Thailand's junta chief today said he was considering lifting martial law, but only after passing a new order to replace it.
	Speaking to reporters during a trip to the beachside resort of Hua Hin, former army chief turned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said he had already drawn up a replacement provision.
	"I have prepared for it already to be used after the martial law," he said.
	"If I lift the martial law, you all will know," he added.
	It is the first time Prayut has indicated a potential lifting of martial law, which bans political gatherings of more than five people and outlaws criticism of the junta.
	Critics, businesses and Thailand's western allies have called for martial law to be lifted.
	It was imposed two days before the military takeover that followed the ousting of Yingluck Shinawatra's democratically elected government after months of often violent street protests.
	But Prayut did not elaborate on what the new order would look like.
	Under the interim charter the ...

Thai junta chief considers martial law replacement

PTI Automatic

Nigeria's military today announced that troops had retaken the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram, from which the group declared their caliphate last year.
	"Troops this morning captured Gwoza destroying the Headquarters of the Terrorists self-styled Caliphate," Defence Headquarters in Abuja said on Twitter.
	"Several terrorists died while many are captured. Mopping up of entire Gwoza and her suburbs is ongoing," it added in a separate message.
	Earlier this month, residents who fled the town in Borno state told AFP that militants had been massing in Gwoza and killing local people who were unable to flee.
	That led to speculation that the group, which has been pushed out of a number of towns in three northeast states in recent weeks, was preparing for a final assault.
	Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared on August 24 last year that Gwoza was "part of the Islamic caliphate", adding to speculation the militants were imitating the Islamic State group.
	Shekau had the previous month ...

Nigeria recaptures Boko Haram 'HQ' Gwoza

Chinese authorities today began relocating the country's rare finless porpoise population in a bid to revive a species threatened by pollution, overfishing and heavy traffic in their Yangtze River habitat, state media reported.
	Fewer than 1,000 finless porpoises -- grey dolphin-like animals with a hint of a grin on their bulbous faces -- are thought to remain in and around the vast river that carves through the centre of the country.
	Eight porpoises from Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province were transported in water-filled metal containers by bus to two reserves in neighbouring Hubei province in central China, the official Xinhua news agency said.
	The reserves in Hubei are located in traffic-free areas of the Yangtze, the report said. It was not immediately clear how many of the porpoises would be relocated.
	"Our plan is to move them into waters free of human activities, so they can flourish," said agriculture ministry official Zhao Yimin, according to Xinhua.
	Rampant overfishing -- ..

China starts relocating endangered porpoises

Italian police are trying to establish the true owner of a Picasso painting worth 15 million euros (USD 16 million) after confiscating it from a pensioner who says he was given it for free.
	The Rome resident, a former frame-maker, told detectives he received the work in 1978 as a thank you gift for an act of kindness towards a recently bereaved customer.
	A widower had come into his shop in a state of distress after breaking a photo frame in which he kept a picture of his lamented late wife. Touched, the frame-maker replaced the glass for free.
	Two days later, the elderly customer returned to the workshop and presented him with the Picasso, without giving any indication of its value or artistic significance.
	According to the frame-maker's story, it was only last year that he realised the 54 x 45cm oil on canvas could be a Picasso, police said.
	The painting is a representation of a violin and a bottle of Bass beer which police experts have authenticated as a 1912 work by the ...

Pensioner given USD 16mn Picasso 'for act of kindness'

The Germanwings co-pilot who flew his Airbus into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, hid a serious illness from the airline, prosecutors said today amid reports he was severely depressed.
	The black box voice recorder indicates that Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked his captain out of the cockpit on Tuesday and deliberately sent Flight 4U 9525 crashing into a mountainside, French officials say, in what appears to have been a case of suicide and mass murder.
	French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that "everything is pointing towards an act that we can't describe: criminal, crazy, suicidal."
	German prosecutors revealed today that searches of Lubitz's homes netted "medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment", including "torn-up and current sick leave notes, among them one covering the day of the crash".
	They did not specify the illness.
	But Bild daily earlier reported that Lubitz sought psychiatric help for "a bout of serious depression" in ..

