Fourteen suspected members of an international drug ring were charged in Australia today over a USD 145 million seizure of the drug ice, police said.
	The 14 include eight Chinese crew from a commercial fishing boat along with six Malaysians.
	Border forces detected the boat off Australia's west coast on April 27, but when it was boarded at sea several days later no drugs were found.
	Police said their inquiries led instead to two properties in the Western Australia state capital Perth with 150 kilograms of crystal methylamphetamine, or ice, found in one and 50 kilograms in the other.
	"It will be alleged in court that the people charged today were part of an organised criminal syndicate that facilitated the transport of the drugs from the fishing boat to Western Australia via small watercraft," police said.
	The Australian Federal Police said that six Malaysian nationals aged from 24 to 54 and eight Chinese aged between 37 and 56 had been charged with commercial drug importation, ...

Chinese, Malaysians charged after large Australia drug haul

PTI Automatic

US auto giant General Motors (GM) will recall more than two million vehicles produced through a joint venture in China because of an engine component flaw, the firm and officials said.
	The venture between GM and Shanghai-based SAIC will recall 2.16 million Buick and Chevrolet branded vehicles because their engine valves could corrode after extended use, the company said yesterday.
	Business media outlet Caixin reported that the recall was the largest in China so far this year. The country is the world's largest car market, making it crucial for foreign automakers as sales have slowed elsewhere.
	GM says it is the largest foreign automaker by sales last year in China, delivering more than 3.6 million vehicles in 2015, up some five per cent from record sales the previous year.
	The recall, also confirmed in a statement from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, will formally start in August.
	It affects some Buick vehicles produced between ...

GM venture to recall over two million cars in China

About 300 passengers and crew members were evacuated from a Korean Air Boeing 777 at Tokyo's Haneda airport after one of the engines caught fire, officials said today.
	TV footage from the airport showed the plane, which was bound for South Korea's Gimpo International, surrounded by red fire trucks and with the area around its left wing doused in foam. The plane's inflatable emergency evacuation slides had all been deployed.
	"The flight (Boeing 777) had a fire on Engine No.1," a Korean Air spokesman told AFP.
	"The plane bound to Kimpo (Gimpo) Airport from Haneda had 302 passengers and 17 crew members on board. (The) fire was apparently put out."
	Smoke was seen coming from the plane as it was about to take off at around 00:40 pm (0910 IST), officials of the Japanese transportation ministry and the airport told AFP.
	Passengers and crew were evacuated and there were no reported injuries, NHK and Jiji Press said, citing police and fire department sources.

300 people evacuated from Korean Air plane at Tokyo airport

President Barack Obama is set to make history today as he travels to Hiroshima -- becoming the first sitting US leader to visit the site that ushered in the destructive power of the nuclear age.
	The trip comes more than seven decades after the world was first shown the potential keys to its own destruction when an American plane, the Enola Gay, dropped its payload, dubbed "Little Boy" over the western Japanese city.
	The bombing claimed the lives of 140,000 people, some of whom died immediately in a ball of searing heat, while many succumbed to injuries or radiation-related illnesses in the weeks, months and years afterwards.
	The US dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later.
	Coming in Obama's final year in office, the visit also marks seven years since he used his trademark soaring rhetoric to call for the elimination of atomic arms in a landmark speech in Prague that helped him win the Nobel Peace Prize.
	And while the world today appears no closer to that ...

Obama to make history with Hiroshima journey

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid clash in the Champions League final for the second time in three years in Milan on Saturday.
      AFP Sports selects five of the best Madrid derbies of all time between the first two sides ever to compete a Champions League final from the same city:
     Real Madrid 2 Atletico Madrid 1, European Cup semi-final, May 13, 1959
     Three matches were needed to decide the first meeting between the sides in European competition in the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1959.
     Real won the first leg 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu before Atletico levelled the tie two weeks later with a 1-0 victory.
     In the days before the away goals rule, Real won a play-off held in Zaragoza 2-1 thanks to goals from the legendary Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas on their way to winning the competition for a fourth consecutive season.
     Real Madrid 1 Atletico Madrid 3, La Liga, October 30, 1999
     In what was to become the worst season in Atletico's history as ..

