The bodies of 32 Spanish victims of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps in March were flown back to Spain today aboard a specially fitted plane.
	The MD11 transport plane, operated by Germanwings parent company Lufthansa, took off from the southern French city of Marseille en route to Barcelona at 4:00pm local time (1400 GMT).
	"The firm's aim is to be able to repatriate all the bodies by the end of the month," said a Lufthansa representative on the scene.
	Last week, a similar flight carried home 44 German victims of the crash which was deliberately initiated by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.
	In total, all 150 people aboard the ill-fated Barcelona to Duesseldorf flight died,  including 72 Germans and 52 Spaniards.
	On Thursday, the French prosecutor leading the investigation into the disaster said he had opened up a probe to see if anyone could be held liable for manslaughter.
	Lubitz, whom prosecutors said suffered from "psychosis", saw 41 doctors over the course of .

Spanish Germanwings bodies repatriated

PTI Automatic

Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who allegedly masterminded the siege of an Algerian gas plant in which 38 hostages died, has been killed in a US air strike, Libya's internationally recognised government said.
	"American jets conducted an operation which resulted in the deaths of Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a group of Libyans belonging to a terrorist organisation in eastern Libya," said a statement posted on Facebook.
	The Pentagon said Belmokhtar had been the target but did not confirm the Islamist's death, which has often been reported in the past.
	US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, speaking in France, said "precision weapons" were used in the raid by F-15E warplanes.
	She also did not comment on Belmokhtar's reported death, saying: "The actual impact of that raid is still being assessed."
	Hatem el-Ouraybi, spokesman for the recognised government, told AFP on Monday: "Coordination with the US will continue in fighting these terrorist groups."
	The strike came as part 

Algeria gas plant jihadist Belmokhtar 'killed in US strike'

The International Criminal Court's chief deputy prosecutor today voiced disappointment at South Africa's failure to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, as the African leader jetted back to Khartoum, saying it had breached its obligations.
	Bashir flew out of South Africa earlier today, dodging a court order for him to stay as local judges weighed up whether he should be arrested over alleged war crimes and genocide.
	The ICC was "disappointed that he was not arrested. Our position has always been that South Africa's obligation is clear and unequivocal. It had an obligation to arrest him," the court's chief deputy prosecutor  James Stewart told AFP.
	Bashir had travelled to Johannesburg for an African Union summit that was overshadowed by the ICC call for him to be detained on long-standing warrants over the Darfur conflict.
	South Africa is a signatory of the ICC, which has often been criticised for only targeting Africa leaders.
	At the summit, Bashir attended a group ...

ICC 'disappointed' in failure to arrest Bashir: prosecutor

Four candidates have registered to lead Britain's opposition Labour Party after its former chief Ed Miliband resigned in the wake of a devastating general election defeat last month, the party said today.
	Shadow health minister Andy Burnham, a member of former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown's government, is the bookmaker's favourite.
	He has vowed to be "a leader whose voice can carry into all the nations and regions of the UK" following the collapse of support in the party's traditional heartlands.
	Reformer Liz Kendall, 44, is second favourite, despite having only been elected to parliament in 2010.
	She has been critical of the party's shift to the left under Miliband, saying "fundamental reform is essential to the future survival of our party."
	Yvette Cooper has long been tipped as a potential leader, but her close ties with leading figures associated with Labour's recent losses -- including her husband Ed Balls -- could count against her.
	Veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn .

Line-up of UK Labour leadership race announced

A Finnish court today sentenced a 36-year-old woman to life in prison for killing her five newborns between 2005 and 2013 and hiding them in a freezer.
	The Oulu district court in western Finland found the woman guilty of five counts of murder and five counts of disturbing the peace of the dead for failing to give the babies proper burials.
	"The homicides took place by leaving the newborns without care and warmth... Clearly this measure... Caused particular agony to the babies," the court said in its ruling.
	The woman, who has a 14-year-old son, had pleaded innocent and said the babies were all stillborn.
	But the court ruled on the basis of dental examinations that at least some of the babies had lived for up to four days before dying in a bucket where she had left them.
	The horrific crimes were discovered in June 2014 when neighbours began to complain of a bad smell in the apartment building where a new couple had moved in.
	It was soon discovered that the woman had dumped the ...

