A car bomb exploded near a market in a Shiite area of north Baghdad today, killing at least 34 people, security and medical officials said.
	The blast, which hit the Sadr City area at around 10 am, also wounded 54 people, the officials said.
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group often carries out bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere, especially targeting Shiite Muslims, whom it consider heretics.
	Iraqi forces have regained significant ground from IS, which overran swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014.
	But the jihadists still control a large part of western Iraq, and are able to carry out frequent bombings in government-held areas.

Baghdad market bombing kills 34

PTI Automatic

Uber said it had agreed to support the creation of a guild for its drivers in New York, the latest sign the company is opening to their having a say in the ride-share business.
	The smartphone app said it would back the formation of the Independent Drivers Guild for its 35,000 drivers in New York under the International Association of Machinists (IAM), a labor union representing "black car" service drivers in the city.
	The agreement would "improve communication between Uber and our driver-partners, provide benefits without jeopardizing the independence and flexibility drivers love, and give drivers who have been barred from the app an additional voice in the deactivation appeals process," Uber spokesman David Plouffe said in a statement.
	The new guild will not act as a union, meaning it will not enable its members to take part in collective bargaining for better pay and other benefits.
	Uber refuses to recognize its drivers as employees, saying they are independent ...

Uber recognizes drivers' guild in New York

A young Bangladeshi refugee has died on the Pacific island of Nauru, the second death in a month, prompting critics today to again urge Australia to stop sending asylum-seekers offshore.
	Australia sends all boatpeople to Papua New Guinea and Nauru -- where two refugees recently set themselves on fire -- and insists they settle there or return home.
	The immigration department said the 26-year-old died "from suspected heart failure".
	"The man admitted himself to the Republic of Nauru Hospital on May 9 complaining of chest pains," it said in a statement.
	"He was receiving ongoing treatment in hospital, but died early today after a series of cardiac arrests."
	The Refugee Action Coalition claimed it was a suicide, with the man taking an overdose of tablets, including a large amount of painkillers, ahead of his hospitalisation.
	"(His) friends say his suicide was driven by the same desperation as others on Nauru. There is no future," the coalition said.
	Earlier this month a ...

Bangladeshi refugee dies on Nauru

Baghdad market bombing kills 12: officials (AFP)

North Korea's first ruling party congress for nearly four decades proclaimed the formal start of the Kim Jong-Un era, but the event was more notable for nods to the past than promises for the future.
	Analysts looking for signs of substantive policy shifts or reforms under the young leader were given little to go on, as the 33-year-old Kim signalled few changes at home and a continued foreign policy of belligerent defiance backed by an expanding nuclear arsenal.
	Widely seen as a formal coronation for Kim, who inherited power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il, in late 2011, the congress had always threatened to be more about spectacle than substance.
	But even the symbolic highlights were backward looking, with the final session of the four-day conclave on Monday appointing Kim to the post of party chairman.
	The "chairman" title was used by his grandfather, the country's revered founding leader Kim Il-Sung, during the 1950s and 60s - a relative golden period of rapid ...

N Korea looks back to the future

Oil prices dipped in Asia today after the previous day's rally as Canadian oil companies prepare to restart production after being closed by huge wildfires.
	The commodity has seen strong swings this week as traders weigh up the effects of the blazes that have torn across the vast oil sands region of Alberta as well as disruptions elsewhere.
	Tuesday saw both main contracts rally as data showed output in oil major Nigeria had slumped to a 22-year low because of pipeline sabotage and increasing unrest that has seen major companies evacuate staff.
	Rebels seeking a fairer share of revenue for locals in the oil-rich southern delta are increasingly targeting facilities, posing a fresh security challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari.
	Also, yesterday Canadian officials suggested output in could take time to return to normal after the fires.
	Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said facilities could come back online "in the coming days and short weeks ahead," after a meeting with oil company ...

