Silvio Berlusconi sparked fury today by claiming that being mayor of Rome was "no job for a mother" while backing a male candidate who advised a pregnant rival to stick to breastfeeding.
	The three-time former premier claimed the task of cleaning up the scandal-hit capital would be too much for far right candidate Giorgia Meloni, who is due to give birth soon after the election in May or June.
	"A mother cannot dedicate herself to a terrible job and running Rome today is terrible job which will require 14 hours a day in the office," Berlusconi said.
	The media tycoon, famed for his bunga bunga parties with young female escorts, was speaking in support of Guido Bertolaso, who said yesterday that Meloni would be unable to "sort out the rubbish, the traffic jams and the rats in Rome when she will have to be at home nursing."
	Meloni replied tersely. "I don't want a row, I simply say politely and proudly that I hope to be a very good mother, as are all the women who, with a thousand ...

Italy sexism row over 'mayor no job for a mamma' claims

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Shots fired at Brussels police during search linked to

A US tourist has been arrested after spending a night in a cave below Jerusalem's Old City in what may have been a search for mythical buried treasure, police and media reports said today.
	The tourist was found on Friday after spending the night in Zedekiah's Cave, also known as Solomon's Quarries, a 20,000-square-metre area beneath the Muslim quarter of the Old City.
	Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the 19-year-old tourist, who was not identified, hid inside the site at closing time on Thursday before digging in different areas of the cave.
	Several worthless limestone rocks were found in his backpack, police said.
	Haaretz reported that the odd expedition may have been linked to "Jerusalem Syndrome" - the name given to what some tourists experience when they are overwhelmed while visiting the Holy Land due to its religious significance.
	Zedekiah's Cave is the remnant of what was once the largest quarry in Jerusalem, dating back at least to the Second Jewish Temple period, .

US 'treasure hunter' arrested after night in Jerusalem cave

Russian media today hailed as a political victory President Vladimir Putin's surprise decision to start withdrawing armed forces from Syria as UN-backed peace talks resumed in Geneva.
	"Russia is setting an example of a peaceful approach to settling conflict," the pro-Kremlin Izvestia daily said on its front page.
	"By announcing the withdrawal, Moscow has serious grounds to present the Syrian campaign as (a) victory," Kommersant newspaper said.
	Citing several high-ranking sources at the defence ministry,  Kommersant said Putin's decision to announce the partial withdrawal of troops after a five-and-a-half-month aerial campaign was not "spontaneous."
	Helping ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to win back the whole of his war-ravaged country could have taken years, it said, adding "there were no guarantees whatsoever that this would have worked out."
	The brutal five-year conflict in Syria that has already cost some 270,000 lives.
	Kommersant said by continuing to play an ...

Russian media term Syria pullout a political victory

Sri Lanka announced lengthy daily power cuts nationwide as the state-run electricity monopoly struggled to restore supply after the island's worst blackout in 20 years.
	The Ceylon Electricity Board said its main Chinese-built coal-fired power plant that supplied more than half of the country's electricity was still offline following a massive system breakdown on Sunday.
	"We will need a few days more to get this power station online and this means we need to ration electricity across the country on a staggered basis," a board official told AFP.
	Several small plants are now supplying power to the whole of the country until the 900-megawatt plant is restarted, but cannot produce enough electricity to go around.
	The cuts will occur for seven and a half hours - five and a half hours during the day and two hours at night - the official said, without saying how long the rationing would last.
	Authorities are probing the cause of an explosion and fire at a main distribution centre outside 

Sri Lanka rations power after worst blackout in 20 years

The first of Moscow's warplanes landed back in Russia from Syria today at the start of a surprise withdrawal that diplomats hope will boost a new round of peace talks by pressuring the Damascus regime.
	UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura described the pullout as a "significant development" for the talks that began in Geneva yesterday in the latest push to end the five-year conflict, but Western leaders were more cautious.
	"We hope (this) will have a positive impact on the progress of the negotiations," de Mistura said in a statement.
	President Vladimir Putin yesterday ordered the "main part" of his forces out of the war-torn nation but the Kremlin denied it was trying to pressure its long-time ally President Bashar al-Assad.
	Putin said yesterday that Moscow's military goal had been "on the whole" completed some five-and-a-half months and 9,000 combat sorties after the Kremlin launched its bombing campaign in support of Assad.
	State media broadcast live footage of flag-waving crowds 

