Hundreds of people have been found dead in the northeast Nigerian town of Damasak, apparently victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, as details have emerged of fresh attacks by the militants.
	Reports yesterday of decomposing bodies littering the streets of Damasak came as president Muhammadu Buhari denounced the Islamists as a bogus religious group and vowed a hard line against them when he comes to power at the end of next month.
	Northeast Nigeria has been relentlessly targeted throughout the jihadists' six-year uprising but there had been a lull in violence in recent weeks.
	A coalition of troops from Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria has claimed major victories since February, reportedly flushing the militants out of areas they previously controlled.
	The discovery of hundreds of bodies, including women and children, and the latest attacks underlined both the brutality of the conflict and the continuing threat posed by the extremists.

'Hundreds' found dead as fresh Boko Haram violence hits

PTI Automatic

A United Nations employee working as a liaison in Iraq's Diyala province has been "abducted" northeast of Baghdad, a spokeswoman for the UN mission in the country has said.
	The Iraqi employee, whose name has not been released, was seized on Sunday in Diyala's provincial capital Baquba, Eliana Nabaa said yesterday.
	"We are coordinating with the government" but further details on the incident are not yet available, she said.
	"We hope we will have this colleague back among us very soon."
	The abduction comes at a time when hundreds of thousands of Iraqis displaced by violence over the past year are depending on UN assistance to survive.
	Iraq was plagued by kidnappings in previous years, but they declined after the 2007-2008 peak of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in Iraq.
	But the threat has been on the rise again since last year, when the Islamic State jihadist group led an offensive that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad.
	IS has kidnapped thousands of people in Iraq, ..

UN employee 'abducted in Iraq'

A crack defence team launched its bid to save Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from the death penalty, blaming his older brother Tamerlan, "consumed by jihad," for the 2013 carnage.
	"As awful as his crime was, life in prison faced with what he has done is a better choice for everyone," said lawyer David Bruck in his opening statement at the penalty phase of Tsarnaev's trial yesterday.
	The 21-year-old former student was found guilty this month of carrying out the 2013 bombings that killed three people and wounded 264 in one of the deadliest attacks in the US since 9/11.
	The immigrant of Chechen descent was convicted on all 30 counts related to the bombings, the murder of a police officer, a carjacking and a shootout while on the run in April 2013.
	Bruck showed the Boston courtroom a picture of America's only federal "supermax" prison in the wilds of Colorado, where he said Tsarnaev would live out the remainder of his days in obscurity.
	"You will punish him and protect society at ...

Defence blames Boston bombings on dead older brother

Alleged "Batman" theatre gunman James Holmes meticulously planned the 2012 massacre after breaking up with his girlfriend and flunking college, prosecutors have said, giving harrowing details of the slaughter.
	In opening remarks at Holmes' trial yesterday, prosecutor George Brauchler gave the first authoritative blow-by-blow account of the killings that left 12 dead and 70 injured in Aurora, Colorado.
	"On a cool July night...400 people filed into a box-like theatre to be entertained...And one person came in to slaughter them," the prosecutor said, pointing at Holmes in a hushed courtroom.
	The death toll could have been much higher, Brauchler said -- but a gun cartridge jammed in the movie theatre, while booby-trapped explosives he rigged at his apartment failed to go off.
	The 27-year-old, who has pleaded not guilty due to insanity, listened calmly as the prosecutor set out his case on the first day of his trial, which could see Holmes face the death sentence.
	Holmes -- who ...

'Batman' theatre gunman trial hears massacre plans

Local elections in Japan produced just four female mayors of the 222 positions up for grabs, results showed today, underlining the challenges for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pledge to put women in 30 percent of senior roles by 2020.
	Nationwide there was an increase by one in the total number of female mayors and governors, to 26 of 1,788 posts after Sunday's polls.
	Now two women are governors, and 24 are mayors -- 20 of whom were not up re-election this year.
	There were vacancies for the top local job in 222 cities, towns and villages across the nation, but only 142 were contested. The remaining 80 won by default. Voter turnout was low across the country.
	The elections, which also saw nearly 600 municipal assemblies elected, were the second wave after polls held earlier in the month.
	They come four months after Abe won re-election as premier and as he continues to push the notion that Japan should be a place "where women can shine" -- a policy he has dubbed "womenomics".
	That is 

Just four new female mayors defy Japan's 'womenomics'

