Armenia and Azerbaijan today traded accusations over the shelling of each other's territory in violation of a days-old ceasefire aimed at halting a flareup of violence over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
	The two former-Soviet neighbours exchanged fire overnight but there were no reports of casualties.
	A Moscow-mediated truce went into effect on Tuesday after the worst outbreak of violence since the 1990s, but some clashes have continued, with two people reported killed yesterday.
	The Armenian defence ministry said Azerbaijan fired on the border area in northern Tavush region 16 times, including with "large calibre" weaponry, but said the intensity of shooting had "subsided".
	It said two bodies were recovered during a search along the contact line between Azerbaijan and the separatist Nagorny Karabakh region, hiking the overall toll from the clashes to at least 92.
	Baku in turn said Armenia used 60-mm mortars and other firepower to "violate the ceasefire 120 times" ...

Armenia, Azerbaijan trade accusations during ceasefire

PTI Automatic

Myanmar's Aung Sang Suu Kyi underwent successful eye surgery today, a senior party official said, weeks after the 70-year-old's fledgling administration took power.
	"She went back home after the successful operation," Win Htein, a senior member of Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, told AFP.
	He declined to comment on the specific nature of the operation but said it was minor and that Suu Kyi, who is state counsellor and foreign minister, would return to hospital for surgery on the other eye on April 16.
	Photos published by local media showed Suu Kyi at the hospital with her personal doctor Tin Myo Win, one of the few people permitted to visit the democracy activist during the 15 years the military kept her under house arrest in her crumbling Yangon mansion.
	He told AFP by phone that President Htin Kyaw had also arrived at the hospital to see Suu Kyi after the operation.
	Suu Kyi and her party took their seats in government last month following a massive ...

Myanmar's Suu Kyi undergoes eye surgery: official

Austria said today it wants to seize Adolf Hitler's birthplace from its private owner in a bid to end a bitter legal battle and stop the house from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.
	"We are currently examining the creation of a law, which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria," interior ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck told AFP.
	"We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the only way to avoid the building being used for the purposes of Nazi" sympathisers, he said.
	The plan would involve the state making an offer of compensation to the current owner, he added.
	The building in the quaint northern town of Braunau am Inn has been empty since 2011 when the government became embroiled in a dispute with owner Gerlinde Pommer, a local resident.
	Her family has owned the large corner house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, for more than a century.
	In the early 1970s, the Austrian government signed a ..

Austria wants to seize Hitler's birth house

US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Kabul today on an unannounced visit to show support for the Afghan unity government and the peace process with the Taliban.
	Kerry, who is due to meet with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, "will emphasise US support for the Government of Afghanistan" and its defence forces, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
	America's top diplomat, who has been deeply involved in Afghanistan for the past few years, will also "express support for the Government of Afghanistan's efforts to end the conflict in Afghanistan through a peace and reconciliation process with the Taliban."
	The US has pulled out the the majority of its troops in the country, with about 9,800 remaining. It has signed a "Strategic Partnership Agreement" with Afghanistan and established a bilateral commission that will meet today to discuss matters related to security, defence, democracy, governance, as well as economic and social development, 

Kerry in Kabul on unannounced visit to support unity govt

The US military said it has helped rescue three stranded men from a deserted Pacific island, after the shipmen used palm fronds to spell the word "HELP" and held up lifejackets.
	Navy airplane crew members spotted the survivors and shared their location with relatives as well as with ships in Guam. A small boat then picked the men up and took them to Pulap in Micronesia, the US Coast Guard said Thursday.
	The mariners were back to safety on Thursday, three days after going missing. Authorities did not provide any further details about the men.
	The Navy crew aboard a P-8 Madfox 807 and vessels had been searching for the men in the area of the last known location of their skiff.
	Bulk carriers Brilliant Jupiter and Ten Yu Maru, conducted 17 hours of search across some 178 miles (286 kilometers).
	"Our combined efforts coupled with the willingness of many different resources to come together and help, led to the successful rescue of these three men in a very remote part of the Pacific," 

