The departure hall at Brussels airport, hit in March by a deadly double suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group, will partly reopen tomorrow, the management said.
	The twin explosions on March 22 killed 16 people and devastated the departure hall, shattering the building's glass facade, collapsing ceilings and destroying check-in desks.
	The airport was completely closed for 12 days after the attacks and has progressively been restarting operations, though it is not expected to return to full capacity until June.
	"After a reopening ceremony, passengers from three flights on Sunday afternoon will be able to check in in the departure hall," airport management said in a statement on today.
	From Monday, passengers will check in for flights at 111 desks in the departure hall and 36 others in temporary buildings.
	"The airport capacity is rising to at least 80 percent of the number of passengers before the attacks," the statement said.
	Travellers have been asked to arrive ...

Bombed Brussels airport departure hall to reopen tomorrow

PTI Automatic

Torrential rainstorms in the Kenyan capital have left at least 14 people dead, police said today, including at least seven crushed when a six-storey building collapsed, as rescue teams shifted rubble in a desperate search for survivors.
	One survivor was pulled from the huge pile of debris shortly after dawn, Kenya Red Cross said, some 10 hours after the building collapsed Friday night and as skies cleared after a night of ferocious storms.
	"We have lost seven people after the house collapsed last night," Nairobi police chief Japheth Koome told AFP. "We have 121 others who have been rescued and taken to hospital."
	Kenya Red Cross, who along with police and other rescue services continued to search the piles of crumbled concrete rubble, said a total of 150 households had been affected.
	Two neighbouring buildings in the densely-populated and poor Huruma neighbourhood were declared unsafe on Saturday and are being evacuated.
	In other separate incidents, two people drowned when their .

Fourteen killed in Nairobi floods and building collapse

At least seven people died when a six-storey building collapsed in the Kenyan capital amid torrential rainstorms, police said today, as rescue teams shifted rubble in a desperate search for survivors.
	One survivor was pulled from the huge pile of rubble shortly after dawn, Kenya Red Cross said, some 10 hours after the building collapsed Friday night and as skies cleared after a night of ferocious storms.
	"We have lost seven people after the house collapsed last night," Nairobi police chief Japheth Koome told AFP. "We have 121 others who have been rescued and taken to hospital."
	Kenya Red Cross, who along with police and other rescue services continued to search the piles of crumbled concrete rubble, said a total of 150 households had been affected.
	Two neighbouring buildings in the densely-populated and poor Huruma neighbourhood were declared unsafe on Saturday and are being evacuated.
	Nairobi deputy Governor Jonathan Mueke, who visited the scene on Saturday morning, said an ...

7 killed in Kenya building collapse

Cambodia's sole passenger train resumed a regular weekend service today after being suspended for years, with Prime Minister Hun Sen climbing aboard to inaugurate the first trip.
	"Today is a very important day for the railway," John Guiry, Royal Railway Cambodia's CEO, told AFP before the train rolled out of the capital Phnom Penh for Sihanoukville, a southwestern seaport.
	The Southeast Asian country has more than 600 kilometres of track extending from its northern border with Thailand down to the southern coast, but decades of war and neglect have left vast stretches of the network damaged.
	"The train and railway were almost totally destroyed by war more than 40 years ago," Hun Sen wrote on Facebook -- a forum the strongman has embraced with gusto in recent months.
	"Because our country is now at peace, we have the opportunity to rebuild our transport infrastructure," he added.
	The premier, who has been in power for more than three decades, also published several dozen photos of .

Cambodian passenger train back on track post years-long hiatus

South African fast bowler Dale Steyn was named as a replacement for injured Sri Lankan seamer Lasith Malinga in the Jamaica Tallawahs team to play in the Caribbean Premier League.
     Steyn will be making his debut in the six-franchise Twenty20 tournament which runs from June 30-August 7.
     Malinga has been ruled out with a knee injury sustained during the West Indies series back in November 2015. Despite featuring briefly in the Asia Cup, he has been unavailable since then and missed out on the World T20 and the ongoing Indian Premier League.
     "It is a great privilege to feature in the CPL for the first time and I am proud and delighted to sign up for the Jamaica Tallawahs for the forthcoming CPL season," said Steyn.
     "There are some outstanding world-class players signed up across all six teams and I'm looking forward to playing against some of my great friends and team-mates, amongst them Hashim Amla, AB (de Villiers), Faf (du Plessis), David Miller and Morne (Morkel) ..

