World News on July 19th, 2016

WORLD

TURKEY: Turkey launched fresh raids and sacked almost 9,000 officials in a relentless crackdown against suspected coup plotters that has alarmed the West and sparked fears Ankara could reinstate the death penalty. 

RUSSIA: The World Anti-Doping Agency called for all Russian competitors and officials to be banned from the Rio Olympics and other international sport after an investigation found rampant state-run doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and other events.

FRANCE: The truck driver who caused carnage in the French city of Nice showed "recent interest" in jihadist activity, investigators said Monday, four days after a massacre that sparked fierce criticism of the government's security record.

SYRIA: Civilians in rebel-held parts of Syria's Aleppo expressed fears of a lengthy government siege, as food supplies dwindled after regime troops seized the only road into the city's east.

UK: New British foreign minister and lead Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson urged the EU Monday to leave its doors open on strategic issues and promised Britain would continue to play a "leading role" in Europe. 

ARMENIA: Hundreds of anti-government protesters rallied in Yerevan calling for a bloodless resolution to a hostage crisis a day after a pro-opposition armed group seized a police building in the Armenian capital.

Republican convention begins

The Republican Party opened its national convention, kicking off a four-day political jamboree that will anoint billionaire Donald Trump as its presidential nominee. Some 2,000 delegates descended on a tightly secured Cleveland arena where Trump's wife took center stage to make a personal pitch to voters that her billionaire husband is the best candidate for the White House. The mogul - whose rise to lead the Republican White House ticket has been one of the more improbable journeys in politics - seeks to unify a party deeply split by months of bitter campaigning and divisive rhetoric. "This convention will come to order," Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus told cheering delegates at 1pm (1700GMT). Melania Trump, a Slovenian-born former model, had top billing for the opening night of the four-day convention in Cleveland, Ohio, which takes place against a backdrop of fear over racial violence and unrest abroad. The opening-day theme was "Make America Safe Again" - a play on Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again." Priebus swiftly addressed the unrest that has rattled communities, calling for a moment of silence for officers killed in the line of duty, including those gunned down in two attacks in the past 10 days. 

Trump 'cannot become president': Clinton

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton called on venerable civil-rights group the NAACP Monday to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in his bid for the White House. Speaking at the annual NAACP conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the Republican National Convention opened several hundred miles away, Clinton insisted that Trump was unfit to be president and announced a nationwide drive to register millions of new voters. Clinton painted her tycoon opponent as a threat to democracy, lacking a policy platform and whose company refused to rent to African American tenants in the 1970s. "Donald Trump plays coy with white supremacists. Donald Trump insults Mexican immigrants... Donald Trump demeans women. Donald Trump wants to ban an entire religion from entering our country and Donald Trump loves to talk to the press," she said. Clinton told the NAACP crowd that the Republicans were becoming the party of Trump. "It is a threat to our democracy and it all adds up to an undeniable conclusion... Donald Trump cannot become president," she said to huge applause and delegates leaping to their feet. "That's why we've got to work together to get the vote out this fall," she said, announcing a nationwide drive to get three million people registered to vote in the November 8 general election.

Ex-Marine 'ambushed' Baton Rouge cops

The black former Marine and Iraq war veteran who shot dead three police officers in Baton Rouge at the weekend specifically targeted the cops, officials said Monday. Louisiana investigators were now trying to determine why the shooter-identified by media as Gavin Long, 29-opened fire on the officers Sunday. He also wounded three cops before he was killed in a firefight. It was not yet clear if his act had a similar motivation as the slaying of five Dallas officers ten days ago, when a black veteran of the Afghanistan war opened fire, seeking revenge for the fatal police shootings of black men. But the weekend bloodshed in Baton Rouge kept the city-and the country-on edge. Racial tensions were already high in Louisiana's state capital after the July 5 death of Alton Sterling, a black man shot at point-blank range by white police. "He ambushed these police officers," Louisiana State Police Superintendent Colonel Mike Edmonson told CNN. "His prey was those police officers or any police officers in the area."

United States in Brief

HONOR: President Barack Obama awarded Monday the highest military honor to a retired Vietnam War helicopter pilot whose heroic actions saved the lives of dozens of his fellow soldiers. Charles Kettles, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, was recognized for his valor while leading an army airborne infantry unit tasked with evacuating wounded soldiers in May 1967.

BALTIMORE: The most senior Baltimore police officer to face trial for the death of Freddie Gray was acquitted of all charges Monday, in a case that sparked riots and fueled a national debate over police treatment of black Americans. Local media reported the verdict handed down by a judge in the case of Brian Rice, 42, the fourth of six Baltimore police officers to go on trial for Gray's death.

NICE ATTACK: An American student who was among those missing following a deadly truck attack in Nice has been confirmed dead, the University of California, Berkeley said Sunday. Nicolas Leslie, 20, had been studying in the southern French coastal city as part of Berkeley's study abroad program.

ZIKA: A elderly man who died of Zika virus in Utah appears to have transmitted the infection to a family contact who was a caregiver, health officials said on Monday. The second person has since recovered from the infection, which is primarily spread by mosquitoes but is also known to be spread through sexual contact.

STUDY: Poor African-American men in the United States face nearly three times the risk of dying as black men above the poverty line, according to research published on Monday. The findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine are based on a study of healthy aging in diverse neighborhoods that recruited 3,720 participants, including black and white men and women of various incomes.

ASTHMA: Living near sites that extract natural gas by hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, may increase the risk of asthma up to four times, a study said Monday.

SPACEX: A SpaceX rocket blasted off Monday toward the International Space Station, carrying a load of supplies for the astronauts living in space, including equipment to enable future spaceships to park at the orbiting outpost. "Falcon 9 is on its way," said a commentator at SpaceX mission control as the white rocket launched under a dark night sky from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 12:45am(0445GMT).

SPORT

SUNDAY'S SCOREBOARD
MLB: INTERLEAGUE
Texas 4 Chicago Cubs 1
MLB: AMERICAN LEAGUE
Toronto 5 Oakland 3
Tampa Bay 5 Baltimore 2
Detroit 4 Kansas City 2
Cleveland 6 Minnesota 1
L.A. Angels 8 ChicagoWhite Sox 1
Houston 8 Seattle 1
N.Y. Yankees 3 Boston 1
MLB: NATIONAL LEAGUE
Cincinnati 1 Milwaukee 0
Atlanta 1 Colorado 0
N.Y. Mets 5 Philadelphia 0
Pittsburgh 2 Washington 1 (18 innings)
Miami 6 St. Louis 3
Arizona 6 L.A. Dodgers 5
San Diego 5 San Francisco 3
MLS
Portland 3 Seattle 1
New York City FC 3 Montreal 1
New York 2 Philadelphia 2

TENNIS: Croatia completed a Davis Cup comeback from 2-0 down to beat the USA 3-2 and advance to the semi-finals where they face France. Borna Coric clinched the quarter-final for Croatia with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3,6-4 win over Jack Sock.

GOLF: Australia'sAaron Baddeley rolled in a 28-foot birdie putt at the fourth playoff hole to edge South Korea's Kim Si-Woo for the PGA Tour's Barbasol Championship.

LPGA: New Zealand teenager Lydia Ko earned her 14th career LPGA Tour title at the Marathon Classic, defeating Ariya Jutanugarn and Lee Mi-Rim on the fourth extra hole.

CYCLING: Peter Sagan said he was lucky to pip Alexander Kristoff in a photo finish to the Tour de France 16th stage - and admitted he initially thought he had come second.

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