Israel has successfully tested a maritime missile interception system dubbed the Iron Dome of the Sea, the military announced today.
	The system, which the military said can shoot down short-range rockets similar to those fired from Gaza, successfully destroyed "several" missiles, Ariel Shir, head of operational systems in the navy, said.
	He said the test, which took place two weeks ago, "proved the Israeli navy's ability to protect Israel's strategic assets at sea against short-range strategic rockets".
	During the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, Israel deployed its Iron Dome system on land to shoot down rockets fired across the border.
	A similar system has been in development for several years and was revealed to the public on Wednesday.
	A video provided by the army showed a rocket launcher installed on a ship firing at targets in the sky and later intercepting a missile.
	Israel has a number of assets at sea, including a 

Israel successfully tests missile defence system at sea: army

PTI Automatic

Poland and Hungary have blasted Bill Clinton over a remark by the former US president accusing the ex-communist EU and NATO countries of taking an authoritarian turn and wanting "Putin-like leadership".
	"Poland and Hungary, two countries that would not be free but for the United States and the long Cold War have now decided that this democracy is too much trouble," Clinton said at an election rally last week for Democratic party presidential front-runner and spouse, Hillary Clinton.
	"They want Putin-like leadership; just give me an authoritarian dictatorship and keep the foreigners out. Sounds familiar?" he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin in what also appeared to be a swipe against outspoken anti-immigrant Republican presumptive White House nominee Donald Trump.
	Poland's rightwing leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski lashed out at the Putin comparison, recommending that Clinton "seek medical attention".
	"Anyone claiming that democracy doesn't exist in Poland today ought ..

Poland, Hungary fume over Bill Clinton 'dictatorship' remark

Four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded today in an attack on a military convoy blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the army said.
	The military convoy was travelling on the road between Semdinli and Aktutun in the southeastern Hakkari province when it was hit by the roadside bomb left by the "separatist terror group", the army said, using its customary phrase for the PKK.
	The nine injured soldiers were taken to hospital, four of them in serious condition.
	In a separate statement, the Turkish army said its warplanes yesterday dropped bombs on arms depots, shelters and caves used by PKK militants in the Daglica region in Hakkari as well as in northern Iraq.
	Following the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in summer 2015, Turkey has been waging an offensive against the PKK, which is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies.
	Since then, hundreds of members of the Turkish security forces have been killed in attacks but ..

Four Turkish soldiers killed in new PKK attack: army

Nigeria's army today confirmed that a girl rescued in a Boko Haram enclave in the northeast is one of 219 abducted from their school in Chibok more than two years ago.
	"This is to confirm that one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls... Was among rescued persons by our troops," army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said in a statement.
	Usman gave the girl's name as Falmata Mbalala and said she was found in Baale, near the town of Damboa, which is 90 kilometres (56 miles) southwest of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.
	Activists and community leaders said she was found on Tuesday night and brought to meet her mother in the town of Mbalala, near Chibok, before being taken to a military base in Damboa.
	Manaseh Allan, a Chibok youth leader, told AFP: "The girl was found by local vigilantes in Kilakesa village on the edge of Sambisa Forest near Damboa.
	"She was brought first to Chibok by the vigilantes who took her to the vice-principal of her school, who immediately identified her as ...

Nigerian army confirms Chibok schoolgirl found: statement

Egyptian prosecutors on Wednesday referred nine policemen to trial for allegedly using violence against two doctors at a public hospital when they refused to falsify a medical report, officials said.
	January's incident in Cairo's northern district of Matareya caused a major backlash, with thousands of doctors later demonstrating outside their union headquarters in the city.
	The trial will open Tuesday with the policemen being charged with the use of violence and verbally assaulting the doctors in the January 28 incident, two prosecution officials said.
	Egypt's police have been on the defensive as rights groups denounce a rise in torture and deaths in custody since late 2015, as well as arbitrary arrests and "disappearances" of government opponents.
	The alleged abuses are reminiscent to many of police behaviour under the rule of longtime president Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down after a January 2011 uprising fuelled by public outrage over security forces abuses.
	In February, ...

