Europe
France train shooting: Americans who overpowered gunman 'heroes'
Three American men are being hailed as heroes for overpowering a heavily-armed gunman on a train in northern France.
The incident happened on the high-speed Thalys service near Arras. A 26-year-old Moroccan man was arrested at Arras station.
One of the Americans said they took an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun from the attacker as they saw him walk down the aisle of the train.
They then put him in a chokehold until he was unconscious.
Two of the American men who overpowered the gunman, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, are members of the Air Force and the National Guard respectively.
They were travelling on the train from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday evening with a childhood friend, Anthony Sadler, who also helped restrain the attacker.
The brutal fight of Bangladesh’s secular voices to be heard
Niloy Chakrabarti was only the latest atheist blogger to be hacked to death in the country this year. The government crackdown on ‘blasphemers’ has sent others into hiding. What is the future for the country’s liberal writers?
In February 2015, Avijit Roy and his wife, Rafida Bonya Ahmed, travelled from their home in Atlanta, Georgia, to Dhaka, the capital Bangladesh. This was their home town, and they were attending the annual Ekushey book fair, which runs all month. They had been unable to attend in 2014 because Roy had received death threats after the publication of his book The Virus of Faith, which criticised religion.
The couple were familiar with controversy. They ran a Bengali-language web forum called Mukto-Mona, or Free Minds, promoting rationalist thought, and had been threatened by Islamic fundamentalists. During their trip to Dhaka, they avoided being out late at night, varied their routines and checked in regularly with relatives. For the first 10 days, the strategy seemed to work.
On 26 February, they attended a series of events at the University of Dhaka, where the book fair is held.
North Korea and South Korea to hold talks at Panmunjom truce village amid mounting tensions
Islamic State is systematically destroying heritage sites, says UNESCO chief
August 22, 2015 - 5:45PMKarin Laub and Albert Aji
Amman, Jordan: Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq are engaged in the "most brutal, systematic" destruction of ancient sites since World War II, the head of the UN cultural agency said on Friday – a stark warning that came hours after militants demolished a 1500-year-old monastery in central Syria.
The world's only recourse is to try to prevent the sale of looted artefacts, thus cutting off a lucrative stream of income for the militants, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova told The Associated Press.
A series of recent attacks has stoked fears that IS is accelerating its campaign to demolish and loot heritage sites. On Friday, witnesses said the militants bulldozed St Elian Monastery in central Syria. Days earlier, IS beheaded an 81-year-old antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to overseeing the ruins of Palmyra in Syria, one of the Middle East's most spectacular archaeological sites.
Mexican ethics probe clears Peña Nieto, finance minister
The controversy erupted for Mexico's president last November when it was revealed that first lady Angelica Rivera was in the process of acquiring a luxury home from a company that was part of a Chinese-led consortium to build a $3.75 billion rail link.
MEXICO CITY — A Mexican government auditor said on Friday he found no evidence of wrongdoing by President Enrique Peña Nieto or his finance minister in their purchase of homes from public contractors, as the administration tries to draw a line under the scandal.
Virgilio Andrade, head of the Public Administration Ministry, said the investigation showed that neither Peña Nieto nor Finance Minister Luis Videgaray had gained benefits or tried to influence officials responsible for awarding contracts to companies that sold homes to them and Peña Nieto's wife.
Appointed by Peña Nieto to run the public administration ministry in the wake of the controversy, Andrade said investigators had questioned 111 officials involved in awarding 33 contracts to the companies linked to the homes.
Lonely Planet reveals its 'ultimate' travel destinations
By Barry Neild, CNN
Four decades after it began as a penniless backpacker's bible to traveling on the cheap, Lonely Planet is publishing what it says is the definitive guide to the world's top tourism attractions.
The publisher has assembled a crack team of travel authors and experts to compile its "Ultimate Travel" list, ranking "mega-sights and hidden gems in a definitive wish list of the 500 best places to visit on earth."
"Ultimate Travel: The 500 Best Places on the Planet...Ranked," is being launched in August in some countries as "Ultimate Travelist," but will not be available in the U.S. until October.
While many are best-of list regulars, culled from UNESCO's World Heritage roster or, indeed, Lonely Planet's own country-by-country highlights, there are a few surprises.
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