SPOTLIGHT: A DEADLY END TO A DEADLY RAMADAN

The latest terror news bulletin flashed from one of Islam's holiest sites, the Prophet Muhammad's mosque in the city of Medina. Two days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan, the mosque was struck yesterday by a suicide bomber, killing four security guards and wounding five others. The deadly bombing appeared linked to a series of attacks in Saudi Arabia yesterday, though strikes in the city of Jeddah and Qatif left no casualties.

This series of attacks on the symbolic Saudi territory, just before the Eid al-Fitr holiday, comes at the end of a bloody Ramadan — which is just what the terror group ISIS called for in late May. It is also a reminder that the majority of ISIS" victims are Muslim. The following list is just a portion of those launched in the past month:

• On June 21, a suicide car bombing in Jordan killed six members of the country's security forces.
• In Lebanon, a series of suicide attacks on June 27 killed six people and left 19 injured in a mainly Christian area of the north of the country.
• Also on June 27, 42 people were killed in a terrorist attack in the Yemeni city of Mukalla.
• On June 12, an American-born Muslim killed 49 people at a gay night club in Orlando, Florida.
• Last week, three armed men, believed to be ISIS terrorists from Russian republics, stormed Istanbul's Ataturk airport and killed 44 people.
• On Friday and Saturday, gunmen stormed a café in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and eventually killed 20 hostages and two police officers.
• A truck filled with explosives was detonated on Saturday night in a busy shopping area in Baghdad. More than 200 people were killed and at least 175 wounded.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR TODAY

• Tories begin selecting new British PM.
• China starts week of military drills in South China Sea.
• "VatiLeaks" trio stand trial.

NASA SPACECRAFT ENTERS JUPITER'S ORBIT

"NASA did it again," the head of the Juno mission was quoted as saying last night by USA Today during a press conference at the California Institute of Technology after the spacecraft successfully made it into Jupiter's orbit. Juno will now spend time studying Jupiter's giant radiation belts "just" 2,600 miles above the planet's clouds.

CHINA FLOODS KILL MORE THAN 100

Severe floods across central and southern China have left at least 112 people dead or missing in recent days, Channel NewsAsia reports. The heavy rains have also damaged more than 1.5 million hectares of cropland and affected more than 16 million people.

EXTRA!

This Brazilian newspaper featured security concerns in Rio de Janeiro on its front page today, just a month before the Summer Olympics are set to open.

SYRIAN REBEL GROUPS ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES

In a report published this morning, Amnesty International accused five rebel groups in Syria (al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, Nureddin Zinki, the Levant Front and Division 16) of committing "war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law with impunity," as Al Jazeera reports.

— ON THIS DAY

Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, would have turned 20 today. That, and more, in your 57-second shot of History.

MALAYSIA BLAST LAST WEEK WAS ISIS ATTACK

Malaysian authorities said this morning that a grenade attack carried out on June 28 against a bar outside the country's capital Kuala Lumpur, was the first attack by ISIS on Malaysian territory, The Star reports. The attack, which injured eight, was initially thought by police to be caused by business rivalry. Two men suspected of involvement in the attack have been arrested.

— WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO

The secretive Freemasons usually recruit through word-of-mouth, which is why a recent Facebook ad, seeking applicants for a São Paulo branch, is such a source of curiosity. For Brazilian daily Folha de S. Paulo, Chico Felitti responded to the ad: "The candidates take turns entering a tiled room with no furniture except for two office chairs. The master (third in the hierarchy) who will direct the interview sits in one of them. ‘There is nothing mystical here,' he says. ‘It's not about religion. We won't murder each other.' The meetings, he goes on to explain, are like a never-ending network of relationships. What kind of relationships? ‘I'll leave it to your imagination,' he says. The interview goes on for about 30 minutes. The farewell at the end comes with a compliment — "Your profile is very interesting" — but also a warning: ‘We are everywhere and powerful. So it's easy for us to learn more about you.'"

Read the full article, In Brazil, Following Facebook Into A Freemason Lodge.

VERBATIM

"I am wondering what real added value they provide in terms of securing the national territory," the French socialist MP Sébastien Pietrasanta was quoted as saying by Le Monde this morning about the 6,000 to 7,000 soldiers currently on duty in France as part of extra anti-terror measures imposed after the Paris attacks last November.

MY GRAND-PERE'S WORLD

After The Mouse — Disney World, 1987

IRANIAN FILM DIRECTOR ABBAS KIAROSTAMI DIES

Abbas Kiarostami, an influential Iranian director who was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for his minimalist movie Taste of Cherry, died yesterday in Paris from cancer.

— MORE STORIES, EXCLUSIVELY IN ENGLISH BY WORLDCRUNCH

• Looking Back At Brexit, A Decade From Now — Les Echos
• A Look Inside Russia's Booming Garage Economy — Kommersant
• Ashley Madison "Fembots" Star In Swiss Exhibition — Le Monde

ONE LAST "HÙ"

Iceland's soccer team returned home yesterday after their 5-2 defeat against France in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Euro on Sunday. They were received as heroes by tens of thousands of supporters in Reykjavik, where they united in a final "Hù," their now famous "Viking" chant (which expand=1] may actually be Scottish).