Finnish mum gets life for killing five newborns

Pakistan has won the first-ever order for its JF-17 Thunder jet fighter, an air force spokesman said today, as the revamped plane dazzled crowds at the Paris Air Show.
	Pakistan has been years without a buyer for its first home-made jet, which was designed with the help of close ally China.
	Commodore Syed Muhammad Ali, spokesman for the Pakistan Air Force, confirmed an order for the plane had been finalised.
	However, he declined to give any more details, citing sensitivities for not naming the client, the number of aircraft or the date of delivery.
	The latest model, which is capable of Mach 2.0 (twice the speed of sound) with an operational ceiling of 55,000 feet, roared over the crowds on the first day of the Paris Air Show soon after the confirmation.
	A report on the aviation website Flightglobal.Com quoted another senior officer, Air Commodore Khalid Mahmood, as saying the sale had been made to an "Asian country" and the delivery would take place in 2017.
	Pakistan's large and .

Pakistan wins first fighter jet order at Paris Air Show

Pakistan has won the first order for its JF-17 Thunder jet fighters, an air force spokesman said today, a long-held goal for the nation which wants to boost its military exports.
	The latest models of the jets, which are locally produced in cooperation with Pakistan's close ally China, are lightweight multi-role aircraft capable of Mach 2.0 (twice the speed of sound) with an operational ceiling of 55,000 feet.
	Speaking to AFP from the Paris Air Show by phone, Air Commodore Syed Muhammad Ali said an order for the plane had been finalised but declined to give details.
	"That's the case, we've finalised the order," he said, citing sensitivities for not naming the client, the number of aircraft or the date of delivery.
	A report on the aviation website Flightglobal.Com quoted another senior officer, Air Commodore Khalid Mahmood, as saying the sale had been made to an "Asian country" and the delivery would take place in 2017.
	The report added that 80 people were promoting the JF-17 in ...

Pakistan wins first jet order at Paris Air Show: spokesman

Save the Children said its offices in Pakistan remained closed and its operations suspended today, despite reports the government had reversed an order halting the aid group's work in the country.
	The authorities sealed Save the Children's offices last week, saying the charity was "working against the country", and threatened to expel more foreign aid groups for supposedly undermining Pakistan.
	Pakistan has toughened its policies towards international aid groups in recent years, accusing them of covering for spying operations.
	Local media reports suggested the interior ministry had suspended its own order to halt the operations of the British-based international charity.
	The reports were based on a document circulating on social media which appeared to be a confidential interior ministry memorandum.
	But interior ministry officials were unable to confirm the authenticity of the document, which was dated Friday, and Save the Children's offices in Islamabad remained under lock and ..

Save the Children offices still closed in Pakistan

Europe's robot lab Philae has called home once more, a day after sending its first message in seven months in its trek towards the Sun on the back of a comet, mission officials said today.
	The lander re-established contact at 2122 GMT Sunday, nearly a day after a solar battery recharge roused it from hibernation, they said.
	"We had another contact overnight. It wasn't very long, about five minutes," European Space Agency (ESA) senior science advisor Mark McCaughrean told AFP.
	The connection was "pretty short and pretty faint," he said, but "we got some data down."
	Philae landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12 after an epic 10-year trek piggybacking on its mothership Rosetta.
	But instead of harpooning itself to the iceball's surface, the lander bounced several times before settling at an angle in the dark.
	It had enough stored battery power for about 60 hours of experiments, enabling it to send home reams of data before going into standby mode.
	The hope was ...

Lander makes fresh contact from comet surface: agency

A journalist who published the first reports from Edward Snowden's leaked documents offered a detailed rebuttal today to allegations that Russian and Chinese spies accessed the former intelligence contractor's files.
	Glenn Greenwald, writing on the online news website The Intercept, said the reports by the Sunday Times and BBC were based on the false premise that Snowden kept possession of the files he took from the US National Security Agency.
	Greenwald, part of a team of journalists who met Snowden in Hong Kong before publishing the explosive articles about vast surveillance programs, said Snowden had no files to be accessed.
	"Snowden has said unequivocally that when he left Hong Kong, he took no files with him, having given them to the journalists with whom he worked, and then destroying his copy precisely so that it wouldn't be vulnerable," Greenwald said.
	"How, then, could Russia have obtained Snowden's files as the story claims... If he did not even have physical possession .

