Ukraine's security service today said it had arrested a Frenchman who was allegedly planning to stage 15 terror attacks before and during the Euro 2016 football championship that starts in France later this week.
	SBU security service chief Vasyl Grytsak said the man intended to blow up "a Muslim mosque, a Jewish synagogue, tax collection organisations, police patrol units and numerous other locations."
	The Frenchman "planned to conduct 15 terrorist strikes," Grytsak told reporters.
	"He obtained five Kalashnikov rifles, more than 5,000 bullets, two anti-tank grenade launchers, 125 kilogrammes of TNT, 100 detonators, 20 balaclavas and other things.

Ukraine arrests Frenchman 'planning Euro 2016 attacks'

PTI Automatic

The US navy said today it imposed an alcohol ban on its personnel in Japan as the Tokyo government condemned a military drink-driving case which fuelled growing opposition to US bases on Okinawa.
	The United States has come under renewed pressure to rein in bad behaviour after a base employee was arrested last month for allegedly abandoning the body of a 20-year-old Okinawan woman whom police suspect was raped and murdered.
	Crimes by US personnel have long sparked protests on the crowded strategic island and have been an irritant in relations between the allies.
	US President Barack Obama last month vowed measures to prevent crime by Americans and the military imposed restrictions including a curfew.
	But a naval officer was arrested at the weekend after allegedly driving the wrong way down a street while intoxicated and injuring two people, one seriously, according to Okinawan police.
	US sailors stationed throughout the country are banned from drinking, both on and off base, for an 

US navy in Japan under alcohol ban after drink-driving case

A cloth with a drop of Pope John Paul II's blood was stolen from Cologne Cathedral in western Germany at the weekend, police said.
	"Its material value is small but the spiritual loss is much greater," the cathedral's provost, Gerd Bachner, was quoted in the police statement from yesterday as saying.
	Bachner urged the thieves to "come to their senses" and return the relic.
	A visitor to cathedral noticed early yesterday that the cloth was missing from its glass case, which was built to recall a visit by the pontiff to Cologne in November 1980.
	Police released a picture of the glass with a hole smashed by the thieves.
	Police assume the theft took place between Saturday night and yesterday morning. Pope John Paul II led the Catholic church from 1978 until his death in 2005.

Cloth with Pope John Paul II's blood stolen in Germany

Award-winning American journalist David Gilkey and his translator were killed while traveling with an Afghan army unit that came under fire in southern Helmand province, in a sign of just how dangerous the conflict remains for the media trying to cover it.
	The translator was identified as Zabihullah Tamanna, 38. Two other National Public Radio journalists traveling with Gilkey in a separate vehicle, reporter Tom Bowman and producer Monika Evstatieva, were unharmed.
	NPR said the vehicle in which Gilkey, 50, and his translator were traveling was struck by shellfire near the town of Marjah yesterday.
	A Taliban hotbed, the opium-rich province of Helmand is almost entirely under the control of insurgents.
	"David has been covering war and conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. He was devoted to helping the public see these wars and the people caught up in them. He died pursuing that commitment," said Michael Oreskes, NPR's senior vice president of news and editorial director.
	"As 

US journalist David Gilkey, translator killed in Afghanistan

Surging waters triggered by torrential rain left four people dead and one missing in Taiwan after they were swept away while hiking down a river canyon, officials said today.
	Dramatic footage from local media showed a huge wave rushing down the Beishi River in New Taipei City where 24 people on a company trip were hiking yesterday, despite official warnings of torrential rain.
	Hiking along river canyons, known locally as river tracing, is increasingly popular in Taiwan, with participants wading and climbing through the water.
	Six of the group were swept away by the wave but one 15- year-old girl managed to grab hold of some driftwood and later scrambled to safety.
	The body of a 13-year-old girl was found today -- the bodies of her mother and two adults were pulled from the river yesterday, said the New Taipei City fire department.
	Footage on the Apple Daily website showed rescue workers pulling one of the women from the water and desperately trying to resuscitate her, but in ...

