At least three people were killed when an Airbus A400M military plane crashed near Seville airport in southern Spain today, the regional emergency services said.
	"There are at least three dead and two seriously injured," a spokesman for the emergency services told AFP.
	The plane crashed in a non-residential area around a mile north of Seville airport, which was closed to traffic for about an hour.
	Airport authority AENA said on Twitter that the airport's firefighters were at the scene of the crash, "beyond the airport's perimeter."
	Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there had been "eight to 10 people on board".
	Speaking on Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, where he was attending a campaign meeting, he sent his condolences to the victims, Spanish news agencies reported.
	Aviation sources confirmed the plane was one of Airbus' new A400M troop transporters, which are assembled at a factory in Seville.
	Airbus Defence and Space, the Airbus division responsible for military ...

At least three dead in Spain military plane crash

PTI Automatic

President Vladimir Putin today led a huge commemorative WWII march through Red Square as Russia celebrated 70 years since Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
	Clutching a portrait of his father Vladimir, who fought in the war, Putin unexpectedly joined a massive column of some 250,000 Russians who carried pictures of their relatives in a Kremlin-backed campaign dubbed the "Immortal Regiment."
	"I think that my father, just like millions of simple soldiers - and he was a plain soldier - had every right to walk through this square," Putin told reporters on Red Square.
	The 62-year-old president said the campaign was a tribute to the country's fallen soldiers and civilians but also a sign of Russia's strength.
	"It also speaks of our self-confidence, confidence in our strength and the happy future for our children."
	The crowds of Russians proudly carrying portraits of their relatives snaked along central Tverskaya street, Moscow's main avenue, before reaching Red Square.
	Earlier in the ..

Putin leads huge commemorative WWII march through Moscow

Nearly 200 migrants have been detained in a single southern Thai province ever since a network of jungle prison camps run by people smugglers was uncovered there, police said today.
	Spurred by Thai junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha's calls to end the grim trade within 10 days, police have launched an operation against smugglers in Songkhla, a province neighbouring Malaysia criss-crossed by trafficking trails.
	Observers say the belated move against gangs long known to have operated with the help of corrupt officials has put smugglers on the backfoot.
	As a result scores of desperate Bangladeshi and Myanmar Rohingyas have been abandoned as their gangmasters go underground.
	"So far there have been 199 victims found in Songkhla province alone", regional police official Major General Puthichart Ekachant told AFP today.
	Of the migrants discovered 74 were Rohingyas from Myanmar and 58 were Bangladeshis while the background of 67 more was yet to be determined, he added.
	Authorities have been 

Thai police detain almost 200 migrants in trafficking

Indonesian President Joko Widodo insisted today that the death penalty was "positive" for his country after the execution of seven foreign drug convicts by firing squad last month sparked international outrage.
	Jakarta put to death two Australians, a Brazilian, and four Nigerians on a prison island, along with one Indonesian, despite worldwide calls for them to be spared and heartrending pleas from their families.
	Canberra recalled its ambassador from Jakarta at what it called the "cruel and unnecessary" executions while the United Nations expressed deep regret.
	However Widodo, who took office last year, has been unswayed by the international appeals, insisting that Indonesia is facing an emergency due to rising narcotics use.
	In an interview today with journalists in Abepura, eastern Indonesia, he voiced no regret at the executions and insisted: "The death penalty is still our positive law."
	Asked about the anger in other countries, he said: "My duty as president of Indonesia is 

Indonesian leader insists death penalty 'positive' for country

At least seven bodies have been found in an eastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo where a series of massacres has left more than 300 people dead in seven months, local authorities said today.
	The governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku, confirmed that seven bodies had been found in Matembo, a few kilometres from Beni, all of them hacked to death by machetes and axes.
	He said "we do not know yet" if the killing was committed by Ugandan ADF rebels.
	An AFP photographer said he saw the bodies of seven people, two of them women, being brought into the morgue in Beni.
	The Muslim rebels of the ADF, who launched an insurgency in neighbouring Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni in the mid-1990s, are accused of a series of killings in and around Beni that have left more than 300 people dead since October last year.
	Men, women and children were massacred mainly with machetes and knives, prompting a joint operation by the Congolese army and UN troops to put down the ...