Russia planes return from Syria as peace talks enter 2nd day

UN investigators welcomed a "significant decrease" in violence in Syria on the fifth anniversary of the start of the brutal conflict today, saying they finally glimpsed hope of an end to the war.
	   "Now, for the first time, there is hope of an end in sight," said Paulo Pinheiro, head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
	   Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, he hailed the partial ceasefire that has largely held since February 27, saying it had finally allowed many in the country to "feel a return to normalcy in their daily lives".
	   "There are, at last, glimpses of a Syria at peace," Pinheiro said, adding that the truce had created the conditions needed to move forward with the new round of peace talks that kicked off in Geneva yesterday.
	   The temporary ceasefire between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and opponents does not cover the Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front jihadist groups.
	   "We call on the parties to the cessation of hostilities .

'Hope of an end in sight' for Syria war: UN investigators

The US further eased travel and trade restrictions with Cuba today, just days before a historic visit to the communist-ruled island by President Barack Obama.
	The US Treasury said the rule changes will make it easier for Americans to travel to the island for "educational" purposes, for US banks to provide more services in the Caribbean country, and US businesses to work more freely there.
	The various steps were mostly minor but add up to the continuing erosion of Congress-mandated restrictions on interactions with Cuba and Cubans as the Obama administration seeks to end the decades-old embargo on the country.
	"Today's steps build on the actions of the last 15 months as we continue to break down economic barriers, empower the Cuban people and advance their financial freedoms, and chart a new course in US-Cuba relations," said Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in a statement.
	Obama will visit Cuba on March 21-22 in a symbolically charged capstone to the rapprochement that he and ...

US further eases Cuba restrictions ahead of Obama visit

Myanmar got its first civilian president in decades today after lawmakers elected a close aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is expected to hold the real reins of power in the formerly junta-run nation.
	Htin Kyaw, 69, hailed his elevation to the top post as "Suu Kyi's victory", a clear nod to her plan that he serve as a proxy for the Nobel laureate who is constitutionally barred from becoming president.
	MPs erupted into applause after the result was announced following a lengthy ballot count by hand in the capital Naypyidaw, in which Htin Kyaw took 360 of 652 votes cast.
	Myanmar is undergoing a dramatic transformation from an isolated and repressed pariah state to a rapidly opening aspiring democracy.
	Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a thumping victory at elections in November, allowing her party to dominate Myanmar's two legislative houses.
	But the military remains a powerful force and has refused to change a clause in the junta-era constitution which bars her from the ...

Historic vote gives Myanmar first civilian prez in decades

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls today urged a cardinal, accused of covering up the sexual abuse of young boys by a priest, to "take responsibility" in a case which has deeply embarrassed the French Church.
	Cardinal Philippe Barbarin hit back, insisting at a press conference: "I have never covered up paedophilia."
	The latest abuse scandal to hit the Catholic Church erupted when priest Bernard Preynat was charged in January, after victims came forward with claims he had sexually abused Scouts between 1986 and 1991.
	Prosecutors say he has admitted the charges.
	The victims have filed complaints against several senior officials in the Lyon diocese in eastern France, including Lyon archbishop Barbarin, accusing them of being aware of the abuse but failing to report the priest.
	Valls told BFM TV that without seeking to take the place of the Church or judges looking at the case, "The only message I have... Is that (Barbarin) must take responsibility, speak and act."
	Barbarin has ...

French PM to cardinal: 'Take responsibility' in abuse scandal

A 45-year-old Syrian man with a Swedish residency permit has been arrested for alleged war crimes in northern Syria, officials said today.
	Haisam Omar Sakhanh, was arrested on Friday and remanded in custody in Orebro, some 200 kilometres west of Stockholm.
	He was detained on Monday night as part of an investigation into acts committed in the province of Idlib but the prosecutor gave no details of the alleged crimes.
	The Swedish daily Expressen said he is suspected of having participated in the execution-style murder of seven men in Idlib in April 2012.
	A video, originally published by The New York Times in 2013, graphically shows the execution of the men with their hands tied behind their backs. It is alleged that Sakhanh was one of the executioners.
	The video, which was also posted by Expressen, shows a man suspected of being Sakhanh holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
	The men are bent forward on the ground and at the request of a leader, they were executed.
	"During war you ..

