FBI Director James Comey called today for a discussion of the "costs" of strong encryption now that a legal battle over access to the iPhone used by a California attacker has ended.
	"I'm very glad that the litigation between the FBI and Apple on San Bernardino has ended, because it really was about getting access to that phone," Comey told a conference at Georgetown University, referring to the court case aimed at gaining access to the phone used by one of the shooters in last year's deadly attack.
	But Comey said it was still important to have a discussion on the topic because "there is a collision going on between values of all shades between privacy and security."
	Comey said encryption and privacy are important but "there has never been a time in the 240 years of our country when privacy has been absolute."
	Comey said he is concerned that defenders of strong encryption, which allows only the users to access data, have failed to consider all the implications.
	"We are moving to a 

FBI chief warns of 'costs' to strong encryption

PTI Automatic

A German amateur historian today presented a four-volume itinerary of Adolf Hitler's life, detailed at times down to the hour, a monumental tome based on 25 years of research.
	"Hitler - Das Itinerar" runs to a total of 2,500 pages and is published by Berlin Story, which presented it in a World War II-era Berlin bunker turned event space.
	Its author, IT manager Harald Sandner, 54, from the southern city of Coburg, spent a quarter of a century creating the meticulous account of Hitler's travels and deeds.
	Entries range from the mundane, such as nights in certain hotels, to historic dates such as when Hitler gave the order to attack Poland, starting World War II.
	Among other findings, the book shows that Hitler travelled to Hamburg 75 times, despite the fact the Nazis hated the northern port city because of its "openness to the world," said Sandner.
	Asked about the risk of "fetishisation" of the dictator, Sandner responded with a quote from German journalist and historian Sebastian .

German historian presents 2500-page itinerary of Hitler's life

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a new unity government to be immediately set up in South Sudan after rebel leader Riek Machar returned to Juba today and was sworn in as vice president.
	Machar's return on a UN plane marked an important step in the international effort to force the rebel and government sides to implement a peace accord that was signed in August but has yet to take hold.
	Ban said the rebel leader's arrival in Juba opened up "a new phase in the implementation of the peace agreement" and called "for the immediate formation of the transitional government of national unity," said a statement from his spokesman.
	Under the agreement aimed at ending South Sudan's brutal war, Machar will serve alongside President Salva Kiir in a new 30-month transitional government leading to elections.
	UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told a Security Council meeting that Machar's return "should open a new chapter" and "allow the real transition to begin."
	South Sudan Deputy .

UN's Ban calls for 'immediate' formation of S Sudan unity govt

A pair of gay vultures in a German zoo have adopted an egg abandoned by its mother and started to incubate it in a nest they built.
	Animal keepers had collected the egg in the muddy ground under a tree where it had been dropped by a griffon vulture called Lisa, said national news agency DPA.
	"Lisa had made no attempt to build a nest," the report quoted Nordhorn zoo spokeswoman Ina Deiting as saying.
	The egg was temporarily placed in an incubator before being entrusted to the male couple, Isis and Nordhorn, who "promptly sat on it," said Deiting.
	The biological parentage of the egg is unclear, and zoo keepers also don't know yet whether it is fertilised.
	The story of Isis and Nordhorn is the second involving gay birds to make news in Germany this month.
	Several days ago newspapers reported that the gay king penguin couple Stan and Olli had been moved from a Berlin zoo to an all-male enclosure in Hamburg.

Gay vulture couple adopts egg in German zoo

The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq and Syria has plummeted over the past year, a US general said today.
	Major General Peter Gersten told Pentagon reporters that when he arrived in Baghdad about a year ago, between 1,500 and 2,000 foreign fighters were joining the Islamic State group's ranks each month.
	"Now we have been fighting this enemy for a year, our estimates are down to 200 (per month) and we are actually seeing now an increase in the desertion rates of these fighters," Gersten said.
	The general attributed the drop in part to the US-led coalition's continued attacks on the IS group's cash-storage facilities.
	He said the coalition has carried out about 20 such strikes that have blown up as much as USD 800 million worth of cash, much of it stashed in houses.
	"We are seeing a fracturing in their morale, we are seeing their inability to pay, we are seeing the inability to fight," Gersten claimed.
	"We are watching them try to leave Daesh. In every single way, their ..

