At least four people were killed in central Nigeria in two days of violence over an alleged blasphemy by a Christian trader against Prophet Mohammed, residents told media today.
	Abdullahi Sallau said a Muslim mob killed one person on Sunday and three yesterday in the town of Pandogari in Niger state "following blasphemous remarks by a Christian against the Prophet".
	One of those killed was Methodus Chimaije Emmanuel, the 24-year-old who posted comments on his Facebook page, said Sallau, who lives in the town. His account was supported by another local.
	Emmanuel, whose parents were from Nigeria's mainly Christian south but who was born and raised in Pandogari, had gone into hiding following the post but was found.
	"The crowd took the law into their hands and mobbed him to death despite the revulsion expressed by his parents over the online comments," Misbahu Malami, who lives locally, told AFP.
	Soldiers and police have made arrests and imposed an overnight curfew to restore calm ..

Four killed in riots in Nigeria over alleged blasphemy

PTI Automatic

Poland launched a fresh bid today to extradite Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski to the United States to face sentencing over a 1977 case of statutory rape.
	Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro announced he has appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn an October ruling that Polanski should not face extradition, saying no-one should be above the law.
	"He is accused of a terrible crime against a child, the rape of a child," Ziobro, who is also prosecutor general, told Polish public radio.
	"Were he a teacher, a doctor, a plumber or a painter, I'm sure any country would have extradited him to the United States long ago."
	The announcement appears to be part of what the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government, which took office after October elections, touts as a moral revolution in strongly Catholic Poland.
	Polanski is still wanted by the United States for sentencing over the 1977 statutory rape of Samantha Gailey after a photoshoot in Los Angeles.
	He was arrested after Gailey, .

Poland makes new bid to extradite Polanski to US

Germany's highest court today struck down a challenge by electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk against a hip-hop artist's two-second sample of their tune, in a dispute that erupted almost two decades ago.
	The constitutional court ruled that if the impact on the usage rights of the intellectual property owner is "negligible, then artistic freedom overrides the interest of the owner of the copyright".
	At the heart of the dispute is a short drum sequence looped repeatedly in the song "Nur mir" (Only Me) by Sabrina Setlur, also famous for her past relationship with German former tennis star Boris Becker.
	The sequence originally came from Kraftwerk's 1977 release "Metall auf Metall" (Metal on Metal).
	Since the release of "Nur mir" in 1997, Kraftwerk's lead singer Ralf Huetter has been battling over the rights of the sequence against the producer Moses Pelham.
	The electronic music veterans had already won German court
backing for damages and an injunction over the song, but Pelham and ...

E-music pioneers Kraftwerk lose copyright case

World number one Novak Djokovic dropped the first set of his French Open last-16 clash against Roberto Bautista Agut before heavy rain came to his rescue today.
     The top seed, chasing an elusive first title in Paris and a career Grand Slam, came onto Court Philippe Chatrier with light rain still falling.
     Only 37 minutes of play was possible but in that time, the Serb star was broken three times while carving out two breaks of his own.
     The 29-year-old will cross the USD 100 million career prize money barrier if he makes a 10th Roland Garros quarter-final.
     But having lost the first set 6-3, he would have been relieved to leave behind the ghostly show court where just a smattering of spectators, huddled beneath umbrellas, braved the miserable chill.
     Tuesday's schedule had already been delayed by an hour after Monday's programme was washed away, the first such wipeout in 16 years.
     Djokovic had a 4-0 career edge over 14th seed Bautista Agut going into Tuesday's 

More rain gives suffering Djokovic shelter

German police have arrested three Pakistani suspects as 18 women have reported becoming victims of sexual assaults at a music festival, authorities said today.
	The mostly young women said they were encircled and groped by groups of men on Saturday night in ways that recalled a spate of mob attacks at chaotic New Year's festivities in Cologne.
	Police said they were investigating whether the perpetrators also robbed the women in the latest attacks at a four-day open air music festival in the western city of Darmstadt.
	Initially three women had filed charges, leading to the arrests of the three men, Pakistani asylum seekers aged 28 to 31, and another 15 women have come forward since.
	Police said they were searching for another two or three men and said in a statement that "the women have reported that they appeared to be men from the South Asia region".
	The Cologne attacks -- committed in a crowd of mostly Arabic and North African men -- appalled Germany and sharpened public concern 