Seven bodies found in DR Congo's restless east

Ukraine's pro-Russian rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said today that insurgents had released two US aid workers detained for alleged spying.
	"We have freed two Americans that we arrested earlier. One of the two is a CIA agent, the other was enlisted," Zakharchenko told journalists, without giving any more details.
	The two men are believed to have been working for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) NGO in war-torn east Ukraine.
	IRC head David Miliband released a statement saying that two of the organisation's workers who had been detained by the rebels some 10 days ago were now in a safe location, the BBC reported.
	"Every day, the world's humanitarian workers show great courage, taking risks help the most vulnerable in crisis situations. They should never be targeted," Miliband said in the statement.
	Over 30 IRC workers were reportedly detained after separatists raided their offices in Donetsk.
	At the end of April several representatives of the New York-based NGO were .

Ukraine rebel leader says has released two US aid workers

An Airbus A400M military transport plane carrying "eight to 10" people crashed near Seville in southern Spain today while apparently on a test flight, officials said.
	"The plane that crashed a mile north of Seville airport in an non-residential area was not a commercial craft," said a spokesman for the regional emergency services. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there were "eight to 10 people on board".

An Airbus military plane crashes in Spain, 8 to 10 on board

The managing director of the Hockenheim motor racing venue has insisted the 2016 German Grand Prix is '1000 percent' certain to take place there after this year's race was cancelled.
	For the first time since 1960 there was no German Grand Prix this year because of contractual problems with the Nuerburgring venue, which shares hosting the race with Hockenheim on alternate years.
     But tickets for the 2016 Grand Prix at Hockenheim have already been on sale for three weeks and venue manager Georg Seiler told SID, an AFP subsidiary, he is certain next yer's race will take place.
	"It's 100 percent sure, even a 1000 percent sure," he said.
	"We have a contract for next year and we have always respected our contract."
	At the Malaysian Grand Prix in March, Formula One magnate Bernie Ecclestone had refused to confirm whether the 2016 German GP would take place, but Seiler insisted there is no doubt.
	"I have a good relationship with Bernie Ecclestone," said Seiler.
	 Only a relatively ...

Organiser says 2016 German GP is confirmed

Israeli sculptor and painter Menashe Kadishman, renowned for his colourful works depicting his favourite animal, sheep, has died aged 82, public radio reported on Saturday.
	Local media said that Kadishman, who enjoyed a brief but successful international career, passed away in Tel Hashomer hospital, near Tel Aviv, but did not give the circumstances.
	Kadishman's website says he was born in Tel Aviv in 1932, under British mandatory rule, and after studying art in Israel he moved to London to train at the St. Martin's and Slade schools of art.
	He remained in London for another 12 years, where he married and his children were born, Haaretz newspaper said.
	"His early work was characterised by a modernistic style. In the 1960s he was close to artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Christo, and enjoyed a flourishing international career," the paper wrote.
	His friend and fellow sculptor Micha Ullman said that Kadishman was feted wherever he went but returned in 1972 to his .

Israeli artist Kadishman dead at 82

A car bomb blast targeting Shiite pilgrims on an annual march to a Baghdad shrine killed at least seven people today and wounded 20, security and medical sources said.
	"A car parked near Kahramana square exploded... It was targeting Shiite pilgrims," a police colonel said.
	An Iraqi interior ministry official said at least seven people were killed and 20 wounded in the blast, which sent a plume of dark smoke billowing into the sky above the central neighbourhood of Karrada.
	A medical source confirmed the casualty toll.
	Worshippers have in recent days started walking to Kadhimiya, site of a shrine dedicated to Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam, who died in 799 AD.
	Security forces close some streets to traffic for the days-long pilgrimage, during which the marching worshippers and the hundreds of tents along their path where they can rest, eat and drink are considered particularly vulnerable to attacks.

Baghdad car bomb targeting pilgrims kills seven: police

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has rejected claims that Ankara is preparing to intervene militarily in neighbouring Syria, local media reported on today.
	"No, there is no situation right now that requires Turkey's involvement," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet newspaper.
	Some opposition CHP party politicians claimed this week that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) might resort to  military operations in Syria to boost its popularity ahead of a June 7 parliamentary election.
	"Turkey will launch a military operation into Syria tonight or Friday," the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) secretary-general Gursel Tekin said on Thursday, adding that he received the tip-off from a "very reliable source."
	Unlike like previous elections in which the AKP won successive victories, next month's election looks tighter with the ruling party expected to win 38-45 percent of the vote, according to the most recent surveys.
	Davutoglu said the situation in .

