German Parliament to turn off computers

LONDON • The German Parliament will switch off its entire computer system for several days this month in order to repair the network after a cyber attack in May.

Bundestag President Norbert Lammert said the IT network would be shut down on Aug 13, and it would take up to five days to set up the new system. Der Spiegel news magazine quoted an internal investigation as saying there were indications that a Russian intelligence agency had staged the attack.

REUTERS

Lack of coalition could lead Turks to early polls

ANKARA • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for early elections if efforts to form a coalition yield no result after the ruling party lost its overall majority in the June 7 polls.

Turkey is without a full-time government even as it presses cross-border military operations against extremists in Syria and Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.

Some critics accuse Mr Erdogan of launching the military operation in the hope of triggering early elections.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

French court upholds cockfighting ban

PARIS • France's top court yesterday upheld a ban on new cockfighting pits as the country seeks to stamp out the ancient blood-sport that continues in some regions, despite being banned in most parts of the world.

Two Frenchmen had approached the Constitutional Council after they were prosecuted for opening a cock pit on the French island of La Reunion in 2012.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE