Top News Stories –
New Zealand record cocaine seizure in horse’s head –
New Zealand police say they have made their biggest ever seizure of cocaine, hidden inside a novel kind of drug mule. They intercepted the $10m (£7.6m) worth of cocaine inside a huge diamante-encrusted statue of a horse’s head. The shipment of 35kg (77lb) bricks was air-freighted from Mexico to the city of Auckland in May. An American and two Mexicans were arrested over the weekend following a six-week investigation. The horse’s head weighed 365kg and was 1m (3ft) tall, the New Zealand Herald reported. “This is a significant win for New Zealand,” said Det Supt Virginia Le Bas. “We should proud to have detected it at the earliest of stages.” [BBC]
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Other News Stories –
- Armed attacks and conflicts
- Business and economics
- Libya‘s National Oil Corporation agrees to merge with the rival company of the same name in the east of the country after being split by the two rival governments. (Reuters)
- Disasters and accidents
- At least 31 people are killed and several more remain missing after flash floods ravage the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. (Al Jazeera)
- Rescue workings in Russia‘s Irkutsk Oblast discover the remains of a Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane which went missing last Friday after going on a firefighting mission. Six people have been killed in the crash.(Reuters)
- International relations
- Switzerland–European Union relations
- The European Union warns Switzerland that it will lose access to its single market if it goes through with its plan to impose restrictions on the free movement of EU citizens. In a referendum held back in February 9, 2014, Swiss voters approved limiting the movement of economic migrants from the EU in the country. Current laws allow migrants to enter Switzerland without visas. (The Guardian)
- Law and crime
- Human rights in the Philippines; Philippine Drug War
- Ten people are killed by the Philippine National Police within a week after Rodrigo Duterte took office as president and made statements encouraging the murder of illegal drug addicts. (Channel News Asia)
- Politics and elections
- French presidential election, 2017
- Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy resigns as leader of The Republicans party and announces his candidacy for President again. (The Guardian)
- Sport
- 2016 Formula One season
- Lewis Hamilton wins the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. (BBC)
- 2016 Summer Olympics
- The Russian Olympic Committee appeals the ban of its track and field team from participating in the upcoming summer Olympics by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), because of large scale doping, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A hearing on the case will take place on July 19. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
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