US President Barack Obama warned Russia about its military build-up in northern Europe today as he hosted leaders from five Nordic countries at the White House.
	"We are united in our concern about Russia's growing, aggressive military presence and posture in the Baltic-Nordic region," Obama said at the end of the meeting.
	As tensions with Moscow spike over a plethora of issues from aerial military interceptions to Ukraine, Obama looked to make common cause with Russia's near neighbors in Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway.
	Earlier, Obama said the six nations agreed on the need for a European order not based on might.
	"We believe that our citizens have the right to live in freedom and security, free from terrorism, and a Europe where smaller nations are not bullied by larger nations."
	Obama put Vladmir Putin's government on notice that, while willing to deescalate tensions, the White House would also be prepared to counter any perceived Russian aggression.
	"We will be ..

Obama denounces Russia's aggressive military stance in Europe

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Brazil's new Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said today his priority is to cut government spending, but pledged to keep funding for social programs "for those who need them."
	"The priority right now is controlling public spending," Meirelles told a press conference a day after interim president Michel Temer took over from Dilma Rousseff, ending 13 years of leftist rule in Brazil as she was suspended by the Senate to face an impeachment trial.
	Temer, a center-right veteran backed by the business world, has vowed to get the government's books in order and restore confidence in the Latin American giant's economy, currently mired in its worst recession in decades.
	But his opponents are ready to pounce if he cuts the popular social programs introduced by Rousseff's Workers' Party, which helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty.
	"Social programs that represent smaller amounts in the budget but are fundamental for those who need them will be kept," said Meirelles, a former 

Brazil to cut spending, keep social programs: finance minister

New York's spring art auction season saw the market slow somewhat but not collapse, held up by buying from savvier collectors.
	Since the fireworks of the USD 2.6 billion spring 2015 season, the market has played it by ear, destabilized by China's economic slowdown.
	Total sales this season were in excess of USD 1 billion -- in line with expectations.
	"There has been a change. There's a smarter population of people buying," said Christopher D'Amelio, a partner at the David Zwirner gallery, which has two art spaces in New York and one in London.
	"There's not this kind of trendy euphoria that might have been before," he said of the auction season.
	Christie's and Sotheby's had approached the crucial week, which ended on Thursday night, with caution.
	"Bidding was measured, probably as measured as I've seen over the last three or four years," said Jussi Pylkkanen, global president of Christie's International.
	"Curating remains very important," he said, adding that it was important to .

New York spring art auctions wrap with over USD 1 bn in sales

Whistleblowing site WikiLeaks published a diplomatic cable today showing that Brazil's new acting president Michel Temer gave "sensitive" political briefings to US diplomats ahead of elections in 2006.
	The cable published online -- dated January 11, 2006 and marked "sensitive but unclassified" -- contains summaries of conversations Temer, a federal lawmaker at the time, had with the US officials.
	WikiLeaks in a Twitter message claimed Temer acted as an "embassy informant for US intelligence." The cable is marked as cleared by the US embassy in Brasilia but does not name or give the ranks of the officials Temer briefed.
	In the briefings, Temer spoke of possible plans for his centrist PMDB party to mount an electoral challenge to Brazil's leftist president at the time, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, according to the summaries in the cable.
	Lula is the top ally of Dilma Rousseff, who was suspended as president yesterday pending an impeachment trial against her.
	Temer stepped up from the 

Brazil's Temer gave US 'sensitive' briefings: WikiLeaks

FIFA named a Senegalese UN diplomat as its first ever female secretary general today, a surprise and historic move announced at a congress to overhaul the scandal-plagued organisation.
     Fatma Samoura, 54, comes from outside the football world, having worked with the United Nations for 21 years. She is currently based in Nigeria for the UN Development Program.
	FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who announced her appointment during the annual congress in Mexico City, said his future number two was "a great person" with experience managing big organizations, budgets and staff.
	"We have to be serious when we say we embrace diversity and we believe in gender equality," Infantino said.
	"She will bring a fresh wind to FIFA, somebody from outside, not somebody from inside, not somebody from the past but somebody new."
	Samoura will take her post by mid-June after undergoing an eligibility check administered by an independent review committee.
	"Today is a wonderful day for me, and I am ..

