Italy cannot accept an asylum request from former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden because there are no legal or political conditions to do so, Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said. 

European security types are set to meet their US counterparts in Washington next week as European Union nations, incensed by reports of US snooping, link negotiations on a mega EU-US trade deal to same-day parallel talks on intelligence-swooping. 

Egypt's military has moved against the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood a day after deposing President Mohammed Morsi.

The ouster of president Mohamed Mursi may give Egypt's economy its best chance since the 2011 revolution to escape a downward spiral of currency weakness, capital flight and crumbling state finances.

Nelson Mandela "remains critical but stable", South African President Jacob Zuma said today after visiting the ailing anti-apartheid icon. 

US Secretary of State John Kerry is closing in on an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch peace talks for a period of six to nine months, Palestinian officials said today. 

L K Advani and Narendra Modi today came face to face at a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board to strategise on the Lok Sabha elections, in a significant interaction coming less than a month after the patriarch's revolt of the Gujarat Chief Minister's elevation.

Advani and Modi sat side by side during the three-hour meeting of the Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body of BJP, and subsequent meeting of its members with party general secretaries.

Sources claimed that Advani's body language was positive" was throughout the meetings. Advani gave suggestions on a couple of issues during the Board meeting and appeared to endorse the views expressed by Modi and others, they said.

"We have unshackled ourselves from our internal problems. The issue is now to take on the Congress on issues of corruption, price rise, lack of economic growth and internal security," a party leader said.

Charging the CBI for not probing role of a Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-E-Taiba (LET) in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the BJP today alleged that the agency was acting at the behest of the Congress with a one-point agenda to frame the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

"We would like to ask the CBI as to why did it leave out the LET angle during investigation in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case when there was overwhelming evidence about presence of Pakistan-based terror outfit's militants in Gujarat in 2004," the BJP Deputy Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ravishankar Prasad said.

The CBI has also not tried to find out as to what the 19 year-old Jahan was doing in Gujarat and whether she had any rapport with Javed Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar - all said to be LET operatives, Prasad said and claimed that even the Pakistan-based terror outfit had acknowledged Jahan and Sheikh as martyrs in its website. But, the cbi agency has chosen to ignore all this informations about Jahan's background and directed its investigation with one-point agenda to nail the Gujarat Chief Minister, he said.

And the verdict is out: Lootera is a gorgeous, gorgeous film, one that uses its period setting affectionately, with loving detail, and not exploitatively, as our cinema is wont to do, writes Raja Sen for Rediff.com. Read the review.

A Dalit boy, whose marriage to a higher caste girl triggered anti-Dalit violence in three villages of Dharmapuri district in November last, was found dead along a railway track in that town on Thursday, a day after she said she would never go back to him and would stay with her mother. Read

Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla has accused his relatives of seeking to control the former South African president's legacy.On Wednesday police exhumed the bodies of three of Mr Mandela's children from Mandla's homestead, after court action by his relatives. He accused the rival family-members of being vengeful and washing the family's "dirty linen" in public.  Read

Pegging the number of pilgrims missing after the recent natural calamity in Uttarakhand at more than 3000, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna today said if they don't surface till July 15 they will be presumed dead.

"Considering the magnitude of the crisis, the state cabinet has decided that if the missing persons are not found by July 15, we will presume that they are dead and the process of paying compensation to their next of kin will begin", he said.

The exact number of persons missing after the tragedy is 3,064 and the deadline for finding them is July 15, he said. He said the process of payment of compensation to the families of those killed in the disaster will hopefully be completed by July 30.

Hindi Paper Finds Success Going Hyperlocal. Read

Michael Jackson allegedly set up alarm clocks near his bedroom to avoid getting caught abusing children, court papers have claimed. The alleged victim, Wade Robson, asserted that the alarms would go off if anyone came within 30ft of the room at his Neverland ranch, the Sun reported.

A close pal of former dancer Robson, 30, added that the clock was linked to motion sensors and Jackson also locked the doors. A former worker at the California ranch claimed that the King of Pop would put up a Do Not Disturb sign and was locked away for days, with the doors and windows shut.

Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma threatens to quit Congress if stopped from speaking against Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Verma had said if the Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh has ambitions of becoming the Prime Minister, he should 'first try to get the job of a sweeper at the residence of the PM'.

The Congress leadership reprimanded Beni after which he expressed regret and promised not to repeat it again.

Revelations about the French Big Brother. Read

President Pranab Mukherjee will unveil a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Rashtrapati Bhavan, to mark first year in office. A documentary by National Geographic channel on the gorgeous Rashtrapati Bhavan will also be telecast in the last week of July.  

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee this evening to brief him on infrastructure and pending issues. Modi's  visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan is significant as he will be heading there directly from the BJP office after attending his first meeting as Chairman of the BJP Campaign Committee for 2014 Lok Sabha Polls. And this, as the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter chargesheet was filed yesterday.

Today's board meeting is the first since Modi's promotion and the internal crisis that it provoked. Chaired by party president Rajnath Singh, it is expected to discuss election strategy and there is speculation that he could lay out the blueprint for the party's 2014 general elections campaign.

Modi is also expected to invite Pranab to visit Gandhinagar on July 26, the date that marks Pranab's first year in office as President of India. 

Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for rural development, will fly to Patna today to talk to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the release of funds for laying roads between different districts in Bihar. Soon after the meeting, Ramesh is expected to discuss political issues with Nitish with the focus being firmly on the JD-U vote for the Food Security and Land Reforms Bills to be discussed in the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament. The Congress can be sure of the support of at least 18 MPs of the JD-U as the Centre has allocated huge funds to Bihar.

Mohammed Riaz never bothers to open his vintage fountain pen outlet before 2 pm, but the 90-year-old business still draws loyal customers from across the country. Here's why.

This is the summer Amy Winehouse should have been throwing a party like no other to celebrate her 30th birthday. Instead, her grieving family are preparing to face the second anniversary of the tragic singers untimely death. Read

India reacts to the political upheaval in Egypt. This is the statement from the Ministry of External Affairs. Read

The number of sex attacks and rapes against female protesters in Egypt's Tahrir Square has hit 91 in just four days .Vicious mobs attacked the women as millions of protesters took to the streets to demand President Mohammed Morsi step down. Read more

So, who is Egypt's interim president Adly Mahmud Mansour? Read the profile.

Update on the searing in of Egypt's interim president. The head of Egypt's Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, was sworn in as interim president on Thursday, a day after the army ousted Mohamed Mursi as head of state.Speaking at the Constitutional Court in Cairo, Mansour said he planned to hold new elections, but did not specify when.He said Egypt had "corrected the path of its glorious revolution" through mass street protests calling for Mursi's resignation, which ultimately sealed his fate.-- Reuters

Former South African President Nelson Mandela''s children's remains, which were moved by his grandson to Mvezo in 2011, will undergo forensic tests before being shifted back to Qunu for reburial.News24 reports that the graves are of Mandela''s eldest son Madiba Thembekile, first daughter Makaziwe Mandela and Mandla's father Makgatho Mandela The Eastern Cape High Court ordered Mandla to return the remains to Qunu on Friday.

Congress and JMM today inched closer to government formation in Jharkhand, with Hemant Soren holding a long meeting with AICC general secretary B K Hariprasad, who is incharge of Jharkhand affairs. Hemant Soren, son of JMM leader Shibu Soren, who is tipped to be the next chief minister, along with senior JMM leader Champai Soren, held a two-and-a-half hour meeting with Hariprasad to work out modalities of the new coalition government which will work on a common minimum programme (CMP).

Sources said the announcement of the new government in Jharkhand could be made within a day or even by the evening as discussion on ministers and their portfolios took place during today's meeting. The CMP has also been discussed and final touches are being given.

