Taiwanese demonstrators threw eggs and slippers to protest against China's launch of a controversial new flight route today, accusing the government of failing to stand up to Beijing.
	Thirty-odd members from the radical anti-China opposition party Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) attempted to push their way through a police line that guarded the entrance of a shrine where President Ma Ying-jeou was visiting.
	After chanting slogans like "Ma Ying-jeou betraying, humiliating country" and a series of tussles with police, several of the demonstrators broke through the line but were blocked from going further.
	"People of Taiwan by no means accept M503," a protest leader said, referring to the new route near the middle of the Taiwan Strait which separates the island from mainland China.
	"Ma is a coward. He dares not say 'No' to China."
	Holding protest signs, the crowd angrily pelted eggs and slippers at Ma's motorcade, but the projectiles fell short.
	No one was injured or arrested in the .

Taiwan protesters pelt eggs over China flight route

PTI Automatic

An Air Canada jet came off the runway after landing at Halifax's main airport in Nova Scotia today, sending at least 23 people to hospital, officials said.
	The airline said earlier on Twitter that flight AC624 from Toronto "exited runway upon landing at Halifax."
	It did not say what caused the Airbus A320 to leave the runway after landing at Stanfield International Airport around 12:43 am (local time) today.
	But heavy snow was falling in the eastern Canadian city and Environment Canada issued a snowfall alert, warning of low visibility.
	The airline reported 23 people were harmed, though Halifax airport spokesman Peter Spurway said 25 people were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
	Two of the injured passengers required "urgent attention" but most were being treated for minor cuts and bruises, Spurway said.
	Five crew and 133 passengers were on board the plane, according to Air Canada.
	One passenger said they were made to wait in the snow after exiting the ...

Air Canada jet skids off Halifax runway, at least 23 injured

Voters unable to cast their ballot because of technical problems in Nigeria's general election returned to the polls today, as the main parties traded blows over the use of the technology.
	The country's electoral commission said some 300 of the 150,000 polling stations would be open from 0700 GMT to accredit voters after handheld devices to read biometric identity cards failed.
	Nigeria's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called the situation a "huge national embarrassment" after President Goodluck Jonathan was affected by the malfunction as he tried to register yesterday.
	The ruling party said repeatedly throughout the campaign that the technology should not be used as it was untested and there were questions about officials' ability to use it.
	The main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) backed the new system as a way of curbing widespread vote-rigging that has hit previous elections.
	With the election closely fought, both parties looked set to keep the issue alive. ..

Polling stations re-open in Nigeria after voting extension

Arab coalition warplanes targeting Iran-backed rebels bombed the runway at the Yemeni capital's international airport and killed 15 pro-rebel troops elsewhere in Sanaa, military and aviation sources said today.
	On the fourth night of raids against Shiite rebels and allied troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, Saudi-led strikes paralysed the airport in the rebel-controlled capital.
	"This was the first time they hit the runway" since the campaign began, an aviation source said, a day after UN staff were evacuated from Sanaa. "The airport is completely out of service," he said.
	Witnesses reported hearing three loud explosions and seeing a large fire when the air facility was hit around midnight.
	Meanwhile, overnight air strikes hit the headquarters of the rebel republican guard at Al-Subaha base in Sanaa, killing 15 soldiers, a military official said.
	A medic at a military hospital in the capital said it had received 12 bodies and 18 wounded soldiers after the ...

Raids cripple Yemen's main airport, kill 15 rebel troops

Syrian government forces apparently executed at least nine prisoners in the city of Idlib before Islamist fighters overran the provincial capital, a monitor said today.
	The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bodies of at least nine detainees had been found after the northwestern city was overrun by a coalition of forces including Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
	"The bodies of nine people believed to have been killed by regime forces before Idlib's capture were found at a detention centre," the Britain-based group said.
	Al-Nusra meanwhile released video on Twitter showing fighters from the group discovering the bodies in a prison in Idlib.
	At least nine bodies of male prisoners were visible in a single dark cell, five of them lying side-by-side, and several partially covered in blood.
	It was unclear how the men had been killed.
	The discovery came after a coalition of Islamist fighters seized full control of Idlib yesterday, on the fifth day of fighting for ..