FIFA names woman as secretary general for first time

Bosnian police said today they had arrested five suspected smugglers and seized arms including rocket launchers destined for Sweden, but declined to confirm reports it was for an Islamist group.
	The five were seized on Thursday in an operation carried out in coordination with Swedish police, Bosnian police spokeswoman Mirna Miljanovic told AFP.
	"A huge quantity of arms, ammunitions and military equipment was seized," Miljanovic said, adding that one person was earlier arrested in Sweden, and two others were still at large.
	The search was conducted at seven locations in the northern Bosnian towns of Gradiska and Laktasi, he said, giving no further details.
	The suspects have admitted involvement in smuggling, Boris Grubesic, a spokesman for Bosnia's prosecutor office told AFP.
	But he said there was no evidence so far that they had links with terrorist groups, and they do not fit a jihadist profile.
	A police source who asked not to be named said however there were some indications .

Bosnian police seize arms headed for Sweden

At least 820 Islamists have left Germany to join jihadists in Syria and Iraq, the German domestic security agency said today, voicing concerns about the rapid radicalisation of minors after two recent attacks.
	Around 40 of those who have travelled to the conflict-torn countries are aged under 18, and half of these are girls, according to latest data released by the BfV spy agency.
	"Young people are being radicalised quickly and permanently," said its chief Hans-Georg Maassen.
	"It is particularly problematic that they cultivate a readiness and ability to heed the call of the IS (Islamic State) to murder non-believers in their own country, using whatever means at their disposal," he said, referring to two recent attacks in Germany.
	Police in April arrested two 16-year-olds over an explosion that wounded three people at a Sikh temple, in what was believed to be an Islamist motivated attack against an Indian wedding party at a temple in the western city of Essen.
	In the other attack, 

More Islamists head from Germany to Syria, Iraq: spy agency

Russia has told the United Nations that it will not endorse the decisions of the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, in the latest setback for the international gathering.
	The May 23-24 summit, which has been three years in the making, aims to rethink the global aid strategy and draw a closer link between humanitarian assistance and development.
	In a letter to the UN secretariat obtained by AFP on today, Russia criticized preparations and expressed "great disappointment" that its input on the so-called core commitments of the summit was ignored.
	Moscow complained that the package of decisions was hastily put together and contains "a series of far-reaching obligations, which are now being imposed as 'take it or leave it,' with no room for member-states to reflect their individual positions and observations."
	"Given all these alarming circumstances, our delegation is not eager to sign up to any of the commitments," said the letter.
	Moscow is sending a low-level ...

Russia spurns UN aid summit

Austria said today it would no longer seek to resume controversial checks on its frontier with Italy after tougher measures by Rome have led to a huge drop in migrant numbers.
	Vienna had threatened to re-impose controls on the Brenner Pass in the Alps as part of a string of anti-migrant measures if Italy failed to reduce the number of new arrivals heading to Austria.
	"The number of illegal migrants has dropped to almost zero in the past weeks," Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka told a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Angelino Alfano at the pass, a key north-south route.
	Sobotka added that reinforced train controls by Italian, Austrian and German officials had helped slow the influx to a trickle.
	Alfano said he was "happy" that Austria had recognised Italian efforts to address the issue.
	The historic Alpine route is a major European transport corridor, with some 5,550 lorries passing through on a daily basis -- a crucial lifeline for Italy's exports to northern 

Austria drops mooted Italian border control plans

US Secretary of State John Kerry was to leave for Saudi Arabia today to launch a week of efforts to try to end the crises in Libya and Syria.
	From Jeddah, where he will meet senior Saudi leaders, Kerry will fly on Monday to Vienna where he will co-host international meetings on the two conflicts.
	Then on Wednesday, he will fly on to Brussels for the NATO foreign ministers' meeting and talks on the full range of challenges facing the Western allies.
	Kerry's spokesman John Kirby said the secretary of state and Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni would jointly host the Libya crisis meeting.
	Attendees will "discuss international support for the new Government of National Accord, with a focus on security," Kirby said.
	Libya's new UN-backed government has been set up to unite the fractured country and fight the Islamic State group, but it is still a work in progress.
	Officials say the fledgling regime is drawing up a list of requests for Western partners to assist its forces with 

Kerry heads to Saudi ahead of Syria, Libya talks

Yemeni government forces have captured around 250 "Al-Qaeda members" since they retook Mukalla, the largest city in the country's southeast, last month, a top officer said today.
	"We have arrested around 250 members of Al-Qaeda, including some leaders, since our operations began," General Faraj Salmin told AFP.
	Salmin commands the second military zone which includes Mukalla, capital of the vast desert province of Hadramawt.
	The port city was retaken from the jihadists on April 24.
	"One of these chiefs, Mohammed Saleh al-Orabi who calls himself the emir of Shar, was detained on Thursday" in the area of the same name some 60 kilometres (35 miles) east of Mukalla, he added.
	All of the arrests were made in Mukalla and its surroundings, the general said.
	Al-Qaeda occupied the city for a year, and imposed strict Islamic law on residents.
	Special forces from the UAE, a member of a Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite Huthi rebels across Yemen, played a major role in retaking ...

