The prospect of Britain crashing out of the European Union without a deal has risen since last month, the Bank of England warned Thursday, as it kept interest rates unchanged.
"Domestically, the perceived likelihood of a no-deal Brexit has risen" since May, the BoE said in a statement after its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the central bank's main borrowing cost at 0.75 percent.
"Since the Committee's previous meeting... downside risks to growth have increased. Globally, trade tensions have intensified," said the BoE, whose Governor Mark Carney is set to step down on January 31, having extended his tenure twice owing to Brexit uncertainty.
"As expected, recent UK data have been volatile, in large part due to Brexit-related effects on financial markets and businesses," it added.
The central bank on Thursday downgraded its forecast for second-quarter UK economic growth to zero from 0.2 percent.
The UK's "economic outlook will continue to depend significantly on the nature and ...

BoE warns risk of no-deal Brexit has increased

PTI Automatic

The United States on Thursday added Saudi Arabia and Cuba to its blacklist of countries that are not doing enough to fight human trafficking, a designation that could bring sanctions.
In an annual report, the State Department faulted ally Saudi Arabia for rampant violations among foreign labourers and accused adversary Cuba of trafficking through its program of sending doctors overseas.
Countries that remained on Tier 3, the lowest ranking in the report, included China, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.
"If you don't stand up to trafficking, America will stand up to you," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said as he presented the report alongside Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump's daughter and adviser.
A Tier 3 designation means that the United States can restrict assistance or withdraw support for the country at the International Monetary Fund or other global development bodies.
Pompeo said that the United States last year took actions against 22 countries due to the human ...

US adds Saudi Arabia, Cuba to blacklist on human trafficking

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said Thursday his Palestinian movement rejected next week's US-sponsored Middle East economic conference in Bahrain as it would amount to Arab "normalisation" of ties with Israel.
In a rare briefing with international journalists, Haniya also accused Israel of failing to abide by agreements meant to ensure calm in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
"We clearly express our rejection and non-acceptance of any Arab or Islamic country holding such a conference, which constitutes normalisation with the occupation," Haniya said, referring to Israel.
US President Donald Trump's administration organised the conference, which is to be held on June 25 and 26 in Manama for the unveiling of the economic component of a US Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been drafting the long-awaited plan, but it has been rejected in advance by the Palestinians, who accuse the Trump administration of pro-Israel bias.
The political part of the conference 

Hamas rejects Bahrain conference that 'normalises' Israel ties

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said any use of force by the US against Iran would lead to disaster as tensions escalate between Washington and Tehran.
"The US says it does not rule out the use of force... This would be a disaster for the region," Putin said during an annual televised phone-in with screened questions posed by Russian viewers.
"It would lead to a surge in violence and an increase in the number of refugees," he said, adding that the consequences of intervention would be "difficult to calculate".
Moscow has backed Tehran in its stand off with the United States since Washington pulled out of an international 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran last year.
Putin repeated Russia's insistence that sanctions against Iran are "unreasonable".
The comment comes at a time of growing antagonism between Iran and the US following two waves of still unexplained attacks on Gulf shipping, which Washington has blamed on Tehran.
Iran has denied any involvement and hinted that ...

Putin says use of US force against Iran would be 'disaster'

The British government said on Thursday it would suspend issuing new Saudi licenses for the sale of arms that might be used in the Gulf kingdom's bombing campaign in Yemen.
International Trade Secretary Liam Fox announced the decision in parliament after a British court ordered the government to "reconsider" the sales because of their humanitarian impact.
"We disagree with the judgement and will seek permission to appeal," Fox said.
"While we do this, we will not grant any new licenses to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners which might be used in the conflict in Yemen." Shares in Britain's BAE Systems defence and aerospace giants lost almost three percent of their value within an hour of the government's announcement.
Britain's Court of Appeal had earlier on Thursday ruled that the government broke the law by failing to properly assess whether the arms it sells to Riyadh violated its commitment to human rights.
Judge Terence Etherton said the UK government "must reconsider the ...

