An employee at a Dubai-based security company was fired and deported for celebrating the deadly New Zealand mosque attacks under a fake identity on Facebook, the group said Wednesday.
"Over the weekend, a Transguard employee made inflammatory comments on his personal Facebook account celebrating the deplorable mosque attack in Christchurch, New Zealand," the Transguard security group said in a statement.
"Despite posting under a false name, the employee responsible for last weekend's inflammatory (Facebook) comments has been identified, terminated as per Transguard policy and handed over to the authorities."
Transguard, which is affiliated with the Emirates Group that includes Emirates Airline, said the man had been deported by the UAE government.
It did not name him or reveal his nationality.
An Australian white supremacist shot dead 50 Muslims praying at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday.
The attacks sparked global revulsion and drew condemnation from the United ...

Man sacked and deported from UAE for praising NZ attacks

PTI Automatic

Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc has said that talisman Marco Reus will stay at the club until the end of his career.
"Marco is someone who identifies with the club and has strong roots in Dortmund," Zorc told Sport Bild on Wednesday.
"I can't imagine that he will ever play for another club." Reus, 29, scored a late winner against Hertha Berlin last Saturday to keep Dortmund level on points with Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich.
One of the more experienced players in Dortmund's young squad, the Germany international is set to play a key role as the title race enters the decisive phase.
On Wednesday, Bild reported that Reus had delivered a rousing speech to the team in the wake of Dortmund's Champions League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, and Zorc lavished praise on his captain's leadership qualities.
"Marco has matured as a person, and he is taking on more responsibility than before, both on and off the pitch," said Zorc.
"He has a natural authority, and he is becoming ..

Reus 'will end his career at Dortmund

The EU's powerful anti-trust regulator has slapped tech giant Google with a new fine over unfair competition, in Europe's latest salvo against Silicon Valley.
"Today the commission has fined Google 1.49 billion euros (USD 1.69 billion) for illegal misuse of its dominant position in the market for the brokering of online search adverts," EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

EU fines Google 1.49 bn euros for anti-trust breach

A group of unmarried couples were whipped in Indonesia's Aceh province on Thursday after they were caught behaving amorously -- a crime under the conservative region's Islamic law.
Flogging is common for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol and having gay sex.
It is the only province in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law.
The five couples flogged Thursday received between four and 22 strokes from a rattan cane outside a mosque in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, after they served several months in prison.
Religious police caught the amorous couples cuddling and holding hands or, in some cases, having sex.
Hundreds of spectators, including children, watched as a masked sharia officer lashed the offenders as they winced in pain.
"We hope in the future there will be no more cases like this -- it's embarrassing," said religious officer Safriadi, who goes by one name.
In December, two men ..

Indonesia's Aceh whips amorous couples

Singapore rejected Wednesday Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's allegation it was sheltering a former central bank chief wanted for fraud, saying Colombo failed to provide documents to support its extradition request.
Sirisena on Monday accused Singapore of sheltering Arjuna Mahendran, one of his country's former central bank chiefs wanted in connection with a high-profile USD 74 million insider trading scam.
Sirisena said he appealed to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in January to return Mahendran, who is believed to be in Singapore, but claimed nothing had been done.
Mahendran, a Singapore national of Sri Lankan origin, was accused in 2015 of passing sensitive information to his bond-dealer son-in-law to make millions.
The pair are accused of manipulating bond auctions in 2015 and 2016, causing losses of over USD 11 million to the state.
A spokesperson for Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said authorities in the city-state have been cooperating with their Sri Lankan .

Singapore rejects Sri Lankan leader's allegation on trading scam suspect

A 44-year-old man has become the second person charged with sharing a gruesome livestream video of the deadly attack at a Christchurch mosque.
Philip Arps, 44, was arrested by New Zealand Police on Tuesday, four days after 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant went on a rampage at two mosques in the southern city, killing 50 people and injuring dozens more.
Arps was charged with two counts of distributing objectionable material under the Films Act, and was remanded in custody after appearing in Christchurch District Court.
He is due back in court on April 15.
A teenager appeared in court earlier this week on the same charge.
The livestream video was shot by alleged gunman Tarrant, who is currently facing one charge of murder for the killings at Al Noor and Linwood mosques.
The funerals of the first victims started on Wednesday, with more expected to take place later Wednesday and on Thursday as officials release the victims' bodies to their families.

