France and Saudi Arabia are discussing economic projects worth tens of billions of euros, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said today.
	"If concluded, these 20 projects would be worth tens of billions of euros," Fabius told reporters in Riyadh.
	French President Francois Hollande is also in Saudi Arabia to attend a Gulf leaders' summit today, a day after he oversaw the signing of a warplanes deal with Qatar worth 6.3 billion euros (USD 7 billion).
	Fabius said that some of the projects were in the armament sector and "will be finalised in the coming months".
	Energy deals -- "mainly in the field of solar power" -- and prospects for nuclear power cooperation are also being discussed, he added.
	Fabius said that agreements on transport, including civil aviation, and other infrastructure projects were on the table, as well as health services.
	"These are extremely important prospects that show that the partnership is moving at a new speed with some concrete results," the minister ..

France, Saudi discuss multi-billion-euro projects

PTI Automatic

A South Korean student held in North Korea for illegal entry has told CNN in an interview from Pyongyang that he wanted to be arrested.
	Joo Won-Moon, 21, who attends New York University and has permanent US residency, said he had hoped to create an "event" that could improve relations between North and South Korea.
	It was unclear whether he was speaking freely or had been told by North Korean authorities what to say.
	"I wanted to be arrested," Joo told a CNN reporter, looking relaxed and even smiling as he walked into a conference room at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel for the interview.
	Joo was arrested after crossing the Yalu River into the North from the Chinese border city of Dandong on April 22, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency said Saturday.
	He told CNN he had crossed two barbed-wire fences and walked through farmland until he reached a large river. He followed the river until soldiers arrested him.
	"I thought that by my entrance to the DPRK (North Korea), illegally I ...

NYU student held in N Korea says he 'wanted to be arrested'

At least 46 people have been killed and many others injured when cattle raiders attacked a village in northern Kenya, reports said today.
	"The attack took place in a very remote zone," local official Osman Warfa told the Daily Nation newspaper.
	Gunmen from the ethnic Turkana people are suspected of launching the attack yesterday against an ethnic Pokot village close to Nadome along the Turkana-East Pokot district border, an area where there are frequent deadly conflicts between the two communities.
	Warfa, who is Rift Valley regional commissioner, said 46 people were killed and an unknown number of livestock stolen and that Kenya police and soldiers were hunting the attackers.
	Another official, Baringo county commissioner Peter Okwanyo, said yesterday's raid followed a previous attack by Pokot warriors on a Turkana village in which 100 goats were stolen.
	"These are provocative attacks," Okwanyo said, calling on security forces to "pursue and arrest the culprits to quell the ...

Cattle raiders kill 46 in northern Kenya

Investigators in southern Thailand have discovered five graves at a second remote jungle camp believed to contain the remains of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, police said today.
	The camp was uncovered just a kilometre from a similar encampment on a steep hillside near the Malaysian border, where forensic teams found 26 bodies over the weekend -- all but one buried in shallow graves.
	"We found the second camp yesterday evening," national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters, saying it was near the first camp 25 kilometres (16 miles) west of Padang Besar in Songkhla province.
	"We also found five graves but cannot yet confirm whether any bodies are in them. Authorities will look into this," he added.
	Rights groups have long accused the Thai authorities of turning a blind eye to -- and even being complicit in -- human trafficking.
	Stung by that notorious reputation, Thailand's military government has launched a crackdown in recent months, arresting scores of ...

Thai police find graves at second migrant jungle camp

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea today, sending frightened residents fleeing from their homes, but a threatened tsunami passed without incident, seismologists said.
	The quake struck 133 kilometres (83 miles) south-southwest of the town of Kokopo in the New Britain region at a depth of 63 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said, and was followed by a 5.9 magnitude aftershock.
	The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially warned that "hazardous tsunami waves" were possible but in a later update said "the tsunami threat has now mostly passed".
	Mathew Moihoi, a seismologist at the PNG Geophysical Observatory, said the latest quake followed a series of seismic activity in the region in recent weeks but there had been no reports of major damage to buildings or infrastructure.
	"Some things fell off the shelves," he told AFP.
	Annette Sete, who lives in Kokopo, said there had been powerful tremors recently "but this latest one was big".
	"Schools shut and kids sent .

