Several hundred people attended a concert by top Brazilian musicians in Rio de Janeiro in the latest protest demanding the resignation of President Michel Temer and calling for new elections.
	Caught up in serious corruption allegations, Temer is refusing to step down, hanging onto his office in the face of mounting popular pressure and the risk his all-important parliamentary support base may collapse.
	"If we push him, Temer will fall!" protesters yesterday shouted between two performances.
	Caetano Veloso -- who helped revolutionize popular Brazilian music in the 1970s -- headlined the event on Copacabana beach, together with Milton Nascimento, another star of the same generation.
	The diverse performances ranged from the samba of Teresa Cristina and Martnalia to the rap of Mano Brown and Criolo.
	Temer vowed to stay in the fight yesterday.
	"Brazil has not stopped and is not going to stop despite the political crisis, which I acknowledge and we are navigating," he said in a column 

Leading Brazilian musicians stage protest concert in Rio

PTI Automatic

N Korea fires what appears to be a missile: Yonhap news agency

The Philippine government has formally called off the latest round of peace talks with communist insurgents, after the parties failed to resolve a dispute over a rebel order for fighters to step up attacks.
	"We are maintaining the decision made not to participate in the fifth round of talks," chief government negotiator Jesus Dureza yesterday told journalists after almost 10 hours of closed-door consultations.
	"There are no compelling reasons for us to change the decision... Which we announced yesterday," he said, adding that Manila was "formally" withdrawing from the round.
	It was the fifth scheduled round of talks since the resumption of formal negotiations between Manila and the communists in August.
	They were meant to address such issues as a joint interim ceasefire, social and economic reforms and human rights issues.
	The breakdown of the talks, held in a scenic Dutch seaside resort, came as fighting flared yesterday between Philippine government forces and Islamist ...

Manila formally axes latest peace round with communists

Swedish satire "The Square", a send-up of political correctness and the confused identity of the modern male, won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival today.
	In a stunning upset, the nine-member jury led by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and including Hollywood stars Jessica Chastain and Will Smith awarded the trophy to the movie's director, Ruben Ostlund.
	"Oh my God, oh my God!" Ostlund shouted from the stage after besting a raft of favourites for one of global cinema's most coveted honours with a rare comedy.
	In a 70th edition marked by raging debate over sexism in the movie industry, Sofia Coppola became only the second woman in history to win best director for her battle-of-the-sexes thriller "The Beguiled" with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell.
	Kidman, who appeared in four different projects at the French Riviera festival, accepted a special anniversary award from the jury with a video message from Nashville, Tennessee.
	Three-time Oscar nominee Joaquin ...

Swedish comedy 'The Square' is surprise Cannes winner

A gunman on a rampage during a domestic dispute in rural Mississippi fatally shot eight people, including a sheriff's deputy, US news reports said today.
	The shootings took place late Saturday in two small hamlets, Brookhaven and Bogue Chitto, both about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the city of Jackson.
	Although details were still murky, the gunman -- Willie Cory Godbolt, 35 -- told The Clarion-Ledger newspaper after his arrest today that he had gone to a home in Bogue Chitto to talk about getting custody of his children.
	After the conflict escalated, neighbors called police, and Godbolt shot the arriving deputy.
	"My pain wasn't designed for him. He was just there," Godbolt said of the officer.
	"We was talking about me trying to take the children home," he told the newspaper while sitting on the ground at one of the shooting scenes, arms cuffed behind his back.
	"Somebody called the officer," he added. "It cost him his life. I'm sorry."
	Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant issued .

Eight people fatally shot after Mississippi family quarrel

Swedish satire "The Square", a send-up of political correctness and the confused identity of the modern male, won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival today.
	In a stunning upset, the nine-member jury led by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and including Hollywood stars Jessica Chastain and Will Smith awarded the trophy to the movie's director, Ruben Ostlund.
	"Oh my God, oh my God!" Ostlund shouted from the stage after besting a raft of favourites for one of global cinema's most coveted honours.
	In a 70th anniversary edition marked by raging debate over sexism in the movie industry, Sofia Coppola became only the second woman in history to win best director for her battle-of-the-sexes thriller "The Beguiled" with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell.
	Kidman, who appeared in four different projects at the festival, accepted a special 70th anniversary award from the jury.
	Diane Kruger clinched best actress for her first film role in her native German as a devastated mother 

Swedish satire 'The Square' is surprise Cannes winner

Swedish art world satire "The Square" today won the Cannes film festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.