Oil prices dip after latest surge

A Chinese arbitration panel has rejected a complaint by a man who claimed to have been unfairly fired for being transgender, his lawyer said today, in what has been called the country's first such case.
	The plaintiff, who was born a woman but identifies as a man and generally wears men's clothing, was sacked after eight days by a health centre in the southwestern province of Guizhou, reports said.
	A labour arbitration committee in the province disregarded a recording of the employer allegedly saying he was sacked because of his transgender status, his attorney Huang Sha told AFP.
	It also rejected his demand for a month's wages and a written apology, ruling that he had been fired because he lacked "adequate skills" for the sales job, Huang added.
	The employer was ordered to pay the man, known as Mr C, about 400 yuan ($60) in wages for the probation period.
	"We are disappointed with the result," Huang said.
	Reports described the case as the country's first unfair dismissal suit ...

China transgender man loses dismissal case: lawyer

Helmets should be compulsory for batsmen and close fielders and substitutes considered for concussed players, a landmark review into the death of Australian Phillip Hughes said Wednesday.
     Hughes, who played 26 Tests, died from bleeding on the brain in November 2014 after being hit on the base of the skull by a rising ball at the Sydney Cricket Ground during a domestic match.
     His death -- a freak accident -- stunned Australia and the world cricket community, sparking an outpouring of grief.
     Cricket Australia ordered an independent review which said the medical treatment he received was appropriate and timely.
     At the time, Hughes was wearing a helmet which was not compliant with the more recent, and stringent, British Standard, which essentially involves the grille protecting the face being extended further to the rear of the helmet.
     Barrister David Curtain, who conducted the review, said even if he had been wearing the newer model, it would not have saved him.
 

Compulsory helmets, substitutes mulled in Australia

Rafael Nadal said that he is in confident mood ahead of his first match of the Rome Masters, despite his semi-final defeat to Andy Murray in Madrid last week.
     The seven-time champion insisted that he is focusing solely on his second-round clash with Philipp Kohlschreiber on Wednesday, and not looking forward to a possible quarter-final against Novak Djokovic.
     "I'm not playing Novak tomorrow. I'm going to play against (Philipp) Kohlschreiber. He's playing great. He won in Munich couple of weeks okay and played semi-finals in Barcelona too," fifth seed Nadal said.
     "He's playing well and he's a very good player on clay. I am worried about that now."
     Nadal won titles last month in Monte Carlo and Barcelona to start his pre-French Open clay campaign in the best possible way.
     "My game is good, three tournaments, two victories (Monte Carlo, Barcelona), one semi-final. Tough tournaments, good victories, good matches. If I'm not happy now, I don't know when I gonna be .

Nadal bids for Rome title with possible Djokovic clash looming

World number one Jason Day hopes that advice from Tiger Woods will come in handy at The Players Championship this week as he attempts to break his duck in the tournament regarded as golf's unofficial fifth major.
     The 28-year-old Australian has forged a close relationship with Woods in recent months with the former world number one regularly offering advice via text messages in the buildup to events.
     Woods, a two-time winner at TPC Sawgrass, will not be competing in Ponte Vedra Beach as he battles his way back from an extended layoff after back surgery.
     But Woods's influence could well be significant if Day mounts a successful challenge for the USD 1.89 million winner's check.
     "Some of the shots I hit, some of the decisions I make are because of what me and Tiger have talked about in the past," Day said Tuesday.
     "If there's a guy that you want to pick someone's brain, it's him. Did it for so long, did it for many, many years, won so many golf tournaments. He ...

Woods's pep talks aiding Day ahead of TPC

Manchester United endured a pre-match bus attack and post-match demoralisation as their Champions League hopes were harpooned by a 3-2 defeat at West Ham United on Tuesday.
     After United's bus was pelted with missiles en route to the ground, they came from behind to lead 2-1 as Anthony Martial's brace negated Diafra Sakho's 10th-minute opener for West Ham.
     But Michail Antonio equalised before centre-back Winston Reid smuggled a header past visiting goalkeeper David de Gea in the 80th minute to bring the 2,398th and final game at West Ham's Boleyn Ground home to a crashing crescendo.
     United manager Louis van Gaal said that the pre-match scenes had affected his younger players, saying: "It's not the first time that it happens, but I have a long experience in football. There are players who don't have experience.
     "It shall have an influence, but I don't think we have to look for excuses."
     The result left United in fifth place in the Premier League and means that ..

