Iceland's coalition parties held talks today on the government's future, a day after the prime minister's resignation over the Panama Papers scandal that propelled the Pirate Party to the top of polls ahead of a possible snap election.
	Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down yesterday, the first major political casualty to emerge from the massive leak of 11.5 million documents detailing hidden offshore accounts held by world leaders and celebrities.
	The documents revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) showed that Gunnlaugsson and his wife owned an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands and had placed millions of dollars of her inheritance there.
	The prime minister sold his 50-per cent share of the company to his wife for a symbolic sum of USD 1 at the end of 2009, but he had neglected to declare the stake as required when he was elected to parliament six months earlier.
	Gunnlaugsson, of the centre-right Progressive ...

Future of Iceland's govt up in the air, Pirate Party soars

PTI Automatic

Former Bosnian Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic today slammed as "monstrous" a guilty verdict handed down by a UN war crimes tribunal in his first court appearance since being sentenced to 40 years in jail.
	Addressing a special hearing at the court in The Hague, Karadzic again proclaimed his innocence of all charges, including genocide, arising from the 1990s Balkans wars.
	He urged the court to free him to prepare for his appeal against last month's judgement, revealing he had packed his bags ahead of the March 24 verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia expecting to be released.
	But UN war crimes judges ruled that Karadzic, the most high-profile figure convicted over the wars that tore Yugoslavia apart, bore criminal responsibility for murder and persecution during the 1992-95 Bosnian conflict.
	Judge O-Gon Kwon pronounced Karadzic guilty of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and nine other charges including extermination, deportations and ...

Karadzic slams 'monstrous' war crimes guilty verdict

The March 22 Islamic State attacks in Brussels represented a security "failure", Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel admitted today, but he rejected the notion his country was a "failed state".
	Belgian authorities have faced strong criticism at home and abroad for not doing more to prevent the carnage, as links emerged between the Brussels attackers and the jihadists behind the Paris terror assaults in November.
	"When there is an attack like that of course that's a failure and nobody can deny this," Michel told reporters in Brussels.
	But "I cannot accept the idea that we're a failed state."
	A total of 32 people died in the suicide blasts at Brussels airport and a metro station.
	The carnage came four days after the sole surviving suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels, just around the corner from his family home, after four months on the run as Europe's most wanted man.
	"It took 10 years to stop Bin Laden," Michel countered, referring to former ..

Brussels attacks a failure but Belgium not a failed state:PM

Facebook today ramped up its challenge to Twitter-owned Periscope with upgrades to the social network's live video broadcasting feature.
	People using the Live streaming feature at Facebook will be able to "broadcast: to groups at the social network or in scheduled "events."
	Scheduled events can even be used for online question-and-answer sessions.
	"We hope this new ability to both broadcast and watch live video within Groups and Events enables people to connect more deeply with their closest friends, family and the communities of people who share their interests," Facebook product management director Fidji Simo said in a blog post.
	Facebook also began letting people replay comments made during live broadcasts or weigh in with reactions such as sad, angry, love, or 'wow,' that were launched recently in News Feed.
	"Live Reactions appear in real time and disappear quickly so broadcasters and other viewers can get a sense of how people are feeling at different points during the live .

Facebook raises Periscope challenge with video upgrades

The route taken by Hannibal over the Alps to invade Italy has been a matter of debate for 2,000 years, but scientists may now have the answer -- thanks to some ancient horse poo.
	More than 15,000 horses and 37 elephants accompanied the 30,000-strong Carthaginian army in a march on the Roman Republic in 218 BC, which sparked years of bloody conflict.
	Dragging so many men and animals across the Alps was no easy task and historians and classicists have long argued over the exact route Hannibal took.
	"Now it looks like we may just have cracked it -- all thanks to modern science and a bit of ancient horse poo," said Chris Allen, a microbiologist at Queen's University Belfast.
	Allen was part of an international team led by Bill Mahaney of York University in Toronto, which uncovered evidence of a mass deposit of animal dung at a narrow mountain pass near the France-Italy border.
	Located on one of the more treacherous routes that Hannibal is considered to have taken, it is thought the ...

