Egypt Hurghada stabbing: Two Germans killed at Red Sea resort


Two German tourists have been killed in stabbings at a hotel beach in the popular Red Sea resort of Hurghada, Egyptian officials say.
At least four other people were injured and a man has been arrested.
The suspect is being questioned by police to determine his motives, the interior ministry said.
The knifeman initially killed the two women before injuring two other tourists at the Zahabia hotel, officials told Reuters news agency.
He then swam to a nearby beach and attacked and wounded two more people at the Sunny Days El Palacio resort before he was overpowered by staff and arrested.
"He had a knife with him and stabbed each of them three times in the chest. They died on the beach," El Palacio hotel Security Manager Saud Abdelaziz said.
Mr Abdelaziz said the injured include two Czechs and two Armenians. All are now being treated in hospital.
The attacker's motive was still under investigation, the interior ministry said.
"He was looking for foreigners and he didn't want any Egyptians," a member of staff at the Zahabia hotel said.
Three foreign tourists were stabbed at the same resort, renowned for its scuba diving, in January 2016 by two suspected militants from the Islamic State militant group (IS).

Initial reports had said those killed were Ukrainian, but Ukrainian officials denied this.
It is unclear whether the attacker had any links to jihadist groups or whether he was psychologically disturbed, officials said.
Egypt's security forces are dealing with an Islamist uprising in the country's Sinai Peninsula. The tourist industry has been targeted by militants in North Africa over the past few years

Colombia coca cultivation rises by 50% says UN


The United Nations says there was a 50% increase last year in the area of land being used to cultivate coca leaf in Colombia.
The UN estimates that a third more cocaine was being produced in the country in 2016.
The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Bo Mathiasen, called the increase significant.
Analysts say much of it was due to the end of the eradication of coca crops by spraying.
The report said the total coca-growing area rose from 96,000 hectares in 2015 to 146,000 in 2016.
Mr Mathiasen said that he held out hope for a reduction in cultivation because Colombia had signed a peace agreement with the biggest rebel group in the country, the Farc, which controlled much of the drug-producing areas.
But local analysts argue that the rise was caused partly by a hiatus resulting from the government's peace deal with Farc rebels.
Under the deal, the Farc agreed to relinquish control over drug production areas and help the government try to encourage local farmers to plant substitute crops.
Farmers have taken advantage of the delays while the crop substitution policy is set up to plant coca, which has increased in price by almost 50%, because they know they will be offered subsidies later not to grow the plant.
Meanwhile, the Colombian government has increased by almost 50% its seizures of cocaine - from 253 tonnes confiscated in 2015 to 378 tonnes in 2016.


Raul Castro denounces Donald Trump's Cuba policy


The president of Cuba has spoken publicly for the first time against US President Donald Trump's rollback of a thaw between the two countries a month ago.
President Raul Castro said "attempts to destroy the revolution" would fail.
Mr Trump has tightened restrictions on US travel to and business with the communist island.
But the US embassy in Havana, re-opened by former President Barack Obama, is still operating.
Mr Castro was speaking in front of Cuba's national assembly. It was his first public comment on the policy changes Mr Trump announced a month ago.
State-run Cuban media quoted Mr Castro as saying that Mr Trump was using "old and hostile rhetoric" and had returned to "confrontation that roundly failed over 55 years".
He said: "We reject the manipulation of the topic of human rights against Cuba, which can be proud of much in this area and does not need to receive lessons from the United States nor anyone."
Mr Trump anchored his policy rollback in human rights concerns raised by political opponents of Cuba's communist government, many of whom have fled to Miami where Mr Trump announced the changes on 16 June.
Mr Castro continued: "Cuba and the United States can cooperate and live side by side, respecting their differences. But no one should expect that for this, one should have to make concessions inherent to one's sovereignty and independence."
Mr Castro will step down as president in seven months, but will remain the head of the country's Communist Party.


Turkey dismisses thousands a year after coup attempt


Turkey has dismissed more than 7,000 police, ministry staff and academics, ahead of the first anniversary of an attempted coup.
It comes as part of a major purge of state institutions, including the judiciary, police and education, in response to last year's unrest.
On Saturday, Turkey marks one year since rogue soldiers bombed buildings and opened fire on civilians.
More than 250 people were killed in the violence.
The Turkish authorities accuse a movement loyal to the Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, of organising the July 2016 plot to bring down President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mr Gulen, who remains in the United States, denies any involvement. Washington has so far resisted calls from the Turkish authorities to extradite the cleric.
The latest dismissals came in a decree from 5 June but only published by the official government Gazette on Friday.
It says the employees are people "who it's been determined have been acting against the security of the state or are members of a terrorist organisation".
Among those listed were 2,303 police officers and 302 university academics. Another 342 retired officers and soldiers were stripped of their ranks and grades, Reuters reports.
Turkey has already dismissed more than 150,000 officials since the coup attempt, and arrested another 50,000 from the military, police and other sectors.
The government says the measures are necessary given the security threats it faces but critics say Mr Erdogan is using the purges to stifle political dissent.
Istanbul is awash with giant anniversary billboards and posters showing people confronting pro-coup soldiers.
Huge rallies are due to take place, with President Erdogan, who avoided capture last year, addressing parliament at the exact time that it was bombed.
He and his supporters see the defeat of the coup as Turkey's rebirth, but for others it's less triumphant, says the BBC's Mark Lowen.


Israeli police killed in attack near Jerusalem holy site

Two Israeli policemen have been killed and a third wounded in a shooting attack near a sacred site in Jerusalem.
They were shot by three Israeli Arabs close to the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary).
Police chased the attackers into the site and shot them dead.
There has been a wave of stabbings, shootings and car-rammings of Israelis predominantly by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs since late 2015.
Two of the previous attackers were Jordanians.

