A German man who officials said had drug and psychological problems stabbed to death one person and slashed three more in a bloody dawn attack at a railway station today.
	Police arrested the 27-year-old after the apparently random assault around 5:00 am (local time) at the commuter railway station of the small town of Grafing, east of Munich.
	One of the victims, a 56-year-old man, later died of his wounds in hospital. Authorities had earlier wrongly given his age as 50.
	The others injured were men aged 43, 55 and 58. One of the victims was seriously hurt, the other two more lightly wounded.
	Police and prosecutors initially said the attack appeared to be "politically motivated" and with an apparent Islamist motive after eye witnesses had reported hearing him scream "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest).
	However, hours later, Bavaria state's interior ministry said that "so far we have no evidence for an Islamist motive, but the investigation continues".
	"We have found the man had ...

German knife attacker kills one, wounds three

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Luxembourg prosecutors today called for two whistleblowers on trial over the "LuxLeaks" scandal to be given jail sentences of 18 months, and for a journalist to be fined.
	Frenchmen Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet, both former employees of auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), are accused of leaking thousands of documents to journalist Edouard Perrin.
	The documents revealed the huge tax breaks that tiny EU nation Luxembourg offers international firms including Apple, IKEA and Pepsi, saving the companies billions of dollars (euros) in taxes.
	A verdict is not expected until mid-June.
	"Deltour and Halet are not really whistleblowers, and Perrin has broken the law," deputy state prosecutor David Lentz told the court as he summed up the prosecution's case two weeks after the trial began.
	He said that he had taken into consideration the revelations on "certain doubtful practices" exposed by the leaks but that they had nonetheless broken Luxembourg's laws.
	"We are here to ...

LuxLeaks prosecutors seek 18 months' jail for whistleblowers

Britain leaving the EU would damage Western security and dangerously weaken Europe, five ex-NATO chiefs and a host of former US secretaries of state and defence warned today.
	The former NATO heads said a so-called Brexit would undermine the transatlantic military alliance and "give succour to the West's enemies", and would "undoubtably lead to a loss of British influence".
	In a letter to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, they said they were following the debate ahead of the June 23 referendum on Britain's EU membership "with growing concern".
	"Given the scale and range of challenges to peace and stability we collectively face, the Euro-Atlantic community needs an active and engaged United Kingdom.
	"Brexit would undoubtedly lead to a loss of British influence, undermine NATO and give succour to the West's enemies just when we need to stand shoulder to shoulder across the Euro-Atlantic community against common threats, including on our doorstep."
	The signatories were Peter Carington, .

Ex-NATO heads, US defence chiefs fire Brexit warning

Bangladesh lifted a ban on disgraced fast bowler Shahadat Hossain today, allowing him to play domestic matches weeks after he apologised for torturing an 11-year-old girl he employed as a maid.
     Hossain was banned from all forms of cricket last year by the Bangladesh Cricket Board after he became a subject of investigation for alleged criminal offence, which drew huge media interest.
     The BCB said Hossain was now free to play domestic cricket including the lucrative Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) after he made an emotional appeal seeking a return to cricket.
     "He, however, will not be considered for national team selection until his legal issues are settled," BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said, adding the ban was lifted on "humanitarian considerations".
     Hossain, who has denied abusing the girl in the past, apologised on April 28 for what he called his "misdeed" and said he had made "a mistake".
     "I regret the unwarranted incident I was involved in and .

Bangladesh lifts ban on torture shame cricketer

Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte may release jailed communist rebels in an effort to restart peace talks aimed at ending a decades-old insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, an aide said today.
	The aide said Duterte, set to be sworn into office on June 30 after a landslide election victory yesterday, signalled his readiness to discuss the release of a number of imprisoned rebels, a key factor in the breakdown of peace negotiations three years ago.
	Incumbent leader Benigno Aquino ended talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines in 2013 over the rebels' demand for the unconditional release of their detained comrades that his government was unwilling to grant.
	Duterte spokesman Peter Lavina said the president-elect would consider allowing exiled communist leaders to return for the talks, and review the status of "political prisoners".
	Lavina suggested the new government would not be averse to releasing detained rebels so they could take part in the ..

