Saudi Arabia's aviation authority has said it had banned Iran's Mahan Air from using its airports and air space over safety concerns.
	The General Authority for Civil Aviation said yesterday it decided to "stop completely permits granted to Iran's Mahan Air, ban it from landing in the kingdom's airports or passing through its air space," according to a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
	The authority cited "violations of national regulations related to safety of international carriers".
	Saudi Arabia severed all air links with Iran in January after the two countries cut diplomatic ties following Riyadh's execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
	It is not clear when the violations refered to by the Saudi aviation authority were committed.
	Mahan Air's website does not show any scheduled flights to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia bans Iran's Mahan Air over safety

PTI Automatic

The ruling coalition in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has collapsed, paving the way for its resignation at a time when talks over the island's reunification have been making progress.
	Prime Minister Omer Kalyoncu is set to officially hand in his government's resignation to President Mustafa Akinci on today morning, said Mehmet Ali Talat, head of the ruling Republican Turkish Party (CTP).
	The government, which is recognised only by Turkey, collapsed yesterday after ministers from the CTP's coalition partner the National Unity Party (UBP) withdrew in protest at the cash-strapped statelet's economic policy.
	UBP chairman Huseyin Ozgurgun complained that his party did not accept a decision to pay civil servants salaries in installments and was also unhappy with the water distribution on the parched territory.
	"Having come to a point where there is no longer a possibility and capacity to serve our people, it is not our goal to form a government or share the ...

Turkish Cypriot coalition to resign

Male Muslim students at a school in northern Switzerland will no longer have to shake hands with their female teachers, following a ruling that was causing an uproar in the country.
	A school in the northern municipality of Therwil, in the canton of Basel, reached the controversial decision after two male students, aged 14 and 15, complained that the Swiss custom of shaking hands with the teacher is counter to their religious beliefs if the teacher is a woman.
	They argued that Islam does not permit physical contact with a person of the opposite sex, with the exception of certain immediate family members.
	The local Therwil council did not support the school's decision, "but will not intervene as (it) is the responsibility of the school to set the rules," spokeswoman Monika Wyss told AFP in a statement.
	The decision triggered an outcry across Switzerland with Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga insisting on Swiss public television yesterday that "shaking hands is part of our ...

Outrage as Muslim pupils exempt from shaking female teachers'

The UN atomic agency said today it will provide Brazil with equipment to help prevent any attempted terrorist attacks with nuclear material at this year's Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games.
	The International Atomic Energy Agency said it will loan Brazil selected types of radiation detection devices, including personal radiation detectors, for the Games in August and September.
	The Vienna-based IAEA is also prepared to provide and/or facilitate assistance to Brazil "in the event of a nuclear or radiological emergency," it said in a statement.
	A corresponding agreement was signed today in Rio de Janeiro by Renato Machado Cotta, Brazil's nuclear chief, and Khammar Mrabit, director of the IAEA's Division of Nuclear Security.
	The IAEA has been involved in previous major sporting events, including the Olympic Games in China in 2008 and the football World Cups in 2006, 2010 and in 2014, which was held in Brazil.
	Experts and politicians have long warned of the risks of extremists getting .

UN to provide nuclear security at Rio Olympics

A US air strike in Syria targeted Al-Qaeda members, reportedly killing its spokesman, and the Islamic State group has been forced from a key town in the latest setbacks for the jihadists.
	Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the US military conducted an air raid on a meeting of officials of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front yesterday in northeast Syria, targeting Abu Firas al-Suri and other leaders.
	"We assess that Al-Qaeda senior leader Abu Firas al-Suri was in that meeting and we are working to confirm his death," Cook said today.
	He said Suri was a Syrian national and a "legacy" Al-Qaeda member who fought in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and 1990s.
	He "worked with Osama bin Laden and other founding Al-Qaeda members to train terrorists and conduct attacks globally," Cook said, adding that yesterday's strike killed several enemy fighters.
	According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Suri, his son and at least 20 jihadists of Al-Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa and other ...

