Steps agreed to lower Israeli-Palestinian tensions: Kerry
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that steps were agreed at talks in Amman to lower tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians.
After talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II, Kerry said "firm commitments" had been made to maintain the status quo at holy sites in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
He said Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights over the Al-Aqsa mosque in the Holy City, had also agreed to take steps to "de-escalate the situation" in Jerusalem and to "restore confidence."
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Police hunt for tiger on the loose near Paris
Police and firefighters were desperately hunting for a tiger on the loose near Paris on Thursday after a local resident spotted the fearsome animal in a car park and sounded the alert, authorities said.
Backed up by a helicopter overhead, firefighters armed with tranquilising guns combed the area in the Seine-et-Marne district near the French capital. Residents were told to stay indoors and children were kept at school.
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Climate change may mean 50 per cent more lightning by 2100
Lightning has the power to spark wildfires and kill, and scientists said Thursday that climate change may lead to 50 per cent more of it by century's end.
The report in the US journal Science is based on measurements of precipitation and cloud buoyancy, applied to 11 different climate models that estimate how warm the planet may get by 2100.
The researchers found that each one degree Celsius rise in global average air temperature would mean about 12 per cent more lightning strikes.
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Hachette, Amazon end nasty feud with deal on book sales
Publisher Hachette and Amazon ended on Thursday an acrimonious feud over online book sales that highlighted Amazon's market dominance and fuelled protests from leading authors like John Grisham and Stephen King.
After six months in which Amazon clamped down on sales of Hachette Publishing Group books on its website, the two announced a multi-year agreement on ebook and print book sales in the US market.
The spat over who sets retail prices for online sales, especially ebooks, had outraged Hachette authors who saw their book sales sink after Amazon leveraged its power as the largest book retailer in the United States.
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Football: Chelsea upbeat as they post record Abramovich-era $37.4 million profit
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said the club would become increasingly self-sufficient after he announced the Premier League leaders had made a profit of £18.4 million (S$37.4 million) for the financial year ending June 2014.
It was the largest surplus recorded by the west London side since Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich became the owner of the Stamford Bridge club 11 years ago.
Turnover increased for the fifth successive year to stand at a record £319.8 million, up from £255.8 million for the previous 12 months.
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