A Swiss appeals court today confirmed a life sentence slapped on Guatemala's former police chief Erwin Sperisen for 10 murders committed in the Central American country.
	Sperisen, 44, holds Swiss and Guatemalan citizenship and was sentenced last year after a three-week trial for the deaths of seven prisoners. The sentence was then widened to include three other jail deaths.
	Having left his homeland for Geneva, Sperisen could not be extradited to stand trial for killing prisoners in the mid-2000s.
	But Swiss citizens can be tried at home for crimes committed abroad.
	The case was launched after a lawsuit filed by the mother of one of Sperisen's victims, and the trial opened on May 15 last year.
	Spreisen was charged over the summary execution and subsequent cover-up of the murder of seven inmates in Guatemala's Pavon jail in September 2006 and for the summary execution of three prisoners who had escaped from the Infiernito jail in 2005.
	He shot dead one of the Pavon prisoners ...

Swiss court upholds life sentence for Guatemalan ex-policeman

PTI Automatic

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said today it has recorded a population of 12.1 million people, of whom 4.6 million live in the occupied territories and the remainder abroad.
	The figures show that at the end of 2014, 2.8 million Palestinians lived in the West Bank and 1.8 million in the Gaza Strip.
	In the impoverished Gaza enclave, the population of 4.9 people per square kilometre makes its density one of the world's highest.
	Of the 4.6 million people in the Palestinian territories, 43.1 percent are refugees.
	The balance of 7.5 million Palestinians live in exile, the majority in 31 UN-installed refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
	UNRWA, the world body's aid agency for Palestinian refugees, has 5.49 million people registered on its books.
	The figures were announced ahead of Friday's 67th anniversary of the "Nakba", or "catastrophe" in Arabic, the day when Palestinians mourn Israel's establishment in 1948.
	In a statement, the head of the statistics bureau ...

Palestinians say they number 12.1 mn people worldwide

Canadian prosecutors withdrew two out of seven sexual assault charges against syndicated radio host Jian Ghomeshi on today, saying there was no prospect of a conviction.
	Two separate trials on the remaining four charges of sexual assault and one of choking will be heard in February and June 2016.
	His defense lawyer has said he would plead not guilty to all of the charges.
	Ghomeshi, 47, was fired by Canada's public broadcaster CBC last October after at least a dozen women came forward with accusations he strangled them, punched them or slammed them against walls.
	Some of them became plaintiffs in the criminal case, including "Trailer Park Boys" actress Lucy DeCoutere, after police laid charges a month later.
	Ghomeshi, who is free on bail, has argued that his acts were consensual rough sex of the kind found in erotic novels such as the best-seller "Fifty Shades of Grey."
	But CBC executive Heather Conway has characterized the acts as "inflicting an injury on another human ...

Two sex assault charges against Canada radio host dropped

Delia Arnold, who caused an upset to reach the semi-finals of the Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur a week ago, followed it with the best win of her career in the first round of the British Open on today.
	The Malaysian qualifier overcame the fifth-seeded Alison Waters, a player more than good enough to influence the destination of this year's title, by 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 - a result as startling for its manner as its outcome.
	Arnold trailed 3-6 in the first game yet outplayed Waters almost totally thereafter.
	She relentlessly took advantage of the many strange errors made by the Englishwoman, who clinched the world team title for her country in December and has risen to a career-high world number three.
	There was no doubting the focus and level-headedness of Arnold once she saw her chance, but Waters's ineffectual performance -- possibly affected by a collision to the back of her leg early on -- remained a mystery.
	She departed the arena in Hull, northern England, quickly without .

Squash: Malaysia's Arnold stuns Waters at British Open

Jay Rodriguez has ended speculation about his future by signing a new contract with Southampton that will keep him at the Premier League side until 2019, the south coast club said today.
	A ruptured cruciate ligament has kept the 25-year-old striker on the sidelines for more than a year but several of Saints' top-flight rivals had been linked with a move for Rodriguez, whose current contract only had a year to run.
	But Southampton have kept him at St Mary's and manager Ronald Koeman told saintsfc.Co.Uk: "It's very good news for the club because there was some speculation about Jay and interest from other big clubs.
	"So it is a compliment to the club that we have an agreement with Jay. He is close to being back and that is already good news for everyone," the Dutch great added.
	"He has signed until 2019, which is great news because it is a good signal to everyone inside and outside the club that he believes in the future of Southampton.
	"We had hopes that he would be back for ...

