Turkish court jails 6 human rights activists pending trial

A court in Istanbul ordered six human rights activists — including Amnesty International's Turkey director — formally arrested Tuesday pending a trial over accusations that they aided an armed terror group, adding to concerns over rights and freedoms in the country.

Four others activists were released from custody pending the outcome of a trial. They have been barred from traveling abroad and have to report regularly to police.

The group was detained earlier this month in a police raid at a hotel on Buyukada island where they were attending a training workshop on digital security.

They are suspected of "committing crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member."

Amnesty International described the court decision as a "crushing blow for rights in Turkey."

"This is not a legitimate investigation, this is a politically motivated witch-hunt that charts a frightening future for rights in Turkey," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general.

Qatar lashes out at UAE over QNA hacking

Qatar accused the United Arab Emirates on Monday of violating international law after reports suggested Abu Dhabi orchestrated the hacking of the Qatari official news agency and social media sites.

"The information published in the Washington Post ... revealed the involvement of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and senior Emirati officials in the hacking of Qatar News Agency," Qatar's government communication office said in a statement on Monday.

The report "unequivocally proves that this hacking crime took place", the statement quoted Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al Thani, director of the government communication office, as saying. 

"This criminal act represents a clear violation and breach of international law and of the bilateral and collective agreements signed between the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as collective agreements with the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the United Nations." 

The statement said that an investigation is ongoing and that government prosecutors plan to take "legal measures" locally and abroad.

Russia Jehovah's Witnesses banned after they lose appeal

Russia's Supreme Court has ordered the disbanding of the Jehovah's Witnesses on Russian territory.

The ban came into effect after the court rejected an appeal by the religious group against a ruling in April which declared it to be extremist.

The justice ministry had argued that the group distributed pamphlets which incited hatred against other groups.

The group described the ruling as the end of religious freedom in Russia.

The denomination says it has 175,000 members in Russia - a country where it was persecuted during the Stalin era.

An estimated eight million people worldwide are part of the Christian-based movement, best known for going door-to-door looking for new converts.

The ruling means that the group's headquarters near St Petersburg and 395 local chapters will close.

What caffeine does to your body and brain

Many of us can't start our day without a jolt of caffeine.

Various caffeinated drinks affect your health in different ways — a new study shows coffee seems to be associated with longer life, while many energy drinks have surprisingly high sugar levels.

Caffeine itself is a stimulant with some positive and negative effects. It makes most of us feel more alert, awake, and focused, but too much can also backfire.

It also affects a host of processes in our bodies, including our digestion, metabolism, and vision. 

Here's what's really going on after you drink a cup of joe.

Nigerian soldier pays surprise visit to mother after one year in US military (photos)

A Nigerian soldier has taken over the internet after a video of how he gave his mother a surprise visit at home one year after being in the US military. The handsome Nigerian soldier who was identified as Femi Opesanmi decided to give his mother a surprised without prior notice that he would be coming home. 
On Saturday, July 15, his brother Akin Opesanmi took to his Facebook profile to post the video of Femi’s entrance and the caption: “Today is the best day of my life thus far. My big brother Femi just came home from a year abroad serving in the US Military. Got to surprise Momma Bear and this is how it went.” Soldier Femi Opesanmi as he steps into the house to surprise his mother. 

Blind student can finally see - and read about his beloved football club - thanks to 'talking glasses'

A blind student has been given the gift of sight thanks to an incredible pair of talking glasses.

Lee Harding, 23, was born with a rare condition which has slowly robbed him of his sight, but now his new futuristic glasses have enabled him to recognise faces and read again.

The miraculous OrCam MyEye headset uses technology that allows the camera to recognise faces, speaking the names to Lee, and can identify important objects such as medications and creams.

When text is placed in front of the camera, it is read out as it’s scanned, allowing Lee to read newspapers, books, menus and text on a computer or phone screen, reports the Chronicle Live .

The kit has been funded by Haltwhistle company Kilfrost, which produces deicing and anti-icing fluids for aircraft and speciality heat transfer fluids.

SAD : Bride-to-be Shot Dead By Police After She Called 911 To Report Hearing Noise Outside Her House

A woman was shot dead by a US police officer after she called 911 to report hearing noise outside her house. 