Second man charged with sharing livestream of Christchurch massacre

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in clashes near a flashpoint religious site in the occupied West Bank overnight Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The health ministry said Raid Hamdan, 21, and Zaid Nouri, 20, died after being shot late Tuesday by Israeli troops near the Joseph Tomb's religious site close to the Palestinian city of Nablus.
The Israeli army said in a statement explosives were hurled from a vehicle as Jewish worshippers visited the site late Tuesday.
"Troops responded with live fire towards the vehicle." There were no reports of injuries on the Israeli side.
The site has long been a source of tension in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  Jews believe the site contains the remains of the biblical patriarch Joseph, one of the 12 sons of Jacob.
Palestinian Muslims believe an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yusser (Joseph) Dweikat, was buried there two centuries ago.
It is located near a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, the territory occupied by .

Two Palestinians killed by Israeli army in West Bank clashes: health ministry

French authorities have again indicted Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov for tax fraud after he allegedly used middlemen to buy luxury villas in southern France, the Nice prosecutor said Wednesday.
"Mr. Kerimov was interviewed yesterday and charged with complicity to engage in aggravated tax fraud," Jean-Michel Pretre said, adding that the billionaire had been released on a 20-million euro (USD 22.6 million) bail.
Judicial authorities last June had dropped the charges after his defence team said they had convinced the court the allegations against Kerimov did not qualify as money-laundering.

France reopens probe against Russian billionaire: prosecutor

Shares in German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer plunged as markets opened Wednesday, after a second US jury ruled that blockbuster pesticide Roundup -- made by recently-acquired Monsanto -- causes cancer.
The Leverkusen-based group's stock toppled 11.6 percent to 61.60 euros ($69.88) at around 09:40 am in Frankfurt (0840 GMT), making it the worst performer on the DAX index of blue-chip German shares.
On Tuesday a California jury found that Monsanto's Roundup -- a herbicide built on active ingredient glyphosate -- caused cancer in a man who sprayed it on his garden over decades.
It was the second such ruling within a year against Monsanto, with a first coming in August last year soon after Bayer sealed its $63-billion takeover of the firm.
Since the merger was completed, Bayer's stock has shed almost 40 percent of its value.
The California court has yet to decide whether Monsanto is liable for amateur gardener Edwin Hardeman's non-Hodgkins lymphoma, after its Tuesday finding 

Bayer shares plunge on new US cancer ruling

The cows and horses would have come for the last blades of grass.
Now their bones are scattered on the cracked earth, victims of drought that wiped Santiago's weekend playground Lake Aculeo from the map.
Lake Aculeo's demise is so sudden and complete it seems as if someone had pulled a giant plug and let all the water out.
So sudden was it that as recently as 2011 the 4.6 square-mile (12 square-kilometer) lagoon was a thriving weekend getaway for people from the Chilean capital an hour away.
Thousands came here to swim, water-ski, sail or simply cool off in the long austral summer. They camped along its shores and lined up for tables at busy lakeside restaurants.
Now, water and cooling summers on Lake Aculeo are a fast receding memory.
"We have been suffering drought for 10 years, and now the lake has disappeared, with tourism, camping, business, everything," laments Marcos Contreras, a campsite employee.
Wooden jetties now poke out grotesquely over the flat plain of the ...

Drought wipes popular Chilean lake from the map

China on Wednesday welcomed the new president of Kazakhstan as an "old friend" after the sudden resignation of veteran strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Nazarbayev, the only leader an independent Kazakhstan has ever known, shocked the nation on Tuesday with his resignation after nearly three decades in power.
"China understands and supports President Nazarbayev's decision," said foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.
"Since we established diplomatic ties 27 years ago President Nazarbayev has been committed to friendly relations," Geng told reporters, noting the oil-rich nation will achieve new progress under the acting president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Observers widely expect Nazarbayev, 78, to retain control from behind the scenes. He came to power when Kazakhstan was still a Soviet republic.
He passed the presidency to the chairman of the senate, loyalist Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 65, a former prime minister and career diplomat who was sworn in on Wednesday.
"The acting President Tokayev 

China welcomes new Kazakh leader, an 'old friend'