US military, watchers rescue 3 men from deserted Pacific island

Vietnam's rubber-stamp parliament approved 21 new minister positions today, state media reported, finishing off a leadership reshuffle among Communist top brass ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama next month.
	The National Assembly approved three new deputy prime ministers and 18 other cabinet members, according to the legislature's official website, concluding a change in government that occurs once every five years.
	In the past, the assembly often took up to six months to approve the leadership nominations made during the party congress in January, but analysts say the process was sped up this year partly due to Obama's upcoming visit and friction with Beijing over the disputed South China Sea.
	China's increasing assertiveness in the hotly-contested waters has pushed Hanoi to seek closer ties with its former wartime adversary.
	Vietnam's new administration will be led by incumbent party leader Nguyen Phu Trong along with a newly-appointed president and prime minister, a .

Communist Vietnam in leadership change ahead of Obama visit

A passenger has died aboard a Qantas jet bound for Dubai, the airline said today, with the man reportedly suffering from a heart attack mid-air.
	Flight QF9, which was travelling from Melbourne yesterday, was diverted to Muscat, Oman for the medical emergency but was unable to land in time to save the man.
	"Our crew did everything they could, including helping perform CPR with a doctor who was on board, but unfortunately the passenger passed away before the flight landed," the Australian carrier said in a statement.
	"Our thoughts are with the passenger's family."
	Qantas declined to give further information about the passenger and the circumstances around his death for privacy reasons, but the Sydney Morning Herald reported that he suffered a suspected heart attack.
	Another passenger on board the plane told the Herald that the Airbus A380 "started to make a very fast descent".
	"The patient was being treated on the floor in the middle of everyone. He died before they could land and 

Passenger dies aboard Dubai-bound Qantas flight

Former US House speaker Dennis Hastert molested five boys as young as 14 while serving as a high school wrestling coach four decades ago, federal prosecutors said in revealing details of the alleged sexual abuse.
	The 74-year-old Republican lobbyist pleaded guilty in October to illegally structuring USD 1.7 million (1.5 million euros) in bank withdrawals over 4.5 years that prosecutors identified as hush money.
	Prosecutors said they expected Hastert to serve a sentence of up to six months, taking note of his ill health but indicating that he could continue to receive medical care and medication while in prison.
	The statute of limitations has long passed on the abuse, which took place when Hastert taught and coached at Yorkville High School in Illinois from the 1960s to the 1980s.
	It is an incredible fall from grace for the man who served as speaker of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007, making him at the time just second in line to the presidency.
	Hastert gave two ...

As coach, ex-US House speaker molested 5 boys: prosecutors

Omani armed forces have evacuated an American from Yemen's rebel-held capital following a request for assistance from the United States, the sultanate's foreign ministry said.
	"In response to a request from the US government for help to free an American in Yemen, the Omani authorities, in coordination with the Yemeni authorities in Sanaa, obtained the release" of the US citizen, said a statement.
	The person, whose identity was not revealed, "was evacuated yesterday night from Sanaa to Muscat on board an Omani air force plane before being repatriated" to the United States, it said, quoted by the official ONA news agency.
	The statement gave no other details.
	Yemen has been at war since September 2014, when Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies drove the government out of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen.
	The Shiite Huthi rebels controlled Yemen's second city Aden for months before government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition pushed them back in July.
	Oman is the .

Oman evacuates American from Yemen: ministry

A Basque magazine said one of its journalists had been fined 601 euros (USD 685) under Spain's controversial "gag law" for posting photographs of a police raid on Twitter "without permission".
	The pictures show the arrest in March of Basque activist Noroa Ariznabarreta who had refused to appear in court over a 2007 demonstration.
	Argia magazine journalist Axier Lopez posted pictures of the activist's arrest on Twitter.
	"The defendant published images of the police raid in Eibar in his Twitter account @axierL without any permission.
	"The police officers that took part in the operation can be identified by those images, with the risk this poses to them," according to the government complaint the magazine posted on its website.
	A new law public security law introduced by the conservative government which came into force in July last year provides for fines of up to 600,000 euros for unathorised demonstrations.
	Controversially it also prohibits the "unauthorised use" of images or ...