US says strike targeted top Qaeda official in Syria

An Indian tycoon who could step in to buy some of Tata Steel's assets in Britain today said he hoped to avoid mass redundancies if the deal went through as the government scrambled to find a new owner.
	Liberty House boss Sanjeev Gupta, who was arriving in Britain late today for talks, told the BBC that he had held "very encouraging" talks with the government.
	He added that he would want to change the kind of furnaces at the main asset, the Port Talbot steel works in south Wales, and retrain some 700 workers.
	"I won't undertake something which will require mass redundancies," Gupta said.
	"We will look to see how we can reposition the workforce from blast furnaces to arc furnaces.
	"It will require a lot of planning and execution and it cannot be done overnight but be planned over a number of years."
	Prime Minister David Cameron's government has been racing to find a buyer for the Tata Steel assets and save 15,000 jobs amid growing pressure from the opposition, trade unions and the 

Possible buyer in jobs pledge as UK steel faces 'crucial' days

Around 45 kilograms (99 pounds) of ammunition were found in an apartment in the Dutch city of Rotterdam that has been linked to a foiled terror attack on France, prosecutors said today.
	French suspect Anis Bahri was arrested at the flat in the southern port city on March 27 at France's request. He is suspected of planning an attack in France for the Islamic State group along with Reda Kriket, another suspect arrested near Paris a few days before him.
	"We have found around 45 kilos of ammunition, including two types of bullets which can both be used with Kalashnikovs," Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the national prosecutor's office said.
	He said no explosives or any arms had been found.
	Bahri has been fighting extradition and is in custody until Dutch authorities take a decision on whether to send him to France.

45kgs of ammo found in Dutch flat linked to French attack plot

The Pentagon confirmed today that a senior Shebab leader targeted in a drone strike in Somalia last week was killed in the attack.
	Hassan Ali Dhoore, who was killed Thursday, allegedly was part of the Islamist insurgent group's security and intelligence wing, and had been involved in planning attacks in Mogadishu.
	"The Department of Defense has confirmed that Hassan Ali Dhoore, a senior leader of Al-Shebab, Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, was killed as a result of a US military strike in Somalia carried out on March 31," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said.
	"He has planned and overseen attacks resulting in the death of at least three US citizens," he added.
	Shebab jihadists have claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks including a twin bombing at a busy restaurant in the Somali city of Baidoa in February.
	The strike against Dhoore comes less than a month after US drones and warplanes hammered a Shebab training camp in Somalia, killing more than 150 fighters the 

Pentagon confirms senior Shebab leader killed in Somalia

Rescuers were battling today to reach thousands of people stranded by floods and landslides in Pakistan's northwest and parts of PoK, officials said, as the death toll rose to 61.
	Disaster management officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where 51 people have died since the downpour began Saturday night, said bad weather was hampering the rescue and relief operation.
	"Death toll has been risen to 51, at least 150 houses have been destroyed," an official of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority told AFP, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to media.
	Latifur Rehman, a spokesman for the Authority, told AFP that rescue workers had not been able to reach three affected districts in the far-flung mountainous north of the province.
	"Bad weather is the main reason, we are yet unable to send helicopters to these areas," Rehman said.
	Rehman said they had received reports that at least 180 houses had been destroyed in those areas.
	"We need to get bodies and the .

Rescuers race to reach thousands stranded by rains in Pakistan

Sweden's highest court today found Wikimedia Sweden guilty of violating copyright laws by providing free access to its database of artwork photographs without the artists' consent.
	Wikimedia, part of the not-for-profit foundation which oversees Wikipedia among other online resources, has a database of royalty-free photographs that can be used by the public, for educational purposes or the tourism industry.
	The Visual Copyright Society in Sweden (BUS), which represents painters, photographers, illustrators and designers among others, had sued Wikimedia Sweden for making photographs of their artwork displayed in public places available in its database, without their consent.
	The Supreme Court found in favour of BUS, arguing that while individuals were permitted to photograph artwork on display in public spaces, it was "an entirely different matter" to make the photographs available in a database for free and unlimited use.
	"Such a database can be assumed to have a commercial value ..

Wikimedia art database breaks copyright law: Swedish court

The Justice Department is reviewing the so-called Panama Papers and will follow up on wrongdoing or corruption linked to the US, an agency spokesman said Monday.
	"We are aware of the reports and are reviewing them," Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr.
	"While we cannot comment on the specifics of these alleged documents, the US Department of Justice takes very seriously all credible allegations of high level, foreign corruption that might have a link to the United States or the US financial system."
	The comments came one day after the release of some 11.5 million documents by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, concerning some 214,000 offshore entities. The leaked documents came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than 35 countries.
	The revelations have left powerful figures from countries including Russia, China, Argentina and Iceland scrambling to explain apparent connections to offshore financial vehicles that look to ...

