Donald Trump told his former White House lawyer Don McGhan to ignore a subpoena from Congress to testify about the president's alleged obstruction of justice, Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders has said.
The Democrat-dominated Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives has issued a subpoena compelling McGhan to testify.
But the White House said that special counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling probe into Trump's links to Russia and alleged attempts to get in the way of the investigation had cleared the president, meaning there was no need for more digging.
McGhan himself testified before Mueller's staff for some 30 hours.
"The Democrats do not like the conclusion of the Mueller investigation... and want a wasteful and unnecessary do-over," Sanders said in a statement Monday.
"The Department of Justice has provided a legal opinion stating that, based on long-standing, bipartisan, and Constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such ...

Trump tells ex-White House lawyer to ignore subpoena

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European countries backed by the United States have blocked a Russian request to hold a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine's new language law.
Last month Ukraine's parliament passed the law, which enforces use of the Ukrainian language in official settings, a move strongly denounced by Russia.
Russia failed to garner the nine votes required to hold the meeting, which was requested on Monday, the same day that Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelensky took office.
A procedural vote to hold a meeting requires the support of nine countries in the 15-member council. Vetoes do not apply.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre told the council ahead of the vote that the Russian call for the meeting was "not intended to have a constructive discussion" but to "put the new president of Ukraine in the worst light."
Five countries voted in favour of holding the meeting -- China, Russia, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and the Dominican Republic -- while five EU members -- Britain, France, ...

UN Security Council rejects Russian bid to hold Ukraine meeting

A climber who sparked an evacuation of the Eiffel Tower on Monday was grabbed after clinging to the famous Paris landmark for more than six hours, officials said.
The man, who was not immediately identified, "is in the hands of the emergency teams" deployed to the tower, which will reopen to visitors as normal early on Tuesday, the company operating the structure said in a statement.

Police grab Eiffel Tower climber who sparked evacuation

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday the "genocidal taunts" of US President Donald Trump will not "end Iran", as tensions spike between the two countries.
"Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone. Economic terrorism and genocidal taunts won't 'end Iran'," Zarif wrote on Twitter.  "Never threaten an Iranian. Try respect -- it works!" he added.
In another tweet, Zarif accused Trump of allowing his team to "trash diplomacy" and "abet war crimes -- by milking despotic butchers via massive arms sales".
The riposte by Iran's top diplomat followed an ominous warning by Trump, who on Sunday suggested the Islamic republic would be destroyed if it attacked US interests.  "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again," Trump tweeted.
The US president took to Twitter again on Monday, saying Washington has not reached out for talks with Iran and that if the Islamic republic wants to negotiate, it 

Tehran says Trump's 'genocidal taunts won't end Iran'

The entire politics desk of one of Russia's top daily newspapers, Kommersant, quit on Monday in protest over censorship after two veteran reporters were fired.
The walkout at the newspaper controlled by pro-Kremlin tycoon Alisher Usmanov is a rare protest in the Russian media industry where nearly all print outlets toe the government line.
Kommersant's staff, media professionals and liberal Russians accused the billionaire of destroying one of Russia's best newspapers.
But speaking to AFP, Kommersant editor-in-chief Vladimir Zhelonkin defiantly rubbished that view.
"They've been saying this for the past 20 years," he told AFP. "Time will tell." Earlier Monday, deputy editor Gleb Cherkasov said he and another ten journalists -- who make up Kommersant's political desk -- quit in solidarity after the management forced two veteran reporters to resign over a scoop.
"The shareholder has a right to make staffing decisions," Cherkasov wrote on Facebook.
"The employees have a right to disagree 

Pressure at top Russian daily triggers mass walkout

President Donald Trump on Monday said Washington has not reached out for talks with Iran and that if Tehran wants to negotiate, it will have to take the first step.
"The Fake News put out a typically false statement, without any knowledge that the United States was trying to set up a negotiation with Iran. This is a false report," Trump wrote in a tweet that did not specify what report he was referring to.
"Iran will call us if and when they are ever ready. In the meantime, their economy continues to collapse - very sad for the Iranian people!" Trump tweeted.
Trump has blown hot and cold over Iran, leading many in Washington to fear he is rushing to conflict, but then indicating that he has no desire to embroil the United States in another distant war.
On Sunday, he upped the temperature with a tweet that warned of "the official end of Iran" should the country attack the United States.
The Trump administration is piling the pressure on Iran by ripping up a hard-fought international ...