Justine Damond, 40, an Australian woman due to get married next month, thought the noise might be a possible assault taking place outside her home, so she decided to get the police involved. When police arrived outside the home she shared with her fiance, Don Damond, at 5100 block of Washburn Avenue South, in Minneapolis' upscale Fulton neighbourhood, it was claimed that she went outside in her pyjamas and got shot through the door of a squad car by an officer seated inside the vehicle. She had been talking to an officer in the driver's seat of the police car when the officer in the passenger seat pulled out his gun and shot her through the driver's side door at about 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, sources said.

The officer's body camera was not turned on at the time and this has raised questions. The woman's family and Minneapolis' Mayor are demanding answers. 

'Game of Thrones' season 7 kicked off with a vicious opening scene that left fans cheering

"Game of Thrones" stunned fans by starting the seventh season with a cold open. This is only the third time in the series' history HBO skipped straight to the action before running the title sequence, which immediately signaled that viewers were in for a treat.

The scene opened on Walder Frey seated at the head of a great feast in the Twins. Anyone who watched the season six finale knew what this must mean — Arya Stark had taken Walder Frey's face after murdering him, and was now posing as the the Lord of House Frey. Unsatisfied with killing just Walder, she had come for every man in House Frey.

Walder/Arya explained to the gathered men that she brought "every Frey who means a damn thing" into one room to tell them of her plans for the "great house, now that winter has come."

FIFA Whistle-blower Chuck Blazer Dies At 72

Chuck Blazer, the disgraced US football executive whose admissions of corruption set off a global scandal that ultimately toppled Fifa president Sepp Blatter, has died at the age of 72.

Blazer’s death was announced by his lawyers, Eric Corngold and Mary Mulligan.

At a US court hearing in November 2013, during which he entered guilty pleas to 10 federal charges, Blazer said he had rectal cancer, diabetes and coronary artery disease.

A person familiar with his case said Blazer died in New Jersey.

US national team coach Bruce Arena said: “I’ve known Chuck for a lot of years. He did a lot for the sport. Sorry about all the issues regarding Fifa, but he was a good man. He helped the sport in the United States.”

With girth, charm and a pet parrot, Blazer was a bon vivant as he made deals from an office and apartment in Trump Tower.The number two official in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) from 1990 to 2011, and a member of Fifa’s ruling executive committee from 1997 to 2013, Blazer was central to the rise of the sport in the US. He relished his status, posting a photo on his blog of him on a private jet with Nelson Mandela.

Rep. Steve King: Build border wall with funds from food stamps, Planned Parenthood

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Wednesday that Congress should pad the budget for President Trump’s border wall by cutting funding for Planned Parenthood and food stamps.

On CNN’s “New Day,” King was asked if he was comfortable with $1.6 billion of taxpayer money being allocated to fund the border wall, particularly in light of Trump’s signature campaign promise that Mexico would pay for 100 percent of it.

“I’d throw another $5 billion on the pile, and I would find a half of a billion dollars of that right out of Planned Parenthood’s budget, and the rest of it could come out of food stamps and the entitlements that are being spread out for people that haven’t worked in three generations,” he said.        

Two men on a moped carry out FIVE acid attacks in 90 minutes in East London with one victim receiving 'life-changing injuries'

Two men on a moped carried out five acid attacks in a vicious 90-minute spree of violence in London.

The thugs pulled up alongside five men and doused them with corrosive substances in Stoke Newington, Hackney and Islington between 10.25pm and 11.37pm on Thursday, police said. 

One of the victims was left with 'life-changing' injuries, while another was said to be a pizza delivery man attacked on a night shift.

Metropolitan Police said a teenage male had been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and robbery. He is currently in custody at an east London police station.

The shocking incidents come after a spate of acid attacks across Britain, including one on a 21-year-old model who was left with horrific burns to her face. 

Police were called to the junction of Hackney Road and Queensbridge Road in Hackney at about 10.25pm, where they found a 32-year-old man with facial injuries.

He had been on a moped when another scooter, with two male riders, pulled up alongside him.

Officers said the men threw a corrosive substance in the victim’s face, with one stealing his vehicle and his accomplice fleeing on the other moped

The man has been taken to an east London hospital. His injuries are not being treated as life-threatening or life-changing.

‘Destroyed by his celebrity’ – are Germans right about Boris Becker?

hree decades ago, Boris Becker was wooing the world with his flamboyant tennis, which involved flinging himself dangerously around the court, diving headlong for volleys and delivering killer serves that earned him the nickname “Boom Boom”.