Pak men arrested in Germany as 18 women report sex assaults

Striking railway workers were set to disrupt transport throughout France just 11 days before Euro 2016, as President Francois Hollande refused to back down over a labour dispute that has sparked months of protests.
	The transport strike adds to problems still being caused by last week's blockade of fuel depots which left motorists queuing at many petrol stations.
	The rolling train strike called by the powerful CGT union is expected to affect around half of national and regional train services.
	That will be followed by a strike on the Paris Metro network from Thursday and Air France pilots have voted in principle for a lengthy strike at some point in June, when Euro 2016 is in full swing.
	The protests and strikes have cast a shadow over the European football championships, which are expected to attract millions of foreign visitors to France when the tournament kicks off on June 10.
	Neighbouring Belgium also faced growing disruption Tuesday from a public sector workers' strike.
	But 

French rail workers' strike raises Euro 2016 fears

A South Korean appeals court ruled today that a contested merger between two Samsung Group affiliates last year had short-changed minority shareholders, and said they should receive a bigger payout.
	The Seoul High Court decision overturned a lower court ruling that had dismissed the shareholders' suit against the giant South Korean conglomerate.
	The merger last July saw Samsung's de facto holding company, Cheil Industries, take over construction firm Samsung C&T in an all-stock deal worth an estimated $8.0 billion.
	The merger had been passionately opposed by a significant number of C&T investors, rallied by US hedge fund Elliott Associates -- the company's second-largest single shareholder.
	Elliott had argued that the takeover wilfully undervalued the C&T share price, at an unacceptable cost to its shareholders.
	The High Court ruled that five shareholders who sued C&T for more money should be offered 66,602 won ($55.92) for each C&T share they held before the ...

S. Korea court rules against Samsung in merger payout suit

A Bahraini appeals court today upheld death sentences for three Shiites convicted of killing three policemen in a bombing in the Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom in 2014, a judicial source said.
	The court also upheld life sentences for six other defendants convicted over what was the deadliest attack on security forces since a Shiite-led uprising was crushed in 2011.
	A seventh defendant previously sentenced to life in jail did not appeal because he remains at large, the judicial source said.
	A policeman from the United Arab Emirates was among the three officers killed in the Shiite village of Diah in March 2014.
	He was the first foreign officer killed since Saudi-led troops and police were deployed to Bahrain to support its crackdown on the Arab Spring-inspired protests.
	Bahrain, which lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, has been rocked by unrest since it quelled Shiite-led protests demanding political reforms in 2011.
	Yesterday, a Bahraini ...

Bahrain upholds death sentences for attack on police

A Thai court today sentenced two military men to jail for orchestrating an attack on villagers who were blockading a gold mine, a lawyer said, a rare ruling in favour of such activists.
	Residents of Nanonbong in the northeastern province of Loei have waged a decade-long struggle against the mine, operated by the Thai company Tungkum Ltd, which they say pollutes the environment and damages health.
	The company has responded by filing at least 19 lawsuits against them, according to rights groups, including charges of criminal defamation against a 15-year-old girl.
	In May 2014, a week before the coup that brought the current military regime to power, Nanonbong villagers said they were mobbed and beaten by over 100 armed men while they were blocking the road to the mine.
	Today, a provincial court sentenced Poramet Pomnak and Poramin Pomnak, a retired army officer and his son who is still an officer, to two and three years in prison respectively for their involvement in the attack, the .

Thai military men jailed for attack on mine activists

Sri Lanka fast bowler Shaminda Eranga has been reported for a suspect bowling action, the International Cricket Council said today, adding to their woes after they lost the Test series to England.
     Concerns about the 29-year-old's action emerged during the second Test at the Riverside, where England beat Sri Lanka by nine wickets inside four days on Monday to go 2-0 up in the three-match series.
     A statement from the ICC, cricket's global governing body, said: "The match officials' report, which was handed over to the Sri Lanka team management, cited concerns about the legality of the 29-year-old's bowling action."
     Eranga opened Sri Lanka's bowling in the first innings at the Riverside, returning figures of none for 100 in 27 overs during the hosts' 498 for nine declared.
     The right-armer then bowled just one over in England's second innings as they chased down a target of 79 for victory.
     Under ICC regulations, Eranga is now required to undergo testing on his ...

