Israeli Druze today blocked and threw stones at an army vehicle they believed was transferring wounded Syrian rebels for treatment, police said.
	The incident took place as concern grew for the fate in neighbouring Syria of members of the Druze minority, traditional allies of President Bashar al-Assad, who are surrounded by rebels in the country's more than four-year civil war.
	"A group of people, Druze residents, blocked the road in front of a military vehicle, attempting to check the identity of its occupants" in the northern Israeli town of Horfish, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
	The Druze threw stones at the vehicle as it tried to drive off, she said, adding that one Druze was moderately injured in the incident.
	Samri told AFP the Druze had thought the vehicle was an army ambulance transferring wounded Syrian rebels from across the frontier for medical treatment.
	She did not elaborate, and the army had no immediate comment.
	Israel shares a ceasefire line ..

'Israeli Druze block army vehicle to search for Syrian rebels'

PTI Automatic

At least 20 people were killed today when a young female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a bus station in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, in an attack likely to be blamed on Boko Haram.
	The blast happened near a fish market in the Baga Road area of the city, which has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks by shelling, bombs and suicide attacks.
	"We heard a loud explosion at about 3:50 pm (local time) while we were preparing for afternoon prayers," said Danlami Ajaokuta, a civilian vigilante assisting the military against Boko Haram.
	"It happened right inside the motor park (bus station) attached to the fish market where labourers were sorting out rice."
	He said that according to survivors' accounts, a woman came into the bus station with a casserole dish, shouting out for customers.
	"People were occupied with sorting the rice. No one paid any attention. Suddenly, the casserole, which obviously contained explosives, went off. She was blown to pieces... We have sorted ..

Female suicide bomber kills 20 in Nigeria city of Maiduguri

Moscow today prepared to prolong its embargo on Western food imports, expressing disappointment at the extension by the EU of sanctions which it blamed on a "Russophobic lobby."
	Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tasked one of his deputies with helping put together a formal appeal to President Vladimir Putin to prolong Russian sanctions against the West.
	In comments released by the government, Medvedev said he would formally ask Putin to extend the embargo on Western food imports as well as sanctions targeting certain foreign trade transactions.
	He did not elaborate.
	EU foreign ministers formally agreed today to prolong damaging economic sanctions against Russia until January 2016, to ensure it fully implements Ukraine peace accords.
	The Russian foreign ministry expressed disappointment at the extension, blaming the move on an anti-Russian "lobby".
	"We are deeply disappointed that the opinion of the Russophobic lobby, which pushed through the decision to prolong illegal ...

Russia to prolong Western food embargo: government

The UAE property market is set for a soft correction after three years of sharp rises but a crisis is ruled out, Standard & Poor's ratings agency said today.
	A report said additional supply and lesser demand on the United Arab Emirates property market his year is likely to result in a 10-20 per cent correction in Dubai residential real estate prices.
	The S&P report stressed this would be much less than the 2009 bubble.
	"The diversifying economy, positive demographics, and protective measures from local regulators should help prevent a crisis like that of 2009," S&P said.
	"Stronger capital structures and good revenue mixes should allow issuers to withstand headwinds over the next 12-24 months," the report added.
	The agency said that after reaching a peak last year, the UAE property market will soften in 2015 and early 2016.
	"The market is facing a turnaround in operating conditions that is likely to dampen performance," said S$P, adding that the sharp decline in oil ...

UAE property market set to decline: S&P

US police shifted a manhunt for two escaped killers once again today as DNA evidence was reportedly found in a cabin 17 days after they bust out of a New York jail.
	Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, escaped June 6 from a maximum security jail close to the Canadian border, in a carefully rehearsed, elaborate prison break that has been likened to a Hollywood movie.
	US media reported that DNA evidence had been found, linking the two murderers to a hunting cabin, in the Mountain View, New York area, that had been broken into as little as 24 hours earlier.
	Boots, bloody socks and toiletries were found, local newspaper the Press-Republican reported. Mountain View is around 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of the Clinton Correctional Facility.
	If confirmed, the DNA-link would be strongest lead since the pair cut through their cell walls using power tools, and crawled their way through pipes to emerge from a manhole.
	State police said today that a weekend search, 350 miles southwest of 

