Spanish authorities said today they had arrested two Britons after intercepting a stash of synthetic drugs "80 times stronger" than cannabis smuggled inside sacks of coffee into the southeastern city of Alicante.
	Police said the stash reached Spain hidden in packets posted from Hong Kong, adding that the British pair, aged 36 and 37, had been remanded in custody.
	They did not specify when the two had been intercepted but authorities last month launched an investigation into drug trafficking via Alicante airport.
	Their inquiries led them to a bar popular with Britons at El Campello, a resort just outside Alicante and where they made one arrest.
	The second arrest followed some days later at the airport. Police, who valued the street value of the 12.2 kilo (26 pounds) stash at 3.5 million euros (USD 3.2 million), said the second suspect was seeking "to flee justice" when he was tracked down.
	Police said examination of the drugs suggested "a strong synthetic cannabinoid" whose ...

Spain uncovers drug '80 times stronger' than cannabis

PTI Automatic

A suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns killed 43 people today, as US-backed fighters advanced in their push towards the Islamic State group's Raqa stronghold.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast targeted buses carrying residents evacuated from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya under a deal reached between the regime and rebels.
	Bodies were still being recovered from the attack at a transit point in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, according to the Observatory.
	"The suicide bomber was driving a van supposedly carrying aid supplies and detonated near the buses," the monitoring group said.
	It said that most of the dead were evacuees, but also included several rebels who had been guarding the buses.
	Thousands of evacuees had been stuck on the road because of a disagreement over the number of rebels allowed to leave two other towns included in the deal, but the process restarted following the blast, the ...

Dozens dead as car bomb hits Syria evacuees

Registration for next month's Iranian presidential election closed today, with more than 1,600 hopefuls signing up, including a last-minute entry by Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
	The 55-year-old conservative mayor had given mixed signals about whether he would make a third bid for the presidency, but showed up at the interior ministry just before the deadline for registration.
	There was also a surprise last-minute entry from first vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri, a close confidante of President Hassan Rouhani who registered on Friday.
	It is assumed Jahangiri, a 60-year-old reformist, is running to offer an alternative in case Rouhani is disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets the candidates. Others speculate he could be trying to raise his profile ahead of a more concerted bid in 2021.
	"Rouhani and I are side-by-side," Jahangiri told reporters.
	Rouhani, a politically moderate cleric who has stabilised the economy and overseen a partial rapprochement with the ...

Iran election sign-up closes with mayor's last-minute entry

At least 43 people were killed today in a suicide car bomb attack on buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns, a monitor said in an updated toll.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of the dead were evacuees, but they also included several rebels who had been guarding the buses at a transit point in Rashidin, west of Aleppo.

Death toll in bomb attack on Syria evacuees hits 43: monitor

Death toll in bomb attack on Syria evacuees hits 43:

Facing protests at home and abroad over controversial new laws on universities and nongovernmental organisations, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said protests were "secondary theatres of conflict" compared to his battle against immigration.
	A higher education bill fast-tracked through parliament on April 5 has been widely seen as directly targeting the Central European University (CEU), founded by US billionaire George Soros in 1991.
	The law has triggered the largest series of protests seen in Budapest since Orban came to power in 2010.
	Another law that would force nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) to register as "foreign-funded organisations" was submitted earlier this month, and has also prompted international condemnation.
	Calling international politics "a theatre of conflict" Orban said in an interview that "migration lies at the centre of that theatre of conflict".
	"The Soros university, the transparency of international lobby organisations (...) are all secondary .

University protests 'secondary' to migration: Hungary PM

Tens of thousands of Orthodox pilgrims gathered at Christianity's most holy site under heavy police guard today for the traditional "holy fire" ceremony to mark Easter.
	Clutching candles, the faithful packed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, built on the site where Christian tradition holds that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.
	Thousands of pilgrims from Eastern Europe thronged the church alongside Arab members of the local Orthodox community.
	Thousands more, unable to enter the building, waited in the square outside to receive the flame, passed from candle to candle in a symbol of eternity, peace and renewal.
	The Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the rest of the Old City lies in east Jerusalem, occupied and later annexed by Israel following the Six Day War of 1967.
	The ornate shrine surrounding what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus was reopened last month at a ceremony that followed months of delicate restoration work.
	Following a USD ...

Orthodox Christians celebrate 'holy fire' in Jerusalem

An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale shook northern Chile today, according to the United States Geological Survey, but there was no tsunami alert and no immediate report of damage or injuries.
	The powerful quake, at a depth of 135 kilometres, hit at approximately 5:19 AM with an epicenter about 67 kilometres southeast of the San Pedro de Atacama tourist zone, US seismologists said.
	Chile's National Office of Emergency said the "medium- intensity" quake was felt in the northern regions of Tarapaca, Antofagasta and Atacama.
	Chile lies on what is known as the "Ring of Fire" - an arc of fault lines that circles the Pacific Basin and is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
	The north of the country was struck by an 8.3 temblor followed by a tsunami in September 2015, killing 15 people. A coastal evacuation order had limited the number of casualties.
	In 2010 another quake measuring 8.8, also followed by a tsunami, struck the center and south of the country, .