French IT services and consulting company Capgemini said today it was buying New Jersey-based IGATE for USD 4 billion (3.7 billion euros), boosting its US-generated business to 30 per cent of its total activity.
	"IGATE is a leading company that perfectly fits our strategic ambition. It will give us a new status on the American market, and take further our industrialisation journey to offer ever more competitive services to our clients," said Capgemini president Paul Hermelin in a statement.
	Hermelin said the combined companies would post 12.5 billion euros in annual revenues, a third of which would be generated in North America, which he called the "largest and most innovative market for IT services... (and) by far the first market of the Group."
	In a conference call with reporters, Hermelin noted that in considering various acquisition options, Capgemini had "above all looked for a company that would allow us to reinforce geographically in the United States" -- something IGATE ...

Capgemini to buy IGATE in USD 4 billion US expansion push

The use of air conditioning may rise dramatically by the end of the century, requiring far more electricity and sending pollutants into the atmosphere at unprecedented rates, researchers warned today.
	Refrigerators and air conditioners release hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which can be thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and leading to global warming.
	Just a slight increase in income leads many people to purchase air conditioners to improve their quality of life in the sweltering tropics and subtropics, where some three billion people live, according to the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
	Using data from 25 million electricity customers in Mexico to create a model of what may lie ahead for the rest of the world, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley showed that a two percent annual increase in household income, combined with forecasts ...

Air conditioning use poised to spike worldwide: study

Prosecutors charged the former treasurer of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's party today with 24 new counts of money laundering in a corruption scandal involving state oil giant Petrobras and high-ranking politicians.
	Joao Vaccari, who resigned as Workers' Party (PT) treasurer after being arrested on April 15, is accused of funneling bribes skimmed off the top of inflated Petrobras contracts to the PT's coffers.
	Prosecutors say Petrobras executives colluded with construction companies over the course of a decade to massively overbill the oil giant and use part of the money to bribe politicians, including members of the PT and its allies.
	Vaccari has been caught up in several strands of the investigation into the graft at Petrobras, which the company, the largest in Brazil, said last week had cost it USD 2.1 billion.
	In their latest addition to his growing charge sheet, prosecutors accused him of colluding with former Petrobras services director Renato Duque and businessman ...

Brazil ruling party treasurer hit with new charges

A military transport plane laden with supplies and dozens of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers is to take off from a British air base today headed for their homeland.
	The Boeing C-17 transport plane will carry more than 1,100 shelter kits, including plastic sheeting and rope, and 1,700 solar lanterns, the Department for International Development said in a statement.
	A British defence ministry spokesman told AFP there would be "dozens" of Gurkha engineers on board to assist relief efforts after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 3,800 people.
	The Gurkhas are soldiers from Nepal who serve in the British army and around 2,700 are currently enlisted.
	They are renowned for their ferocity, loyalty and razor-sharp kukri fighting knives. They first served as part of the army in British-run India in 1815.
	Gurkha veterans have been involved in a long campaign to demand better pension arrangements. It is only since 2007 that they have had the same pay and conditions as British ...

Britain sends Gurkha soldiers for Nepal quake aid

The United States and Japan unveiled new rules for defense cooperation today in a historic move that will give Japanese forces a wider global role amid concerns over China's rising sway.
	Under the revised guidelines, Japan could come to the aid of US forces threatened by a third country or, for example, deploy minesweeper ships to a mission in the Middle East.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter revealed the new rules alongside Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani after talks at a New York hotel.
	Although officials said the new doctrine is not aimed at China, there has been increasing concern over moves by Beijing to try to scoop up disputed areas of the South China and East China Seas.
	But they pointedly made mention of North Korea as another source of tension in the region.
	Kerry stressed that the United States saw the disputed Senkaku Islands, known in Chinese as the Diaoyus, as firmly under Japan's ...

In historic sea-change, US, Japan revise defense ties

Canada today sent a C-17 military transport plane loaded with emergency supplies to Nepal and ordered 150 troops on standby to travel overseas to help earthquake victims.
	"We join the rest of the world in mourning the tragic loss of life that has occurred in Nepal and throughout the region as a result of Saturday's earthquake," Defense Minister Rob Nicholson said.
	Ottawa pledged Can$5 million in humanitarian assistance over the weekend, and Nicholson announced Monday that the government would also match individual Canadians' donations, estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars so far.
	Ottawa also offered to expedite immigration applications from the devastated region, which was struck by a huge 7.8 magnitude quake on Saturday, as well as extend student, work or visitor visas for Nepalese.
	The C-17 is expected to arrive in Kathmandu on Wednesday morning to deliver emergency supplies including blankets, cans, kitchen sets, hygiene kits, search and rescue equipment, tarps, ...