Kazakhstan's senate on Wednesday named ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev's daughter Dariga as its new speaker, setting her up as a potential contender for the presidency following her father's shock resignation.
State news agency Kazinform said senators had voted to elect Dariga Nazarbayeva, 55, as their new chief, the day after her father stepped down following nearly three decades as ruler of the Central Asian nation.
Nazarbayeva is the eldest and most politically prominent of Nazarbayev's three children and has long been mooted as a potential successor to her father.
Former senate leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was sworn in as Kazakhstan's interim president Wednesday.
The senate position is second in line to the presidency according to the country's constitution.
Tokayev's presidential mandate will last until the end of the term Nazarbayev would have served, which finishes in April 2020, but could end sooner if an early election is called.
Nazarbayeva served as the country's deputy ..

Kazakhstan senate names ex-president Nazarbayev's daughter as speaker

Organisers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Wednesday unveiled a cherry-blossom shaped torch for the Games as the city prepares for the famed flower season to begin in coming days.
The top part of the torch is shaped in the traditional emblem of the sakura, or cherry blossom using the same cutting-edge technology as in production of Japan's bullet trains, the organisers said.
The shiny rose-gold torch, which is 71 centimetres (28 inches) long and weighs 1.2 kilograms (2 pounds 10 ounces), uses aluminium construction waste from temporary housing built for victims of the 2011 quake and tsunami.
"Cherry blossoms drawn by kids in the disaster-hit area (in Fukushima)... inspired me," designer Tokujin Yoshioka, whose works are known internationally, told reporters.
Fukushima was chosen as the starting point for the Olympic torch relay.
The passing of the flame is scheduled to start on March 26, 2020, and the torch will head south to the sub-tropical island of Okinawa -- the starting point for .

Tokyo unveils 'cherry blossom' Olympic torch

John Milne sits on his bed and sobs as he pens an anguished letter to his murdered teenage son Sayyad - one of 50 people killed in the Christchurch massacre.
For a moment, Milne is unsure what to write.
What do you say to a boy who dreamed of playing in goal for Manchester United and now never will? After a long pause, the pen starts to move.
"I want to do this," he says. "Sayyad Sayyad Sayyad, brave hunter lion. Kind Caring Loving," he begins.
Fragments of his son's short life spill out.
His son's difficult birth - "my special little one who had to battle just to live right from the beginning" - and the hole left in his own heart since the murder.
In the aftermath of Friday's attack, AFP photographer Anthony Wallace has kept a whiteboard in his backpack and asked Christchurch residents to write whatever they want on it.
Most have chosen messages of unity and defiance. "I love New Zealand. We stand united", wrote Zeynia Endrise, whose husband Abbas had to fight for his life after ...

'My special little one': A Christchurch father's message to slain son

Australian police said on Wednesday they had charged a Catholic priest with indecent assault of a 15-year-old boy more than two decades ago, the latest member of the clergy caught in the church's global sex-abuse scandal.
The announcement comes a week after disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell was sentenced in Melbourne to six years in prison for the sexual abuse of two choirboys.
Police said the 61-year-old man, whose identity was not released, was arrested on Tuesday for assaulting the boy at a high school in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield in 1993.
He was charged on Wednesday with three counts of indecent assault and released on bail pending a May 15 court appearance, a police statement said.
The statement added that the suspect is "currently suspended from the church".
Pell is the most senior member of the clergy to be convicted of historical child sex abuse in a crisis that has rocked the church.
He was found guilty on five counts including oral rape and molestation of boys ..

Australian priest charged with sex abuse of boy: police

The death toll from flash floods and landslides that tore through Indonesia's Papua region has topped 100 with dozens more still missing, the disaster agency said Wednesday.
Nearly 10,000 people have moved to shelters while at least 104 victims are confirmed to have died and 79 are unaccounted for in the aftermath of the disaster, triggered by heavy rain on Saturday.
Scores have suffered injuries, including cuts and broken bones, while some 40 unidentified bodies would be buried in a mass grave on Thursday, officials said.
Many survivors fear more floods will rip through hard-hit Papua, which shares a border with independent Papua New Guinea on an island just north of Australia.
"The increasing number of evacuees has made the shelters very crowded and uncomfortable," said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
As teams loaded mud-caked corpses into body bags, the search for survivors was hampered by mountains of debris including rocks and fallen trees.
Hundreds of ...