Syria regime executed prisoners before Idlib fall: monitor

Six people were killed and four others were missing after a landslide triggered by heavy rain hit Indonesia's main island of Java, an official said today.
	The landslide took place in Tegal Panjang village in Sukabumi district in west Java late Saturday after a particularly heavy downpour, said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
	"The landslide took place suddenly during a heavy rain. The cliff collapsed and hit a settlement," Sutopo said, adding that 11 houses were also buried under the debris.
	"Six people died and four others are missing and are still being searched for," he said.
	Landslides triggered by heavy rains and floods are common in tropical Indonesia during the rainy season.
	The national disaster agency estimates around half the country's 250 million population lives in areas prone to landslides.
	The vast Indonesian archipelago is one of the most natural disaster-prone nations on Earth, and is also frequently hit by earthquakes and volcanic ...

Six dead, four missing, in Indonesian landslide

The captain of a passenger jet that investigators believe was deliberately crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, shouted at the co-pilot to "open the damn door"

Germanwings crashed flight captain shouted 'open the damn door'

Press Trust of India

World-power foreign ministers were due today to make a final push to get Iran to agree to curtail its nuclear programme days before a looming deadline to agree the outlines of a deal.
	On Saturday officials expressed guarded optimism that after 18 months of tortuous negotiations and two missed deadlines a breakthrough might be in sight for a deal ending 12 years of tensions.
	"We're moving forward," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, hunkered down with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Switzerland since Thursday, told reporters.
	"I think we can in fact make the necessary progress to be able to resolve all the issues and start writing them down in a text," Zarif said.
	German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who like French counterpart Laurent Fabius joined the negotiations on Saturday, said the talks were in the "endgame".
	Steinmeier added however that "the final metres are the most difficult but also the decisive ones".
	Russia's chief negotiator, Sergei ...

World-power foreign ministers press for Iran deal

Australia said today it will sign an agreement to become a prospective founding member of a China-backed infrastructure bank, but stressed that no one nation should control the institution.
	China and 20 other countries signed a memorandum of understanding last October to establish the Beijing-headquartered USD 50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) bank.
	Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia have also announced plans to join, despite scepticism about the AIIB in Washington and Tokyo.
	South Korea on Thursday became the latest country with close ties to the US to say it would also seek membership.
	"Good progress has been made on the bank's design, governance and transparency over the past few months, but we still have issues that we will address through ongoing consultations," Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Treasurer Joe Hockey and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a joint statement.
	"Key matters to be resolved before Australia considers joining the AIIB ...

Australia moves towards joining China-led bank: government

The Empire State Building dimmed its lights and the Eiffel Tower went dark as iconic landmarks across the world observed Earth Hour, the global climate change awareness campaign.
	The usually glittering nighttime majesty of the Empire State Building was set to "faint sparkle" in New York, while theaters on Broadway also toned down the neon.
	Millions of people around the world were taking part in the annual Earth Hour yesterday organised by conservation group WWF, with a string of well-known sights plunging into darkness globally.
	The famous Las Vegas strip went dim, with the replica Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel turning its lights off, along with several hotels and casinos that normally illuminate the main drag in Sin City.
	Other US west coast cities marked the occasion by switching off, with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco going dim and the normally bright gateway pylons at Los Angeles LAX airport turned off after being lit in green in honor of the occasion.
	Further south ..

Lights out as millions around the world mark Earth Hour

The United Nations evacuated staff from war-torn Yemen as Russia warned Saudi-led air strikes on Iranian-backed rebels were affecting crunch nuclear talks between world powers and Tehran.
	Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi urged his Arab allies to keep up the bombing raids in his country until the Huthi Shiite rebels surrender, branding them Iran's "puppet".
	The impoverished and deeply tribal Arabian Peninsula state, on the front line of the US battle against Al-Qaeda, is the scene of the latest emerging proxy struggle between Middle East powers.
	A Sunni Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies, is battling to avoid having a pro-Iran regime on its doorstep, as the Huthi rebels tighten the noose around Hadi's southern stronghold of Aden.
	"I call for this operation to continue until this gang surrenders and withdraws from all locations it has occupied in every province," Hadi told an Arab League summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
	"I say to .