Ancient horse poo sheds light on Hannibal's march

Israeli security agencies are on alert over the potential for cyber-attacks by Anonymous on Thursday, after the hacker group previously targeted the Jewish state each April 7.
	The attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians have in the past succeeded in blocking government sites, including for the ministries of defence and foreign affairs.
	"We are prepared for all forms of aggression," an official from the Shin Bet domestic security agency told AFP. "Israel is well-protected."
	In the past Israeli governmental and company sites have been shut down; sites have been hijacked to display photos and videos from Anonymous; and data has been pirated and made public, said Meni Barzilai from the University of Tel Aviv's cyber research centre.
	Dozens of experts from both the private and public sectors as well as hackers are to gather Thursday in Tel Aviv to monitor potential attacks and offer help to companies and institutions targeted.
	With Israel presenting itself as a leader in ...

Israel prepares to defend against Anonymous online attacks

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk today said he intended to introduce a ban on oil product imports from petro-giant Russia as part of Kiev's festering trade war with Moscow.
	The former Soviet republic has put up stiff barriers against goods from Russia in reprisal for its March 2014 annexation of Crimea and alleged support for pro-Moscow separatists who have been waging a two-year war in eastern Ukraine.
	Moscow has its own wide-ranging trade restrictions against Ukraine that mirror those it imposed on the West in response to punitive measures the United States and EU nations slapped on Russian individuals and state-held firms.
	Yatsenyuk told a government meeting that "we have introduced a number of sanctions against Russia. But for some reason, one of the key elements -- the purchase of Russian oil products -- did not make this list."
	He asked the economy minister to "develop a mechanism for banning the purchase of oil products from the aggressor, which Russia is."
	Kiev .

Ukraine adds Russian oil import ban to growing trade war

The former leader of France's far-right National Front (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen, was fined 30,000 euros (USD 34,000) today for repeating his view that the Nazi gas chambers were a "detail" of history.
	A Paris court found 87-year-old Le Pen guilty of the charge of denying crimes against humanity.
	The court rejected Le Pen's claim that he had parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
	The judges ordered the verdict to be published in three newspapers and said Le Pen must also pay 10,001 euros in damages to three charities which brought the case.
	Le Pen, who has been succeeded by his daughter Marine as FN leader, first made the comments about the gas chambers in 1987. He repeated them in 1997 in Germany and then in 2008 and 2009 in the European Parliament.
	He returned to the subject in April last year, telling BFMTV: "Gas chambers were a detail of the war, unless we accept that the war is a detail of the gas chambers."
	The comments sparked a row with his daughter, Marine Le Pen, who ..

Former far-right leader Le Pen fined for gas chambers comment

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said he intended to introduce a ban on oil imports from petro-giant Russia as part of Kiev's trade war with Moscow.
	The former Soviet republic has put up stiff barriers against products from Russia in reprisal for its March 2014 annexation of Crimea and alleged support for pro-Moscow separatists who have been waging a two-year war in eastern Ukraine.
	Moscow has its own wide-ranging trade restrictions against Ukraine that mirror those it imposed on the West in response to punitive measures the United States and EU nations slapped on Russian individuals and state-held firms.
	Yatsenyuk told a government meeting yesterday that "we have introduced a number of sanctions against Russia. But for some reason, one of the key elements - the purchase of Russian oil products - did not make to this list."
	He asked the economy minister to "develop a mechanism for banning the purchase of oil products from the aggressor, which Russia is."
	Kiev ...

Ukraine plans Russian oil import ban

Azerbaijani and Armenian forces today said they were largely observing a truce that halted four days of clashes which claimed scores of lives in the worst outbreak of violence in decades over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
	"The ceasefire was largely observed overnight along the Karabakh frontline," the Armenia-backed separatist defence ministry in Karabakh said in a statement.
	Azerbaijan's defence ministry said its forces were "strictly abiding by the ceasefire agreement" that was hammered out yesterday by the Azerbaijani and Armenian army chiefs during a meeting in Moscow.
	Armenia's defence ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that sporadic shooting continued today "including from tanks, but not as intensive" as during the last days.
	An AFP photographer in the village of Matagis in Karabakh, some 10 kilometres from the frontline, confirmed that "the night was calm and without shooting."
	A Karabakh army officer told the photographer that "occasional shooting has ...

