Grim Afghan toll as 100 foreign troops die in June

Chart showing foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan since 2001


A memorial to British soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan

KABUL — A total of 100 foreign soldiers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan have died in June, the deadliest month for NATO in nine years of conflict, intensifying concerns about the conduct of the war.

An announcement by the US Department of Defence of the death of an American soldier on June 24 in the strife-torn western province of Farah took the toll for the year to date to 320, compared with 520 in all of 2009.

Pakistan drone attack kills six 'militants'

There have been frequent drone attacks in Pakistan's border area

Six suspected militants have been killed by missiles fired by a US drone in Pakistan's tribal belt.

The missiles targeted a house in Karikot village near Wana, the main town in South Waziristan district.

The house belonging to a militant commander, Maulana Halimullah, has been destroyed, an official said.

Waziristan is a sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants blamed for attacks in Afghanistan. The area has seen frequent US drone raids.

US dog raid on madrassa sparks violent Afghan clash

KABUL, June 29 — Afghan police clashed today with dozens of stone-throwing protesters who had gathered at a religious school on the outskirts of the capital to complain about arrests by foreign forces.

Reuters witnesses said police could be seen firing rounds in the air or ground to disperse the protesters and saw what appeared to be three lifeless bodies being carried away by a police vehicle.

Protesters clash with Israeli police over park plan

Palestinian and Israeli left-wing activists take part in a demonstration against the Jerusalem Municipality's plan

JERUSALEM — Israeli police clashed on Sunday with some 200 Palestinian protesters in an Arab neighbourhood of east Jerusalem that is the planned site of a controversial archaeological park, police said.

The protesters threw stones and fire bombs at a Jewish home in the area before private security guards fired in the air and police were called in to disperse them, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

China says can guarantee grip on Tibet ‘forever’

LHASA, June 29 – China can maintain its grip on Tibet “forever”, a senior official said today, but conceded that a heavy security presence was still needed to ensure order in Lhasa two years after deadly riots.

Hao Peng, deputy Communist Party boss and deputy governor in mountainous Tibet, fingered unidentified “anti-Chinese” forces and exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as the main threat to a region which has been hit by sporadic unrest since 2008.

Thousands of French Nazi collaborators to be exposed as official reports are published online for the first time

Tragic end: The only photo French Resistance fighters facing the firing squad at Mont Valerien outside Paris

Victory march: German troops parade down the Champs-Elysees in Paris following their victory

Thousands of French people who collaborated with the Nazis are to be unmasked as secret files from 70 years ago are finally made public.

The records, which include information passed on to the Gestapo by those who lived during the Occupation of 1940-44, will be published online.

Longest Serving US Senator Robert Byrd died at 92.

Australia's 'Dr Death' found guilty of manslaughter

 
Jayant Patel, an India-born surgeon dubbed "Dr Death", has been found guilty of manslaughter

SYDNEY — An India-born surgeon once dubbed "Dr Death" was found guilty Tuesday of killing three Australian patients and permanently harming another, after a trial which heard evidence of botched and needless operations.

After about 50 hours of deliberations, a jury found Jayant Patel guilty of three counts of manslaughter committed during his time as director of surgery at Australia's Bundaberg Base Hospital between 2003 and 2005, reports said.

First body retrieved after landslide buries 107 in SW China-Chance to survive "dim" for 107 buried in landslide

Soldiers evacuate residents from the site of a landslide in Dazhai Village, Guanling County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 28, 2010. Some 107 people from 38 families were buried and trapped by a rainstorm-triggered landslide Monday afternoon in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Long Rongfang)


Soldiers rush to the site of a landslide in Guanling County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 28, 2010. Some 107 people from 38 families were buried and trapped by a rainstorm-triggered landslide Monday afternoon in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)

Rescuers Tuesday recovered a child's body from the scene of a rainstorm-triggered landslide, which was the first body to be retrieved after 107 people were buried in the disaster in southwest China's Guizhou Province Monday afternoon.

Putin Criticizes U.S. for Arrests of Espionage Suspects

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin criticized American law enforcement agencies on Tuesday for breaking up an what they described as a Russian espionage ring in the United States, as other Russian officials questioned whether the arrests were intended to damage relations between the countries.

Mr. Putin, at a meeting with former President Bill Clinton, brought up the subject.

“You have come to Moscow at the exact right time,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Clinton. “Your police have gotten carried away, putting people in jail.”

