Moscow slammed "unfounded accusations" by  international investigators who Wednesday charged four people, including Russian citizens, with murder over the 2014 shooting down of flight MH17 above rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
"Once again, absolutely unfounded accusations are being made against the Russian side, aimed at discrediting Russia in the eyes of the international community," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.

Moscow says MH17 charges based on 'unfounded allegations'

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A Saudi minister on Wednesday slammed as "unfounded" a UN expert report calling for those involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be held accountable.
"It is not new. The (UN) report reiterates what has already been published and circulated in the media," Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, said on Twitter.
"The report... contains clear contradictions and unfounded allegations, casting doubt on its credibility.

Saudi minister slams UN findings on Khashoggi as 'unfounded'

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Wednesday it had asked Stockholm for clarifications over financial backing for its bid to stage the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Just days before the IOC votes on Monday on whether to award the Games to Stockholm/Are or rival Italian bid Milan/Cortina d'Ampezzo, the IOC wants more information from the Swedish bid, according to Christophe Dubi, the IOC's sports director.
"We received a number of non-binding letters of intent and guarantees, these do not represent binding commitments and therefore put Olympic village delivery at risk," said a letter that the IOC sent to the Stockholm bid on June 14 and seen here by AFP.
A spokesperson for the Stockholm bid told AFP the exchange of letters was nothing out of the ordinary, saying: "We have an ongoing, positive and constructive dialogue with the IOC -- both in mails and in letters."
Dubi said the exchanges concerned improving the bids after the IOC's Evaluation Commission reports released on May 24 ..

IOC demand guarantees for Swedish 2026 Olympic bid

Kiev on Wednesday urged Russia to admit responsibility over the 2014 downing of passenger flight MH17 over rebel-held eastern Ukraine that left 298 people dead, after charges were laid by international investigators.
"We call on the Russian Federation to acknowledge its responsibility for supplying arms" to Kremlin-backed rebels in the region, Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a statement.
It urged Moscow "to cooperate with the probe", referring to international investigators who earlier issued arrest warrants for four suspects, three of them Russian nationals.

Ukraine urges Russia to admit responsibility over MH17 downing

Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey says the defending champions will target Bangladesh dangerman Shakib Al Hasan when the two sides meet at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
Shakib's brilliant century helped the Tigers complete the second-highest World Cup chase in a seven-wicket win over the West Indies in Taunton on Monday.
The 32-year-old allrounder, who is the tournament's leading run-scorer with 384 runs, also hit a century against England earlier in the tournament and has been among the wickets.
When Bangladesh beat Australia in a 2005 one-day international in Cardiff, it was widely regarded as one of the biggest upsets in cricket history.  But they are now an established force and, having beaten both South Africa and the West Indies already at this tournament, they are pushing for a semi-final berth.
"We've obviously put our time into Shakib and all the players at the top of the order as well as their bowling," Carey said on Wednesday.
"He's in probably career-best form with the white ..

Australia planning to nullify Shakib threat, says Carey

A Japanese-owned tanker attacked in the Gulf of Oman last week was damaged by a limpet mine resembling those used by Iran, the US military said Wednesday, as the Islamic republic slammed accusations against it.
Commander Sean Kido of US Naval Forces Central Command, or NAVCENT, said the mine used in the attack "is distinguishable and it is also strikingly bearing a resemblance to Iranian mines that have already been publicly displayed in Iranian military parades".
The Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous, loaded with highly flammable methanol, came under attack last Thursday as it passed through the Gulf of Oman along with the Norwegian-operated Front Altair.
It was the second attack in a month on ships in the strategic shipping lane.
Kido told reporters in the UAE emirate of Fujairah that the US military had recovered "biometric information" of the assailants on the Kokuka Courageous including "hand and finger prints".
This information "can be used to build a criminal case", Kido said as 

US alleges tanker hit by mine resembling Iran's

Lobby groups representing some of the world's biggest polluters have sent thousands of delegates to negotiations aimed at limiting global warming since UN climate talks began, according to data obtained by AFP.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) brings together nations, environmental groups, scientists and policymakers to work on measures to stave off the worst social, economic and ecological threats posed by runaway temperatures.
Trade associations that represent oil and gas majors are entitled under the convention's own rules to attend annual UNFCCC talks and inter-sessional meetings as observers.
They frequently host networking side events or presentations and have the same status and access permits at negotiations as environmental charities.
But there is currently no protection against potential conflicts of interest between nations which need emissions slashed rapidly in order to survive, and the biggest emitters whose business plans are still ...