Quake sows panic in Papua New Guinea, tsunami threat passes

US tech executive David Goldberg, the husband of Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, apparently died after falling on a treadmill and striking his head at an upscale resort in Mexico, authorities said.
	Goldberg, 47, was the chief executive of online polling firm SurveyMonkey and husband of Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. He died suddenly Friday, according to his brother, who did not give a cause of death.
	Mexican officials yesterday confirmed he died in hospital after a workout accident during a family trip to a Pacific coast resort in Punta Mita, in Nayarit state.
	"His relatives have indicated that he went to work out, and that they became concerned when he did not come back," an official at the state prosecutor's office said.
	"They went looking for him and found him in a pool of blood next to a treadmill, apparently after he fell and struck his head at the hotel gym," the official said, declining to be named.
	Goldberg sustained "severe head trauma and hemorrhaging," 

Husband of Facebook's Sandberg died on treadmill: official

Thailand's revered but ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej made a rare public appearance today, leaving the hospital where he has been convalescing for much of the last few months.
	A heavily-guarded convoy carrying the wheelchair-bound 87-year-old monarch left Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital for the Grand Palace, the sprawling complex in the heart of the old quarter that is the seat of the Chakri dynasty.
	The palace visit was made on Coronation Day, a Thai public holiday that marks Bhumibol's official coronation in 1950, three years after his reign began following the death of his brother.
	The appearance of the world's longest serving monarch after a recent no show will be a source of relief for many Thais who revere him as a semi-divine figure.
	He had been expected to appear publicly for his birthday in December, a time when the monarch traditionally addresses his people. But the public audience was cancelled at the last minute on the advice of his doctors.
	There is profound concern in ...

Ailing Thai king makes rare public appearance

England batsman Jonathan Trott announced his retirement from international cricket.
     Trott struggled on his return to the Test arena during England's 1-1 drawn series with he West Indies in the Caribbean concluded Sunday, managing just 72 runs in six innings including three ducks.
     "This was a tough decision to make but I don't feel my game is at the level you need to be at to play for England," said Trott yesterday in an England and Wales Cricket Board statement.
     "I was honoured to be given the opportunity to come back and play international cricket again and I'm disappointed it didn't work out.
     "I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me and given me the chance to represent England and to thank supporters for all their backing over the years.
     "I also want to wish the lads all the very best for what will be an incredibly exciting summer."
     The 34-year-old Trott, who intends to continue his county career with Warwickshire, added: ...

Trott calls time on England career

Syrian government forces are committing "crimes against humanity" by indiscriminately bombing Aleppo, Amnesty International said today, as it also criticised rebels for abuses including "war crimes".
	In a new report, the rights watchdog said "relentless" government aerial bombardment of Syria's former economic powerhouse had forced many residents to "eke out an existence underground".
	It slammed the "horrendous war crimes and other abuses in the city by government forces and armed opposition groups on a daily basis".
	"Some of the government's actions in Aleppo amount to crimes against humanity," Amnesty said.
	The report was particularly critical of the government's use of so-called barrel bombs, crudely constructed weapons fashioned from barrels and other vessels packed with explosives.
	Rights groups say the weapons are especially destructive and kill indiscriminately.
	"By relentlessly and deliberately targeting civilians the Syrian government appears to have adopted a callous ..

Amnesty slams 'crimes against humanity' in Syria's Aleppo

The vice-president of Burundi's constitutional court - which was about to decide on the legality of a third term for President Pierre Nkurunziza - has dramatically fled the country.
	Judge Sylvere Nimpagaritse told AFP that the court's judges had come under "enormous pressure and even death threats" from senior figures, which he refused to name, to rubberstamp the controversial candidature of the president.
	His dramatic departure yesterday comes after more than a week of protests in the central African country in which at least 13 people have died, including four protesters shot dead by police yesterday.
	Nimpagaritse claimed that a majority of the court's seven judges believed it would be unconstitutional for Nkurunziza to stand again.
	Burundi's senate - controlled by the president's CNDD-FDD party - had asked the court to decide the issue last week and it was to pronounce before Saturday, when the list of candidates were to be published.
	"In my soul and conscience I decided not ..

Top Burundi judge flees country in dramatic twist to crisis

Cases of dengue have soared in Brazil where the disease has caused 229 fatalities this year, the Health Ministry has said, as authorities try to combat its spread using transgenic mosquitos.
	The health ministry said it had logged 745,900 cases nationwide in the first 15 weeks of the year - an annual increase of 234 per cent.
	That equates to 367.8 people infected per 100,000 residents, which falls into the category of an epidemic under parameters used by the World Health Organisation.
	The number of dengue deaths has climbed 44 per cent from the same period last year, and most of the diagnosed cases have occurred in business hub Sao Paulo.
	In all, Sao Paulo has seen 169 fatalities and 401,564 cases this year - a high since records began in 1990.
	Cases of the mosquito-borne infectious tropical disease increased in the wake of a serious drought last year, the worst in living memory.
	Severe water shortages led residents to store what they could in open receptacles, which facilitated .

