A man allegedly shouting "death to Arabs" stabbed and wounded an Arab Israeli today in the town of Herzliya near Tel Aviv, police said.
	Spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement that police arrested a local Jewish Israeli suspected of the attack, in which a municipal cleaner from the Galilee village of Kafr Manda was lightly injured.
	She said the suspect confessed to the assault and "claimed he committed the act for nationalistic reasons".
	Since last summer's deadly war in Gaza, tensions have been high between Jews and Arabs living inside Israel, and there has been a series of lone-wolf Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
	The Israeli Arab community has its roots in the 160,000 Palestinians who stayed on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948.
	Today they and their descendants number around 1.3 million, about 20 percent of the population.

Jewish man stabs Arab Israeli in hate attack

PTI Automatic

American private equity firm TPG and China's Fosun have bought a majority stake in Canadian entertainment juggernaut Cirque du Soleil for an undisclosed sum, the company announced today.
	The circus troupe's founder Guy Laliberte retains a small share of the Montreal-based company he started in 1984 and will continue providing "strategic and creative input" as it seeks to expand in China.
	Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
	However, Canadian media said TPG, which has also invested in rideshare firm Uber and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, acquired a 60 percent share in the firm valued at USD 1.5 billion.
	Fosun, which last month won a bidding war for French holiday company Club Med, gets 20 percent. And the Quebec government through its investment arm Caisse de depot et placement picked up a 10 percent stake.
	"After 30 years building the Cirque du Soleil brand, we have now found the right partners in TPG, Fosun and the Caisse to take Cirque du Soleil forward to the next ...

US and Chinese investors buy Cirque du Soleil

Qatar plans to accomodate some 12,000 football fans on cruise ships during the World Cup in 2022, a spokesman for the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) said today.
     The proposal for "floating hotels" is a revival of an idea which was initially rejected two years ago.
    	However, Qatar is now seeking to strengthen its presence in the cruise ship market and the idea to house fans during the tournament has been re-floated.
	The QTA announced the proposals at a trade conference in the US over the weekend.
	In a statement on the official Qatar News Agency, the QTA said: "Over the past few years, QTA established a number of strong relationships with international cruise operators as well as with other specialists involved in the industry.
	"This has proved to be of great importance especially that Qatar will be extensively benefiting from cruise ships over the 2022 World Cup, as a means of providing additional accommodation supply for fans and visitors over the period.
    	"QTA will be ..

Qatar floats idea of housing 12,000 football fans on ships

Ethiopia will hold three days of national mourning for Ethiopian Christians killed by Islamic State militants in Libya, the government said today.
	The mourning period will begin tomorrow after its official launch by parliament, Communications Minster Redwan Hussein told AFP.
	State television said flags would fly at half mast.
	The 29-minute video issued by the IS group purports to show militants holding two groups of captives, described in text captions as "followers of the cross from the enemy Ethiopian Church".
	A masked fighter in black brandishing a pistol makes a statement threatening Christians if they do not convert to Islam.
	The video then switches between footage of one group of about 12 men being beheaded by masked militants on a beach and another group of at least 16 being shot in the head in a desert area.
	Addis Ababa has condemned the killings, and said its embassy in Egypt was trying to confirm exactly how many died and their identities.
	"Many of them were ...

Ethiopia to hold national mourning after IS kills Christians

Pakistani greats today slammed the team's first ever series loss to Bangladesh, with former captain Javed Miandad terming it the "lowest point" in his country's cricketing history.
     Bangladesh thumped Pakistan by seven wickets in the second one-day international in Dhaka yesterday, their fourth series win over a full-member nation after victories against Zimbabwe, the West Indies and New Zealand.
     "Losing to Bangladesh is the lowest point but if we do not take big measures our cricket will decline further," batting legend Miandad told AFP.
     Miandad, who last year resigned from the post of director general of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) praised Bangladesh.
     "Bangladesh is not the same Bangladesh they used to be and I think they can now upset any team because they are getting better and better with each day," he said.
     "I did a little bit of coaching in Bangladesh and told them of some basics, like they were weak on short pitch deliveries, and praise to them ...

