In Argentina, women drop tops to protest topless ban…Read full details

A woman holds a sign reading "Boobs that bother are those which are not for sale" during a topless demo at the Republic square in Buenos Aires on February 7, 2017. Hundreds of Argentinian women demonstrated topless by the Obelisk of Buenos Aires after topless was prohibitted at a seaside resort south of the capital. / AFP PHOTO / JUAN MABROMATA

Scores of women took to the streets in Argentina Tuesday in a bare-breasted demonstration of solidarity with women recently confronted by police for going topless on a South Atlantic beach.

The demonstrations in Buenos Aires, in Mar del Plata and Rosario, were prompted by an incident two weeks ago in Necochea, 500 kilometers south of the capital.

Three women in bikini bottoms were ordered by 20 police officers to put on their tops or head out.

Many in Argentina, once one of the world’s wealthiest countries, were stunned.

Now used to struggling with economic woes and corruption, they are increasingly tired of what some see as the authorities’ overreach.

“There is this macho way of thinking that just has to end,” said a protestor named Noelia, 28, who declined to give her family name. “We are the owners of our bodies and we can show our bodies if we like. We are not consumer goods.”

As older men in suits and ties scrambled out of nearby offices during the protest, some stopped to stare. A few laughed or giggled.

“You can’t miss a chance to see a bit of tit, can you?” said one man, aged around 60, to nods from others.

“Get out, man! Get out!” some demonstrators chanted, with slogans painted on their skin in lipstick.

Some of the men took selfies with the demonstrators, perhaps not necessarily in solidarity.

The leftist politician Vilma Ripoll said, “All people want to see tits on television. The real ones bother you.”

Last July, thousands of women took part in topless protests across the country after a woman was kicked out of a public area near the capital for nursing her child, triggering widespread outrage.

Deeney: from jail to Premier League riches…See full details

Watford's English striker Troy Deeney celebrating after scoring his second goal during the English Premier League football match between Watford and Aston Villa at Vicarage Road Stadium in Watford, north of London on April 30, 2016. Watford striker Troy Deeney's "light bulb" moment came when the cell door slammed and he contemplated a 10-month jail term for affray five years ago, he told AFP. The 28-year-old, locked up for assaulting a student outside a pub, entered prison with words from his mother ringing in his ears — that it was at times like that she wished he had not been born. But Deeney rebuilt his life and his career and two years after he was released having served three months, he was appointed Watford captain, a role he retains to this day. / AFP PHOTO / GLYN KIRK /

Watford striker Troy Deeney’s “light bulb” moment came when the cell door slammed and he contemplated a 10-month jail term for affray five years ago, he told AFP.

The 28-year-old, locked up for assaulting a student outside a pub, entered prison with words from his mother ringing in his ears — that it was at times like that she wished he had not been born.

But Deeney rebuilt his life and his career and two years after he was released having served three months, he was appointed Watford captain, a role he retains to this day.

“The light bulb moment for me came when the door closed and my real world had stopped,” Deeney, who lost his father just before the attack which sent him to prison, told AFP.

“It was survival mode after that. People will go ‘right yeah survival mode’ and say that’s a bit drastic but it was that.

“All my feelings and emotions cut off as I said to myself ‘you’ve got to get through this next few months’.

“I didn’t have enough time to sulk or cry and do all the things you would think are natural reactions.

“If my mum died now I’d be a mess. I’d be crying all over the place and drinking loads of beer like everyone else would. I didn’t have that luxury.”

Deeney said incarceration transformed him for the better.

“I always knew I would come out better but it was about how I went about doing it,” said Deeney.

“Part of the course was alcohol dependency which was compulsory if I was to be eligible for a tag (to wear on early release).

“I got into speaking, I used to be closed and have a lot of anger in me, at the group sessions.

“I still speak to a psychologist. People feel sorry for themselves and think the world owes them something and then you realise it’s not that bad.”

Deeney, now teetotal, was particularly close to the man he called his father, Paul Anthony Burke — his biological father left home early on. He has a tattoo which bears Burke’s date of birth and death.

It was to Burke that Deeney’s thoughts turned when Watford gained automatic promotion to the Premier League in the 2014/15 season.

“I just cried,” admits Deeney. “I remember I found out on the bus that we got promoted as other results went our way — everyone went crazy.”