Violence, drama as Man Utd's top-four hopes shredded

The Islamic State group cut a key supply route between Syria's Homs and the world heritage site of Palmyra just months after the army recaptured the ancient city, a monitor said.
	IS "was able to cut the supply road between Homs and Palmyra near the Tayfur military airport after an attack launched from the east of Homs", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday.
	Both cities are controlled by the regime after troops recaptured Palmyra - a UNESCO world heritage site - from the jihadist group in late March, backed by Russian air strikes.
	Cutting the road "came as part of IS's biggest assault since the army recaptured Palmyra with Russian support" on March 27, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.
	"Violent clashes between regime forces and Daesh are ongoing," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.
	"Daesh surrounds Palmyra from all angles except in the southwest", Abdel Rahman said, adding the closest IS was to the city was 10 kilometres.
	IS and the 

IS cuts regime supply route to Syria's ancient Palmyra

Britain, France, the US and Ukraine have blocked a Russian request to add two Syrian rebel groups to a UN terror blacklist and sideline them from the Syrian peace process, diplomats said.
	Russia had requested that Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) and Ahrar al-Sham be added to the sanctions list for their ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
	Adding names to the UN sanctions list requires a consensus decision from the 15-member council and after objections were raised by the four countries, Russia's request was rejected.
	"Russia publicly attempting to designate groups that are parties to the cessation of hostilities could have damaging consequences to the cessation just as we are trying to de- escalate the situation on the ground," said a spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations yesterday.
	"Now is not the time to shift course, but rather double- down on our efforts toward a reduction in violence."
	Jaish al-Islam is a member of the Higher Negotiations Committee ..

Russian bid to blacklist Syrian rebel groups blocked at UN

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov lost his majority in parliament today after the resignation of his deputy, a member of the ABV party which withdrew its backing for the centre-right coalition.
	Deputy prime minister Ivailo Kalfin, who also served as labour minister, stepped down after the centre-left ABV (Alternative for Bulgarian Revival) said it would no longer back the government.
	Founded by former president Georgy Parvanov, the party has 11 deputies, which guaranteed Borisov a narrow majority of 125 within the 240-seat parliament.
	A former bodyguard, firefighter and police chief, Borisov has governed on the basis of a fluctuating majority for the past three years following a first term in office between 2009 and February 2013 when he stepped down during mass nationwide protests about poverty and corruption.
	His GERB party only won 83 seats in the 2014 elections, forcing him to form a minority government with the rightwing Reformist Bloc (23 lawmakers), 10 of whom have ...

Bulgaria PM loses majority support in parliament

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff launched a last-minute bid today to block impeachment proceedings against her in what could be her final hours in power.
	Her lawyers said they would appeal to the Supreme Court to annul the impeachment proceedings before the Senate gathers tomorrow to vote on whether to suspend her from office and launch an impeachment trial.
	The result of what is expected to be a marathon voting session may not be final until Thursday.
	If she is pushed out, her vice-president-turned-enemy Michel Temer will take over.
	Adding to the instability shaking Latin America's most populous country and biggest economy, the leaders of the Senate and the lower house spent yesterday in open conflict on whether the vote should go ahead at all.
	Late yesterday, the interim speaker of the lower house, Waldir Maranhao, backed down and reversed an earlier attempt to order the Senate to halt proceedings and return Rousseff's case to the lower chamber.
	That eased what was looking ..

Brazil president in last-gasp appeal against impeachment

Not content with being the most popular beer brand in the United States, Budweiser is going a step further, renaming itself "America".
	In an unabashed paean to patriotism during the election year, bottles and cans of Bud will sport "America" on the front together with popular national slogans "to inspire drinkers to celebrate America and Budweiser's shared values of freedom and authenticity," the brewer said.
	It won't be a permanent move: the rebranding will span the presidential election campaign, starting on May 23 and running to the national vote on November 8.
	It is an adventurous move for one of the world's most recognizable brands, owned by the Belgium-based global beer giant AB InBev.
	But Budweiser and other US brewers have never shied from wrapping themselves in the US flag.
	"Budweiser's bold new look serves as the focal point for its summer-long campaign -- 'America is in Your Hands' -- which reminds people from sea to shining sea to embrace the optimism upon which the ..

