Ali Khan

Embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter has rejected calls from the European Parliament for him to stand down immediately, a FIFA spokesman said today.

Blatter, who resigned last week despite being re-elected as head of football’s world governing body, intends to continue in office until a successor is designated, probably by the end of the year.

“FIFA is surprised at the European Parliament resolution,” the spokesman said. “The FIFA president has already decided to bring an end to his mandate during an extraordinary electoral congress.”

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) chief Medha Patkar today discussed consequences of increasing the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam with city-based activists.

“The Narmada valley area has 29 dams in Madhya Pradesh and one in Gujarat. Madhya Pradesh will be the worst affected due to the dam in Gujarat. At least 193 villages in Madhya Pradesh will get submerged in 214 km affected area after the increase in height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam,” Patkar told activists including Indukumar Jani, Dinkar Dave, Hiren Gandhi, Bharatsinh Jhala and Sagar Rabari.

Ornette Coleman, one of jazz’s most groundbreaking artists who brushed aside convention with his prophetically titled 1959 album “The Shape of Jazz to Come,” died today. He was 85.

His death was confirmed to AFP by his publicist, Ken Weinstein. Coleman was born and raised in Texas but died in New York, where he had become both dapper fixture on the social circuit and an opinionated voice of the direction of music.

An Egyptian court today sentenced a police officer to 15 years in jail over the shooting of a leftist female protester during a peaceful rally, a court official said.

Shaima al-Sabbagh, a 34-year-old mother of a five-year-old, was shot dead with birdshot in January as police dispersed a small march on the fourth anniversary of the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

A couple, posing as doctors, has been arrested today for allegedly possessing equipments used for abortion and illegal medicines worth lakhs of rupees.

On a tip-off, a team of doctors lead by Sirsa Civil Surgeon Dr Surender Nain conducted a raid at their clinic following which they have been arrested, police said.

The room where illegal medicines were stored has been sealed, they said.

The accused have been identified as Pushpa Rani and her husband Mehar Singh. They do not posses any medical degree, police said.

Iraqi forces battling jihadists on several fronts today were poised to receive the help of 450 extra US troops slated for deployment near Ramadi.

In neighbouring Syria, a rebel alliance that includes groups supported by Washington, seized most of a military airport in a southern province controlled by the regime, a spokesman said.

State television denied the claim but both the Southern Front and a monitoring group said the regime had lost most of Al-Thaala airport in Sweida province.

The Gujarat High Court today directed the state government to frame eco-tourism policy for Gir sanctuary, the last surviving abode of Asiatic lions, in two weeks.

The division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and R H Shukla directed the chief secretary of Gujarat to submit the policy on the next hearing on June 25.

The government had earlier informed the court about framing a policy for preventing violation of environmental norms in Gir but today it sought a month’s time, which the HC did not grant.

The body of Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s former top aide who died last week in prison in Iraq, went missing today after it was snatched in Baghdad while en route to Jordan for burial, Aziz’s daughter said.

Aziz’s daughter Zeinab said she was told by her mother who was in Iraq and waited to accompany the casket to Jordan that his body went missing at the Baghdad International Airport. No further details were immediately known.

The United States is considering setting up additional bases in Iraq similar to a new hub planned in Anbar province to help Iraqi forces battle the Islamic State group, the Pentagon said today.

Establishing more bases to get US military advisers closer to the battlefront would likely require yet more American troops to deploy to Iraq beyond the 450 reinforcements announced by the White House yesterday.

A new regional fighting force against Boko Haram will be headed by a Nigerian commander, the five-nation coalition agreed today, after talks on military strategy against the militants.

The decision came after Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari rejected calls for a rotating command between the partners, arguing it could hamper the counter-insurgency effort.

Buhari has made ending the six-year Islamist insurgency his top priority but since coming to power on May 29, more than 150 people have been killed in an upsurge of attacks.

Rupert Murdoch’s sons James and Lachlan are set to play a key role in his media-entertainment empire in a succession plan unveiled today.

Murdoch, an 84-year-old Australian-born US citizen, also has four daughters, for a total of six children from his three marriages.

Lachlan and James are both sons from Murdoch’s marriage to journalist Anna Torv. The third child from that marriage, Elisabeth, sold her audio-visual production company Shine to her father’s company.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo is stepping down and will be replaced on an interim basis from July 1 by co-founder Jack Dorsey, the company has said.

The move comes with the one-to-many messaging platform struggling to boost its user base after a much-anticipated public offering in 2013.

Costolo guided the San Francisco-based firm through its initial public offering, but growth has been disappointing and the company has yet to show a profit.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket toward southern Israel but it landed inside the Palestinian territory, the army said.

“The rocket that was launched from Gaza earlier this evening, fell short and landed in the Gaza Strip,” army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said on Twitter yesterday.

Tensions on the border have been rising recently and on Sunday, the Israeli air force hit the Gaza Strip after rocket fire from the territory hit southern Israel, the previous night.

There were also retaliatory air strikes after three previous rocket attacks since May 26.

Spain said test flights of Airbus A400M military planes that have already rolled off the assembly line could resume, after suspending them in May following a crash that killed four people.

