US slaps Hezbollah financier with prison, $50 mn fineA Lebanese businessman designated by US authorities as an important financial supporter of Hezbollah was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $50 million, the Justice Department said Thursday. Kassim Tajideen, 63, pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to launder money as part of a scheme to evade US sanctions. “His sentencing and the $50 million forfeiture in this case are just the latest public examples of the Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to disrupt and dismantle Hezbollah and its support networks,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski.

Dayton shooting: Man shields girlfriend from attack as Ohio gunman opens fire in unseen footageA man seen in videos using his own body as a human shield to protect his girlfriend from gunfire during a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio over the weekend has recalled the harrowing experience in an interview Thursday morning. Camryn Crowder grabbed his girlfriend and fell to the floor on Sunday as a gunman shot up a popular area for nightlife in the Ohio city just yards away. He can be seen in video clips holding onto the woman as others attempt to flee from the scene. “I saw people getting hit. I literally saw them fall,” Mr Crowder said. …

Former SS guard of Nazi camp, 92, to go on trial in GermanyA 92-year-old former SS private will go on trial this fall in Germany on 5,230 counts of being an accessory to murder, accused of helping the Nazis’ Stutthof concentration camp function, a Hamburg court said Thursday. “Surveillance was necessary for the concentration camp to function, and the camp was made to kill people,” Hamburg state court spokesman Kai Wantzen said of the prosecution’s argument. Wantzen said the suspect did not deny to authorities that he had served in Stutthof and said he was aware people were being killed.

Russian couple face losing custody of child after protestMoscow’s ombudsman for children’s rights and members of a presidential council have expressed outrage over Russian prosecutors trying to take a 1-year-old boy from his parents because they allegedly brought him to an unauthorized protest. The ombudsman, Yevgeny Bunimovich, denounced the custody removal request prosecutors filed Tuesday as “political blackmail involving children” and said he wrote Moscow’s chief prosecutor to urge dropping a criminal case against the parents. Prosecutors alleged in a court petition seeking the withdrawal of parental rights that Dmitri and Olga Prokazov endangered their son by taking him to a July 27 protest rally and handing the …

Body found in ravine in search for British scientist missing on Greek islandThe body of a British astrophysicist who went missing on a Greek island was found at the bottom of a ravine on Wednesday. Dr Natalie Christopher, 35, disappeared on Monday on the Aegean island of Ikaria, with her boyfriend saying she had gone for a run. Her body was found by a volunteer firefighter in a 65ft-deep ravine about a mile from the hotel where she and her partner had been staying. Asked whether the body had fallen into the ravine or been pushed, Theodoros Chronopoulos, a Greek police spokesman, said it was too early to tell. Dr Christopher is …

Fox News host Tucker Carlson dismisses white supremacy as 'a hoax'* Carlson: ‘It’s actually not a real problem in America’ * El Paso massacre suspect posted anti-immigrant screedTucker Carlson said of white supremacy: ‘Just like the Russia hoax, it’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.’ Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesTucker Carlson, the Fox News host who regularly echoes Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant “invasion” rhetoric, has described white supremacy in America as a “hoax” and a “conspiracy theory”.Coming just days after a Texas man allegedly killed 22 people in El Paso after posting a manifesto complaining of a “Hispanic invasion”, the prime-time news star defended …

Saudi prepares for hajj as Gulf tensions persistMore than 2.5 million Muslims will on Friday begin the annual hajj pilgrimage in the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, against a backdrop of tensions in the Gulf. Crowds of worshippers have already begun to gather in Mecca in the days ahead of the hajj, the focal point of the Islamic calendar. The pilgrims will undertake religious rites that have remained unchanged since the founding of Islam 14 centuries ago.