Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi announced yesterday he is to be a father again by posting a picture of his pregnant partner on social media.
     The four-time Ballon d'Or, 27, took to Instagram to post a picture of his son, Thiago, kissing Antonella Roccuzzo's stomach with the message: "Can't wait to welcome you into our world!!! We love you! Thiagui, mum and dad."
    	Local press in Argentina had been speculating about Messi's future fatherhood since February with newspaper Clarin saying the couple already knew they were due to have a baby boy who would be named Benjamin.
    	Messi and Roccuzzo's first son was born in November 2012.

Messi to become a father for second time

PTI Automatic

North Korean diplomats stormed out of a UN conference on human rights after lashing out at the United States for inviting three defectors to speak at the event.
	Pyongyang envoy Ri Song Chol interrupted the conference yesterday when he tried to deliver a statement following the poignant testimony of Joseph Kim who fled North Korea as an orphaned, homeless and hungry teenager.
	US Ambassador Samantha Power ordered UN staff to turn off the North Korean diplomat's microphone and security guards were dispatched to the conference room at UN headquarters.
	The three diplomats then stood up and left the room telling reporters that they were denied the opportunity to speak as a UN member-state.
	Ri accused the United States of "murdering innocent black people" and pointed to the deaths of African Americans in Baltimore and Ferguson as proof that the US "is the true kingpin of human rights violations."
	He blasted the event as a "one-sided political drama."
	Power in turn accused the North ...

North Korea diplomats storm out of UN rights meeting

The crisis in Burundi over President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid to cling to power for a third term is "very dangerous", a US envoy has warned.
	Speaking after talks with the central African nation's president, senior US diplomat Tom Malinowski yesterday said Washington could impose targeted sanctions over the crisis.
	Unrest broke out in Burundi on Sunday, after the ruling CNDD-FDD party designated President Nkurunziza as its candidate for the next presidential election, which is due to be held on June 26.
	Opposition figures and rights groups say that Nkurunziza's attempt to stand for a third consecutive term goes against the constitution as well as a peace deal that ended a civil war in 2006.
	"The positon of the United States on the issue of a third term is one that is clear. We made it known publicly many times before and I reiterated it in front of president Nkurunziza this morning," said Malinowski, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and ..

US envoy says Burundi situation remains 'very dangerous'

Clashes broke out in Jerusalem as more than 1,000 angry Ethiopian Israelis staged a protest, demanding an investigation into alleged police racism and violence.
	The protest started outside the city's police headquarters yesterday, with demonstrators blocking off one of the city's main traffic arteries and the light rail service, an AFP correspondent said.
	Protesters waved banners reading: "Stop police brutality, stop racism" and "Today it's him, tomorrow it's you!"
	They then marched towards the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where they also blocked the road before being stopped by a large number of police equipped with water cannon.
	"Enough of racism!" they chanted, some of them waving Israeli flags, others holding up the Ethiopian flag.
	"In Europe they kill Jews because they're Jews, here they kill Jews for being black," read one placard.
	Police said the crowd hurled stones and bottles with police using anti-riot measures to keep them at bay, including tear gas 

Clashes as Ethiopian Israelis protest police brutality

Former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight pleaded not guilty today over a hit-and-run incident earlier this year that left one man dead and another seriously injured in Los Angeles.
	Knight denied charges of murder, attempted murder and hit-and-run over the death of Terry Carter, 55, and wounding of Cle "Bone" Sloan, 51, in a parking lot in Compton in January.
	Knight's trial is scheduled for July 7. Los Angeles Superior Court judge Ronald Coen again refused a request by his lawyer Matthew Fletcher to lower his USD 10 million bail. A pre-trial hearing has been set for May 29.
	Lawyers for Knight have argued he acted in self-defense after being attacked by Sloan and others in broad daylight.
	Sloan, expected to be a key witness in the case, told the court earlier this month that he was only giving evidence because he had been subpoenaed to do so, insisting he was not "a snitch.