UN staff flee war-torn Yemen, Russia voices concern

Argentina rested superstar Lionel Messi but were still too powerful for El Salvador in a 2-0 friendly win over the Central American minnows at Fedex Field here.
     A deflected Ever Banega strike on 54 minutes and a curling free-kick from debutant Federico Mancuello three minutes from time secured a straightforward win for the World Cup finalists yesterday as they build towards June's Copa America in Chile.
     Although Argentina football officials said early this week that tests showed Messi suffered no serious injury to his right foot when he took a knock in Barcelona's 2-1 win over Real Madrid last Sunday, he missed training with the team in Washington on Thursday.
     Argentina boss Gerardo Martino opted not to take any risks for Saturday's encounter at the home of the Washington Redskins with another friendly against Ecuador on the horizon on Wednesday in suburban New York.
     Martino said that even though the tests showed no cause for concern, Messi continued to feel ...

Argentina manage without Messi in win over El Salvador

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key believes he has made the right decision to be in Melbourne for the Cricket World Cup final today rather than attend the state funeral for Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew.
	Instead, Governor-General Jerry Mateparae will represent New Zealand in Singapore.
	"It was a difficult decision because obviously I want to go to both," Key told reporters.
	He described Lee as "a close and long-time friend of New Zealand" and said that Mateparae, as New Zealand's head of state, was more senior than the prime minister.
	Key said he had decided before New Zealand's semi-final, when they beat South Africa with only one ball to spare, that if his nation made the final he would attend.
	"I think that's the right call," he said. New Zealand plays Australia in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
	"Our two countries have a special rivalry. Over the years we have been treated to some truly exceptional sporting clashes and I expect this one will be no ...

New Zealand PM to attend cricket final over Lee funeral

Polling stations opened today in the ex-Soviet state of Uzbekistan for a ballot that is almost certain to re-elect 77-year-old strongman incumbent President Islam Karimov.
	Voting at more than 9,000 polling stations across the country began at 0100 GMT (0630 IST) and will continue until 1500 GMT (2030 IST), according to the country's central election commission.
	Karimov, who has ruled the country since before the collapse of the Soviet Union, faces three other opponents put forward by parties in the Uzbek parliament that are openly supportive of his presidency.
	Akmal Saidov, put forward by the Democratic National Renaissance Party, faced Karimov in the country's last presidential poll in 2007, but claimed less than three per cent of the vote as Karimov took close to 90 per cent.
	Hotamjon Ketmonov, the chairman of the People's Democratic Party, and Nariman Umarov, who leads the Social Democratic Party of Uzbekistan Adolat (Justice) are the other two candidates on the ballot.
	Almost 

Uzbekistan goes to the polls in presidential vote

Thousands of Tunisians, led by their president and joined by several foreign dignitaries, are to march in the capital today to denounce terrorism after the museum massacre of 22 tourists.
	On March 18, two gunmen targeted the National Bardo Museum in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group, dealing a severe blow to a country that was the cradle of the Arab Spring and is highly dependent on tourism.
	The dead tourists were from Italy, Japan, France, Spain, Colombia, Australia, Britain, Belgium, Poland and Russia.
	A Tunisian policeman was also gunned down. Yesterday, the death toll rose to 22 after a Frenchwoman succumbed to injuries sustained in the attack.
	The march is set to begin in Tunis at 1000 GMT (1530 IST), going from Bab Saadoun Square to the museum where a stone tablet will be dedicated to the memory of the victims.
	The attack was "a big blow, but this blow did not kill us, it made us stronger", Tourism Minister Salma Elloumi Rekik said on television ...

Tunisians march against extremism after museum massacre

Dozens of Brazilian firms, including industrial companies and banks, are under investigation amid allegations they paid USD 5.9 billion in bribes to tax officials, police have said.
	Brazil is already reeling from the biggest graft scandal the country has known, a USD 3.8 billion scam involving inflated contracts between construction companies and state oil giant Petrobras, causing a storm after dozens of politicians were implicated.
	The new scandal, dubbed Operation Zeal, comes following a federal police probe into an alleged scam at CARF, an offshoot of Brazil's tax authority that oversees appeals on tax disputes.
	According to police, the body managed to obtain tax appeals board rulings in the companies' favor by either cutting penalties or waiving them altogether.
	In return, officials allegedly received bribes from some 70 companies believed to have benefited from the scheme.
	"The investigations, begun in 2013, showed the organisation acted within the body sponsoring private ...