Thousands of big energy reps at UN climate talks: monitor

The revolver with which Vincent van Gogh is believed to have shot himself sold for 162,500 euros (USD182,000) at a Paris auction on Wednesday -- nearly three times the estimate.
Billed as "the most famous weapon in the history of art", the rusty 7mm Lefaucheux revolver was bought by a private collector with a telephone bid.
The troubled Dutch painter died in July 1890 and experts believe he shot himself with the revolver in a field near Auvers-sur-Oise, a village north of Paris where he spent the last few months of his life.
Discovered by a farmer in 1965 in the same field, the gun has previously been exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
But the sale was hit by controversy on the eve of the auction as the Van Gogh Institute, which looks after the village inn where the artist spent his last days, condemned the sale.
"Nothing suggests that the remains (of the gun) are formally linked with the death of Van Gogh," it said in a statement, deploring the "commercialisation of a ...

Gun 'that ended Van Gogh's life' sells for nearly triple estimate

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said his close ally Mohamed Morsi was "killed" and accused Egyptian authorities of failing to intervene to save the ex-president.
"Morsi was struggling on the floor in the courtroom for 20 minutes. Authorities unfortunately did not intervene to save him," Erdogan said during a televised speech in Istanbul.
"Morsi was killed, he did not die of natural causes." Erdogan forged close ties with Morsi, Egypt's first civilian president and a prominent Muslim Brotherhood member.
But Ankara's relations with Cairo ties deteriorated after the Egyptian military, then led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ousted Morsi in 2013. Sisi then became president.
Erdogan has sharply denounced the military takeover in Egypt and called it a "coup".
On Wednesday, he said he would follow up on the process related to Morsi's death.
"We will do whatever is needed for Egypt to be tried in international courts." The attorney general's office in Egypt has said that Morsi ..

Erdogan says Egyptian ex-president Morsi was 'killed'

British leadership favourite Boris Johnson won the endorsement of a key Brexit-backing rival on Wednesday despite accusations he was softening his rhetoric on leaving the EU.
Ahead of another round of voting among Conservative MPs, former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said Johnson was the "only candidate" who would take Britain out of the European Union as planned on October 31.
On Tuesday, Raab was eliminated from the contest to replace Theresa May as the leader of the governing Conservative Party and therefore as prime minister, leaving five candidates standing.
One of them will be eliminated in another ballot later Wednesday, before further votes on Thursday to whittle the field down to a final pair.
Former foreign minister Johnson is leading the pack after securing the support of 126 of the 313 Conservative MPs in Tuesday's ballot.
A figurehead of the 2016 referendum campaign for Brexit, he insists there must be no more delays to Britain's EU exit, after May postponed it ...

Johnson wins key Brexit backing in UK leadership race

Saudi Arabia has rendered toothless the once-feared religious police amid a liberalisation drive, but a planned "public decency" law is stoking controversy with some fearing a revival of morality policing.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to shake off his country's ultra-conservative image with the reopening of cinemas, mixed-gender concerts and party-fuelled sporting extravaganzas, while vowing to take the kingdom towards moderate Islam.
The relaxed social norms in a kingdom seldom associated with fun in the past have been welcomed by many Saudis, two-thirds of whom are under 30, in the midst of painful economic reforms geared towards a post-oil future.
But Saudi Arabia now aims to police its citizens' behaviour with a new public decency law approved by cabinet in April, though it remains unclear when it will be enforced.
The law seeks to uphold Saudi "values and principles", banning in public clothing deemed to "offend public tastes" -- including men's shorts -- and ...

