The US military today dropped what is considered to be the largest non-nuclear bomb on an Islamic State complex in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
	The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb hit a "tunnel complex" in Achin district in Nangarhar province, US Forces Afghanistan said in a statement.
	The strike occurred at about 7:32 pm local time (1502 GMT).
	Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said it was the first combat use of the weapon.

US drops biggest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan: Pentagon

PTI Automatic

The IOC said today that it will go ahead with a September 13 vote to decide the 2024 Olympics host in Lima despite deadly floods and political troubles in the country.
     The International Olympic Committee had been seriously considering moving the vote on whether to choose Los Angeles or Paris to a new venue because of the troubles.
     IOC president Thomas Bach said: "On this occasion the Peruvian government has given us all necessary assurances that the IOC session will be organised in a great way."
     A statement added: "Following the devastating floods affecting large parts of the country, the International Olympic Committee and the Peruvian government today confirmed that preparations for the IOC Session, to be held in Peru, in September are going ahead as planned."
     Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, said it was important that Olympic meeting go ahead in Lima after the floods that have left at least 75 dead and caused widespread mudslides and damage.
     "The ...

IOC maintains Lima for 2024 vote

Canadian scientist Mark Wainberg -- described as a "giant" of HIV science and who had recently been working on finding a cure for the condition -- has died at the age of 71, UNAIDS said today.
	The internationally renowned scientist, who was at the forefront of HIV research from the very beginning of the global AIDS epidemic, drowned yesterday while swimming off Bal Harbour in Florida, Radio Canada said.
	"UNAIDS is deeply saddened by the tragic death of pioneering HIV researcher Mark Wainberg," the agency dedicated to battling the disease said in a statement.
	Wainberg and his colleagues identified one of the main anti-retroviral medicines used to treat HIV infection and also contributed to the understanding of HIV drug resistance.
	"Mark Wainberg was a giant in HIV science," UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe said in a statement, stressing that the researcher's work "contributed to saving millions of lives".
	Linda-Gail Bekker, head of the International AIDS Society (IAS), which Wainberg ...

Canadian 'giant' of HIV research drowns

Russian authorities charged four men today with committing hooliganism and violence against police last month during the biggest opposition protest in central Moscow for years.
	The four men, Alexander Shpakov, Stanislav Zimovets, Yury Kuliy and Andrei Kosykh, all between 30 and 40 years old, had all been arrested and are in custody.
	They "used violence against representatives of the authorities" during the "unsanctioned action", said a statement from Russia's Investigative Committee.
	The anti-corruption rally on March 26 was called by opposition politician Alexei Navalny following his report on alleged luxury properties controlled by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev through shadowy foundations.
	The gathering -- and other smaller ones around the country -- was the largest in years to challenge the Russian authorities and ended with around 1,000 arrests.
	The committee's statement said Shpakov "hit the face of a police officer several times", Kosykh hit an officer several times, ...

Russia charges four over 'hooliganism' at Moscow demo

US drops biggest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan:

German federal prosecutors said today they had cleared the sole suspect in custody for a bomb attack against the Borussia Dortmund football team bus of involvement.
	The announcement marked a setback for investigators, who described the three blasts late Tuesday as a "terrorist" act and said they are focusing on suspects in the "Islamist spectrum".
	"The investigation has not found evidence that the suspect took part," the prosecutors office said in a brief statement.
	It said it was nevertheless seeking an arrest warrant for a 26-year-old Iraqi national, identified only as Abdul Beset A., for alleged ties to the Islamic State group.
	Investigators had zeroed in on two suspects believed to belong to a large jihadist scene in the Ruhr region, after three identical letters were found at the scene. Only Abdul Beset A. Was detained.
	The letter demanded that Germany stop its Tornado reconnaissance missions in the international anti-IS coalition and close the US air base at Ramstein in ...

Detained 'Islamist' cleared over Dortmund blasts

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said today that sex abuse by UN peacekeepers "must stop" following a media report detailing a child sex ring run by blue helmets in Haiti.
	Haley told the Security Council after it voted to shut down the peacekeeping mission in Haiti that many children abused by the soldiers will continue to face a "nightmare" after the troops are gone.
	The US ambassador quoted a recent report by the Associated Press news agency on a sex ring allegedly run by Sri Lankan peacekeepers who lured hungry teenage boys and girls by offering them snacks and cookies.
	"The children were passed from soldier to soldier. One boy was gang-raped in 2011 by peacekeepers who disgustingly filmed it on a cellphone," Haley told the council.
	"What do we say to these kids? Did these peacekeepers keep them safe?"
	The United Nations has been badly shaken by a wave of allegations of sex abuse by troops it deploys in missions with a clear mandate to protect civilians.
	Last month, a UN report ...