Britain suspends new Saudi arms licences linked to Yemen

Hong Kong opposition groups called for another major demonstration on Thursday after the pro-Beijing government did not respond to demands of protesters who have shaken the city with massive rallies.
Millions have marched this month to oppose a proposed law that would have allowed extraditions to the Chinese mainland, but the huge protest movement has morphed into a larger rebuke of Hong Kong's administration.
Under-fire chief executive Carrie Lam has apologised and suspended the controversial bill, but that has failed to quell the opposition, with protesters demanding she step down and completely withdraw the legislation.
A number of protest groups, including student unions, called for supporters to mobilise on Friday, asking people to gather at the city's main government complex to "hold picnics" outside the legislature starting 7:00 am on Friday (2300 GMT Thursday).
They also recommended a go-slow protest on roads and public transport, and urged people to gather in other parts of ..

Hong Kong protesters call for new demo after demands are snubbed

President Emmanuel Macron sent his top diplomatic adviser to Iran this week as part of European efforts to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington, the French presidency said Thursday.
The adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, held "high-level meetings" Wednesday in Tehran, "with the aim of contributing to the deescalation of tensions in the region", Macron's office said.
The presidency refused to say whom Bonne met, adding only that he left Tehran on Wednesday evening.
The strains between Washington and Tehran increased Thursday with Iran's announcement that it had shot down a US "spy drone" that violated Iranian airspace near the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States has yet to respond.
The incident marks the latest escalation in tensions following last week's attacks on two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, which the United States blamed on Iran.
Tehran has denied any involvement.
Tensions between the longtime foes, who have had no relations since the hostage crisis that followed the ...

Macron sends senior diplomat to Iran to defuse US tensions

The Nobel Museum in Stockholm has been gifted Albert Einstein's first paper published after he received the Nobel Prize in 1922 and discussing his then still controversial relativity theory.
Swedish businessman Per Taube bought the handwritten two-page document at an auction for 1.2 million krona (110,000 euros) in December last year.
He has now made good on his promise to gift the manuscript to the Nobel Museum, which will put it on display in a glass frame this autumn.
The paper, written in November 1922 while Einstein was attending conferences in south-east Asia, was published a month later by the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Incomprehensible to many, the text is a rebuttal of an article by German mathematician Erich Trefftz debating the "large-scale geometrical structure of the universe" -- notably the forces and masses separating and enveloping celestial bodies.
Trefftz claimed he had found a "static" solution to Einstein's theory of general relativity.
However, Einstein ...

Einstein's relativity document gifted to Nobel museum

Ferrari have been called to attend a hearing on Friday at the French Grand Prix to inquire into the team's request for a review of Sebastian Vettel's penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix.
The meeting is expected to be with the stewards of the French event acting as replacements on behalf of the Canadian stewards.
Four-time world champion Vettel won the Canadian race 'on the road' but was relegated to second place behind defending five-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes by a five seconds time penalty.
The penalty was given to Vettel for rejoining the race unsafely after going off track and across a strip of grass. As he rejoined he forced Hamilton to take avoiding action as he passed him at the first chicane.
The International Sporting Code of the sport's ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), gives competitors an option for a post-event review of decisions, if new evidence is put forward.
Under Article 14.1.1 of the code, the FIA can reconvene stewards or ...

Ferrari summoned over Vettel appeal

European leaders will try once again Thursday to agree on a compromise EU leader after political groups failed to unite behind one candidate.
None of the leading names to have emerged during last month's European election has won consensus support from the four main parliamentary parties to become president of the European Commission, the EU's powerful executive arm.
This lowers the threat that Thursday's summit will turn into a stand-off between rival capitals, but could also delay efforts to fill Brussels' top job.
"I remain cautiously optimistic, as those I have spoken to have expressed determination to decide swiftly," EU Council president Donald Tusk said.
Tusk chairs EU summits and has set his colleagues the task of agreeing on a nominee to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission head.
Other jobs up for grabs include speaker of the European Parliament, which will sit for the first time on July 2, and foreign policy chief.
National leaders want to control the process and dole ..

Europe seeks compromise candidate for top EU job

Two Canadian naval vessels sailed through the Taiwan Strait, Taipei's defence ministry said, in the latest naval passage likely to irk Beijing.
The ships sailed through the narrow waterway separating the Chinese mainland and Taiwan in a "freedom of navigation" operation, the ministry said in a statement issued late Wednesday, without providing any details.
It added that Taiwan's military had closely monitored the "movements of the relevant aircraft and vessels in the region" as the ships passed through the strait.
Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated since December when police in Vancouver detained Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on a US arrest warrant.
Days later China arrested two Canadians -- former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor -- in what is widely seen as a tit-for-tat move.
China has also blocked Canadian agricultural shipments worth billions of dollars.
It was the latest such naval voyage in the Taiwan Strait in recent ...