US reviewing 'Panama Paper' revelations

The US Navy said the world's largest maritime exercise kicked off today bringing participants from 30 nations for training across the Middle East.
	The International Mine Countermeasures Exercise (IMCMEX) is organised and led by Bahrain-based US Naval Forces Central Command, which is responsible for more than 2.5 million square miles of ocean.
	"These participating nations are united by a common thread - the need to protect the free flow of commerce from a range of maritime threats including piracy, terrorism and mines," said Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, commander, US Naval Forces Central Command in a statement.
	"This region provides a strong training opportunity for nations worldwide as three of the six major maritime chokepoints in the world are here: the Suez Canal, the Strait of Bab Al Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz," he said.
	The exercise will include mine countermeasures, diving operations, small-boat exercises, maritime security operations coordinated with industrial and ...

US leads Mideast anti-mines maritime exercise

The family of Lionel Messi today denied that he was involved in tax evasion after the Barcelona star emerged as one of many personalities accused of shady offshore dealings in the Panama Papers scandal.
	"The Messi family wants to make clear that Lionel Messi has not carried out any of the acts attributed to him, and accusations he created a... Tax evasion plot, including a network of money-laundering, are false and insulting," it said in a statement.
	The scandal erupted yesterday when media groups made public a year-long worldwide investigation into a trove of 11.5 million documents leaked from a Panama-based law firm that exposed a tangle of offshore financial dealings by the elite.
	Among the accused are close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, relatives of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson as well as sports celebrities and screen stars.
	Messi and his father are named as owners of a Panama company that had not previously 

Messi denies tax evasion in Panama Papers scandal

France, Spain and Australia all opened legal probes today following media revelations from a vast trove of leaked documents about offshore financial dealings known as the Panama Papers.
	The tax evasion revealed in the documents "is likely to concern French taxpayers," the French financial prosecutors' office said as it announced it was opening a preliminary investigation into money laundering and tax fraud.
	French President Francois Hollande had earlier promised that the revelations would lead to "legal proceedings" in France.
	"It's good news that we are aware of these revelations because it will bring in tax revenue from those who have defrauded," Hollande said, thanking the whistleblowers for revealing the information from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
	Australian tax investigators said they were probing more than 800 Australian clients of Mossack Fonseca, which says it has operated beyond reproach for four decades and has never been charged with a criminal ...

Panama Papers revelations trigger tax evasion probes

Two passenger planes collided late today on an airport runway in the Indonesian capital, an airline spokesman said, causing minor damage but no injuries to passengers.
	A Batik Air plane carrying 49 passengers and seven crew was taking off from Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma airport when it clipped a TransNusa plane being towed across the runway.
	Andy Saladin, a spokesman for Lion Air Group, said the pilot aborted the takeoff of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft to ensure the safety of those onboard.
	"All the passengers and crew are safe, and will be flown using a replacement aircraft," Saladin said in a statement.
	Batik Air is part of Lion Group, which runs Indonesia's biggest low-cost carrier Lion Air.
	Transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata also confirmed there were no casualties and all passengers and crew were safely evacuated.
	The left wing of the Batik flight was damaged in the clash and the tail of the ATR craft operated by TransNusa -- another domestic airline mainly serving ..

Planes collide on Indonesia runway, no casualties: official

World oil prices dipped today as Saudi Arabia cast doubt on whether a key producers meeting would reach an agreement to freeze output to address a global supply glut.
	At about 1600 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in May was down 23 cents at USD 36.56 a barrel.
	Brent North Sea crude for June delivery shed 41 cents to USD 38.26 a barrel compared with today's close.
	Hopes for a deal at the April 17 gathering in Doha led by Russia and Saudi Arabia had been a major driver of a rally in prices from near 13-year lows in February.
	But the latest comments by Saudi Arabia's deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, signalling a reluctance to freeze output unless others did the same knocked down already low expectations of an accord.
	"If all countries agree to freeze production, we're ready," he said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
	Michael McCarthy, an analyst with CMC Markets in Sydney, told AFP the price slump came as "no surprise" as traders reacted to .

