THE EU and Japan are signing a widespread trade deal that will eliminate nearly all tariffs, seemingly defying worries over trade tensions triggered by Donald Trump’s policies.
The deal will be signed in Tokyo, although this is largely ceremonial as the agreement was struck late last year.
European Council president Donald Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker will attend a gala dinner at prime minister Shinzo Abe’s official residence.
ECHR rules that Pussy Riot's rights were violated
THE European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Russian government violated the rights of the Pussy Riot punk collective during the group’s 2012 protest inside a Moscow cathedral.
Today's ruling ordered Russia to pay members of Pussy Riot more than €42,000 (£37,000).
Pussy Riot use outrageous stunts to draw attention to perceived abuses under Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. They claimed responsibility for four protesters who barged on to the field during the World Cup final.
Tuesday’s ruling concerned a separate protest.
The protesters twice slipped into churches and pulled out instruments, briefly performing a song containing profanities that was intended to protest the Orthodox Church leader’s endorsement of Putin. They were later convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.
30 civilians killed in latest fighting in Yemen
FIGHTING over the last two weeks along Yemen’s western coast between pro-government forces – backed by a Saudi-led coalition – and Shiite rebels has killed at least 30 civilians.
Women and children were among the dead.
Government forces have been trying to seize rebel-held areas along the western coast, while the Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the rebels, known as Houthis, with airstrikes.
The fighting has been concentrated over the past two weeks in the al-Tuhyta district, south of Hodeida, a vital lifeline for Yemen’s aid-dependent population. The coalition launched an offensive to retake the city in June.
Along with over 30 killed, fighting and airstrikes, as well as land mines, have wounded 57 civilians since the beginning of July, health and security officials said.
The Saudi-led coalition is aiming to restore the UN-backed government
to power.
Libyan coast guard accused of abandoning migrants
A migrant aid group has accused Libya's coast guard of abandoning three people in the Mediterranean Sea, including a woman and a toddler who died.
It came after the interception of 160 Europe-bound migrants near the shores of the North African nation.
Proactiva Open Arms, a Spanish rescue group, said it had found one woman alive on Tuesday and another one dead, along with the body of a toddler, amid the drifting remains of a destroyed migrant boat.
The wrecked migrant boat was found 80 nautical miles from the Libyan coast.
The organisation posted images and videos of the wreckage and the dead bodies on social media, accusing both a merchant ship sailing in international waters and Libya's coast guard for failing to help the three migrants.
Libyan Coast Guard spokesman Ayoub Gassim had earlier said that a boat carrying 158 passengers including 34 women and nine children had been stopped Monday off the coast of the western town of Khoms.
Lab-grown beefburger firm in funding boost
A Dutch company that presented the world's first lab-grown beefburger five years ago says it has received funding to make and sell artificially grown meat to restaurants from 2021.
Maastricht-based Mosa Meat has said it raised €7.5 million (£6.7m), mainly from M Ventures and Bell Food Group.
M Ventures is an investment vehicle for German pharmaceuticals company Merck KGaA.
Bell Food is a European meat processing company based in Switzerland.
Mosa Meat has in the past also received one million euro (£890,000) from Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
It is one of several working to produce cultured meat for consumers concerned about the environmental and ethical impact of traditional farming.
Mosa Meat aims to sell its first products in 2021, achieving industrial-scale production two to three years later.
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