No of foreign fighters entering Iraq, Syria plummets: US Gen

The New York Times announced cutbacks today to its longtime European hub in Paris, with plans to close its editing and prepress print production operations in the French capital.
	Those functions will be combined into the Times's New York and Hong Kong operations, resulting in the loss of 70 Paris jobs, either through elimination or relocation, it said.
	The move comes as part of a redesign of the international print newspaper "to make it better, more relevant and crucially, more economically sustainable in an increasingly digital world," according to an internal memo sent to the staff of The International New York Times.
	"Without these changes, the international paper's future would be uncertain at best," the memo said.
	The Times is now prioritizing growth in digital media, aiming to boost its international subscriber base, according to the memo.
	Nevertheless, it said: "Print remains a vital platform to The New York Times."
	With the print redesign, the company aims to boost the ..

New York Times to shut Paris editing, press operations

Ukrainians held candlelit vigils today to mark 30 years since the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl spewed radiation across Europe and left several thousand people dead or dying.
	Church bells rang and mourners laid flowers at Chernobyl's memorial square as the clock turned 1.23 am -- the moment the plant's reactor number four exploded and changed the fate of a generation living across the former Soviet Union.
	"There was crying and screaming," local pensioner Maria Urupa told AFP as she recalled the terror that struck locals as they watched poisonous clouds of radiation waft in from the plant.
	At least 30 people were killed on site and several thousand more are feared to have died from radiation in what Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said "appears to have been the world's largest man-made catastrophe".
	The exact number of dead remains a subject of intense debate because the Soviet authorities kept most of the information about the disaster hidden.
	More than 200 ...

Thirty years on, Ukraine mourns victims of Chernobyl

The Kuwaiti emir met with Yemen's peace negotiators today and urged them to forge ahead with a peace agreement to end 13 months of war in the impoverished Arab nation.
	A source close to the talks in Kuwait City meanwhile said the two sides finally approved a general framework for the talks and were set to start looking into the central issues.
	More than 6,800 people have been killed and around 2.8 million displaced since a Saudi-led Arab coalition began operations in March 2015 against the Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels who have seized swathes of territory, including the capital Sanaa.
	State-run KUNA news agency said Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah met with the rebel and government delegations separately and also received UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, but provided no details.
	"We heard from the emir of Kuwait clear assurances with regards to supporting the political process to reach a settlement," said Mohammed Abdulsalam, head of the Huthi delegation.
	The emir .

Kuwait emir urges Yemen negotiators to achieve peace

South Sudan rebel chief Riek Machar finally returned to Juba today and was sworn in as vice-president of the world's newest country, calling for "unity" after more than two years of ferocious civil war.
	"We need to bring our people together so they can unite and heal the wounds," said Machar, who was greeted by ministers and diplomats as he stepped out of his plane after a week-long delay that had threatened a long-negotiated peace deal.
	Machar, who was originally due back on April 18, headed immediately to the presidential palace to be sworn in alongside his longtime arch rival, President Salva Kiir.
	"I am very committed to implement this agreement so that the process of national reconciliation and healing is started as soon as possible so that the people can have faith in the country that they fought for, for so long," he said on being sworn in.
	South Sudan declared independence in July 2011 after decades of conflict with Sudan's  authorities in Khartoum, with Machar serving as .

S Sudan rebel chief urges unity on return to Juba

Sri Lanka's ailing economy grew at a slower-than-expected 4.8 per cent last year despite lower oil prices as a slowdown in European markets hit exports, the central bank said today.
	Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said his government had inherited a "very bad situation" when it came to power early last year but that things were improving.
	"We are turning the economy around," he said.
	"We do not have a balance of payment crisis anymore. We may have had it before, but not now."
	The news of a slowdown in growth from 4.9 per cent in 2014 came as Sri Lanka negotiates with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout to help fund substantial debt repayments.
	The bank had forecast last year's growth would be better than in 2014, when strongman president Mahinda Rajapakse was in office. He was toppled at elections in January 2015.
	But the bank said a slowing down of net foreign exchange inflows, including worker remittances, and capital outflows had generated a balance of payments .