Turkey's PM denies plan to intervene in Syria

A top adviser to the Iranian president called today for a more active British foreign policy in the Middle East after Prime Minister David Cameron's upset election victory.
	The remarks by Hamid Aboutalebi, President Hassan Rouhani's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, come as six major powers, including Britain, seek a nuclear deal with the Islamic republic.
	Aboutalebi complained that in the negotiations that led to a framework accord last month Britain had taken a back seat, and called for a more active role in the efforts under way to reach a full agreement by June 30.
	"British policy in the region and on the nuclear issue in recent years has been far from the capacities of that country and has been overshadowed by American policy," he tweeted.
	"This is to Britain's disadvantage," he added, calling on Cameron to use his "decisive majority" to "increase efforts in the international arena and return to a more active role on the nuclear issue."
	Aboutalebi's remarks were ..

Iran urges more active British diplomacy after Cameron win

Two French warships docked in the commercial hub of Shanghai today, which diplomats said marked the first visit to China by French naval vessels since 2013.
	The "Dixmude", which serves as a helicopter carrier, and the frigate "Aconit" pulled into port at a naval base in northern Shanghai today morning, greeted by Chinese military officers waiting on the dock with flowers and a band.
	The visit marks the tenth time French naval ships have come to Shanghai, the Chinese navy said in a statement.
	"We want to know each other better," Captain Pierre de Briancon, commanding officer of the Dixmude, told AFP. "It's one of our strategic partners."
	The Dixmude came from Singapore, and will stay in Shanghai for a week.
	Both vessels are part of a larger mission, Jeanne d'Arc 2015, which is taking the group from the Indian Ocean and also the South China Sea and Sea of Japan over five months.
	"We come to the Pacific because a lot of economic interests are here," de Briancon said. "It's also ...

French navy ships make first China visit since 2013

Islamic militants have claimed responsibility for the assassination of a member of parliament in the semi-autonomous northern Somalia state of Puntland.
	Lawmaker Said Hussein Nur was shot dead as he left a mosque after evening prayers yesterday.
	"The Mujahedeen fighters got rid of an apostate member in the Puntland parliament in northern Galkayo," said a statement from Al-Shebab, Somalia's Al-Qaeda aligned militants.
	"Such attacks will continue", said the statement, posted on a Shebab website.
	Puntland's vice president, Abdihakin Abdulahi Haji, confirmed the attack.
	"A member of the Puntland parliament was assassinated in Galkayo and even though we do not have details about the ongoing investigations, we suspect that the violent elements are responsible for the killing," Haji told reporters, referring to the Shebab.
	Witnesses in northern Galkayo town described the attack by heavily armed gunmen outside a mosque last evening.
	"They opened fire and killed the lawmaker who had ...

Shebab militants kill Somali lawmaker

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah claimed a match-haul of seven wickets as dominant Pakistan crushed Bangladesh by 328 runs in the second and final Test in Dhaka on Saturday to clinch the series 1-0.
	The hosts, who resumed their second innings at 63-1 chasing an improbable target of 550, were shot out for 221 in the post-lunch session of the fourth day at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium.
	 Shah, who took three for 58 in the first innings, once again baffled the Bangladesh batsmen with his leg-spin and googly on the wearing pitch to grab four for 73 in the second knock.
	Mominul Haque played a lone hand for the hosts with 68, joining West Indies great Vivian Richards and the Indian duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir as the only batsmen to score 50 runs or more in 11 consecutive Tests.
	Shuvagata Hom hit 39, sharing a ninth-wicket stand of 44 with Mohammad Shahid, to steer Bangladesh past the 200-run mark after they were reduced to 143-7 soon after lunch.
	The match ended at the fall of the ...

