The ballistic missile fired by North Korea today did not pose a threat to Russia, landing about 500 kilometres from its border, the Russian defence ministry said after Washington suggested that Moscow would be angry.
	"This missile launch represented no danger for the Russian Federation," according to a defence ministry statement carried by Russian state news agencies.
	"The Russian missile attack warning systems followed the ballistic target during its 23-minute flight until its landing in the central part of the Sea of Japan (about 500 kilometres from Russian territory)," it said.
	North Korea test-fired the ballistic missile at around 5:30 AM (0200 IST today) and it flew about 700 kilometres, according to South Korean officials.
	The White House said that President Donald Trump has called for tougher sanctions and suggested that it impacted "so close to Russian soil... The president cannot imagine that Russia is pleased."
	China and Japan also condemned the missile test as a ...

North Korean missile 'no danger' to Russia: defence ministry

PTI Automatic

A gunfight between Thai security forces and a band of Golden Triangle drug smugglers left nine traffickers dead, a senior official said today, the latest clash sparked by the booming regional trade in narcotics.
	Narongsak Osotthanakorn, governor of northern Chiang Rai province, said the firefight broke out yesterday two kilometres inside Thailand from the border with Myanmar.
	"Authorities told them to halt but they refused and started shooting. The two sides exchanged fire for about 10 minutes leaving nine smugglers killed and the rest fled," he told AFP, adding the smuggling group was originally 15 people strong.
	Some 700,000 methamphetamine tablets were found alongside semi-automatic rifles, he added.
	The Golden Triangle, a region in the borderlands of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and southern China, is the world's second largest drug-producing region after Latin America.
	Huge quantities of opium, heroin and methamphetamine pills are churned out in remote jungle labs each year for ..

Thai forces kill 9 'drug smugglers' in Golden Triangle

A cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen has killed 115 people and left 8,500 ill as hospitals struggle to cope with an influx of patients, the International Committee of the Red Cross said today.
	"We now are facing a serious outbreak of cholera," said ICRC director of operations Dominik Stillhart at a news conference in the capital Sanaa.
	Citing figures compiled by the Yemeni health ministry, Stillhart said 115 people had died of cholera between April 27 and yesterday.
	More than 8,500 suspected cases of the waterborne disease were reported in the same period in 14 governorates across Yemen, Stillhart said, up from 2,300 cases in 10 governorates last week.
	This is the second outbreak of cholera in less than a year in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country.
	Yemen is witnessing a devastating war between the Saudi- supported government and Iranian-backed Huthi rebels, and less than half of the country's health facilities are functioning two years into the conflict.
	Stillhart said ...

115 dead as Yemen cholera outbreak spreads: ICRC

Civilians and rebels began evacuating a third opposition-held district of Damascus today, bringing the government closer to cementing its control over the Syrian capital.
	An AFP correspondent inside Qabun saw around 10 buses carrying out residents and fighters in the morning, after a deal for the neighbourhood was announced late Saturday following heavy fighting.
	The agreement mirrors those implemented earlier this week in the nearby rebel-held districts of Barzeh and Tishrin.
	State media announced the evacuation had started, and an activist inside the remaining opposition-held part of the district earlier confirmed preparations for the operation were underway.
	"The buses are being prepared, they are waiting in the areas controlled by the regime," Odai Awdeh told AFP.
	"The names of those who want to leave, whether civilians or fighters, are being registered," he added.
	The evacuation deal came on Saturday night after government forces advanced inside the neighbourhood.
	"The ...

Evacuation of rebel Damascus district begins

Over 480 asylum seekers and refugees were rescued in the Mediterranean on Saturday as they attempted the perilous crossing from north Africa, with seven bodies also recovered, Italy's coastguard said today.
	Some 484 migrants were plucked from dinghies in four operations involving coastguard boats, an Italian navy ship, the German NGO Sea Eye and the OHIO mercantile ship.
	The bodies of seven men were recovered during the operations.
	More than 45,000 people have been rescued and brought to Italy so far this year, a 44 percent increase from the same period in 2016, according to Italy's interior ministry.
	About 1,309 have died or are feared dead after trying to make the journey, the International Organization for Migration said.
	Nigerians make up the largest group, followed by people from Bangladesh, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
	Nigeria is home to Boko Haram, which has terrorised the country with an eight-year fight to create a hardline Islamic state that has killed some 20,000 ...