Five classic Real Madrid-Atletico Madrid derbies

Cristiano Ronaldo insists personal goals will be put to one side as Real Madrid seek to embellish their incredible European record with victory over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final on Saturday.
     Ronaldo, a three-time world player of the year, has never scored a goal at the San Siro but has the chance to match and surpass his own record of scoring 17 Champions League goals in a season.
     Yet two years after Real defender Sergio Ramos levelled at the death to inspire a stunning, extra-time comeback and secure a 10th triumph in Lisbon, the Portuguese superstar insists winning an 11th crown is far more important than who hits the net at the San Siro.
     "It would be nice to equal or even pass the (scoring) record, but I am not obsessed with that because the most important thing is to win," Ronaldo said when asked about adding to his 16-goal tally in the competition this season.
     Victory would see Real Madrid embellish their reputation as the most successful club 

Eyes on 11th Champions League crown, insists Ronaldo

Oil prices dipped in Asia today, pulling back further from the psychological USD 50 level as traders took profit and expectations of tighter global supply receded.
	At about 0815 IST, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for July delivery was down 29 cents at USD 49.19 a barrel while Brent North Sea crude, the European standard, was 33 cents lower at USD 49.26.
	Oil prices had topped USD 50 a barrel for the first time this year yesterday following production disruptions in Canada and Nigeria as well as a drop in US crude inventories.
	The USD 50 level is an important point because it's the price that makes economic sense for suppliers to start pumping again, CMC Markets trader Alex Wijaya told AFP.
	"Crude oil prices have failed to hold above the USD 50 level due to concerns that higher prices could unlock more supply," he said.
	IG Asia analyst Bernard Aw wrote in a client note that "the supply-demand situation has moved in favour of higher oil prices" but added that the recent sharp 

Oil dips after meeting resistance at $50 level

Group of Seven leaders today said that pumping up the world economy was an "urgent priority", but left the door open for a go-your-own-way approach in a sign of lingering divisions over how to boost growth.
	Going into a two-day summit, the club of rich nations was working to find common ground as host Japan looked to win backing for its view that government spending was key to lighting a fire under the world economy, while Germany instead emphasised economic reforms.
	As they wrapped up the talks today, the group said they all agreed on the need to hammer out a workable plan that took into account the circumstances facing each member -- also including the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Canada.
	"Global growth is our urgent priority," the G7 said in a final communique, adding that growth remained "moderate and below potential".
	"Taking into account country-specific circumstances, we commit to strengthening our economic policy responses in a cooperative manner and to ...

World economy is an 'urgent priority': G7 leaders

At least 10 people died and 20 were injured when a truck carrying wood and workers plunged into a ravine in eastern Guatemala, a local official has said.
	"The lamentable tragedy" occurred late Wednesday near El Estor, 160 kilometres from the capital, Mayor Rony Mendez told reporters.
	He said a mechanical problem might have been the cause.
	The truck's 45-year-old driver survived. He did not have a driving license and was in policy custody.

At least 10 die in truck plunge in Guatemala

Two weeks after sacking his entire government, the president of Guinea-Bissau named Baciro Dja as the west African country's new prime minister, in a move that triggered immediate protests from the ruling party.
	Dja's appointment, announced by presidential decree yesterday, was swiftly condemned by the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), whose supporters set fire to tyres near the presidential palace, an AFP reporter saw.
	"We will not accept a prime minister chosen by the president," said ex-premier Carlos Correia, who along with a number of former cabinet ministers gathered at the gates of the palace late yesterday where anti-riot police were deployed to provide additional security.
	Guinea Bissau's crisis erupted in August when President Jose Mario Vaz fired prime minister Domingos Simoes Pereira of the PAIGC, putting the president on a collision course with the party he himself belongs to.
	Both factions say the two men had disagreed over ..