Pakistan greats slam team over Bangladesh defeat

At least three people, including a child, died when a boat carrying more than 80 migrants sank off the Greek island of Rhodes today, police said.
	The sailing boat carrying the migrants ran aground on rocks off the Aegean island on a crossing from Turkey, a police spokesman told AFP.
	Most of the survivors had to be pulled from the sea, and police fear the death toll could yet grow as they try to determine how many people were on board.
	Of those rescued, "57 are safe and sound and 23 were taken to hospital in Rhodes," he said.
	There has been a surge in migrants trying to reach Greece's Aegean islands from the Turkish coast in the last 10 days.
	More than 700 migrants arrived on the island of Lesbos last week.
	Greece's radical left government, which has taken a less hardline attitude to migrants than its predecessors, appealed to local authorities last week to help accommodate the latest wave of refugees.
	Greece lacks the means and the infrastructure to adequately cope with the ...

Child among migrants drowned off Greece in new tragedy

The International Organization for Migration said today it had received a distress call from a sinking boat in the Mediterranean carrying more than 300 people, with at least 20 people reported dead.
	IOM's Rome office has received a call for help from one of three boats floating near each other in international waters, spokesman Joel Millman said.
	"The caller said that there are over 300 people on his boat and it is already sinking (and) he has already reported fatalities, 20 at least," he wrote in an email, adding that no further details were yet available.
	The announcement came as European Union interior and foreign ministers were due to meet to discuss the latest migrant tragedy Sunday when some 700 people were feared killed after a boat capsized off Libya.
	That disaster followed a week in which two other migrant shipwrecks left an estimated 450 people dead, sparking calls for immediate action.
	Some 11,000 migrants have been rescued since the middle of last week alone and ...

Distress call from boat in Med with 300 people on board: IOM

The future of the classic Italian Grand Prix at Monza remained uncertain Monday after it was revealed by Formula One commercial ring-master Bernie Ecclestone that he was considering dumping it from the calendar.
	 "They don't have an agreement, so we have got to wait and see haven't we?" said Ecclestone at the weekend while attending the Bahrain Grand Prix. "It's a bit like Germany really."
	 The German Grand Prix, scheduled this year to be held on July 19, was axed last month (March) to the amazement of many observers.
	 This season will be the first since 1960 not to have included a German Grand Prix - at a time when Mercedes Benz are world champions and Germany has two top drivers contending for wins in the title race.
	 Italy is one of only two remaining countries that have hosted a Grand Prix every year since the championship began in 1950. Monza hosted all but one of those races (Imola was the venue in 1980), but its current agreement ends next year (2016).
	If the Italian race .

Monza in peril as Ecclestone considers future

One man died and another was hospitalised today after a fire caused by a powerful quake off Taiwan that also set buildings shaking in the capital Taipei and sparked a short-lived tsunami warning in far southwestern Japan.
	Japanese forecasters had warned the 6.6 magnitude earthquake could cause a tsunami as high as one metre (three feet) affecting several islands in the Okinawa chain, but lifted the alert around an hour later, with no abnormal waves recorded.
	No damage was reported in Japan, but a four-storey apartment building in New Taipei City caught fire after an electrical box outside the block exploded in the quake.
	A 65-year-old man who lived in the building "showed no signs of life" at the scene, the fire service said.
	Another 18-year-old resident remains in hospital with smoke inhalation, but he is not in a serious condition, the fire service said.
	Residents and office workers were evacuated from a building in central Taipei because of a feared gas leak and vehicles in a .

Powerful quake hits Taiwan and Japan, tsunami warning lifted

US paratroopers launched a training mission today for Ukrainian government forces who will fight pro-Russian separatists in the east, angering Moscow as the deadly conflict rumbles on.
	President Petro Poroshenko welcomed troops from the US 173rd Airborne Brigade for Operation Fearless Guardian in a rain-soaked ceremony at a military base in Yavoriv, western Ukraine.
	"We are the eyewitnesses and direct participants in forming the new Ukrainian military, which like the phoenix is returning after a long time," Poroshenko told the assembled troops.
	Officials said some 300 US troops will train 900 members of Ukraine's National Guard, which is deployed in the east where heavy arms fire continues despite a February ceasefire.
	US Army Major Michael Weisman told AFP the US mission would provide training in individual and medical skills and defence manoeuvres, with the kind of weapons already in use by the Ukrainian forces such as AK-47 assault rifles.
	As the US troops arrived in Ukraine ..