Egypt police face trial for alleged assault on doctors

Robert De Niro famously gained 27 kilos to play the boxer Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull" while Leonardo DiCaprio slept in an animal carcass and ate raw bison liver in "The Revenant".
	But few actors have gone as far as to live on the streets to research their role.
	That is what Singaporean director K. Rajagopal asked of the star of "A Yellow Bird", his film which touches on some of the wealthy city-state's most sensitive issues of race, migration and sex.
	Rising television star Sivakumar Palakrishnan spent his weekends living rough on the streets of Singapore's "Little India", exploring a rarely seen side of one of Asia's most ordered societies.
	The delicately drawn arthouse movie, which premieres Wednesday at the Cannes film festival, follows an ethnic Indian man -- or a "black devil" as one of the film's Chinese characters calls him -- trying to rebuild his life and family after a spell in prison.
	"I made him go out and live and sleep in the streets because he doesn't come from ..

Film about homeless 'black devil' shows other side of S'pore

A 69-year-old Polish grandfather who has twice kayaked solo across the Atlantic said today he will embark on his "hardest" ocean journey yet later this month.
	Aleksander Doba, who sports a foot-long greying beard and broad smile, was named a National Geographic adventurer of the year in 2015 for what the magazine said was the longest open-water kayaking expedition across the Atlantic in history.
	That six-month voyage saw him set off from Lisbon in October 2013 and arrive in Florida in April the following year, navigating ocean swells and tempestuous weather.
	"Dozens of sharks checked on me, but one was ready to attack me, and I had to whack his head with the paddle really hard to make him leave," Doba told National Geographic.
	Now the grandfather-of-two told reporters in Warsaw he will embark on his "hardest" journey yet, a 6,000-kilometre crossing through storm zones in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.
	He will set off in the 21-foot (over six metre) white and yellow ...

Polish grandfather to attempt hardest Atlantic kayak crossing

US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo today to meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, after Egypt called for a renewal of the Middle East peace process.
	Even before Sisi had raised the issue, Kerry had planned a visit to discuss the crisis in Libya and Syria and to raise concerns about Egypt's harsh crackdown on dissent.
	But the top US diplomat is also keen to hear more from the Egyptian leader about how he intends to help broker peace between his Israeli and Palestinian neighbours.
	"He's interested in hearing a bit more directly from the president about what role he has in mind," a senior US official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	Yesterday, in a televised speech, Sisi urged Israelis and Palestinians to seize what he said was a "real opportunity" and hailed his own country's peace deal with Israel.
	In 1979, Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel after years of conflict, and today it remains an influential player in the .

Kerry meets Sisi as Egypt seeks MidEast peace role

Sri Lanka will pay tribute to all those who have lost their lives in landslides that have rocked the nation when they face England in the first Test at Headingley starting tomorrow.
     Rescue workers today recovered the bodies of 17 villagers buried in landslides in Sri Lanka after three days of torrential rain.
     The disaster hit two small villages in Kegalle, a mountainous area northeast of Colombo, and takes the overall death toll from flooding and landslides in recent days to 36.
     "We are so sad to hear about all the casualties and those who are affected," said Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, speaking at Headingley in Leeds today.
     "There are hundreds and thousands of people who are affected and we want to show our love and support. We will wear black armbands."
     Mathews added the squad had a personal connection to the disaster, adding: "One of our support staff members, his brother has passed away yesterday (Tuesday).
     "We are (focused on playing England) ..

Sri Lanka to honour landslide victims with black armbands

Chinese appliance giant Midea today launched a takeover offer for German industrial robotics supplier Kuka and is seeking at least a 30 percent stake, according to a statement, the latest major overseas Chinese investment.
	Midea -- best known for its washing machines and air conditioners -- offered 115 euros ($130) per share for Kuka, one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial robots, in the voluntary takeover offer.
	The deal values Kuka at 4.6 billion euros ($5.2 billion) and a 30 percent stake would make Midea its biggest shareholder, Bloomberg News reported.
	   China is pushing its cashed-up companies to invest in foreign targets to improve their balance sheets and strengthen operations as economic growth slows at home.
	   The offer represents a near 60 percent premium on Kuka's closing price on February 3, the day before Midea announced it was increasing its stake in the German firm, according to the statement.
	   It also represents a premium of 36 percent over ...

China's Midea makes takeover offer for German robotics firm

Usain Bolt today said he was fit to run at the Czech Golden Spike event on Friday after a hamstring scare, looking at 9.8 seconds for the 100 metres.
     The event in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava will be the Jamaican sprint star's second race this season in the run-up to the Rio Olympics in August, where he will defend his 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles from 2012.
     Bolt, who owns the 100m world record at 9.58 seconds and the world 200m record of 19.19, clocked a modest 10.05 seconds on the 100m track in his season debut at the Cayman Invitational Meet last week.
     Now the 29-year-old six-time Olympic gold medallist wants more.
     "I'd be very happy with 9.8," he told reporters in the Czech capital Prague.
     After the Caymans race, Bolt had a tight hamstring that forced him to see his doctor in Munich, Germany, but he dismissed all concerns about his fitness ahead of Ostrava.
     "I'm feeling pretty good, I trained yesterday and everything was better," he said.
     ...

