The United States and the European Union are protesting a UN decision to bar at least 20 non-governmental groups from taking part in a major AIDS conference next month.
	US Ambassador Samantha Power said the NGOs taken off the list of participants "appear to have been chosen for their involvement in LGBTI, transgender or youth advocacy."
	In a letter to UN General Assembly president Mogens Lykketoft, Power requested that these groups, including the US-based Global Action for Trans Equality, be allowed to take part in the June 8-10 high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS.
	European Union Ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida said the NGOs had been struck from the list following objections from member states and requested information on which countries opposed their presence.
	One of the European NGOs that has been barred from taking part is the Eurasian Coalition on Male Health, based in Estonia, which has been vocal on gay rights in Russia and other former Soviet republics.
	The EU ambassador wrote .

US, EU protest UN decision to bar groups from AIDS meet

PTI Automatic

A federal judge has ruled that people seeking a permit to carry concealed firearms in the US capital no longer need to provide "good reason" for doing so.
	Judge Richard Leon yesterday ruled that the licensing screening is likely unconstitutional, a victory for gun rights advocates who favour loosening gun laws in the name of self-defence.
	Washington has traditionally had one of the most stringent laws in the country regarding concealed carry permits, requiring individuals to justify the need to carry a gun in public.
	Gun lobbies have pushed for years to strike that clause from legislation.
	In his 46-page ruling, Judge Leon wrote that the clause likely violates the Second Amendment of the US constitution, because "the right to bear arms includes the right to carry firearms for self-defence both in and outside the home."
	Authorities in Washington may yet lodge an appeal against Leon's ruling. He is the third judge to consider the case.
	Under the capital's rules, individuals ...

Legal victory in Washington for gun rights advocates

The United Nations has raised only 16 per cent of the USD 1.8 billion needed to help war-torn Yemen, a "shockingly low" level of response to a funding appeal, a senior UN aid official said today.
	Returning from a fact-finding mission to Yemen, John Ging said the crisis was worsening, with some 7.6 million people in urgent need of food aid and 2.5 million displaced from the conflict.
	The impoverished country descended further into crisis last year when a Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign to push back Huthi rebels, who still retain control of the capital Sanaa.
	The UN's director for humanitarian operations, Ging said the United States and Britain topped the list of donors to the UN aid appeal to Yemen, contributing USD 76 million and USD 54 million respectively.
	Saudi Arabia, which is leading the air campaign in support of Yemen's government, last year contributed $245 million to the aid effort, but did not renew its contribution this year.
	None of the Gulf countries are ...

World response to UN aid appeal for Yemen 'shockingly low'

The court-martial for Bowe Bergdahl, the US Army sergeant held captive in Afghanistan for five years before being freed in a prisoner swap, has been delayed until next year, officials said.
	The February 6, 2017 start date to Bergdahl's trial was set during a brief hearing Tuesday at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Army said in a statement.
	The trial was initially due to start in August, but a military judge delayed proceedings to allow legal teams more time to prepare.
	In its statement, the Army noted the date could be subject to further change.
	Bergdahl, 30, disappeared from Combat Outpost Mest-Malak in Paktika Province, Afghanistan on June 20, 2009.
	After departing, the soldier was quickly captured by militants from the feared Haqqani faction, a Taliban-lined outfit blamed for many deadly attacks on US soldiers.
	Bergdahl's disappearance triggered a massive search operation.
	He was eventually released to US special forces in 2014 in a swap for five Afghan Guantanamo Bay ...

Court-martial delayed until 2017 for infamous US 'deserter'

World power talks on ending the Syrian conflict broke up with no clear breakthrough today as new faction-fighting erupted and the death toll continued to mount.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said the Syria contact group they co-chair had agreed to bolster a shaky ceasefire.
	But underlying disagreements between Washington and Moscow on how to handle the crisis were on plain display, and the United Nations failed to name a date for new peace talks.
	Meanwhile, human rights monitors said fierce new clashes between the rebel Jaish al-Islam and Al-Qaeda-backed factions had left 50 fighters and two civilians dead.
	And United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said he could not invite Bashar al-Assad's regime and the Syrian opposition back to peace talks until there was a "credible" ceasefire.
	Kerry said the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) had agreed there would be consequences for parties breaching the truce and vowed to maintain ...