US envoy says sex abuse by UN peacekeepers 'must stop'

Pope Francis will wash the feet of former mafiosi today in a prison known for housing collaborators of justice who inform on old mobster allies.
	The closed-door visit to Paliano prison outside Rome will see the 80-year-old pontiff kneel before a small group of inmates, pouring water over their feet, drying them with a towel and bending to kiss them in an age-old Easter tradition.
	The inmates include some 50 former mafiosi who made a deal to provide anti-mafia prosecutors with information in exchange for shorter prison sentence, the chaplain prison said.
	"Everyone has the right to make a mistake. We have all been mistaken in one way or another," Francis said in reference to prisoners in an interview published Thursday in the Repubblica daily ahead of the ceremony.
	The Argentine went on to lament "the little trust placed in rehabilitation, in reintegration into society".
	   The rite, performed yearly on Maundy or Holy Thursday, commemorates Jesus Christ's Last Supper with the ...

Pope to wash feet of mafia snitches in Easter ritual

Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel accused UEFA of treating the bomb attack on their team bus as if only a "beer can" had been thrown and claimed they were only informed by text message that they would have to play their Champions League game against Monaco.
     The German side were defeated 3-2 by the French club in the first leg of the quarter-final on Wednesday, 24 hours after the scheduled game had been postponed.
     The fixture was postponed from Tuesday after three explosions rocked the Dortmund team coach and left Spain international Marc Bartra needing surgery on a broken wrist.
     Teenager Kylian Mbappe struck twice as Monaco claimed victory at Signal Iduna Park, with Tuchel furious at UEFA's handling of the situation.
     "We felt completely passed over, it came down to 'tomorrow, you're playing'," said Tuchel.
     "We were told by text message. They treated it as if a beer can had been thrown at the bus. Ultimately, it was decided in Nyon in Switzerland whether or 

Treated as if 'beer can' thrown at bus, rages Tuchel

Ukraine today complained of "unprecedented and unacceptable" calls from the Eurovision Song Contest's organisers for it to lift an entry ban on Russia's contestant.
	In an angry row ahead of the kitsch song contest in May to be hosted in Kiev, Ukraine has barred Russia's 27-year-old singer Yulia Samoilova over illegally entering Moscow-annexed Crimea for a 2015 performance.
	Eurovision organisers, the Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union (EBU), have sought to find a compromise but have so far been rebuffed by both sides.
	"It is unprecedented and unacceptable to demand such extraordinary decisions from Ukraine for the sake of Russia," Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko said in comments released by his office today.
	His response came after a letter was leaked yesterday in which the EBU director-general Ingrid Deltenre urged Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to lift the "unacceptable" ban on the Russian singer.
	Eurovision's press office confirmed the letter's ...

Kiev slams Eurovision call to allow Russian singer

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk said he wants to go further in the reuse of his rockets after successfully launching the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that was recycled from a previous flight.
	Musk tweeted yesterday that he is looking into a test to bring home the second stage of the company's new Falcon 9 Heavy rocket for reuse when the rocket debuts late in the summer.
	SpaceX blasted off the recycled first stage, or booster, of a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time on Thursday, a feat that could dramatically lower the cost of space travel.
	The Falcon 9 Heavy has a first stage composed of three Falcon 9 engine cores and "will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two," according to the company website.
	"Considering trying to bring upper stage back on Falcon Heavy demo flight for full reusability," Musk wrote Friday on Twitter.
	"Odds of success low," he said, "but maybe worth a shot."
	He then added: "Falcon Heavy test flight currently scheduled ..