Asfaque Ansari can't forget the morning of June 15, 2004, in Mumbra, Ishrat Jahan's home.The minority pocket on Mumbai's fringes had woken up to TV images of the 19-year-old from their area lying lifeless on a highway near Ahmedabad along with three others, killed by Gujarat police who branded them Lashkar terrorists. Read

The Calcutta High Court today said that it would monitor the CID investigation into the gangrape and murder of a college girl at Kamduni in Barasat and also questioned the justification of state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's fixing of a time frame for completing the probe.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi directed that the court would monitor the probe into the gruesome incident that occurred on June seven and asked the CID to file a report on the progress of the investigation by July 30. The matter would appear before the court on July 30.

A day after CBI told a court in Ahmedabad that it is probing the role of IB officers in Ishrat Jahan case, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said those guilty of carrying out the alleged fake encounter should be punished.

"Facts are facts. Guilty should be punished," Shinde told said when asked to comment on CBI's submission to the court. Shinde's statement bears significance as Home Ministry officials have been maintaining that there was not enough evidence against Intelligence Bureau Special Director Rajendra Kumar and three others in the alleged fake encounter case.

CBI had yesterday held that 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan was killed in a "fake" encounter in 2004 and charge sheeted seven police officers in the case, saying it was a joint operation between Gujarat police and the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau.

The Home Ministry has been maintaining that CBI does not have enough evidence to prosecute IB officer Kumar in the alleged fake encounter case and it was unlikely to give sanction to CBI to prosecute the senior IPS officer. However, CBI has not sought the sanction from the Home Ministry, which is the cadre controlling authority of IPS officers.

Interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour has been sworn in in Cairo. Senior Egyptian jurist Adly Mahmoud Mansour has suddenly found himself in the spotlight as the civilian face of the army-backed interim government following dramatic removal of the Arab country's first democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi.

The name of Mansour - head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court - was announced by army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Sisi, who says the military commanders had no desire to rule, clearly to allay fears abroad that this was a coup d'etat.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh today met UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi amid a raging controversy over the Rs 2,058 crore deal between Jet Airways and Etihad.

However, the sources said the meeting was of political nature as Gandhi is UPA Chairperson and Singh's RLD is part of the ruling coalition. The issue of Jet-Etihad deal is understood to have come up during the meeting.

Objections were being raised by senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta, Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy over the deal, each of whom had shot off separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) came out with a statement rebutting reports that there were differences within the government over the deal. The government also said the equity stake sale matter was still under examination. It asserted that there were no differences between Ministries over the air services agreement between India and Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways had on April 24 announced its decision to purchase 24 per cent stake in Jet for Rs 2,058 crore.

Just in: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Ishrat Jahan encounter case: Facts are facts, the guilty should be punished.


Also read: Why terrorists cannot be treated like common criminals

Ciro Bustos, who sketched Guevara's face for the Bolivian army, tries to kill myth he sold out the Argentinian revolutionary. Read

When states monitored their citizens we used to call them authoritarian. Now we think this is what keeps us safe. Read the column on the Guardian.

US government says force feeding of Guantnamo detainees provide 'essential nutritional and medical care' and will not interfere with religious observance. Read

Mass cremation of bodies in Kedarghati held up for the past few days today started with 23 more consigned to flames, taking the number of bodies disposed of so far to 59 even as a team of experts worked on removal of debris and extricating bodies from under them at the Himalayan shrine.

23 more bodies were cremated at Gaurikund and Junglechatti last night, DIG Amit Sinha under whose supervision the exercise is being undertaken told PTI. This takes the total number of bodies disposed of in Kedarghati to 59, he said.

Thirtysix bodies had been cremated earlier, the DIG said, adding the process is slow due to bad weather and the precautions being taken not to risk the lives of personnel engaged in the exercise. It is still raining intermittently in the area, he said.

A team of seven mountaineers is engaged in a combing operation in areas adjoining the shrine in search of bodies while over 50 members of a team of experts and volunteers is stationed in Kedarnath to clean the temple premises of tonnes of debris under which more bodies may be lying, the official said. Fifty other members of the team are searching for bodies in Gaurikund and Rambara areas.

