Bahrain court increases Sheikh Salman’s jail term by five years

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• A Bahraini court has extended the jail term of opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman to nine years. Salman was detained in 2014 over allegations that he attempted to overthrow the Manama regime. He was initially sentenced to four years in jail. Salman and his bloc have been on the regime’s target list.
• Iraq's Special Forces have entered the Daesh-controlled city of Fallujah in an offensive to drive the terrorists from the city. According to an army spokesman, they've broken into the flashpoint city from three directions. Government forces have already recaptured 80 percent of the territory around Fallujah since a week ago.
• Mohammed Alloush has resigned as the head of the Syrian opposition's delegation to the Geneva talks. Alloush has cited the failure of the peace talks as the reason. The Saudi-backed opposition withdrew from the UN-backed discussions in April. No date has been set for the resumption of the negotiations.
• Saudi Arabia’s foreign assets have fallen to their lowest level in four years. According to new data released by the Saudi Central Bank, net assets shrank over one percent to 572 billion dollars. Last year, a nearly 100-billion dollar budget deficit forced the kingdom to liquidate some of its financial holdings.
• An Egyptian military court has sentenced eight Muslim Brotherhood members to death on terrorism charges. The court sentenced 12 others to life imprisonment, as well as jail terms of six to fifteen years. They're accused of planning attacks on security personnel following the overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
• Jordan's King Abdullah has appointed veteran politician Hani Mulqi as caretaker prime minister after dissolving the parliament. The king accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, assigning Mulqi with the task of organizing elections by October.
• Spanish police have clashed with protesters angry over the forced eviction of squatters from an abandoned bank in Barcelona. The protesters rallied in Gracia neighborhood in support of the squatters who'd been occupying the building since 2011. They threw flour at police as they were trying to break up the crowd.
• The Italian coastguard has recovered the bodies of 45 asylum seekers killed in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean on Friday. They were on their way to Europe. According to UN figures, more than 700 refugees may have drowned in the Mediterranean over the past few days.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk