US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met in Paris today to discuss negotiations for a nuclear deal, a US official said.
	The pair, who held a marathon six-hour round of talks in Geneva earlier this week in a bid to nail down a deal, were taking the opportunity to meet again in the French capital on separate diplomatic trips.
	Their talks lasted just under an hour, a US official said.
	Zarif is also due to meet French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius while in Paris.
	The new Zarif-Kerry talks came as their negotiators were also meeting in Geneva.
	Global powers leading the talks, known as the P5+1 are due to open negotiations on Sunday in the Swiss city as a deadline looms for a comprehensive deal which would rein in Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for relief from a tight network of sanctions.
	Both sides have remained tight-lipped about whether any progress is being made.

Kerry meets Iran FM in Paris for more nuclear talks

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Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara is to join Surrey, the English county announced today.
     Sangakkara is currently ranked as the world's number one Test batsman and is one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the five-day game with 12,203 runs to his credit.
     The 37-year-old left-hander is set to rejoin former Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford, now in charge of Surrey.
     Sangakkara has signed a two-year contract and should be available for most of the 2015 English season after announcing his intention to retire from one-day internationals following the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand which starts next month, although he could yet extend his Test career later this year.
     "We're delighted that Kumar has agreed to join us," Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart said Friday.
     "He is the number one Test batsman in the world but it's the special character that he has which is as important to us," the former England captain explained.
     "He is a five-star ...

Sangakkara signs for Surrey

A man who holed up in a post office in a suburb northwest of Paris with two hostages today surrendered and has been arrested, a police source said.
	   "There was no assault, the man gave himself up", the source said, adding that the hostages were "shocked but not injured".

Paris post office hostage-taker surrenders: police

Saudi Arabia postponed until next week today's flogging of a blogger jailed for insulting Islam, citing medical reasons, a week after he received the first 50 of 1,000-lash sentence, his wife said.
	Raef Badawi received the first whipping in public outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, sparking an international outcry and a campaign by Amnesty International and others for him to be freed.
	Badawi is expected to undergo 20 more weekly beatings until his punishment is complete.
	"The prison doctor saw (Raef) Badawi's health does not allow his flogging today," his wife, Ensaf Haidar said, speaking to AFP by telephone from Canada, where she has sought asylum with her three children.
	Haidar said today's flogging was postponed because her husband's wounds had not yet healed, an explanation also given by Amnesty.
	"But it will probably still take place next Friday," she said.
	Earlier, Amnesty also spoke of Badawi's unhealed wounds, terming the punishment as "macabre and ...

Saudi postpones blogger lashing on medical grounds: wife

Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens today for shooting dead a compatriot with a machine gun, officials said, bringing to 10 the number of executions in just over two weeks.
	Murdi al-Shakra had been tried and sentenced to death for murdering fellow tribesman Faraj al-Shakra, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
	The beheading brings to 10 the number of executions since the start of the year, according to an AFP tally.
	It comes as Saudi Arabia postponed until next week Friday's flogging of blogger Raef Badawi jailed for insulting Islam, citing medical reasons, a week after he received the first 50 of a 1,000-lash sentence.
	Badawi's case has sparked an international outcry put the spotlight on the ultra-conservative kingdom's rigid implementation of a strict version of Islamic Sharia law.
	Saudi Arabia carried out the death penalty against 87 people last year, up from 78 in 2013, according to an AFP tally.
	The kingdom had the ...

Saudi carries out 10th beheading of 2015

Around three-quarters of Germans reject a new anti-Islamic movement that has drawn thousands on to the streets in recent months for weekly populist protests, a poll showed today.
	Just 17 per cent said they found the so-called group, "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" (PEGIDA), good, according to the Politbarometer poll for ZDF television.
	But 74 per cent of those asked rejected the group, whose rallies in the eastern city of Dresden have swelled from a few hundred three months ago to 25,000 this week.
	The rejection was reflected by a majority of supporters across all the political parties with seats in parliament.
	Only backers of Germany's new anti-euro party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which narrowly missed out on entering the national parliament in 2013 elections, view PEGIDA positively, with 70 percent expressing approval, the survey indicated.
	Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement this week that "Islam is part of Germany" divided opinion ...