Germanwings crash co-pilot hid 'illness' from airline

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told teams to stop moaning and focus on improving on Friday after an uprising of complaints rocked the start of the new season.
	   Ecclestone said he was looking at ways to make F1 more competitive and interesting, with ideas including a "Grand Slam" of races and awarding points for qualifying.
	   But he said teams were also spending too much time blaming complex hybrid engines, mastered by Mercedes but giving problems to others, rather than "getting the job done".
	   "I've no complaints or problems about Mercedes doing what they are doing. The complaint I've got is the others not doing the same," he told journalists before the Malaysian Grand Prix.
	   "A lot of them tend to be blaming the engine and perhaps its only 50 percent of the problem. The other 50 percent is that they, themselves, are not getting the job done."
	   Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg ran away with the season's first race in Melbourne, in a clear sign the .

Ecclestone tells teams to stop complaining

Bernie Ecclestone on Friday said he was prepared to let the Italian Grand Prix follow Germany by dropping off the Formula One calendar, in a stark warning for organisers.
	   The F1 supremo told reporters "What goes, goes" when asked whether the historic race at Monza, first run in 1950, could also fall victim after this year's German race was cancelled.
	   "There are lots of things we all would like, but we don't have them because we can't afford them," said Ecclestone, in reply to a question about F1's European heartland.
	   Ecclestone, speaking at Sepang ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix, could not confirm whether the German race would go ahead next year.
	   He said Malaysia would "probably" extend its contract, which runs out after Sunday's race, but that a new deal had "not yet" been signed.
	   Ecclestone admitted "it would be terrible" if Europe lost its remaining races, and would effectively mean that Formula One was no longer a world championship.
	   But he added: "It's ..

Ecclestone warning over Italian GP

Marathon Iran nuclear talks headed today towards a critical weekend as Britain said its foreign minister would join his US, Iranian and French counterparts in racing the clock to agree the contours of a deal.
	"The negotiations are very tough and complicated and there are highs and lows," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said today before going into talks in Switzerland with top US diplomat John Kerry.
	"Our feeling is that we can definitely reach a deal but that depends on the political will of the other side," he told Iranian media.
	This followed an extraordinary appeal by Iran's president to world leaders yesterday that saw him write a letter to US President Barack Obama and phone his counterparts in Britain, China, France and Russia.
	"We are acting in the national and international interest and we should not lose this exceptional opportunity," Rouhani told British Prime Minister David Cameron, the presidency said.
	The negotiations in Lausanne are aimed at agreeing .

Iran nuclear talks head towards critical weekend

An Israeli military court has handed down two terms of life imprisonment to a Palestinian who stabbed to death a Jewish woman settler, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported today.
	It said the court yesterday sentenced Maher al-Hashlamoun, a member of Islamic Jihad from the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, after previously convicting him of murdering Dalia Lemkus, 26, as she waited at a bus stop outside Alon Shvut settlement in November.
	Hashlamoun wounded two other people before a security guard shot and wounded him.
	The military could not immediately confirm or deny the sentence.
	The Post said that he had been freed from prison in 2005 after serving five years for throwing a petrol bomb at Israeli troops.
	The November 10 attack on Lemkus came hours after the fatal stabbing of a young Israeli soldier in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian teenager from the West Bank.
	The assailant was later arrested.

Palestinian gets two life terms for Israeli settler murder

Neither David Cameron nor his rival Ed Miliband landed a knockout blow during the first TV contest of Britain's election race, experts said Friday, as the centre-left opposition prepared to launch its campaign.
	Firing the gun on the race ahead of May 7's tight election, Prime Minister Cameron of the centre-right Conservatives and Miliband of Labour separately faced questions from an interviewer and the public during a 90-minute show late yesterday.
	A Guardian/ICM snap poll after the programme indicated that 54 per cent of viewers gave Cameron victory compared to 46 percent for Miliband.
	Commentators disagreed on whether Cameron, who focused on his party's economic record, or a "surprisingly punk" Miliband came out on top -- but many said the main winner was their formidable interviewer, Jeremy Paxman.
	"Under interrogation from Mr Paxman, Mr Cameron gave a rather defensive performance," The Times newspaper said in its editorial. "There was one obvious winner last night: Jeremy ...