Italy rescues 480 migrants, recovers seven dead

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake near Iran's border with Turkmenistan killed two people, injured hundreds and caused widespread damage, state media reported today, citing the country's seismological centre.
	The quake, which struck at 1800 GMT Saturday in and around the city of Bojnurd, North Khorasan province, killed a 54-year-old woman and a teenage girl, ISNA news agency reported.
	It left more than 370 people injured and damaged as many as 40 per cent of houses in the area, it said.
	The US Geological Survey put the strength of the quake at 5.8 magnitude, and said it occurred at a depth of 12.5 kilometres .
	The epicentre of the earthquake was just 50 kilometres from the border with Turkmenistan.
	On April 5, a 6.1 magnitude quake killed at least two people near Iran's second city Mashhad, which is located southeast of Bojnurd.
	The region is on an active fault line stretching from Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat into Iran's three provinces of north, central (Razavi) and south Khorasan, 

Quake kills two, injures hundreds in Iran: state media

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping expressed concern about rising tensions on the Korean peninsula after a North Korean missile test today, Putin's spokesman said.
	Meeting on the sidelines of an international forum in Beijing, Putin and Xi "discussed the situation on the Korean peninsula in detail" and "both parties expressed their concern over the escalation of tensions," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
	According to China's official Xinhua news agency, Xi said during the meeting that Moscow and Beijing have played the role of a "ballast stone" in safeguarding regional and global peace and stability.
	Xinhua did not publish other remarks.
	Putin and Xi met after the opening ceremony of a summit on the Chinese president's One Belt, One Road initative -- a massive global trade infrastructure project to connect China to Asian neighbours, Europe and Africa.

Russia, China worried about rising tensions over N.Korea

Simona Halep thanked much-criticised Fed Cup coach Ilie Nastase after defending her Madrid Open title, but the 70-year-old's role in the trophy presentation was labelled "irresponsible and unacceptable" by the WTA.
     Halep, who edged out Kristina Mladenovic in a thrilling near three-hour final 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, was congratulated on court by Nastase as the Romanian received the trophy named after Nastase's former doubles partner and Madrid Open owner Ion Tiriac.
     Nastase has been banned from the French Open and Wimbledon after he was ejected from Romania's Fed Cup clash with Great Britain last month for a series of foul-mouthed rants directed at British captain Anne Keothavong and number one Johanna Konta, as well as umpires and members of the press.
     "He had no place on court today," said WTA CEO Steve Simon in a statement.
     "He is currently under a provisional suspension by the ITF for his prior offensive actions and we revoked his credential privileges at WTA ...

WTA slams Nastase presence as Halep retains Madrid title

The players' union called on Cricket Australia today to mediate over intractable wage negotiations instead of threatening not to pay their stars.
     The governing body late last week threatened not to pay contracted players beyond June 30 unless the proposed remuneration overhaul was accepted.
     CA chief executive James Sutherland demanded the players accept the offer in a blunt email, as the impasse with the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) looked no closer to resolution.
     The latest flare-up casts doubt on what team Australia could field after June 30, with a two-Test series scheduled in August in Bangladesh ahead of a home Ashes showdown with England later in the year.
     The ACA's chief executive Alistair Nicholson criticised CA's "incoherence and aggression" in the negotiations.
     "Clearly, we are disappointed that CA are threatening the players," Nicholson said in a statement.
     "It's also a window into the nature of CA's behaviour in these negotiations .

Players' mediation call after CA pay threat 'aggression'

Departing stalwarts Younis Khan and captain Misbah ul Haq failed to make an impact in their farewell international innings but Pakistan were poised to press for a series-clinching victory over the West Indies at stumps on the fourth day at Windsor Park in Dominica.
     Following the tedium of the first three days which saw a total of 15 wickets falling, 14 tumbled on the penultimate day of the series, ending with the home side at seven for one after being set a daunting victory target of 304.
     Mohammad Abbas claimed his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket to trigger a West Indies first innings collapse to 247 all out in the morning after they resumed at 218 for five with the match appearing at the start of the day to be dragging towards a dreary draw.
     "Eight seasons of first-class cricket bowling long spells prepared me for this opportunity," said Abbas.
     "I dedicate this performance to both Misbah and Younis because it is my great fortune to play with them but also ..