No breakthrough at Syria talks as violence rages

A court in the German city of Hamburg today banned the author of a poem lampooning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from publicly reciting passages from his work.
	The court ruled that only six lines of the 24-line poem by German comedian Jan Boehmermann could be recited, offering the Turkish leader a partial legal victory.
	The poem accused Erdogan of bestiality and paedophilia and has caused a storm in Germany over freedom of speech.
	Chancellor Angela Merkel has come in for criticism after she authorised possible criminal proceedings against Boehmermann.
	Any prosecution of the comedian would be launched under the rarely enforced section 103 of Germany's criminal code -- insulting organs or representatives of foreign states -- which carries up to three years in prison
	Last week, the affair gathered still more publicity after a lawmaker from Merkel's Christian Democrat party recited the offending parts of the poem in parliament in a bid to condemn its content as an attack on .

German court bans public recital of anti-Erdogan poem

The army in crisis-hit Venezuela has to choose whether it is "with the constitution or with (President Nicolas) Maduro," opposition leader Henrique Capriles said today.
	He made the declaration to journalists after Maduro decreed a state of emergency broadening the powers of soldiers and police -- and a day before opposition-led marches demanding a referendum to oust the president.
	There was no sign however of faltering loyalty to Maduro in the military, from which his late predecessor Hugo Chavez hailed.
	On Wednesday, opposition protesters across the country are to demand that authorities validate a petition calling for a recall referendum against Maduro.
	The opposition says electoral officials are stalling on the process. Last week, a similar march in Caracas was stopped by riot police firing tear gas.
	"I say to the armed forces: the moment of truth has arrived -- to decide whether they are with the constitution or with Maduro," Capriles told a news conference.
	"That is a ...

Venezuela's army must choose constitution or Maduro: oppn

President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed today a constitutional reform to legalize same-sex marriage across Mexico following a Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to such unions.
	"This way, equal marriage will be clear in our constitution," Pena Nieto said at an event marking the national day against homophobia.
	Mexico City has authorized gay and lesbian marriages since 2009 and three of the nation's 31 states have followed suit. A fourth state, Campeche, has approved legislation but it has yet to be implemented.
	The Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling last year declaring that it was unconstitutional for Mexican states to ban same-sex marriage.
	While the "jurisprudence" issued by the court does not oblige states to change their laws, it requires courts to rule in favor of same-sex couples whose marriages were rejected.
	Elsewhere in Latin America, Colombia became the fourth South American country to allow same-sex marriage when the constitutional court definitively legalized 

Mexico leader proposes legalising gay marriage nationwide

Burkina Faso's military prosecutor denied reports that an arrest warrant for ex-president Blaise Compaore, currently living in neighbouring Ivory Coast, has been cancelled.
	Chief prosecutor Armand Ouedraogo said last month that the warrant for Compaore had been cancelled over procedural irregularities, because it had been issued without first being formally requested by the state prosecution.
	However, a senior prosecutor for the military court, who asked not to be named, told AFP that "the arrest warrant against Blaise Compaore has not been cancelled. I can even say that it was never cancelled".
	Compaore has been living in Ivory Coast since he was overthrown in a popular uprising in October 2014 after ruling Burkina Faso with an iron fist for 27 years.
	Burkinabe authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in December for his alleged role in the mysterious 1987 killing of his comrade, ex-president Thomas Sankara.

'Warrant for Burkina's ex-president Compaore still live'

Brazil's interim government today named economist Ilan Goldfajn as the new head of the central bank, a key post in the fight to coax the giant economy out of recession.
	Israeli-born Goldfajn, 50, will be a lynchpin in efforts to revitalize the country after Michel Temer assumed the presidency in place of Dilma Rousseff, suspended last week to face an impeachment trial that she says amounts to a coup.
	The Senate must confirm the banker's nomination.
	Temer's finance minister Henrique Meirelles announced the nomination, along with the rest of his economic team, which is looking at potentially painful ways to balance the country's battered finances -- a process that Meirelles said would begin with careful scrutiny of the true state of macroeconomic ills.
	Brazil is enduring its worst recession in decades. The economy shrank 3.5 per cent last year, and the IMF has forecast similar negative growth for 2016.
	Inflation is at around 10 percent and the central bank has maintained its ...