Labour starts campaign after British election TV contest

Tens of thousands of Singaporeans braved waits of up to 10 hours outside parliament today to pay their last respects to founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, despite appeals from overwhelmed officials to honour him elsewhere.
	The city-state, famous for its clockwork handling of major events like the night-time Singapore Grand Prix, seemed unprepared for the scale of the outpouring of grief since their 91-year-old first prime minister died on Monday.
	"Members of the public are strongly advised not to join the queue at the Padang now," said a government advisory which urged mourners to go instead to 18 community sites to pay homage to Lee, who is revered for transforming Singapore from a British colonial outpost into one of Asia's richest societies.
	The round-the-clock queue outside parliament starts at the Padang -- a large grassy field used for parades and concerts as well as football, cricket and other sports.
	Mourners are now being given only a few seconds to file past the former ...

Singapore overwhelmed by huge crowds mourning Lee

Dozens of specialised police and rescue workers kicked off a fourth day of recovery operations today at the scene of the crashed Germanwings jet, hunting for its second black box.
	Officials are also combing the wreckage for body parts and DNA samples that would enable them to identify the 150 people that died in the crash, apparently deliberately initiated by co-pilot Andreas Lubitz.
	"There's not much plane debris left. There's mainly a lot of body parts to pick up. The operation could last another two weeks," said police spokesman Xavier Vialenc.
	There are 15 specialists on site, 10 to take DNA samples and five detectives running the legal investigation.
	Nearby, around 40 technicians are working on the DNA samples from the crash site, comparing them to samples taken from the families.
	A local building has been commandeered and turned into a biological analysis unit, with several white tents running off generators.
	The vast majority of the bereaved family members have now left ..

French investigators hunt black box from doomed jet

New Zealand seamer Tim Southee believes the Black Caps have the experience and the firepower to topple Australia in Sunday's World Cup final in Melbourne.
	Southee said the Black Caps were relishing the opportunity of playing in their maiden World Cup final -- a match that will also mark New Zealand's first appearance at the vast Melbourne Cricket Ground in six years.
	New Zealand are the form side of the tournament having won all eight of their matches at this World Cup, a sequence that includes two dramatic clashes in Auckland -- a one-wicket win over Australia in the pool phase and Tuesday's semi-final defeat of South Africa sealed by Grant Elliott's six off the second-last ball.
	Australia captain Michael Clarke reckons his side's knowledge of playing at the MCG will be a major factor in the final as the home team chase a fifth World Cup title following their emphatic 95-run semi-final victory over defending champions India in Sydney on Thursday.
	But that doesn't wash with ...

MCG holds no fears for Black Caps: Southee

Police searching a home of the German co-pilot who officials say appears to have deliberately crashed a plane into the French Alps said today they had seized evidence but no "smoking gun".
	Officers combing through a flat kept by Andreas Lubitz in the western city of Duesseldorf said they had seized "various items and papers", police spokesman Marcel Fiebig told AFP.
	"We will see whether this will explain what happened -- everything is being examined," he said, adding that there was no "smoking gun" to shed light on a possible motive.
	Duesseldorf prosecutors have opened a parallel inquiry to the main investigation underway in France as many among the 150 crash victims were from the German region.
	Lubitz, who local authorities say was 27, spent most of his time at his parents' home in the small western town of Montabaur.
	That upscale residence on a quiet leafy street was also cordoned off by police yesterday and searched as camera teams massed outside.
	Men wearing gloves came out .

German police find no 'smoking gun' in crash pilot's home

The Germanwings co-pilot who flew his Airbus into a French mountainside, killing all 150 aboard, suffered serious depression, a German newspaper reported, raising new questions over how he was cleared to fly.
	The black box voice recorder shows that Andreas Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit on Tuesday and deliberately sent Flight 4U 9525 into the Alps, French officials say, in what appears to have been an act of suicide and mass murder.
	Initial portraits of the co-pilot painted a well-liked man, a fitness fanatic who lived with his parents in a leafy, upscale street in the west German town of Montabaur. But a troubled man hid behind that guy-next-door image, said by German officials to be 27.
	The co-pilot sought psychiatric help for "a bout of heavy depression" in 2009 and was still getting assistance from doctors, Bild daily said, quoting documents from Germany's air transport regulator Luftfahrtbundesamt (LBA).
	He was still receiving "regular, individualised medical" ..