Steyn replaces injured Malinga in CPL

Rescue teams were searching for survivors after a seven-storey building collapsed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi due to flooding, the Red Cross said, with 44 people already pulled alive from the rubble.
	A spokeswoman for the Kenya Red Cross could not confirm local media reports that at least three people were killed.
	"It is too early to speak about dead people, we don't have that information," Arnolda Shiundu told AFP.
	"We don't know how many people are under the rubble, but we fear there are still several of them," she said.
	"We are still searching. A crane has arrived, ambulances are here."
	The seven-storey building in the densely-populated Huruma neighbourhood collapsed yesterday following the heaviest downpours since the start of the rainy season, Shiundu said.
	They have caused flooding and landslides in many areas of the city.
	"Up to now, 44 people have been rescued from the rubble," Shiundu said, without saying how many were injured.
	"Our teams are on the site, where it ..

Search for survivors after Kenya building collapse

Tens of thousands of Argentines marched in a noisy protest against job cuts imposed under President Mauricio Macri's economic reforms.
	The demonstration yesterday virtually brought central Buenos Aires to a standstill amid a din of drums and chants.
	Two major labour unions, the CGT and CTA, joined forces in calling the rally against the conservative president's cuts to spending and public jobs.
	"The whole workers' movement is going to mobilise against layoffs, cuts and poverty, which is deepening under Macri's government," said Jose Rigane, leader of one of the branches of the CTA.
	Private and public sector workers joined in yesterday's march and planned a further demonstration on Sunday to mark International Workers' Day.
	Macri has passed a series of economically liberal reforms since taking office on December 10, vowing to strengthen the economy over the long term after 12 years of leftist rule.
	He has cut public sector contracts, raised utility prices and passed financial ...

Argentines in mass protest against layoffs

Violent gangs operating in El Salvador are forcing children and women into sexual and other forms of slavery, a UN special rapporteur on the issue said.
	Urmila Bhoola, a South African human rights lawyer appointed by the UN to look into contemporary slavery, said yesterday the gangs are forcing girls, teenagers and women to act as unpaid domestic servants and "participate in sexual activities," including in some cases conducting conjugal visits with imprisoned gang members.
	Bhoola, who is wrapping up a 10-day visit to the country yesterday, said in a statement that El Salvador's government is obliged to take steps to end those practices and provide victims access to justice and compensation.
	The activities the victims are forced to carry out "are both a cause and consequence of poverty, social exclusion, internal and external displacement of communities, as well as crime," she said.
	Gangs often use minors to carry out extortion or as lookouts to warn about police or rival outfits, 

El Salvador gangs forcing women, children into slavery: UN

North Korea today sentenced a detained Korean-American, Kim Dong-Chul, to 10 years hard labour on charges of subversion and espionage, China's official Xinhua news agency said.
	The announcement, which comes at a time of elevated military tensions on the Korean peninsula, followed an even harsher sentence of 15 years hard labour passed last month on a US student, Otto Warmbier, for stealing a propaganda banner from a tourist hotel in Pyongyang.
	The brief Xinhua despatch from Pyongyang said Kim's penalty was handed down by North Korea's Supreme Court.
	The 62-year-old, who became a naturalised US citizen in 1987, was arrested on espionage charges back in October.
	Kim was paraded in front of media cameras in the North Korean capital a month ago, when he admitted to stealing military secrets and pleaded for clemency in a carefully orchestrated "confession".
	His detention first came to public attention when he was produced in January during an interview CNN was conducting with a ...

N Korea gives Korean-American 10 years hard labour: Xinhua

Iranians started voting today in second round elections for almost a quarter of parliament's seats, the latest political showdown between reformists and conservatives seeking to influence the country's future.
	Polling stations opened at 8:00 am for the ballot which is taking place in 21 provinces, but not Tehran, because no candidate in 68 constituencies managed to win 25 per cent of votes cast in initial voting on February 26.
	Reformists who backed moderate President Hassan Rouhani made big gains in the first round following Iran's implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers, which lifted sanctions blamed for long hobbling the economy.
	Conservative MPs, including vehement opponents of the West who openly criticised the landmark agreement that reined in Iran's atomic programme, lost dozens of seats and were wiped out in Tehran where reformists won all 30 places in parliament.
	However Friday's voting -- in which the top two candidates from the first round contest seats head .