There have been two dominant responses to the tragedy in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. One, that this is a freak event and may never happen again. The other, united political opinion that environmental norms were violated in construction and planning, which has exacerbated the scale of the disaster. Read

In our attempts to come to terms with the destruction in Uttarakhand, we have turned irrational and indifferent to the violation of the State's environment. Read

Defence Minister A.K. Antony leaves New Delhi on Thursday on a four-day official visit to China, his first as India's Defence Minister.Both countries are looking to the visit to push forward expanded engagement between the two militaries and to strengthen the mechanisms in place to minimise strains along the disputed border. Read

Over 75,000 devotees have paid obeisance at the Amarnath cave shrine so far even as the eighth batch of 2,176 pilgrims today left for their upward journey to the south Kashmir Himalayas.

Over 75,000 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the cave shrine till last evening, yatra officials said. A convoy of 81 vehicles carrying 2,176 pilgrims left from Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu at around 4.56 AM towards Amarnath to pay obeisance at the holy cave shrine, police said today. The batch comprising 1,596 male, 456 women and 37 children, apart from 87 sadhus, are en route twin base camps of Pahalagam and Baltal in Kashmir Valley. With today's batch, a total of 18,177 pilgrims have left Jammu base camp for the cave shrine so far.

Delhi HC extends till July 22 interim bail of former Haryana Chief Minister O P Chautala in JBT recruitment scam on medical grounds.

Morsy is out. The military is in. But it doesn't look good for anyone. Read

Last week, Charudatta Deshpande, head of corporate communications at Tata Steel, committed suicide. The incident, which by and large went under reported in newspapers, has now come into focus after a few of his friends took up issue with the Tata management.According to media reports, ICICI executive director Ram Kumar, a former colleague of Charudatta, wrote to the Tata management asking them to investigate the death. Read

World leaders today reacted cautiously to the political upheaval in Egypt that saw the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, asking the Egyptian military to rapidly restore democracy.

"We are deeply concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed Forces to remove President Morsi and suspend the Egyptian constitution," US President Barack Obama said in a statement.

"I now call on the Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsi and his supporters," he said.

Update on the Uttarakhand disaster: Rescue operations in the flood-struck parts of Uttarakhand are nearly finished, and almost all of the stranded pilgrims have returned to their homes. What they leave behind are half a million people who have no way to earn a living as tourists stay away from the entire state. Read

Senior Egyptian jurist Adly Mahmoud Mansour has suddenly found himself in the spotlight as the civilian face of the army-backed interim government following dramatic removal of the Arab country's first democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi.

The name of Mansour - head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court - was announced by army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Sisi, who says the military commanders had no desire to rule, clearly to allay fears abroad that this was a coup d'etat. 67-year-old Mansour will hold executive authority as transitional president until new presidential elections are held.

The top judge of Egypt's constitutional court, Adli Mansour, is to be sworn in as interim leader, hours after the army ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

Army chief Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced the move in a TV address on Wednesday evening, in what Morsi said was a military coup.

Gen Sisi said Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, had "failed to meet the demands of the people". The move comes after days of mass rallies against the Islamist president. More


Watch: People celebrate at Tahrir Square after the announcement of Morsi's ouster

Two student organisations in Manipur today threatened to launch an indefinite economic blockade of the Imphal-Moreh NH 2 in support of their demand that 7,000 students from hill districts be allowed to appear for the Class X exam.

The Naga Students Union, Chandel district, and Kuki Students' organisation said in a joint statement that more than 7,000 students had not been allowed to write the examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education Manipur in the past two years or so.

