Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen called for "positive dialogue" with China in her much- anticipated inauguration speech today, striking a conciliatory tone in the face of an increasingly hostile Beijing.
	Tsai took office as the island's first female president after winning a landslide victory in January to defeat the ruling Kuomintang, ending an eight-year rapprochement with Beijing under outgoing president Ma Ying-jeou.
	Voters felt Ma had moved too close to China, which still sees self-ruling Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification.
	Beijing-sceptic Tsai swept in with a campaign to restore Taiwanese pride, a message that resonated with a public tired of living in China's shadow.
	However she sought to cast Taiwan as a force for peace in front of a cheering crowd of 20,000 at the presidential palace in Taipei, where she was sworn in earlier today.
	"The two governing parties across the strait must set aside the baggage of history, and engage in positive dialogue, ..

Taiwan's Tsai calls for 'positive dialogue' with Beijing

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Taiwan's Tsai Ing-wen takes the reins as president today in a grand ceremony celebrating the island's unique identity, likely to raise hackles in Beijing as ties with China rapidly cool.
	Tsai becomes Taiwan's first female president after winning a landslide victory in January to defeat the ruling Kuomintang, ending an eight-year rapprochement with Beijing under outgoing president Ma Ying-jeou.
	Voters felt Ma had moved too close to China, which still sees self-ruling Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification.
	Beijing-sceptic Tsai swept in with a campaign to restore Taiwanese pride, a message that resonated with a public tired of living in China's shadow.
	Around 30,000 people will gather at Taipei's presidential palace for Tsai's swearing in and inauguration speech this morning.
	The Taiwan-centric celebrations will include 1,000 performers in a showcase of the island's history and culture, entitled "Pride of Taiwan".
	Mock protesters will appear alongside singers in a .

Taiwan's Tsai takes office as hostile Beijing looks on

A jury has found that the owner of a Colorado movie theatre where a gunman killed 12 people during a Batman premiere in 2012 was not liable for the shooting.
	Court spokesman Rob McCallum said on Twitter that the jury had ruled in favour of theatre chain Cinemark in the first civil lawsuit stemming from the massacre.
	The case focused on whether Cinemark should have done more to prevent the carnage at the multiplex in Aurora, Colorado.
	James Holmes opened fire on July 20, 2012 during the midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises." He was wearing body armour and was armed with numerous weapons when police arrested him outside the theater.
	During his trial, Holmes refused to say anything in his own defence, and the jury rejected the defence's arguments that he was mentally ill.
	In the civil case, attorney Marc Bern, representing the victims, argued that Cinemark should have hired more security and trained its personnel to better ensure the safety of patrons.
	"We certainly feel ...

Jury finds movie theatre owner not liable in Colorado shooting

Defending French Open champion Stan Wawrinka admitted he was saddened to see compatriot Roger Federer withdraw from this year's Roland Garros through injury.
     Federer, the champion in Paris in 2009 and the holder of a record 17 Grand Slam titles, pulled out of the French Open after failing to recover from the knee and back injuries which have decimated his season.
     The bombshell means the 34-year-old will miss a Grand Slam event for the first time since 1999, ending a run of 65 consecutive major appearances.
     "It makes me sad and it's scary. It's bizarre to say that he won't be in Paris," said Wawrinka, a longtime friend of Federer with whom he has won Olympic doubles gold and the 2014 Davis Cup.
     "It proves that we are never safe from injury," the 31-year-old Wawrinka told the ATS news agency.
     "It's sad for tennis, a big blow for his fans and especially for him as he's had a very difficult season."
     Wawrinka, who is playing at this week's Geneva Open ...