Sri Lanka growth slows despite lower oil prices

Chile reburied Nobel prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda's remains today after exhuming them to determine whether he was assassinated by late dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime - a mystery that still lingers.
	A casket bearing Neruda's remains was buried at his one- time home in the Pacific coast resort town of Isla Negra, where authorities had dug them up three years ago to analyze whether he was poisoned.
	Neruda died in 1973 aged 69, just days after Pinochet, then the head of the army, overthrew Socialist president Salvador Allende in a bloody coup.
	The poet, who was also a prominent politician and member of the Chilean Communist party, had been preparing to flee into exile to lead the resistance against Pinochet's regime.
	He died in a Santiago clinic where he was being treated for prostate cancer - the official cause of his death.
	Doubts have surrounded his death since his former driver claimed the poet was given a mysterious injection in his chest.
	A team of international ...

Chile reburies Nobel-winning poet Pablo Neruda

A company run by the ousted former boss of Barclays said today that it was mulling a bid for the troubled British bank's African operations.
	As part of a major restructuring, Barclays announced last month that it will sell down its 62.3-per cent interest in Barclays Africa to 20 per cent over the next two to three years.
	Atlas Mara, a finance company co-founded by ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond said in a statement that it has held talks with investors over the possible acquisition.
	"Atlas Mara Limited acknowledges that it has had discussions with a consortium of investors that is exploring an acquisition of Barclays' stake in Barclays Africa and a potential combination of Atlas Mara with Barclays Africa," read the statement.
	The consortium includes private equity vehicle Atlas Merchant Capital, which was established by Diamond, and the Mara Group that was founded by Ugandan businessman Ashish J. Thakkar.
	Diamond and Thakkar formed Atlas Mara in 2013 with the aim of consolidating ..

Ex-Barclays chief eyes bank's African assets

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned today that there could not be a transatlantic trade pact without strict guarantees that French quality standards would be kept up.
	"I want to be clear: it will not succeed if it does not guarantee that the standards we have in France for our citizens' health and environment will be maintained," Valls said during an environmental conference in Paris.

'No EU-US trade deal without health,environment guarantees'

Turkish police today fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators who had gathered outside Parliament to protest a call for the country to adopt a religious constitution.
     Police broke up a group of more than 100 protesters, preventing them from making a press declaration outside the Parliament in Ankara, an AFP photographer reported. The group chanted the slogan "Turkey will remain secular".
     Several protesters were detained by police. Similar protests were also expected in other cities.
     Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman said yesterday the predominantly Muslim country "must have a religious constitution", adding to concerns of creeping Islamisation under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
     "Why should we be in a situation where we are in retreat from religion," he said.
     But the head of Parliament's constitution commission, AKP member Mustafa Sentop, said no discussions were underway to remove secularism from the constitution. The speaker was "not ...

Turkey police fire tear gas at religious constitution protest

Oil prices rose today, rebounding slightly from sharp losses sparked by a report that Saudi Arabia was close to completing an oilfield expansion.
	Analysts said the gains, partly prompted by a slightly weaker dollar, would likely be short-lived due to lingering worries about a global supply glut.
	At around 1100 GMT, New York's benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in June was up 41 cents at USD 43.05 a barrel.
	Brent North Sea crude for June delivery gained 66 cents to USD 45.14 a barrel compared with Monday's close.
	Both contracts dived Monday after Bloomberg News said Saudi state oil company Aramco would complete the expansion of its Shaybah oilfield by the end of May, allowing the world's largest exporter to maintain total capacity at 12 million barrels a day.
	Those losses broke a week of gains on the back of upbeat data from China, the world's biggest energy user, and speculation that talks to limit production could be restarted.
	But Michael McCarthy, chief ...

Oil prices in modest rebound

Air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria's second city Aleppo and a town to its west killed at least 19 people today, emergency workers said.
     The strikes came after rebel shelling killed at least 19 civilians in government-held districts of Aleppo yesterday and are the latest in a surge of violence in and around the city that has severely tested a February 27 ceasefire.
     Fourteen civilians were killed in the strikes on rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo city, the civil defence -- known as White Helmets -- said.
     Five of their own rescue workers were killed when their headquarters in the town of Al-Atarib, controlled by Islamist rebels, was hit by an air strike, the group said on Twitter.
     It was not immediately clear whether the strike on Al-Atarib, 35 kilometres (20 miles) from Aleppo, was carried out by the Syrian air force or its Russian ally.
     Fighting has surged on several fronts in Aleppo province, which is crisscrossed with supply routes that are ...