Less than one in five Germans back anti-Islam movement: poll

An armed man was holed up in a post office outside Paris today with two hostages, police said, adding there did not appear to be any link to extremist attacks.
	   Police sources said several post office clients had managed to escape and that the gunman himself had called them. The sources said he was "speaking incoherently" and was heavily armed with grenades and Kalashnikovs.
	   The area around the post office in Colombes, a city northwest of Paris, had been cordoned off, with a helicopter flying overhead and elite security forces on the ground.
	   The French capital is still jittery after a series of attacks last week by Islamist gunmen left 17 people dead.

Gunman holds two hostage in French post office: police

Pope Francis today asked Catholic leaders in the Philippines to resist powerful forces that are tempting youth with "confusing" versions of sexuality, marriage and the family.
	The 78-year-old pontiff delivered his message in a sermon to priests and nuns in the centuries-old Manila Cathedral, on the first full day of a trip to the Catholic Church's Asian stronghold.
	The pope asked them to counsel young people, who may be confused and despondent living in a corrupt society, on traditional values.
	"Proclaim the beauty and truth of the Christian message to a society which is tempted by confusing presentations of sexuality, marriage and the family," Francis said.
	"As you know, these realities are increasingly under attack from powerful forces which threaten to disfigure God's plan for creation and betray the very values which have inspired and shaped all that is best in your culture."
	His comments come amid a struggle in the Philippine Catholic Church between a conservative hierarchy .

Pope speaks out against 'confusing' family values

Singapore Airlines said today it will no longer rehire captains beyond the normal retirement age of 62 in fresh cost-cutting measures as competition from rivals hits profits.
	Previously, pilots with the rank of captain were allowed to fly beyond 62 under a re-employment contract renewable each year until the age of 64.
	First officers have not been offered re-employment beyond age 62 since January 2013.
	The airline said it is trying to reduce a pilot surplus which is expected to continue into the 2015-2016 financial year.
	"The situation has not improved due to network changes, the challenging business environment and despite measures already taken to alleviate the surplus," SIA said in a statement sent to AFP.
	SIA, whose moves are closely watched in the industry, employs about 2,100 pilots, including 1,000 captains.
	"SIA was forced into this cost-cutting measure because of the surplus of pilots it has," said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation research firm Endau Analytics in ...

Singapore Airlines stops rehiring captains after 62

Hostages taken in post office in Paris suburb: police.

Fierce fighting in east Ukraine has killed at least 11 people over the past 24 hours, officials said today, as government forces and pro-Russian rebels battled for control of an airport.
	A military spokesman reported six soldiers killed and 18 others wounded over the past day, adding that a civilian was left dead in a rebel strike on a checkpoint near Fashchivka in the Lugansk region.
	City officials in hard-hit Donetsk earlier said four civilians died after shelling sparked a fire at a warehouse there.
	"In the past day, six Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Eighteen more were wounded," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.
	Fierce fighting broke out yesterday around the Donetsk airport, a wrecked shell repeatedly hit by battles but still of symbolic and strategic importance. After an overnight lull, there were reports of fresh fighting today.
	Clashes have also hit other areas in the east as part of an upsurge in violence in recent days in a conflict that has killed more than 4,800 

Fighting in east Ukraine kills 11, including six soldiers

Jihadists have executed 17 men in recent days in areas they control in eastern and northern Syria to avenge a string of assassinations targeting their fighters, a monitor said today.
	"The Islamic State (IS) group has executed 16 men in Deir Ezzor and one more in Raqa, to send a message to all their opponents after recent assassinations of 12 Syrian, Iraqi and Algerian jihadists," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
	"The men were accused of fighting IS," Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that only one of them had been proven to be linked to the assassinations.
	He added: "IS is sending a message to all people living under its control, to say: 'This is what will happen to any opponent.'"
	The group emerged in Syria's war in 2013 and in June declared a "caliphate" in areas under its control straddling Syria and Iraq.
	It has committed some of the war's worst abuses, carrying out near-daily executions in areas in its grip.
	Most of Raqa and Deir Ezzor ...