Germanwings crash probe turns on 'depressed' co-pilot

Whatever happens in Sunday's World Cup final between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, it will have to go some way to matching the bitter fall-out from another one-day international clash between the two countries at the MCG back in 1981.
     What might have been a forgettable third final of the one-day series produced one of the most controversial finishes of all-time when, with New Zealand needing six to tie off the last ball, Australia captain Greg Chappell instructed younger brother Trevor to role the ball underarm along the ground.
     Angry New Zealand tailender Brian McKechnie, who was on strike, threw his bat away in disgust and Greg Chappell's decision brought forth a torrent of criticism.
     New Zealand's then Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon, said the delivery was "an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow".
     Meanwhile former Australia captain Ian Chappell, Greg and Ian's older brother, 

Australia-New Zealand final revives 'underarm' memories

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is open to dialogue with the United States, the leader said in an interview with US television network CBS.
	Assad said such dialogue would need to be based on "mutual respect," but that so far there has been no contact from the Americans.
	"But as principal, in Syria we could say that every dialogue is a positive thing," he told television journalist Charlie Rose, in excerpts of an interview to air Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes" program.
	When asked about relations between Syria and the United States, Assad said there was no direct communication.
	State Department officials recently said Assad will "never" be part of a negotiation to end the Syrian conflict that is now in its fifth year, but that officials from his government could be part of the process.
	On March 15, US Secretary of State John Kerry appeared to suggest in a CBS television interview that Washington would have to talk with Assad eventually if peace was to be forged.
	The suggestion ...

Assad says Syria open to dialogue with US

The US Senate voted unanimously supporting a non-binding measure to slap new economic sanctions on Iran should it violate terms of any nuclear deal it reaches with world powers.
	In a symbolic measure aimed at building pressure on Tehran amid crunch negotiations over its atomic program, lawmakers voted 100-0 on an amendment introduced by Senate Republican Mark Kirk as part of an ongoing budget debate.
	It does not carry the weight of law because budget resolutions are not binding legislation, but it signals senators' determination to act quickly should Iran fail to meet any requirements of the interim accord now in place, or a possible final agreement.
	With Thursday's vote, the first on the Senate floor since talks began early last year, the measure's author intends to hold his colleagues to account.
	"If we find out that there's further development in the Iran nuclear program, it will allow me to remind 100 senators that they voted with me today," Kirk told AFP.
	The chamber's ...

US Senate threatens Iran with new sanctions

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today snubbed a grand annual parade showcasing military strength for the first time in three years, as the country's army chief warned against "any disturbances to stability" in upcoming elections.
	The veteran democracy campaigner, who has suffered a bout of minor ill health in recent days, was conspicuously absent from the Armed Forces Day ceremony.
	She has attended for the last two years since she entered a fledgling parliament set up under the quasi-civilian government that replaced junta rule.
	"She needs to take as rest at this moment. That's why she couldn't attend the ceremony this morning in Naypyidaw," source close to Suu Kyi from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party told AFP, adding that she was "fine".
	   The 69-year-old, who was taken ill on a number of occasions during her gruelling 2012 by-election campaign, has recently ramped up her activities as the country prepares for crucial polls expected in early ...

Suu Kyi ducks Myanmar army parade on health grounds

Australia captain Michael Clarke was momentarily stumped by a bungled question which appeared to be about his sex life as he celebrated World Cup semi-final win over India.
     Clarke, who had just led the co-hosts to a crushing 95-run win against the defending champions, was facing the media at the post-match press conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground, when he was asked to comment on "the tremendous sex" he had enjoyed since taking over as captain.
     The embarrassed reporter quickly corrected himself, telling Clarke he had meant to say "the tremendous success".
     "How well do you know me?" Clarke asked the journalist as man-of-the-match Steve Smith, who was sitting next to him, laughed.
     "It's a question for my wife," said the skipper.
     Australia will face trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in Sunday's final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Sex talk stumps Clarke

New Zealand fans poked fun today at Matthew Hayden after the former Australian batsman suggested the Black Caps would be overawed by the huge dimensions of the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the World Cup final.
     New Zealand go into the championship match on a run of eight wins in eight games at the tournament but all of their matches have been played on their own, much smaller, grounds.
     "There were a number of times in the semi-final where the New Zealand batsmen appeared to be hitting big balls, but they'd be getting caught three quarters of the way to the fence at the MCG," Hayden  wrote in his column for www.News.Com.Au.
     "Let's be honest, the size of Eden Park (in Auckland) is ridiculous. It shouldn't be a cricket ground. If you can half throw it from the long off boundary to the opposite end it's too small."
     Hayden's comments led to an outburst of tongue-in-cheek responses from Kiwi fans, with the hashtag #mcgsobig trending on Twitter.
     Some of the wittiest ...

AFP

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