Iran starts voting in parliament election run-offs

A helicopter with 13 people on board crashed off western Norway today, with rescue workers saying there was no sign of survivors but that the search was going on.
	The chopper was transporting workers from a North Sea offshore oil field when it crashed around midday near the shoreline off the coast of Bergen, Norway's second biggest city.
	"They are searching in the hope of finding survivors. So far we have not seen any sign of survivors," Sola rescue centre spokesman Anders Bang Andersen told reporters.
	He told AFP that the chopper had been en route to the Bergen airport Flesland when it crashed with 13 people on board, including two crew members.
	"The helicopter has been located and we are doing everything possible to rescue the occupants," he added.
	Several witnesses described seeing the aircraft spiral downwards, followed by a powerful explosion, and people were seen in the sea.
	"There was an explosion and a very peculiar engine sound, so I looked out the window. I saw the ...

Helicopter with 13 aboard crashes off Norway

UN Security Council diplomats were negotiating a draft statement that would push for tough sanctions on North Korea to be enforced worldwide after Pyongyang's latest test-firing of medium-range missiles.
	The draft statement, obtained by AFP, requests that all UN member-states report no later than May 31 on the "concrete measures" they have taken to implement the sanctions resolution.
	It directs a UN sanctions committee to "intensify its work to strengthen enforcement of resolution 2270," which was adopted in March after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and fired a rocket.
	The United States and China agreed on the statement but its adoption was delayed after Russia requested more time to consider the text, diplomats said.
	The statement was now likely to be adopted during the weekend or next week, they said.
	The measure strongly condemns the most recent failed ballistic missile launches and demands that North Korea refrain from further actions that violate UN ...

UN council discusses move to enforce North Korea sanctions

A former TV news analyst who falsely claimed to have been a "deep cover" agent for the CIA pleaded guilty today to a series of fraud charges, officials said.
	   Wayne Simmons, 62, had been a Fox News commentator on the basis of his claim that he spent 27 years working for the Central Intelligence Agency.
	   As part of a plea agreement filed in federal court in Virginia, Simmons admitted he defrauded the government to gain access to a US Army training program in 2008 and to be deployed to Afghanistan as a senior intelligence advisor, the Justice Department said in a statement.
	   He admitted that he was never employed by or worked with the CIA, or given a security clearance by that agency.
	   "Mr. Simmons lied about his criminal history and CIA employment in order to fraudulently obtain government contracts, and separately, defrauded a victim through a phony real estate investment deal," said Paul Abbate, assistant director of the FBI's Washington field office.
	   "With these ...

Ex-TV pundit who claimed CIA past pleads guilty to fraud

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny's Fine Gael party was today poised to form a minority government after striking a deal with its longtime rival Fianna Fail, following inconclusive elections in February.
	"Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have reached a political agreement to facilitate a Fine Gael-led minority government," Fianna Fail said in a statement.
	"Both party leaders are now being briefed, extensive drafting has to be done and then both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will hold separate parliamentary party meetings to outline the details of the confidence and supply arrangement," the statement said.
	The outgoing coalition has remained in place in a caretaker capacity since a general election on February 26, in which neither party attracted enough votes to form a government on its own.
	Although both parties are considered centre-right, their relationship is riven by mistrust and historical enmities dating back to the 1920s Irish civil war.
	Fine Gael won 50 seats and Fianna Fail 44 ..

Deal reached in Ireland to form minority government: party

A Chinese-owned freighter will be the first vessel to pass through Panama's newly expanded canal, to be inaugurated with great pomp in June after nine years of work, officials said today.
	The Andronikos, a Marshall Islands-flagged container ship belonging to the China Cosco Shipping Corporation (COSCOCS), a Chinese state-owned group, was selected by lottery among the Panama Canal Authority's 15 largest clients.
	China is the second-biggest user of the canal, which provides easy passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by cutting across the narrow Central American isthmus.
	The 80-kilometer (50-mile) canal has been widened at an estimated cost of more than seven billion dollars to triple its capacity by allowing bigger bulk carriers to cross through.
	The aim is to greatly boost the annual revenue Panama collects in shipping passage fees, currently worth a billion dollars.
	Some five percent of world maritime traffic travels through the canal, with an average 35-40 ships ...

Chinese ship set to be first through expanded Panama Canal

Two gay Italian women today won the right to adopt each other's children in a legal first.
	All previous verdicts in Italy in favour of lesbian women being legally recognised as the parents of their partner's children are at the appeal stages.
	In its definitive sentence, Rome's juvenile court said Marilena Grassadonia, president of the Rainbow Families association, could adopt her wife's twin boys. In turn, her partner adopted Grossadonia's son. All three were conceived by artificial insemination.
	In March, a man won his request to adopt his partner's child, but rights watchers believed the ruling may have slipped through the net due to an administrative error, with the office of the prosecutor in charge of the case failing to file an appeal in time.
	Grassadonia was a vocal campaigner in Italy during the heated debate earlier this year over a contested civil unions bill.
	The text, adopted by parliament's upper house after a clause allowing gay couples to adopt their parnters' ...