Philippines' Duterte ready to free rebels, resume talks

There is no evidence yet that a German man who today stabbed four people, killing one, had an Islamist motive, a spokesman for Bavaria state's interior ministry said.
	"So far we have no evidence for an Islamist motive, but the investigation continues," said spokesman Oliver Platzer, after the prosecution service earlier mentioned an "apparently Islamist motive".
	"We have found the man had psychological and drug problems," Platzer told AFP.

No evidence yet of Islamist motive in Germany knife attack

State oil giant Saudi Aramco, which could soon become the world's largest listed company, will keep expanding despite low crude prices, its president said today.
	"Saudi Aramco will continue to expand," Amin al-Nasser told reporters during a tour of the company's headquarters on Saudi Arabia's Gulf Coast in Dhahran, where it drilled its first test well in 1935.
	Even though the current situation "is challenging, it is an excellent opportunity for growth," said Nasser, as the oil industry worldwide reels from the collapse in oil prices.
	As part of the Saudi Vision 2030 unveiled last month, the OPEC kingpin announced it will sell less than five percent of Aramco in what officials say will be the world's largest-ever initial public offering.
	Proceeds from the sale will contribute to creating the biggest government investment fund in the world, with a value of USD 2 trillion, whose profits can provide an alternative to plunging oil revenues.
	With demand "increasing", Nasser stressed ...

Saudi Aramco to expand as oil demand grows: president

Washington's new ambassador to Myanmar today said remaining sanctions had taken an "unintended" toll on the nation's delicate economic development, as the US re-evaluates its embargoes on the former pariah state.
	Myanmar's stunning transition from decades of repressive junta rule to a civilian-led government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party was accompanied by the lifting of most Western embargoes.
	The United States rolled back many of its sanctions to reward reforms since 2011, but kept a clutch of blacklists targeting junta-era cronies and their sprawling business interests as it seeks to push further changes.
	"We recognise that even these limited, targeted sanctions occasionally have unintended effects on the broader economy," ambassador Scot Marciel said at a press conference in Yangon.
	"Now in the aftermath of the transition to the new elected government we are again reviewing our sanctions," he said, adding that he could not yet say what the result of ..

US weighs remaining Myanmar sanctions under Suu Kyi admin

Less than a week before he names his provisional Euro 2016 squad, Germany's head coach Joachim Loew has been given a boost by three of his stars.
     Loew will name his squad at the French Embassy in Berlin next Monday, but has been given good news about injured pair Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany's captain, and Sami Khedira, while striker Mario Gomez is in top form.
	German magazine Kicker reports Manchester United's Schweinsteiger is on the road to recovery after tearing the medial ligament in his right knee in March and should return to running training in the next ten days.
	Schweinsteiger's fellow defensive midfielder Khedira is recovering from a calf strain and recently visited the German team doctor in Munich to get the all clear.
	"I'm doing well, there's no reason to worry. There is no danger of missing the cup final against Milan or the European championships," Khedira told German daily Bild with his club Juventus set to play AC Milan on May 21 in the Italian Cup ...

Germany trio give Loew pre-Euro 2016 boost

As former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho mulls his next move, an unlikely suitor has emerged in the form of the beleaguered Indonesian national team, which is banned from international football.
     Indonesian Sports Minster Imam Nahrawi has announced that he wants Mourinho, who has been out of work since December after being sacked by Chelsea, to train the country's national side.
     Mourinho has been widely linked to Manchester United where Louis van Gaal has spent most of the season under siege, but Nahrawi hopes the 53-year-old Portuguese might pick sun-kissed, tropical Indonesia over chilly northwest England.
	"This has been discussed with President Joko Widodo," Nahrawi was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Antara on Monday in Jakarta.
	However Nahrawi conceded that it was "not an easy thing to do", particularly given the high cost of hiring Mourinho.
	In addition, Mourinho would be landed with a team that currently cannot even compete internationally after FIFA ...

Banned Indonesia want Mourinho

Iran's army is now equipped with a Russian air defence system after a long and controversial delivery process, Defence Minister General Hossein Dehghan was quoted as saying today.
	"I inform our people that... We are in possession of the strategic S-300 system" and that it "serves our air force's counterattack command," Dehghan said, according to ISNA news agency.
	Parts of the system, including missile tubes and radar equipment, were displayed on April 17 during a military parade in southern Tehran.
	The United States and Israel have criticised Russia for the sale of the S-300 system to the Islamic republic.
	Tehran says it is needed to strengthen its air defence against possible attacks, including on its nuclear facilities.
	Iran and Russia originally signed a contract for its delivery in 2007, but in 2010 Moscow suspended the sale after the UN Security Council issued a resolution against Iran's nuclear programme.
	In 2015, shortly before the conclusion of an international agreement 

Iran equipped with Russian missile system: defence minister

Iran is preparing international legal action to recover nearly USD 2 billion that the US Supreme Court has ordered be paid as compensation to American victims of terror attacks, President Hassan Rouhani said today.
	"We will soon take the case of the USD 2 billion to the international court," Rouhani said in a televised speech.
	"We will not allow the United States to swallow this money so easily," the president said to a crowd of thousands in the southeastern city of Kerman.
	The US Supreme Court ruled on April 20 that Iran must hand nearly USD 2 billion in frozen central bank assets to the survivors and relatives of those killed in attacks it has been accused of organising.
	The attacks include the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
	The Supreme Court ruling affects some 1,000 Americans.
	It came despite hopes for better relations between Tehran and Washington, after a landmark nuclear deal last July between Iran and ...

Iran to sue US over court seizure of USD 2 bn in frozen funds

The impeachment of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff looked set to go ahead today, after the interim speaker of the lower house said he had reversed his earlier annulment.
	In the latest twist to the country's spirling political crisis, local media said Waldir Maranhao had "reversed the decision" to cancel the April vote by lawmakers that had first begun the process.
	His move clears the way for Rousseff's impeachment, after Senate president Renan Calheiros on Monday dismissed Maranhao's initial decision and said the upper house would go ahead with the impeachment vote anyway.
	Still, Maranhao's U-turn ends a rift among Congress leaders that Rousseff's supporters had hoped to exploit in order to oppose her impeachment after the process descended into confusion.
	Maranhao threw the vote into chaos by declaring that the whole process was flawed and should be brought back to square one.
	The original vote by lower house deputies sending Rousseff to face the Senate had "prejudged" the ...

Rousseff's impeachment to go ahead: Brazil house speaker

A Jerusalem court convicted a 14-year-old Palestinian today of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October that was one of the most high-profile of a recent wave of violence.
	The Jerusalem District Court also found Ahmed Manasra guilty of inflicting severe injury in the attack he carried out at the age of 13 along with a 15-year-old cousin, officials said.
	The two stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish settlement neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev in annexed east Jerusalem.
	Hassan, the cousin, was shot dead by security forces, while Ahmed was hit by a car as they fled.
	The trial was held behind closed doors because of Manasra's age.
	The Jerusalem district prosecutor stressed "the fact the defendant is a minor does not change in the least the risk and danger his actions caused," the justice ministry said.
	Manasra was the youngest Palestinian to be convicted by an Israeli court in the wave of violence that erupted last ...

Israel court convicts Palestinian boy of attempted murder

An attack by armed tribesmen near a makeshift camp for displaced people in Sudan's conflict-hit Darfur region killed six civilians, including two children, a resident and a UN official said today.
	A peacekeeper from the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur was also wounded in yesterday's attack near the makeshift camp in Sortoni in North Darfur 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.
	A resident of the makeshift camp told AFP that gunmen riding camels and pick-up trucks had launched two attacks with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
	The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the attack followed a "reported rise in tensions between displaced people and armed tribesmen ..

