U.S. SPIED ON THREE FRENCH PRESIDENTS
The United States' National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the last three French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, according to Wikileaks documents obtained and released by the French daily Libération and the investigative website Mediapart.
According to the documents first published by WikiLeaks late on Tuesday, and shared with the two French news outlets, the NSA wiretapped the last three presidents of France from 2006 to 2012.
Recorded conversations include revelations about Sarkozy's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Hollande's fear of Greece leaving the Eurozone.
The NSA has already been accused of spying on several world leaders allied with Washington, including German chancellor Angela Merkel in 2013. Still, the proof provided by Wikileaks is another embarrassment for the Obama administration.
François Hollande held an emergency meeting "to evaluate the nature of the information published... and to draw useful conclusions" according to a French presidential aide.
The U.S. ambassador was summoned Wednesday morning to the French foreign ministry.
PAKISTAN HEAT WAVE DEATH TOLL TOPS 800
Photo :Sajjad/Zuma
The death toll from a severe heatwave in southern Pakistan has surpassed 800, as mortuaries have reached maximum capacity and officials have been criticized for not doing enough to prevent the deaths. The figure could also rise significantly as temperatures are expected to remain unusually high for a fourth consecutive day, Al Jazeera reports. Temperatures were as high as 45°C (113°F) Tuesday in certain parts of the country. Pakistan's Prime Minister has called for emergency measures and the army has been deployed to help set up heat stroke centers.
AT LEAST 18 DEAD AFTER CHINA UIGHUR ATTACK
An attack led by ethnic Uighurs against a police checkpoint in China's western Xinjiang region has left at least 18 dead — 15 attackers and 3 police officers — Radio Free Asia reports. According to a local officer quoted by the U.S.-based radio, the attack occurred Monday in a district of the southern city of Kashgar, where tensions between Muslim Uighurs that call the region home and the majority Han Chinese have led to bloodshed in recent years.
GIRL SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 10 IN NIGERIA
A female suicide bomber, described by witnesses quoted by the BBC to be as young as 12 years old, has killed at least 10 people and injured another 20 when she detonated her explosives in the northeastern Nigerian town of Gujba, in Yobe state. The attack has not been claimed yet but the terrorist organization Boko Haram has been known for carrying out similar attacks involving young girls. The Nigerian army seized the town from the Islamist group earlier this year.
YEMEN ANTI-HOUTHI FORCES SEIZE SAUDI BORDER CROSSING
Army forces loyal to Yemen's exiled president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi seized a border crossing with Saudi Arabia Tuesday, officials in the area and witnesses quoted by Al Arabiya say. This is a rare blow to the country's dominant Houthi group. The rebel group controls three other border crossings into the Saudi kingdom.
VERBATIM
"It shouldn't fly there. It shouldn't fly anywhere," the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a speech Tuesday at a church in Florissant, Mo., referring to the American Confederate flag. This comes less than a week after nine black people were killed at a Charleston church by white supremacist Dylan Roof.
LAST HONG KONG PRO-DEMOCRACY CAMPS CLEARED
A handful of demonstrators from the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement watched in silence as their last street camps were cleared away by authorities Wednesday, Reuters reports. This puts an end to one of Beijing's biggest political challenge in decades that started in September. Most of the street camps had been removed as early as December, but a small cluster of determined protesters carried on the movement.
74,000
Health experts estimate about 74,000 cases of malaria went untreated in 2014 in Guinea, due to the continuing Ebola epidemic in the country, The Lancet reports. This could be a result of closed clinics or patients fearing to seek help. The group of 15 doctors who released the report warn that malaria deaths since the beginning of 2014 will far exceed the number of Ebola deaths.
ON THIS DAY
Manila and South Africa's rugby team share June 24 with two other notable events, see today's 57-second shot of history.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
The protein-rich algae spirulina is abundant and affordable in the Central African Republic, making it a nutritional alternative to help feed kids in the developing world, Natacha Tatu writes for L'Obs. And that's exactly what one Frenchman is doing, feeding children. "Freddy comes from Brittany, in France, but has spent almost half his life in Africa," Tatu writes. "He regularly swears he will leave Bangui and retire to his home in Kerfeunteun, in the Finistère department. But at 72, the restaurant owner is still here, year after year, shaking customers' hands, all the while single-handedly dealing with his small spirulina factory and a child nutrition center, where his ‘magic potion' is quite literally saving lives." Read the full article, In Bangui, A Grizzled Expat Feeds Hungry Kids With Algae.
IF YOU COULD TAKE THAT EMAIL BACK
Those moments of cringing because you noticed a glaring typo or forgot to include the attached document just after you sent an email might now be history. Gmail just launched its much-awaited "undo send" function.
