A Libyan former minister was killed in clashes between unity government forces and fighters of the Islamic State jihadist group in the Sirte area, the LANA news agency reported today.
	Mohammed Soualem, labour minister in Ali Zeidan's government from 2012 to 2014, "was directing military operations against IS" at the time, said the agency loyal to the North African country's new unity government.
	He was killed in fighting in the Abu Grein area, 100 kilometres west of Sirte, the jihadist group's main stronghold in Libya and hometown of late dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
	"The clashes cost the life of Commander Mohammed Soualem and wounded five fighters," LANA reported.
	"Air units in support of this operation succeeded in destroying dozens of vehicles" used by IS "and wounded several" jihadists, it said.
	Last Tuesday, forces loyal to the Government of National Accord said they had retaken the key town of Abu Grein from IS.
	GNA troops and forces of the rival government based in the east ..

Former govt minister killed in Libya IS clashes: report

PTI Automatic

Iraqi forces are heading to Fallujah to launch an operation aimed at retaking the city from the Islamic State group, the prime minister's spokesman said today.
	"Your sons the heroic fighters in the armed forces are ready to achieve a new victory... They are going to the city of Fallujah to clear it from the Daesh (IS) gang," Saad al-Hadithi said in a statement.
	He did not say when an assault on the jihadist bastion would begin.
	Iraqi forces have in recent days been massing around Fallujah, a city just 50 kilometres west of Baghdad and which has been out of government control since January 2014.
	Fallujah and Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, are the last two major cities IS still holds in Iraq.
	Fallujah is almost completely surrounded by Iraqi forces who have regained significant ground in the Anbar province in recent months, including its capital Ramadi further up the Euphrates River valley.

Iraq forces preparing for Fallujah battle: PM spokesman

Belgian premier Charles Michel vowed today that the West will ultimately defeat Islamic State group "terrorists", as the royal family hosted a ceremony marking two months since the deadly Brussels bombings.
	King Philippe, speaking to an audience of 500 at the royal palace in Brussels, thanked the doctors, police and other emergency services who helped on March 22, when 32 people were killed at Zaventem airport and the Maalbeek metro station.
	"If we are here in the palace, it is to express the support and gratitude of all the Belgian people," said the monarch, who with his wife Queen Mathilde visited the injured in hospital the day after the attacks.
	Prime Minister Michel vowed that Belgium and other countries fighting IS - which claimed the Brussels bombings as well as last November's attacks in Paris - will eventually prevail.
	"This is not a war between the West and Islam. And we will do everything to stop these terrorists. This is a difficult fight. A fight that will take time," 

Belgium defiant two months after IS attacks

The deputy of Al-Azhar's grand imam in Egypt said today the top Muslim cleric will bear a message of tolerance when he meets Pope Francis in Rome.
	Tomorrow's meeting will be the first between the leader of the world's Catholics and one of Islam's most important clerics.
	Abbas Shuman, deputy to grand imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, told AFP today that Francis's gestures towards Muslims encouraged Tayeb to meet the pope after falling out with his predecessor Benedict XVI.
	"If it were not for these good positions (by Pope Francis) the meeting would not be happening," Shuman said.
	Ties between the Vatican and Al-Azhar, one of Islam's most prestigious centres of learning, soured in 2006 when Benedict delivered a speech interpreted as linking the Muslim Prophet Mohammed to violence.
	Relations have steadily improved since Francis became pope in 2013 with inter-faith dialogue near the top of his agenda.
	He underlined this improvement in ties with a personal message to the Muslim world to ...

Azhar imam to bear message of tolerance in historic pope meet

British Prime Minister David Cameron said today it would be decades before Turkey could possibly join the EU, saying that it might happen in the year 3000 on current progress.
	Even then, the UK, like all member states, would have a veto on their entry, Cameron said, with future Turkish accession a key battleground in Britain's referendum on its own EU membership.
	"It is not remotely on the cards that Turkey is going to join the EU at any time soon," Cameron told ITV television.
	"They applied in 1987. At the current rate of progress, they'd probably get round to joining in about the year 3000."
	Cameron wants Britain to stay in the EU.
	With a month to go to the June 23 referendum, the "Remain" camp is on 55 per cent and the "Leave" campaign on 45 per cent, according to the What UK Thinks website's average of the last six opinion polls.
	"The Leave campaign are making a very misleading claim about Turkey. Turkey is not going to join," Cameron said.
	"They're basically saying vote to 