Journalist rebuts claim that Snowden files breached

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that a Palestinian-led campaign to boycott Israeli goods was reminiscent of Nazi Germany's campaign against Jews.
	Meeting with visiting Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, Netanyahu raised the issue of "the defamation of the Jewish people" on Polish soil when the Nazis controlled much of Europe.
	"The attacks on the Jews were always preceded by the slander of the Jews. What was done to the Jewish people then is being done to the Jewish state now," Netanyahu said.
	"In those days we could do nothing. Today we can speak our mind, hold our ground. We're going to do both."
	The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign aims to put political and economic pressure on Israel over its occupation of the Palestinian territories, in a bid to repeat the success of the efforts which ended apartheid in South Africa.
	The campaign has been garnering huge attention in Israel, especially in the wake of a row with French ...

Israel's Netanyahu says boycott efforts recall Nazi Germany

A South African judge today criticised the government for allowing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), to leave the country in defiance of a court order.
	"The conduct of the respondents to the extent that they have failed to take steps to arrest and detain the President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir is inconsistent with the constitution of the Republic of South Africa," Judge Dunstan Mlambo said.
	Bashir flew out of South Africa earlier today, dodging the court order for him to stay as judges weighed up whether he should be arrested over alleged war crimes and genocide.
	Bashir had travelled to Johannesburg for an African Union summit that was overshadowed by the ICC calling for him to be detained on long-standing warrants over the Darfur conflict.
	South Africa is a signatory of the ICC, which has often been criticised for only targeting Africa leaders.
	At the summit, Bashir attended a group photograph yesterday along with South ...

Failure to arrest Bashir violated S.Africa constitution: judge

Twenty-three people were killed today when suicide bombers blew themselves up in attacks targeting police in Chad, a country on the frontline of the fight against Boko Haram.
	Another 101 people were wounded in the simultaneous bombings outside the police headquarters and police academy in the capital N'Djamena, according to a government statement read on national radio.
	It said four "terrorists" were also killed but did not give details. Earlier, a police official had said two suicide bombers carried out the attacks.
	They were the first such bombings in the capital of the north-central African nation, where security has been beefed up since Chad joined the fight against Boko Haram earlier this year.
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which came as police cadets were attending a training course at the academy.
	The government statement said the "situation is under control".
	Large numbers of Chad's security forces were seen taking up positions on the ...

23 dead in suicide bomb attacks on Chad police

Storied American gunmaker Colt, which has roots stretching back centuries, plans to file for bankruptcy protection, according to a media report.
	The company, which lost a large US Army contract, is in need of the protection "amid business-execution issues and a heavy debt burden," a report in The Wall Street Journal yesterday said, citing unnamed people familiar with the plan.
	Connecticut-based Colt Defense, which dates back to 17th-century New England, has secured funds to keep its doors open.
	"The company has secured financing from its existing senior lenders to continue operating while in bankruptcy and expects to remain in business after the restructuring," the Journal added.
	The company has a USD 355-million debt burden it wants to put a dent in with a court-monitored auction of some business, the report said, citing the same sources.

Gunmaker Colt to file for bankruptcy protection: report

A spectacular blaze ravaged the roof of a 19th century basilica in western France today, causing major damage but no injuries, authorities said.
	The fire in Nantes is "probably linked to waterproofing work that was taking place on the roof," said the city's chief fire officer, who added the blaze had been "contained" by mid-morning.
	Some 60 firefighters fought the inferno at the basilica Saint-Donatien, which broke out around 10:45am (0845 GMT). Two workers on the roof when the blaze broke out escaped injury.
	The back part of the basilica has been seriously damaged and some of the wooden beams have given way, authorities said.
	Firefighters are now scrambling to save some of the precious objects inside the basilica, notably the organ.
	Video footage of the blaze showed huge flames licking the rear part of the basilica, with the whole central section of the church gutted.

Fire ravages French basilica

Ten people were killed in twin suicide bombings in Potiskum, northeast Nigeria, a police source and a civilian vigilante assisting the military against Boko Haram said today.
	Eight vigilantes were killed in the first blast in the Igwanda area of the city at about 12:15 pm (1115 GMT) while two died in the second outside a tavern and brothel in the Dorawa area.
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe state, has been hit repeatedly by Boko Haram in its six-year insurgency, including by suicide bombers.
	The first attack targeted the civilian vigilante office in the Igwanda area of the city and came after a man seen carrying laptops and other computer accessories was detained.
	"We suspected he was a thief and then when he couldn't explain how he came about the things that were found on him, we took him to our office for interrogation," said one vigilante group member.
	"But we didn't know he had explosives on him. He detonated the ...