Two Canadian naval vessels sail through Taiwan Strait: Taipei

European Union leaders will push Thursday "to advance work" towards setting a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to a draft resolution.
The language in the draft summit conclusion appears to be an attempt to include reference to the 2050 target adopted by some members, without offending the others.
The finely-nuanced text obtained by AFP reflects growing public and political pressure for the 28-nation EU to become "climate neutral" by at least mid-century, but also exposes the lack of unanimity.
The leaders will urge the EU "to advance work on the conditions, the incentives and the enabling framework to be put in place, in order to determine how to ensure a transition to a climate-neutral EU by 2050."
The aim must also "preserve European competitiveness, be just and socially balanced, take account of member states' national circumstances and respect their right to decide on their own energy mix."
Countries in central and eastern Europe that depend heavily ..

EU under pressure over 2050 net zero emissions target

A court in Tanzania has sentenced three Muslims to be hanged for decapitating four Christians in 2015 during an outbreak of violence fuelled by religion, a legal source said.
The East African country maintains the death penalty on its statutes, although nobody has been executed since 1994.
High Court Justice Lameck Mlacha in the northwestern town of Bukoba on Wednesday found the three guilty of murder, the source in the court clerk's office told AFP, asking not to be named.
The conviction was partially based on a video in which all three men appeared to acknowledge to police and local officials that the crime was motivated by religious convictions, added the source.
They killed their victims on November 11, 2015 and left headless bodies to be found at Katoma in the Bukoba district.
The three men are already serving jail terms for their involvement in arson attacks on more than a dozen churches, according to prosecutor Hashim Ngole, quoted by the Tanzanian press.
Ngole said that 13 ...

Tanzanian court sentences 3 Muslims to death for murder

- An elephant carcass lies at the edge of a field in Legotlhwana village, northeast Botswana -- evidence of the desperation and anger felt by a farmer whose crops have been repeatedly destroyed.
Ishmael Simasiku, 71, indignantly recounts how he was guarding his field as he does every night when an elephant broke through the perimeter fence and helped itself to his watermelons.
Simasiku's attempts to repel the elephant using torchlights and gunshots fired into the air were futile. The animal only retreated briefly and returned.
Fed up, he shot it dead on May 14.
"The elephant came from the forest and was destroying my crops. The (sports hunting) ban made my life worse," said Simasiku, holding a watermelon half-eaten by an elephant.
The retired policeman in this village near the border with Namibia has seen his corn harvest fall by about 90 percent over recent years as elephant numbers have boomed.
Under the country's wildlife conservation policy, Botswana's elephant population has ...

Fearful of elephant attacks, some in Botswana cheer hunting's return

French prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 20-year prison term for a woman charged with killing five of her children right after they were born, a crime that only came to light one and a half decades after the corpses were discovered.
Sylvie Horning, 55, was detained in November 2017 on suspicions she murdered the five children between 1990 and 2005.
Horning, the mother of three adult children, is thought to have hidden her pregnancies even from her partner, giving birth in secret and then strangling the newborns at her house in Wittelsheim in eastern France.
Nothing untoward was suspected until the discovery in 2003 of the bodies of four babies in rubbish bags in the nearby Galfingue forest.
But the initial investigation was closed in 2009 after it failed to yield clues to the deaths.
It was reopened in 2016 to take advantage of advances in DNA testing, and a year later investigators made the first link between Horning and the deaths, completely by chance, after her DNA was taken in ..