Swedish satire 'The Square' wins Cannes top prize Palme d'Or

Civilian casualties are inevitable in the war against the Islamic State group but the United states is doing "everything humanly possible" to avoid them, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in an interview aired today.
	A US-led international coalition has been carrying out air strikes against the IS group in Iraq and Syria since 2014, and nongovernmental organisations say the attacks are claiming ever more civilian lives.
	Interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, Mattis said that "civilian casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation."
	But he quickly added that "we do everything humanly possible, consistent with military necessity, taking many chances to avoid civilian casualties -- at all costs."
	Some NGOs have blamed the rising civilian death toll on a push by President Donald Trump's administration to accelerate the pace of combat in an effort to "annihilate" the jihadists.
	But the Pentagon contests both the NGOs' death counts and the charge that a new sense .

Civilian deaths a 'fact of life' in war on IS: Pentagon head

A knife attacker killed two people and injured 18 in a rampage in southwest China, state media reported, the latest such attack in recent years.
	The man, aged 30 and believed to be suffering from mental health problems, is in police custody after the assault in Guizhou Province, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
	All twenty victims were rushed to hospital after the attack, but two later died, said the report.
	Few other details were available.
	Knife attacks are not uncommon in China.
	In January a man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed 11 children at a kindergarten in China's southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
	In February last year, a knife-wielding assailant wounded 10 children in Haikou, in the southern island province of Hainan, before committing suicide.
	In 2014 state media reported that a man stabbed three children and a teacher to death and wounded several others in a rampage at a primary school that refused to enrol his daughter.
	 That followed a March .

Two dead, 18 hurt in China knife attack: state media

Sebastian Vettel secured a memorable one-two for Ferrari in Sunday's 75th Monaco Grand Prix to extend his world championship lead to a luxurious 25 points over Lewis Hamilton.
     Taking full advantage of generous, if grim-faced, support from his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who led from pole position until the pit-stops, the four-time champion came home 3.1 seconds clear of the Finn in glorious Mediterranean sunshine.
     Vettel's success was Ferrari's first in the principality in 16 years since seven-time champion Michael Schumacher triumphed in 2001.
     It was the 82nd 1-2 in the team's history and celebrated noisily by the tifosi who had thronged into the circuit overnight.
     It was also the 29-year-old German's second Monaco triumph, his third win this year and the 45th of his career, lifting him 25 points clear of Mercedes' Hamilton in the title racxe.
     Vettel now has 129 points after six rounds of this year's 20-race championship ahead of Hamilton on 104.
     "Yes, ...

Vettel delivers Ferrari 1-2 at Monaco

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will ignore the Supreme Court and congress as he enforces martial law across the southern third of the country, even though the constitution gives them oversight.
	Duterte on Tuesday imposed martial law in the Mindanao region, home to 20 million people, following deadly clashes in a mostly Muslim-populated city involving militants whom he said were trying to establish a caliphate for the Islamic State group.
	"Until the police and the armed forces say the Philippines is safe, this martial law will continue. I will not listen to others. The Supreme Court, congress, they are not here," Duterte told soldiers on Saturday.
	"Are they the ones dying and losing blood, bleeding, hemorrhaging because there is no help, no reinforcement? It's not them."
	The 1987 constitution imposes limits on martial law to prevent a repeat of the abuses under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was deposed by a famous "People Power" revolution the previous year.
	The 

