Le Corbusier’s works listed among World Heritage Sites

  Paris / AFP UNESCO on Sunday listed Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s works — including the Indian city of Chandigarh which he planned in the 1950s— among its World Heritage Sites. The decision was announced as the World Heritage Committee meeting in Istanbul resumed for a day on Sunday, after being suspended a day earlier due to an abortive putsch bid ...

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Most Americans pessimistic about race relations: Poll

  Washington / AFP An overwhelming majority of Americans think the next president should place “major” focus on improving US race relations, which most see as “generally bad.” The Washington Post/ABC News poll released on Saturday was taken shortly after the mass shooting of white police officers by a black sniper that followed two high-profile shooting deaths of black men at ...

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Rebel-held parts of Aleppo ‘completely besieged’

  Aleppo / AFP Opposition-controlled parts of Syria’s battered northern city Aleppo came under total siege on Sunday, after government forces severed the last route out of the east. Beleaguered rebels have failed to thwart a major Russian-backed army offensive around Aleppo city, which has been devastated by the country’s five-year conflict. On Sunday, regime fighters descended on the Castello ...

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Vietnam detains activists in Hanoni after S China Sea ruling

Hanoi, Vietnam / AFP Scores of activists were detained in Vietnam’s capital on Sunday as they gathered to protest against China after it rejected a recent international ruling that dismissed its claims to much of the South China Sea. Anti-Chinese sentiment runs deep in communist Vietnam but the country’s authoritarian rulers move swiftly to tamp down expressions of public anger, ...

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Pakistani star’s brother ‘not embarrassed’ by killing her

  Multan / AFP The brother of a murdered Pakistani celebrity said Sunday he is “not embarrassed” to have killed her, as Qandeel Baloch’s death reignited polarising calls for action against the “epidemic” of honour killings. The strangling of Baloch, judged as infamous by many in deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan for selfies and videos that by Western standards would appear ...

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Mideast stocks shrug off Turkey coup as Almarai rises on profit

  Bloomberg Most Gulf stock indexes rose, even after an attempted coup in Turkey that began on Friday rattled global markets. Saudi Arabia’s Almarai Co., the region’s largest publicly-traded packaged-food manufacturer, climbed as much as 5.5 percent before closing 2.3 percent higher as it posted a 19 percent increase in second-quarter profit. It was the third-biggest contributor to the Tadawul ...

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Colombian strike sends arabica-robusta spread to 17-month high

  Bloomberg A trucker’s strike delaying coffee exports from Colombia and the stronger Brazilian real have widened the price gap between arabica and robusta beans to the most in 17 months. Shipments from Colombia, the second-largest producer of arabica, may fall 50 percent this month as truckers block roads and prevent beans from reaching the ports, said Carlos Ignacio Rojas, ...

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Turkey moves to calm investors after quashing coup attempt

  BLOOMBERG The Turkish government moved swiftly to calm investors before financial markets reopen on Monday after a failed coup, with the central bank promising unlimited liquidity to lenders and the deputy prime minister posting on Twitter that there’s “no need to worry.” Turkey’s lira plunged the most against the dollar in eight years on Friday as tanks rolled through ...

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World touring solar plane’s final leg to UAE delayed

  Cairo / AFP The final leg of an unprecedented world tour by a solar-powered plane was postponed due to the pilot’s health, he said in a message on Twitter. The Solar Impulse 2 had been scheduled to leave Cairo for Abu Dhabi. “I’m sick. Stomach upset. I prefer to postpone the take-off @solarimpulse. I cannot go flying for 48 ...

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SpaceX to launch key ‘parking spot’ to space station

  Miami / AFP SpaceX is poised to launch its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Monday, carrying a key piece of equipment that was lost last year in a rocket explosion. The international docking adapter will function as a parking spot for space taxis, enabling commercial spaceships carrying astronauts to latch on securely to the orbiting ...

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