US prison break manhunt shifts, DNA reportedly found

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today insisted that Israel "does not commit war crimes" after a UN report said both sides may have carried out such acts in last summer's Gaza conflict.
	Israel's foreign ministry also denounced the UN Human Rights Council, which commissioned the inquiry, as biased and called the process that led to the report "politically motivated and morally flawed".
	"Israel defends itself against a terror organisation which calls for its destruction and that itself carries out war crimes," Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to the Islamist movement Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip.
	Hamas welcomed what it said was the report's condemnation of Israel, while a senior official from the Palestine Liberation Organisation in the occupied West Bank said the inquiry reinforced its will to pursue a case against the Jewish state at the International Criminal Court.
	The report also harshly criticised Palestinian militants in Gaza, particularly over their firing of ...

Israel 'does not commit war crimes', PM says after Gaza report

NATO head Jens Stoltenberg said today the alliance will approve plans this week to more than double the size of its rapid response force, having already created a special spearhead unit in the fallout from the Ukraine crisis.
	"NATO defence ministers ... (will) take a decision to further increase the strength and capacity of the NATO Response Force to 30,000 to 40,000 troops, more than double its current size," Stoltenberg said ahead of a meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels.
	The US-led alliance set up what is known as the NATO Response Force in 2002, based on some 13,000 troops able to get to crisis hotspots much faster than its main forces.
	But the Ukraine crisis and Russian intervention in support of pro-Moscow rebels showed that the NRF might not be able to move fast enough in a vastly changed security environment, Stoltenberg said.
	Accordingly, in September, NATO leaders set up what is known as an NRF spearhead unit of some 5,000 troops able to deploy within days, not ...

NATO:Alliance to more than double size of rapid response force

Russia today proposed sending a Kazakh cosmonaut to the International Space Station in place of a space tourist in September after a Japanese candidate formally dropped out.
	Satoshi Takamatsu, a Japanese businessman, was gearing up to go to space after signing a contract to undergo training but said today that he was not ready for the launch expected in early September.
	"The Russian commission has proposed sending a national of Kazakhstan to the ISS," spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Igor Burenkov, told AFP.
	Burenkov said Russia had to agree the plan to send Kazakh pilot Aidyn Aimbetov into space with its ISS partners before making a formal announcement.
	Takamatsu, who trained together with British singer Sarah Brightman, said he still wanted to travel to space but would wait until later.
	"I will wait until the moment is right for me," Takamatsu was quoted as saying in a statement by space tourism agency Space Adventures.
	He said that the art projects he wants ..

Russia eyes Kazakh cosmonaut as space tourist

An announcement by an Arab Israeli lawmaker that he plans to join a pro-Palestinian flotilla seeking to break Israel's blockade on Gaza today caused outrage among the country's political class.
	Basel Ghattas, an MP with the Joint Arab List, sparked controversy after he announced he would join other parliamentarians and public figures from around the world in the latest attempt to reach Gaza by ship later this month.
	The Gaza Strip has been subjected to an Israeli blockade for nine years, which includes a complete ban on ships entering or leaving the coastal enclave's waters.
	Pro-Palestinian activists have repeatedly tried to reach the Hamas-run territory by sea but have been blocked by the Israeli navy.
	In May 2010, Israeli commandos staged a botched raid on a six-ship flotilla which ended in bloodshed that claimed the lives of 10 Turkish nationals and sparked a crisis with Ankara.
	Hanin Zuabi, a female Arab-Israeli MP who was on board at the time, was roundly denounced by the ...

Outrage in Israel as Arab MP says to join Gaza flotilla

Swiss travel group Kuoni said today it was selling its European tour operating activities to German retailer REWE, but did not disclose the price.
	The Zurich-based firm, in the midst of widespread restructuring, said it had agreed to sell its tour operating business, as well as its travel agencies in Switzerland, Britain, Scandinavia, Finland and the Benelux countries to REWE's travel arm DER Touristik.
	The deal also includes Kuoni's online sales business and the Scandinavian charter airline Novair, as well as its Las Playitas resort in the Canaries, it said in a statement.
	REWE plans to continue the businesses, which last year raked in about two billion Swiss francs (USD 2.2 billion, 1.9 billion euros) in sales, and will take onboard all of the nearly 2,350 employees affected, Kuoni said.
	The deal is expected to be finalised during the third quarter pending a green light from European and Swiss competition authorities, it said.
	The sell-off is part of large-scale restructuring ..