'Suge' Knight pleads not guilty to murder

Saudi Arabia said its forces today killed dozens of rebels from Yemen who launched their first major attack on the kingdom since Saudi-led air strikes began last month.
	Three Saudi soldiers also died in the battle after the rebels targeted their observation posts, the defence ministry said.
	"The ground troops today repelled an attack at the southern Najran border" by Huthi Shiites and allied troops loyal to Yemen's former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, it said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
	"The ground troops engaged them" with support from air strikes, the ministry said.

Saudi says dozens of Yemen rebels dead in border battle

Three people died as a result of torrential rains and high winds that damaged more than two dozen structures and flooded parts of Havana, local media reported today.
	The official Granma newspaper said the Cuban capital was hit last afternoon by a line of severe thunderstorms packing winds of up to 98 kilometers per hour.
	The island's civil defense command said the victims included a 77-year-old woman who drowned in flood waters that swept parts of Old Havana.
	The newspaper also said a 23-year-old man was electrocuted by a falling powerline.
	State-run television also reported the death of a 43-year-old lawyer.
	Parts of the city faced electricity outages, the state electric power company said.
	The storm also toppled trees, ripped away roofs and damaged walls.
	Three buildings collapsed, and 24 other structures suffered damage, Granma said.
	Building collapses are not uncommon in Old Havana where housing stock is densely inhabited and in poor condition.
	An estimated 10,000 people .

Storm leaves three dead in Havana

Oil prices rose further today, extending the previous day's gains on a drop in US crude inventories that offset disappointing growth data in the world's biggest economy.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in June climbed 54 cents to USD 59.13 a barrel compared with Wednesday's close.
	Brent North Sea crude for June delivery also gained 54 cents to stand at USD 66.38 a barrel in late London deals.
	Inventories at the key US oil terminal hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, reported its first decline since late November, US data showed today.
	Signs of cutbacks in US oil output, a key factor in the global supply glut that has driven prices to plunge by as much as 60 per cent since June last year, were also supporting prices, according to analysts.
	But the US Commerce Department noted that the economy of the United States, which is the top oil-consuming nation, stalled in the first quarter this year, expanding at an annual pace of just 0.2 per cent, much slower than the 1.0 per ...

Oil prices rise further

The Ukrainian presidency today said Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in war-torn eastern Ukraine, after the leaders of both countries spoke by phone with their French and German counterparts.
	"In the context of the discussion of ways towards a peaceful resolution (of the conflict), President Putin has accepted the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping contingent to the Donbass region," the presidency said in a statement.
	Moscow however made no mention of a possible peacekeeping force in its own statement issued after the talks.
	The leaders "noted certain progress on issues of how to ensure a ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons in the conflict zone," the Kremlin statement said.
	The French presidency also made no mention of peacekeepers, saying in a statement that the parties had reviewed the implementation of the peace accords and "considered areas for improvement".
	In February, French President Francois Hollande and ...

Kiev says Putin open to peacekeeping mission in east Ukraine

Civil rights campaigners today launched a smartphone app that can video record interactions between police and member of the public, and store them for potential use in legal action.
	The free app, developed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), comes amid an upsurge in protests over a series of deaths of African Americans in custody or at the hands of white police officers.
	Videos recorded using the Mobile Justice CA cellphone app can be sent to a local ACLU office as a way to report possible civil rights violations by police.
	The app, available for Android and iOS phones, will ensure that videos are uploaded and stored even if the user's phone is lost, seized or destroyed.
	"The concerns over police practices, including racial profiling and excessive use of force, are very real for communities across the state,'' ACLU of Southern California Executive Director Hector Villagra said.
	"This app will help serve as a check on abuse -- whether by police officers, sheriff's ...

US smartphone app sends police incident videos to lawyers

The US government ordered South Korean industrial materials group Kolon Industries today to pay USD 360 million over the theft of secrets from DuPont on making its Kevlar body armor fabric.
	Kolon also agreed in a separate deal to pay EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. An unspecified sum to end six years of litigation, during which DuPont had won a USD 920 million award in 2011 that was then annulled on appeal last year.
	The Department of Justice said Kolon agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets in the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
	The company was sentenced to pay USD 85 million in criminal fines and USD 275 million in restitution to DuPont.
	Between 2006 and 2009 Kolon paid former DuPont employees to obtain internal documents on its high-strength Kevlar synthetic aramid fiber.
	Known for its use in body armor, Kevlar also has applications in fiber optic cables, spacesuits, tires and other industrial products.
	A jury in 2011 awarded DuPont the ...

