Gaza Strip: Israel Calls up 16,000 More IDF Reservists

An Israeli soldier from the Givati Brigade walks back to a staging area after returning to Israel from GazaReuters

Amid intensifying fighting in the Gaza Strip region, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has called up more than 16,000 reservists, bringing the total number of reservist troops to 86,000.

The latest move is to give the Israeli forces "some breathing room", a senior military official was quoted as saying in local dailies.

Meanwhile, the US has reaffirmed its support for the Israeli side.

US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel held a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Moshe Ya'alon assuring the "US's support for Israel's security and its right to defend itself".

A statement from Hagel's office read: "Secretary Hagel also expressed the United States's continued concern about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and loss of Israeli lives, as well as the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza."

"Secretary Hagel stressed the need for a humanitarian ceasefire that ends hostilities and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement, and reaffirmed the US view that any process to resolve the cries in Gaza in a lasting and meaningful way must lead to the disarmament of Hamas and all terrorist groups."

In a separate development, the US allowed Israel to obtain grenades and mortar rounds from a local US stockpile as part of a bilateral agreement between the two countries.

Pentagon's press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said: "Both munitions had been in WRSA-I [War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel] stock for a few years, well before the current crisis. All stocks in WRSA-I, as required by law, are 'in excess of US requirements'. Issuing munitions from the WRSA-I stockpile was strictly a sourcing decision and White House approval was not required."

The Israel-Gaza conflict, which began on 8 July, has only shown signs of escalating despite several ceasefire attempts.

So far, at least 1,360 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting, according to Gaza health ministry figures.

On the Israeli side, 56 soldiers and two civilians have been killed.

Drug-Resistant Malaria Spreading to Borders of Southeast Asia 'Poses Serious Global Threat'

Baby being treated for malaria in Indonesia.(Getty Images)

Drug-resistant malaria is spreading to "critical border regions" of Southeast Asia, posing serious threats to global malaria control, experts have said.

Researchers have found resistance to the artemisinin, used to treat Plasmodium falciparum - the most deadly form of malaria-causing parasite – is now established in Western Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Eastern Myanmar and Northern Cambodia.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also found signs of resistance in Central Myanmar, Southern Laos and Northeastern Cambodia.

Researchers said that at present, there are no signs of resistance in Kenya, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but that this could change.

Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust says: "If resistance spreads out of Asia and into Africa much of the great progress in reducing deaths from malaria will be reversed. Our ability to respond to these rapidly emerging health problems depends on swift gathering of evidence, which can be quickly translated into public health and clinical interventions that are then implemented.

"Antimicrobial resistance is happening now. This is not just a threat for the future, it is today's reality."

Meow, 6, is tested to ensure a malaria bug she caught a month ago is no longer in her system(Reuters)

Researchers used samples from 15 sites in 10 malaria-epidemic countries over two years. They examined responses of malaria-infected people to artemisinin. Their blood was analysed to measure if the parasite had been cleared from the patient's blood.

Patients who had parasites in their blood 72 hours after treatment – the test for artemisinin resistance - ranged from 0% in Kenya to 68% in Eastern Thailand.

Nicholas White, senior author of the study, said: "It may still be possible to prevent the spread of artemisinin resistant malaria parasites across Asia and then to Africa by eliminating them, but that window of opportunity is closing fast. Conventional malaria control approaches won't be enough –we will need to take more radical action and make this a global public health priority, without delay."

Experts said that while artemisinin treatments are still very effective at curing patients, it is important to be vigilant as cure rates begin to fall and resistance becomes established.

While new malaria medicines are being developed, they are still unlikely to be available for several years. "The artemisinin drugs are arguably the best antimalarials we have ever had. We need to conserve them in areas where they are still working well," said Elizabeth Ashley, lead scientist of the TRAC study.

Rio Tinto Exits Mozambique Coal Venture after $3bn Writedown

Rio Tinto exits Mozambique coal venture after $3bn writedown.Reuters

Anglo-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto will sell its Mozambique coal assets, purchased through the near $4bn acquisition of Riversdale Mining in 2011, for just $50m to an Indian investment group.

The sale of Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique to International Coal Ventures (ICVL) includes the Benga coal mine and other projects in the Tete province.

Rio Tinto's other assets in Mozambique remain unaffected by the transaction, the London-based firm said in a statement.

The sale is subject to 'certain conditions precedent and regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014', the statement added.

Rio Tinto's stock was trading 0.58% lower to 3,455 pence at 1409 BST in London, after shedding 0.70% to 3,450 pence in early trading. The stock has gained 1.33% so far this year.

ICVL

The deal, for Rio's Mozambique coal unit, marks ICVL's first acquisition.

The Indian firm, formed to buy coking coal mines abroad, is backed by investments from Coal India, steelmakers Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, iron ore producer NMDC and power generator NTPC.