Departing Younis, Misbah fall but Pakistan press for victory

Scoreboard at stumps on
the fourth day of the third and final Test between the West Indies and Pakistan at Windsor Park in Dominica.
     Pakistan 1st Innings - 376
     West Indies 1st Innings
     (overnight 218 for 5)
     K Brathwaite c Ahmed b Shah          29
     K Powell c Ali b Shah                31
     S Hetmyer c Ahmed b Shah             17
     S Hope c Misbah b Azhar Ali          29
     R Chase b Abbas                      69
     V Singh lbw Abbas                     8
     S Dowrich b Amir                     20
     J Holder not out                     30
     D Bishoo c Khan b Abbas               0
     A Joseph b Abbas                      0
     S Gabriel c Azam b Abbas              0
     Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-3, w-5)        14
     Total (all out, 115 overs)           247
     Fall of wicket: 1-43, 2-69, 3-97, 4-152, 5-189, 6-218, 7 -239, 8-239, 9-241, 10-247
     Bowling: M Amir 27-12-32-1, M Abbas 25-7-46-5, Y Shah 40 -4-126-3, H Ali 17-4-22-0, A Ali ...

Roseau, Dominica, May 14 (AFP) Scoreboard at stumps on

Four people were killed and five others seriously injured when a passenger train coming from Athens derailed and hit a house near the northern town of Thessaloniki, says the Greek rail company Trainose.
	No details of the victims were given but Trainose said the train driver was among the injured, after all five carriages of the express train left the track and the engine carriage ploughed into the house yesterday.
	Search and rescue operations ended in the evening with no word from the dozens of emergency services workers of any further addition to the toll.
	Most of the 70 passengers were safely evacuated within three hours of the accident which happened some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Thessaloniki and the cause of the derailment was not immediately known, police said.
	However, regional official Voula Patoulidou said the train may have been travelling too fast as it shuttled between Greece's two biggest cities.
	A 24-year-old man who lived in the house which was hit told ...

Four killed as Greek train derails, hits house: police

North Korea fired a projectile believed to be a ballistic missile from its northwest region, the South Korean army and a media report said.
	"The North fired this morning an unidentified projectile from Kusong, North Pyongan province," the South's Joint Chief of Staff said today in a statement without elaborating.
	Yonhap news agency said the projectile is believed to be a ballistic missile.

N Korea fires projectile from its northwest

N Korea fires projectile from its northwest: Seoul Army.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today cancelled his planned appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest final in Kiev after a shelling attack in the war-torn east reportedly killed four civilians.
	The Kiev-appointed head of the conflict-riven Donetsk region said earlier today that the deaths occurred when "Russian occupying forces" shelled an apartment bloc.
	"Three women and one man was killed," Pavlo Zhebrivskiy wrote on Facebook.
	The deaths marked the single biggest loss of civilian life since a new Easter truce in the three-year war went into effect on April 1.
	The shelling attack was staged in Avdiivka -- a devastated flashpoint suburb of the Russian-backed insurgents' de facto capital city of Donetsk.
	Poroshenko said he was planning "to be at the contest final with (my wife) Marina and invited our fighters and people with disabilities to support Ukraine."
	"However due to the shelling of Avdiivka and the death of peaceful civilians, I took a decision to cancel my presence 

Ukraine's president skips Eurovision after shelling kills four

A charity auction selling off "love locks" from Paris bridges to raise money for refugees today brought in over USD 270,000, though the event was briefly interrupted by protests from far-right nationalists.
	For years tourists inscribed their initials on padlocks and hooked them to the railings of bridges, most famously the Pont des Arts near the Louvre, throwing the key into the River Seine to express their undying devotion.
	But officials cracked down on the practice and started removing the locks in 2015 after one section of the Pont des Arts collapsed under the weight of thousands of locks.
	Hundreds of people took part in the auction at Credit Municipal de Paris in which 150 bunches of the locks -- mounted on displays of wood or recycled paving stones, or hanging from acrylic stands -- went under the hammer.
	Fifteen sections of the original Pont des Arts railings mounted on wood were also auctioned.
	Most of the lots had been expected to go for 150 to 200 euros each (USD 165-USD 