US starts training Ukraine to fight pro-Russian militants

Japan plans to launch an unmanned mission to the moon as a stepping stone to a future visit to Mars, officials and local media said today.
	The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) unveiled the plan for a moon lander to a council of the cabinet office and the ministry of education, culture, sports science and technology, a JAXA official said.
	If successful, Japan will be the fourth country to send an unmanned probe to the moon after Russia, the United States and China.
	"This is an initial step and a lot of procedures are still ahead before the plan is formally approved," the official said.
	According to the evening edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun, JAXA plans to launch the moon mission as early as the fiscal year starting in April 2018, with a development cost estimated at up to 15 billion yen (USD 126 million).
	The probe, named SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon), will be carried by the nation's solid-fuel "Epsilon" rocket, the newspaper said, adding that the ministry ...

Japan planning moon mission: space agency

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said today the bloc had "no more excuses" not to act to halt the flood of migrants as Italy and Malta continued to look for survivors from the latest shipwreck.
	More than 700 people are feared dead after a fishing boat crammed with migrants seeking a better life in Europe capsized off Libya, with some survivors suggesting nearly 1,000 could have been on board.
	"With this latest tragedy... We have no more excuses, the EU has no more excuses, the member states have no more excuses," Mogherini said.
	"We need immediate action from the EU and the member states," she said as she arrived for an emergency meeting of foreign and interior ministers to discuss what could be done.
	Italian and Maltese navy boats meanwhile continued a desperate search for the victims of yesterday's disaster, as an Italian vessel brought the first group of survivors and 24 bodies to Malta.
	The Bruno Gregoracci coast guard cutter docked with 24 body bags laid out on its 

Mogherini tells EU 'no more excuses' on migrants

Nigerian health authorities said today that ethanol poisoning from a local gin may have been responsible for the sudden death of 18 people last week.
	"We strongly suspect ethanol poisoning and in view of this, we have ordered for another toxicology test for the surviving victims," Ondo state health commissioner Dayo Adeyanju told AFP.
	Preliminary investigations ruled out viral or Ebola infection for the outbreak of the mysterious illness in the southwestern town of Ode-Irele on April 15.
	"Our investigations revealed that five of the victims took local gin mixed with herbs. Three of them died while the other two have been put under close observation," he said.
	In total, 23 people were affected, out of which 18 died. The five others were referred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital for further tests and monitoring.
	Adeyanju said the disease was not contagious, adding no new case has been reported for the past four days.
	"We will continue to monitor the situation. We are ...

'Local gin' suspected of causing 18 mystery Nigeria deaths

A powerful 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's western Sumatra island today, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of casualties or damage.
	The undersea tremor hit at 4:05 pm (local time) at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles), 215 kilometres south of Bengkulu, and almost 500 kilometres west of the capital Jakarta, said the USGS.
	Fadli Yusuf, an official from Indonesia's meteorology, climate and geophysics agency, said the quake was felt moderately in parts of Sumatra but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
	Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
	A huge undersea quake in 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed more than 170,000 people in Aceh province on Sumatra, and tens of thousands more in other countries with coasts on the Indian Ocean.

6.0 magnitude quake rattles Indonesia's Sumatra: USGS

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu drew ridicule today after blaming a printing error for the absence of any mention of the peace process with Kurdish rebels in his party's manifesto for June 7 elections.
	The peace process to end a decades-long conflict with the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) has been one of the cornerstone policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) which has been in power for over 12 years.
	But commentators were mystified last week when there was no mention of the peace process neither in the AKP's 350-page election manifesto nor in a long speech by Davutoglu to present it.
	The prime minister insisted that the omission had no meaning and said some pages had slipped off on the way to the printers due to a problem with the digital formatting.
	"We noticed that some pages fell out when the manifesto was being sent to printer: one or two pages fell out," Davutoglu said yesterday.
	"But those pages will be added back and the manifesto will be ...