US has not reached out to Iran for talks: Trump

A court in the Maldives Monday quashed a controversial conviction of former vice president Ahmed Adeeb and ordered a fresh trial on allegations that he attempted to assassinate his boss.
The High Court set aside the 15-year sentence handed to Adeeb in 2016 after he was found guilty of trying to blow up then-president Abdulla Yameen's speed boat in September 2015.
However, the three-judge bench in a majority decision Monday ordered that Adeeb be held in custody for 15 days pending a fresh trial.
The court held that his original trial appeared to have bene politically motivated.  Adeeb was considered a close confidant of Yameen until he was dramatically impeached in November 2015 following allegations he was trying to topple the president.
Yameen escaped unhurt when an explosion ripped through his speed boat, but his wife and two others were slightly injured.
The FBI was called in to investigate the incident, but found no evidence the blast was caused by a bomb.
During his five-year ...

Maldives quash terror conviction of ex-vice president

All remaining ministers from Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) are to resign, a party spokesman said Monday, after one of their number, Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, was fired in the fallout from a corruption scandal that has brought down the government.
Conservative chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who called for fresh elections on Saturday over the affair, said Kickl would have to leave office to ensure a "complete, transparent investigation" into the scandal that has ended a coalition many on the European right had held up as a model ahead of key European Parliament polls later this week.
Kurz's FPOe deputy, Heinz-Christian Strache, stepped down as vice-chancellor and party leader on Saturday after recordings published by German media showed him offering government contracts in return for campaign help to a fake Russian backer in a villa on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza.
Elsewhere in the footage, Strache appears to hint at ways political donations could escape legal ...

Austrian far-right ministers to resign en masse amid 'Ibiza-gate' fallout

A UN team investigating the massacre of Iraq's Yazidi minority and other atrocities has excavated 12 mass graves and is collecting witness accounts that could be used in Iraqi and other national courts, according to a UN report seen by AFP on Monday.
The Security Council agreed in 2017 to establish the UN probe to ensure the Islamic State group faces justice for war crimes in Iraq and Syria -- a cause championed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad and international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.
In the report sent to the council, the head of the team, British lawyer Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, said efforts were focused on three initial investigations: the 2014 massacre of Yazidis, crimes committed in Mosul from 2014 to 2016, and the mass killing of Iraqi military recruits in the Tikrit area in June 2014.
The team began work in October, with the first mass grave containing IS victims unearthed in March and April in the Murad's home village of Kojo in Sinjar in northwest Iraq.
Ahmad ..

UN team unearths 12 mass graves in Iraq probe of IS crimes

The United Nations voiced concern on Monday about the rising rhetoric between the United States and Iran and called on the two sides to dial down their remarks.
The appeal came after President Donald Trump on Sunday warned that any attack from Iran would be met with a devastating US response that would mean "the official end of Iran." "We are concerned about the rising rhetoric," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who cited the firing of a rocket on Sunday, which struck a Baghdad area that houses foreign embassies including that of the US, as being "also a concern."
"We would ask all parties to lower the rhetoric and lower the threshold of action as well," said the spokesman.
UN officials are holding contacts with the US and Iran at various levels to try to calm the situation, said Dujarric, but he did not provide details of those talks.
Relations between Washington and Tehran plummeted a year ago when Trump pulled out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and imposed tough ...

UN concerned about rising US-Iran rhetoric

French doctors Monday began switching off the life support for a quadriplegic man who has been in a vegetative state for the last decade, in a hugely controversial case that has drawn in Pope Francis.
The dispute over the fate of Vincent Lambert, 42, who was left with severe brain damage after a traffic accident in 2008, has split his own family and become a subject of political tension in France ahead of European Parliament elections this weekend.
His parents, avowed Catholics, have repeatedly launched court action to keep him alive, putting them at odds with Lambert's wife and five siblings who believe the most humane course is to let him die.
A last-minute request Monday to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, eastern France, to halt the decision pending a review by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was rejected.
The court had already refused a similar request in April and said Monday there was "no new evidence" that would justify a new ...