French mother faces 20 years in jail for murdering 5 of her children

Once an indispensable part of daily life in Japan, ultra-thin washi paper was used for everything from writing and painting to lampshades, umbrellas, and sliding doors, but demand has plunged as lifestyles have become more westernised.
Despite its 1,300-year history and UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status, washi paper is struggling to attract consumers and the market value has dropped by more than 50 per cent in the past two decades.
But at a small workshop in western Japan, Hiroyoshi Chinzei, a fourth-generation traditional paper maker, creates washi with a unique purpose that may help revive interest -- both at home and abroad.
Chinzei's product, the world's thinnest paper, has helped save historical documents at major museums and libraries -- including the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum and Washington's Library of Congress -- from decay.
Washi paper is more flexible and durable" than what Japanese refer to as "western paper", which disintegrates into tiny pieces when it 

Skin deep: Japan's 'washi' paper torn by modern life

Vietnam has enlisted a team of Russian and local experts to help preserve the body of embalmed revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, whose corpse has lain in a sprawling concrete monument in central Hanoi since his death nearly 50 years ago.
Uncle Ho, as he is affectionately known in Vietnam, enjoys demi-god status in the country, revered as the communist hero who led his country to independence.  His embalmed corpse lies in state in a massive concrete tomb in Hanoi, modelled after Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square.
Hanoi has now set up a state council of 11 specialists -- four from Russia, the rest Vietnamese -- to "evaluate the status of the body of president Ho Chi Minh", according to a statement on the government's official website.
The council must propose "technical methods and plans... to long preserve and ensure absolute safety to the body of president Ho Chi Minh in the years to come," said the decision endorsing the council, signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Ho ..

Vietnam invites Russian experts to help preserve embalmed 'Uncle Ho'

A London court on Thursday handed a partial victory to campaigners trying to halt British arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the kingdom's bombing campaign in Yemen.
The Court of Appeal ruling does not immediately halt UK arms sales or suspend existing licenses.
But judge Terence Etherton said the UK government "must reconsider the matter" and weigh up future risks.
The government had "made no concluded assessments of whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed violations of international humanitarian law in the past, during the Yemen conflict, and made no attempt to do so," Etherton ruled.
Prime Minister Theresa May's office said she was "disappointed that the court found against the government on one ground" and would seek an appeal.
Trade minister Liam Fox was expected to make a statement in parliament later in the day.
The UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) non-profit first launched its court battle against the government in December 2015.
Thursday's judgement came in ...

UK court tells government to 'reconsider' Saudi arms sales

Pakistan's top judge has vowed to set up more than 100 gender-based violence courts in the patriarchal country regularly ranked as among the most dangerous in the world for women.
Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said the Supreme Court is "in the offing to set up 116 gender-based violence courts and also child courts in every district in Pakistan".
The courts "will be designed to look entirely different both in their infrastructure and working than other courts," he told judges in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday.  He offered no further details, and Supreme Court officials told AFP the plan is still being discussed.
Women have long fought for their rights in deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan, where activists say men commit "pervasive" violence against them, often with impunity.  Justice is elusive in a sluggish court system advocates say is slanted against female victims.
Many cases of violence against women in rural areas are not reported to authorities and instead mediated by ...

Pakistan says it will create gender-based violence courts

EU leaders will heap fresh international pressure on Russia on Thursday over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by demanding Moscow cooperate with a Dutch probe that led to charges against four men.
The Kremlin will also be served with a tough warning over its move to make it easier for Ukrainians living in breakaway regions of their country's east to obtain a Russian passport.
International investigators on Wednesday charged three Russians and a Ukrainian with murder over the 2014 catastrophe, in which 298 people were killed, with the trial in the Netherlands set to start in March next year.
But neither Russia nor Ukraine extradites their nationals and the Kremlin has denounced the "absolutely unfounded accusations" against the men, all of whom have military and intelligence links.
EU government leaders at a summit in Brussels will welcome the criminal charges over the downing of the plane, which was hit by a missile over part of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian rebels ..

EU leaders to add to pressure on Russia over MH17

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the watchdog set up to police doping in athletics, said Thursday it had received testing data from a Moscow laboratory at the centre of a vast doping conspiracy.
The independent body founded by the IAAF, athletics' world governing body, said it had received around 110,000 files from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on June 18.
The data, collected by WADA inspectors from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) of the Moscow Laboratory, concerns testing samples analysed in the period 2012 to 2015.
"The AIU will start analysing the LIMS data immediately with a view to reporting its findings to the IAAF Council in due course," the watchdog said in a statement.
The AIU said that no deadline had been set for the completion of the task.
Russia was banned from world athletics in 2015 following revelations of a state-backed doping programme dating back years.
Although the governing bodies of other sports have re-admitted Russia, the IAAF ...

AFP

AFP

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