Leonardo DiCaprio to host fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton with attendance to cost whopping $33,400 per person

Top Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio will host a lunch time fund-raiser for Democratic party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with attendance to the fund-raiser costing a mind boggling $33,400 per person, according to Variety magazine.

Miss Teen USA used racist language on Twitter in latest Miss Universe controversy

Social media users unearthed an account with Karlie Hay's name that featured the N-word in tweets from 2013 and 2014. 

LAS VEGAS—Racist language in old tweets from the freshly crowned Miss Teen USA is just the latest controversy for the Miss Universe Organization, which suffered a round of turmoil last year over then-owner Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments against Mexicans.

Clinton leads Trump by seven points in poll

 

Hillary Clinton got a four-point bounce in support after the Democratic National Convention and now leads Donald Trump by seven points in the race for the White House, says a poll released Monday.

Germany to lose EU grip on power without UK as FRANCE and Italy look to out-muscle Merkel

Analysts from the influential EU affairs think tank Votewatch Europe said Germany lacked the diplomatic skills required to hold the balance of power in Brussels.

Presidential race tied, Clinton hurt by emails - poll

FBI Director James Comey said last week Clinton was "extremely careless" in the handling of classified information but the investigation found no evidence she or her colleagues intended to violate laws.

 

The U.S. presidential race is tied going into the major parties' national conventions and Democrat Hillary Clinton has been damaged by the FBI investigation into her email use while secretary of state, a new opinion poll showed on Thursday.

Rain, floods kill over 100 people, wipe out crops

Severe recent flooding across central and southern Chinahas killed around 100 people, damaged more than 1.5 million hectares of cropland and led to direct economic losses of more than 20 billion yuan ($3 billion), the government has said.

Twin crises expose country's failure to kick its oil habit

Oil wealth turned Angola into sub-Saharan Africa's third-biggest economy and one of the continent's few "upper-middle income" states. But beyond the high-rises on the capital's Dubai-style coastal promenade, the problems are plain to see.

A month ago, a 17 tonne shipment of bananas left Angola forPortugal in what state media heralded as a "first symbolic batch" in the resurgence of a farming sector wiped out by civil war.

Medina explosion: Suicide bombing near Saudi holy site

A suicide bomber has killed four security officers and injured five others near one of Islam's holiest sites in the Saudi city of Medina, according to the interior ministry.

23 Turkish citizens killed, 13 foreign nationals - official

Around 150 people were wounded in the attack, which has been blamed on Islamic State militants.

Twenty-three Turkish citizens and 13 foreign nationals were killed by suicide bombers in an attack at Istanbul's main international airport on Tuesday night, a Turkish presidential official said.

Setbacks from a divided Supreme Court

This will be the high court's last full nine-month term of the Democratic president's administration. Obama leaves office in January 2017.

The U.S. Supreme Court breaks for the summer this week, having dealt high-profile setbacks to President Barack Obamaon issues important to his liberal legacy, notably on immigration and climate change.

Australian company's workers kidnapped in Nigeria

Gunmen kill local driver and abduct seven men working for Australian mining giant Macmahon near Calabar.

HITZEMPIRE REPORT

Gunmen in southern Nigeria have killed a local driver and kidnapped two Nigerians, three Australians, a New Zealander and a South African working for an Australian mining company, officials said.

Unpaid Debt: AMCON set to take over Ben Murray-Bruce’s companies, assets

 Excerpt there is a last-minutes change in plans, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) will on Thursday morning take over the assets of three companies belonging to politician Ben Murray-Bruce and his brothers.

Boko Haram ‘fracturing’ over ISIL ties – U.S army officer

WALDHAUSER

The Boko Haram militants’ group has fractured internally, with a big group splitting away from shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau over his failure to adhere to guidance from the Iraq- and Syria-based Islamic State, a senior United States general has said.

Government, rebels to cease hostilities to aid peace talks

The Philippines has been talking on and off since 1986 with the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, to end nearly 50 years of conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.

The Philippines and communist guerrillas are planning to each declare ceasefires before formal peace talks resume next month in Norway, the first in 30 years, government and rebels negotiators said on Tuesday.

Government, unions, clash over right to march vs risk of violence

Unions have been organizing protest marches for months against a draft law that will overhaul labor rules. They said a ban on marching would be unacceptable and that they would maintain plans to walk through the streets of the French capital on Thursday.

French authorities on Monday asked unions to scrap plans for a protest march in Paris and limit their demonstrations to a single, static rally in hope that the violence which marred previous days of action can be avoided.

Ryan, top Republicans urge caution on post-Orlando gun control measures

House Speaker Paul Ryan and other top Republicans pushed back Thursday on growing calls from Democrats to ban people on terror watch lists from buying guns, even as Donald Trump and other GOP figures opened the door to discussing it.
Calls for action have increased in the wake of the terror massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando that left 50 people, including the gunman, dead on Sunday. The gunman, Omar Mateen, had been on a watch list for 10 months before being removed.

Dozens of US officials call for military action against Syria's Assad

Dozens of U.S. officials have called on the Obama administration to order "targeted military strikes" against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, with the aim of pressuring Damascus to accept a binding cease-fire and engage in peace talks.
The Wall Street Journal reported that 51 State Department officials advising Syria policy signed the so-called "dissent channel cable".

Senior Republican accuses Donald Trump of ‘trickle-down racism’

Mitt Romney

Former Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has condemned Donald Trump for setting a dangerous example for Americans by promoting “trickle-down racism”.

50 killed in Orlando gay nightclub shooting, gunman identified

ORLANDO, FLORIDA – JUNE 12: Orlando police officers seen outside of Pulse nightclub after a fatal shooting and hostage situation on June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The suspected shooter, Omar Mateen, was shot and killed by police. 50 people are reported dead and 53 were injured. Gerardo Mora/Getty Images/AFP
GERARDO MORA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

Obama, Pope, Queen condemn massacre at US gay club

US President Barack Obama makes a statement on the mass shooting at an Orlando, Florida nightclub in the White House Briefing Room in Washington, DC on June 12, 2016.