Dengue cases soar in Brazil, as death toll climbs

France's National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended from the far-right party his daughter Marine now leads after a disciplinary hearing today.
	Patience with the 86-year-old rabble-rouser has run thin within the party in recent weeks after he reiterated his view that the Nazi gas chambers were merely a "detail of history" and made comments about defending the "white world".
	A special meeting of party members will be called "within three months" to decide whether to strip him of the title of honorary president of the National Front (FN), a party statement said.
	Le Pen described his supension as a "criminal act".
	The far-right patriarch showed up today for a meeting at the FN headquarters in Nanterre, west of Paris, to discuss upcoming regional elections.
	But he refused to stick around for a disciplinary hearing over his controversial outbursts that was called by his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over the leadership in 2011.
	He said the hearing was "detrimental to my 

France's Jean-Marie Le Pen suspended from own far-right party

Police in Burundi shot dead at least four demonstrators and wounded dozens of others today, in running battles with protesters angry at a bid by President Pierre Nkurunziza to extend his rule.
	The deaths, which leading human rights activist Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa confirmed, brought the death toll in more than a week of protests to at least 13, including two soldiers and a policeman.
	The small central African country has been rocked by violent protests since the ruling CNDD-FDD party designated Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader and born-again Christian from the Hutu majority, as its candidate in a presidential vote due to be held on June 26.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry warned today he was "deeply concerned" about Nkurunziza's decision, "which flies directly in the face of the constitution".
	Police spokesman Liboire Bakundukize said 15 officers were wounded today after a grenade was "thrown by protesters", while others were wounded by rocks hurled by demonstrators.
	An AFP ...

Burundi police kill four in battles with protesters

No labourers working on Qatar's World Cup stadium projects have died because of industrial accidents or injury, tournament chief Hassan Al-Thawadi said today.
	Speaking at a press briefing for foreign reporters in Doha, Thawadi said that work has been carried out so far on beginning to build or revamp five stadiums in preparation for football's biggest competition, which will take place in the tiny Gulf state in 2022.
	"We have had about 4.8 million working hours. We've got about just over 2,500 workers and about five stadiums -- we are at the early stages of construction," said Thawadi, the secretary general for Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
	"The World Cup stadium projects that we are responsible for, there have been no fatalities and no major injuries as well."
	Up to 12 stadiums will be used for the tournament.
	Thawadi's comments come amid concerns over the treatment of tens of thousands of migrant labourers working on infrastructure projects and facilities ..

No worker deaths at World Cup stadiums: Qatar 2022 chief

More than 15 million euros worth of cocaine turned up today in boxes of bananas delivered to Aldi supermarkets in and around Berlin, police said.
	Staff working at 14 of the discount supermarkets reported the stashes of narcotics tucked in the produce deliveries from Colombia, which police believe ended up at the stores by accident.
	"Apparently there was a logistical mistake somewhere along the line," police spokesman Stefan Redlich told AFP, adding that investigators were now trying to determine their intended destination.
	He said the 386-kilo shipment was the biggest single cocaine find in the history of the German capital.
	In a similar case in January 2014, Berlin supermarket workers discovered 140 kilos (310 pounds) of the drug worth around six million euros (USD 6.7 million) also hidden in crates of bananas.

Record Berlin cocaine stash found hidden in Aldi bananas

Thousands of illegal migrants who have tried to reach Europe from conflict-plagued Libya are being held in detention centres in the North African country, an official said today.
	Most are Africans intercepted off Libyan shores or inside the country as they prepared to board boats for Europe, Mohammed Abdelsalam al-Kuwiri said.
	He said between 5,000 and 7,000 migrants have been held for months in 16 detention centres as Libya struggles to find planes to deport them.
	The centres are mainly in the Tripoli region and in Misrata east of the capital, areas controlled by the powerful Fajr Libya militia alliance.
	Kuwiri is in charge of combating illegal migration for the Tripoli-based government set up by Fajr Libya last August amid a power struggle with the internationally recognised administration based in the east.
	"Up to 7,000 migrants are held in these detention centres. They are given food, mattresses and medical care," he said.
	Last year, before Libya plunged further into chaos ..