Philippines' Duterte vows to ignore Supreme Court on martial

Bangladesh detectives hit the jackpot when they stopped Mohammad Belal at Chittagong airport carrying some surprising excess baggage.
	Under questioning, the 37-year-old admitted he had a dozen chunks of gold weighing 1.4 kilogrammes, or three pounds, stashed in his rectum.
	Gold smuggling in Bangladesh is at a record high, officials say, with the country emerging as a major route into neighbouring India, which has slapped high taxes on gold imports.
	Authorities have seized 1.1 tonnes of the precious metal at airports in the past three years - an unprecedented haul.
	Investigators believe it is the tip of a golden iceberg. They say it is bought by jewellers or smuggled into India, the world's biggest buyer of gold, and is also bankrolling a booming trade in drugs and illegal cattle.
	As monitoring has been stepped up, barely a day passes without another seizure.
	Detectives on Wednesday discovered 13 stone-sized gold tablets hidden in the wig of a 45-year-man as he passed through ...

Bangladesh customs hit gold bonanza in unlikely places

Petra Kvitova said Sunday's first- round victory at the French Open felt like winning twice as the Czech star made an emotional return from a harrowing knife attack at her home in December.
     The two-time Wimbledon champion swept aside American Julia Boserup 6-3 6-2 in her first match since suffering career-threatening injuries to her left playing hand when she tackled an intruder at her home in the eastern Czech town of Prostejov.
     "I came here as a winner already," said Kvitova, who returned to action at Roland Garros after almost six months out.
     "When we were thinking about playing here I told my coaches I wanted to come and win my first match. That was a dream. The motivation I had today was amazing -- and I really just didn't want to lose.
     "This match was special to me. I won for the second time, if I can say that."
     Kvitova was left fighting to save her career after the attack, admitting earlier in the week that her hand was "still not 100%".
     However, ..

Emotional Kvitova wins 'twice' on French Open return

Israel's government today approved plans to install a cable car to Jerusalem's Old City, a project likely to anger Palestinians and much of the international community.
	The plan would see a former railway station in west Jerusalem linked by cable car to the Old City in east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.
	It would stop at the Dung Gate entrance to the Old City near the Western Wall, traversing some 1.4 kilometres (less than a mile).
	Current estimates say the cable car will begin operating in 2021.
	At a special meeting held at the Western Wall, the cabinet approved the first phase of the plan expected to cost some 200 million shekels (USD 56 million, 50 million euros), a tourism ministry statement said.
	The meeting was held at the site -- one of the holiest in Judaism -- to mark Israel's capture of the Old City 50 years ago in the Six-Day War.
	The status of Jerusalem is among the most sensitive ...

Israel approves controversial Jerusalem cable car project

Spanish mountaineer Kilian Jornet has reached the summit of Mount Everest for the second time in a week, his team said today.
	Jornet scaled Everest's north face, starting from a camp at 6,500 metres on the Tibet side of the mountain, in 17 hours late yesterday, said a statement from the team.
	"I'm so happy to have made the summit again! Today I felt good, although it was really windy so it was hard to move fast," he said in the statement.
	"I think summiting Everest twice in one week without oxygen opens up a new realm of possibilities in alpinism and I'm really happy to have done it."
	On Monday last week Jornet claimed a new speed record for an ascent without fixed ropes or supplemental oxygen when he summited the north face of Everest in 26 hours from base camp.
	The 29-year-old had hoped to set a record for the fastest round trip - from base camp to the summit and back again - but was hit by stomach problems on his descent and stopped at a higher camp to recover.
	AFP could not .

Spanish record climber tops Everest twice in a week: team

A video advertisement that depicts a would-be suicide bomber confronted by the faithful has gone viral two days into the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
	"Worship your God with love, not terror" is the main message of the three-minute advert posted Friday online by Kuwaiti telecommunications giant Zain, which operates across the Middle East.
	"I will tell God everything," says the voiceover of a child at the beginning of the ad as a man is seen preparing a bomb.
	"That you've filled the cemeteries with our children and emptied our school desks..."
	The video featuring Emirati pop star Hussain al-Jassmi has registered nearly two million views on Zain's YouTube page and more than 4,000 shares on Facebook.
	It features images from bombings across the region claimed by Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group.
	But it ends on a positive note with footage of a happy wedding and cheerful children dressed in white.
	"We will encounter their hatred with songs of love," concludes a caption ...

