Suspected gunman caught in US black church 'hate crime'
US police on Thursday arrested a 21-year-old white gunman suspected of killing nine people in one of the nation's oldest black churches in Charleston - a shooting rampage being probed as a hate crime.
The carnage at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the southeastern US city was one of the worst attacks on a place of worship in the country in decades, and comes at a time of lingering racial tensions nationwide.
Dylann Roof - a slight man with a bowl haircut and a youthful face - was taken into custody in neighbouring North Carolina, about a four-hour drive from the scene of the shooting.
Actress Julie Gayet attends first official event with France's Hollande
French actress Julie Gayet appeared for the first time on Thursday at an official event attended by President Francois Hollande, amid speculation that she is being gradually introduced as the nation's new first lady.
The 43-year-old actress, dressed all in black, stepped out at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of a famous wartime address by General Charles de Gaulle.
Hollande, 60, split with his long-term girlfriend Valerie Trierweiler last year after revelations that he was having an affair with Gayet.
High drama at Yemen talks as slipper hurled at rebel leader
Fisticuffs broke out Thursday at a Geneva press conference by Yemeni rebels when their leader was attacked by a slipper-wielding woman as the UN's mediator scrambled to revive deadlocked peace talks.
The dramatic attack underscored the deep divisions between the various sides involved in trying to get Iran-backed rebels and the Saudi-backed exiled government to agree to a badly-needed humanitarian truce.
Ansarullah member Hamza al-Huthi, who heads the rebel delegation at the talks, was addressing reporters when a woman in a headscarf barged in and threw a slipper at him.
The delegate, whose Shi'ite group is more commonly known as the Huthis, promptly threw it back.
Greek crisis deepens as euro zone talks end with no deal
Crunch European talks to end the standoff over Greece's debt ended without a deal on Thursday, as the IMF warned Athens it would get no leeway to meet a payment at the end of the month and avoid default.
The clock ticked closer to midnight on the crisis after euro zone finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg failed to reach a breakthrough on a reform deal that could avert a catastrophic Greek exit from the euro.
EU President Donald Tusk quickly announced an emergency summit of the leaders of the 19 euro zone countries on Monday in Brussels.
Eager fans snap up copies of new Fifty Shades Of Grey novel
Fans of British author E.L. James' Fifty Shades Of Grey erotic trilogy clamoured on Thursday to get the first copies of her new book Grey, a version of the first novel told through the eyes of her famous male character.
At Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhattan, where James was doing a book signing on Thursday, the line stretched around the block.
Early reviews of Grey say it is the raunchiest book of the series and holds nothing back in revealing Grey's deepest desires and secrets.