Sri Lanka's Eranga reported for suspect action

Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip executed three men for murder today, the attorney general said, signalling more could follow despite appeals from the United Nations for a halt.
	The three men were put to death behind closed doors at dawn.
	"To achieve public deterrence and curb crime, the competent authorities carried out at dawn today, May 31, 2016 execution rulings against three of those convicted of shocking murders," a statement from the attorney general said.
	In theory all execution orders in the Palestinian territories must be approved by president Mahmud Abbas, who is based in the occupied West Bank.
	But Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, no longer recognises his legitimacy, and the Attorney General in Gaza Ismail Jaber recently announced that the authorities there would carry out the executions without Abbas's backing.
	Xavier Abu Eid, an adviser to Abbas, condemned the executions on Twitter.
	The UN envoy for the Middle East had previously called on Hamas to abandon the .

Hamas authorities execute three men in Gaza Strip: official

Half a century after they died, the bodies of 32 Australian soldiers and their dependents, many of whom were killed in the Vietnam War, were returned home from Malaysia today.
	In a sombre ceremony, their flag-draped coffins were loaded onto Australian airforce planes by a military guard of honour as a bugle sounded the Last Post.
	Australia sent more than 60,000 troops to fight in the Vietnam War and 521 were killed. Soldiers were buried in the nearest Commonwealth cemetery unless their families could pay for repatriation to Australia.
	"As a soldier, I am proud that the remains can be brought closer to their loved ones," said Abdullah Sani Mohamed, the Army Museum Director, who oversees Terendak Military Cemetery in Malaysia, where the Australians were buried.
	He said 21 of the deceased were Australian soldiers killed in Vietnam, three had been killed in the fight against communist insurgents in Malaysia, and eight others were family members.
	In 1966, Australia changed the ...

Australia war dead repatriated from Malaysia

An independent commission has recommended canceling the results of Haiti's first-round presidential elections held in October, saying they were marred by fraud.
	"It would be fair and just that, at least as far as the presidential elections are concerned, the process is relaunched from scratch," commission president Francois Benoit said yesterday.
	"The number of votes that could not be traced almost exceeded the number of legitimate votes obtained by politicians."
	Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas and marred by chronic political instability, has been mired in a deep political crisis since the runoff election process was halted in January amid violence.
	The opposition at the time claimed ex-president Michel Martelly had backed an "electoral coup."
	His hand-picked candidate, Jovenel Moise, was declared the winner of the first round voting with 32.76 percent of the vote, compared to 25.29 per cent for the main opposition candidate, Jude Celestin.
	The presidential runoff has 

Haiti commission recommends scrapping vote results

Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen the military coalition supporting the Yemeni government against rebels said.
	It was the second missile launch from Yemen yesterday since UN-brokered peace talks began in Kuwait on April 21 between the Huthi Shiite rebels and the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
	The Saudi-led Arab coalition in March last year began air strikes and other military aid in support of Yemeni forces resisting the Huthis who had seized much of the country and are backed by Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran.
	Fighting has continued despite a ceasefire that paved the way for the talks in Kuwait.
	The Huthi rebels are allied with elite troops loyal to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
	The missile launches are designed to "sabotage efforts of the international community to make the peace negotiations a success," the Saudi-led coalition said in a statement.
	Saudi Arabia has deployed Patriot missile batteries to counter ...

Saudi intercepts missile from Yemen: coalition

A photo of a dead migrant baby pulled from the Mediterranean was published by a charity hoping to force European leaders to grant migrants safe passage, after hundreds were presumed to have died at sea last week.
	The baby in the photograph was not identified, but the German non-governmental organisation Sea-Watch said the infant was found in the water last week after a wooden boat carrying 350 migrants capsized off the Libyan coast.
	The photo shows the baby, its eyes closed with blue-tinged lips, in the arms of a rescuer. Many of the migrants had already drowned when the rescue boat arrived, the humanitarian group said, without giving a specific number.
	Sea-Watch said urgent action was required from European Union leaders to prevent more migrant deaths, as Europe faces its worst migrant crisis since World War II.
	"If we do not want to see such pictures we have to stop producing them," Sea-Watch said in a statement released with the photo yesterday.
	"In the wake of these ...