Taiwan and China sign landmark trade agreement

China and Taiwan have signed a historic trade pact, seen as the most significant agreement since civil war split the two governments 60 years ago.

The Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) removes tariffs on hundreds of products.
It could boost bilateral trade that already totals $110bn (£73bn) a year.

Custer’s last flag: Little Bighorn banner to go under the hammer... and it could sell for more than £3m

The American flag was retrieved from under the body of a fallen soldier, following the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876

An American flag found at the site of the carnage of the Battle of the Little Bighorn is expected to fetch over £3million at auction.

The flag was retrieved from the Black Hills of Montana, where Lt Col George Custer and more than 200 men were massacred by Indian warriors in 1876.

Fans pay £30,000 for X-rays of Marilyn Monroe's chest

Marilyn's hands can be seen on her hips as she has her chest X-rayed in 1954

Three X-rays of Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe's chest and pelvis taken during a hospital visit have sold for more than 10 times their pre-sale estimates at auction in the U.S..

The X-rays fetched £30,000 during a sale of Hollywood memorabilia.

BP denies Tony Hayward is on brink of resigning as cost of oil spill grows

 To resign, or not to resign? Russia's top energy official Igor Sechin, right, claimed today that under-fire BP CEO Tony Hayward, left, was about to step down - a claim that BP has since denied

BP has been forced to deny that embattled chief executive Tony Hayward is on the point of resigning, after comments made by a Russian politician.

Mr Hayward is widely expected to face the axe over the company's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and his own gaffes, such as going sailing while the oil continues to spill.

King of the swimmers: How orangutan Suryia loves a summer dip with his trainer

Smiles all round: Moksha and Suryia smile for the underwater camera, and Suryia even manages a wave

Woohoo! With his hair streaming back as Moksha swims through the water, Suryia certainly looks like he's having a whale of a time in the safari park pool

Last one in's a chimp: Suryia, a seven-year-old urangutan, has taken a shine to diving into a pool with bikini-clad trainer Moksha Bybee at at Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina

When people talk about getting an all-over tan for summer, they're not usually talking about getting an all-over orangutan.

But 30-year-old Moksha Bybee has the most unusual of swimming partners - a seven-year-old urangutan who clings to her as she dives beneath the surface.

'What a beautiful revenge for Wembley 66': Germany celebrates on a scale 'not seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall'

German football fans in Berlin make their glee known during the England match

Germany fans took to the streets to celebrate their historic win in Hamburg

Berlin's Fan Mile became a whirl of German flags

'Thanks lads - that was your revenge for Wembley!'

The headline on the Bild newspaper website last night summed up the arrogance, pride and joy of a nation whose young team steamrollered England out of the World Cup.

'What a beautiful revenge for Wembley,' the paper added, in reference to the 1966 England World Cup goal which most people in the Fatherland refuse to admit was a goal at all.
Amid much other ranting it went on to report, in English, the three cruellest words for the Three Lions; 'Bye, bye England!'

Terror as passenger jet's cockpit shatters 36,000ft above the Atlantic... and accident was caused by ONE loose screw

Danger: The flight crew in this American Airlines 757 were forced to make an emergency landing en route from Puerto Rico to Philadelpia

At fault: One of the faulty heater terminals inside the Boeing aircraft

A single loose screw in a cockpit window heater caused this potentially fatal accident to happen on an American Airways Boeing 757 - as it flew 36,000ft above the Atlantic Ocean.

The flight crew were showered in glass after the heater caused an inside ply on the windscreen shattered into thousands of tiny cracks.

Google cornered after Beijing threatens to withdraw licence within 24 hours over censorship row

Google will no longer divert Chinese web users to its Hong Kong site

Google will no longer automatically redirect Chinese web users to its Hong Kong site in an effort to placate Beijing censors.

Turks shot multiple times on Gaza ship: forensics

Nine people were killed on board a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31

ANKARA — All but two of the nine Turks killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship were shot more than once, and five died from bullet wounds to the head, according to forensic reports.

The reports were made available to AFP Tuesday by lawyers for the victims' families, who have petitioned Turkish prosecutors to investigate the May 31 bloodshed on the Turkish Mavi Marmara ferry.

McDonald's heir attacked and robbed of £250,000 in his home

Robbery: McDonald's heir Geoffrey McDonald was bashed and robbed in his home in the south of France

The heir to the the McDonald's fast food empire has been violently attacked and robbed of £250,000 at his villa in the south of France.

