Gunmen open fire near French mosque injuring eight people

Two men have carried out a shooting near a mosque in Avignon leaving eight people injured, the French prosecutor's office has said.

According to witness accounts, at least two armed men got out of a car around 10.30pm on Sunday near the Arrahma mosque and opened fire.

None of the wounded are said to have life-threatening injuries.

The prosecutor ruled out any connection with terrorism.

"From what we know this evening, the mosque was not targeted. The fact that it happened in the street of the religious establishment was unconnected with it," the prosecutor said.

Casualties reported as car bombs rock Damascus

A number of people have been killed or wounded after a suicide bombing struck an eastern district of Damascus, according to a Syrian state television report.

It said security forces intercepted three suicide car bombers on Sunday morning, blowing up two at the entrance to the city.

The third was able to enter the city and blew himself up after being surrounded in Tahrir Square, causing several deaths and leaving a number of people wounded.

Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a senior police official saying that "terrorists simultaneously blew up three cars", two of them on the road to Damascus airport southeast of the capital and a third in the eastern Sahat Al-Tahrir district.

"The terrorist bombings killed and wounded several civilians and caused physical damage to the area," the official said.

It was not immediately clear if the two explosions on airport road, at the entrance of the city, were caused by the suicide bombers or if their bombs were detonated by security forces.

Damascus has been spared the large-scale battles that have devastated other major Syrian cities during the country's six-year civil war.

But dozens of people have been killed in bombings, particularly on the outskirts of the capital.

In mid-March, bomb attacks on a courthouse and restaurant in Damascus killed 32 people. They were claimed by the Islamic State group.

That came days after two explosions that left 74 dead in the capital's Old City and were claimed by the hardline Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham alliance, led by the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

State officials refuse to turn over voters' sensitive data to Donald Trump's election panel

President Donald Trump is trying to compile a list of voter data from all 50 states by compiling an extensive range of information on American voting habits going back over a decade.

The President’s commission on election integrity sent letters to all 50 states asking for voter names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, and their voting records from 2006 until today. But, state officials from red and blue states alike are fighting back.

Officials more than 10 states, including Virginia, California, New York, and Kentucky all refused to honour the request for their voter roll data, saying they had an obligation to protect the fairness of their elections.

The White House called the refusals a "political stunt".

“At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst it is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression,” Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla argued that the request would only serve to legitimise the President’s false claims that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election, which Mr Trump says is why he lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes.

“I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgement that millions of Californians voted illegally,” Mr Padilla said, referring to the President’s claims that Californians voted illegally en-masse. “California’s participation would only serve to legitimise the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud by the President, Vice President, and [Kansas Secretary of State Kris] Kobach.”

Designer Nipples Set to Trend

Too big, too small, uneven and saggy. For years women’s breasts have been met with far-reaching criticism, leading to body issues and unnecessary worry.

But, as if we don’t have enough to contend with, we’re now being asked to reconsider what’s normal when it comes to our nips.

These days it seems no ordinary boob job will do, after one surgeon revealed that he has seen a huge surge in the number of women asking for nipple operations.

In as little as six months, Dr Norman Rowe, a plastic surgeon based in New York City, says that the weekly number of nipple patients has more than quadrupled, from four a week to around 18.

“Nothing is above cosmetic surgery now, people are looking at every detail. It's not enough now to get a breast augmentation or rhinoplasty - women want to fine-tune every element. And these days, that's possible.”

Worryingly, this is a trend that Rowe says is driven by the fashion of celebrities like Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Rihanna wearing sheer tops or dresses that leave their nipples exposed.

As such, he reports women being triggered to ask him for lighter nipples, smaller areolas and more symmetry.

“You see a lot of celebrities now wearing see-through dresses,” he said.

“My patients come in with pictures from magazines of nipples that they want; they want to wear see-through dresses too, and that makes them take a closer look at their nipples.”

In some instances, patients are even asking for more protruding nipples that will show when they go braless.

“For want of a better word, they want headlights,' Dr Rowe explains.

“I've had a number of women tell me that, when they're wearing a bathing suit, they want their nipples to be more prominent.”

While the free the nipple movement remains important to gender equality, it seems that the increased attention to the area has created a whole new area of insecurity for women.

Thousands march for equal marriage rights in Northern Ireland

Thousands of people marched through the centre of Belfast on Saturday calling for equal marriage rights for the LGBT community.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where same sex couples cannot get married, while the Republic voted gay marriage into law two years ago.