Air raids in Syria's Aleppo province kill at least 19

US President Barack Obama has said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is trying to undermine European unity, which he sees as a threat.
	   Speaking to CBS News in an interview set to air today morning, Obama said Europe's migrant crisis is also a problem for the US.
	   "But more importantly, more strategically, is the strain it's putting on Europe's politics, the way that it advances far-right nationalism, the degree to which it is encouraging a break-up of European unity, that in some cases, is being exploited by somebody like Mr. Putin," he said.
	   Putin sees NATO, the European Union and transatlantic unity as a threat, Obama added.
	   "Now, I think he's mistaken about that," he said. "I've indicated to him that, in fact, a strong, unified Europe working with a strong, outward-looking Russia, that's the right recipe."
	   "So far, he has not been entirely persuaded."
	   Obama was speaking at the end of a trip to the Middle East and Europe, where he urged European ...

Putin 'not entirely persuaded' by European unity: Obama

A French court today sentenced a Dutch dentist to eight years in jail for deliberately mangling his patients' mouths in a case which saw him dubbed "the dentist of horror".
	Jacobus van Nierop, 51, went on trial in March for ripping out healthy teeth and leaving dozens of patients with injuries including broken jaws, recurrent abscesses and septicaemia in the small central town of Chateau-Chinon.
	The court in the central town of Nevers also banned him from practising as a dentist and fined him 10,500 euros (USD 11,900).
	During the trial, prosecutor Lucile Jaillon-Bru said Van Nierop had carried out "useless and painful procedures" on about 100 patients with the aim of having them reimbursed by medical insurance schemes.
	She said he took "pleasure at causing pain" to his patients.

French court sentences 'dentist of horror' to 8 years in jail

Turkey has struck a deal with the US to deploy American light multiple rocket launchers on its border with Syria to combat the Islamic State (IS) group, according to the foreign ministry.
     The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) "will be deployed on the Turkish border in May as part of an agreement" with Washington, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview published today.
     The system is being brought in "so we will be able to hit Daesh targets more effectively," he told the Haberturk newspaper, using an acronym for IS.
     Turkey, a member of the US-led coalition against the IS group, has increased its strikes in Syria after a series of deadly attacks on its soil was blamed on the jihadists.
     Ankara also allows US jets to use its airbase in southern Turkey for air bombardments on the extremist group.
     In recent weeks, the Turkish border town of Kilis has come under frequent attack from rockets fired across the border, prompting the army to ...

Turkey to use US rocket system in fight against IS

A Japanese warship sailed into a Philippine port near disputed South China Sea waters today in another sign of deepening security ties between the World War II foes to counter Beijing.
	Tensions in the South China Sea -- through which one-third of the world's oil passes -- have mounted in recent years since China transformed contested reefs into artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities.
	The Japanese destroyer Ise docked in Subic Bay while on a "navigational training" mission, the ship's captain said.
	It marked the second time in just over three weeks that Japanese naval vessels visited Subic, a former major US naval base that lies around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from a Chinese-controlled shoal.
	"We want to deepen the relationship with the Philippines," Ise Captain Masaki Takada told reporters, who were given a tour of the vessel.
	Takada declined to say whether the Ise had been in contact with Chinese naval vessels during its voyage.
	The Philippines, a US ...

Japan warship visits Philippines as China sea row festers

North Korea has completed preparations for a fifth nuclear test, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said today, amid reports that Pyongyang has also readied a powerful, new mid-range missile for an imminent flight test.
     Concern has been growing for weeks that the North is building up to a fifth nuclear test ahead of a rare, ruling party congress to be held early next month.
     "We assess that they have completed preparations for a fifth nuclear test and can conduct it whenever they decide to," Park said during a meeting with editors of domestic media organisations.
     If North Korea does go ahead, it would constitute a dramatic act of defiance in the face of tough UN sanctions imposed after its most recent nuclear test in January.
     Some analysts have suggested that, by carrying out a fifth test so soon after the fourth, the North might hope to avoid a heavy package of additional sanctions -- but Park insisted that the international community's response would be swift ...

AFP

AFP

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