Canada sends military transport to deliver aid to Nepal

US top diplomat John Kerry today said he would urge his Iranian counterpart to help ease the violence in Yemen, warning the country's future should not be decided by "external parties."
	Kerry was due to meet later with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as negotiations on a nuclear deal move into a final phase.
	While Kerry stressed that the main thrust of their talks in New York would be on the deal, and a looming June 30 deadline for a comprehensive treaty, he said he was "confident that Yemen will be mentioned certainly, because Iran is obviously a supportive party to the Huthis."
	A coalition of Arab states vowed Monday to coordinate political and military efforts to restore order in Yemen as Saudi-led warplanes launched new air strikes on Shiite Huthi rebels.
	The UN Security Council also went into closed-door consultations on the crisis in Yemen and to hear former envoy Jamal Benomar give a final report.
	The Moroccan diplomat resigned earlier this month after losing 

Kerry to raise Yemen crisis directly with Iran FM

Six prominent novelists are boycotting a New York literary gala next week to protest against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo being honoured with a freedom of expression award.
	Australia's Peter Carey, Canada's Michael Ondaatje, British-born Taiye Selasi, and Americans Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner and Francine Prose have withdrawn from the May 5 PEN American Center gala.
	They informed PEN over the weekend of their decision not to attend the glittering annual event, which is also a key fund-raiser, a month after the Charlie Hebdo award was first announced.
	"They've all been in touch with us to say they didn't feel comfortable attending," PEN executive director Suzanne Nossel said.
	Carey, a two-times Booker Prize winner, told The New York Times that the award stepped beyond PEN's traditional role of protecting freedom of expression against government oppression.
	"A hideous crime was committed, but was it a freedom-of-speech issue for PEN America to be self-righteous about?" the 

Novelists boycott NY gala in Charlie Hebdo protest

Saudi-led coalition warplanes hit anti-government forces in south Yemen today, killing at least 12 Huthi insurgents and allied forces as fighting continued across several provinces, military and local sources said.
	The aircraft pounded five schools converted by the Shiite rebels into military bases in Ataq, the capital of Abyan province, military sources said.
	The raids killed at least 12 insurgents and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied himself with the northern rebels against the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, the sources said.
	Also in Abyan, warplanes targeted rebel positions on the outskirts of Loder, the province's second largest city, witnesses said.
	Clashes were ongoing southwest of Loder between rebels and southern forces that have sided with Hadi, they added.
	Fierce fighting also raged in the central city of Taez, with the warring parties using tanks and rocket-propelled grenades inside residential areas, local officials .

Saudi-led strikes kill at least 12 Yemeni rebels

Britain's Conservative party today said it had suspended its candidate in an upcoming local election after she vowed never to support "the Jew" Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour party.
	Gulzabeen Afsar was hoping to be elected to a council seat near Derby, central England, when Britain goes to the polls on May 7, but will not now be able to run after posting the "offensive and unacceptable remarks" on Facebook.
	She initially wrote that she "just can't take Mr Ed Miliband seriously!!," to which a user named Ziad Amjad replied that she should show "some respect for the future PM".
	Afsar then wrote: "Nah bro! never ever will I drop that low and support the al yahud lol." Al Yahud is Arabic for "the Jew".
	The Tories issued a statement saying that the "candidate concerned has now been formally suspended" from the party.
	"We have taken this prompt action to suspend the candidate following offensive and unacceptable remarks made on social media," said the statement.
	"Our party is ...

UK Conservative candidate suspended over anti-semitic post

Iran today led calls by non-aligned nations for Israel to give up its nuclear weapons as a major conference got underway on advancing prospects for a nuclear-free world.
	Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addressed the conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the landmark nuclear deal reached this month.
	Zarif insisted that the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is demanding that "Israel, the only one in the region that has neither joined the NPT nor declared its intention to do so, renounce possession of nuclear weapons."
	Israel is considered a nuclear-armed state although it has never acknowledged its status and has refused to join the NPT, a treaty that imposes obligations on signatories.
	Israel is sending an observer to the month-long NPT conference for the first time in 20 years.
	Zarif said non-aligned nations are also seeking "as a matter of high priority" to set up a ...