But the erstwhile darling of Wimbledon, who, as an unseeded 17-year-old in 1985 became its youngest-ever champion, has suffered a spectacular fall from grace after being declared bankrupt.

The 49-year-old’s financial demise has been followed with vicarious discomfort in his native Germany by those who once marvelled at his stellar achievements.

“It’s like the invalidation of a fairytale,” said Franz Josef Wagner, a veteran provocative columnist with the tabloid Bild. “It is painful to write about … someone who was once kissed by all the gods.”

Wagner recalled the days when “Bum-Bum”, as he was known as at home, captured the imagination of his nation to the extent that when he played at Wimbledon, “the autobahns were as empty as Christmas time”. An estimated 20 million West Germans were glued to their television screens to watch their most famous son in his showdown with Kevin Curren on 7 July 1985.

Horrific moment open top double-decker bus rolls over side of wall on hill killing nine tourists

This is the horrific moment an open top double-decker bus rolled over the side of a hill killing nine people and injuring dozens more.

The bus is believed to have been packed with tourists on a sightseeing tour in Lima, the capital of Peru, last night when the driver lost control.

It's not immediately clear what the cause was - but the driver appears to have been taking the corner at speed.

Footage taken from a stationary CCTV camera on the bend begins by showing a similar bus packed with sightseers passing by on the narrow road without incident.

Donald Trump Jr. was promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton before meeting with a Russian lawyer

• Donald Trump Jr. was told he would get compromising information on Hillary Clinton if he met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
• News of the meeting first emerged on Saturday, but Sunday's report shed new light on Trump's motivation for taking the meeting.
• This report comes as the Trump campaign is under multiple congressional and FBI investigations for possible collusion between members of the campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election.

President Donald Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about then-candidate Hillary Clinton when he agreed to meet with a Russian lawyer with connections to the Kremlin in June 2016, The New York Times reported on Sunday. 

Manchester United’s £75million signing, Romelu Lukaku arrested for hosting a rowdy party with Paul Pogba in LA

Manchester United-bound player, Romelu Lukaku was last week, arrested for hosting a rowdy pool party at the rented Beverly Hills mansion in Los Angeles, where he's holidaying with fellow football star Paul Pogba.

Beverly Hills Police Department revealed in a statement said they visited the address five times on the same evening to warn Lukaku about the noise last Sunday.

According to the authorities,  Lukaku was technically arrested and given a citation. But it was not a physical arrest which would have involved handcuffs and being taken to jail.

DRAMA AT TOUR DE FRANCE: Cycling's most popular rider, Peter Sagan, kicked off race after crash; sport's greatest sprinter, Mark Cavendish, forced to withdraw

 

Peter Sagan on Tuesday was kicked out of the Tour de France after he was involved in a nasty crash that sent sprint rival Mark Cavendish flying into a crowd barrier and onto the ground at high speed.

Update: Mark Cavendish was forced to withdraw from the Tour with a broken shoulder. Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe team is protesting the ruling that disqualified him from the race.

It happened on the race's fourth stage in the finish town of Vittel, after a quiet day of racing that eventually saw the sprinters' teams setting up their fast men for the finale.

As the leaders raced for the line at speeds approaching 40 mph, Cavendish tried to come around Sagan but appeared to be knocked into the barriers and onto the ground. Cavendish was taken to the hospital for X-rays.

You can watch the crash in the video clips below:

"We've decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 as he endangered some of his colleagues seriously in the final metres of the sprint which happened in Vittel," said the president of the race commission, Philippe Marien.

"We will apply article 12.104 of the rules of the UCI ... in which case commissaires (the race jury) can decide to enforce a judgment to disqualify a rider."

26-year-old man charged with raping family friends' one-year-old baby

A Missouri man has been charged with statutory sodomy of a one-year-old, but not before he received a beating from the infant’s father.

Jayson Newlun, a 26-year-old family friend who was babysitting for friends, was caught inappropriately touching the child while pleasuring himself after being left alone with the baby for just 10 to 15 minutes, according to local media.

Court documents show that the mother and father had left Mr Newlun alone with their daughter while they went to the store. After realising that they had forgotten their WIC folder — which contains vouchers to assist low income families pay for food for children — they returned home.

Once they returned, the mother noticed that Mr Newlun wasn’t on the couch where he had been when they left, and that her infant daughter’s bedroom door was open.