SpaceX wants to try recycling more of Falcon 9 rocket

Scoreboard of the third one-day
international between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground today:
 Sri Lanka:
 D. Gunathilaka     c Mahmudullah b Mehedi     34
 U. Tharanga                      b Taskin     35
 K. Mendis            c Mushfiqur b Mustafizur 54
 D. Chandimal                       run out    21
 M. Siriwardana                     run out    12
 A. Gunaratne       c Mahmudullah b Mortaza    34
 T. Perera               c Taskin b Mortaza    52
 S. Prasanna        c Mahmudullah b Mustafizur  1
 D. Perera                c Tamim b Mortaza    15
 N. Kulasekara                      not out     1
 S. Lakmal                          not out     2
 Extras (LB-2, W-17)                           19
 Total (nine wickets, 50 overs)               280
 Fall of wickets: 1-76, 2-87, 3-136, 4-161, 5-194, 6-216, 7-230, 8-275, 9-277.
 Bowling: Mortaza 10-0-65-3, Mustafizur 10-0-55-2, Mehedi 10-1-49-1, Taskin 8-1-50-1, Mahmudullah 1-0-5-0, Shakib 8-0-41-0, Mosaddek ...

Colombo, Apr 1 (AFP) Scoreboard of the third one-day

Kusal Mendis and Thisara Perera struck fifties to guide Sri Lanka to 280-9 on the third and final one-day international against Bangladesh in Colombo today.
     Mendis top-scored with 54 while Perera added 52 off 40 balls for the home after they were sent to bat first by Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza at Sinhalese Sports Club ground.
     Bangladesh did a commendable job in the field to restrict the home side within a gettable score after initial hammering by openers Danushka Gunathilaka and Upul Thranga.
     Needing a win to avoid a series defeat for the first time against Bangladesh, Gunathilaka and Tharanga began aggressively to put on 76 runs in their opening stand in a little over 10 overs.
     Spinner Mehedi Hasan broke the stand as Gunathilaka gave a catch to Mahmudullah after making 34 runs off 38 balls.
     Taskin Ahmed beat Tharanga with pace to bowl the Sri Lanka captain out for 35 runs, putting a brake finally on their run-rate.
     Mendis, who scored a century ..

Mendis, Perera guide Sri Lanka to 280-9

Hungary launched an anti-EU campaign today that asks households in a survey their advice on how to deal with Brussels policies that it says threaten Hungarians' independence.
	Questionnaires titled "Let's stop Brussels!" are being posted to households nationwide, a senior government official, Bence Tuzson, told a press conference to launch the drive.
	"Big decisions and struggles lie ahead of Hungary in the coming period, (Hungary) can only win those struggles if it feels the support of the country," said Tuzson.
	The six questions on the survey mostly ask citizens "what Hungary should do" about EU policies on immigration and economic issues like tax-raising powers.
	One question for instance asks "what Hungary should do" as "despite a series of recent terror attacks in Europe... Brussels wants to force Hungary to let in illegal immigrants".
	The answer options are: "Illegal immigrants should be kept under supervision until the authorities decide in their cases"; and "We should allow .

Hungary launches 'Stop Brussels' questionnaire campaign

A Sri Lankan baby elephant gifted to New Zealand has been prevented from leaving the South Asian island after animal activists said it was cruel to separate her from her family.
	Six-year-old Nandi was bequeathed to former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key by President Maithripala Sirisena at a meeting in Colombo in February 2016 to mark "excellent bilateral relations" between the two countries.
	New Zealand vets had visited Sri Lanka last year to prepare Nandi for the journey to Auckland Zoo.
	But animal rights activists have since intervened, arguing against moving the elephant to a foreign country where she will likely find it difficult to be separated from her family and adapt to the new climate.
	The group of 18 secured a temporary victory yesterday when a Sri Lankan court was assured by the state that Nandi would not be flown out of the country pending a final decision on the case next month.
	"Sri Lankan elephants have very strong family ties and to take away a child is a ...

Sri Lanka stops jumbo flying to New Zealand

Brazilian President Michel Temer already has a world of trouble to deal with and next week a court could in theory annul his presidency altogether.
	Temer is widely expected to find a way to escape this. But the mere fact that a court is considering such a thing shows the depths of uncertainty in Latin America's biggest country as it wallows in a huge corruption scandal and a two-year recession.
	The issue dates back to 2014 when Temer was vice president on the winning ticket of leftist Dilma Rousseff's reelection to the presidency.
	They are accused -- as are swaths of other politicians -- of taking undeclared campaign funds from corrupt donors. The Supreme Electoral Court's job is to rule on whether the election was fatally compromised.
	Deliberations will begin Tuesday and are scheduled to run through the week.
	If the court decides to annul the 2014 results, new elections would be organized or the country's highly discredited Congress would pick an interim leader.
	Many analysts ..