Surging river water kills four hikers in Taiwan

Zlatan Ibrahimovic makes no secret of his lofty opinion of himself and according to his childhood club it is a longstanding trait of the Swedish superstar.
     Ibrahimovic pulled on his boots for the first time at the age of six at Fotbollsklubb (FBK) Balkan, a club created by Yugoslav immigrants in Malmo in 1962.
     "The only thing he wanted was to score goals, so sometimes he listened to the coaches but sometimes he just did what he wanted," said Ivan Milosevic, the FBK Balkan president. He played with Ibrahimovic when they were young and now trains the senior side.
     A former FBK Balkan coach Hasib Klicic has similar memories. He remembered Ibrahimovic as "a troublemaker. Not very good but he always wanted to play."
     "He was good but not 'wow what's happening here'... He was a little bit slow when he started but the finish was good!" recalled his coach at Malmo, Ola Gallstad, where Ibrahimovic went in 1994.
     The stubbornly single-minded perseverance was the key to ...

Ibrahimovic the troublemaker who became role model

Andy Murray conceded he would have to pick himself up from another Grand Slam final defeat after losing to Novak Djokovic in four sets at the French Open on Sunday.
     The Briton suffered his eighth reverse in 10 major finals, with five of those defeats inflicted by Djokovic, and was reluctant to reflect on the achievement of reaching his first Roland Garros final.
     Murray started promisingly by taking the first set in Paris, but the 29-year-old had few answers as Djokovic proceeded to move through the gears on Philippe Chatrier court.
     The world number one became just the third player after Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver, in 1962 and 1969, to simultaneously hold all four Grand Slam trophies.
     "It's such a rare thing to have happened, and obviously the depth in the game just now is strong. Some people may think differently, but the level of tennis I think is pretty high now and something you probably won't see for a long, long time," said Murray.
     "His performances .

Familiar feeling as Murray vows to bounce back

Venezuela defeated Jamaica 1-0 in a physical Copa America Centenario clash here Sunday that saw the Reggae Boyz reduced to 10 men while coach Winfried Schaefer was expelled from the dugout.
     Jamaica, riding high after a shock friendly victory over Copa America champions Chile in a warm-up last week, were left ruing a string of missed chances against their South American Group C rivals.
     "We had a couple of chances and didn't take them, they got one chance and they took it, and that was the difference in the game today," said Jamaica's assistant coach Miguel Coley, appearing at the post-match press conference instead of the dismissed Schaefer.
     In blazing hot sunshine at Chicago's famous Soldier Field Stadium, Jamaica made life difficult for themselves with Rodolph Austin sent off midway through the first half for a rash challenge on Tomas Rincon.
     By that stage Jamaica were already trailing 1-0 after a sloppy clearance from Michael Hector gifted possession to Venezuela 

Venezuela edge 10-man Jamaica in Copa America

Novak Djokovic insists the enticing prospect of becoming only the third man to sweep a calendar Grand Slam and the first since Rod Laver in 1969 is "achievable".
     The world number one captured a first French Open at the 12th time of asking on Sunday, becoming just the third man in history to hold all four majors at the same time.
     The 29-year-old's 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win over Andy Murray allowed him to claim a 12th major and join Don Budge, in 1938, and Laver, in 1962 and 1969, as the only players to simultaneously possess the French Open, Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon trophies.
     "Well, I don't want to sound arrogant, but I really think everything is achievable in life," said the Serb.
     "You know, winning this trophy today gave me so much happiness and fulfilment. I'm trying to grasp and I'm trying to cherish, obviously, these moments right now. Whether or not I can reach a calendar slam, that's still a possibility."
     The last player to even have the ...

Calendar Grand Slam 'achievable', insists Djokovic

Scoreboard of the
second match of the Tri-Nation One-Day International series between the West Indies and Australia at the Guyana National Stadium on Sunday.
     West Indies Innings:
     J. Charles b Starc 22
     A. Fletcher c Maxwell b Starc 4
     D. Bravo c Zampa b Marsh 19
     M. Samuels lbw Lyon 10
     D. Ramdin lbw Maxwell 12
     K. Pollard c Warner b Lyon 0
     C. Brathwaite c Finch b Zampa 21
     J. Holder b Zampa 1
     S. Benn c and b Lyon 3
     S. Narine stpd wkpr Wade b Zampa 5
     J. Taylor not out 5
     Extras (lb-3, w-9, nb-2) 14
     Total (32.3 overs, all out) 116
     Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Fletcher), 2-50 (Bravo), 3-59 (Charles), 4-70 (Samuels), 5-70 (Pollard), 6-85 (Ramdin), 7-88 (Holder), 8-91 (Benn), 9-111 (Narine), 10-116 (Brathwaite)
     Bowling: M. Starc 9-0-37-2 (1nb, 5w), J. Hazlewood 3-0-13-0 (1nb), N. Lyon 10-2-39-3 (2w), M. Marsh 3-1-5-1, A. Zampa 5.3-0-16-3, G. Maxwell 2-1-3-1.
     Australia Innings
     D. Warner not out 55
     A. Finch lbw 