Airbus executives met with Spain’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology yesterday to discuss resuming flights after one of the massive transport planes crashed during a test on May 9 near Seville, killing four of the six people on board and seriously injuring the two others.

A 29-year-old Indian-origin man in Singapore was jailed 10 months for stabbing his estranged wife in front of their two children in October last year.

Suresh David Narasimmalu, had been on a Diwali shopping with his wife Vasentha Kumari, 30, and their boys aged five and seven when the pair began arguing as they walked along Race Course Road in Little India.

Narasimmalu pulled out his Swiss army knife from a sling bag and stabbed Kumari in the abdomen in front of the boys, aged five and seven. He then fled in a taxi, the Strait Times reported today.

At least 10 people were injured today after an explosion ripped through a residential building in northeast China, officials said.

Part of the building collapsed after the blast occurred at around 5 am in Longgang District, Huludao City of Liaoning Province.

The authorities said it was a suspected liquified gas explosion, state-run xinhua news agency reported.

The injured have been hospitalised. Rescue work is underway.

A similar residential building explosion in Huludao City on May 31 left two dead and another 11 injured.

Spain’s King Felipe VI has issued a decree stripping his sister Princess Cristina of her title as Duchess of Palma, the palace has announced, as the royal sibling faces tax evasion charges in a scandal that has embarrassed the monarchy.

“The Official Journal of the state will tomorrow (Friday) publish a royal decree by which His Majesty the King will revoke the use of the title of Duchess of Palma de Mallorca by Her Royal Highness the Infanta Cristina,” the palace said in a statement yesterday.

The Brazilian parliament passed a law toughening penalties for murderers of policemen, a measure widely demanded by the security forces of a country where hundreds of officers are killed every year.

The new law passed yesterday stipulates that killers of police officers, prison officers or members of the armed forces will be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, against a maximum 20 before.

After the vote, president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, said there had been “strong demand from society” for the stiffer penalty.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez has said he has no plans to resign despite being investigated for corruption and facing the possible lifting of his presidential immunity.

Perez, who has faced large protests calling for his resignation in recent weeks, was dealt a new blow Wednesday when the Supreme Court endorsed an opposition party’s request to investigate how much he knew about fraud by senior officials in the customs and social security systems.

The court also asked Congress to consider lifting his immunity.

India’s health and innovative and biopharma sector deserves better attention from the government to help realise its full potential and provide much cheaper health care and medicine to millions of patients, leading Biopharma industry experts and academicians have said.

During the day-long US-India BioPharma and Healthcare Summit, top industry leaders, experts and academicians hoped that the new Indian government will bring in “predictable, transparent and pragmatic regulatory policies” which would positively change the Indian BioPharma and Healthcare Innovation landscape.

Maggie Gyllenhaal thinks intimate scenes are “so interesting” but admits they can be “uncomfortable” to shoot.

The “Honourable Woman” actress – who has daughters Ramona,eight, and Gloria, three, with husband Peter Sarsgaard – said she is fascinated by seeing intimate moments played out on film, reported Contactmusic.

“I think sex in film is so interesting. It’s uncomfortable to take your clothes off in front of people you don’t know, but it can be an opportunity for really interesting acting.

I’m 37, and I’ve had two babies, and I’m really interested in nudity now,” she said.

Following “Black Widow” singer Iggy Azalea’s exit from Pittsburgh Pride due to some questionable tweets from her in the past, pop star Nick Jonas has been roped in to perform at the event.

A statement from the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh says Jonas, 22, contacted event organizers himself after hearing of Azalea’s cancellation, reported Billboard magazine.

“Nick had heard about Pittsburgh Pride in the media and called us on Tuesday and said he would like to come and perform,” said Gary Van Horn, president of Delta Foundation.

Singer Katy Perry is the new face of fashion brand Moschino.

Announcing the news on Instagram, the 30-year-old singer wrote, “The face of Moschino” alongside her first advertisement for the fashion brand, reported Ace Showbiz

In the ad, the “Part of me” hitmaker is seen donning a black pencil skirt and a lot of golden accessories.

Photographed by Inez & Vinoodh, the ad is aimed at promoting Moschino’s new Fall/Winter 2015 collection by designer Jeremy Scott.

Ridley Scott’s “The Martian”, an upcoming science-fiction film, is all set to hit theatres on October 2.

Fox has preponed the release date of “The Martian” by a month after it was earlier slated for November 25 release, reported Deadline.

“The Martian”, which garnered positive responses, will now have a box office clash with “London Has Fallen”, “Adam Jones” and “The Walk”.

“The Martian” is based on a best-selling novel by Andy Weir which follows a lone man who must figure out how to survive long enough on Mars to return to Earth.

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian West has revealed that the ongoing rumours about the sex of her second child are untrue.

There were rumours that the 34-year-old socialite and her husband Kanye West were expecting a baby boy.

“We have not told anyone the sex of our baby yet!” she posted on Twitter.

“Nothing is confirmed unless you hear it from me!,” she added,

The couple is expecting their second child together.