Brazil court to decide whether presidential vote was valid

Communist rebels waging one of the world's longest-running insurgencies in the Philippines say they are willing to discuss a formal ceasefire proposed by the government in upcoming talks in the Netherlands.
	The insurgency began in 1968 in the poverty-stricken country, and has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives according to the military.
	The meeting, starting Sunday, will be the fourth round of talks between the National Democratic Front and Manila, which have been on and off for 30 years but were restarted by President Rodrigo Duterte after he took office last June.
	The government has billed a permanent ceasefire as its primary goal, though a week of negotiations on the outskirts of Rome in January ended without such a deal.
	"The (front) believes it is possible at the soonest time to have a bilateral ceasefire agreement," chief rebel negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said in a statement issued from his exile in the Netherlands yesterday.
	He said the rebel negotiating team was "willing to .

Philippine communist rebels agree to discuss ceasefire

After four years of tension with the United States, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi now has a fan in the White House and on Monday he meets President Donald Trump.
	The American former reality television star and tycoon has made no secret of his admiration for the ex-army chief who overthrew his Islamist predecessor and cracked down on his supporters.
	Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, a year after he had won Egypt's first democratic election, and the ensuing crackdown on Islamists prompted then US president Barack Obama to suspend military aid to Cairo temporarily.
	But when Sisi meets Trump on Monday during his first state visit to Washington, he will see a counterpart who better appreciates his "mission" to fight Islamists and jihadists, without Obama's hand-wringing over human rights.
	"As a matter of fact President-elect Trump has shown deep and great understanding of what is taking place in the region as a whole and what is taking place in Egypt," Sisi, who met Trump in ...

Egypt's 'fantastic guy' Sisi to meet Donald Trump

Paraguayan senators approved a contested law allowing the country's president to be re-elected, prompting furious protesters to break into the legislature, ransacking lawmakers' offices and igniting fires.
	Right-wing President Horacio Cartes is seeking to reform the constitution to let him run for office again in an election in 2018 after his current term ends.
	His allies in the upper house of the legislature passed the bill yesterday, sidestepping resistance from opponents who say the bill clears the way for dictatorships.
	To chants of "Dictatorship never again!" hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police and broke into the congress building, battering down entrances and fences and shattering windows.
	Once inside, the demonstrators ransacked the offices of lawmakers who backed the reform and started fires, television images showed.
	Firefighters said some 30 demonstrators and police were hurt in the disturbances.
	Opposition senator Luis Wagner said those injured included ...

Unrest as Paraguay senators back president re-election

The head of Los Angeles's bid for the 2024 Olympics ruled out issuing an ultimatum to the International Olympic Committee, taking a veiled swipe at rival city Paris as the battle for the Games heats up.
     LA 2024 chairman Casey Wasserman told AFP in an interview that IOC moves to explore the possibility of awarding both the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games at the same time at a vote in September were "absolutely right."
     But while Wasserman argued forcefully that Los Angeles was the best candidate for 2024, he stopped short of issuing an ultimatum.
     Paris co-chairman Tony Estanguet had warned last week that it was "now or never" for the French capital, and that if the city's tilt at 2024 was not successful "we will not come back for 2028."
     "Now or never sounds like an ultimatum to me," Wasserman told AFP at his Los Angeles office.
     "I have been in  business a long time. I never had a successful relationship or partnership with any entity by issuing an ultimatum.
     "We 

No Olympic ultimatum from LA 2024 chiefs

Tiger Woods announced he had lost his battle to be fit for the Masters, saying he was "not tournament ready" for the first major of the year and did not have a timetable for his return.
     Woods, whose 14 major titles include four Masters green jackets, has not played since withdrawing from the Dubai Desert Classic on February 3 with ongoing back spasms.
     He made his comeback in December after missing all of the 2015-16 season in the wake of back surgery.
     But his return has run aground, with the 41-year-old withdrawing from the Genesis Open in Los Angeles in February, the Honda Classic and the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
     He even cancelled a planned press conference at the Los Angeles tournament, saying doctors had advised him to "limit all activities" as he tried to get his balky back on track.
     "Unfortunately, I won't be competing in this year's Masters," Woods said on his website. "I did about everything I could to play, but my back rehabilitation didn't 

AFP

AFP

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