Syrian arrested in Sweden for war crimes

Turkish security forces clashed with rebels in the main city of the Kurdish-dominated southeast today, days after a deadly bombing in Ankara that the government blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
	Fighting with rocket-launchers and automatic weapons was under way this morning in Diyarbakir city's Baglar district, several parts of which have been put under curfew, an AFP journalist reported.
	Security sources said a police officer and three "terrorists" had been killed, and around 10 civilians wounded.
	Turkey has been waging an all-out offensive against the PKK in parts of Diyabakir since December, but this is the first time clashes have spread to Baglar.
	The violence broke out yesterday when young PKK members put up barricades and burned vehicles in Baglar, security sources said, prompting a swift response from the police.
	Civilians were forced to flee from their homes by the clashes, carrying their belongings through the streets past burned-out vehicles.
	The ..

Turkish forces clash with Kurdish rebels after Ankara blast

A group of 278 institutional investors from Germany and abroad is suing embattled auto giant Volkswagen for more than 3.0 billion euros (USD 3.3 billion) in damages over the emissions-cheating scandal, their lawyers and the court said today.
	The lawyers, TISAB Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, said in a statement that they had filed "the first multi-billion-euro lawsuit in Germany against Volkswagen" at a court in Brunswick, northern Germany.
	They accuse the carmaker of repeatedly violating capital market disclosure rules between June 6, 2008 and September 18, 2015.
	"The 278 plaintiffs are exclusively institutional investors from Germany and all over the world, including Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and Taiwan," the statement said.
	Among them were 17 German investment funds and one of the biggest US pension funds, CalPERS.
	A spokeswoman for the Brunswick court confirmed 

Investors sue VW in Germany for more than 3 bn euros

The UN envoy for Syria today hailed Russia's partial military withdrawal from the war-ravaged country as a "significant development" and voiced hope it could positively influence peace talks.
	Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday made a shock announcement that he had ordered the withdrawal of "the main part" of Russia's forces after talks with long-standing ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
	"The announcement by President Putin on the very day of the beginning of this round of intra-Syrian talks in Geneva is a significant development," Staffan de Mistura said in a statement read by his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi.
	"We hope (this) will have a positive impact on the progress of the negotiations in Geneva aimed at achieving a political solution of the Syrian conflict and a peaceful political transition in the country," he added.
	Fawzi told reporters that de Mistura had been informed of the Russian decision last evening, shortly before he briefed the UN Security Council via ...

Russia pullout 'significant' for Syria talks: UN envoys

Anita Brookner, the author and art historian who won the 1984 Booker Prize for fiction, has died at the age of 87, it was announced today.
	The novelist, who won the Booker for her novel "Hotel du Lac", died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, according to a notice of her death in The Times newspaper.
	The only child of secular Polish Jews who settled in London, Brookner was born in 1928.
	She studied art history before becoming the first woman to hold the Slade Professorship of Fine Art -- the oldest professorship of art at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London.
	After writing several art history books in the 1960s and 1970s, she switched to fiction in the 1980s and won the Booker Prize, one of the English-speaking world's foremost literary awards.
	"Hotel du Lac", centred on a romance novelist staying on the shores of Lake Geneva, was a surprise winner.
	Her novels often involved lonely female protagonists.
	She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, ...

Prize-winning novelist Anita Brookner dies aged 87

Twelve people died overnight as a fire swept through a rehab centre with barred windows in central Russia, investigators said today.
	The bodies of 12 people, two of them women, were found in the residential building in the mainly Muslim Bashkortostan region, the regional Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement.
	"They are believed all to be members of a social rehabilitation centre. Their identities are being established," investigators said.
	Residents said the single-story building in the town of Sterlitamak, about 1,200 kilometres east of Moscow, housed a private drug rehabilitation centre, ProUfu.Ru regional news website reported.
	An emergency situations official told Russian television that the windows "could not be opened from the inside or were bolted."
	The bodies had "no visible injuries", investigators said.
	"Based on the appearance of the bodies, they died from carbon monoxide poisoning," the head of the emergency service in ...