Nomura analysts said: "The sale is not overly surprising given the new management team has little interest in major greenfield projects where they don't have much experience and coal in general has also fallen out of favour."

Mozambique Hit

Rio Tinto's move will slow down the Southeast African nation's attempts to become a major coal exporter.

Rival miner Vale is also looking to sell a stake in its Mozambique coal assets which includes its Moatize mine.

In an interview over the weekend, Mozambique's transport minister Gabriel Muthisse, said the government remained committed to developing the coal industry as an economic growth driver, Reuters reported.

In January 2013, Rio Tinto marked down its coal operations in Mozambique by $3bn (£1.8bn, €2.2bn), partly owing to a failure to obtain a permit to ship coal by barge down Mozambique's Zambezi River.

Libyan Militants Seize Benghazi Special Forces Base

Fires burning at a fuel depot near the airport road in TripoliReuters

An umbrella group of Libyan Islamist fighters and former rebel militias have seized a key special forces base in the eastern flashpoint city of Benghazi after a battle that killed at least 38 people.

The site was attacked by a coalition including Ansar al-Sharia, a militant Islamist group classified as a terrorist organisation by the US, and ex-rebels of the Benghazi Shura Council.

A government MiG warplane crashed during the fighting but the pilot managed to parachute to ground, according to Reuters. Two special forces spokesmen confirmed the militants took control of the army base.

Special forces have joined with renegade former army general Kahlifa Haftar who launched a campaign to clear the city of Islamist militants.

Libya, since the fall of Gaddafi, is chaotic with a fragile government and armed forces unable to impose their authority on competing political factions and the brigades of former rebels who refuse to disarm.

Fresh fighting erupted two weeks ago as France and other foreign states were forced to pull diplomats out of the North African state. A rocket struck a fuel depot near Tripoli airport two days ago causing a massive fire.

Italy and Italian oil group ENI offered to help extinguish the blaze.

At least 97 people have been killed in fighting between rival militias battling for control of Tripoli's main airport in the past week.

The development came as the French government said it has evacuated French and British nationals from Libya. According to French sources, 40 French citizens and seven British nationals had been evacuated by ship.

#DirenKahkaha: Turkish Women in Social Media 'Laugh Protest' against Erdogan's Deputy

Turkish women took to social media in response to claims they should not laugh by a government minister.(Instagram/@diilanyldz)

Thousands of Turkish women have flooded social media with photos of themselves laughing and smiling in a backlash against a government minister who said it is an indecent behaviour.

The hashtag #DirenKahkaha - ResistLaugh - climbed to the top 10 world trends on Twitter, hours after Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc claimed honest women should not laugh in public.

"Laughing is a revolutionary act," tweeted a group of female members of the opposition People's Democratic Party.

The Twitter protest was also backed by radical feminist group Femen.

User @Sibellgul tweeted:

Arınc, a prominent member of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's conservative government, made the controversial remark during a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) held during Turkey's celebration of Eid, the day marking the end of Islam's holy month of Ramadan.

Praising traditional values, the 66-year-old politician listed some rules women should abide to, saying: "She will not laugh in public. She will not make display of her attractiveness."

Lamenting what he said was Turkey's moral decadence, Arınc also accused women of using mobile phones too often.

Mocking a woman chatting on the phone, he said: "Is there nothing else going on? What happened to Ayse's daughter? When's the wedding?'. . . People should say these things face to face."

The comments were seized on by opposition leader Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who is running against Erdogan in the presidential elections in August.

He tweeted: "What our country needs the most is to hear the merry laugher of our women and of everyone else."

Three Jewish Youths Arrested for Beating Arabs with Iron Bars

A wounded Palestinian protester lies on the ground during clashes with Israeli troops, at a protest against Israeli offensive in GazaReuters

Three Jewish youths have been arrested after over the brutal beating of two Arab residents of east Jerusalem with iron bars and baseball bats.

The two Palestinians, 20-year-olds Amir Shweiki and Samer Mahfouz, were attacked last Friday by a Jewish mob of 12 men as they were walking in the settlement of Neve Yaakov and beaten unconscious, according to Haaretz. They had just finished an iftar dinner following the Ramadan's fast.

One of the men was in intensive care but conscious and "doing well", according to a spokeswoman for Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, where the youths were taken.

The other was in a surgical ward. He told Haaretz that a Jewish man approached him asking for a cigarette. "I told him I don't have any, and he heard I'm Arab and went away, coming back with his friends, maybe 12 people. They had sticks and iron bars and they hit us over the head."

Tensions in annexed east Jerusalem increased when a 17-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Abu Khudair, was kidnapped on 2 July and later found burned alive. Police arrested six alleged Jewish extremists as suspects and charged three of them.