Oil slip on Saudi comments

European aerospace giant Airbus today wrote to its British workforce to warn against the nation's possible departure from the EU, less than three months before a key referendum.
	Britons head to the polls on June 23 to decide whether the country remains in the European Union, with recent opinion polls edging in favour of a so-called Brexit -- or British exit from the 28-member bloc.
	"We firmly believe that it makes good economic sense to stay inside the EU which has helped make the company the global success story it is today," read the letter signed by top Airbus bosses.
	"Our business model is entirely based on our ability to move products, people and ideas around Europe without any restriction and we do not believe leaving will increase the competitiveness of our British based operations.
	"We all need to keep in the back of our minds that future investments depend very much on the economic environment in which the company operates."
	It added: "Airbus Group's success in the UK is 

Airbus warns against Brexit in letter to UK workers

Syria's regime has been able to circumvent international sanctions and fund its war effort through shadow companies, according to leaked "Panama Papers" seen by French daily Le Monde.
	The newspaper reported today that three Syrian companies, Pangates International, Maxima Middle East Trading, and Morgan Additives Manufacturing, used the services of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca to create shadow companies in the Seychelles.
	Le Monde, a partner in the year-long worldwide media investigation into a trove of 11.5 million documents leaked from Mossack Fonseca, said the shadow companies were "a way for the Syrian regime to circumvent international sanctions imposed since the start of the war".
	The three firms are under US sanctions for allegedly providing petroleum supplies to President Bashar al-Assad's regime likely to be used by his military, including aviation fuel.
	Since the start of Syria's war in 2011, tens of thousands of people have been killed and thousands of homes ...

'Panama Papers' show Syria regime circumvented sanctions

Google has removed a Taliban smartphone app from its online store, the US Internet giant said today, countering the tech-savvy Afghan militant group's increasing efforts to boost global visibility.
	The Taliban launched their foray into smartphone apps on Friday with a Pashto language app called "Alemarah", giving access to propaganda statements and videos.
	The digital campaign, first reported by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, added to the Taliban's already robust social media presence and a website in five languages including English.
	But barely a day after the launch, the app was no longer available for download on Google Play Store, the tech giant confirmed in a statement.
	Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was not reachable today for comment.
	He told AFP yesterday that the militant group's "technology department" was also working on a Farsi version of the app.
	Once seen as uneducated thugs, the Taliban have developed a media-savvy PR team who use digital technology ..

Google removes Afghan Taliban smartphone app

Greece shipped over 200 migrants back to Turkey today, the first wave of deportations under a hugely controversial deal aimed at easing Europe's worst postwar migration crisis.
	The orderly return of the 202 migrants aboard three chartered Turkish ferries stood in stark contrast to the journey many have taken over perilous seas in flimsy life jackets aboard crowded and leaky rubber dinghies.
	Two boats left the Greek island of Lesbos at dawn, and another from the island of Chios, carrying mostly economic migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan who Turkey will eventually deport to their home countries.
	The first to be deported under the deal arrived at the Turkish Aegean resort of Dikili to a heavy security presence on the harbourside and media kept at a distance by metal barriers, according to AFP reporters at the scene.
	"The taking of fingerprints, the landing at the port, medical checks ... The transport of the 202 people in buses to reception centres in Kirklareli (on the ...

Greece ships first migrants back to Turkey under EU deal

The only known footage of Britain's biggest Cold War traitor, Kim Philby, discussing his life as a double agent has been unearthed in Berlin, the BBC said today.
	In the grainy 1981 video, Philby, who defected to the Soviet Union, is seen giving an hour-long lecture to spies in then communist East Germany.
	The BBC said it found the footage in the official archives of the Stasi, the East German intelligence service.
	It said the previously unseen footage shows Philby discussing how he went about betraying his country.
	Philby was one of the Cambridge Five spy ring, a group of upper class men shockingly uncovered as traitors to Britain.
	After his cover was blown, he fled from Beirut to Moscow in 1963 and spent the last 25 years of his life in the Soviet Union.
	In the footage Philby begins his lecture with "Dear comrades", then says he is "no public speaker", having spent most of his life trying to avoid publicity.
	He talks about how he rose through the ranks of Britain's Secret ...

AFP

AFP

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