A heap of water bottles outside the inter-college here, turned into a relief camp, gives one the impression that people in the area must be drinking a lot of bottled water. A closer look reveals most bottles have not even been opened. The camp is a live example of all that is wrong with the flood relief work in Uttarakhand - lack of coordination, thoughtless allocation and a non-existent distribution mechanism. Read

The state will be able to snoop on your voice calls, fax messages, SMSes and MMSes, across all phone networks. It will be able to access your Internet data, and see not just what sites you visit but even build a cache of your inbox, to decrypt at leisure. Read

The founder of Goonj, a used clothing charity that is working with flood victims, says there are several things he doesn't want to see in their donation pile -- like dirty undergarments. Read

India has about a third of the world's poor according to the World Bank and half of children below the age of five suffer from malnutrition. But critics say the Food subsidy program will further bloat the already expensive subsidy bill to around $20 billion and some contend that it is wrong to extend a food subsidy system that is already broken, blighted with corruption and in which much food never reaches many of those for whom it is intended. Read

Under the National Food Security Bill, India will initially spend an estimated $4 billion a year on supplying about 70% of its population with cheap grain. Some farmers say it's not worth it. Read

The government on Wednesday decided to promulgate an Ordinance to give nation's two-third population the right to 5 kg of foodgrain every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg.

Defence minister A.K. Antony has ticked off cabinet colleague and commerce minister Anand Sharma and called a "retrograde step' his proposal to hike the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in the defence industry from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.

The defence minister was angry that the proposal was being repeatedly sent to him despite a clear enunciation of policy by the defence establishment. Officials in the ministry also insinuated that there was a concerted move in the government -- and in the cabinet -- to lobby on behalf of global defence majors.

Read

Forget ordinary citizens, even cops are not safe from harassment on Delhi's streets. A Delhi Police sub-inspector was molested and thrashed in full public view by half a dozen men on Tuesday night in Sangam Vihar, south Delhi, after she objected to lewd comments passed by two men on a bike. The accused hit the woman cop with sticks and broke her cellphone so that she could not call for help. Read

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

Dwarka Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati has 'demanded' that theUttarakhand government ensure immediate "vidhiwat puja sanskar" (proper ritualistic worship) at Kedarnath shrine.

"I am saddened that the panch-mukhi Shivling and shrine has not been cleaned and no puja offered there. The fact that the bhog murti (idol) is being worshipped in Ukhimat is unacceptable since its correct place is the Kedarnath shrine," Swaroopanand said Wednesday. Read

Meanwhile, heavy rains have been forecast in Uttarakhand in the next two days.

As if heart-wrenching images of children separated from their parents in theUttarakhand disaster were not enough, state chief secretary Subhash Kumar on Wednesday is learnt to have told a four-member team of National Commission for Child Protection Rights that 1,227 children were reported missing in the state since the flashfloods. Read

In the theatre of the absurd in West Bengal, the state's water resources minister Soumen Mahapatra has alleged that opposition parties have paid Rs 20 lakh to rapists and unleashed them in the state to block the development under CM Mamata Banerjee. Read

Bolivian President Evo Morales called the rerouting of his plane over suspicions that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was aboard a provocation to Latin America and urged European countries to "free themselves" from the United States.

His presidential plane arrived home in Bolivia's capital late last night following an unplanned 14-hour layover in Vienna. His government said France, Spain and Portugal all refused to let it through their airspace, forcing it to land in Austria. He had been flying home from a summit in Russia. Bolivian government officials have repeatedly said they believe that Washington was behind the incident.

NDTV reports: The BJP's parliamentary board will meet for the first time today after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's elevation as the party's campaign committee chief and the internal crisis the promotion had caused.

Modi will attend the meeting in Delhi today, which is expected to discuss election strategy and there is speculation that he could lay out the blueprint for the party's 2014 general elections campaign.

L K Advani, who had last month resigned from all party positions, including the parliamentary board, in protest against Modi will attend the meet.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi will hold a meeting Jharkhand Mukti Morcha legislative party leader Hemant Soren at 11 am today.

Congress sources said Gandhi has approved the formation of a government in Jharkahand, which is likely to be in place by July 10, reports the Times of India.

"Almost all issues barring a few minor points have been settled and the nitty-gritty will be resolved in a couple of days," a source present at the meeting chaired by Gandhi in Delhi yesterday said.

Jharkhand has been under President's Rule since January and its six-month tenure will end on July 18.