Interpol Offices in South Africa Burgled: Laptops Containing Details of International Drug Cartels Out in Open

A file photo taken at the Interpol headquartersReuters

Laptops feared to be containing high-profile sensitive information about Nigerian drug cartels, international criminals from Russia, Ukraine and China are out in the open after they were stolen from the Interpol offices in Pretoria, South Africa.

The police have confirmed the theft at the international policing agency's offices but the extent of the jeopardy is still unclear.

"We have registered a case of robbery. Several items were taken, including laptops, cameras, and tablets. Police became aware of the incident on Sunday and did not say if anybody else was in the building at the time, or if there were injuries," said a police spokesperson.

No arrests have been made so far amid the risk of sensitive data landing up in the wrong hands.

The authorities are tight-lipped about the particulars that were in the stolen equipment and refused to answer specifics while the investigation is on.

The officials are probing the motive of the attack and the kind of details that were present in the electronic gadgets.

"There were other valuable items, including ammunition, which was left behind. In one of the offices, which was burgled twice, the thieves took a laptop and a tablet, but left another tablet and two R5 rifle magazines behind," an investigating source told the daily Times.

The burglars are thought to have been equipped with access cards and key codes to gain access into the buildings.

Top 10 Best Selling Products in the World: Harry Potter, Angry Birds and Rubik's Cubes

When we think about who sells the most products across the world, we may instantly turn to those who advertise the most – namely Coca Cola and Apple.

However, according to financesonline.com, the top 10 most sold products in the world span across the music sector, the toy industry and crisps.

Furthermore, with the rise in smartphone and tablet use, applications - commonly known as apps - have become worldwide phenomenons and have captured the minds (and wallets) of billions of people across the globe.

Check out the results below.

India: Scores Buried by Landslide in Pune

A mudslide surrounds a building in Pune district the western Indian state of Maharashtra(STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Scores of people are feared trapped under a landslide that buried some 50 houses in western India.

Rescues workers are trying to reach the village of Ambe, in the Pune district of Maharashtra state, to look for survivors.

More than 150 people have reportedly been buried by the landmass that swept the village.

Local commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh said continuing rains and poor roads are slowing down rescue teams.

"There are constraints. It's a hilly area and heavy rains are still continuing," Deshmukh told CNN-IBN.

Meanwhile local residents have reportedly started to clear the debris.

"The exact number of causalities is not known as we are moving slowly to ensure that those trapped are removed safely," local official Saurav Rao told the Indian Express. "About 30 ambulances have been rushed from adjoining areas to extend medical help to the victims."

The landslide was said to be caused by heavy rains that lashed the region in recent days.

Pune is about 151km (94 miles) southeast of Mumbai. The area is not new to landslides especially during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September.

Between Iraq and a Hard Place: $100m Kurdish Crude Tanker Waits Outside US Waters

Still image from video taken by a U.S. Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft shows the oil tanker United Kalavyrta(Reuters/US Coast Guard)

A US judge ruled that a disputed tanker carrying Kurdish crude oil could not be seized by American officials as it was too far from the American shore.

The United Kalavrvta Tanker was anchored in the Gulf of Mexico, around 60 miles from Texas coast, meaning the Texas court did not have jurisdiction.

Federal magistrate Nancy K Johnson had previously ordered US Marshals to seize the ship's cargo. But the judge has now called for the dispute between Iraq's central government and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan to be resolved in Iraq.

Baghdad filed a lawsuit with a US court on Monday, claiming that Kurdistan sold the crude oil without permission from the central government, in violation on the Iraqi constitution.

Kurdistan has insisted that it has the right to sell oil produced in its territory without Baghdad's approval.

Mindful that Baghdad has been weakened by a fierce insurgency and is at risk of breaking up, Washington has warned companies against buying oil directly from Iraqi Kurdistan.

The tanker is thought to be carrying around 1 million barrels of crude oil, worth about $100m.

Kurds Emboldened

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has taken increasingly bold steps to break away from Baghdad in recent months.

Having completed an oil pipeline from KRG territory to Turkey, the Kurds have loaded a number of tankers at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in a bid to sell oil on international markets.

One of these attempts has proved successful, after a tanker unloaded its cargo at the Israeli port of Ashkelon in June.

However, fierce opposition from Iraq's central government has stifled other moves to sell oil.

Baghdad has filed lawsuits against Turkey for assisting the Kurds, while it has also warned governments that it would take legal action if a port accepted a cargo of Kurdish crude.

Meanwhile, Baghdad is facing a grave political crisis as Sunni militants, led by the Islamic State, tighten their grip on northern Iraqi cities.

With central government security forces on the defensive in the north, Kurdish militias secured the key city of Kirkuk, while the KRG leadership has called for a referendum on independence.