Bolt fit for Ostrava, eyes 9.8sec

England captain Alastair Cook today said he was well aware that his looming membership of the 10,000 Test -run club would be a significant landmark in an already successful career.
     The 31-year-old left-handed opener needs just 36 more runs to become the first Englishman -- and only 12th player overall -- to score 10,000 runs in Tests and he will hope to get there during this week's first Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley, which starts on Thursday.
     "It would mean a lot and hopefully I can get there sooner rather than later so we can talk about something else," said Cook, speaking at Headingley, Yorkshire's headquarters in Leeds, northern England, on Wednesday.
     "It's a big milestone in terms of the people who have done it previously so it would be great to try and score these 36 runs. I've just got to put that to bed after this press conference and try and do what I've done in the previous 10 years, which is just try and concentrate on that ball coming down and nothing 

Cook eyes 'big milestone' of 10,000 Test runs

A 22-year-old Afghan man who received Taliban death threats over his work for the Lithuanian army in the war-torn country has won asylum in the Baltic state after reaching out on social media, the interior ministry said today.
	Abdul Basir Yoususi, who worked as an interpreter for Lithuania's NATO contingent in the central province of Ghor, fled his homeland earlier this year, embarking on a dangerous two-month journey to Europe.
	He launched an emotional appeal on YouTube from a refugee camp in Greece in March, asking Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite for asylum.
	Yoususi, who has a two-year-old daughter, said he had faced death threats from the hardline Taliban militia after Lithuanian forces left Ghor in 2013.
	"Everything changed when the Taliban sent me a threatening letter. They said I was Catholic not a Muslim so they would chop off my head, hang me," he told local media earlier this month.
	"I turned to local police and I was told that neither they nor the military could 

Afghan wins asylum in Lithuania after Taliban death threats

The African Union today threw its weight behind Italian and US-led moves to stabilise Libya that include arming a national unity government to fight Islamic State militants.
	Western powers are also keen to see Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj's fledgling administration establish its authority over the whole country so it can actively contribute to efforts to stem the flow of mostly African migrants using Libya as a launchpad to get to Europe.
	The two issues were at the centre of an Italy-Africa summit in Rome tomorrow and Chad, which currently holds the AU's rotating presidency, welcomed this week's acceleration of international action on Libya.
	"The situation in Libya deserves to have our full attention," Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat told ministers from Italy and more than 40 African states.
	"This country is on its way to become a haven for terrorism. We invite all parties to work for peace and national reconciliation and welcome the formation of the Government of National .

African nations back moves to arm Libya govt

Afghanistan is moving closer to a peace deal with notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, sources said today, possibly paving the way for his political return after years in hiding despite a history of rights abuses.
	Hekmatyar, who heads the now largely dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group, is the latest among a series of warlords whom Kabul has sought to reintegrate into Afghan politics in the post-Taliban era.
	If inked, the deal with Afghanistan's second-biggest militant group would mark a symbolic victory for President Ashraf Ghani, who has struggled to revive peace talks with the much more powerful Taliban.
	"Both sides are very close to signing the peace deal," a senior member of Hekmatyar's negotiating team told AFP.
	"Both parties have reached an agreement on most points of the peace plan. I am hopeful they will reach a consensus on the remaining points very soon."
	According to the 25-point draft agreement seen by AFP, the government will offer Hekmatyar legal immunity in ...

Afghanistan moves closer to truce with notorious warlord

The Black Sea coastal areas of Georgia and Russia face a high risk of a Zika virus outbreak, the World Health Organization warned today, while it also put Europe on alert ahead of the upcoming summer months.
	"The likelihood of local Zika virus transmission, if no measures are taken to mitigate the threat, is ... High in limited geographical areas: the (Portuguese) island of Madeira (off Africa) and the northeastern coast of the Black Sea," WHO said.
	The reason for the high-level threat in those areas is the presence there of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry the Zika virus that health authorities say causes birth defects in newborns, the UN global health agency said.
	Another 18 countries in Europe "have a moderate likelihood" of a Zika virus outbreak, WHO warned.
	"The overall risk of a Zika virus outbreak across the WHO European Region is low to moderate during late spring and summer," it said.
	That was largely due to the presence of another mosquito species in those ...