6.2-magnitude quake rattles northern Chile: USGS

A surge of fighting in eastern South Sudan has forced 60 aid workers to flee, the UN humanitarian agency said today, hurting efforts to help civilians in the famine-hit nation.
	An increase in violence nationwide has seen thousands flee in the past two weeks, including more than 16,000 from the second-largest city of Wau -- above 10 percent of its population.
	The UN humanitarian agency OCHA warned that helping the needy was growing ever more dangerous after three people involved in delivering food aid were brutally killed in Wau this week.
	"There are no words left to explain the level of frustration and outrage I feel regarding the continued attacks against humanitarians in South Sudan who are simply trying to help the civilians who are suffering as a result of this conflict," said OCHA coordinator Eugene Owusu in a statement.
	"Separately, 60 humanitarian workers have had to relocate from multiple locations in Jonglei yesterday and today -- including Waat and Walgak -- due to ...

Sixty aid workers forced to flee S Sudan fighting: UN

Turkish prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into 17 US-based individuals, including New York Senator Chuck Schumer, ex-attorney Preet Bharara and leading Turkey scholar Henri Barkey on suspicions of aiding a terror group, state-run media reported today.
	The action by the Istanbul prosecutor's office came after a group of Turkish lawyers filed a complaint against the individual.
	The lawyers accuse them of links to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen who, according to Ankara, orchestrated last year's failed coup, Anadolu news agency reported.
	The list of accused includes US citizens who have had involvement in Turkey issues and also Turkish citizens resident in the United States.
	Among them are Bharara, a former US attorney for New York who was fired by President Donald Trump last month; the former director of the CIA, John Brennan; former top CIA official Graham Fuller; Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center .

Turkey probes US officials, analysts over 'terror links'

US-backed fighters have reached the outskirts of a key jihadist-held town in northern Syria as part of an offensive against the Islamic State group's bastion Raqa, a monitor said today.
	The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance supported by US-led coalition air strikes and special forces advisers, surrounded Tabqa in early April and have cut its main supply routes.
	The town and a vast nearby dam are considered key prizes in the broader offensive for Raqa, the de facto Syrian capital of IS's self-proclaimed "caliphate", about 55 kilometres (34 miles) to the east.
	An SDF military source said Saturday that clashes were "at their height" and that the alliance's forces were "trying to penetrate the town from the east and west".
	The alliance was reported to have advanced overnight after driving the jihadists from two areas just southeast and southwest of the town.
	SDF fighters are within a few hundred metres (yards) of Tabqa, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the ...

US-backed forces reach edge of IS-held Syria town

The Philippine military announced plans to create all-Muslim fighting units today, with quotas from the Catholic country's largest religious minority, as it looks to bolster efforts to tackle Islamic insurgents.
	Five per cent of all new applications will be allocated for Muslims under the new order, military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo said in a statement, adding the eventual aim was to have a dedicated brigade or division to be deployed in the country's troubled south.
	The Philippines is battling Muslim extremist militants in lawless southern regions, some of whom have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
	Arevalo said the Muslim quota, which roughly reflects the proportion of the religious minority in the population, would help the army operate in areas where it has been previously viewed with suspicion by local people.
	"Most of our Muslim brothers and sisters perceive the deployment of almost 100 per cent Christian soldiers in their communities as invading or ...

Philippine army plans all-Muslim units amid insurgeny

The Greek coastguard said today it was escorting a vessel carrying around 50 migrants towards the island of Cephalonia in the Ionian sea after answering two mayday calls.
	A spokesman said it could not confirm the nationalities or exact number of migrants aboard but added that they seemed "to be in good health."
	An Italian sea rescue helicopter joined three Greek patrol boats in an operation coordinated by EU border control agency Frontex to locate the vessel after receiving the distress calls.
	Italy has become the prime European entry point for tens of thousands of migrants since last year's EU-Turkish agreement to stem the flow across the Aegean Sea and since the closure of the Balkan route, also last year.
	The accord with Ankara came after 2015 saw more than 800,000 refugees, mainly Syrians, reach Greece from Turkey.
	Spanish police and maritime rescue authorities meanwhile said they had rescued around 200 people off Spain's southern and eastern seaboard since ...