Kuoni sells tour operating business to German REWE

South Africa's government today denied secretly plotting a safe exit from the country for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, despite an international arrest warrant on war crimes charges.
	Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the conflict in Darfur, flew out of Pretoria last Monday despite a court order that barred his departure.
	South Africa's Sunday Times reported a secret meeting of top ministers that mapped a deal to protect Bashir. It alleged that Bashir was escorted from Johannesburg, where he attended an African Union summit, to his plane in Pretoria by President Jacob Zuma's personal security detail.
	But the authorities said no such meeting took place.
	"Government categorically denies that there was a secret meeting held by the security cluster ministers," government spokeswoman Phumla Williams said in a statement.
	The government has come under fire from the ICC, rights groups, several ...

S Africa denies it hatched plan to protect Sudan's Bashir

Germany warned that reform proposals submitted by leftist Greek premier Alexis Tsipras were not 'substantial'

Greece deal in doubt at crucial debt talks

Press Trust of India

Japan's chief whaling negotiator said today the country intends to resume hunts in the Antarctic this year, despite a call by global regulators for more evidence that the expeditions have a scientific purpose.
	Joji Morishita said the whole debate about whether or not Japan should be killing the mammals had long since moved away from science and into politics.
	The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission said in a report Friday that Japan had failed to give enough details to explain why it wanted to kill almost 4,000 minke whales in the Antarctic over the next 12 years.
	Despite international disapproval, Japan has hunted whales in the Southern Ocean under an exemption in the global whaling moratorium that allows for lethal research.
	It makes no secret of the fact that meat from the mammals - killed ostensibly for research - is processed into food, and says the whale population in any case is big enough to allow sustainable whaling.
	"There is no definite ...

Japan intends to resume whale hunt this year

The Philippines is buying nearly 100 new patrol boats to protect its fisheries, an official said today, in a substantial expansion from its current fleet of 20 as it responds to poaching by Chinese and Taiwanese vessels.
	Most of the ordered vessels - 71 short-range boats for coastal patrols and 27 able to go further out to sea - will be delivered this year, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources chief Asis Perez said.
	"This is just fulfilling our mandate. Our country has eight times more sea area than land area. We have 36,000 kilometres of coastline and over 7,100 islands," he told AFP.
	Perez said the "law-enforcement" boats would augment the agency's 20 patrol boats which protect the fisheries resources of one of the world's largest archipelagoes.
	"We need additional vessels. These (new boats) are actually short of our needs but this is all we can afford," he added.
	Perez said his agency is also seeking funding to acquire 10 larger boats that can patrol the high ...

Philippines buys 100 patrol boats to combat poachers

Both Israel and Palestinian militants may have committed war crimes during last year's Gaza war, a widely anticipated United Nations report said today, decrying the "unprecedented" devastation and human suffering.
	The Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict announced it had gathered "substantial information" and "credible allegations" that both sides had committed war crimes during the conflict, which killed more than 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
	"The extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come," the chair of the commission, New York judge Mary McGowan Davis, said in a statement.
	The report decried the "huge firepower" used in Gaza, with Israel launching more than 6,000 airstrikes and firing 50,000 artillery shells during the 51-day operation.
	A third of the civilians killed were children.
	Palestinian armed groups meanwhile fired 4,881 rockets 

'War crimes' likely by both sides in 2014 Gaza war: UN report

Diego Maradona will stand for the presidency of scandal-tainted FIFA presidency, a Uruguayan journalist who presents a television show with the Argentine football legend, said today.
     "'I am candidate' are the words that Diego Maradona used when I asked him about the candidacy for the FIFA presidency," journalist Victor Hugo Morales said on Twitter.
     Morales said he had telephoned Maradona to ask how his father was. The two present the De Zurda television show together.
     Maradona is a strong critic of FIFA under current president Sepp Blatter, who announced last month that he would step down.
     World football's governing body has been rocked by two multinational corruption investigations launched by US and Swiss authorities.
     Former Brazilian star Zico and Liberian football federation president Musa Bility have already declared themselves candidates.
     The special FIFA congress will not be held before December.