US beer icon Budweiser to rename itself 'America', for a while

A suicide car bomber detonated outside the home of an anti-Taliban fighter in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar today, killing at least ten people and wounding 23 more, local officials said.
	The bomber "detonated his explosives-laden car outside the house of a local 'uprising' commander this evening", said Nangarhar police chief Zrawar Zahed, referring to Afghan villagers who take up arms against the Taliban with the government's backing.
	A spokesman for the Nangarhar governor confirmed the attack in Nazyan district, and said 10 "civilians" had been killed with 23 wounded.
	Zahed said Malek Dehqan, the target of the attack, was among the wounded.
	No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
	The Taliban are active in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital.
	But the province also faces an emerging threat from loyalists of the Syria-headquartered Islamic State group, which is making gradual inroads in Afghanistan -- challenging the Taliban on their ...

Suicide blast kills at least 10 in eastern Afghanistan

Amazon challenged YouTube today by adding a platform to its video service that lets "storytellers and creators" share works online and generate revenue.
	The US online retail titan unveiled Amazon Video Direct where, like at YouTube, people can upload videos for online viewing at an ad-supported venue.
	The move came shortly after the Seattle-based firm made Amazon Prime Video available as its own subscription service, and ramps up the company's challenge to Google-parent Alphabet.
	Video creators have options such as offering works for rent, purchase, or on subscription channels, according to Amazon.
	"There are more options for distribution than ever before and with Amazon Video Direct, for the first time, there's a self-service option for video providers to get their content into a premium streaming subscription service," said Jim Freeman, Amazon's vice president of video.
	"We're excited to make it even easier for content creators to find an audience, and for that audience to find 

Amazon takes on YouTube with similar video service

An attack by armed tribesmen on a makeshift camp for displaced people in Sudan's conflict-hit North Darfur state killed six civilians including two children, a top UN official said today.
	Monday's attack came just hours after a senior international mediator working to resolve the conflict said the region was now "stable".
	A peacekeeper from the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was also wounded in the attack on the makeshift camp in Sortoni where tens of thousands of people have taken refuge from an upsurge in fighting this year between the army and ethnic minority rebels.
	The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Marta Ruedas, "condemns the reported shooting and killing of six civilians, including two children, by armed local tribes in Sortoni", a statement said.
	Asked about the attack, Tijani Sissi who heads the Darfur Regional Authority said he was unaware of the latest violence.
	Insisting that the region was secure, he said that "there are some isolated incidents ...

Tribesmen kill 6 civilians in Sudan's Darfur: UN

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he threatened to send troops into Cairo in 2011 to evacuate staff trapped in Israel's embassy during a mob rampage though the building.
	"Here, several years ago, in the situation room of the ministry of foreign affairs, we dealt with a siege that grew ever tighter around our people in the Israeli embassy in Cairo," he told an annual memorial ceremony for ministry staff killed on duty overseas.
	"A wild mob came to slaughter our people and that night we worked with all the tools at our disposal, including threats to extract them using the Israel Defence Forces, which finally tipped the scale," his office quoted him as saying.
	"The Egyptian forces... Together with tight coordination on our end from the situation room, eventually led to a successful outcome in this instance."
	In the September 2011 siege, protesters attacked the Israeli embassy offices in central Cairo, forcing the evacuation of all staff.
	Crowds smashed through an ...

Netanyahu says he threatened force in 2011 Cairo embassy siege

Facebook today denied allegations from a former news curator that it scrubs its site of articles by and about political conservatives.
	Tech news outlet Gizmodo reported yesterday that a former news curator at the social media giant has alleged that articles from politically conservative outlets -- particularly when written about conservative subjects -- were deliberately omitted from Facebook's "trending news" sidebar of popular stories.
	"I'd come on shift and I'd discover that CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) or (former presidential candidate) Mitt Romney or (radio talk show host) Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldn't be trending because either the curator didn't recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias," the individual told Gizmodo anonymously.
	The charges unleashed a fierce debate in the US media and on the social network itself, which has some 1.6 billion users around the globe.
	But the Silicon Valley-based Facebook, a dominant player 

AFP

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