Iran leads calls for Israel to give up nuclear weapons

Google announced today it is setting up an online marketplace for those who want to sell patents to the Internet giant.
	"We invite you to sell us your patents,"  Google patent deputy counsel Allen Lo said in a blog post.
	Lo said the "Patent Purchase Promotion" is an "experimental marketplace for patents that's simple, easy to use, and fast."
	 He noted that patent owners who want to sell often face difficulties.
	"The usual patent marketplace can sometimes be challenging, especially for smaller participants who sometimes end up working with patent trolls," he said.
	"Then bad things happen, like lawsuits, lots of wasted effort, and generally bad karma. Rarely does this provide any meaningful benefit to the original patent owner."
	The new marketplace aims "to remove friction from the patent market" and will include a "streamlined portal" from May 8 through May 22 where patent holders can tell Google about patents they're willing to sell at a price they set.
	"As soon as the portal ..

Google sets up marketplace to buy patents

The United States is sending a total of USD 10 million in relief to help the victims of the Nepal earthquake, US Secretary of State John Kerry said today as the death toll passed 4,000.
	The top US diplomat sent his "deepest condolences" to the people of Nepal, and in the region, who had been affected by the disaster, adding "the images that everybody has seen are gut-wrenching, extraordinary devastation."
	Speaking at a joint press conference with Kerry in New York, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida revealed Tokyo was also sending some $8 million in aid to Nepal.
	Teams of US and Japanese search and rescue experts are beginning to arrive in the devastated region which was struck by a huge 7.8 magnitude quake on Saturday.
	"Tragedies of this magnitude really underscore that in today's world next-door is really everywhere," Kerry said.

US unveils USD 10 mln in Nepal quake aid

Tyrannosaurus rex, one of history's most dreaded carnivores, had an odd-looking vegetarian cousin with a tiny head, long neck and stubby fingers, scientists said today, admitting its anatomy had them puzzled.
	Chilesaurus diegosuarezi had a bird-like beak with leaf-shaped teeth, evidence that it feasted on plants, but with hind leg features similar to theropod dinosaurs, the group into which it was slotted with notorious killers like T. Rex, Velociraptor and the horned Carnotaurus.
	"Chilesaurus constitutes one of the most bizarre dinosaurs ever found," Fernando Novas of Argentina's Natural History Museum in Buenos Aires told AFP of a study published in the journal Nature which he co-authored.
	"At the beginning, I was convinced that we had collected three different dinosaurs, but when the most complete skeleton was prepared, it (became) evident that all the elements pertained to a single dinosaur species."
	The bizarre creature was named after the South American country where its ...

T.Rex's 'bizarre' vegetarian cousin puzzles scientists

Switzerland's 17-times Grand Slam winner Roger Federer today said he still believed Rafael Nadal was the favourite to win the French Open next month despite the Spanish star's troubled start to the clay court season.
     Federer, who took his sole French Open title in 2009, this week is refining his own clay court game at the Istanbul Open, the first ATP World Tour event to be held in Turkey and the first time that Federer has visited the country.
     But Nadal, who with the exception of Federer's win has taken every French Open since 2005 to make nine in total, has shown a dip in form over the past weeks, failing to get past the third round at last week's Barcelona Open.
     Federer said he believed that Nadal was still the man to beat on the red clay of Roland Garros, along with the in-form Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic.
     "At the French Open, Rafa for me is still the favourite alongside Djokovic who has been playing so well.
     "Even though his (Nadal's) form is ..

Federer still fears 'difficult to beat' Nadal at French

China now has the second-largest wine-growing area in the world after Spain, pushing France into third place, according to figures released today by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (IOVW).
	The figures for 2014 showed China had 799,000 hectares (1.97 million acres) of land devoted to wine growing, compared with 1.02 million hectares for Spain.
	France remained the biggest producer of wine in the world, pumping out 47 million hectolitres last year. It also made the most from selling wine abroad, raking in more than 7.7 billion euros (USD 8.4 billion).
	Meanwhile, the United States is the biggest consumer, quaffing some 31,000 hectolitres -- 13 per cent of the global intake -- followed by France and Italy.
	The biggest importers of wine were Germany, the United Kingdom and the US -- with total global trade valued at 26 billion euros.
	China has rapidly emerged as a major player in viniculture, accounting for 11 percent of the territory given over to vineyards last year, .

AFP

AFP

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