Indonesia flood death toll tops 100, dozens still missing

A powerful tropical cyclone that lashed the northeast coast of Australia, closing ports and causing power outages, is expected to strengthen further Wednesday.
Tropical Cyclone Trevor was a category 3 system - with winds gusting at 165 kilometres (100 miles) per hour - when it made landfall on the Cape York peninsula Tuesday evening, hitting small isolated communities.
The Bureau of Meteorology said it is now tracking slowly west out to the Gulf of Carpentaria and will intensify to a category 4 system by the weekend before making landfall again.
Queensland energy provider Ergon Energy say they are ready to fly crews in to help restore power with all residents in Lockhart River and Coen now in darkness following the event.
Spokesperson Emma Oliveri told AFP local police have reported multiple lines are down across the region.
"A total of 460 people have lost power and while those numbers may not seem high, every person in the communities of Lockhart River, Coen and close to half of ...

Cyclone Trevor causes Australia power outages, set to strengthen

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday it was unlikely the EU would reach any decision on Brexit at this week's summit, adding that another gathering in Brussels may be necessary next week.
With just nine days left until Britain's scheduled exit from the EU, Juncker told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the remaining 27 members states' hands were tied until the political indecision in London was resolved.
"As long as we don't know what Britain could say yes to, no decision can be taken on our side either," he said.
The BBC, citing a Downing Street official, reported that British Prime Minister Theresa May would ask Brussels on Wednesday for a short delay to Brexit to buy her time to get a plan for the way forward through parliament.
Exasperated European leaders are demanding London tell them clearly what it wants, warning that the risk remains that Britain could crash out of the bloc on March 29, ending its 46-year membership without formal ...

Expect 'no decision' on Brexit at this week's EU summit: Juncker

Fighting between Myanmar's military and ethnic Rakhine rebels in Mrauk U, the ancient capital of the Rakhine kingdom, has left at least eight locals injured, scaring tourists and sparking fears that the historical monuments are under threat.
Ethnic and religious tensions divide western Rakhine state, where the army forced out some 740,000 Rohingya Muslims in a brutal crackdown in 2017.
Now the military is waging war against the Arakan Army (AA), which claims to represent ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and has killed 22 officers since early January.
Over the weekend the conflict spread to Mrauk U, renowned for its ancient temples and popular with hardier travellers.
"About eight injured people are still getting treatment at Mrauk U hospital," Aung Than Tun, chairman of Garuna Hlaing Blood Donors Association in Mrauk U, told AFP on Wednesday.
He also confirmed the deaths of two men from a nearby village, who were wounded last week from the fighting.
A British tourist posted videos on Twitter .

Eight injured in Myanmar temple town violence

The weedkiller Roundup was a "substantial factor" in the cancer of a US man who developed a lump in his throat after decades of spraying his garden -- the second major legal defeat to agrochemical giant Monsanto in a year.
Edwin Hardeman, 70, treated his property in Sonoma County, California, regularly with the herbicide from 1980 to 2012 and was eventually diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
His lawyers Aimee Wagstaff and Jennifer Moore said in a joint statement their client was "pleased" with the decision.
"Now we can focus on the evidence that Monsanto has not taken a responsible, objective approach to the safety of Roundup," they added.
"Instead, it is clear from Monsanto's actions that it does not particularly care whether its product is in fact giving people cancer, focusing instead on manipulating public opinion and undermining anyone who raises genuine and legitimate concerns about the issue." Jurors had been asked to decide whether the ingredient glyphosate -- the world's .

Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller contributed to US man's cancer: jury

The white-supremacist accused of the Christchurch killings will spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted, likely in isolation for his own safety, a New Zealand criminologist and former convict said Wednesday.
Attacks at two mosques in the southern city last Friday left 50 Muslim worshippers dead and sparked global revulsion.
"He is going to be very highly unpopular in a prison where 80 percent (of inmates) are Maori or Pasifika (Pacific islanders) and he is a white supremacist," said Greg Newbold, a professor of criminology at Canterbury University.
"He will have no friends, not even the white guys," added Newbold, who spent five years in jail on drugs charges - half of that in maximum security - before turning his life around.
New Zealand has no death penalty and alleged shooter Brenton Tarrant, 28, is expected to face a record prison sentence if found guilty of the massacre.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, criminal lawyer Simon Cullen .

AFP

AFP

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