Greece, Spain in migrant rescues

A suicide car bombing killed at least 24 people today in an attack near buses for Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns, a monitor said.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, targeted residents evacuated from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya under a deal reached between the regime and rebels.
	An AFP reporter in rebel-held Rashidin saw several bodies, body parts and blood scattered on the ground.
	"The suicide bomber was driving a van supposedly carrying aid supplies and detonated near the buses," the Observatory said.
	It warned that the death toll was likely to rise given the "several dozen wounded" at the blast site.
	State television said the car bombing had been carried out by "terrorist groups", a term the regime applies to all armed opposition groups.
	It was not immediately clear if rebels at the transit point were among the dead.
	The attack took place as thousands of evacuees from the besieged ...

Syria car bombing kills at least 24 evacuees

Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke says he flirted with pulling the club out of the Champions League after Tuesday's team bus attack before resolving not to give in to the bombers.
     "I briefly asked myself if we shouldn't withdraw completely from the competition, but that would have been a victory for those responsible for the attack," he told Saturday's Der Spiegel magazine.
     The Bundesliga club eventually played their quarter-final first leg tie against Monaco 24 hours later on Wednesday.
     The attack on the bus as it made its way from Dortmund's hotel to the stadium injured Spanish international Marc Bartra and a policeman.
     Visibly shaken, Dortmund succumbed 3-2 to Monaco, leaving them with an uphill struggle to qualify for the semi-finals in the return leg in Monte Carlo next week.
     Watzke revealed that he had left each player with the choice of whether to play or not.
    "I said if someone doesn't feel in a state to play he should tell the coach. We ...

Dortmund boss considered Champions League pull out

Egypt today tightened security outside churches as Coptic Christians prepared for a subdued Easter mass days after suicide bombers killed scores of people in two churches north of the capital.
	Worshippers will pass through arduous checks outside churches after police, backed by the military, beefed up security following the Palm Sunday church bombings that killed 45 people in two cities north of Cairo.
	The government had declared a state of emergency and called in the army to protect "vital" installations following the suicide bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, which were claimed by the Islamic State group.
	Police have deployed in force since Friday creating a cordon outside churches for initial inspection, and worshippers will be searched again with metal detectors at church gates, interior ministry officials said.
	The heightened security procedures include preventing cars from parking in streets adjacent to churches, according to the officials.
	"Security has indeed improved so ..

Security tight as Egypt Copts prepare for Easter mass

At least 35 people were killed and eight declared missing as flash floods hit northwestern Iran, state media reported today.
	"Thirty-five people have been killed in the floods" across four provinces, the head of Iran's emergency response organisation, Esmail Najar, told the ISNA news agency.
	Torrential rains that began yesterday lashed East Azerbaijan province, with state television showing images of rivers bursting their banks, flooded houses and cars being swept away by the surging water.
	The districts of Ajabshir and Azarshahr were the worst hit.

At least 35 dead in Iran floods

At least 16 people were killed today in a suicide car bombing near buses carrying Syrians evacuated from two besieged government-held towns, a monitor said.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack in Rashidin, west of Aleppo, targeted residents evacuated from the northern towns of Fuaa and Kafraya under a deal reached between the government and rebels.
	An AFP reporter in Rashidin saw several bodies, body parts and blood scattered on the ground.

16 dead as car bombing hits Syrian evacuees: monitor

German prosecutors are examining a third claim of responsibility for blasts that rocked Borussia Dortmund's team bus it was reported today, but no new suspects have emerged.
	With Dortmund players due back on the pitch in the Bundesliga, police are pursuing leads regarding the attack on Tuesday that injured Spanish international Marc Bartra and a policeman.
	Three bombs containing pieces of metal detonated minutes after the team bus left a hotel for a Champions League match against Monaco.
	The Tagesspiegel newspaper revealed it had received a new letter, apparently from far-right circles, railing against multi-culturalism, saying it had been behind the triple blast and threatening another attack.
	"We have the letter claiming responsibility. We are examining it," said Frauke Koehler, spokeswoman for federal prosecutors, referring to the claim received by Tagesspiegel.
	Several such claims have already been investigated without any breakthrough.
	Three identical letters found close to 

Germany probes new letter claiming Dortmund attack

At least 25 people were killed and 16 declared missing as flash floods hit northwestern Iran, state media reported today.
	"Twenty-five people have been killed in the floods across four provinces," the head of Iran's emergency response organisation, Esmail Najar, told the ISNA news agency.
	Torrential rains that began yesterday lashed East Azerbaijan province, with state television showing images of rivers bursting their banks, flooded houses and cars being swept away by the surging water.
	The districts of Ajabshir and Azarshahr were the worst hit.

25 dead in Iran floods

At least 14 people were killed and 37 declared missing as flash floods hit northwestern Iran, state media reported today.
	Torrential rains that began on Friday lashed East Azerbaijan province, with state television showing images of flooded houses and cars carried away by the surging water.
	The prefect of Ajabshir district told the official IRNA news agency that rescue teams had recovered the bodies of three women and nine men.
	State television said two more people were killed in nearby Azarshahr. It said 37 people were still missing.

AFP

AFP

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