Britain says Turkey 'decades' from joining the EU

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan went to the polls today in a referendum on constitutional changes almost certain to strengthen the hold of long-time President Emomali Rakhmon and his family over the impoverished Central Asian state.
	After an early morning rush to the polls, the country's electoral commission said the vote was valid, claiming that 80 percent of 4.3 million eligible voters had cast their ballots in a referendum on whether Rakhmon can run for an unlimited number of terms, among other changes.
	The 63-year-old autocrat has ruled Tajikistan for nearly a quarter of a century, demonstrating what critics say is an increased disregard for religious freedoms, civil society and political pluralism in recent years.
	Many residents of the near million-strong Tajik capital appeared enthusiastic in their support for Rakhmon, who led the country out of a five-year civil war that began in 1992, less than a year after independence.
	"Rakhmon brought us peace, he ended the war, and he should rule 

Tajikistan votes in referendum to empower veteran president

The New York subway is the seventh busiest in the world and has its highest ridership in 70 years, increasing delays and forcing management to formulate a plan of salvation.
	The morning commuter crush in Brooklyn, the city's most populated borough, can be overwhelming. Tempers can fray. Sometimes commuters have to wait for at least one, if not two trains to go by before they can board.
	"I saw two women pulling each other's hair because they had bumped into each other," said commuter Ana Fernandez, although such behaviour is rare.
	Kevin Ortiz, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that operates the subway, said: "We are a victim of our own success."
	In 2015, New Yorkers clocked up 1.76 billion journeys on the subway, the highest number since 1948 and an increase of 61 per cent in 20 years.
	The city's population has grown by nearly a million since 1994 and crime in the subway, at an all-time high in the early 1990s, has drastically fallen.
	Since 1981, USD ..

New York subway on the brink

Dozens of people in one of the world's most wired nations took part today in South Korea's "space-out" competition aimed at promoting a life free from stress and information overload.
	About 60 contestants spent 90 minutes sitting in a public park in Seoul without talking, sleeping, eating, or using any electronic devices during the event - under the slogan of "Relax Your Brain".
	The "space-out" competition was launched by local activists in 2014.
	Today's event - organised by Seoul city council - drew more than 1,500 online applicants who vied for the available places in the competition.
	"Let our brain - never free from information overload from a smartphone, TV or computer - relax! Let's enjoy just thinking nothing!" the council said in a statement.
	Blank-faced contestants - including a mother and a young child and middle-aged men in suits - sat or lay still in temperaturex of over 30 degrees Celsius. Many held parasols against the sun.
	Participants are also not allowed to look .

S Koreans shun smartphones in 'space-out' competition

German regulators suspect that Italian-American auto maker Fiat Chrysler, like Volkswagen, used illegal software to cheat on emissions tests, a newspaper report said today.
	The German Federal Motor Vehicle Office (KBA) had sent a report voicing the suspicion to the European Commission and to Italian authorities, according to Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
	The news report came after Germany on Thursday blasted Fiat for its "uncooperative attitude" for refusing to meet its officials to address questions on whether their vehicles complied with emissions regulations.
	German authorities launched a sweeping emissions probe after Volkswagen admitted last year to rigging its engines with so-called defeat devices to cheat pollution tests.
	Not only VW vehicles, but other major car brands, including Fiat, showed up irregularities.
	Bild am Sonntag reported that testing by the KBA of a Fiat model had shown that the emission control system shut down after 22 minutes - two minutes after ..

Fiat Chrysler suspected of emissions cheating: report

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal left the squad's hotel on Sunday saying "it's over" amid reports he was about to be replaced by Jose Mourinho.
     Dutch boss Van Gaal was greeted by waiting Red Devils fans following United's FA Cup final win over Crystal Palace at Wembley on Saturday.
     When asked by a Sky Sports reporter if he had time to talk, Van Gaal replied: "It's over."
     Whether that meant he had been sacked by United was not immediately clear. But the 64-year-old former Netherlands manager's brief remark will fuel speculation he is on his way out of Old Trafford.
     No sooner had United lifted the FA Cup then reports in the British media emerged that former Chelsea boss Mourinho would be replacing one-time mentor Van Gaal.
     For all that they ended this season with a trophy, United didn't make a sustained challenge for the Premier League title and failed to qualify for the Champions League.
     United fans were also unhappy with the brand of football ...