Spain fines journalist over arrest photograph under 'gag law'

Thai authorities have banned a five- month-old French edition of Marie Claire magazine because of an article which police said defamed the kingdom's royal family.
	Thailand's royal defamation laws are among the world's harshest and can land offenders decades behind bars.
	An official order, published in the Royal Gazette late yesterday and signed by national police chief Chaktip Chaijinda, outlawed importing or distributing the November 2015 issue of the magazine printed in France.
	"Also, any magazines [of that edition] will be confiscated or destroyed," it added.
	A Thai police spokesman declined to comment on the order, which cited a 2007 publishing act that grants the national police chief power to ban any printed material that defames the monarchy or affects national security.
	The reason for the delay in outlawing the edition was not immediately clear.
	However the magzine would not have been widely on sale in the kingdom.
	Prosecutions under royal defamation laws have surged ...

Thai police ban old Marie Claire magazine issue

As millions prepare to tune in to the glamorous Indian Premier League, another major domestic cricket tournament will also start this weekend.
     But, unlike the IPL the only fireworks to be seen at an English ground when the venerable County Championship starts on Sunday will come if hardy fans are denied a reviving cup of tea.
     Meanwhile the sight of IPL dancing cheerleaders would likely spark a medical emergency among elderly spectators were it to be repeated in the rather more prosaic surroundings of Chester-le-Street or Northampton.
     The County Championship, which last year celebrated its 125th anniversary, is about as traditional as cricket gets.
     Both sides still play in white, the matches are scheduled for four days and the public address announcer is far more likely to announce a change of bowling from the Pavilion End than to urge spectators to "make some noise".
     There are those who regard the County Championship as merely a means to prepare players for ...

After 125 years, County Championship still endures

Claudio Ranieri has called on Leicester to maintain the consistency that has made them favourites to be crowned Premier League champions and carried them to the brink of the Champions League.
     While a seven-point lead over second-placed Tottenham is not enough to persuade Ranieri to discuss Leicester's chances of winning an historic first top-flight title, the Foxes boss is now willing to contemplate a top four finish and a place in Europe's elite club competition.
     They could seal a Champions League berth at Sunderland on Sunday and Ranieri highlighted the consistency in performances and results that his previously unheralded players have produced this term.
     While the rest of the football world has been swept away by the Foxes' success, their manager has refused to join in and only this week, with a Europa League spot already secured, was he willing to look ahead to the next goal, with title talk still effectively off limits.
     "Of course the Champions League would be 

Consistency the key as Ranieri eyes Champions League

At least 2,500 European employees of General Electric (GE) have protested in Paris against the US industrial conglomerate's restructuring plans, which include 6,500 job losses throughout the continent.
	The demonstrators came to the French capital from throughout Europe with 700 from Germany and hundreds more from Italy, Poland, Belgium and France itself.
	A large number were from French company Alstom, four months after GE acquired its power and grid businesses.
	Other protests took place in Germany, Spain, Austria. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland, according to the international union federation IndustriALL.
	To the sounds of whistles, klaxons and rattles, the Paris protesters brandished banners reading "Stop the massacre of jobs" and, in English, "Keep your word, stop job cuts!"
	GE is most of the way through a restructuring to hone its focus on its key traditional industrial businesses, which include railway equipment and renewable energy like wind turbines, and 

2,500 GE workers protest in Paris against restructuring

The wreckage of a small plane that crashed into a lake in southern Argentina's Patagonia region in 1964 has been found, media reports have said.
	All four people on board the plane -- the pilot and three engineers from the Pan American Argentina Oil Company -- were killed when it crashed into the Colhue Huapi lake on October 19, 1964.
	Emergency workers managed to pull the victims' bodies from the wreckage at the time, but never recovered the plane, a Piper Apache Twin Engine, which sank into the lake.
	Now, more than 50 years later, a local has found the wreckage after spotting a wing poking out of the ground in an area where the shallow and shrinking lake has evaporated.
	The rest of the plane was buried in the ground.
	The Colhue Huapi lake has been retreating for decades, steadily evaporating for various reasons including lack of rain and pressures on the local water supply.
	The wreckage had eluded an exhaustive search from the air and water by Pan American Argentina in 1964 and .