Football: Rodriguez extends Southampton stay

Two ex-senior Pakistani military officials said today that a defector from Pakistani intelligence assisted the US in its hunt for Osama bin Laden but denied the two countries had officially worked together.
	The officials' accounts come after the publication of a controversial new report by US journalist Seymour Hersh in which he claims to have uncovered a secret deal between Washington and Islamabad that resulted in the killing of the terror chief in 2011.
	The White House has flatly rejected Hersh's claims that Pakistan was told in advance about the May 2 Special Forces raid in the garrison town of Abbottabad, 110 kilometres north of the capital.
	The operation sparked allegations Pakistani authorities had colluded with Al-Qaeda, a claim denied by Islamabad.
	A source -- who was a serving senior military official at the time of the raid -- told AFP today that the defector was a "resourceful and energetic" mid-ranking intelligence officer whose efforts were critical to the ...

Pakistani defector was key in Bin Laden operation: officials

The Asian Development Bank today approved a USD 6 billion loan to help build up Pakistan's dilapidated power network and other key infrastructure, Islamabad said.
	Among the projects to be financed by the ADB are a 660-megawatt coal-fired power plant in southern Pakistan, while funds will also be allocated for projects related to health, education and highway construction.
	"(The ADB) agreed to finance USD 6 billion for the next five years in Pakistan," an economic affairs ministry statement said, adding that the funds would help Pakistan tackle a long-running electricity crisis.
	Along with the 660-megawatt plant, the funds will be used for several hydroelectric dams that will each generate between 100 and 300 megawatts.
	Pakistan is expected to see accelerating economic growth in the coming years, with the International Monetary Fund forecasting 4.1 percent expansion this fiscal year, followed by 4.5 per cent growth next year.
	Ratings agency Standard and Poor's meanwhile has ...

ADB to finance $6 billion in Pakistan infrastructure projects

The 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal today, 17 days after a lethal 7.8 temblor, is part of a chain reaction in a notorious seismic hotspot, scientists said.
	Like buttons popping off one by one from a shirt that is ripped open, a large quake displaces stress to another part of a fault, causing it to rupture, they said.
	"Large earthquakes are often followed by other quakes, sometimes as large as the initial one," said Carmen Solana, a volcanologist at Britain's University of Portsmouth.
	"This is because the movement produced by the first quake adds extra stress on other faults and destabilises them," she told the Science Media Centre (SMC), a not-for-profit organisation based in London. "It is a chain reaction."
	Today's quake hit 76 kilometres east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, followed around half an hour later by a second tremor of 6.3 magnitude.
	The April 25 quake, which killed more than 8,000 people, occurred a similar distance west of Kathmandu.
	Both events ...

Second quake part of chain reaction: scientists

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will appeal to international courts against an arrest warrant for alleged rape and sexual assault, his Spanish lawyer said today.
	Sweden's Supreme Court said yesterday it had rejected an appeal by the Australian former hacker, who has been taking refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012.
	The prominent Spanish former human rights judge Baltasar Garzon, a lead member of Assange's legal team, said in a statement he would appeal to international justice, arguing that Assange is being deprived of the right to a fair trial.
	A source in Assange's legal team said they were examining which international courts they might appeal to.
	Yesterday's ruling "exhausts the judicial proceedings possible at national level, so we will turn to international courts to safeguard his rights, which have been seriously breached", Garzon said in a statement.
	He said the Swedish court had not taken into account "unjustified" delays in the case and the "de facto" ...

Assange lawyer vows appeal to international courts

A technical fault or human error caused the crash of a Moroccan warplane in Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition said today, denying that rebel fire was responsible.
	"We are definitely sure it wasn't shot down," Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri, the coalition spokesman, told AFP.
	He said the F-16 pilot, who remains missing, was part of a formation, and other aircraft "did not notice any firing from the ground".
	Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels said yesterday they had shot down a coalition warplane, shortly after Morocco reported one of its fighters missing on a sortie.
	It was the first coalition aircraft to have been reported missing over Yemen in the more than six-week bombing campaign launched on March 26.

Fault or human error downed Moroccan jet: coalition

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday offered Israel's help after a new earthquake and several powerful aftershocks hit devastated Nepal.
	He spoke at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, as he welcomed home a 260-member army team of medics and search and rescue experts who had spent 14 days in Nepal following an initial quake on April 25.
	The first quake killed more than 8,000 people in the Himalayan country.
	"I know that you are already prepared for the next mission, wherever it may be, and it may be -- according to the news -- that such a mission is facing you," Netanyahu said in remarks shortly after news of the second quake emerged.
	"I told the Nepalese ambassador a few minutes ago that we are ready with everything at our disposal to help now also," he added.
	During its mission in Nepal, the team set up a field hospital which treated 1,600 patients suffering from severe internal injuries, fractures and hypothermia, performing 85 life-saving operations, an army statement ..

