A French court has ordered Ikea to pay a fine of €1m (£860,000; $1.2m) after the Swedish furniture chain was found guilty of spying on staff in France. The former CEO of Ikea France, Jean-Louis Baillot, was given a two-year suspended jail term and €50,000 fine. The French subsidiary was found to have used private detectives and police officers to collect private data on staff. Evidence came to light in 2012. Stung by the affair, Ikea fired four managers and got a new code of conduct. The 15 people in the dock at the Versailles court included top executives and former store managers. Four police officers were also on trial for handing over confidential information.(BBC)…[+]

Airlines have reported about 3,000 cases of unruly passengers to US aviation authorities this year as bad behaviour on flights takes off during the coronavirus pandemic.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said 2,300 of those reports were about people who refused to wear masks. Videos of rows over mask requirements on flights have been going viral. This year has also seen a record number of possible violations of the law on flights. Passengers found guilty of unruly or dangerous behaviour can face fines or possible jail time.  The FAA said it had investigated the highest number of potential breaches of the law since records began in 1995. 

The agency said some 394 cases of passengers allegedly “interfering with the duties of a crew member” had been reported as of 25 May. This is twice as many as the whole of last year, when 183 cases were investigated.(BBC)…[+]

A Republican lawmaker has apologised for likening coronavirus mask rules to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia disavowed her comments after a visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The conservative firebrand said it was important for her to acknowledge she had made “offensive remarks”. The Trump ally has courted controversy since assuming office in January. Speaking outside the US Capitol on Monday, Mrs Greene said: “One of the best lessons that my father always taught me was when you make a mistake you should own it. “And I have a made a mistake and it’s really bothered me for a couple of weeks now and so I definitely want to own it.“(BBC)…[+]

The remains of 123 victims of one of the worst massacres in Iraq by the jihadist group Islamic State have been exhumed from a mass grave near Mosul. DNA samples will be compared with those collected from possible relatives in an attempt to identify them. The victims were among more than 600 mostly Shia Muslim inmates at Badoush prison who were killed by IS in 2014. IS militants drove them to a ravine and shot them dead after attacking the prison and freeing their fellow Sunnis. The group once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of land stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.(BBC)…[+]

All 19 workers at a fast food restaurant in Pakistan were detained after refusing to give a group of police officers free burgers last week. Staff at the chain Johnny & Jugnu in Lahore were rounded up at 0100 (2000 GMT) on Saturday and held overnight. “This is not the first time something like this has happened… at our restaurant,” a statement by the burger chain said. Nine police officers involved in the incident have now been suspended. Senior provincial police official Inam Ghani announced the suspensions on Twitter, saying: “No one is allowed to take the law into his own hands. Injustice will not be tolerated. All of them will be punished.” In a statement posted on Facebook, Johnny & Jugnu said a group of police officers had gone to the restaurant two days before the incident and asked for free burgers.(NU)…[+]

A headache, sore throat and runny nose are now the most commonly reported symptoms linked to Covid infection in the UK, researchers say. Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe Covid Symptom study, says catching the Delta variant can feel “more like a bad cold” for younger people. But although they may not feel very ill, they could be contagious and put others at risk. Anyone who thinks they may have Covid should take a test. The classic Covid symptoms people should look out for, the NHS says, are: cough, fever and loss of smell or taste. But Prof Spector says these are now less common, based on the data the Zoe team has been receiving from thousands of people who have logged their symptoms on an app.(BBC)…[+]

Hungary’s ruling nationalist party has submitted legislation to ban content it sees as promoting homosexuality and gender change to minors. The draft law would ban LGBT literature for under-18s, including educational material, and advertisements deemed to be promoting gay rights. Several human rights groups denounced it, saying it was similar to Russian restrictions on LGBT activities. The party, PM Viktor Orban’s Fidesz, is preparing for elections in early 2022. Budapest Pride, an alliance of Hungarian LGBT groups, urged activists to lobby US President Joe Biden to raise the issue with Mr Orban in Europe next week. Hatter Society, one of those groups, said the Fidesz proposal “would seriously curb freedom of speech and children’s rights“.(BBC)…[+]

China’s Zhurong rover has sent back a batch of new images from Mars – including a “selfie”. The robot, which landed in May, positioned a wireless camera on the ground and then rolled back a short distance to take the snap. To Zhurong’s right is the rocket-powered platform that brought the six-wheeled vehicle to a soft touchdown. Both display prominent Chinese flags. A second image, taken by the rover, shows the platform on its own. Visible is the ramp down which Zhurong had to drive to get on to the surface; and the tracks it left in the dust as it turned around.

The outgoing head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad has given a revelatory interview about the country’s operations against Iran. Yossi Cohen gave details about the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive. The warehouse raid in 2018 ferried tens of thousands of documents out of the country to Israel. He also hinted at Israeli involvement in the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz, and the assassination of a nuclear scientist. Mr Cohen retired as the head of Mossad last week. He spoke to journalist Ilan Dayan on Channel 12’s Uvda documentary programme, which was broadcast on Israeli television on Thursday night. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Mr Cohen as Mossad chief in late 2015. He joined the agency in 1982 after studying at university in London, and told the programme he had had “hundreds” of passports throughout his career. The most revelatory moments in the interview were about the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive.(BBC)…[+]

An Italian woman has woken from a coma after 10 months, according to local media reports. Cristina Rosi, 37, was seven months pregnant when she suffered a heart attack in July last year. Her daughter, Caterina, was delivered by emergency Caesarean section. However, Ms Rosi was left in a coma with suspected brain damage. She has now woken up and spoken her first word, “Mamma”, her husband has said. “We didn’t expect it, it was a real joy after so much suffering,” Gabriele Succi, told La Nazione newspaper. Ms Rosi was transferred to a clinic in Austria in April to receive specialist care during her recovery. Both her husband and mother were by her side when she spoke. Her treatment abroad has been paid for by a crowdfunding page, which has so far raised more than €170,000 ($208,000, £148,000) for further rehabilitation, including physiotherapy. “Cristina is hardly recognisable now,” Mr Succi was quoted as saying by the Arezzo Notizie news website. “She’s more relaxed, they removed her tracheotomy [and] through a pump they are giving her a medicine that should lead to other physical progress.”(BBC)…[+]