Armed tribesmen kill 6 civilians in Sudan's Darfur: UN

Seven Indonesian teenagers were jailed today for the brutal murder and gang rape of a 14-year-old girl that sparked a national debate on sexual violence.
	They were among a gang who set upon the schoolgirl while she was on her way home in a small village on the western island of Sumatra.
	Her battered body was found three days later in woods, tied up and naked, and 12 people were arrested over the attack.
	Today seven attackers, aged 16 and 17, were found guilty at a court in the Curup district of Sumatra and sentenced to 10 years in jail each.
	"This is in line with our demands," said Eko Hening Wardhono, an official from the attorney-general's office, adding that police were still investigating the other five.
	A further two suspects are still on the run.
	The crime took place in early April but it only caught the attention of the nation a month later, as reports of the incident went viral on social media and tens of thousands signed online petitions.
	The case led activists to call 

Indonesian teens jailed for brutal murder, gang rape

A Chinese court has jailed two activists for taking part in small-scale pro-democracy protests after detaining them for nearly three years, their lawyer said today.
	Yuan Bing and Yuan Xiaohua were jailed for four years and three-and-a-half years respectively, on charges including "picking quarrels and making trouble", their attorney Lu Jingmei told AFP.
	A court in the central Chinese province of Hubei convicted them over a series of protests around the country in which they held signs in public places calling for freedom and democracy, Lu added.
	Their tour, dubbed "Enlightening China", saw them demonstrate, make speeches and meet activists in nine cities, according to China Human Rights Defenders, an overseas-based advocacy group.
	The two men, who are not related, were held in detention for 34 months before being put on trial, Lu said.
	China's President Xi Jinping has overseen a crackdown on dissent since coming to power in 2012, with hundreds of lawyers, activists and academics .

China court jails pro-democracy activists: lawyer

Geraldine Roman today celebrated overcoming "bigotry, hatred and discrimination" as results showed she had become the first transgender politician to win a congressional seat in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.
	After her victory in yesterday's election, Roman, 49, is being seen by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as a source of hope in a country where Church influence means divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage are banned.
	"The politics of bigotry, hatred and discrimination did not triumph. What triumphed was the politics of love, acceptance and respect," Roman told AFP after her victory for a seat in Congress representing the farming province of Bataan just northwest of Manila.
	Roman, a Catholic, said she was looking forward to becoming a lawmaker so she could respond to critics who dismissed her as a one-issue politician not to be taken seriously.
	"I'm elated, very, very happy. I'm also excited to work. I realise that the burden is bigger ...

Philippines transgender politician celebrates historic win

A 27-year-old man killed one person and wounded three others in a knife attack at a German station today that prosecutors said had "an apparent Islamist motive."
	"The assailant made remarks at the scene of the crime that indicate a political motivation -- apparently an Islamist motive," said a prosecutor's spokesman. "We are still determining what the exact remarks were."
	He added that "one man has died" of the wounds sustained in the attack.

'Apparent Islamist' German knife attack kills 1: prosecutor

North Korea's former military chief of staff who was reported executed earlier this year is apparently alive and well after being named today in a number of senior ruling party posts.
	Intelligence reports in South Korea had suggested Ri Yong-Gil, former chief of the Korean People's Army (KPA) General Staff, was executed in February on accusations of corruption and forming a political faction.
	Although the reports were never confirmed by Pyongyang, North Korea named a new chief of staff, Ri Myong-Su, in the same month.
	The change came at a time of highly elevated tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North's nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch.
	But today, Ri Yong-Gil's name appeared on a list of the newly-elected members of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, as an alternate member of the politburo and a member of the party's central military commission.
	Reports -- some confirmed, some not -- of purges, executions and ...

'Executed' N Korean general named to senior party posts

Incendiary Philippine politician Rodrigo Duterte vowed today a relentless crackdown on crime after claiming a landslide presidential victory built on foul-mouthed populist tirades that exposed deep voter anger at the establishment.
	The 71-year-old firebrand stormed to victory in yesterday's election, securing an insurmountable lead of nearly six million votes over his nearest rival, as a growing global howl for strong, populist leaders swept across the Southeast Asian nation.
	Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, captivated Filipinos with vows of brutal but quick solutions to crime and poverty, while offering himself as a decisive strongman capable of resolving a host of other deeply entrenched problems in society.
	"It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people," Duterte told AFP in Davao early on Tuesday morning as the results came in.
	"I feel a sense of gratitude to the Filipino people."
	In other comments to reporters ..

AFP

AFP

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