1. 3 Spanish reporters missing in Syria

    Three Spanish journalists have gone missing in Syria where they were reporting from the northwestern Aleppo region, the head of a Spanish press federation said on July 21.

    Jose Manuel Lopez, Antonio Pampliega and Angel Sastre entered Syria via southern Turkey on July 10 “and there has been no news of them since July 12,” said Elsa Gonzalez, president of the federation.

    The disappearance of the three, presumed to be working together, comes as most media organizations have pulled out of Syria.

    2. US air strike kills al-Qaida leader

    A U.S.-LED coalition* air strike earlier this month killed the leader of an al-Qaida offshoot* in Syria, the Pentagon said last week.

    Muhsin al-Fadhli was killed in a “kinetic* strike” on July 8 while traveling in a vehicle near the northwestern Syrian town of Sarmada, said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

    He did not confirm whether a drone or a manned aircraft had killed Fadhli, 34.

    3. Prosecutors to drop Arafat death probe

    A French prosecutor said on July 21 there was no case to answer regarding the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose widow* alleges* he was poisoned.

    “The prosecution gave the opinion that the case should be dismissed,” the prosecutor’s office said.

    Arafat died at Percy Military Hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

    His widow Suha filed a case in 2012 at a court in Nanterre, north of Paris, saying he was murdered.

    The same year, Arafat’s tomb in Ramallah was opened for a few hours to allow three teams of French, Swiss and Russian investigators to collect around 60 samples.

    4. New hunt for alien life launched

    British cosmologist* Stephen Hawking on July 20 launched the biggest-ever search for intelligent extraterrestrial* life in a US$100-million, 10-year project to scan the heavens.

    Russian Silicon Valley entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who is funding the Breakthrough Listen initiative, said it would be the most intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of alien civilization.

    “In an infinite universe, there must be other occurrences of life,” Hawking said at the launch event at the Royal Society science academy in London. “It’s time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth.”

    5. Myanmar jails 154 Chinese

    A court in northern Myanmar has sentenced over 150 Chinese nationals for violating the law against destroying public property, according to the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar on July 23.

    The Myitkyina district court in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state sentenced 152, out of 155 arrested Chinese loggers*, to life in prison under a 1963 law calling for jail terms of 10 years to life for anyone who steals or otherwise misuses or abuses public property.

    The Chinese loggers reportedly claimed that they had been tricked into carrying out the logging.

    6. Greece clears reform hurdle

    Greece’s left-led government emerged bloodied but alive on July 23 from a key vote in parliament.

    The reforms to the judiciary* and banking systems were the final hurdle* the financially battered country was obliged to clear before it can start talks with its creditors on a third bailout* worth around 85 billion euros (US$93 billion).

    Lawmakers voted 230 to 63 in favor of the measures, following a whirlwind debate that ended at 4 a.m. Another five members of the 300-seat house voted present, a kind of abstention.(SD-Agencies)