Anti-jihadist Ramadan advert goes viral

Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika sacked his tourism minister today days after he was appointed to the post, the presidency said, with one television channel claiming he had a criminal record.
	A terse statement from the presidency, carried by the APS news agency, did not say why Bouteflika had fired Messaoud Benagoun, who became minister of tourism and crafts just three days earlier.
	Algerian media had criticised Benagoun's appointment, claiming that the 38-year-old had never had a job before joining the new government that was formed on Thursday.
	Today, private television station Enahar claimed Benagoun held a fake university diploma and a criminal record, with several convictions, but did not specify for what offences.
	According to Enahar, the sacked minister had submitted a doctored curriculum vitae in order to stand in the May 4 parliamentary election.
	Benagoun belongs to the Popular Algerian Movement (MPA) which won 13 seats. Bouteflika's party and its coalition ally .

Algerian minister sacked three days after appointment

The head of Palestinian Islamic courts today told judges not to grant divorces over Ramadan, fearing the month-long fast could spark rash words that would be regretted later.
	Judge Mahmud Habash said he based his ruling on "the experience of previous years" when he found that the dawn-to- dusk fast and ban on cigarettes, which began yesterday, tended to lead to frayed tempers and sharp tongues.
	"Some, because they have not eaten and not smoked, create problems" in their marriages, he said in a statement, and they can make "quick and ill-considered decisions".
	According to the Palestinian Authority, 50,000 weddings were celebrated in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 2015, but more than 8,000 divorces were also registered.
	Endemic unemployment and poverty are said to be major contributing factors.
	There is no civil marriage or divorce in the Palestinian territories, where only religious courts have those powers.

Palestinians ban divorces during Ramadan

US Homeland Security John Kelly said today that he was considering banning laptop computers on international flights into and out of the country, amid signs of "a real threat."
	Kelly made his remarks during the Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest travel periods in the US, and at a time when the bombing at a concert in Manchester, England has raised concerns that further attacks - possibly involving explosives packed in electronic devices - might be planned.
	"There's a real threat - numerous threats against aviation," Kelly told the Fox New Sunday programme, when asked about the likelihood that a wide-reaching ban on large electronics in airplane cabins could be imposed.
	The US homeland security chief said terrorists are "obsessed" with the idea of "knocking down an airplane in flight - particularly a US carrier, if it's full of mostly US folks."
	A ban could seriously disrupt flights between Europe and the US. Some 3,250 a week are expected this summer between European Union ..

US weighs banning laptop computers on international flights

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma faced further opposition at a meeting of his party's top leadership today but managed to sidestep a no-confidence vote after a turbulent three-day gathering.
	The meeting in Pretoria comes as Zuma faces growing criticism within the ruling African National Congress, which sharpened after a March cabinet reshuffle when he sacked respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
	But plans to debate a no-confidence motion in Zuma were blocked by the chairman of the meeting of the ANC's executive committee (NEC), state-owned broadcaster SABC said.
	Local media reports said several NEC members had tried to force a debate on his future.
	Speaking to local media yesterday, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the leadership was aware of reports that there was going to be blood on the floor.
	"We've not seen that blood on the floor - yet," he said, while stressing that the removal of Zuma was "not an agenda item."
	The party leadership was expected to wrap up 

Pressure on S Africa's Zuma as ANC leadership meets

US President Donald Trump, who was uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter during his nine-day trip abroad, resumed his favourite past-time today with a tweet storm in which he thundered against "fake news."
	"It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media," he wrote the morning after his return home.
	"Whenever you see the words 'sources say' in the fake news media, and they don't mention names it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!," he wrote, spelling errors and all.
	Trump returned late yesterday from his first international trip as US president, geared up to combat concerns over aides' ties to Russia including explosive reports that his son-in-law Jared Kushner sought a secret communications line with Moscow.
	In an earlier tweet today, Trump hailed what he called the trip's "great success."
	"Just returned from Europe. Trip was a great 

AFP

AFP

Page 1131 - Afp