Yemeni forces 'captured 250 Qaeda' after city retaken

Gunmen attacked a cafe with gunfire and grenades north of the Iraqi capital and later detonated suicide belts against security forces in pursuit, officials said today.
	At least 16 people were killed and 30 wounded, including several members of the security forces, in the attack in the town of Balad and the ensuing chase, they said.
	Officials said the gunmen were from the Islamic State group, which claimed the attack in an online statement.
	"A group of armed men from Daesh (an Arabic acronym for IS) disguised in security forces uniforms attacked a cafe in Balad at around midnight, using grenades and gunfire," Ammar Hekmat al-Baldawi, a deputy governor of Salaheddin province, told AFP.
	"They fled to a nearby farming area. They blew themselves up when the security forces and some residents chased them and got close," he said.
	Baldawi said the attack took at place around midnight (2100 GMT on Thursday) and that the hunt for some of the attackers was ongoing.
	"There were five or six .

Gun, grenade and bomb attack kills 16 north of Baghdad

The United States placed the speaker of Libya's internationally-recognized parliament Aguila Saleh on its sanctions blacklist today, saying he has blocked attempts to strengthen the new UN-backed unity government.
	Formed under a power-sharing deal agreed by some Libyan lawmakers, the UN-sponsored Government of National Accord (GNA) has been working to assert its authority but has yet to receive the official endorsement of the recognized parliament.
	"Today's action emphasizes the US government's commitment to the Libyan Political Agreement, which created the GNA on December 17, 2015, and demonstrates that the US government will not tolerate actions by individuals who undermine the political transition in Libya," the US Treasury said in a statement.
	The move comes after the European Union designated Saleh for sanctions on April 1.
	The US action means that any of the politician's property and interests in the United States are blocked, and prohibits Americans from doing business with 

US puts Libyan speaker on sanctions blacklist

Poland today broke ground on the northern section of a US missile defence shield launched in Romania a day earlier, which Russia slammed as a serious security threat despite US assurances to the contrary.
	"Although we joined NATO years ago, now we are seeing that NATO is truly entering Poland," Polish President Andrzej Duda said before ceremony participants took shovels in hand and began digging at the Polish air force base.
	Located in Redzikowo, northern Poland, and Deveselu in southern Romania, the two missile interceptor stations are part of NATO's larger European shield, due to become fully operational by 2018.
	US and NATO officials insist the system is intended to counter the threat of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, particularly from so-called "rogue" states the Middle East like Iran.
	But with the Redzikowo station just 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, Moscow views the system as a security threat on its very doorstep.
	President 

Poland moves on missile shield as Russia voices outrage

A controversial EU-Turkey deal dramatically cut the number of migrant arrivals in Greece last month, data showed today, even as a row between Brussels and Ankara threatened to sink the agreement.
	Last month 3,360 migrants and refugees landed on the Greek islands, compared with 26,971 in March -- an 88 per cent drop, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
	The EU border agency Frontex also reported what it described as a "dramatic" slowdown, saying it had registered 2,700 arrivals in Greece last month.
	The figures are the first for a full month-long period since the EU-Turkey deal came into force in March and will be seen as a key measure of its effectiveness.
	"The total for all of April is well below the number of people we often saw reaching just the island of Lesbos on a daily basis during last year's peak months," Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri said in a statement.
	Under the March deal, Turkey agreed to take back Syrian migrants landing on .

Migrant arrivals to Greece plunge, as EU-Turkey deal

Lebanon's Hezbollah announced today that its top military commander had been killed in an attack in Syria where the Shiite militant group has deployed thousands of fighters backing the Damascus regime.
	Hezbollah said it was still investigating the cause of the blast near Damascus airport but it did not immediately point the finger at Israel as it did when the commander's predecessor was assassinated in the Syrian capital in 2008.
	The death of Mustafa Badreddine, who had led Hezbollah's intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime since the start of the five-year war, came as a fragile truce in Syria teetered on the brink of collapse.
	A six-day-old ceasefire in battleground second city Aleppo expired early yesterday without being renewed and rebel sniper fire on the city's government-held sector killed two civilians, one a woman, a monitoring group said.
	Heavy air strikes pounded Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front in its Idlib province stronghold in the ...