Brazil names new central bank head, eyes reforms

Wildfires sweeping through Canada's Alberta province today destroyed a remote lodge used to house hundreds of oil workers and threatened other camps north of the blaze-hit city of Fort McMurray, a top official said.
	Thousands of people had been evacuated overnight from the lodges, about 50 kilometers north of the blaze-hit city, as the fires spread and intensified, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told a press conference.
	The Black Sands lodge with 665 rooms was destroyed. Two others on the same road with a total of 4,000 rooms were at risk.
	"Yesterday morning we anticipated a very active fire day and," she said, "that's exactly what we got."
	"We expect fire growth at many of these camps today," she added.
	In Fort McMurray, two explosions damaged 10 homes. Ensuing spot fires were quickly put out and nobody was injured.
	Eight new fires sprung up over the previous 24 hours, bringing to 19 the total number burning in the province. Five of those were burning out of control.
	The ...

Canada wildfires destroy oil workers' lodge

An explosion today killed an Australian demining expert working to clear an area of northern Iraq that Kurdish forces recaptured from the Islamic State group, his employer said.
	The accident occurred in the village of Tal Rabaa, near Daquq, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Baghdad, said a senior officer with the Kurdish peshmerga forces in control of the area.
	"This morning, at around 10:00 am local time (0700 GMT), an uncontrolled explosion has tragically killed the Australian supervisor of a team of 30 national deminers during ongoing operations," said his employer, the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD).
	"The team was in the process of defusing explosive devices, which they detected in the former battle area," the Geneva-based FSD said in a statement, adding nobody else was injured.
	"The deceased has been working in the area for six months already and was a very seasoned explosive and demining expert with several decades of experience in this technical field."
	The 

Blast kills Australian deminer in Iraq area retaken from IS

A US military surveillance plane made "illegal entry" into Venezuela's airspace last week, President Nicolas Maduro said today, accusing America of trying to meddle in his beleaguered country.
	Maduro said his air force had detected two incursions by a US E-3 Sentry plane -- a modified Boeing 707 with a radar unit on its back -- on May 11 and May 13. He added that his government would lodge a formal protest.

US military plane made 'illegal entry' over Venezuela: Maduro

At least 50 fighters and two civilians were killed today in clashes between rival anti-regime groups east of Syria's capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
	The powerful Jaish al-Islam, or Army of Islam, has been locked in clashes with rival factions led by Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta.
	 Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said nearly three weeks of fighting had killed more than 500 fighters and a dozen civilians.
	One of the slain civilians has been identified as the only specialist gynaecologist still practising in Eastern Ghouta.
	"This is absolutely a power struggle," Abdel Rahman said.
	Eastern Ghouta is the largest rebel bastion in Damascus province, and Jaish al-Islam had long been dominant in the district.
	The Saudi-backed faction is one of the key rebel players in the High Negotiations Committee, which represents Syria's opposition in UN-backed peace talks.
	But Jaish al-Islam has recently been challenged by ...

'52 dead as rival rebel groups clash near Syria capital'

Interpol and its European counterpart today warned of growing concerns that radical Islamists could be using illegal people smuggling networks to sneak into Europe or even fund their attacks and activities.
	And in a joint report unveiled today, the two police agencies said those preying on desperate refugees had raked in up to USD 6 billion (5.2 billion euros) last year. That had turned the migrant flow into one of the largest money-earners for organised crime on the continent.
	"Terrorists may use migrant smugglers' resources to achieve their goals," said the report by the global police body Interpol based in Lyon and Europol in The Hague.
	"There is a growing concern that illegal immigration routes and networks may be used by radicalised foreign fighters wishing to return to the EU, or by terrorist organisations as a source of funding for their activities."
	Although no regular links between criminal gangs and terror groups have been proven "some incidents have been identified ...

Police agencies voice concern jihadists mixing with migrants

A sweeping review today of decades of research on genetically modified crops found no evidence that they are unsafe to eat, but warned that evolving resistance could be a serious problem.
	The findings issued by the US National Academies of Science examined two decades of research on genetically engineered (GE) crops, as they are also known, and called for regulators to take a closer look at the final product of a new plant variety, rather than the process used to breed or engineer it.
	"We dug deeply into the literature to take a fresh look at the data on GE and conventionally bred crops," said committee chair Fred Gould, co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center at North Carolina State University.
	Gould acknowledged that the wealth of data and opinions on the controversial matter "had created a confusing landscape" and that the new report aimed to offer an unbiased review of the evidence.
	The committee looked at almost 900 research and other publications on ...

