The United Nations today hit back at Donald Trump after he vowed to scrap the Paris climate deal if elected US president, saying the agreement was critical to saving the planet.
	"The Paris agreement is one of the key achievements that world leaders have made in the critical fight that is designed to make sure that this planet is habitable for all of us, for generations to come," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
	The presumptive Republican presidential nominee vowed in a speech yesterday to "cancel" the hard-won agreement reached in Paris in December and signed by 175 countries at the United Nations last month.
	Trump had in the past said he was "not a big fan" of the Paris deal and that he would seek to renegotiate it, but on yesterday he declared that he would simply scrap it altogether.
	"We're going to cancel the Paris climate agreement, and stop all payments of United States tax dollars to UN global warming programs," he said.
	UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon considers the Paris ...

UN to Trump: Climate deal is critical to saving planet

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World oil prices may struggle to sustain a push beyond USD 50 a barrel after hitting the key level for the first time this year, analysts warned today.
	Crude futures topped USD 50 a barrel yesterday, as production disruptions in Canada contribute to a drop in US crude inventories. Prices have won support also from unrest in Nigeria, Africa's biggest crude producer.
	Prices slipped back today however, as analysts warned that the week's move above USD 50 could trigger some North American producers of crude extracted from shale rock to lift output.
	Slumping prices, resulting in crude trading at under USD 30 a barrel in February from above USD 100 two years ago, made it unprofitable for some shale companies to compete with traditional producers like OPEC and Russia.
	Futures had plunged over a 21-month period owing largely to a global supply glut, fed by rising production of shale oil.
	Oil at USD 50 is meanwhile viewed as a level at which it makes economic sense for certain suppliers ..

Oil faces struggle to keep above USD 50, as OPEC looms

The bodies of six men -- three decapitated and the rest dismembered -- were discovered inside an abandoned taxi in a violent area of western Mexico, an official said.
	The cadavers are unclaimed "and there are no reports of people missing in the area," a source in the office of the Michoacan attorney general told AFP yesterday.
	Assailants left the severed bodies in the car on the outskirts of the municipality Venustiano Carranza in Michoacan, near that state's border with Jalisco.
	While the perpetrators have not yet been identified, prosecutors said in an official report that authorities had spotted a suspect taxi that was followed by a dark vehicle entering the town of La Barca in Jalisco en route to Michoacan.
	"After realizing it was being followed by police, the taxi was abandoned in a ditch in the town of Venustiano Carranza, while the other car sped toward the town of Ibarra before returning to La Barca," the text read.
	Michoacan and Jalisco are hotbeds of drug production and 

Six dismembered bodies found in taxi in Mexico

France's civil aviation body wants airlines to fuel up abroad during the current protests at refineries and depots to ensure two complete flights, an Air France spokesman said today.
	Planes leaving from Europe to Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport at Paris, for example, would be expected to fuel up for both the outward and return flights, the spokesman told AFP, adding that Air France had been following the recommendation since early afternoon.

French aviation body tells airlines to fuel up abroad amid

China risks creating a "Great Wall of self-isolation" through its continued military expansion in the South China Sea and its hacks on US companies, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said today.
	Carter's remarks came ahead of his trip next week to an Asian security summit in Singapore, where China's actions in the contested waterway will likely dominate discussions.
	"China's actions could erect a Great Wall of self- isolation," Carter told graduating officers at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
	"Countries across the region - allies, partners, and the unaligned - are voicing concerns publicly and privately at the highest levels."
	China has in recent years dredged reefs, islets and other maritime features and built these up into larger islands capable of sustaining a military presence.
	For instance, the Fiery Cross Reef Outpost, located between the Philippines and Vietnam, has since 2014 been converted from a sandy speck in the ocean to an island stretching more than three ..

China risks 'Great Wall of self-isolation': Pentagon chief

The United Nations is in talks with Nepal about supplying troops to protect staff who will be working in its mission in Libya when it permanently returns to Tripoli, a UN official said today.
	Nepal, which has 245 troops protecting the UN mission in Iraq, will soon carry out a security assessment in Tripoli on the proposed deployment, said the official, who spoke on background.
	Last month, the United Nations announced that its staff would be returning to Tripoli to work alongside the new UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
	The UN mission pulled out of the Libyan capital in July 2014, amid fierce fighting between rival militias.
	A month later, the Islamist Libya Dawn militia seized the capital, forcing the internationally-recognized government to flee to the east.
	Sarraj returned to Tripoli in late March but has been struggling to assert his government's control over Libya's state institutions to put an end to the chaos in Libya since the 2011 fall of Moamer ...