Providence (Guyana), June 6 (AFP) Scoreboard of the

Australia wobbled near the finish yet still made an immediate statement in their opening match of the Tri-Nation Series at the Guyana National Stadium on Sunday, whipping the West Indies by six wickets in the second fixture of the tournament.
     Put in to bat on a pitch that once again made strokeplay difficult, the West Indies collapsed from the relative comfort of 50 for one to be dismissed for 116 off just 32.3 overs, losing the last nine wickets for only 66 runs on the way their lowest-ever total in a One-Day International against Australia in the Caribbean.
     Australia then wasted little time in getting to the modest target, David Warner stroking an unbeaten 55 to ensure that the scheduled day/night fixture was over with almost 25 overs to spare despite the loss of three wickets for seven runs with the end in sight.
     Spinners Sunil Narine, with two wickets in one over, and Sulieman Benn caused the discomfort but it was not enough to pull the hosts back from the abyss.
   

Warner half century as Australia thrash Windies

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will take the next 10 days off work to undergo treatment for an ear infection in London, an official statement from his office has said.
	Speculation over the president's health has been swirling for weeks after he cancelled three official engagements.
	"President Buhari will take 10 days off and travel to London from Monday June 6th, to rest," according to the statement signed by his spokesman Femi Adesina yesterday.
	"During the holiday, the president will see an ear, nose and throat specialist for a persistent ear infection."
	Buhari has been examined by his personal physician and a specialist in Abuja and both doctors "recommended further evaluation purely as a precaution," the statement added.
	Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo will stand in for Buhari.
	The Nigerian presidency is historically cagey about health matters concerning the head of state.
	The influential Guardian newspaper yesterday quoted Adesina as denying media reports that Buhari was 

Nigeria's Buhari heads to London for ear infection treatment

At least fourteen people were killed in southern Turkey when a bus carrying schoolchildren on an excursion plunged off the road and into a canal, reports said.
	The bus had been bringing the pupils back from an excursion to the well-known archaeological site of Karatepe outside the city of Osmaniye yesterday when it flipped over into the canal, the Dogan news agency reported.
	It said that the driver had lost control of the vehicle and an investigation was underway.
	Twenty four people were being treated for injuries in hospital. Of those killed, three were female pupils, three were boys and eight were adults, it said.
	Pictures published by Turkish media showed a crane hoisting the bus out of the water watched by horrified onlookers.

At least 14 killed as Turkish bus plunges into canal

At least three people were killed and 40 injured in a collision between a goods train and a passenger train in Belgium, the Belga news agency reported.
	The accident occurred yesterday on the line linking Namur and Liege in the east of the country, close to the municipality of Saint-Georges-sur-Meuse, with Belga quoting the mayor of the commune.
	The passenger train slammed into the back of the goods train on the same track at high speed, Frederic Sacre, spokesman for Belgian railway infrastructure manager Infrabel, told AFP.
	Around 40 passengers were on board, Infrabel and the National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB) said in a joint statement.
	"Two of the six carriages derailed and are lying on the tracks," the statement said.
	The front carriage was completely turned on its side, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
	Belga reported that the collision had been "very violent," adding that fire and police services had been sent from Liege to the scene, with several passengers ...

Three dead, 40 injured in Belgian train crash

The anti-establishment Five Star party's Virginia Raggi easily took the lead in the first round of the Rome mayoral race, exit polls showed, dealing a setback to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's ruling party.
	Raggi, a 37-year-old lawyer whose campaign tapped into simmering discontent over a string of corruption scandals in the Italian capital, won between 33 and 38 percent of the vote, according to exit polls by public broadcaster RAI and La7 television.
	She was trailed by Roberto Giachetti of Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), who secured 20 to 26 percent of the vote.
	A second round run-off is to take place on June 19.
	Rome was considered the main prize in a battle for municipal seats across the country yesterday, in local polls widely seen as a test for Renzi.
	Eyes were also trained on the mayoral election in Milan, where centre-left candidate Giuseppe Sala took the lead with 38 to 42 percent, in line with pre-poll expectations, according to La7.
	He was closely followed ..