Fragile truce largely holding in Karabakh after deadly clashes

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo on April 15, Moscow said today, as the two sides seek to lay the ground for a meeting between premier Shinzo Abe and President Vladimir Putin.
	"One of the aims of the visit is to prepare for Russian-Japanese contacts at the top level," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
	Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists it was "possible" Prime Minister Abe could visit Moscow in May.
	Japanese-Russian have been hampered by a festering territorial dispute over four islands claimed by both countries.
	Known as the Kuril Islands by Russia and the Northern Territories by Japan, the archipelago was seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War II just after Japan surrendered.
	The dispute has prevented the countries ever officially signing a peace treaty and hindered trade ties.
	Lavrov said in January that Putin and Abe had agreed that the question of a peace treaty between their ...

Russian FM to visit Japan on April 15

The Vatican has set up a new office charged with promoting the use of the .Catholic domain name, in its latest move to upgrade its communications for the digital era.
	With a staff of eight IT experts, the new office will seek to expand the use of the domain name by all Church and Church-affiliated bodies with the aim of assuring Internet users they are dealing with officially sanctioned sites.
	The Vatican acquired .Catholic at the end of 2013 when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) decided to approve thousands of new personalised domains to cope with increased demand for websites.
	In addition to .Catholic, the Vatican acquired the equivalent domain names in Arabic, Chinese and Russian scripts.
	The Vatican's communications department is undergoing a huge reorganisation on the orders of Pope Francis, who has a keen grasp of the importance of the online world.
	The 79-year-old pontiff is one of the most prominent global figures on Twitter with some 30 ...

Vatican seeks to spread the .Catholic message

A pregnant woman and three children were among 18 civilians killed when Syrian rebels shelled a Kurdish neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo, a monitor said today.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 70 people, including 30 children, were also wounded in yesterday's attack, adding that the shelling was a violation of a ceasefire agreement.
	"A major shelling attack on Tuesday has left 18 civilians dead, including three children and two women, a pregnant one and an elderly one," according to the Observatory.
	The attack targeted the majority-Kurdish neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsud, where some 50,000 residents are caught in the crossfire of regime-held districts and those controlled by rebels.
	"This is a very clear violation of the ceasefire" in place in Syria since February 27, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
	Rebels including Ahrar al-Sham, which is allied to Al-Qaeda in Syria, kept up today their shelling of Sheikh Maqsud which overlooks .

18 dead in Syrian rebel shelling on Kurdish area: monitor

The law firm at the heart of explosive revelations about Panama-based offshore financial dealings had clients including drug barons and entities targeted by international sanctions, a report indicated today.
	Law practice Mossack Fonseca is at the centre of the scandal after its papers were obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with more than 100 media groups by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
	In its latest batch of reports, Sueddeutsche said that Mossack Fonseca's client list included "drug traffickers from Mexico, Guatemala and eastern Europe" as well as people and companies hit by US and European sanctions.
	"A likely financier of Hezbollah, people backing the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes and two alleged supporters of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe" can also be found in the firm's files, the newspaper said without naming the presumed clients.
	"At least 22 people and at least 24 ...

Drug barons among Panama-based firm's clients: report

The global scandal over hidden offshore accounts that brought down Iceland's prime minister has propelled the Pirate Party into position to seize power if a snap election is called, a poll showed today.
	Founded in 2012, the Pirate Party, a libertarian movement campaigning for more transparency in politics, Internet freedoms and copyright reform, garnered 43 per cent of voter support in a Gallup poll conducted Monday and Tuesday and published by daily Frettabladid and Channel 2 television.
	In the weeks prior to the leak of the so-called Panama Papers on public figures' offshore financial dealings, the Pirate Party had been credited with between 25 and 35 per cent.
	The poll suggested Iceland's junior coalition member, the rightwing Independence Party, would come in second place with 21.6 per cent, and the opposition Left Green Movement in third with 11.2 per cent.
	The centre-right Progressive Party of outgoing prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson garnered just 7.9 per cent, ..

Iceland's party gets wind in sails on Panama Papers scandal

A Japanese air force plane with six people aboard went missing today, the defence ministry announced, and a search was under way in mountainous terrain.
	The U-125 aircraft left a base in Kagoshima prefecture on Kyushu island in southwestern Japan in the early afternoon, said Yoshiyuki Sugiyama, head of the Air Self-Defence Force.
	The small jet "disappeared from the radar", Sugiyama told a press briefing.
	Public broadcaster NHK showed footage of helicopters searching  forest-covered mountains for the aircraft, while military and emergency vehicles rushed towards the area.