Syria jihadists kill 17 to avenge assassinations: monitor

An Ethiopian court has jailed three British men for between four and six years for allegedly plotting to "establish an Islamic state in Ethiopia", a report said.
	Mohamad Sharif and Mohamad Ahmed, who had both been reportedly living in London, were both sentenced to six years and eight months in jail on Wednesday, after the court found them guilty of receiving military training in neighbouring Kenya.
	They were accused of planning attacks alongside the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a separatist movement opposed to the Ethiopian government.
	Mohamad Ali Adros, who was reportedly originally from Somalia's northern breakaway Somaliland region, was sentenced to four years and 6 months, accused of links with Islamist groups in Yemen as well as the OLF, Ethiopia's Fana radio station reported.
	"The suspects were apprehended when they tried to execute their terrorist plans after travelling to Ethiopia," Fana reported.
	Britain's Foreign Office has confirmed "the detention of a British ...

Ethiopia jails three Brits for 'terrorist' plot: report

Belgium was on high alert today after two suspected jihadists were killed in a police raid, while German and French police made fresh arrests to put Europe on edge a week after the Islamist attacks in Paris.
	The series of raids across the continent highlighted fears about young Europeans travelling to fight war with the Islamic State and other extremist groups in the Middle East, and then returning to launch attacks on western targets.
	In Belgium, officials said they had averted "imminent" large-scale attacks on police targets after raiding a terror cell in the eastern town of Verviers, near the German border, whose members had recently come back from Syria.
	Police shot dead the two suspects in a gun battle after they opened fire on officers with heavy weapons, and arrested a third man, while there were several search operations in Brussels and its suburbs.
	Prime Minister Charles Michel raised Belgium's terror alert to its second highest level, security was tightened and Jewish ...

Belgian terror raid puts Europe on high alert

Malawian authorities warned today that heavy rains were expected to continue as flood waters ravaged the country, leaving in their wake mass power outages, dozens dead and missing, and thousands displaced.
	"What the country has witnessed is only the beginning of the onset of rains," Paul Chiunguzeni, principal secretary for Disaster Management Affairs, said in a statement.
	"The government is urging people living in flood-prone districts to urgently relocate to upland areas to avoid losing more lives."
	The floods, which have wreaked havoc on half the country's 28 districts, have left an estimated 100,000 homeless.
	Government on Tuesday put the death toll at 48, though Chiunguzeni would not provide an updated figure, saying teams had been sent to "source and verify information" on the number of people dead and missing.
	He said about 1,180 flood victims stranded on patches of high ground in the flood-prone south have been evacuated since rescue missions with military helicopters and 

Malawi warns of more rain as flood waters ravage country

The murder trial of the final suspect in the nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway got under way today, almost two decades after a cult killed 13 people and injured thousands more.
	Katsuya Takahashi, a 56-year-old former member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, denied being involved in unleashing sarin nerve gas on the underground rail system, in an attack that sparked rush hour chaos in the Japanese capital.
	"I did not know the thing released was sarin," Takahashi, who has been charged with murder and other crimes, told Tokyo District Court.
	"I didn't intend to kill people," he said, speaking in a quiet voice while dressed in a dark suit with a blue tie.
	Police captured Takahashi in June 2012, bringing to an end the hunt for those thought to be behind the coordinated release of the Nazi-developed gas, an incident that sowed panic throughout the heaving metropolis.
	He is also accused of conspiring with other members to send an explosive to then-Tokyo governor Yukio Aoshima in 1995, an .