US fines Kolon USD 360 mn as DuPont Kevlar theft case ends

Former US and Russian commanders today called for scrapping "hair-trigger" alerts on nuclear weapons that carry grave risks of a potential atomic disaster -- especially in an age of cyber attacks.
		Retired military officers from the United States, Russia and other nuclear powers issued a report warning of the mounting dangers of the short fuses that allow hundreds of atomic weapons to be launched within minutes.
	The high alert status is a legacy of outdated Cold War doctrine, when US and Soviet leaders feared a devastating first strike that could "decapitate" an entire nuclear force, according to the report sponsored by the disarmament group Global Zero.
	"Hundreds of missiles carrying nearly 1,800 warheads are ready to fly at a moment's notice," said the report. "These legacy postures of the Cold War are anachronisms but they remain fully operational."
	The hair-trigger alert, which applies to half of the US and Russian arsenals, is particularly dangerous in an era when "warning ...

End 'hair-trigger' alert for US, Russian nukes: study

A Saudi border guard was killed today along Yemen's frontier, raising to nine the death toll for the kingdom's armed forces since a Saudi-led air war on Yemeni rebels, the interior ministry said.
	The air strikes launched on March 25 to halt an advance by Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels have sparked exchanges of fire along the border region, where all the Saudi casualties have occurred.
	The latest Saudi victim was the driver of a border guards vehicle delivering supplies in Jazan district, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
	The patrol was hit by a "military projectile", the statement said without elaborating.
	Saudi Arabia has reinforced the frontier with artillery, tanks and hilltop lookout posts to block any Huthi incursion from their traditional highland stronghold just over the border.
	The UN says about half of the more than 1,000 people killed in the Yemen fighting since late March were civilians, and millions of people have ..

9th Saudi soldier killed on Yemen border: ministry

The head of the Syrian opposition National Coalition called on the United States today to help set up safe havens inside Syria in areas under rebel control.
	Meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department, coalition president Khaled Khoja thanked the United States for giving more than USD 3 billion in aid to the Syrian people since the outbreak of the war in 2011.
	Speaking through a translator, he said he would brief Kerry on the latest political and military developments.
	"We are here also to ask the assistance of the US in establishing safe havens in liberated areas."
	The moderate-opposition backed by the US and its allies has been fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a battle Kerry admitted was against "difficult odds."
	Successive attempts at launching peace talks have so far proved fruitless.
	A key sticking point has remained Assad's future, with the National Coalition insisting he must step down, a demand refused by the ...

Syria rebels urge US to help create safe havens

The Red Cross warned today that nearly all homes had been wiped out in some towns and villages near the epicentre of Nepal's devastating earthquake.
	The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said they remained "extremely concerned" about the welfare of hundreds of thousands of people in Nepal, five days after a massive earthquake that killed nearly 6,000 people.
	In areas outside the Kathmandu Valley, the fate of many people remains unknown, the organisation said.
	"Six Red Cross assessment teams are reporting that some towns and villages in the worst-affected districts close to the epicentre have suffered almost total devastation," it said in a statement.
	"Local residents are in a desperate situation," it added.
	The devastation appeared particularly dire in the Sindupalchowk region, a mountainous area northeast of Kathmandu, which was becoming a major focus of international relief efforts.
	"One of our teams that returned from Chautara in ...

Almost total devastation near Nepal quake epicentre: Red Cross

A Kremlin statement today did not mention a claim by Kiev that President Vladimir Putin is open to sending a peacekeeping force to eastern Ukraine following a phone conversation between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
	The statement said that the leaders "noted certain progress on issues of how to ensure a ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons in the conflict zone.