Police say the three men who carried out Friday's attack were aged between 19 and 29 and came from the northern Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. Israel's Shin Bet security agency said that they were not previously known to the security services.
Police say the gunmen opened fire as they made their way from the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif towards Lions' Gate, an opening in the Old City walls about 100ft (30 metres) away.
The attackers were then pursued back to the compound, where they were killed.

In the wake of the incident, police sealed off the site to search it for weapons. It is the first time in decades that the compound, which contains the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, has been closed for Muslim Friday prayers, which normally draws thousands of worshippers.
The site is administered by an Islamic authority (Waqf), though Israel is in charge of security there. Police are investigating how the attackers managed to smuggle in a handgun, sub-machine gun and knife.
The Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Hussein, who had urged worshippers to defy the closure, was detained by police, his aides said, though Israeli officials would not comment.
Elsewhere, a Palestinian was shot dead in clashes with Israeli forces at a refugee camp near Bethlehem on Friday, Palestinian sources said.
Barra Hamamdeh, 21, was killed during a raid by troops on the Dheisheh camp, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

'Severe event'

The Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif is the holiest site in Judaism and third holiest in Islam and is one of the most politically sensitive sacred places in the world.

It is located in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war. Israel considers the entire city its sovereign capital, while Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their sought-after future state.
Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said the attack was "a serious and severe event in which red lines were crossed", adding that security arrangements in and around the site would be reviewed.
No group has said it was responsible, though the militant Palestinian Hamas movement, which runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack as a "natural response to the Zionist ongoing crimes".
The shooting comes weeks after an Israeli policewoman was killed in a knife and gun attack outside the Old City by three Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.
Forty-four Israelis and five foreign nationals have been killed in nearly two years of such attacks.
At least 255 Palestinians - most of them attackers, Israel says - have also been killed in that period, news agencies report. Others have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops.
Israel says Palestinian incitement has fuelled the attacks. The Palestinian leadership has blamed frustration rooted in decades of Israeli occupation.


China villagers launch Dutch court bid to retrieve mummy

Chinese villagers are taking their fight to retrieve an allegedly stolen 1,000-year-old mummified monk to a Dutch court on Friday.
The monk's remains, which are inside a Buddha statue, were taken from a temple in the small Chinese village of Yangchun in Fujian province in 1995.
The villagers say a Dutch collector, whom they are suing, bought the statue in Hong Kong in 1996.
The statue was not seen until turning up at a show in Budapest in 2015.
In recent years, Beijing has vigorously tried to retrieve artefacts it says were stolen.
But so far there have been few successes via courts of law.
The latest case is complicated by the fact that the collector, Oscar van Overeem, is believed to have swapped the statue with another dealer, whose identity has been hidden, in exchange for several Buddhist artefacts in late 2015.
The statue's current whereabouts are not clear.
In this case, the Buddha statue, known as the Zhanggong Patriarch, had been in the villagers' temple for centuries, and was also worshipped by residents of the neighbouring Dongpu village.
The villagers had hidden the mummy in their homes and even buried it in fields during the destruction wrought by China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s, reported the South China Morning Post.
A scan of the statue a few years ago showed it contained the remains of a monk, thought to be 1,000 years old.
The villagers were able to prove they were descendants of the monk, their lawyer, Jan Holthuis, told AFP news agency.
He said they would argue that, according to Dutch law, "a person is not allowed to have a known body in their possession.
"We also have enough evidence to prove that the statue is indeed the one that was stolen from the temple," Mr Holthuis added.
According to the state-owned China News Service, the Dutch collector is contesting the claim on the grounds that it was filed by village committees - entities he claims cannot be seen as legal plaintiffs under Dutch law.



Air Canada plane 'missed aircraft by 30m' at San Francisco airport

An Air Canada flight with 140 people on board came within 30m (98ft) of other aircraft at San Francisco's airport as it prepared to land, a report says.
Flight AC759 from Toronto was cleared to land on 7 July but the pilot "inadvertently" headed for a taxiway where four aircraft were due to depart.
The error was spotted by an air traffic controller, who ordered the pilot to pull up and make another approach.
The Airbus 320 then circled and landed safely. No injuries were reported.
As the plane approached the taxiway, which runs parallel to the runway, it is estimated that it flew just 30m above two aircraft waiting to depart, a preliminary report by Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said.
After receiving a warning, the pilot pulled up and the plane rose about 60m above a third jet and about 90m above a fourth, the TSB said.
Flight AC759 had already travelled almost 400 metres over the taxiway before aborting the landing, the board's report added.

'Where's this guy going'

An investigation into the incident by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is ongoing. The FAA described the near-miss as "very rare".
Air Canada said that 135 passengers and five crew members were on the flight from Toronto.
It is not clear how many people were in the four planes on the taxiway.
The taxiway, which provides lanes for aircraft to travel between runways and terminals for both landing and takeoff, are distinguished by different coloured lights.
Earlier, an audio recording was released of what was said to be communication between air traffic controllers and pilots at San Francisco's airport on 7 July.
In it, a male voice believed to be that of the Air Canada pilot is heard saying that there are lights on the runway.
One of the air traffic controllers replies that there are no other planes there.
Another - unidentified - voice is then heard saying: "Where's this guy going? He's on the taxiway."
The air traffic controller then apparently realises the danger of the Air Canada plane crashing into the four aircraft on the ground, and orders the pilot to pull up and make another approach.
A pilot from one of the planes on the ground is heard saying: "United One, Air Canada flew directly over us."
An Air Canada spokeswoman, Angela Mah, said the airline was investigating the incident and was "co-operating with the authorities", local media report.


Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

  Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on customers' devices. Before an image is stored on...