Prez of Guinea-Bissau names new PM, triggering protests

The Red Cross has said it will help search for three journalists missing in Colombia whose disappearance the government blamed on a leftist rebel group.
	The International Committee of the Red Cross is acting at the request of the Colombian government, spokesman Edgar Alfonso said yesterday.
	Colombian Definers Minister Luis Carlos Villager's said the government is blaming the National Liberation Army (ELI), a leftist rebel group.
	Reporter Diego Doubles and cameraman Carlos Meld of Colombian TV network ECON were apparently detained Monday by gunmen in the town of El Tarra.
	They were covering the disappearance of a Spanish-Colombian journalist, Sealed Hernandez-Mora, a correspondent for Spanish newspaper El Mend who went missing over the weekend.
	He was last seen in El Tarra, in the Katoomba region of northeast Colombia.
	The RICAN journalists and others were attacked and detained by a group of assailants who stole their cameras, cell phones and other equipment, breaking some of it .

Colombia blames guerrillas for missing journalists

A request by the Committee to Protect Journalists to be recognised as a non-governmental organisation at the United Nations was rejected today after 10 countries opposed it, including Russia and China.
	The vote at the UN NGO committee capped a four-year application by the US-based press watchdog for the special status that provides access to UN premises and gives civil society a voice in UN affairs.
	Azerbaijan, Burundi, Cuba, Nicaragua, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan and Venezuela also opposed the request. Six countries voted in favour and three nations, including India, abstained.
	CPJ executive director Joel Simon said it was "sad" that the United Nations upholds press freedom in its resolutions but denies accreditation for special status to an NGO that can help inform decisions on that issue.
	"A small group of countries with poor press freedom records are using bureaucratic delaying tactics to sabotage and undermine any efforts that call their own abusive policies into high ...

Press watchdog denied request for UN status

Donald Trump today said that if he is elected US president he would support the Canadian Keystone oil pipeline project that was blocked by President Barack Obama on environmental grounds.
	Speaking just after he won enough primary delegates to seize the Republican nomination for the White House, Trump told reporters that the project for a new pipeline to carry Canadian crude to the Gulf of Mexico "should be approved."
	"I will absolutely approve it 100 per cent, but I want a better deal," Trump added.
	He said that because the project requires the US government to expropriate private land using eminent domain laws, the US should have a share of the profits.
	"I'm going to say, folks, we are going to let you build the pipeline but give us a piece."
	"I want a piece of the profits for the United States. That's how we make our country rich again," he added.
	The Obama administration decided in October to deny TransCanada Corp. Permission to build the 1,180-mile (1,900 kilometer) ...

Trump would approve Keystone pipeline blocked by Obama

The world's largest seaworthy wooden ship of its class, a replica of a merchant vessel that sank in 1745 off the coast of Sweden for reasons still unknown, is up for sale after years on the seas.
	The Swedish foundation that owns the vessel "Gotheborg", a replica of the 18th century galleon from the Swedish East India Company, announced Thursday it could no longer afford the upkeep.
	"This is a tough decision that we've been forced to make," said Lars Malmer,  chairman of the Ostindiefararen Gotheborg foundation.
	"We would have preferred it to continue sailing, but can confirm that the financial conditions do not exist," he said in a statement.
	The original, the East Indiaman Gotheborg, sank in 1745 within sight of its home port of Gothenburg on Sweden's west coast after nearly completing a two-year voyage home from China.
	For reasons still unknown, the ship struck an underwater rock as it neared its home port.
	Within view of the harbour, the vessel sank slowly in shallow ...

Life-size replica of 18th century ship is up for sale

Over 100 migrants were feared dead today after two crowded boats capsised off Libya in separate incidents, with one of the tragedies captured on video that shows dramatic rescues and desperate final moments.
	The survivors of the first shipwreck, which happened yesterday, said some 650 people were aboard their boat when it left chaos-wracked Libya.
	But they "spoke of 100 missing people who were stuck in the hull," a spokesman for the International Organization of Migration in Italy, Flavio Di Giacomo, told AFP. Italian authorities had initially given a toll of five confirmed dead.
	While the Italian navy was able to rescue some 560 people from the water yesterday, the shipwreck may be one of the worst tragedies in the Mediterranean in recent months.
	The navy captured the tragedy in a horrifying video that shows the boat roll over and dump its passengers into the water. Seconds later the sea begins to churn as the migrants swim for their lives.
	Several rescuers from the Italian navy 