Wawrinka 'sad', 'scared' after Federer French Open blow

Islamist group Ansar Dine has claimed responsibility for an ambush in northeastern Mali that killed five Chadian UN peacekeepers.
	"Our mujahedeens attacked... Soldiers working in the international alliance against us," a senior member of the jihadist group, Nourredine Ag Mohamed, told AFP yesterday.
	"Many enemies" were killed, he added, without giving a precise toll.
	The peacekeepers were attacked Wednesday as they were escorting a convoy in Aguelhok in the Kidal region.
	They hit a landmine and then came under sustained gunfire, according to a statement on the UN Mali mission's social media accounts.
	Five Chadian peacekeepers were killed and three others wounded, according to the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
	Wednesday's attack was the worst since a February assault on the MINUSMA camp in Kidal by Malian Islamist group Ansar Dine in which seven Guineans were killed.
	The Mali mission is the most dangerous active deployment for UN peacekeepers and it has been hit by sharp ...

Islamist group claims deadly ambush on UN peacekeepers in Mali

The two candidates in Austria's closely watched presidential race met for a final TV duel ahead of a runoff vote this weekend, which could see the arrival of the European Union's first far-right president.
	Sunday's showdown pits 45-year-old Norbert Hofer of the anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPOe) against the Green-backed economics professor Alexander van der Bellen, 72.
	In previous encounters, the pair had traded increasingly aggressive barbs, exposing their glaring differences over the migrant crisis and the European Union.
	The mud-slinging reached a crescendo last weekend when they tore each other down for 45 minutes on private Austrian channel ATV without a presenter to moderate the debate.
	"I'm talking about Europe: E-U-R-O-P-E. Never heard of it?" taunted van der Bellen his opponent at one stage.
	"My God, the schoolmasterliness, Herr Doctor Van der Bellen," his agitated rival shot back.
	Commentators afterwards "described the show as an "embarrassing" fiasco.
	In contrast, ..

Austria's presidential 'gladiators' in last TV duel before

Japan has lodged a diplomatic protest with the United States after a US base worker was arrested in relation to the suspicious death of a woman on Okinawa, media reported, a week before a high-profile visit to the country by President Barack Obama.
	Okinawa was the site of a brutal World War II battle but is now considered a strategic linchpin supporting the two countries' decades-long security alliance.
	More than half of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan are stationed there and rapes and other crimes by service personnel have sparked local protests in the past.
	Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida yesterday summoned US ambassador Caroline Kennedy to the foreign ministry in Tokyo shortly after Okinawa police arrested a 32-year-old civilian US base worker in connection with the death of a missing 20-year-old Okinawa woman.
	"It is extremely regrettable that the very cruel and atrocious case occurred," Kishida told Kennedy, according to Nippon Television Network.
	Kennedy replied ...

Japan protests to US after Okinawa base worker arrested

A second Chibok schoolgirl abducted by Boko Haram more than two years ago has been found, the Nigerian army has said.
	Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman "has confirmed the rescue of another Chibok girl this evening", a statement said yesterday, without giving further details.
	The first of the 219 abducted students, Amina Ali, was found on Tuesday by troops and civilian vigilantes near Boko Haram's stronghold in the Sambisa Forest area of Borno state, northeast Nigeria.
	The 19-year-old and her mother met President Muhammadu Buhari at his official residence in Abuja earlier yesterday, where the head of state said the government was "doing all it can to rescue the remaining Chibok girls".
	"Amina's rescue gives us new hope, and offers a unique opportunity for vital information," he said in a statement.
	Amina was quoted as saying by a campaign group pushing for the girls' release that all the students were still being held in the former game reserve, where the Islamists have had camps, 

Second abducted Chibok girl rescued: Nigerian army

At least 21 civilians, including seven children, were killed in regime air strikes that targeted several towns in central Syria, a monitoring group said.
	Fourteen civilians -- four of them children -- were killed when a barrage of barrel bombs hit the town of Al-Houla and neighbouring villages, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
	Barrel bombs are indiscriminate weapons typically dropped from helicopters. Their use in Syria's war has come under fierce criticism by rights groups but the regime denies using them.
	Seven civilians, three of them children, were also killed yesterday in government air strikes on the besieged town of Rastan, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
	Rastan is one of the last rebel strongholds in the central province of Homs, and the town has suffered a devastating government siege since 2012 as well as deadly regime attacks in recent weeks.
	On Wednesday, 13 member of the same family, including eight children, were killed there in regime .