Celine Dion, 49, poses naked for Vogue magazine

Yesterday, Vogue magazine shared a naked photo of Celine Dion on instagram, which showed the 49 year old singer sitting on a chair with her arms folded and legs crossed and wearing nothing during a trip to Paris.Vogue wrote;

"Here's a little naked fact to ponder while Celine Dion changes looks between shows: for the past five years she has worn haute couture near exclusively for her own performances (in Las Vegas and on her current "mini-tour" of Europe). She performs a minimum two hours a night, five or six nights a week, dancing and curtseying and generally gesticulating sans abandon, in handmade, hand-beaded delicacies designed solely to walk a catwalk or a carpet (and often with handlers). For Celine's orders, the houses send teams to Nevada for typically three fittings, before the garments are ultimately finished in her local, private atelier. Armani Prive, Schiaparelli, Giambattista Valli, Versace...only a partial list. Everyone,

Depressed student nurse, 22, sent final tragic text to her ex-boyfriend before killing herself at home

A promising young nursing student took her own life shortly after breaking up with her boyfriend, an inquest heard. 

Lucy de Oliveira, 22, who attended Liverpool John Moores University, was described as a bright and caring young woman.

She strangled herself at her student home in Kensington, east Liverpool, on February 27.

Lucy had a history of anxiety and depression, the Liverpool Echo reported.

According to a coroner's investigating officer she sent a tragic message to her ex before she died.

It read: 'I just want it to end, I want it to end.'

The forensic pathology registrar said that Lucy died of asphyxiation but had also overdosed on painkillers before her death.

Area Coroner Anita Bhardwaj concluded that there was no doubt that Lucy took her own life. 

She said: 'Lucy was a bright, intelligent 22-year-old with a medical history of depression and anxiety. It is so tragic - she had a bright future ahead of her.

Lucy's mum, Liz de Oliveira, 59, paid tribute to her daughter. 

She told the inquest: 'She always put everybody else before herself.

American celebrates Independence Day

From flashy firework displays for massive crowds to small-town parades, Americans celebrated the United States’ 241st birthday in both joyous and serious ways.

Crowds of people lined up along New York City’s East River for the annual Macy’s fireworks show. The display involves 60,000 shells launched from up to five barges and performances by Jennifer Lopez, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley and others.

Police set up barriers and checkpoints, and heavily armed officers stood guard.

North Korea claims its has successfully tested a missile that can hit anywhere on Earth

North Korea claims that it has launched its first ever intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and now has the power to deliver a nuclear-capable strike on any location on the planet.

State officials announced the launch early Tuesday morning after South Korea had warned that the test appeared more advanced than usual. The missile's trajectory had an unusually steep angle, suggesting it could travel far further than previous tests.

The launch, which North Korea's state media said was ordered and supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, sent the rocket 933km (580 miles), with a flight time of 39 minutes. It reached an altitude of 2,802 km, Reuters said.

Officials from South Korea, Japan, and the US said the missile had landed in the sea near the coast of Japan after being launched near an airfield in Panghyon, about 100km (60 miles) north west of North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.

US denies visa to Gambian school robotics team

Five teenage pupils from The Gambia who built a robot for a prestigious international competition in the United States will not be able to accompany their invention to the event after being denied a visa.

The Gambian pupils become the second team of students refused entry to the US to attend the FIRST Global robotics event in Washington, DC, on July 16-18. On Saturday, it was reported that an all-girls team from Afghanistan were also denied a visa to travel to the US to showcase their creation at the same competition.

Moktar Darboe, director of The Gambia's ministry of higher education, research, science and technology, told us that the team, made up of high school pupils aged 17-18, were "very disappointed".

"They put in so much effort into building this, and now, after all the sacrifice and energy they put in, they have been left disheartened," Darboe, who is also the team's mentor, said on Monday.

Boston crash: Car plows into crowd, at least 10 hurt

At least 10 people -- all believed to be taxi drivers -- were hurt Monday after a taxi plowed into the crowd in East Boston, in a crash that investigators described as accidental.

Team Nigeria.Shines @ d just concluded 2017 Ivory Coast International.

Team Nigeria...........Shines @ d just concluded 2017 Ivory Coast International.

Breaking : Ekiti teachers staged a protest against their so called sell fish Kpomo eating Gov Ore Mekunnun Ayodele Fayose

Ekiti teachers staged a protest against their so called friend, Ore Mekunnun Ayodele Fayose today @Ado -Ekiti over the non -challant attitude of the governor to their plight as a result of being owed 7 months salary.