Turkey PM mocked for 'printing error' peace process omission

Australia and Iran will share intelligence to track foreign fighters working with the Islamic State group in Iraq, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said today after a visit to Tehran.
	After meeting with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, President Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign affairs adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Bishop said it would be an informal arrangement.
	"We have a common purpose with Iran in defeating Daesh and helping the Iraqi government," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, using an Arabic acronym to refer to the militant IS organisation.
	"During my discussions with the national leadership here, it was agreed that we could share intelligence, particularly on the foreign terrorist fighters from Australia who are taking part in this conflict in Iraq."
	More than 100 Australians have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight with the jihadists, raising concerns about the threat of "home-grown" extremists.
	On Saturday, two .

Australia brokers intelligence-sharing deal with Iran

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key today invited Chinese officials to quiz him about reports that Wellington worked with US intelligence on a plan to hack Chinese diplomatic communications.
	Beijing has reportedly expressed concern at the claims, which are based on documents from US whistleblower Edward Snowden obtained by Auckland's Herald on Sunday newspaper.
	The newspaper reported that New Zealand intelligence and the US National Security Agency collaborated on a plan to hack a data link between China's consulate in Auckland and a nearby visa office run by the Chinese.
	It said it was unclear whether the hack went ahead because Snowden fled the NSA in May 2013, before it had come to fruition.
	State news agency Xinhua said the Chinese embassy in Wellington issued a statement saying it was concerned about the report and attached great importance to cyber security.
	"We will firmly safeguard our security interests and continue to guarantee our cyber and information security with ...

New Zealand PM happy to talk to China about spy claims

A road accident in Kazakhstan has killed at least 16 people, including three children, Kazakh authorities today, after a minibus collided with a van.
	The bodies of 13 of the 19 people travelling in the minibus were found at the crash site in Kazakhstan's southern Jambyl region near Kyrgyzstan Sunday, along with the driver of the van.
	A further two passengers died in hospital, medics in the ex-Soviet Central Asian country confirmed.
	The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibus was heading to northern Kazakhstan from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek at the time of the collision on Sunday morning.

Road accident kills 16 in Kazakhstan

US Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during an unannounced visit to Cairo, the president's office said.
	The meeting which was held yesterday evening came amid a quickening rapprochement between the longtime allies after Washington in March lifted a partial freeze on its USD 1.5 billion annual aid to Egypt that it imposed when then-army chief Sisi ousted elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
	"The meeting underscored the strong ties between Egypt and the USA and the importance of their strategic relationship as well as their commitment to promote relations," a statement from the president's office said.
	"The two sides agreed to continue consultation and coordination on issues of mutual interest, particularly with regard to areas witnessing conflict in the Middle East and international efforts to eradicate terrorism."
	Egypt has been battling jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula who have pledged allegiance to the ..

CIA chief holds Egypt talks

Fast food giant McDonald's today said it was aware of a New Zealand woman's allegation she found a half-eaten cockroach in a hamburger bought at one of its South Island restaurants.
	Annah Sophia Stevenson told Fairfax New Zealand that she bought a Big Mac meal on Saturday night then found the cockroach when she was back at home and part-way through eating the burger.
	"The guts were hanging out and it had a big hole in the middle of it," the 26-year-old make-up artist said.
	"I was trying to squeeze my teeth through it. I was chewing on that thing for a while. I thought it was a bit of gristly meat."
	Stevenson did not complain to the restaurant, instead posting pictures on Facebook and saying she felt "violated, ill, traumatised and disgusted".
	McDonald's said that its franchisee in the town of Blenheim contacted Stevenson as soon as it became aware of the allegations on social media.
	It said the franchise collected "the burger and foreign object" so they could be sent for ...

McDonald's faces 'cockroach burger' claim in New Zealand

Asian and African leaders gather in Indonesia this week to mark 60 years since a landmark conference that helped forge a common identity among emerging states, but analysts say big-power rivalries will overshadow proclamations of solidarity.
	Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japan's Prime Minster Shinzo Abe and leaders from several African countries, as well as Iran's President Hassan Rouhani will attend commemorations of the 1955 conference that laid the foundations for the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
	The original conference in 1955 gathered around 30 countries, many of them newly independent after decades of colonialism and foreign occupation, in the city of Bandung on Java island. It was led by Indonesian independence hero Sukarno.
	Other prominent figures included Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, who were among leaders who founded the NAM several years later, an organisation for countries that did not want to take sides during the ..

AFP

AFP

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