Syria regime strikes kill 21 civilians: monitor

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi demanded authorities "intensify the search" for wreckage of an EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean with 66 people on board, his office has said.
	"The president has issued instructions to all concerned state bodies, including the ministry of civil aviation... naval and air forces to intensify the search for the Egyptian plane and to take all necessary measures to find the plane debris," said the statement.

Egypt president demands intensified search for crashed plane

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said a driver was shot dead in a "violent attack" on a two-car MSF convoy in the northwest of the restive Central African Republic, prompting the medical charity to suspend its activities in the area.
	Armed men stopped the "well-identified MSF convoy" and forced staff members and patients out of the cars and on to the ground before robbing them and killing one of the drivers, the group said in a statement yesterday.
	The incident took place on Wednesday in Kouki, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Bangu.
	"It is absolutely unacceptable that a team of medical workers and their patients were attacked while returning from providing lifesaving medical care," said Michelle Chouinard, MSF head of mission in CAR.
	"It is outrageous that one of our staff members was killed during this act of violence. The MSF team and their patients endured prolonged harassment, including bullets shot close to their heads and repeated verbal threats that ...

MSF worker killed in ambush on convoy in C.African Republic

Transgender US soldier Chelsea Manning is appealing her 35-year prison sentence for handing thousands of classified files to WikiLeaks, her legal team has said.
	Manning's lawyers argue her sentence is much harsher than international norms and say she should be given some whistleblower protections.
	"There is no question that Chelsea Manning's sentence is incredibly excessive -- wildly disproportionate to the reality of the situation and precedent -- as it represents the most severe punishment received by any other whistleblower in American history," Manning's co-counsel Vincent Ward said in a statement yesterday.
	The Army declined to comment because the case is ongoing.
	Manning was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offenses after admitting to handing more than 700,000 classified documents and files, including military intelligence reports and State Department cables, to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
	Formerly known as Bradley Manning, she later obtained legal ...

WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning appeals conviction

A Nigerian state governor today voiced hopes for the swift return of 218 Chibok schoolgirls still being held by Boko Haram, after one of the students was found near the group's stronghold.
	The military was pressing ahead with operations in the Sambisa Forest area of the northeastern state of Borno, where the Islamists have camps, said governor Kashim Shettima.
	"They (soldiers) are already moving into the forest aggressively," Shettima told reporters at President Muhammadu Buhari's official residence in Abuja where he brought rescued student Amina Ali.
	"They are expending a lot of resources and time in the Sambisa Forest. I am an eternal optimist. I believe that in the coming days and weeks more recoveries will be made."
	The girls were abducted from the remote Borno town of Chibok on April 14, 2014, causing global outrage and bringing worldwide attention to the brutal conflict.
	Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai said the discovery of Amina near the forest on Tuesday "raises our .

Nigerian Army 'moving into' Boko Haram stronghold: governor

Google today had a fresh US patent for a sticky coating that could be applied to self-driving cars so pedestrians stick instead of bouncing off when hit.
	The patent describes a layer of adhesive on a car's hood, front bumper and possibly front side panels sealed with a coating that, when broken, would bare a gluey surface akin to fly paper modified to catch humans.
	"Upon impact with a pedestrian, the coating is broken exposing the adhesive layer," read patent paperwork dated May 17 and listing the applicant as Google.
	"The adhesive bonds the pedestrian to the vehicle so that the pedestrian remains with the vehicle until it stops, and is not thrown from the vehicle, thereby preventing a secondary impact between the pedestrian and the road surface or other object."
	Google reasoned in the patent application that pedestrians hit by cars typically suffer further injury by being knocked or hurled to the pavement or other objects.
	Self-driving cars could hit roads within five years, the 

Google patent glues pedestrians to self-driving cars

The Sri Lanka cricket team will be making a donation of USD 6,816 in a bid to help victims of flooding on the island, it was announced today.
	While Angelo Mathews's team were preparing for the first Test in England, which started today, many of their compatriots have been affected by several days' of torrential rain and landslides back home.
	At least 38 people have died in Sri Lanka weather-related disasters since the weekend and today's first day of the first Test at Headingley saw players on both sides wear black armbands as a mark of respect.
	Speaking after the end of the first day's play, Sri Lanka team spokesman Chandrishan Perera said: "The Sri Lanka team has decided given the situation in Sri Lanka that they will contribute one million rupees to the flood victims back home as a team.
	"It was a decision made this (Thursday) morning between the captain (Mathews) and the rest of the side.