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Young Entrepreneurs from Bansal Community Dominate India's Fast-Growing E-Commerce Sector

Flipkart logoFlipkart

India has a rising number of entrepreneurial youth, and the country's e-commerce sector is a perfect example of how young Indians are capitalising on modern-era business ideas.

Notably, India's e-commerce industry is dominated by young people from the Bansal community.

Flipkart, India's largest ecommerce website, is run by two former Amazon employees, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal who are aged 32 and 31, respectively.

Founded in 2007, Flipkart on 29 July announced a fresh round of funding worth $1bn from a number of investors led by Tiger Global Management and Naspers, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global.

Following the funding round, Flipkart has an expected valuation of $7bn. The Bansals have a 15% stake valued at about $1bn.

FlipKart achieved more than $1bn in sales in 2013, and the company is expected to be the frontrunner to take on US ecommerce giants Amazon and eBay in India. It currently employs 14,000 people and has 22 million registered users. The company completes 4 million daily visits and delivers 5 million shipments per month.

The Bansals are aiming at a $100bn valuation for the company in about 15 years.

"There are very few internet companies in the world which are worth $100 billion. There are three in the US and one in China. I believe that such a company can be produced from India and we want to be that company. We want to see Indian internet companies prosper," said Sachin Bansal.

Other domestic etailers - Myntra, Snapdeal and Lenskart - are also headed by young men of the Bansal community. They along with Flipkart control about 85% of India's 120bn rupee e-commerce market.

Eyewear retailer Lenskart, which serves about 1,000 customers per day, is headed by Peyush Bansal (30). Peyush targets to open 100 stores across India in the next two years and revenues of 1bn rupees in fiscal year 2015.

Mukesh Bansal (38) founded fashion-focused website Myntra in 2007. It is acquired by Flipkart in May.

Another popular Indian ecommerce portal, Snapdeal, was founded by Rohit Bansal (31) in 2010. It recently received 8.3bn rupees in a capital infusion led by eBay.

"Certain communities in India do encourage entrepreneurship. The Bansals and Aggarwals have definitely dominated businesses in India, particularly retail trading, for centuries," India's Economic Times quoted Ashish Jhalani, head of retail advisory firm eTailing India, as saying.

India's online retail spending would grow at a compound annual growth rate of more than 50% over the next five years and reach $16bn by 2018, an eight-fold increase from 2013, according to Research firm Forrester.

Congo and Grenada to Be Next Victims as Argentina Braces for Default

Axel Kicillof, Argentina's economy ministerReuters

Argentina is likely to fall into its second default in 13 years in the absence of a last-minute deal with holdout creditors, and experts say that countries such as Grenada and Congo could face the same fate in future.

Argentina has sufficient funds to pay the holders of its restructured bonds after its default in 2001, but it cannot make the payment as US District Judge Thomas Griesa ruled that the country cannot pay the restructured bond holders unless it also pays hold-out predatory hedge funds in full.

Following the adverse order from Griesa, Argentina claimed that if the country paid the suitors on their terms, it would lead to claims from other holdouts of around $15bn (£8.8bn, €11bn) in debt.

The government's coupon payment to restructured bondholders through a New York bank had earlier been blocked by Griesa. As a result, the country is facing a technical default by the end of July if it does not make a settlement with the holdout funds.

“Argentina is the first victim from the court's ruling. It looks like Grenada and the Democratic Republic of Congo may be the next victims.”

- Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network

Despite many rounds of talks with court-appointed mediator, Daniel Pollack, the parties are yet to reach an agreement. Argentina's Economy Minister Axel Kicillof arrived on 29 July at the Manhattan offices of Pollack to try to strike a deal by midnight on 30 July.

Argentina is still not willing to meet face-to-face with the holdout funds, whom it labelled as "vultures".

"Argentina is hours from default," Eric LeCompte, executive director of the religious financial reform organisation, Jubilee USA Network, said in a statement.

"At this point, a deal seems unlikely. Argentina may decide that the cost of default is less than the cost of compliance."

The International Monetary Fund earlier noted that the court's ruling could make it more difficult for countries to restructure their debts by making it more attractive for creditors to hold out.

The US government also filed a brief on behalf of Argentina before the US Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that a ruling in favour of the holdout creditors would harm core US debt policy. The government noted that the ruling against Argentina would harm New York's position as a global financial centre, as countries in future would seek to sign debt contracts elsewhere to avoid similar situations.

In June, the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on the case. The court ruling could also impact related cases in New York concerning Grenada and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Grenada, an eastern Caribbean island nation, is looking to resolve a year-old default on $193m of bonds. Meanwhile, African nation, Congo, remains highly indebted.

"The impact of this case is global," added LeCompte, who serves on expert groups related to the case at the UN.

"Argentina is the first victim from the court's ruling. It looks like Grenada and the Democratic Republic of Congo may be the next victims."