Brazil uncovers multibillion-dollar tax fraud

Guinean President Alpha Conde has declared a 45-day "health emergency" in five regions in the west and southwest of the Ebola-hit nation in a bid to stem the spread of the deadly disease.
	The focus of the virus "has shifted to our country's coastal areas", the president said yesterday in a statement published in national media. "That is why I am declaring a reinforced health emergency for a period of 45 days in the prefectures of Forecariah, Coyah, Dubreka, Boffa and Kindia," he said.
	Since the Ebola outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013, more than 24,000 people in nine countries have been infected with the virus, and over 10,000 of them have died.
	All but a handful of those deaths have occurred in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
	The World Health Organization declared in January that the epidemic was finally declining in west Africa after the three countries at the epicentre recorded a steady drop in cases.
	But renewed concern has been triggered by fresh setbacks in the ...

45-day Ebola 'health emergency' declared in 5 Guinea regions

World powers appeared today to be narrowing in on a deal to stop Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb, with marathon talks stretching into the evening as Iran's foreign minister voiced confidence the final hurdles can be overcome.
	"We're moving forward," Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters after meeting separately with his German and French counterparts who flew into Lausanne, Switzerland on Saturday to join the negotiations.
	"I think we can in fact make the necessary progress to be able to resolve all the issues and start writing them down in a text that will become the final agreement once it's done," Zarif said.
	Iran and six world powers aim by Tuesday to agree the main contours of a deal reducing Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief and ending a more than decade-old standoff. A full agreement is due by June 30.
	France's top diplomat Laurent Fabius, the most hawkish in the P5+1 group of countries negotiating with Iran, said he wanted a "robust deal" with close ...

Guarded optimism as Iran nuclear talks enter 'engdame'

- Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said today he doubted Israel's willingness to unblock hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes a day after it promised to do so.
	"They've announced they will release the money, but so far they have unlocked nothing," Abbas told an Arab League summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
	"Maybe they will impose a thousand and one conditions before doing so and guaranteeing not to freeze the funds again."
	On Friday, Israel said it would release hundreds of millions of dollars in tax funds it has withheld from the Palestinian Authority as a punitive measure over its move to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
	Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said revenues accumulated over three months, frozen since January, would be transferred after normal deductions for services.
	"They are collecting this money in our name, and charging a three percent service fee," Abbas said Saturday.
	"They collect USD 100 million and take USD 3 million. If ...

Abbas says he doubts Israel vow to free Palestinian funds

A series of explosions rocked an arms depot in Yemen's second city of Aden Saturday, killing at least 14 people as looters swarmed the facility, witnesses and an official said.
	The blasts were heard across the city and pillars of smoke rose from the depot, where looting had broken out a day earlier, an AFP correspondent reported.
	The depot is at the foot of Jabal Hadid mountain overlooking the port, and a large amount of weapons dating back to the Soviet era were stored in a cave there.
	Troops guarding the depot abandoned their posts this week after their commanders fled as chaos tightened its grip on the war-torn country.
	Houses shook, windows were shattered and several nearby buildings were destroyed in Saturday's explosions, residents said.
	"We have so far retrieved 14 charred bodies," health department director Al-Kheder Lassouar said.
	"We have information that there are more bodies inside that we were not able to reach" as smoke engulfed the area, he added.
	Many people ...

Heavy blasts at Aden arms depot kill at least 14

Saudi-led airstrikes have destroyed "most" missile capabilities of the Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies, coalition spokesman General Ahmed Assiri said on today.
	"We believe that we have destroyed most of these capabilities, but we will continue targeting these missiles wherever" they may be, he told reporters in Riyadh.
	Before the Huthis seized power in Sanaa in September, the Yemeni army had various "kinds of missiles... Ballistic missiles," which could hit targets as far as 500 kilometres (310 miles) away, he said.
	A Gulf diplomatic official said earlier that the three-day-old campaign had been successful so far, destroying targets including 21 Scud missiles.
	The same source has said Yemen's army has 300 Scuds.
	"Since we started operations we are continuing to target this kind of missile," Assiri said. "We target their storage."
	Witnesses said coalition forces on Saturday targeted an air base in the western province of Hodeidah and two rebel bases in the Huthis' northern ..

AFP

AFP

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