Israel offers aid after latest Nepal quake

A right-wing fanatic who felt marginalised because of his ginger hair plotted the assassination of Prince Charles in the hope that his red-haired son Harry would become king, a British court heard today.
	Mark Colborne, 37, from Southampton in southern England, who is on trial accused of preparing terrorist acts for several months in the run-up to his arrest in June 2014.
	In a notebook seized by police, Colborne said he wanted to kill "dark haired" people, prosecutor Annabel Darlow told the Old Bailey court in London.
	"I want them to see my transition from poor red-haired victimised minority that is constantly walked over to a fully transformed military terrorist," he wrote.
	Colborne allegedly said he wanted to "put a bullet in Charles' head".
	"I would sacrifice my life for that one shot. Kill Charles and William and Harry become king. Kill the tyrants," he wrote.
	Colborne compared himself to Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian extremist who in 2011 killed 77 people in a ...

Ginger fanatic plotted Charles murder to make Harry king:court

Binge drinking is emerging as a major hazard for the young in some countries, including India and China, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said today in its first probe into alcohol abuse.
	Over the past 20 years, alcohol consumption in OECD countries has declined by 2.5 per cent on average, the 34-nation club of rich economies said.
	But this figure masks important national changes and a worrying shift in some countries towards youth boozing and excessive drinking by women, it said.
	In 2012, the average per-capita consumption in the OECD was 9.1 litres (16 pints) of pure alcohol per capita, it said.
	Estonia, Austria and France had the highest consumption, with 12 litres or more per person per year.
	Those countries below the OECD average included South Korea, the United States and Canada, while the lowest on the list were Israel and Turkey.
	Within the broad overall decline, "many countries have experienced a significant increase in some risky ...

Binge drinking is major risk in some countries says OECD

At least 69 people were killed and 250 others were wounded by explosions after Saudi-led warplanes hit an arms depot on the outskirts of Sanaa, a medical official said today.
	"These are the cases registered so far," the official said, adding that most of those killed and wounded were civilians.
	Residents said that explosions at a military base at Mount Noqum, in the eastern outskirts of Yemen's capital, lasted until midday today after coalition jets struck the depot late yesterday.
	Medics on the ground had given AFP an earlier toll of five killed and 20 wounded.
	The depot was bombed again today, an AFP correspondent said.
	The strikes set off huge explosions that sent debris crashing into a residential area at the foot of the mountain.
	An April 21 coalition raid on a missile base in the rebel-held capital triggered explosions that killed 38 people and wounded 532.
	A five-day pause in the coalition bombing campaign was due to start at 11:00 pm local time today to allow deliveries 

69 dead in Yemen capital arms depot blasts: medical official

Thousands of migrants believed to be stranded at sea without food and water could die unless Southeast Asian governments act urgently to rescue them, migrant groups and the UN warned today.
	Underscoring the concern, a migrant organisation said a vessel was adrift somewhere near the Thai or Malaysian coast with around 350 people -- including women and children -- but no food or water, while Thailand called a regional summit on the issue.
	Indonesia's navy, however, said earlier it had turned away one boat carrying hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, whose fate remains uncertain.
	Dhaka, meanwhile, detained a trawler after it was cast adrift with 116 Malaysia-bound illegal migrants on board.
	Nearly 2,000 boatpeople from the two impoverished nations -- many of them members of Myanmar's oppressed Rohingya minority -- have swum ashore, been rescued or intercepted off Malaysia and Indonesia in recent days.
	Many of them were thin, weak or in poor health after weeks at ...

SE Asia urged to save migrants feared adrift at sea

Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another one injured as clashes with pro-Russian rebel fighters flared despite a shaky truce, Kiev's military spokesman said today.
	"The situation is still tense" in the conflict zone, spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists in Kiev. "Over the past 24 hours three Ukrainian soldiers died and one was injured in fighting."
	He said pro-Russian separatists were firing 120 and 122 millimetre calibre weapons at Ukrainian positions in violation of the battered February ceasefire agreement and that the Ukrainian military was responding to the attacks.
	Despite the peace deal damping down fighting around much of the eastern conflict zone, the daily casualty tolls along the frontline with the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk "people's republics" have been increasing in recent days, after weeks of relative calm.
	According to the United Nations, the fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed over 6,200 people since last April, when Kiev launched a ...