Wreckage of 1964 plane crash found in Argentina

Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, has been re-elected for a fourth mandate, the prime minister announced, following an election boycotted by some opposition parties.
	"According to our projections, we can say that the UMP candidate (Guelleh of the Union for the Presidential Majority) has been elected in the first round" following yesterday's election, Prime Minister Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed announced on national television.
	As with the previous election in 2011, the announcement was made before all the votes were in, but with the 68-year-old Guelleh said to be easily above the 50 per cent threshold required to avoid a second-round of voting.
	The incumbent was credited with receiving around three-quarters of the votes cast in the capital and its populous and dilapidated Balbala suburb, which together make up about 60 per cent of the population of the tiny Horn of Africa nation.
	Some 187,000 people -- around a fifth of the population -- were eligible to .

Djibouti President re-elected: PM

North Korea today said it had successfully tested an engine designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) that would "guarantee" the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the US mainland, state media reported.
	Now North Korea "can tip new type inter-continental ballistic rockets with more powerful nuclear warheads and keep any cesspool of evils in the earth including the US mainland within our striking range," leader Kim Jong-Un, who monitored the test, was quoted as saying.

N Korea says successfully tested ICBM engine: KCNA

Madagascar's presidency has announced the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo after weeks of political conflict, a claim swiftly denied by the head of government who said he planned to step down in the future.
	Ravelonarivo and President Hery Rajaonarimampianina have been in conflict over issues including the poor condition of the island's main roads and rising crime in the capital Antananarivo.
	Rajaonarimampianina won elections in 2013 but has been beset by opposition to his rule, with lawmakers trying to unseat him for alleged constitutional violations and incompetence.
	"The president has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo," the presidency said in a statement yesterday that gave no reason for the move.
	"Until the formation of a new government, members of the outgoing government will oversee government affairs."
	However, hours later the prime minister insisted he had not stepped down.
	"I spoke with the president this morning about a ...

Madagascan PM denies resignation claim

At least 23 killed as Peru bus plunges into river: police.

At least 23 people were killed and 32 injured when a bus plunged into a river in the Andes mountains in southeastern Peru, police said.
	"The bus ended up nearly completely submerged in the river. That made the rescue brigade's work difficult," said police spokesman Linio Sanchez of the town of Urcos, in the tourist-magnet region of Cusco.
	The overnight bus departed from the city of Puerto Maldonado on Thursday and was carrying passengers to the city of Cusco, some of whom were on their way to vote in Peru's presidential election Sunday.
	It went hurtling into the Mapacho river in a sparsely populated rural area yesterday.
	The injured were taken to hospitals in Cusco and a nearby town.

At least 23 dead as Peru bus plunges into river: police

Asian countries are seeking to strengthen military ties with the United States in the face of Beijing's expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea, Pentagon chief Ashton Carter has said ahead of a regional visit that will not include a China stop.
	"Almost all the nations there are asking us to do more with them... Bilaterally and multilaterally," Carter told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York yesterday, before he heads off on a trip next week that includes India and the Philippines.
	"Indeed, in the South China Sea, China's actions are raising regional tensions," added Carter, who was invited to Beijing and accepted a visit sometime in the spring.
	But the trip was shelved several weeks ago because of what a US defence official called a scheduling problem.
	"Countries across the Asia-Pacific are voicing concern with militarisation, and especially with China's actions, which stand out in size and scope," Carter said.
	He added: "That's why many of those ...

AFP

AFP

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