Up to 7,000 migrants held in Libya, says official

A group of veteran Israeli combatants today slammed the army's conduct during the 2014 Gaza war, using soldiers' testimonies to expose a policy it said caused "unprecedented" civilian casualties.
	The testimonies appeared in a 237-page report called "This is how we fought in Gaza" which was based on the anonymous accounts of 60 soldiers and officers involved in the 50-day war last summer.
	They were collated by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli non-governmental organisation whose members bear witness to abuses they have seen or taken part in during their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories.
	But the Israeli army questioned the veracity of the report, saying the group had failed to provide "proof" of the witness accounts.
	"The guiding military principle of 'minimum risk to our forces, even at the cost of harming innocent civilians' alongside efforts to deter and intimidate the Palestinians, led to massive and unprecedented harm to the population and the civilian ...

Israeli veterans group slams army conduct in Gaza war

The number of EU citizens missing in the massive Nepal earthquake has fallen dramatically to around 60 from about 1,000 last week, European sources said today.
	"The number of EU citizens who are still unaccounted for has gone down to around 60. These are people who were reported to be in Nepal at the moment of the earthquake and with whom contact could not yet be established," one source told AFP.
	"However, this number is going down by the hour as rescue teams are now also operating in the remote areas."
	Thirteen Europeans are confirmed dead, the source said.
	In total, EU nations are dealing with around 300 "open cases", which includes the 60 missing people, with most of the others being "safe but still in need of assistance", added the source.
	The EU's ambassador to Kathmandu had given the earlier figure of 1,000 missing citizens during a briefing on Friday in Nepal.
	The Europeans had mostly been climbing in the avalanche-hit Everest region and trekking in the remote Langtang ..

Only 60 Europeans now missing in Nepal quake

An Uber driver in Belgium was found guilty of breaking taxi laws today, in the first case to land in a Brussels court after dozens of drivers were caught by police posing as clients of the banned service.
	The driver was shown leniency with an unspecified suspended sentence, the court said, but his car, a Renault Megane, was confiscated.
	Uber is banned in Belgium, but operating under the alternative name UberPop, has continued to offer residents of Brussels a cheaper alternative to traditional taxis.
	Authorities in the European capital for months turned a blind eye to the practice until pressure from the taxi lobby pushed police to organise sting operations to catch out law-breakers.
	The case today was the first of about 30 currently making their way through Belgian courts.
	The local government in Brussels is largely sympathetic to Uber, and is in the process of drawing up an overhaul of the taxi industry to make room for the US company.
	But tensions with taxi drivers have often .

Uber driver found guilty in Belgium crackdown

A meningitis epidemic in poverty- stricken Niger has claimed 252 lives since January, a health official said today, warning the country was short of vaccines to fight the outbreak.
	"As of May 3, 252 people died out of a total of 3,304 cases," said Niger's epidemics surveillance and response director Goumbi Kadade.
	Less than two weeks ago, the government had put the toll at 129 people out of 1,150 cases.
	"The number of cases has risen in the past three weeks. This worries us, because there aren't enough vaccines. Our orders are arriving in dribs and drabs," Kadade added.
	A meningitis epidemic has been declared in eight districts of Niger, while three others are in a state of alert, the official said.
	The whole of Niger is currently under quarantine, in an effort to contain the highly contagious disease.
	Some 300,000 vaccine doses have arrived in the west African landlocked country, and are currently being distributed.
	That is less than half the amount the authorities ordered, ...

Meningitis epidemic kills more than 250 in Niger

Chinese regulators are investigating units of foreign medical device companies including Germany's Siemens, Dutch firm Philips and General Electric of the US for bribery.
	The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and other regulators last year opened initial investigations into the companies' Chinese health-care units on suspicion of bribing hospitals in exchange for sales, Bloomberg News reported today.
	None of the three companies immediately responded to requests by AFP for comment on Monday.
	It is the latest reported example of overseas firms being targeted by Chinese authorities, who have launched wide-ranging probes in sectors ranging from autos to baby milk.
	In 2014 a Chinese court found British drugmaker GSK had used bribery to boost sales and took kickbacks from travel agencies to organise conferences that never took place, according to previous reports by state media.
	GSK was fined 3.0 billion yuan (USD 480 million) last September after a nearly year-long 

AFP

AFP

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