Blast kills Hezbollah military chief in Syria

Congolese police fired tear gas today to break up a demonstration by thousands of supporters of powerful opposition figure Moise Katumbi who had gathered outside a courthouse to protest allegations he had hired foreign mercenaries.
	Katumbi, the leading rival of President Joseph Kabila, attended a hearing in the court in Lubumbashi, the second city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, over the controversial allegations.
	Katumbi, the former governor of the mineral-rich Katanga province who has declared his intention to run for the presidency after breaking with his former ally Kabila in September, has denounced the allegations as "a grotesque lie".
	The wealthy owner of the Tout-Puissant Mazembe football club, three-time winner of the African Champions League, Katumbi is accused of hiring several foreign mercenaries, notably Americans, as his private guards.
	An AFP reporter at the scene said police fired tear gas and beat the crowd back with truncheons, while security agents inside ..

DR Congo police fire tear gas at opposition protest

President Vladimir Putin today warned that Russia would consider measures to "end threats" from US anti-missile systems in Europe but said Moscow would not engage in a new arms race.
	"Now that these anti-missile elements have been installed, we will be forced to consider putting an end to the threats emerging in relation to Russia's security," Putin told defence officials in televised remarks.
	Putin spoke after a US anti-missile defence system in Romania aimed at protecting NATO members from threats by "rogue" nations became operational on Thursday.
	The anti-missile defence system in Romania is part of a broader NATO missile shield to include an installation in Poland, work on which was set to begin on Friday.
	Referring also to the placing of the Aegis missile defence system on warships in the Mediterranean, Putin said: "All of these are additional steps towards destabilising the international security system and the start of a new arms race."
	The Russian president said the ...

Russia will consider steps to end threats from US in Europe

Singapore said today it had detected the first case of Zika in someone who had travelled to Brazil, the epicentre of the outbreak.
	The Ministry of Health said the 48-year-old male foreigner, who is a Singapore permanent resident, had visited Sao Paolo from March 27 to May 7.
	He developed a fever and rash from May 10 and was admitted to hospital two days later and isolated, the ministry said in a joint statement with the National Environment Agency (NEA).
	Brazil is the hotbed of the mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak, with the virus blamed for birth defects in babies born to infected women.
	"The patient tested positive for Zika on 13 May," the joint statement said, adding the patient would be transferred to the Communicable Diseases Centre at the government-run Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
	He would be isolated while undergoing treatment "to minimise the chances of being bitten by mosquitoes and spreading the infection in the community," the statement added.
	It described him as "well ..

Singapore reports first Zika case

Human rights groups today slammed a deal between Nepal's ruling parties to withdraw civil war cases from courts and offer amnesty to people accused of abuses during the country's decade-long Maoist insurgency.
	Former Maoist rebels and security forces have been accused of carrying out torture, killings, rapes and "forced disappearances" during the conflict, which ended in 2006 leaving more than 16,000 dead.
	The ruling Communist Party (Unified Marxist Leninist) of Nepal and its coalition partner, the Maoists, last week signed an agreement paving the way for war crimes cases to be withdrawn or pardoned.
	In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) accused the two parties of attempting to "wash away the crimes of the conflict" with the new agreement.
	"It flies in the face of Nepal's international human rights obligations and the rulings of its own Supreme Court by trying to wash away the crimes of the conflict... And 

Rights groups slam Nepal deal on war crimes amnesty

FIFA could name today a woman as its secretary general for the first time in the history of world football's governing body, according to a source close to the organisation.
     FIFA's new president Gianni Infantino, who was elected in February, indicated recently that he would wait until summer to name his number two but the announcement could come during a congress in Mexico City.
	"The name of the new secretary general should be announced today (Friday) and this new secretary general should be a woman who is not European," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
     The former secretary general, Jerome Valcke of France, was sacked in January and banned from football for 12 years over misconduct in television deals and World Cup ticket sales -- one of the many scandals that hit FIFA.
	Germany's Markus Kattner has been serving as interim secretary general since then.
	The FIFA congress is due to confirm a series of reforms aimed at cleaning up the organization, which ...

AFP

AFP

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