12 die in fire at Russian rehab centre

Pope Francis today formally approved sainthood for Mother Teresa and set September 4 as the date for her canonisation.
	The move comes 19 years after the death of the missionary nun who dedicated most of her adult life to working with the poor of Kolkata.
	There was no immediate word from the Vatican on the location of the canonisation ceremony, which is expected to take place in Rome with a thanksgiving ceremony held at a later date in the Indian city where Teresa is buried.
	The nun, 87 when she died in 1997, was revered by many Catholics and won the 1979 Nobel peace prize for her work with the poor.
	Teresa took the first step to sainthood in 2003 when she was beatified by Pope John Paul II following a fast-track process involving the recognition of a claim she had posthumously inspired the 1998 healing of a critically-ill Bengali tribal woman.
	Last year she was credited by Vatican experts with inspiring the 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man suffering from multiple brain tumours, ..

Pope Francis approves sainthood for Mother Teresa

China's central bank has drafted plans to impose a tax on currency trades, in what would be its latest volley against those betting on a depreciation of the yuan.
	Chinese authorities have spent unprecedented sums to support the currency and stem capital flight since a surprise devaluation rattled investors last summer.
	The tax would be the most dramatic measure to date, although Bloomberg reported that the rules had yet to be approved and the level might initially be kept at zero as an experiment.
	Dubbed a "Tobin tax" after Nobel economics prizewinner James Tobin, it would impose a small levy on foreign-exchange transactions. The aim would be to deter investors from seeking to profit on fluctuations in the currency.
	Analysts said the move would reduce liquidity in the long term and possibly fuel short-term volatility as investors were forced to leave the market.
	If implemented, the tax could also raise questions about plans for the yuan to join the International Monetary Fund's ..

China weighs tax on currency trades: report

The number of teenagers trying alcohol or cigarettes before they turn 14 has dropped, especially among girls, according to a World Health Organization study of 42 well-off nations.
	From 2010 to 2014, the percentage of 15-year-old boys in Europe, Canada and Israel who said they'd smoked their first cigarette at 13 fell from 26 to 22 among boys - but plunged from 22 to 13 for girls.
	Alcohol use among young teens in the 42 countries canvassed also went down over the same period, by about 10 per cent.
	But when it came to boozing, the percentage of 13-and- under girls who indulged weekly - while still smaller than for boys - did not decline as much, narrowing the gender gap.
	"Health behaviours along with social habits and attitudes acquired in the critical second decade of a young person's life can carry on into adulthood and affect the entire life-course," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe.
	"A good start can last a lifetime," she said in a statement.
	Conducted ..

Youth in well-off nations smoke, drink less than in 2010: WHO

Pope Francis today formally approved Mother Teresa's elevation to sainthood and set September 4 as the date for her canonisation.
	The move comes 19 years after the death of the missionary nun who dedicated most of her adult life to working with the poor of Kolkata.

Pope Francis approves Mother Teresa elevation to sainthood

The Google supercomputer AlphaGo won the final game of its five-match challenge against South Korean Go grandmaster Lee Se-Dol today, to take the series 4-1.
	After Lee managed to pull one back for humanity in game four, AlphaGo returned to its best destructive form, using the much-hyped "intuitive" artificial intelligence (AI) of its formidable neural networks to outwit the 33-year-old Lee.
	A visibly upset Lee held his head in his hands at the table after resigning at the end of a five-hour battle.
	It was a disappointing finale for the South Korean who has 18 international titles under his belt and is widely considered one of the greatest Go players of the modern era.
	Described as the "match of the century" by local media, the series was closely watched by tens of millions of fans of the ancient board game - mostly in East Asia - as well as AI scientists.
	The "machine vs human" element meant the games also made headline around the world, with AlphaGo's winning performance hailed .

AFP

AFP

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