Yasir leads Pakistan to Bangladesh series win

A group of Israelis were briefly detained by Thai soldiers this week while making a business pitch at Bangkok's police headquarters in what officers have described as a "misunderstanding".
	The embarrassing incident comes at a time of tense relations between the military and parts of the police as Thailand's junta vows to root out corruption and political loyalties in the graft-tainted force.
	Nine men from an unnamed company were detained on Thursday in the middle of giving a demonstration to senior officers on mobile phone tracking technology, national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told AFP today.
	He said the soldiers mistakenly believed the businessmen had not obtained the right paperwork to be carrying such technology inside the kingdom.
	"There was a misunderstanding that the trackers did not have the right permission, but actually they did have it", Prawut said.
	Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who seized power in a coup last May, apologised for the detentions.
	"It was 

Israeli businessmen briefly detained by Thai army: police

Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition struck Sanaa's international airport today, shortly after authorities in the rebel-controlled Yemeni capital said it would reopen to receive humanitarian aid, witnesses said.
	The runway was hit by two missiles, witnesses said, a day after the civil aviation authority in Sanaa announced it would temporarily reopen the airport, which has been targeted frequently by air strikes.
	Earlier today, warplanes hit a nearby airbase, following a night of intensive bombardment of Shiite Huthi rebel positions in their northern stronghold of Saada.
	Saudi Arabia yesterday announced a humanitarian ceasefire in Yemen starting May 12, but has vowed to step up retaliatory strikes on the rebels, which it accuses of launching cross-border attacks on the kingdom.

Saudi-led warplanes bomb Yemen capital airport

Djibouti's president has warned Yemen's civil war and a resurgent Al-Qaeda pose a threat to the Middle East, but pledged continuing support to refugees fleeing the conflict.
	Ismail Omar Guelleh said the war in Yemen, on the other side of a narrow sea channel from the Horn of African nation of Djibouti, was stoking dangerous rivalries between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, bolstering Al-Qaeda's franchise in the country and posing wider risks for the region.
	Guelleh also warned the violence could allow the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) franchise to expand its power and control.
	AQAP "is taking advantage of these renewed tensions between Sunnis and Shiites... This may create a big gap between Yemeni people, who had never felt the difference between the two communities," Guelleh told AFP in an interview at the presidential palace in Djibouti.
	In late March, a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes against Shiite Huthi rebels, after the insurgents, who are backed by ...

Djibouti president warns of Yemen's risks to region

Ferry services were shut down and some seaside communities were warned they could be swamped by large waves as Typhoon Noul drew closer to the Philippines today, officials said.
	The typhoon is set to smash into a small cluster of coastal towns in the mountainous north of Luzon island early Sunday bringing with it maximum sustained winds of 160 kilometres an hour, the state weather service said.
	"Our advice is for people on the eastern seaboard to avoid outdoor activities," state weather forecaster Fernando Cada told AFP, while adding there was a possibility the typhoon could weaken as it nears land.
	Storm surges -- tsunami-like waves generated by powerful typhoons -- that could reach 2.5 metres in height are forecast in Isabela province and two other areas of Luzon, he added.
	He said heavy rain that could trigger floods and landslides was also forecast near the eye of Noul, which is forecast to veer northeast towards southern Taiwan after running into Luzon's mountain ranges.
	The 

Ferries shut down as typhoon approaches Philippines

A signed first edition of "100 Years of Solitude" by Nobel-Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez was recovered, a week after it was stolen at a Colombia book festival, officials said.
	The novel by the Colombian writer, who died last year, was snatched from a locked glass case last weekend at the International Book Fair of Bogota.
	"The book was recovered in an area of downtown Bogota where art is normally sold," the director of Colombia's national police, Rodolfo Palomino, told reporters yesterday.
	He said the edition was retrieved after a "labored pursuit," and police found the book in an abandoned location they suspected the thieves would leave it as they ran from authorities.
	The book was one of just 8,000 copies printed in 1967 by an Argentine publishing house and was on display in a pavilion dedicated to Macondo, the mythical town featured in the novel and other works by the author.
	The stolen volume belonged to book dealer Alvaro Castillo, who collects first editions ..

Stolen first edition of '100 Years of Solitude' found

China has dramatically ramped up its land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea this year, building artificial islands at an unprecedented pace to bolster its territorial claims in the disputed area, US officials has said.
	The rapid construction of artificial islands in the strategic waters comes to 2,000 acres, with 75 per cent of the total in the last five months, officials said.
	"China has expanded the acreage on the outposts it occupies by some four hundred times," said a US defense official.
	The United States did not endorse land reclamation by any of the countries with territorial claims in the South China Sea, but "the pace and scale of China's land reclamation in recent years dwarfs that of any other claimant," the official said.
	The South China Sea is home to strategically vital shipping lanes and is believed to be rich in oil and gas. Washington is concerned China's efforts carry a military dimension that could undermine America's naval and economic power in the ...

AFP

AFP

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