Three Ukrainian soldiers killed in east: military

After months of raging tensions over Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sought to break the ice today by giving his US counterpart John Kerry two baskets full of potatoes and tomatoes.
	Kerry was in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for high-stakes talks with Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his first visit to Russia in two years.
	Lavrov surprised his guest by presenting Kerry with a basket of ripe red tomatoes and another one full of potatoes, the Russian foreign ministry said.
	"It's sunny in Sochi today," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Facebook, an apparent reference not only to the blue skies over the city but also the upbeat mood at the talks.
	Potatoes as presents have become a running joke between Kerry and Lavrov, with Kerry presenting his Russian counterpart with two large Idaho potatoes when the two met for talks on Syria in Paris in January, 2014.
	The food baskets carry added resonance given that Moscow has slapped an embargo .

Potato diplomacy: Lavrov gives Kerry ice-breaking gift

The World Health Organization, reeling under stinging criticism for its late response to the worst ever Ebola outbreak, today said it was creating a blueprint to handle future disease outbreaks.
	A two-day meeting of the UN agency was aimed at creating better research and diagnostic facilities, improving data sharing between countries, and creating biobanks, said Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO assistant director for health systems and innovation.
	WHO chief Margaret Chan said the latest Ebola epidemic -- which has left more than 11,000 dead, mainly in the west African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- had intensified research into what was until recently considered "a rare disease".
	"New tools have been developed with unprecedented speed," Chan said yesterday, on the first day of the experts' meeting in Geneva.
	"We are likely very close to having a vaccine that can protect against Ebola," Chan said, without elaborating.
	Kieny said the meeting was focused on building better ...

WHO works on plan to tackle disease outbreaks after Ebola

Two South African men charged with the rape and murder of a 86-year-old Austrian-born nun pleaded guilty today, saying they had broken into the convent to steal food.
	The nun from the Sacred Heart Home Convent in the village of Ixopo, southwest of Durban, was murdered last month.
	In a statement read in court, Sibongiseni Phungula, 25, said he and his co-accused, Mondli Shozi, 26, had gone to the covent to look for food after a night of drinking.
	They were interrupted by the nun, who shouted at them, the News 24 agency reported from Pietermaritzburg High Court.
	Shozi said he then grabbed her, dragging her to her room and tied her up.
	"I then removed her panties and had sexual intercourse with her," said Phungula, adding the elderly nun was "still moving" when he left her in her bed.
	The nun's body was discovered the following day, with her hands were tied with an electric typewriter cord and a wet towel over her face.
	"I wish I could undo what I have done," Phungula said in his .

Two S African men plead guilty to rape and murder of nun, 86

A joint patrol team of Bangladesh coast guards and navy detained a trawler in the Bay of Bengal today after it was cast adrift with 116 Malaysia-bound illegal migrants on board, a coast guard commander said.
	"There were 116 illegal migrants in the fishing trawler. They are all Bangladeshis," coast guard station commander Dickson Chowdhury told AFP by phone.
	Chowdhury said the trawler was cast adrift near Bangladesh's southern-most island of St Martin's, which is close to the border with Myanmar, after its crew abandoned it for another ship.
	"It looks like a fishing trawler from Myanmar and that its crew were also from Myanmar," he said, adding the crew may have abandoned the vessel after it was chased by Bangladeshi patrol boats.
	Another coast guard official said a coast guard and a navy patrol boat successfully detained the ship at 5.30pm (1130 GMT).
	"We learnt that it was heading to Malaysia with the illegal migrants,"  added Al Imran of the coast guard's press department.

Bangladesh detains boat with 116 Malaysia-bound migrants

At least 20 people were killed today in a regime barrel bomb attack on a mini-bus stand in a rebel-held part of Syria's Aleppo city, a monitor said.
	"Helicopters committed a massacre, dropping a barrel bomb on a mini-bus station in the Fardous district of Aleppo, killing 20 civilians, among them children, and injuring 30 more," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said.
	The Britain-based monitor said the toll was expected to rise because of the number of serious injuries among the wounded.
	The group said most of bodies of those killed "were charred".
	Video footage distributed by activists and posted on YouTube showed rubble and twisted scraps of metal strewn across the cratered pavement where the station was, underneath a bridge.
	Firefighters and civilians worked with hoses to tackle fierce blazes in several vehicles that produced thick clouds of smoke.
	At least one car had been flipped on its side.
	 A second video showed several men hoisting a male victim missing a ...

AFP

AFP

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