Trial of final Tokyo gas attack fugitive begins

A new species of legless amphibian resembling a giant earthworm or a snake has been discovered in a remote but threatened area of Cambodian rainforest, conservationists said today.
	The grey-brown creature -- Ichthyophis cardamomensis -- was found in Cambodia's southwest Cardamom Mountains, an area under threat from habitat loss, according to Fauna and Flora International (FFI).
	The new species is often mistaken for a snake, with larger species known to grow up to 1.5 metres (nearly five feet) in length, FFI said.
	It was confirmed by scientists earlier this month according to leading Cambodian FFI herpetologist Neang Thy.
	"These discoveries are important to demonstrate that much of Cambodia's biodiversity remains unknown and unstudied by science, and many more areas need to be searched," Thy, who has been researching amphibians and reptiles since 2003, said.
	The creature is caecilian -- an order of amphibians that look like snakes or earthworms and are generally found ...

New species of legless amphibian found in Cambodia

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has conceded it is impossible for the communist country to ban social media, urging officials instead to embrace websites like Facebook to spread the government's message.
	Sites such as Facebook have at times been difficult to access in Vietnam, an authoritarian country which routinely imprisons bloggers and dissidents for criticising the regime.
	"You here have all joined social networks, you've all got Facebook up on your phones to read information. So we must make this information correct," Dung told senior officials Thursday, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported.
	"We can not ban it," he said at the meeting in Hanoi.
	Over the last few years, Vietnam has had one of the fastest rates of Facebook uptake in the world, and now around a third of the country's population of 90 million have an account on the social network.
	The government has always denied blocking the site, and for at least a year Facebook has been easily accessible in Vietnam ...

Vietnam PM says impossible to ban social media: report

A teenage boy was taken to hospital today after being bitten by a shark he was filming off Australia's east coast as another beach remained shut for a week over repeated shark sightings.
	The 17-year-old, named in local media as Sam Smith, was spearfishing off Mollymook, 140 miles south of Sydney, when he was bitten on the hand after attempting to stab the shark to "scare it off", his friend said.
	Luke Sisinni said the pair were shooting video clips while spearfishing when they spotted the animal, with Smith swimming down to film it.
	"He said it spun around and started coming for him, so he stabbed it with his spear to try and scare it off, but it just went ballistic and bit him," Sisinni told the Ulladulla Times, adding that the shark was about 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) long.
	A New South Wales Ambulance spokeswoman said the teenager was taken to hospital in a stable condition.
	"Our paramedics on the beach treated this patient for lacerations to his left hand including multiple ...

Shark attacks teenager off Australian beach

Serena Williams remains the red-hot favourite for the Australian Open, despite some patchy form in the lead up to her campaign for a 19th career Grand Slam.
     Arch-rival Maria Sharapova is again expected to be the American's main challenger, with injuries marring the preparation of other leading hopefuls including Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka.
     Melbourne Park has been a happy hunting ground for Williams, who claimed five of her 18 career majors at the venue -- the first way back in 2003.
     But the 33-year-old's most recent success Down Under was in 2010 and her erratic form in this month's Hopman Cup raised fears she faces a failure similar to last year, when she crashed out in the fourth round.
     Always supremely confident, Williams, who will meet Belgian Alison van Uytvanck in the first round, blamed her early season troubles on fatigue and declared she can play "two thousand times better".
     "I feel like I'm getting back into the groove... .

Shaky Serena still Australian Open favourite

Cameroon's President Paul Biya has announced that neighbouring Chad will send troops to aid his country's army fight Boko Haram militants from Nigeria, a government spokesman said.
	"Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno has decided to send a substantial contingent of Chadian troops to back the Cameroonian armed forces who have faced repeated attacks from the Boko Haram terrorist sect with courage, determination and vigilance," the Cameroonian spokesman said in a statement.
	The Cameroonian army says it killed 143 Boko Haram fighters who attacked a military base in the northern town of Kolofata on Monday, in what the government said was the militants' heaviest loss yet on its territory.
	Yesterday's announcement didn't specify how many Chadian troops would be involved or give a date for their deployment.
	Chad's government on Wednesday pledged "active support" for  Cameroon in fighting Boko Haram.
	The offer followed a meeting in Chad's capital N'Djamena between President Idriss Deby and 

AFP

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