Geoffrey McDonald, 60, was left 'severely shocked' after the burglary at his sprawling eight-bedroom home in picturesque Eygalieres, near Avignon.

OLD HABITS DIE HARD: HOW AMERICA NEVER BELIEVED RUSSIA HAD STOPPED SPYING

Under Putin, spies activity increased.


Robert Hanssen,double agent to Russian,allow $500 million falls to Russia hands through Oil for Food Irag program under U.N

The astonishing plot and arrests could rival the FBI's famous capture of Soviet Col. Rudolf Abel in 1957 in New York.

Also a deep cover agent, Abel was ultimately swapped to the Soviet Union for downed U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers in 1962.

The List of Russian SuperSpies caught and charged by FBI -The femme fatale, the stay-at-home dad, the top newspaper columnist

Anna Chapman


Graves at Arlington National Cemetery, where America honours its war dead, near where Zottoli and Mills lived

Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near where Foley and Heathfield lived

Anna Chapman, 28:

Believed to be using her real name. A beautiful divorcee with a masters' in economics and an online real estate firm who attended high society New York parties, according to reports.

She lived in an apartment in a wealthy area of Manhattan.

She met regularly with Russian officials. FBI agents tried to use that to their advantage by setting up a sting with an agent posing as a Russian handler.

Russia SuperSpies were Americalized to commit missions used new spy methods of personal Wi fi Network to pass encrypted messages.

'SHE COULDN'T HAVE BEEN A SPY - LOOK WHAT SHE DID WITH THE HYDRANGEAS'

They wanted to infiltrate the inner core of American society, so naturally they chose the place that would arose the least suspicion - the suburbs.

The 11 men and women accused of spying for Russia lived apparently ordinary, mundane and even boring lives, neighbours have revealed.

Russian agent posing as suburban mother used British passport to spy on U.S., claims FBI

'Highly trained agent': Chapman has also posted some less racy images of herself on her Facebook page.The flame-haired femme fatale: Anna Chapman, dressed in in brilliant red, at a party in New York in March. She is accused of being a Russian spy

The 'practised deceiver': Above left, Chapman in a photo from her Facebook page wearing her signature red dress. Above right, the accused spy in a racy pose also taken from her Facebook page

Accused: L-R, Anna Chapman, Vicky Pelaez, the defendant known as 'Richard Murphy', the defendant known as 'Cynthia Murphy', and the defendant known as 'Juan Lazaro' are seen in Manhattan federal court in New York last night

* Foreign Office investigating British passport claims
* Obama refuses to answer questions on arrests
* Putin says he hopes case will not damage U.S.-Russia relationship
* Man believed to be 11th spy nabbed today in Cyprus - then released on bail
* Accused allegedly used invisible ink and steganography
* Eight of the suspects were married couples, some with children
* Plot 'has been in place since the 1990s'
One of the women accused of being a Russian spy in the U.S. travelled on a British passport, according to the FBI.

Tracey Lee Ann Foley, who was posing as a naturalised U.S. citizen born in Canada, is believed to have been given forged British documents by her Russian handlers.

She used them to travel to and from Moscow with greater ease, the FBI has claimed.

The Foreign Office said today it was investigating the claim.

If true, itwill undo some of the work that Prime Minister David Cameron did during the recent G8 and G20 summits to improve relations with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Russian spies 'vestiges' of old intelligence: US - 11 Russian Agents charged.

Sketch shows five of the 10 spy suspects in a New York courtroom

WASHINGTON — The United States said Tuesday that 11 alleged Russian agents arrested this week were "vestiges" of "old attempts to use intelligence," but the relationship between the two Cold War foes was still improving.

"We're moving towards a more trusting relationship. We're beyond the Cold War; our relations absolutely demonstrate that," said Phil Gordon, the assistant secretary of state for European Affairs.

Iran says nuclear talks to resume with Brazil, Turkey

Russian (L and R) and Iranian operators monitor the nuclear power plant unit in Bushehr, about 1,215 km south of Tehran, November 30, 2009.
Russian (L and R) and Iranian operators monitor the nuclear power plant unit in Bushehr, about 1,215 km south of Tehran, November 30, 2009.

TEHRAN, June 29 – Iran said today it would soon resume nuclear talks with Turkey and Brazil –- a tentative first step back to international negotiations after Tehran was hit with a new wave of sanctions over its disputed nuclear work.