Over 100 feared dead in new migrant boat tragedies in Med

Microsoft and Facebook today announced they will work together to lay a high-speed Internet cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
	A new, sub-sea "MAREA" cable was expected to be completed by late 2017, with the aim of meeting growing demand by the tech companies' customers for fast, reliable data connections.
	"As the world is increasingly moving toward a future based on cloud computing, Microsoft continues to invest in our cloud infrastructure to meet current and future growing global demand for our more than 200 cloud services, " Microsoft data center strategy general manager Christian Belady said in a release.
	MAREA will be the highest-capacity sub-sea cable ever crossing the Atlantic, with an expected capacity of some 160 terabytes per second of data, according to the companies.
	The 6,600 kilometer cable system will also be the first connecting the United States and southern Europe, running from Northern Virginia to Bilbao, Spain, Microsoft and Facebook said.
	From ...

Microsoft-Facebook laying trans-Atlantic Internet line

The law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers leak broke its own policies by setting up an offshore company for a Canadian billionaire under criminal investigation, news outlets reported today.
	The daily Toronto Star and public broadcaster CBC, which are members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, reported that Mossack Fonseca had agreed to do work for Chinese-born David Ting Kwok Ho despite concerns about his legal woes and his prominence.
	Ho, who emigrated to Canada in 1986, had been charged with possession of cocaine, the unlawful confinement of a prostitute at his Vancouver mansion, and possession of an unregistered loaded pistol.
	He pleaded guilty to the latter two charges in 2012 and was given a suspended sentence, community service and a fine.
	A year earlier when the charges were still pending, however, Mossack Fonseca took him on as a client.
	In addition to the charges, a background check had found Ho was a "politically exposed person" because .

Panama Papers: Law firm registered co for Canadian billionaire

The UN's peace envoy for Syria told the Security Council today that he has no plans to convene a new round of talks in the next two or three weeks, diplomats said.
	Staffan de Mistura told a closed session of the council that more progress was needed to strengthen a ceasefire and deliver humanitarian aid before talks can resume, according to diplomats in attendance.
	Two weeks of UN-brokered talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups in Geneva ended on April 27 with no breakthrough.
	There had been expectations that a new round would be called at the end of May, but fighting has flared on the ground and aid deliveries to besieged areas continue to be blocked.
	Diplomats said there was little chance that the opposition would take part in a new round of peace talks if violence was raging and no aid was reaching civilians.
	The 20-nation group backing the Syrian peace process has said that it is up to De Mistura to decide on the appropriate time to resume the talks.
	The ..

UN envoy says no new Syria talks in next few weeks: diplomats

Trump says has enough delegates to win Republican

Some 20 migrants living in the "Jungle" refugee camp in the northern French port of Calais were injured in a brawl between 200 Afghans and Sudanese today, local officials said.
	The fight broke out as food was being distributed at the Jules-Ferry aid centre, local officials said.
	It spread to a neighbouring container camp set up by local authorities, police added.
	An AFP reporter at the scene also reported that several makeshift shelters within the main camp had been burned down.
	The situation had calmed down by early evening.
	Fights have frequently broken out in the tense and desperate atmosphere of the camp, which is roughly divided between the main communities -- primarily Afghans, Sudanese, Kurdish and Syrian.
	Although the government says the number is vastly inflated, French and British charities say nearly 5,000 people remain in the Jungle despite efforts to clear the camp and demolish shelters earlier this year.
	Thousands of migrants and refugees have camped out there, ...

20 injured in brawl at French 'Jungle' migrant camp

Survivors of a fishing boat shipwreck in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya said that some 100 migrants may have drowned, the International Organisation of Migration said.
	"The survivors who talked to our teams when they landed at Porto Empedocle (Sicily) spoke of 100 missing people who were stuck in the hull," IOM spokesman in Italy Flavio Di Giacomo told AFP today.
	According to those who made it to land, the boat was carrying some 650 people when it set sail from chaos-wracked Libya, "most of them Moroccans", Di Giacomo said.
	Earlier estimates had put the toll of yesterday's disaster at five.
	While the Italian navy was able to rescue 562 people from the water, yesterday's shipwreck may be one of the worst tragedies since the migrant crisis began.
	Di Giacomo said it was rare for such large, heavy ships to be used by migrants seeking to reach Europe from Libya.
	As well as Moroccans, many Tunisians and two Syrian families who had been living in Libya were among the ...

AFP

AFP

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