Drowned migrant baby photo wake-up call for EU: NGO

The Taliban today pulled passengers from several buses in northern Afghanistan, killed at least 16 of them and took dozens of others hostage, officials said.
	"The Taliban shot dead 16 passengers," said Sayed Mahmood Danish, spokesman for the governor of Kunduz province, where the incident occurred. Police commander Shir Aziz Kamawal gave a slightly higher death toll of 17.

Taliban kill 16 bus passengers in Afghanistan

A kangaroo jumped onto a woman cycling in South Australia, rupturing her breast implants and using her as a "little airbag".
	Sharon Heinrich, 45, was on the Riesling Trail in the Clare Valley with her friend when the "cute" kangaroo she nicknamed "Skip" jumped from an embankment and landed on her, she told local newspaper the Northern Argus.
	"I saw him and thought 'oh isn't he cute' -- then he was on top of me.
	"I'm 5'4" (1.63 metres) and he was taller than me, and so heavy. Once he landed on me, he used me to launch off again, which caused more damage."
	Heinrich said the kangaroo then bounded on her friend.
	"He... Took our cycles out and used myself as a little airbag and then (has) taken Helen out and hopped away into the wilderness," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
	Heinrich said she suffered ruptured breast implants, three cracked ribs, grazes and a numb leg, while friend Helen Salter had concussion and whiplash.
	"(The implants) are silicon and saline, and .

Kangaroo ruptures Australian woman's breast implants

Taliban kill 16 bus passengers in northern Afghanistan:

Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo goes on trial today for crimes against humanity, but rights groups acting as plaintiffs in the case have pulled out, blasting the proceedings as flawed.
	The wife of ex president Laurent Gbagbo has already been handed a 20-year jail sentence for "attacking state authority" over her role in post-election violence in 2010 that left more than 3,000 people dead.
	Accused of involvement in rights abuses against supporters of her husband's rival Alassane Ouattara to keep Gbagbo in the presidency, she faces allegations of crimes against prisoners of war, crimes against the civilian population and crimes against humanity.
	But yesterday three rights groups, representing nearly 250 victims, said they would refuse to take part in the trial of the woman once known as the "Iron Lady" because of doubts over its "credibility".
	"Our lawyers have not had access to all stages of the procedures -- how can they defend their case?" the head of one of the ...

I Coast's ex-first lady on trial for crimes against humanity

The government of Brazil's acting president Michel Temer took a fresh hit as the anti-corruption minister resigned after a recording revealed him criticising a probe into graft at state oil giant Petrobras, officials said.
	Fabiano Silveira was the second minister to exit in the span of a week from Temer's government yesterday, which has only been in power for 18 days following the suspension of Dilma Rousseff for an impeachment trial.
	In audio released by Globo television on Sunday night, Silveira was heard talking to Senate President Renan Calheiros and Sergio Machado, the president of Petrobras subsidiary Transpetro, both of whom are being investigated in the embezzlement probe.
	In the recording, Silveira was heard saying that the prosecution in the case was "lost" and gave advice to Machado on how to protect himself from the investigation.
	The recording was made in March when Silveira was serving on the National Council of Justice.
	Brazilian media said Machado recorded the ...

Leaked audio claims second Brazilian minister

North Korea apparently failed with an attempted missile launch today, the latest in a series of setbacks for a ballistic weapons programme that aspires to threaten the US mainland.
	South Korea's defence ministry detected the dawn launch effort, which Japan condemned as an unacceptable and "provocative" act.
	The ministry declined to speculate on the missile type, but military sources cited by local media said it was a powerful, medium-range "Musudan" that has already undergone three failed launches this year.
	UN resolutions ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, although it regularly fires short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast.
	Today's effort came with tensions still running high on the divided Korean peninsula following the North's fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch a month later.
	"We believe that it was a failure," said Jeon Ha-Gyu, spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff
	"As to why and how it failed, ..

AFP

AFP

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