High risk of Zika virus spread in Black Sea area: WHO

Former England batsman James Taylor has announced his engagement just weeks after being forced to retire at the age of 26 because of a serious heart condition.
     Taylor, who played county cricket for Leicestershire and then Nottinghamshire, was forced to retire with immediate effect last month after scans revealed the condition.
     The 26-year-old's diagnosis is similar to that of former Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba, who collapsed on the field after suffering a cardiac arrest in an FA Cup tie against Tottenham in 2012.
     Despite his career ending prematurely, Taylor is getting on with the rest of his life and proposed to girlfriend Josie Naylor last week.
     "Luckily for Josie's sake, it wasn't just a knee jerk reaction (to his condition). I'd had the ring for a few months, actually," Taylor told the Good Morning Britain television programme on Wednesday.
     "We went for a nice picnic where we actually had our first picnic together, so it was pretty simple.
     "I ...

Taylor engaged after early retirement

Middlesex quick Steven Finn has beaten the uncapped Jake Ball for the final place in England's XI for the first Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley, captain Alastair Cook said Wednesday.
     With England having selected just a 12-man squad, Cook took the unusual step of effectively naming his side 24 hours before the start of a match, with the first of a three-Test series against Sri Lanka due to get underway at Headingley, Yorkshire's headquarters ground in Leeds, northern England, on Thursday.
     "Steven Finn is going to play," Cook told reporters at Headingley on Wednesday.
     "He's been outstanding when he's been fit for us. I think everyone kind of knew that."
     Finn missed the World Twenty20 in India earlier because of calf and side injuries and his Test career has been interrupted by fitness problems.
     But his record of 113 Test wickets at an average of just over 28 apiece saw him chosen ahead of Ball in the race to be England's third seamer behind James Anderson ..

Finn wins out in race for final England spot

Myanmar police today arrested dozens of activists and factory workers as they broke up a labour rights march on the capital, the latest rally to test freedoms under Aung San Suu Kyi's new civilian government.
	Around 200 police moved in on the demonstrators, many wearing bamboo hats and waving banners calling for worker rights, as they entered the outskirts of Naypyidaw -- where they hoped to speak to the government.
	"We arrested about 60 protesters today. We tried to do it without hurting anyone," Naypyidaw region police chief Ko Ko Aung told AFP.
	"We will not take further action against all of them, just those trying to cause violence," he said.
	Suu Kyi's party is stacked with former dissidents who served prison time for their opposition to Myanmar's military governments during decades of repressive rule.
	Since taking the helm following a landslide November election victory, the administration has freed scores of activists and political prisoners and signalled its determination .

Dozens of Myanmar workers arrested in rally clampdown: police

The first of 219 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok in northeast Nigeria more than two years ago has been found, activists, the head of a support group and a community leader said today.
	Amina Ali was discovered last night in the Sambisa Forest area of Borno state by civilian vigilantes assisting the military and brought back to her home town of Mbalala, near Chibok.
	"She met her parents, who recognised their daughter before she was taken to the military base in Damboa," Ayuba Alamson Chibok, a community leader in Chibok, told AFP.
	"Her father's name is Ali and the girl's name is Amina. I know the family very well because I have worked with them, being a spokesman for the families of the Chibok girls."
	Yakubu Nkeki, head of the Abducted Chibok Girls Parents' group, also confirmed her name and said she was 17 when she was abducted.
	He added: "She's the daughter of my neighbour... They brought her to my house."
	Tsambido Hosea Abana, a Chibok community leader in the ...

Chibok girl found, first since abduction by Boko Haram

It was a bad day at the office for one unfortunate employee of South Korea's weather service today, after a mistakenly-sent fax triggered an earthquake alert.
	The message warning of a 6.5-magnitude quake was part of a five-day disaster response exercise and should never have been faxed.
	International media including China's official Xinhua news agency ran the warning before the Korea Meteorological Administration issued a red-faced apology.
	"We apologise deeply for causing inconvenience," the KMA said in a statement quoted by South Korean news agency Yonhap, which also carried the initial alert.
	"The message was made for an exercise purpose, and an employee mistakenly clicked the button to send the message."
	The KMA released the message, calling on residents in the affected area of Hoengseong in Gangwon province to evacuate.
	Strong quakes are very rare on the Korean peninsula. Some seismological disturbances recorded in the South have been attributed to North Korean nuclear ...

AFP

AFP

Page 1697 - Afp