A worker was killed and at least 13 others injured when a two-storeyed building housing a garment factory collapsed in Kalher village near powerloom town of Bhiwandi in wee hours today.

|More than 12 workers are feared trapped under the debris of the structure, BIG Garments, located in Arihant Compound campus which houses many godowns, they said.

According to police, around 40 workers were present in the building when it crumbled and efforts are on to extricate those trapped under the rubble. However, heavy rains are affecting the rescue operation.

NDTV reports: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has confirmed that he has a new baby boy.

"It is a little mix of sadness and happiness at this point of time and I would request everyone including the concerned authorities to show the same alacrity in finding out and doing the enthusiastic investigation they are doing on my baby upon other things they should be lending their thoughts to right now," Khan said last night.

"Having said that when the sad part of it gets over af course I will share everything with you. So, this is the last question, get on the train baby...my baby will talk some other time," the actor added.

The baby is widely reported to have been born by surrogacy.

Read the full story here

Four television channels have been taken off air in Egypt after the military coup. Al Jazeera's office has been attacked and his staff has been detained.   

US President Barack Obama has called up the German Chancellor, to discuss with the latter's concerns over the alleged surveillance activities of National Security Agency of the United States.

"The President and the Chancellor discussed the recent reports of surveillance activities allegedly conducted by the US National Security Agency. The President assured the Chancellor that the United States takes seriously the concerns of our European allies and partners," the White House said in a readout of the telephonic conversation between the two leaders yesterday.

CNN reports: United States President Barack Obama expressed deep concern about the Egyptian military's removal of that nation's first democratically elected president, calling for a quick return to civilian leadership and ordering a review of the US law regarding aid to the vital Middle East ally.

"The United States continues to believe firmly that the best foundation for lasting stability in Egypt is a democratic political order with participation from all sides and all political parties," Obama said in a statement about the move to oust Mohammed Morsi a year after he took office.

"The USA is monitoring the very fluid situation in Egypt. We are deeply concerned by the removal of Morsi by the Egyptian armed forces," he said. 

Read the full story here

In a statement e-mailed by his office, Morsi rejected the military's intervention. "Dr. Mohamed Morsi, the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, emphasizes that the measures taken by the General Command of the armed forces represent a complete military coup, which is categorically rejected by all the free of the country who have struggled so that Egypt turns into a civil democratic society,' his statement said.

Two US officials say that Egyptian defense leaders, who ousted President Mohammed Morsi today, have assured the US that they are not interested in a long-term rule. 

Military-backed dictatorship in Egypt stretched from Hosni Mubarak to Anwar Sadat to Abdel Gamal Nasser, and when it finally ended on Feb. 11, 2011, it was the generals themselves who delivered the coup de grace. 

Bolivia has accused European countries of an "act of aggression" for refusing to allow its presidential jet into their airspace, amid suggestions US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that massive protests against his Islamist Egyptian counterpart has spelt the end of "political Islam," in statements posted today on his official Facebook page. 

The price of oil rose above USD 102 a barrel for the first time in 14 months on concerns about Middle East supplies and signs of an increase in US demand for fuel. 

Egypt's military deposed the country's first democratically elected president Wednesday night, installing the head of the country's highest court as an interim leader, the country's top general announced.

Expressing concern over the situation in Egypt where a military takeover of a democratically-elected government looked eminent, the United States today said it was closely monitoring the situation in the country. 

A Turkish Court has cancelled plans to redevelop Taksim Square, according to court ruling from early June obtained by Reuters. The authorities planned to turn the park into a monument to the Ottoman Empire, which sparked mass protests last month.

Bolivia on Wednesday accused the United States of trying to "kidnap" its president, Evo Morales, after his plane was denied permission to fly over some European countries then inspected at Vienna airport on suspicion he was taking fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden to Latin America.

In what opponents bitterly described as a "coup," Egypt's military moved tanks and troops into Cairo on Wednesday to prepare for the almost certain ouster of President Mohammed Morsi only minutes after he rejected their ultimatum to yield to the political demands of mass protests or step down.