10 dead in two blasts in NE Nigeria: police, vigilantes

Around 40 foreign suicide bombers enter Iraq each month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said today, calling for countries in the region to curb the flow of foreign fighters.
	Suicide bombers are one of the deadliest weapons of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which deploys them in explosives-packed vehicles to breach Iraqi defences or cause mass civilian casualties in crowded areas.
	"An average of 40 suicide (bombers) enter Iraq per month," Abadi said in televised remarks.
	"The number of foreign fighters in Iraq now exceeds the number of Iraqis" in IS, Abadi said, and there are suicide bombers "from every country" in the region.
	"There is a problem to be addressed by these countries," Abadi said.
	"It is up to others... To stop these terrorists from coming to our country, and to stop this machine of killing and destruction and terrorism."
	IS launched a brutally effective offensive last June that overran a third of Iraq, including swathes of its border with Syria where the ...

40 foreign suicide bombers a month enter Iraq: PM

An alarming rise in the number of young Iranians who are shunning marriage prompted an unprecedented step from the government today, with officials launching a matchmaking website.
	The move comes amid deep alarm in the Islamic republic, where sex outside marriage is forbidden, that family values are under threat and fears that the population could eventually fall.
	At pains to point out it was not offering an online dating service, officials said the "Find Your Equal" website hoped to reverse a surge in young Iranian adults, currently 11 million, who are still single.
	It will do so by using a network of matchmakers -- clerics and people of good standing in their communities, such as doctors, teachers or other professionals -- to pair people off.
	Having trialled the system for a year, during which it said 130 such intermediaries had introduced 3,000 men and women -- with 100 couples getting married -- it will now launch fully.
	The aim is for 100,000 marriages over the next 12 ...

Iran turns to matchmakers, with marriage out of favour

The Vatican has accepted the resignation of two US bishops accused of failing to protect minors from a paedophile priest and set a date for the unprecedented trial of a senior cleric for paedophilia.
	The two US bishops' resignations follow the 2012 jailing of Minnesota priest Curtis Wehmeyer for the sexual abuse of minors he preyed on during camping trips and possession of child pornography.
	Wehmeyer's conviction led to the archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis being charged on June 5 with six counts of failing to protect minors after prosecutors unveiled substantial evidence that senior Church officials failed to act on repeated warnings from parents and others that the priest was a danger to children.
	No individuals have been charged but the two clerics who have stepped down, Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche, were both named in the complaint as having failed to heed the warnings.
	A former papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic will 

2 bishops quit, envoy trial date set in Church sex abuse cases

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir flew out of South Africa today, dodging a court order for him to stay as judges weighed up whether he should be arrested over alleged war crimes and genocide.
	Bashir had travelled to Johannesburg for an African Union summit that was overshadowed by the International Criminal Court (ICC) calling for him to be detained on long-standing arrest warrants over the Darfur conflict.
	Even as his plane took off from Waterkloof military airport outside Pretoria, the local high court heard legal arguments over the application to force the authorities to arrest him.
	Yesterday, Judge Hans Fabricius ordered authorities to stop Bashir from leaving the country after the Southern African Litigation Centre, a legal rights group, lodged its urgent case.
	The president's hurried exit from South Africa appeared to be a violation of the court order, and it immediately sparked anger from rights' groups.
	"(The) world stood (with) South Africa to fight apartheid but it ...

Sudan's Bashir flies out of S.Africa, defying court order

Many people were killed today in twin suicide attacks targeting police in the capital of Chad, whose armed forces have been on the frontline of the fight against Boko Haram Islamists, police said.
	The government swiftly convened an emergency meeting following the attacks outside the police headquarters and academy in N'Djamena, an official said on condition of anonymity.
	There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts, which a police official said left many dead and a number of people wounded.
	It is believed to be the first attack of its kind in the capital of the north-central African nation, where security has been beefed up since Chad joined the fight against Boko Haram.
	Members of Chad's security forces were seen taking up positions on the streets of the capital after the attacks, which came as President Idriss Deby was in South Africa for an African Union summit.
	The former French colony is part of a four-nation coalition also including Nigeria, Cameroon and ...

AFP

AFP

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