He added: “I always wanted to be a footballer and always liked the idea of playing in the Premier League. I had played in League One (the third tier) with Walsall, then the Championship.

“My dad and granddad would be so proud. I rang my wife (Stacey and mother of their two children, Myles and Amelia) and said I’m going there to his graveside.

“However, at 6 in the evening it was shut so I went out with the team.

“Then the next morning I went with a thermos of tea to the cemetery and had a cup of tea and sat there talking to his gravestone.”

Deeney, who has set up his own foundation to help seriously ill children and distributes football kit to youngsters on the tough estate where he once lived in Birmingham, says he has used his prison experience to advise young offenders.

“I would probably stay away from talking in prisons because I had a career going in and I had one going out,” said Deeney, who invited two of the prison guards to the Championship play-off final in 2014 as a way of thanking them for encouraging him to go to the prison gym and keep fit.

“I can’t resonate with a lot of people there as there are a lot who have lived on that same road (crime) and once they are out they go back to doing the same thing.

“Driving out there in a Range Rover probably doesn’t sit well with them,” added Deeney, who nevertheless stays in touch with two of the inmates he considers friends.

Deeney spoke to AFP after speaking at Sport Industry NextGen in partnership with Barclays.

Brazilian magnate to give himself up to authorities (Read full details)

(FILES) This file photo taken on April 30, 2012 shows Eike Batista, Chairman and CEO , EBX Group speaking during the "Global Overview: Shifting Fortunes" lunch panel at the Milken Institute's Global Conference 2012 in Beverly Hills, California, US. Brazilian authorities issued an arrest warrant for the country's former richest man Eike Batista on January 26, 2017 in a money-laundering probe, prosecutors said. The former oil and mining magnate, 60, is the latest high-profile suspect in investigations linked to a vast bribery scandal at state oil firm Petrobras. PHOTO: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP

Facing an international arrest warrant Brazilian magnate Eike Batista said Sunday he would give himself up to authorities to “clean things up”.

Wanted over money-laundering accusations, Batista is the latest high-profile suspect in investigations linked to a vast bribery scandal at state oil firm Petrobras.

“I’m returning to respond to justice, as it is my duty,” Batista said in an interview broadcast by Brazil’s Globo TV, which was shot at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport.

It’s time “to help clean things up,” the mogul said before boarding a flight for Rio de Janeiro.

Batista, 60, is alleged to have paid a $16.5 million bribe to former Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral, who is already behind bars.

The cross-border agency Interpol last week issued a “red notice” alert for Batista after Brazilian police searched the oil and mining magnate’s home over the corruption accusations.

Batista reached number seven on Forbes magazine’s world richest people list in 2012. In 2011 he was said to be worth $30 billion.

But his fortune largely evaporated when his oil company OGX collapsed in 2013.

Brazilian magnate to give himself up to authorities

Iran’s Rouhani to Trump: ‘Now is not the time to build walls’ (Read full details)

A handout picture provided by the office of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shows him (R) meeting with Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah (L) in the capital Tehran, on January 25, 2017. Kuwait's foreign minister said on January 24 he will deliver a letter from the emir on the troubled ties between the Islamic republic and its Arab neighbours in the Gulf.<br />HO / IRANIAN PRESIDENCY / AFP

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticised his US counterpart Donald Trump on Saturday, saying now was “not the time to build walls between nations”.

“They have forgotten that the Berlin Wall collapsed many years ago. Even if there are walls between nations, they must be removed,” Rouhani said at a tourism convention in Tehran.

His remarks came after Trump ordered construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border and imposed tough new controls on travellers from seven Muslim countries, among them Iran.

Rouhani did not comment directly on the visa ban, but said Iran had “opened its doors” to foreign tourists since the signing of a nuclear agreement with world powers in 2015.

With more than a million Iranians living in the United States, many families are deeply concerned about the implications of Trump’s visa ban, which also affects citizens from Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

No visas will be issued for migrants or visitors from these countries for at least 90 days, a restriction which can be extended if the countries in question do not provide extensive information on individuals seeking to enter the United States.

Tehran and Washington have not had diplomatic ties since students stormed the US embassy in Tehran in 1980 following an Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.

Iran’s Rouhani to Trump: ‘Now is not the time to build walls’