Italian women win gay adoption battle

The first death related to the mosquito-borne Zika virus infection on US soil was reported today in the US territory of Puerto Rico, health authorities said.
	"The patient died of complications related to severe thrombocytopenia," a condition related to a low number of platelets in the blood, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
	"Although Zika virus-associated deaths are rare, the first identified death in Puerto Rico highlights the possibility of severe cases, as well as the need for continued outreach to raise health care providers' awareness of complications that might lead to severe disease or death."
	The CDC investigated a total of 6,157 suspected Zika cases in Puerto Rico between November 1, 2015 and April 14, 2016, according to the CDC report.
	Scientists confirmed that 683 (11 percent) "had laboratory evidence of current or recent Zika virus infection," it said.
	The CDC has warned of a potential explosion of Zika cases in Puerto Rico, possibly reaching ...

First US Zika-related death in Puerto Rico

Voting was extended today in second round elections for almost a quarter of the seats in Iran's parliament, a crucial showdown between reformists and conservatives seeking to influence the country's future.
	The polls will decide who has the most power when lawmakers are sworn in next month, opening or potentially closing a politically delicate path to even limited social and cultural change in the Islamic republic.
	Tension over the vote's high stakes was dramatically underlined by a shooting involving supporters of rival candidates in a southern province. The rare political violence left four people wounded, a security official said.
	Iran's reformists -- who have encouraged foreign investment, support moves for greater diplomatic rapprochement and seek social reforms at home -- are allied with President Hassan Rouhani's government and made major gains in the first round on February 26.
	That came just six weeks after Tehran's implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers under 

Rouhani allies seek control of parliament in Iran vote

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan today imposed a legal ban on giving newborn babies surnames with Russian-style  endings, in line with a government drive towards a more traditional national identity.
	Tajiks began Russifying their surnames while under Soviet rule and this grew into a mass phenomenon in the postwar years.
	But the long-serving president of the impoverished Central Asian country, Emomali Rakhmon, has discouraged this in recent years in a drive to boost patriotism.
	He also ended the use of Russian as an official language in 2009, although the Tajik language is still written in an adapted form of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet.
	Tajikistan passed the new law in March and officials began applying it immediately when drawing up birth certificates although it only entered force Friday.
	The move, under which "-ov" and "-ev" endings are banned, comes after Rakhmon himself in 2007 changed his surname from Rakhmonov, prompting ministers and civil servants to follow, as well as his own ...

Tajikistan bans Russian-style surnames for children

A total of 33 lions rescued from abuse in Peruvian and Colombian circuses will be taken by plane on today to South Africa, in what campaigners are calling the largest-ever airlift of big cats.
	The lions, with names such as Zeus and Shakira, were freed after the use of wild animals in circuses was outlawed in Peru in 2011 and Colombia in 2013.
	They have been rounded up with the help of authorities by Animal Defenders International (ADI), an animal rights charity.
	"It's truly wonderful that these lions, after a lifetime of suffering and abuse in circuses, are going home to Africa," said the president of ADI, Jan Creamer.
	"All of the lions when they arrive from the circuses have health problems, parasites, disease," she added.
	 "All of their lives they haven't had enough food, so they have long-term malnutrition problems."
	In recent months spent in straw-lined cages in a refuge north of Lima, however, they have been well fed and are in generally good health, she said.
	Twenty-four .

33 rescued lions to fly from Peru to S. Africa

US forces attacked a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz last year after a series of errors and will be disciplined, but they did not commit a war crime, their commander said today.
	General Joseph Votel said that on October 3, 2015, the crew of an AC-130 gunship had taken off earlier than planned without a list of protected sites and had been mistakenly guided to bombard the Kunduz trauma center.
	The general, head of US Central Command, said that 12 of the personnel involved -- commanders, flight crew and a special forces team on the ground -- had been suspended or removed from command and four others were reprimanded.
	"The investigation concluded that certain personnel failed to comply with the rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict," he said, announcing the results of a lengthy probe into the strike, which killed at least 42 people.
	"The investigation found that the incident resulted from a combination of human errors, process errors and ...

AFP

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