Saudi de-fangs religious police but plans to enforce 'decency'

Libya's National Oil Company deplored an air raid that on Tuesday evening destroyed a warehouse operated by a subsidiary and wounded three personnel near Tripoli.
"A warehouse owned by subsidiary Mellitah Oil & Gas Company (MOG) was destroyed by aerial bombardment," the NOC said in a statement on its website.
"The attack and resulting fire destroyed valuable equipment and materials in addition to the warehouse itself," it said, adding that three MOG employees had been lightly wounded and taken to hospital.
Tripoli is controlled by forces loyal to the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), but strongman Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive against the capital in early April.
Images published by the NOC show a building devastated by fire, which was extinguished by fire fighters.
"This is another tragic loss caused by this unnecessary conflict," said NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla.
"NOC infrastructure is being destroyed ...

Libya air raid destroys warehouse, wounds three: oil firm

Singapore's main airport temporarily closed a runway after drones were spotted in the area, causing dozens of flights to be delayed, authorities said Wednesday.
It is the latest case of unmanned aerial devices causing disruption at a major airport after thousands of passengers were affected when drone sightings forced the closure of Britain's Gatwick Airport last year.
Changi Airport, one of Asia's busiest hubs, closed one of its two runways for short periods from late Tuesday into early Wednesday after the drone sightings, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said.
About 37 flights were delayed and one arriving in Singapore was diverted to neighbouring Malaysia, the agency said.
Authorities have launched an investigation.
It is against the law in Singapore to fly a drone within five kilometres (three miles) of an airport without a permit, the Straits Times newspaper reported.  Anyone convicted of breaking the regulation faces up to a year in jail.

Drones close runway at Singapore airport

One of the main suspects named in the shooting down of passenger flight MH17 over Ukraine denied Wednesday that pro-Russian separatists were behind the missile attack that left 298 people dead.
"I can only say that rebels did not shoot down the Boeing," Igor Strelkov, who is also known as Igor Girkin, told Russia's Interfax news agency.
On Wednesday, international investigators said they were issuing arrest warrants for Girkin and three other suspects over the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane in July, 2014 when it was shot out of the sky by a BUK missile.
The Dutch-led probe said it was going to prosecute Russian nationals Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, adding they would be placed on national and international wanted lists.
Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said the four men "will be held accountable for bringing the deadly weapon, the BUK Telar, into eastern Ukraine".
Relatives of the victims earlier said they had been told the ..

MH17 suspect denies Ukraine rebels behind attack

A Belgian diplomat was expected to travel to China's restive Xinjiang region on Tuesday to confirm the whereabouts of a Uighur family that was escorted from Belgium's embassy in Beijing by police last month.
The disappearance of the woman and her four children has alarmed her husband, as an estimated one million ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in internment camps in Xinjiang Abdulhamid Tursun, a political refugee in Belgium, said he has not heard from his family since May 31, a few days after they left the embassy under murky circumstances.
"I am worried about their safety," he told AFP. "I hope they can safely come be at my side as soon as possible, and our family can reunite."
Belgium's decision to dispatch a diplomat to Xinjiang comes as the embassy faces criticism for allegedly enabling Chinese police to take the family back to Xinjiang -- where they could face detention.
"The case exposes the additional risk Uighurs in China face even if .

Belgium seeks Uighur family in Xinjiang after disappearance

Greenpeace on Wednesday raised the alarm over microplastics in rivers after finding the pollutant in all the rivers it tested in Britain, calling it a "problem of enormous complexity".
"We ignore this problem at our peril," warned David Santillo, senior scientist with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter.
"Once microplastics are in the river, they become impossible to remove again, so we have to solve the problem at the source." Researchers from the NGO tested 13 rivers earlier this year, casting nets in 30 rural and urban areas.
They found 1,271 pieces of 15 different types of plastic, nearly half of which were polyethylene, and included items from degraded straws to microbeads.
Only two of the "relatively rural" 30 areas did not test positive, Greenpeace said in its report, published Wednesday.
"We are witnessing just the tip of a plastics iceberg," it said.  The nets were only able to collect samples that were no deeper than 10 centimetres (four ...