UN in talks with Nepal about Libya guard force

Dozens of migrants were missing today after an overloaded fishing boat sank off the coast of Libya, the third major tragedy in the Mediterranean in as many days, Italian rescuers said.
	Italian coastguards sent in rescue ships after a call for help that spoke of 350 people in the water, while the Italian navy said it had saved 130 people and was searching for others.
	The coastguard, which coordinates rescue operations in the area, was not able to give further information immediately.
	This is the third major accident involving migrants this week, with authorities estimating that more than 10,000 migrants have been rescued near the Libyan coast.
	Emergency services also said they had received distress signals from more than 15 vessels today.

Dozens missing in new shipwreck off Libya: rescuers

Security forces fired tear gas as thousands of protesters gathered in central Baghdad today and attempted to head to the Green Zone, a fortified area they have breached twice.
	Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had called on the demonstrators, most of them supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, to stay home and security forces deployed to block their way to the Green Zone, but the protesters were undeterred.
	Demonstrators pushed past security forces at Tahrir Square, breached a barbed wire barrier and attempted to pull down slabs of heavy concrete blast wall blocking Jumhuriyah Bridge, which leads toward the Green Zone, where Iraq's main government institutions are located.
	Some protesters, who are calling for a new government, gave olive branches and flowers to security personnel at Tahrir, but events quickly escalated, and the forces fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse the demonstration.
	Many of the protesters, most of them supporters of powerful Najaf-based cleric Sadr, ..

Iraq forces fire tear gas as thousands protest in Baghdad

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today floated the possibility of a "step by step" reduction of EU sanctions against Russia if there is progress on ending the conflict in Ukraine.
	"I hope that by the end of June there will be progress and then we can see if we can reduce the sanctions step by step, or if we stay with the measures we have right now," Steinmeier told reporters in Tallinn.
	"It is not our aim to maintain the sanctions but to resolve the conflict."
	EU sanctions imposed on Russia's banking, defence and energy sectors over its actions in neighbouring Ukraine expire in July.
	Extending them will require the unanimous agreement of all 28 member states, and EU leaders are expected to discuss at a summit next month.
	But yesterday, Steinmeier said the European Union was facing difficult talks on extending the sanctions because of the increased resistance of some member states.
	He did not name names, but Italy and Hungary have been among the most sceptical ...

Germany floats possible 'step by step' reduction of Russia

Two men who suffered horrific injuries in the world's first nuclear strike seven decades ago came face-to-face today with the present-day commander-in- chief of the country that launched the attack.
	And one of them got a hug.
	Shigeaki Mori, 79, appeared overwhelmed with emotion as he shook hands with US President Barack Obama after a highly-charged ceremony in Hiroshima.
	"The president gestured as if he was going to give me a hug, so we hugged," Mori said of the embrace that was broadcast around the world.
	That very human moment between an old man and one of the world's most powerful people came after Obama delivered a soaring speech that touched on the horrors of the American atomic bomb that obliterated Hiroshima.
	"71 years ago, death fell from the sky and the world was changed," Obama told a specially-invited audience at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
	"Why did we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in the not-so-distant past. We .

Hugs and tears: Obama meets A-bomb survivors in Hiroshima

Andy Murray cut down Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic to reach the French Open last-16 Friday as two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova became the fourth top 10 women's seed to be knocked out.
     Murray, a three-time semi-finalist, had needed two five-set matches and three days of play to get to the last 32.
	   But on Friday the 29-year-old needed just a shade under two hours to beat 6ft 11in (2.11m) Karlovic 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).
	It was his seventh win in seven matches against the 37-year-old as Murray goes on to face either John Isner of the United States or Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.
	"Especially at the end it was very close. I got off to a quick start and against someone like Ivo that's very important," said Murray.
	"I was glad to win that tiebreak at the end."
	   Canada's eighth seed Milos Raonic overcame a left hip injury to defeat Slovakian lucky loser Andrej Martin, the world number 133, and reach the last 16 for a second time.
	Raonic won 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, 6-3 but only ..