Japan military jet with six aboard missing: defence ministry

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said today it was abandoning plans for a USD 160 billion merger with Allergan, citing new US rules cracking down on tie ups aimed at saving on taxes.
	The deal with the Irish-based firm would have created the world's largest pharmaceutical company.
	Pfizer said in a statement the two companies "terminated by mutual agreement" plans to merge.
	"Pfizer approached this transaction from a position of strength and viewed the potential combination as an accelerator of existing strategies," said company chairman and CEO Ian Read.
	Pfizer also agreed to pay Allergan USD 150 million to reimburse its expenses linked to the planned merger.
	The decision to call off the merger came after the US Treasury Department announced new rules to discourage mergers between US and foreign businesses designed to sharply lower the US company's tax bill.
	The New York-based pharmaceutical giant said it remains on track to report its 2016 first quarter earnings on May 3.
	For all .

Pfizer scraps USD 160 bln merger with Allergan

Libya's UN-backed unity government moved to cement control over the country's finances and institutions today after the rival administration in Tripoli ceded power in a boost to efforts to end years of chaos.
	The concession late yesterday by the militia-backed administration that had controlled Tripoli since 2014 was a major about-turn for a body that had made every effort to block the arrival of prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj.
	It came after UN envoy Martin Kobler held talks with Sarraj at the naval base where he has established his headquarters since his arrival under escort by sea last Wednesday.
	The international community has pleaded with Libya's warring sides to stand behind the unity government, which it sees as vital to tackling a jihadist expansion and rampant people smuggling in the North African state.
	The Government of National Accord has yet to secure a similar concession from another rival administration based in the far eastern town of Tobruk, which has ...

Libya unity govt cements control after rival cedes power

Shelling from Yemen has killed two people in a Saudi town, the civil defence agency said, in a rare breach of a calm in the border area agreed with Iran-backed rebels early last month.
	"Shelling from Yemeni territory on Samtah left two people dead and wounded a child," the agency said on Twitter late yesterday.
	Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition that has been bombing the Huthi Shiite rebels for more than a year, in support of Yemen's internationally recognised President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
	Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Monday that a rebel delegation was holding talks in Riyadh, ahead of a planned UN-brokered ceasefire next weekend which is to be followed by peace negotiations in Kuwait on April 18.
	The Saudi-led coalition announced on March 9 that after negotiations though tribal mediators, it had agreed to an exchange of prisoners and a "state of calm" along the border to enable the delivery of desperately needed aid.
	Dozens of people have been killed .

Cross-border shelling from Yemen kills two in Saudi

The European Union launched a drive today to overhaul the EU's asylum rules to more fairly share responsibility for an unprecedented influx of migrants despite resistance within the 28-nation bloc.
	The European Commission, the EU executive, unveiled options to reform the rules two days after Greece began to expel migrants to Turkey under a controversial deal between Brussels and Ankara. The returns have since stalled.
	"We need to reform our European asylum system," the commission's First Vice President Frans Timmermans told a press conference in Brussels. "The present system is not working."
	The existing so-called Dublin rules have been criticised as obsolete and unfair to countries like Greece, where most of the 1.25 million Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and other migrants entered the bloc last year.
	At present, under those rules, migrants seeking asylum must lodge their application in the country where they first arrived, and should be returned there if they move on to somewhere ...

EU launches asylum shake-up to better share migrant burden

Shares in Air France-KLM went into freefall today, a day after the company said Alexandre de Juniac is to resign as chairman and CEO to take charge of aviation industry group IATA.
	Juniac helped Europe's second biggest airline group return to profit last year for the first time since 2008, but his four-year spell at the helm was also marked by acrimonious relations with pilots.
	On announcing the surprise move, the Franco-Dutch company said it was hoping to appoint De Juniac's replacement from August 1 at the latest.
	Around 0720 GMT, the company's shares were down nearly seven per cent on an overall firmer Paris stock exchange.
	Air France-KLM paid tribute to De Juniac's role in "achieving the group's economic and financial recovery, enhancing its range of services and winning back customers."
	De Juniac took charge at Air France in 2011, becoming chairman of Air France-KLM a year later.
	He leaves the company on the track to recovery but still in a fragile position, facing tough ...

AFP

AFP

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