Kremlin statement on Ukraine does not mention peacekeepers

Nepalese soldiers in the British army -- the Gurkhas -- marked the 200th anniversary of their brigade's foundation today in an event marred by the devastating earthquake in their homeland.
	As dozens of British survivors from the quake returned home to their loved ones in emotional scenes at London's Stansted Airport, some 200 Gurkhas marched in the city centre and prayed for Nepal.
	"To see all these heart-wrenching pictures, I am just praying," said Captain Gary Ghale, 60, formerly of the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles.
	"I'm praying... That help reaches people in time and there is proper sanitisation because the aftermath can kill more people than the earthquake itself."
	A military transport carrying 18 Gurkha soldiers flew out on Monday to assist relief efforts after the disaster, which killed more than 5,500 people.
	Britain announced today it was to send three Royal Air Force Chinook helicopters as part of the aid effort.
	Gurkha major Dev Gurung stressed that the ...

Nepal quake casts pall over Gurkha anniversary

A Burundi soldier was shot dead by an intelligence officer while at least nine protesters were hurt in renewed clashes in the capital Bujumbura today, over a bid by the country's president to stand for a third term.
	The soldier died and a civilian was hurt when an intelligence officer opened fire near a barricade erected by protesters, said a senior police officer speaking on condition of anonymity.
	The officer was "at a spot where the demonstrators had built a barricade. He felt threatened. He shot and hit a soldier who was killed," said the source, describing the shooting as "an unfortunate incident."
	The Red Cross reported that nine protesters had been hurt. It confirmed, before the soldier's death,  that the overall toll from days of violent protest stood at six dead.
	Three were killed on the first day of protests on Sunday -- when police were accused of firing on demonstrators -- and three later that night in an alleged attack by ruling party militia forces.
	The nine people .

Soldier killed as Burundi hit by more violent protests

Lawyers for the Maldives' former president Mohamed Nasheed said they filed a petition with the United Nations today arguing that his detention is illegal and a violation of international law.
	The appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva came as Nasheed's wife Laila Ali visited Washington to lobby the White House, State Department and Congress to press for his release.
	"This is a very difficult time for me and my children, but today I also have hope," Ali said in Washington, alongside her legal team that includes London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.
	Nasheed was imprisoned for 13 years in March following a rushed trial which the United Nations says violated international standards as well as the Maldives' own laws and practices.
	President Abdulla Yameen has called on foreign governments to respect the conviction of Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected president, who was toppled in 2012 after what he called a coup.
	Clooney, whose ...

Lawyers petition UN over jailed Maldives ex-president

Jihadists of the Islamic State group claimed they beheaded four Yemeni soldiers and shot dead another 11 execution-style in a video posted online today, a monitoring group said.
	The soldiers were shown in front of the camera before jihadists were seen sharpening their knives and killing four of them, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a US website monitor.
	The heads of the four young men were then seen on the ground, in the video said to have been filmed in the southern province of Shabwa.
	The footage shows 10 more soldiers, blindfolded and crouching with their hands bound, being shot once each in the forehead, while another is riddled with bullets from behind.
	According to SITE, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has denied responsibility for the killings which took place in mid-April.
	They were instead claimed by the "Shabwa Province" militia that has declared itself as a division of IS, a Sunni extremist group that has overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria.
	Shabwa was ...

IS jihadists claim killing of 15 Yemen soldiers: SITE

Ten militants and nine soldiers died in clashes between the Malian army and the main Tuareg rebel alliance, the government said today, raising fears for the country's fragile peace process.
	The Tuareg-led Coordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA) provoked the deadliest battle in almost a year between security forces and the rebellion as its fighters ambushed the central town of Lere on Wednesday.
	"The provisional toll of the clashes is: armed forces -- nine dead, six injured, six hostages, one damaged vehicle," the ministry said in a statement.
	"Enemy side: 10 dead and 16 injured, two vehicles destroyed; one vehicle, arms and ammunition recovered."
	Defence Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly said Lere was under control and "encourages the armed forces to fulfil their duty with determination to the service of our country", the statement added.
	A foreign security source confirmed the fighting had stopped late on Wednesday, adding there was "no winner, no loser", with the rebels ..

AFP

AFP

Page 2369 - Afp