Murray fells giant Karlovic as Kvitova joins seeds exodus

Austria's government submitted today a law to seize the house where Hitler was born, in a bid to stop the building becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.
	The large corner house in the quaint northern town of Braunau am Inn near the German border where the Nazi dictator was born in 1889 has been owned by the family of a local woman for more than a century.
	In 1972 the government signed a lease with the owner and turned it into a centre for people with disabilities, but the arrangement came to an abrupt end five years ago when she refused to grant permission for renovation works.
	The government said on April 9 it decided to seize the property, with the building -- which cannot be demolished because it is in the town's historic centre and therefore under heritage protection -- empty since 2011.
	"Representatives of the interior ministry have been trying for several years to buy the property, but these attempts failed... Now the only option is to transfer ownership to the Austrian Republic ...

Austria launches action to seize Hitler's house

Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal withdrew from the French Open with a left wrist injury on Friday, but insisted the heartbreaking setback did not mean the end of his career.
	"It's not broken, but if I continue to play it will be broken in a few days," said an emotional Nadal, the fourth seed.
     "This is a very bad position, but that's life. If this was not Roland Garros I probably would not have taken the risk of playing in the first couple of days."
	Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam title winner, has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, affecting his knees and wrist.
	A right wrist injury forced him to skip the 2014 US Open.
	Despite his latest setback, the charismatic Spaniard said he will keep playing although his participation at Wimbledon next month is now in serious doubt.
	"Nine times in my career I have been able to be healthy here in Paris and win this tournament," he said.
	"This is a tough moment and the toughest press conference I have ever had to give but it's ...

Nadal withdraws from French Open with wrist injury

The European Union today further tightened sanctions against North Korea over nuclear and ballistic missile tests carried out in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
	The 28-nation bloc said it adopted new restrictions in the trade, financial, investment and transport sectors in order to complement UN resolutions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the north's official name.
	"The EU decided to further expand its restrictive measures targeting the DPRK's nuclear, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes," according to a statement from the European Council, which groups EU member states.
	It cited the "grave threat to international peace and security in the region and beyond" that North Korean actions pose.
	Under the new measures, the EU bans imports of petroleum products and luxury goods from North Korea as well as the sale or transfer to the regime of any civilian material or equipment that can also be used for military purposes.
	It also ..

EU further tightens sanctions on North Korea

Nepal's top court today demanded an explanation from police over the arrest of a journalist at a protest outside government offices in Kathmandu, the latest incident to spark fears over free speech in the Himalayan nation.
	Police arrested Shesh Narayan Jha, who works for a Nepali magazine, on Monday together with a protester who splashed red paint on the walls of the Singha Durbar government complex.
	Jha says he was simply taking photos but police say he was involved in the protest against alleged excessive use of force by security officials during recent anti-charter demonstrations, in which 50 people died.
	"The Supreme Court today issued a show cause notice to the district administration and the police in Kathmandu... For arresting the two men on the charge of painting the walls of Singha Durbar red," said Rakchhya Ram Harijan, a lawyer who independently petitioned the court for their release.
	The two men were released on bail late yesterday after Harijan filed the ...

Top Nepal court demands police justify reporter's arrest

Pakistani media and activists poured scorn today on a suggestion from an Islamic religious body that men should be allowed to "lightly beat" their wives, made in their draft of a women's protection bill.
	The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) released a draft of the bill on Thursday, their response to progressive legislation giving women greater rights and protection in the province of Punjab.
	Local media quoted the draft as saying: "A husband should be allowed to lightly beat his wife if she defies his commands and refuses to dress up as per his desires; turns down demand of intercourse without any religious excuse or does not take bath after intercourse or menstrual periods."
	The proposal was met with a wave of mockery in the media and online today.
	The country's biggest and most influential newspaper, the English-language daily Dawn, published a satirical article with a list of things people could beat other than their wives -- including eggs, the bottom of ketchup bottles, and .