'It's over' says Van Gaal amid Mourinho reports

Russian warplanes hit a key rebel supply route to Aleppo today in Moscow's first strikes on Syria's battleground second city since a February ceasefire, a monitoring group said.
	"The Russian and Syrian warplanes together carried out at least 40 air strikes on the Castello road," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
	"They are the heaviest air strikes there since February, and they are also the first confirmed Russian strikes since the truce began," Abdel Rahman said.
	The violence wracking Aleppo city over the past month has killed some 300 civilians and left world powers scrambling to save the fragile truce brokered by the United States and Russia nearly three months ago.
	The northern city - once Syria's commercial powerhouse - is divided between rebel groups in the east and regime forces in the west.
	The Castello road is a key supply route for rebels leading north out of Aleppo.
	Even while the rest of the city witnessed relative calm in the first few 

Russia in first raids on Syria's Aleppo since truce: monitor

Aung San Suu Kyi today addressed controversy over the use of the word "Rohingya" to describe the persecuted and stateless Muslim minority, warning that use of the term risked inflaming communal tensions in Myanmar.
	Suu Kyi said her new government was determined to address deep hatreds in western Rakhine State, where tens of thousands of Rohingya are confined to squalid displacement camps after waves of deadly unrest with local Buddhists in 2012.
	Buddhist nationalists have staged protests across the country against using the term Rohingya.
	They label the group "Bengalis", casting Myanmar's more than one million Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
	"The Rakhine Buddhists object to the term 'Rohingya' just as much as the Muslims object to the term 'Bengali'," Suu Kyi said during a press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the capital Naypyidaw.
	The words carry "all kinds of political and emotional implications which are unacceptable to the opposite ...

Myanmar's Suu Kyi, Kerry walk tightrope over Rohingya question

Czech painter, illustrator and caricaturist Adolf Born, the author of several animated films for children, died aged 85 today, Czech media said.
	Exhibiting his works worldwide, Born earned a number of international awards and became the Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2003.
	Born was the author of the "Mach and Sebestova" series, which is about two schoolchildren who find a magic phone receiver, and of the animated film "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a Sailor from York" (1982).
	He illustrated more than 250 books, including a collection of fables by French author Jean de La Fontaine that was published in France in 2000.

Czech graphic artist Adolf Born dies aged 85

Police have opened fire to disperse dozens of Aden residents protesting power cuts in Yemen's second city, killing one, a local government official said today.
	"A resident was killed and others were wounded" by police gunfire during the late Saturday protests, said the official who requested anonymity.
	Dozens of people took to the streets in several Aden neighbourhoods protesting a lack of electricity supply as temperatures soared to almost 40 degrees Celsius in the coastal city.
	Residents blocked roads, erected barricades and set tyres ablaze, prompting police intervention, witnesses said.
	Most of the city's electricity installations were destroyed during fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels last year.
	The rebels who seized Sanaa in September 2014, expanded south and entered Aden in March last year, but loyalists backed by a Saudi-led coalition pushed them out in July.
	President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government has so far failed to restore security ..

Yemen police kill protester in demo on Aden power cuts

US Secretary of State John Kerry today hailed Myanmar's transition to a civilian government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi as a "remarkable statement" that furthers the cause of global democracy.
	In the first high-level meeting with Suu Kyi and her administration since it took office in March, Kerry told the Nobel laureate her country's evolution towards democracy after decades under the military served as a beacon of hope.
	"Today my message is very, very simple: we strongly support the democratic transition that is taking place here," he told reporters at a joint press conference with Suu Kyi in the capital Naypyidaw.
	Historic elections in November swept Suu Kyi and her party into office and effectively ended half a century of military rule.
	Kerry applauded the process as a "remarkable statement to people all over the world", adding that the new government "has already accomplished extraordinary things."
	Washington last week lifted a host of financial and trade embargoes, but has ..

Kerry hails 'remarkable' Myanmar changes after Suu Kyi talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought today to ease concerns over the expected entrance of a hardline nationalist party into his coalition, saying his government would still seek peace with the Palestinians.
	Netanyahu was expected to soon conclude negotiations with the Yisrael Beitenu party led by Avigdor Lieberman, a far- right politician detested by the Palestinians.
	Lieberman would take on the key role of defence minister under the deal being negotiated and expand Netanyahu's current majority of 61 seats in the 120 seat parliament to 66.
	The move would tilt further to the right Netanyahu's government, which is already among the most right-wing in Israel's history.
	"I want it to be clear that an expanded government will continue to aspire to a political process with the Palestinians and will do it with help from parts of the region," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
	Adding Lieberman's party to his coalition would bring weeks of political ...