No evidence that genetically modified crops unsafe to eat

A former member of Google's autonomous car team and other Silicon Valley veterans today introduced a startup devoted to self-driving trucks.
	Anthony Levandowski and Lior Ron, a fellow "Googler" who was once a top player at Google's free mapping service, said they founded a company called Otto in San Francisco.
	The approximately 40 members of Otto include talent from Alphabet's Google, Apple, and Tesla, according to a blog post by Levandowski and Ron.
	"We're a team comprised of the sharpest minds in self- driving technology, and we are committed to reimagining transportation -- not just improving it," the post said.
	"At the heart of our vision is the belief that self-driving tech is the key for creating a more sustainable, productive  -  and above all, safer -  transportation future."
	Instead of trying to build self-driving trucks from the ground up, Otto is equipping trucks already on roads with sensors, software and other technology to take over for human drivers, perhaps when ..

Ex-Googlers rev up plan for self-driving trucks

Austria today appointed Christian Kern as its new chancellor, with the ailing centrist government pinning its hopes on the ex-railway boss to help stem the surge of the far-right.
	"You are taking on a great and beautiful but also difficult role with a lot of responsibilities," said President Heinz Fischer as he swore in Kern at Vienna's Hofburg palace.
	The 50-year-old, renowned for his business achievements and snappy dress sense, replaces fellow Social Democrat Werner Faymann who threw in the towel on May 9 after a string of poor election results.
	The new leader faces the major challenge of uniting a fractious SPOe party and smoothing over tensions with its coalition partner, the conservative People's Party (OeVP).
	Kern also has to convince Austrians unhappy about the arrival of migrants and rising unemployment to vote for his party at the next scheduled elections in 2018.
	His appointment comes days before a presidential runoff vote on Sunday, pitting Norbert Hofer of the ...

Crisis-hit Austria appoints new Chancellor Christian Kern

Yemen's government suspended its participation in talks with Iran-backed rebels today for the second time this month, the foreign minister said, in a new setback to the UN-backed peace process.
	Abdulmalek al-Mikhlafi said on Twitter that the Huthi Shiite militia which controls the capital had "torpedoed the talks completely," by backtracking on their commitments after a month of negotiations.
	"I have asked the UN envoy not to allow the rebels to waste any more time... And to make them comply with the reference issues before we resume the talks," said Mikhlafi, who heads the government delegation.
	A statement by the government delegation said it would continue to boycott the talks until the rebels comply with the agreed references.
	It also urged the international community to apply pressure on the rebels to implement international resolutions to end the war and held them responsible for obstructing the peace negotiations.
	The statement blamed the Huthis of destroying the country's 

Yemen government suspends participation in peace talks

The World Health Organisation will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday on the yellow fever outbreak that has hit hardest in Angola but risks spreading further if vaccinations are not ramped up.
	Such meetings from the UN agency are often held before the declaration of an international health emergency, as happened amid the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the current surge in neurological disorders linked to the spread of Zika virus in the Americas.
	WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP the meeting had been called to underscore the severity of the yellow fever outbreak and to re-emphasise the need for mass vaccination against the viral disease.
	As of May 12, Angola had reported 2,267 suspected yellow fever cases and 293 deaths in an outbreak that began in December and is most heavily concentrated in the capital Luanda.
	The Democratic Republic of Congo has registered 44 suspected cases, both from a local outbreak and from patients who carried the virus from neighbouring ...

WHO calls emergency meeting on yellow fever outbreak

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton campaigned across Kentucky ahead of the state's primary today, desperate to improve her standing among working-class white men and painting sharp contrasts with her likely election adversary Donald Trump.
	Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders is gunning for victory in the Bluegrass State, building on his win last week in neighboring West Virginia as he battles to keep his long-shot nomination bid alive.
	The two states are linked to coal, as is much of Appalachia, the largely white, long-struggling eastern US region where many feel they have been given the cold shoulder in the lukewarm recovery from the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
	Also today, the northwest state of Oregon holds its Democratic and Republican primaries, where limited polling has indicated Clinton is ahead. Sanders, however, leads in Kentucky.
	The state has been treated by Clinton as an opportunity to appeal to a demographic that has consistently snubbed her: working-class .

AFP

AFP

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