There have been five separate votes on the issue in Stormont, the last of which in 2015 saw the assembly narrowly vote in favour of gay marriage equality.

But the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has vetoed any law change, arguing that they are protecting the "traditional" definition of marriage.

Thousands join anti-government protests in UK

Protesters voiced anger over austerity and the recent Grenfell Tower disaster [Shafik Mandhai/Al Jazeera]

London, UK- Activists in the UK have called on Prime Minister Theresa May to stand down at a large demonstration in London.

Thousands attended Saturday's protest, which was backed by senior members of the opposition Labour party, as well as grassroots left-wing groups.

The protests comes as opponents of the Conservative leader try to up the pressure on her newly-formed government, which only received majority backing in parliament after the party formed a pact with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

May failed to secure enough seats to form a Conservative government outright in the June general election and was forced to seek agreement with the DUP to guarantee the ability to pass key legislation.

John Rees, a writer and activist with the People's Assembly, which part-organised the protest said he wanted to force the government to call another election.

"No one voted for a government that has to bribe the bigots of the DUP with £1.5bn ($1.95bn) to cling on to office," he told Al Jazeera, adding "Theresa May is on warning: if she isn't gone by the autumn there will be a protest like no other at the Tory party conference in October."

The DUP deal has been criticised for the large sum of money May released to Northern Ireland to secure it, as well as the DUP's ties to unionist militias and socially conservative platform.

The Conservatives say the deal gives the country the "certainty" and stability it requires over the coming years, as Britain leaves the EU.


A woman holds a banner criticising Theresa May and the DUP [Shafik Mandhai/Al Jazeera]

Opponents have also targeted the prime minister over the Grenfell Tower disaster, which killed at least 80 people according to an official estimate that is universally expected to rise.

Critics regard the Conservative party's austerity policies as responsible for the lax safety measures, which led to the deadly fire.

"I feel the Conservatives are responsible for what happened (at Grenfell)," said protester Lottie Bowes, adding: "They (government) have made cuts to social housing and don't care about health and safety rules."

"They've ignored entire sections of the community in this country for too long and now they need to go."
Grenfell inquiry

Conservative figures for their part have rejected the accusations and what they term the 'politicisation' of the tragedy.

The government has called for an official inquiry into the causes of the fire and has ordered checks on other buildings to ensure they are not at risk.

"I am determined that there will be justice for all the victims of this terrible tragedy and for their families who have suffered so terribly," May said earlier this week.

The main beneficiary of the pressure on May has been the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who defied expectation during the election to secure more seats for the party.

Opinion polls that once had his party trailing the Conservatives by up to 25 points, now give Labour a lead of around five points.

May has said the current parliament will last for two years to oversee Brexit negotiations, which will conclude with the UK's departure from the EU in March 2019.

New island appears off North Carolina triggering warning to swimmers

A new island has appeared off the coast of North Carolina but people have been warned not to swim there because of the threat of sharks and rip currents.

The sandbar, nicknamed Shelly Island because of its abundance of seashells and pebbles, emerged from the sea in April and has now grown in size to about a mile long and 145 metres wide.

The spit of land cannot be reached on foot and swimmers have been told to stay away because of the potential dangers.

Shelly Island is just off the tip of Cape Point in Buxton and there are sharks and stingrays in the area.

The narrow 15 metre-wide strip of water between the island and the mainland has also formed a "river" that creates a strong rip current, say experts.

Bill Smith, president of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association, told the Virginian Pilot: "We're worried about shark bites, but we're more worried about drownings."

There could also be hooks from decades of fishing lurking just below the sand.

Image:A 'river' has formed between the island and the mainland. Pic: @chadonka

Cape Point is a constantly changing spit of sand of about 100 acres. Sometimes the tip points south and sometimes it points north.

The land shrinks and expands depending on currents and storms and the same forces were likely to have formed the sandbar, according to experts.

Shelly Island could shrink or even disappear by next year, or it could expand and connect to the point.

Anyone who does want to venture there has been advised to go by boat, kayak or paddleboard as they will be more used to the tides and strong currents.

Chad Koczera was one of the first people to explore the newly-formed island on 31 May.

He told CBS News: "We were driving to the Point after a storm to collect shells when we spotted an area we couldn't get to by car."

He then used his drone camera to get a better look at the narrow island and has now posted photos of the sandbar which have gone viral.