Netanyahu seeks to ease fears over changes in his govt

Five people, including teenagers, died from unknown causes during a pop concert in a suburb of the Philippine capital, police said today.
	The five were among an estimated 14,000 attending the "Closeup Forever Summer" open-air concert, headlined by Belgian DJ duo Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike late yesterday, investigating officer Giovanni Arcinue told AFP.
	Among the fatalities was a 33-year-old foreign man, believed to be American, said Arcinue.
	"They just collapsed individually. They did not know each other. They were all in different places at the time," he said.
	He said the cause of their collapse was still unknown although police were looking at possible heatstroke or dehydration as the country is sweltering under high temperatures brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
	He also said it was too early to say that the deaths were caused by drug-laced drinks, despite rumours spreading on social media.
	Closeup, a major toothpaste company, issued a statement saying: "We regret 

5 dead in Philippine pop concert: police

Cyprus went to the polls today with leaders appealing to voters to turnout despite widespread disillusion with lawmakers after a prolonged downturn triggered by a eurozone bailout.
	President Nicos Anastasiades, whose right-wing government negotiated the 2013 bailout by international creditors and has claimed credit for the island's subsequent recovery, warned those tempted to abstain that they risked losing their right to a say.
	"I urge everyone to exercise their right to select the party, the candidate, of their choice -- it is their right. But anyone who abstains, I repeat, will not have the right to complain afterwards," he said after casting his ballot in the coastal city of Limassol.
	He said the higher the turnout the greater the legitimacy the new parliament would have, an appeal that showed the scale of concern about the likelihood of a record low turnout in a country where voting is a statutory obligation.
	The speaker of the outgoing parliament, Yiannakis Omirou, of the ...

Cyprus votes amid fears of record low turnout

Nine people were plucked to safety from their struggling hot air ballon in a dramatic water rescue carried out by a family on the Australian coast.
	The balloon passengers clambered out of the basket and onto the front of a boat that 18-year-old Jack Abbott and his father were using on their wakeboarding trip near Melbourne.
	The teenager told a local broadcaster he had sprung into action after seeing the balloon descending over the water, apparently unable to regain its lost altitude.
	"Dad said, you need to come in now, we're going to get this hot air balloon'," the teen told Channel Nine.
	Video footage showed the balloon's basket descending gently onto the bow of the pleasure boat to allow passengers to clamber off.
	"The first lady was quite distressed when she came off, then we took it two passengers at a time to account for the weight ratio," said Abbott.
	Complicating the rescue was the fact that every time someone got out of the basket, the balloon got lighter and would lift .

Balloon passengers in dramatic boat rescue in Australia

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was today in Israel to advance his country's plan to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts in the face of opposition from his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.
	Valls, who arrived last night, is to meet Netanyahu tomorrow before travelling to Ramallah on Tuesday to hold talks with Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah.
	Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has welcomed the French initiative to hold a meeting of foreign ministers from a range of countries on June 3, without the Israelis and Palestinians present.
	Another conference would then be held in the autumn, with the Israelis and Palestinians in attendance. The goal is to eventually restart negotiations that would lead to a Palestinian state.
	Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
	In an interview with Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam published today, Valls said that Israeli settlement expansion in the ..

French PM visits Israel to push for peace plan

Bombings suspected to have been carried out by the Islamic State group killed at least eight people in northeastern Syria hours after a top US commander visited, security forces said today.
	Washington regards the Kurdish-led militia that controls most of the northeast as the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and the head of US Central Command General Joseph Votel made a secret visit yesterday to confer with US military advisers working with them.
	A CENTCOM spokesman declined to give details of the visit, saying only that Votel had visited several location inside Syria on the highest-ranking visit to the country since the 2011 outbreak of the civil war.
	Two IS suicide bombers struck the centre of Qamishli, a mainly Kurdish city that is the de facto capital of the swathes of northern Syria where Kurdish militia have set up a self-declared autonomous administration.
	The bombers hit a restaurant and a bakery in the Christian Wusta neighbourhood of the city that is ...

AFP

AFP

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