Greenpeace sounds alarm over plastic pollution in rivers

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has lost his final bid to avoid a trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling, and will likely have to appear in court in the coming months, sources close to the case told AFP Wednesday.
The country's Court of Cassation, which rules on questions of law, ruled Tuesday that a trial was justified for Sarkozy as well as his lawyer Thierry Herzog and a former judge, Gilbert Azibert.
That means a trial will now go ahead, according to a source close to the case and one of the defence lawyers. Sarkozy's lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
The influence-peddling case centres on conversations between Herzog and Azibert that were tapped by investigators looking into claims that Sarkozy accepted illicit payments from the L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.
They suspect Sarkozy and his lawyer were seeking information on developments in the case, with Sarkozy offering Azibert a plum job in Monaco ..

Ex-French president Sarkozy loses bid to halt corruption trial

Iran's defence minister "categorically rejected" Wednesday accusations that Tehran was behind two tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman, describing evidence presented by Washington as "unsubstantiated", official news agency IRNA reported.
Washington has blamed Iran for last week's attacks, releasing images and a grainy video it alleges shows Iranians on a patrol boat removing an unexploded limpet mine attached to one of the tankers.
"Accusations levelled against Iran's armed forces and the published film with regards to the incident (that) happened to the vessels ... are unsubstantiated and we categorically reject these accusations," IRNA quoted Defence Minister Brigadier-General Amir Hatami as saying.
"The armed forces and the port organisation were among the first to approach the tankers after the incident for relief operations and they rescued 23 people in the first tanker," he added.
Hatami did not explicitly specify which of the two ships he was referring to, but Iran's ...

Iran 'categorically rejects' US tanker attack allegations

A hugely popular but brutal online game was slapped with a fatwa Wednesday by an Indonesian Muslim group who say it insults Islam and makes addicted players violent.
The religious edict, issued in conservative Aceh province, comes after officials in Iraq, Nepal and the Indian state of Gujarat banned PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) over fears it incited real-world violence.
Often likened to the blockbuster book and film series "The Hunger Games", PUBG pits marooned characters against each another in a virtual fight to the death, and has become one of the world's most popular mobile games.
On Wednesday, the Aceh chapter of Muslim-majority Indonesia's powerful Ulema Council called on local residents to ditch PUBG, and said the local government should consider an outright ban.
Breaking the fatwa would not result in sanctions, it said, but the group's national chapter has also been mulling a similar call to ditch violent games.
The edict in Aceh would apply to other violent games, but 

Indonesia Muslim group slaps fatwa on popular combat game PUBG

International investigators said Wednesday they were issuing arrest warrants for three Russians and one Ukrainian suspect over the downing of flight MH17 in July 2014.
The Dutch-led probe said it was going to prosecute Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko over the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane.
"Today we will send out international arrest warrants for the first suspects that we will prosecute. They will also be placed on national and international wanted lists," Wilbert Paulissen, chief constable of the Netherlands National Police, told a press conference.
Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said they were the "four who will be held accountable for bringing the deadly weapon, the BUK Telar, into eastern Ukraine".
The same investigation team said in May 2018 that the BUK anti-aircraft missile which hit the Boeing 777 had originated from the 53rd Russian military brigade based in Russia's southwestern city of ...

MH17 investigators name three Russian suspects, one Ukrainian

Bungling Japanese officials sparked a nuclear scare after a violent, late-night earthquake by ticking the wrong box on a fax form -- inadvertently alerting authorities to a potential accident.
Employees of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), operator of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata -- where the 6.4-magnitude quake struck -- faxed a message to local authorities seeking to allay any fears of damage.
But TEPCO workers accidentally ticked the wrong box on the form, mistakenly indicating there was an abnormality at the plant rather than there was no problem.
One official filled out the form, and it was checked by a colleague before being sent.
Many Japanese government departments and companies still rely on fax machines for communication.
TEPCO's Tokyo headquarters noticed the mistake, and a correction was published 17 minutes after the original release, the firm's Tokyo-based spokesman told AFP.  Kashiwazaki city mayor Masahiro Sakurai saw the incorrectly ...

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