Paris 'love locks' sale raises thousands for refugees

The Boko Haram jihadist group has released a video claiming to show Chibok schoolgirls who refused to be rescued as part of a recent swap deal with the Nigerian government.
	In the three-minute video, a woman who claims to be Maida Yakubu, one of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April 2014, is seen wearing a black veil and holding a gun.
	Flanked by three other women clad in black, she proclaims her loyalty to Boko Haram, which has been fighting the government since 2009 in an insurgency that has killed over 20,000 people.
	When asked by a man in the background why she does not want to return home to her parents, she replies: "The reason is that they live in the town of unbelief. We want them to accept Islam."
	The woman then speaks in the local Chibok dialect for the rest of the video.
	But the woman's mother believes she did so under duress.
	"For me, this video is torture," Esther Muntari told AFP today from Chibok. "I haven't slept since I watched it".
	"The tie that 

Boko Haram video of purported Chibok girl worries parents

Scoreboard at lunch on the
fourth day of the third and final Test between the West Indies and Pakistan at Windsor Park in Dominica today:
     Pakistan 1st Innings - 376
     West Indies 1st Innings
     (overnight 218 for 5)
     K Brathwaite c Ahmed b Shah          29
     K Powell c Ali b Shah                31
     S Hetmyer c Ahmed b Shah             17
     S Hope c Misbah b Azhar Ali          29
     R Chase b Abbas                      69
     V Singh lbw Abbas                     8
     S Dowrich b Amir                     20
     J Holder not out                     30
     D Bishoo c Khan b Abbas               0
     A Joseph b Abbas                      0
     S Gabriel c Azam b Abbas              0
     Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-3, w-5)         14
     Total (all out, 115 overs)           247
     Fall of wicket: 1-43, 2-69, 3-97, 4-152, 5-189, 6-218, 7 -239, 8-239, 9-241, 10-247
     Bowling: M Amir 27-12-32-1, M Abbas 25-7-46-5, Y Shah 40 -4-126-3, H Ali 17-4-22-0, A Ali ...

Roseau, Dominica, May 13 (AFP) Scoreboard at lunch on the

Pakistan's Mohammad Abbas claimed his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket to trigger a West Indies first-innings collapse to 247 all out before lunch on the fourth day of the third and final Test at Windsor Park in Dominica today.
     However the tourists lost two early wickets in seeking to build on a first-innings lead of 129 and will resume after the interval at eight for two in their second turn at the crease, an overall advantage of 137 runs with eight wickets in hand.
     Increasingly impressive in his first Test series, Abbas took the last four wickets of the innings for three runs in a four-over spell after an early breakthrough from fellow pacer Mohammad Amir to finish with the excellent figures of five for 46 off 25 disciplined overs.
     West Indies' tumble of lower-order wickets from the overnight position of 218 for five and Pakistan's early second-innings setbacks were in stark contrast to the tedious progress of the match with both teams combining for a pedestrian 

Windies hit back after Abbas five-wicket haul

Olympic champion Elaine Thompson clocked the fastest 100m of the season at the Shanghai Diamond League today to bolster her claim as sprint favourite for this year's world championships.
     One week after posting 2017's quickest 200m at the Diamond League season-opener in Doha, the Jamaican powered away from the pack for a convincing win in 10.78sec.
     Among the field events, former crystal meth addict Luvo Manyonga leapt to a Diamond League record 8.61m in his final attempt to win the long jump in brilliant style.
     A little earlier, Thompson had crossed the line well ahead of America's Tori Bowie (11.04sec), whom the Jamaican also relegated to silver at last year's Rio Olympics.
     "I'm feeling pretty good," Thompson said, when asked about her trajectory toward the world championships in London in August. "I just have to take it race by race."
     "It's all about preparing for the rest of the season and the world championships," added Thompson.
     Thompson, 24, achieved 

Thompson blazes to year's fastest 100m

French carmaker Renault said today that it had been hit by the wave of cyberattacks sweeping the globe, forcing it to shut down production at several sites to keep the virus from spreading.
	"We have been affected," a spokeswoman told AFP, saying they were assessing the situation to try to find a solution. "Work is going on since last night. We are doing what is needed to counter this attack."
	The attack prompted Renault to stop production at several sites in France, part of measures being taken to stop the virus from spreading.
	It did not identify the sites, but a union source said the factory at Sandouville in northern Normandy was one of the main sites affected.
	A spokesman at the site, whose 3,400 employees normally produce about 640 utility vehicles a day, confirmed it had been a victim of the cyberattack.
	"Production was affected overnight but luckily there was no full production scheduled for this weekend, only some 'stamping' operations," he said.
	Teams were working on ...

AFP

AFP

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