Maradona to stand for FIFA presidency - report

Two people, including a child, died when Taliban militants launched an assault on the Afghan parliament today, triggering gunfire and explosions and sending lawmakers scurrying for cover in chaotic scenes relayed live on television.
	The attack came as the Afghan president's nominee for the crucial post of defence minister was to be introduced in parliament and ended two hours later when all seven attackers, including a suicide car bomber, were dead.
	The assault on such a high-profile target in downtown Kabul raises fresh questions about security as Afghan forces battle a resurgent Taliban for the first time without the aid of NATO forces, who ended their combat mission in December.
	"First a car bomb detonated on the main road near the parliament building, then a group of attackers entered a building in front of parliament," Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi told AFP.
	Two civilians, a woman and a child, were killed in the attack, according to police and the United ...

Brazen Taliban attack on Afghan parliament kills two

Britain today urged Iran to show more flexibility in talks on its contested nuclear programme as an end-June deadline looms after years of tortuous negotiations with the West.
	"There will need to be some more flexibility shown by our Iranian partners if we are going to reach a deal," British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said.
	"I think the serious negotiations are now getting underway and over the next week, I hope to start to see some progress," Hammond said.
	"We are pushing hard to get there now."
	Hammond was speaking as he arrived for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg where he will also hold talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif.
	EU diplomatic sources said over the weekend that Zarif would meet several of his EU counterparts today, including Hammond, France's Laurent Fabius, Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier and EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini.
	Fabius warned yesterday that any deal with Iran had to be tough and ...

Britain calls for more Iran flexibility in nuclear talks

Four years after a militiaman doused Mumtaz with a flesh-searing acid for rejecting his marriage proposal, leaving her disfigured, scarred and traumatised, death threats have forced the 20-year-old Afghan into hiding.
	Her ordeal encapsulates the major issues roiling Afghanistan - a silent tsunami of violence against women, anti-Taliban militias bringing further turmoil to an already conflict-torn country and a seemingly dysfunctional state unable to offer Afghans even a modicum of security.
	Swaddled in a cobalt blue scarf partly covering her jagged facial scars, Mumtaz vividly recalls the horrors of that night when the jilted lover stormed into her house with six other assailants, holding up the corrosive liquid.
	"He grabbed me by my hair and hurled the acid at my face with such vengeance, as if to say 'now let's see who will marry you'," Mumtaz, who goes by one name, told AFP in a safe house in the volatile northern province of Kunduz.
	She remembers screaming and writhing as the .

'Fear they'll find me': death threats stalk Afghan acid victim

Four people were killed and some 30 wounded in a series of grenade attacks in Burundi, one week ahead of key parliamentary elections, police said today.
	"It is clear that all these grenade attacks are related to each other, this is a terror campaign organised by opponents of the third term of President Pierre Nkurunziza, to destabilise and try to prevent the elections," a senior police officer said.
	The troubled central African nation has been in crisis since late April over Nkurunziza's controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive five-year term, a move branded by opponents as unconstitutional and a violation of a 2006 peace deal that ended 13 years of civil war.
	Parliamentary elections are planned for June 29, ahead of the presidential vote on July 15.
	The grenade blasts, which took place overnight yesterday to today, were the latest in a string of attacks. Overnight Friday, 11 police officers were wounded in a series of explosions.
	The most serious attack was in the ...

4 killed, several wounded in Burundi grenade attacks: police

Taliban militants launched an assault on the Afghan parliament today, triggering gunfire and explosions and sending lawmakers scurrying for cover in chaotic scenes relayed live on television.
	The attack came as the Afghan president's nominee for the crucial post of defence minister was to be introduced in parliament and ended two hours later when all seven attackers, including a suicide car bomber, were dead.
	The assault on such a high-profile target in downtown Kabul raises fresh questions about security as Afghan forces battle a resurgent Taliban for the first time without the aid of NATO forces, who ended their combat mission in December.
	"First a car bomb detonated on the main road near the parliament building, then a group of attackers entered a building in front of parliament," Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi told AFP.
	Deputy interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said there were seven attackers. Around 15 civilians were wounded in the initial explosion, he ...

AFP

AFP

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