Pakistanis hit back as clerics say men can 'beat' wives

Iran is still complying with the July 2015 landmark nuclear deal with major powers, a report from the UN atomic watchdog showed today.
	The International Atomic Energy Agency's second quarterly assessment since the accord came into force on January 16 showed that Iran was meeting its main commitments.
	The report, seen by AFP, showed that Iran "has not pursued the construction of the existing Arak heavy water research reactor" and has "not enriched uranium" above low levels.
	Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium, material which can be used for peaceful purposes but when further processed for a nuclear weapon, has not risen about the agreed level of 300 kilos.
	The level of so-called heavy water has not exceeded the permitted level of 130 tonnes, as it did briefly during the previous reporting period. Verification by the IAEA has continued as agreed.
	The IAEA added that "all stored centrifuges and associated infrastructure have remained in storage under continuous Agency ...

Iran sticking to nuclear deal: UN watchdog

At least 100,000 people were trapped today along Syria's border with Turkey after the Islamic State group swept through rebel territory in Aleppo province, rights groups and activists said.
	The shock IS advance on two rebel-held towns came as the jihadist group is facing an offensive further east in its own heartland of Raqa province.
	IS fighters cut a key road between the rebel towns of Azaz, close to the Turkish border, and nearby Marea, journalist Maamoun Khateeb told AFP from Azaz.
	"This is a disaster," Khateeb said, adding that some 15,000 people were now besieged in Marea.
	The jihadist onslaught threatens tens of thousands of internally displaced Syrians living in informal camps near the border, closed by Turkey for several months.
	"We are terribly concerned... About the estimated 100,000 people trapped between the Turkish border and active front lines," said Pablo Marco, regional operations manager for Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
	MSF said it was evacuating patients and 

100,000 Syrians trapped as IS advances near Turkish border

More than 30 students who partied at a graduation ceremony in northern Iran have received 99 lashes each for violating the Islamic republic's morality code, media reported.
	"Following a report about a large number of young boys and girls mingling together in a villa around Qazvin, all those taking part in the party were arrested immediately," Mizanonline quoted yesterday the town's prosecutor general as saying.
	Esmail Sadeghi Niyaraki said the youths were put on trial and each sentenced to 99 lashes, a punishment which morality police carried out the same day "so to be a lesson for those who attempt to breach the conventions". No date was given.
	"The arrest of this many young girls and boys, who were half-naked, consuming alcohol and were engaged in indecent behaviour, hurt the public opinion," the official said.
	"Thank God, within less than 24 hours, interrogation, investigation, trial, issue of verdict and carrying out the verdict were completed," said Niyaraki.
	Mixed dancing ..

99 lashes for partying Iran youths

Former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak said he will quit as Bangladesh's fast bowling coach at the end of the month after deciding not to renew his contract.
     The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) said Streak, who has been linked with a coaching post at India's national academy, informed them of his decision via email.
     "I have decided that I shall leave my role as a national bowling coach when my contract expires at the end the month," Streak said in a statement via his agent on Twitter yesterday.
     The Zimbabwean coach, who signed a two-year contract in 2014, has been credited with the steady progress made by Bangladesh's fast bowling unit, which contributed to the team's successful run in one-day internationals.
     "I feel now is the right time for me and my family to make this decision and I look forward to the future as I look to continue my coaching career," he said in the statement.
     Bangladesh reached the knockout stage of the Cricket World Cup for the first time ..

Zimbabwe's Streak quits Bangladesh

All references to Australia were removed from a UN report on climate change and World Heritage sites after objections from Canberra, in a move scientists and activists today called "extremely disturbing".
	The study, World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate, was jointly published yesterday by UNESCO, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the United Nations Environmental Programme.
	It profiles the impacts of climate change on major tourism drawcards including the Statue of Liberty, Venice and Stonehenge, listing 31 vulnerable sites in 29 countries.
	Initially it contained a chapter on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is suffering its worst bleaching in recorded history, and sections on Kakadu National Park and the Tasmanian Wilderness, scientists said.
	But when the Australian Department of Environment saw a draft, it objected and every mention of Australia was removed.
	The department told AFP it "indicated" to UNESCO that "it did not support any of Australia's World ...

AFP

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