Doctors start halting support for vegetative Frenchman

Ford plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its global salaried workforce, as part of a reorganization as it revamps its vehicle offerings, the company said Monday.
The downsizing will involve some layoffs and reassignments of white-collar staff and should be complete by the end of August, a Ford spokeswoman said. Ford has been phasing out most sedan models in the United States as more consumers have opted for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
The move, which began last year and follows some job cuts announced earlier in other regions, will lead to 800 layoffs in North America in total, including about 500 this week, said Ford spokeswoman Marisa Bradley.
The company has yet to determine all of the specifics in other regions, she said.
The actions, expected to save about $600 million a year, come as Ford ramps up investment in electric cars and autonomous driving technology, eyeing future growth in those businesses even as current profitability is tied closely to sales of ...

Ford to cut 7,000 jobs, 10% of global salaried staff

Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelensky  called snap parliamentary polls in his inaugural speech Monday and said his top priority is ending the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.
The 41-year-old comedian was sworn in as Ukraine's youngest post-Soviet president a month after scoring a landslide victory over Petro Poroshenko with a campaign capitalising on widespread public discontent with the political establishment.
Zelensky -- whose only previous political experience is appearing as president in a popular TV show -- announced he would dissolve parliament in order to call early elections, originally scheduled for October.
"People must come to power who will serve the public," Zelensky said, after wrangling with hostile lawmakers whom he calls "petty crooks".
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman resigned in protest shortly afterwards, saying Zelensky had rejected his proposals and "chose another path." The legal status of Zelensky's move to dissolve ...

Ukraine's new president Zelensky calls snap elections

The Eiffel Tower was evacuated on Monday after a man was seen climbing up the iconic Paris landmark, one of France's biggest tourist draws, the operating company said.
"A climber has been spotted. It's the standard procedure. We have to stop the person, and in that case we evacuate the tower," an official with the SETE operator told AFP.
The esplanade underneath the monument was also evacuated, as was a large section of the adjacent Champ de Mars park.
"We kindly advise our visitors to postpone their visit," SETE added on Twitter.  Police have made contact with the climber but do not yet know why he began his ascent up the iron beams, a police source told AFP.
At around 5:30 pm (1530 GMT) firemen were trying to reach the climber, dressed in a black jacket, by rappelling down from the third-floor observation deck near the top.  Crowds of tourists remained in the area, hoping the tower will reopen soon.
"We're really disappointed, we're only here for a week and this messes with our ...

Eiffel Tower evacuated after climber spotted

Sudan's army rulers and protesters resume talks Monday to finalise the makeup of a new ruling body after overnight negotiations remained deadlocked following a "dispute" over who should lead it.
The two sides launched a round of new talks Sunday evening over the form of the authority to rule Sudan for a three-year transitional period following last month's ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
The military council that replaced him has faced international pressure to install a civilian-led administration -- a key demand of thousands of demonstrators who have spent weeks camped outside Khartoum's army headquarters.
Hours of overnight meetings into the early hours of Monday ended without agreement, but the ruling military council announced the talks would resume again Monday evening at 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) at the presidential palace.
A prominent leader of an umbrella protest group who was at the talks said the question of who would head the body had been a key sticking point.
"The ..

Sudan talks to resume as 'dispute' over top job persists

A woman has given birth to Poland's first sextuplets with each newborn weighing about one kilogram (2.2 pounds), physicians at the University Hospital in the city of Krakow announced on Monday.
"This is the first birth of sextuplets in Poland and one of the few in the world," University Hospital Professor Ryzszard Lauterbach was quoted as saying by the Polish PAP news agency.
The four girls and two boys, ranging in weight from 890 grammes to 1.3 kilograms, were delivered by caesarean section at the 29th week of pregnancy, he added.
Their mother is "very involved, smiling and happy", according to the physician who said that the 29-year-old woman already has one two-year-old boy at home.
Doctors in the southern city of Krakow said the birth of sextuplets, was an extremely rare event.
Polish President Andrzej Duda congratulated the parents and thanked medical staff on Twitter.

