Commissioner Wayne Pearce said.
"The details of the competition structure, we haven't got to that as yet because the landscape is changing very, very quickly," Pearce told media.
The season was suspended on March 24 after just two rounds amid government shutdowns of all non-essential gatherings in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus.
The cash-strapped league, considered part of Australia's social fabric, tried to continue its season without fans present.
But it suspended the competition after Queensland -- a major centre for the NRL along with New South Wales -- joined other states and New Zealand in ...

NRL to return May 28, but way through virus remains unclear

A three-man crew is set to travel to the International Space Station on Thursday, leaving behind a planet overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Russia's Roscosmos space agency and NASA's Chris Cassidy will blast off at 08:05 GMT from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where COVID-19 has caused changes to pre-launch protocol.
Under usual circumstances, the departing crew would face questions from a large press pack before being waved off by family and friends.
Neither will be present this time round because of travel restrictions imposed over the virus, although the crew did respond to emailed questions from journalists in a Wednesday press conference.
Cassidy, 50, admitted the crew had been affected by their families not being unable to be in Baikonur for their blastoff to the ISS.
"But we understand that the whole world is also impacted by the same crisis," Cassidy said.
Astronauts routinely go into quarantine ahead of space missions ..

Space station crew to blast off despite virus-hit build up

LeBron James says the abrupt shutdown of the NBA season due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has left the Los Angeles Lakers feeling like they still have something to prove.
The Lakers were in the midst of a revival season, having made the playoffs for the first time in seven years, when the league suspended the 2019-20 season on March 11 after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
At the time of the postponement, the Lakers were in first place in the Western Conference and had the second-best record in the league behind Milwaukee. If the season doesn't resume, James says there will be a void.
"Closure? No. But to be proud of what we were able to accomplish to this point, I'll be able to look back and say we did something special in that small period of time," James said during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.
"Just the ups and downs not only on the floor but off the floor everything that we've had to endure as Laker faithful."
James said he's having trouble ...

James hopes Lakers can eventually rekindle their revival season

German exports rose in February, official data showed Thursday, but a plunge in trade with China revealed the first impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
Exports grew 1.3 per cent month-on-month while imports fell 1.6 per cent, federal statistics body Destatis said in seasonally adjusted figures.
Germany's trade surplus widened to 21.6 billion euros (USD 23.4 billion) from 18.5 billion euros, it added.
Imports were dragged lower by a 12-per cent year-on-year drop in goods arriving from China as the coronavirus forced Chinese businesses and factories to close and kept millions of people at home.
German goods exports to China fell by nearly nine per cent over the same period, Destatis added.
The virus has since spread from China across the planet, leaving nearly half the world's population under some type of lockdown and pummelling the global economy.
Destatis said it was too early to estimate the impact of confinement measures on export powerhouse Germany, Europe's biggest 

German exports up in Feb, virus hurts China trade

Former Major League Baseball all-star Josh Hamilton was formally charged with child abuse following an altercation in September with his daughter, the US media reported on Wednesday.
Texas prosecutors charged the 38-year-old Hamilton with injury to a child with intentional bodily injury, which is a third-degree felony under the American penal code.
The case stems from an alleged incident involving Hamilton and his 14-year-old daughter, according to Dallas-based television broadcaster CBSDFW and other reports.
Hamilton had turned himself in on October 30 in connection with the case, and he was released on bail.
A condition of the bail was that he not have any contact with any child under 17.
"Mr Hamilton is innocent of the charge against him and looks forward to clearing his name in court," his lawyer said in a prepared statement at the time of his release.
According to several media reports, Hamilton is alleged to have cursed at his daughter during an argument and threw a water bottle 

Ex-Rangers all-star Hamilton charged with child abuse: reports

More than 1.5 million cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered worldwide, according to a tally compiled by AFP at 0530 GMT Thursday from official sources.
Of the 1,502,478 infections, 87,320 people have died across 192 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China late last year.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organisation (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are only testing the most serious cases.
The United States, where the pandemic is spreading most rapidly, has recorded 432,132 cases, including 14,817 deaths.
Spain has declared 146,690 cases with 14,555 deaths, and Italy 139,422 infections with 17,669 deaths.  Europe remains the worst hit continent with 772,592 cases and 61,118 deaths.

AFP

AFP

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