Iran has belittled the UN, US and European sanctions and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday he would return to long-frozen talks with world powers but on certain conditions only, and not before the end of August.

Storms kill 31 in northeastern Brazil

This photo released by the Brazilian state of Alagoas government, shows an aerial view of a flooded area of Jacuipe, in northeastern Alagoas state, Brazil, Monday, June 21, 2010. Officials said floods and mudslides have now killed at least 31 people in northeastern Brazil

Floods Kill at Least 20 in Northeastern Brazil-Raw Video: Flooding Kills Dozens in Brazil

Goods to arrive in the Gaza Strip-Easing of Gaza siege 'not enough'-Concerns over Gaza blockade "ease"

Road shipments to Gaza begin

Food aid shipment to Gaza

Road shipments of goods to the Gaza Strip are under way following Israel's decision to change the conditions of its blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from the Keram Abu Salem crossing, said on Tuesday more than 100 lorries loaded with goods had begun arriving in the coastal enclave.

Israel has said it will allow the import of "civilian" goods, but will continue to restrict items they say could be used to build weapons, including cement and steel rods.

Oil worker 'alerted BP about rig fault' - but bosses feared cost of halting production, he say

The extent of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is clearly visible in this satellite picture taken last Friday and released today by Nasa. The oil appears as varying shades of white, as sunlight is reflected off its surface

Fire boats battle a fire at the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 21 in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers died in the explosion

Day off: Mr Hayward on his yacht 'Bob' during the race around the Isle of Wight on Sarutday

Evidence was mounting last night that BP cut corners on safety on the rig at the centre of the catastrophic Gulf oil spill.

A worker on the Deepwater Horizon rig claims he flagged up a problem on the most critical piece of equipment weeks before the disaster. But managers did not fix it, said Tyrone Benton.

Instead they simply shut down the part that was not working and switched to an alternative part, a decision described as 'unacceptable' by experts. Soon after, on April 20, the rig exploded, killing 11 men and sending millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The critical safety device, known as the blowout preventer, failed. BP has repeatedly claimed that it did not put profits ahead of safety – the Deepwater rig cost the firm £337,000 a day to run.

But Mr Benton said in an interview with BBC's Panorama that he found a problem with the 'blind shear ram', a set of shears on the blowout preventer which close the well in the event of a disaster.

He noticed there was a leak on one of the two pods which contain the hydraulics and electronics that control the shears. 'We saw a leak on the pod, so by seeing the leak we informed the company men,' he said.

Japanese vote buying is the buzz of whaling meet

In this March 12, 2010 file photo, Japan Coast Guards officials hold a blue sheet to cover Pete Bethune, captain of the Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil, following the New Zealander's arrest or illegally boarding the Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru 2 in February upon the ship's return at Harumi pier in Tokyo. A quarter-century ban on commercial whaling, one of the world's most successful preservation agreements, could crumble altogether if conservationists cannot persuade Japan to cut back on the tradition it champions. Delegates to a meeting of the International Whaling Commission which starts on Monday, June 21, 2010 in Morocco will consider whether to allow limited commercial hunts if Tokyo stops pursuing whales in a southern sanctuary.

 
In this photo taken on June 17, 2010, whale meat restaurant Magonotei manager Tomohiro Akio slices a chunk of lean meat of a whale caught in the Antarctic as he prepares for a sashimi dish at its kitchen in Tokyo Thursday, June 17, 2010. Makoto Ito, managing director of Kyodo Senpaku Co., the company that runs the annual Antarctic hunt, said he didn't think they should be ended, because "we need to collect more data." Japan's refusal to give up its Antarctic hunt puzzles even observers within the country. Current coastal catches, also conducted for scientific research, provide fresher meat and are cheaper.


Press and members outside the IWC meeting venue in Agadir, Morocco, Sunday June 20, 2010. The IWC, the international body that regulates whaling, will gather for its 62 annual meeting next week in Agadir. The meeting is expected to seek a compromise between pro- and anti-whaling countries, which may include allowing commercial whaling on a limited scale.

Accusations that Japan uses aid money and personal favors to buy votes have quietly circulated for years around the International Whaling Commission, which oversees the conservation of the whales that Japan regularly hunts.

Now, a sting operation by a London newspaper that secretly filmed officials from six developing countries negotiating for bribes has brought such allegations into the open, at least in the corridors of the commission's annual meeting.