Anti-establishment candidate leads Rome mayoral race

Romanians went to the polls in municipal elections overshadowed by a string of corruption scandals that caused the collapse of the government six months ago, with exit polls predicting big gains for leftist candidates.
	The vote was seen as a key political test following a devastating nightclub fire in Bucharest that killed 64 people and brought down the corruption-tainted administration of Social Democratic Victor Ponta.
	Gabriela Firea, a former journalist, won the mayoral race in the capital Bucharest, according to three exit polls which gave her around 42 percent of the vote.
	Firea, 43, was the joint candidate of the leftist alliance of the Social Democrats and the National Union for the Progress of Romania.
	The left was also on track to win mayoral seats in at least five of the capital's six districts, according to the exit polls.
	Official results are not expected until Monday.
	Bucharest has been run by an interim mayor since former mayor Sorin Oprescu was arrested last year .

Romanians vote in local polls under shadow of graft

Armed men suspected of being religious extremists went on the rampage in a town in Kazakhstan, killing three civilians and three soldiers, the interior ministry said.
	The coordinated attacks on two weapons stores and a military base in the western town of Aktobe yesterday triggered a major counter-terrorist operation with police clearing people from shopping malls and markets while public transport was shut down.
	Four of the gunmen were killed by security forces and seven others arrested, ministry spokesman Almas Sadubayev told Russian news agency Interfax.
	A civilian shop owner and a security guard were killed in the first gunshop that was targeted, while a customer was shot dead in the second firearms store, he was quoted as saying.
	Gunmen also killed three soldiers as they tried to storm a military base.
	"The assailants hijacked a bus. They then ordered the passengers and the driver to get off and tried to ram the gates," Sadubayev told Russian media. "They opened fire and ...

'Religious extremists' kill six in Kazakhstan rampage

Mexicans headed to the polls today to elect new governors in 12 states, with the ruling party seeking to maintain its decades-old grip on two regions beset by drug violence.
	President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is favored to keep the governorship in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, days after it was rocked by the 24-hour kidnapping of a famous football player.
	But the PRI faces a tighter race in the neighboring eastern state of Veracruz, another violence-scarred region it has controlled for decades where a human head was found near a polling place on Saturday.
	The PRI holds the governorship in nine of the dozen states up for grabs, two years before presidential elections in 2018. The other 20 federal regions are not choosing new heads of government on Sunday.
	"This election is a thermometer to see how things will turn out in 2018," Jose Antonio Crespo, a political expert at the Center for Economics Research and Teaching, told AFP.
	Tamaulipas 

Violent Mexican states elect new governors

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's party was locked in battle today for control of Rome and other cities in municipal elections seen as a test for the ruling party and the country's divided right.
	The focus is on the major cities of Bologna, Milan, Naples, Turin and especially the capital Rome, where the populist anti-establishment Five Star is heading the race for the mayor's seat.
	Despite the possibility his centre-left Democratic Party (PD) could lose control of both Rome and Milan, Renzi has played down the significance of the vote.
	On Sunday, as if to demonstrate his insouciance, the 41-year-old prime minister visited the training camp of the Italian football squad, to wish them luck in the Euro 2016 championships starting in France next week.
	"The municipals are about mayors, the people whose job it is to repair the streets, not the government of the country," Renzi said recently.
	Rome has been without an elected leader since last October, when Ignazio Marino, a member ..

Rome the top prize as Italians vote in test for Renzi

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck in the Banda Sea in remote eastern Indonesia today, US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.
	The quake struck at 00:25 am (1625 GMT Sunday) at a depth of 428 kilometres (265 miles), about 300 kilometres from Ambon Island, the US Geological Survey said.
	The epicentre was far from land, and Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said the quake was not strong enough to trigger a tsunami.
	Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where tectonic plates collide.

6.3 quake in eastern Indonesia, no tsunami alert

The annual fasting month of Ramadan is due to begin tomorrow in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, religious authorities in the four Muslim countries said.
	The announcement was made on Sunday after the sighting of the crescent moon.
	Other Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa are also expected to begin observing Ramadan on Monday or on Tuesday.
	During Ramadan, Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk.
	The break the fast with a meal known as iftar and before dawn they have a second opportunity to eat and drink during suhur.
	Ramadan is sacred to Muslims because tradition says the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed during that month.
	Ramadan is followed by the Eid al-Fitr festival.

AFP

AFP

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