Sri Lanka team donate to flood victims

The head of the Greek air safety authority today said that wreckage found in the Mediterranean close to where an EgyptAir passenger jet is thought to have crashed "does not come from a plane".
	"Up to now the analysis of the debris indicates that it does not come from a plane, my Egyptian counterpart also confirmed to me that it was not yet proven that the debris came from the EgyptAir flight when we were last in contact around 1745 GMT," Athanasios Binis told AFP, after the airline said Egyptian officials had confirmed the wreckage found near a Greek island was from the ill-fated flight.

Greek air safety authorities deny EgyptAir wreckage found

A suspected Islamic State insurgent carried out a suicide bombing during a Turkish police operation at a house near the Syrian border, the Dogan press agency reported today.
	"A terrorist found in a Daesh (Islamic State) hideout activated his bomb belt," when police arrived, Dogan reported, without saying whether any officers had been killed or wounded.

Suspected IS suicide bomb attack on Turkish police: report

At least 16 civilians, including six children, were killed today in regime air strikes that targeted several towns in central Syria, a monitoring group said.
	11 civilians -- three of them children -- were killed when a barrage of barrel bombs hit the town of Al-Houla and neighbouring villages, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
	Barrel bombs are indiscriminate weapons typically dropped from helicopters. Their use in Syria's war has come under fierce criticism by rights groups but the regime denies using them.
	Five civilians, three of them children, were also killed today in government air strikes on the besieged town of Rastan, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
	Rastan is one of the last rebel strongholds in the central province of Homs, and the town has suffered a devastating government siege since 2012 as well as deadly regime attacks in recent weeks.
	Yesterday, 13 member of the same family, including eight children, were killed there in regime ...

Syria regime strikes kill 16 civilians: monitor

Hillary Clinton said today "there's no way" she will not win the Democratic Party's nomination, all but declaring victory in her presidential primary battle with Bernie Sanders.
	"I will be the nominee for my party. That is already done," she told CNN in a live interview. "In fact there's no way that I won't be.

Clinton says she will be Democratic presidential nominee

Six Russian soldiers were killed and 16 others injured when their bus plunged into a ravine in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Russian news agencies reported today.
	The soldiers were being dispatched to take part in military exercises in the Moscow-backed region when the vehicle's brakes failed outside the city of Tskhinvali, the defence ministry told local news agencies.
	"As a result of a traffic accident, six officers were killed and 16 suffered injuries," news agencies quoted the ministry as saying.
	The defence ministry declined to provide further details when contacted by AFP.
	In August 2008, Georgia fought and lost a brief war with Russia over the Kremlin-backed separatist region of South Ossetia.
	After the war, Russia recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region, as independent states and stationed permanent military bases there.
	Georgia has decried Russia's "creeping annexation" of its territory, accusing Russian border guards ..

6 Russian soldiers killed in bus crash in South Ossetia

Crisis-hit Iraq reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund today for a USD 5.4 billion loan that could give donors enough confidence to unlock further financing, a statement said.
	The three-year stand-by arrangement was reached by the Iraqi government and IMF in Jordan after a week of talks, the monetary institution said.
	"Under the arrangement, and subject to the approval of the IMF executive board, Iraq could have access to IMF credit amounting to... About USD 5.4 billion," the statement said.
	In a statement issued in Amman, the IMF's Iraq head of mission, Christian Josz, said the deal was justified by the cost of the war on the Islamic State group and the sharp fall in oil prices.
	"Iraq has been hit hard by the conflict with ISIS (another acronym for IS) and the precipitous fall in oil prices," he said.
	"To address the urgent balance of payments need, the Iraqi authorities and IMF staff have agreed on a three-year programme of economic and financial policies that will 

AFP

AFP

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