First-ever set of sextuplets born in Poland

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic named two uncapped players in his squad for next month's crucial Euro 2020 qualifier against Wales on Monday as the World Cup runners-up look to react after a shock defeat by Hungary.
The two newcomers are Leicester defender Filip Benkovic, who has spent the season on loan with Celtic, and left-back Dario Melnjak, who has scored four goals in 15 games since joining Turkish side Rizespor in January.
"It is clear that we must target three points against Wales," Dalic said.
"I believe in the squad, we have not much choice after our failure against Hungary. We must be more focused in the future," added Dalic, whose team lost 2-1 in Budapest in March.
Ante Rebic, who scored in the loss, is included despite suffering a back injury for club Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Croatia also play Tunisia in a friendly on June 8, three days after hosting Ryan Giggs' Wales in Osijek.
In Group E, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Wales have three points each, while Azerbaijan .

Croatia's Dalic calls up rookie pair for pivotal Wales Euro qualifier

France star Kylian Mbappe has cast doubt on his Paris Saint-Germain future, cranking up the pressure on the club's hierarchy as Real Madrid reportedly attempt to lure him to Spain.
The 20-year-old Mbappe fuelled transfer speculation at Sunday's French league awards ceremony after saying that he wants "responsibilities, maybe at PSG, maybe elsewhere".
It appeared a calculated move by Mbappe, who succeeded team-mate Neymar as the Ligue 1 player of the year, after he again brought it up in front of reporters moments later.
"I said what I had to say. When you're on stage you can send messages, I think I got mine across. If I keep talking it would be too much and that's not the message I want to send," Mbappe explained.
He has been regularly linked with a potential move to Madrid since breaking through with Monaco's 2017 Ligue 1 title-winning team, but instead made the switch to PSG, initially on loan, and then for 180 million euros.
But since Zinedine Zidane's return to the Real dugout ...

Mbappe 'bombshell' places pressure on PSG as Madrid lurk

More than 200 people paid an eye-watering USD173,000 (150,000 euros) to attend a dinner thrown by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to raise funds to beautify the capital Addis Ababa, state media reported Monday.
The state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate published pictures of diners, some wearing tuxedos, seated at a long rose-covered banquet table.
"A seat at the event is valued at 5 million birr," the report said, adding that "over 200 individuals, representatives from local and international organizations" took part in the event.
The dinner was held to raise funds for a three-year project by Abiy to "lift the image" of the capital, a bustling, fast-changing city where modern buildings have shot up, construction is everywhere and greenery scarce.
"The rapid growth and expansion of the city over the past few years has not adequately utilised the natural resources and beautiful topography that the city is endowed with," according to a video of the project posted on Abiy's ..

Ethiopia hosts USD173,000-a-seat dinner to beautify capital

Brazil's imprisoned ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, still loved by large parts of the population, plans to remarry if he is released from prison, a former minister said.
Lula, 73, a widower for the past two years, has been sentenced to more than two decades behind bars in two separate corruption cases.
He has already spent a year in jail but could be eligible for "semi-open" incarceration later this year after an appeals court reduced one of his sentences.
"He is in love and the first thing he wants to do after getting out of prison will be to marry," Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, who held cabinet posts in finance and science, wrote on Facebook -- reportedly to the dismay of Lula's aides.
Last week, Bresser-Pereira visited Lula in his prison in Curitiba, southern Brazil.
"He is in very good shape, physically and psychologically," the ex-minister said.
According to the website of the weekly Epoca, the prospective bride-to-be is Rosangela da Silva, a sociologist aged about ...

Lula 'in love': Brazil's jailed ex-leader wants to marry if freed

EU negotiator Michel Barnier warned on Monday that whatever the shifting political situation in Britain its options are limited and unchanged -- deal, no deal or no Brexit.
"Today, the fundamental choices in front of the United Kingdom remain the same: deal, no deal, no Brexit," Barnier told reporters in Nicosia after updating Cypriot authorities on the latest developments.
"Whatever happens and whatever the political situation in the UK, the issues and solutions remain the same," he added.
Barnier said the EU has "always been working for a deal" and the withdrawal agreement is the "only way to ensure an orderly withdrawal".
He noted discussion in Britain is not about the withdrawal agreement itself, but the future relationship.
"Let me be clear: if the United Kingdom still wants to leave, ratifying the withdrawal agreement is the only way to secure a transition period," said Barnier.
He said the period of transition would give Britain time to sort out its negotiation positions and ...

AFP

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