Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato has resigned after being linked to a massive corruption scandal involving an alleged kickback scheme at the heart of the Spanish prime minister's conservative Popular Party.
	"I have decided to present my resignation," Mato said in a statement yesterday, adding that she was stepping down for the good of the government and the ruling Popular Party.
	Mato has not been named as an official suspect in the corruption probe, but a judge said earlier yesterday that she had "benefited from" holidays, cash payments and other gifts when she was married to Jesus Sepulveda, a former Popular Party mayor of a Madrid suburb.
	The wide-ranging bribes for contracts scheme, known as the "Gurtel" case, allegedly extended to six regional Popular Party governments and operated between 1999 and 2009, when the investigation began.
	The judge investigating the case said he had evidence to try 43 people for corruption, including Sepulveda and three former treasurers of the ...

Spanish health minister quits over graft scandal

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ArcelorMittal has teamed up with Italy's Marcegaglia to bid for Ilva, a loss-making Italian steel plant at the centre of a major environmental scandal, the target company confirmed today.
	The Ilva site at Taranto in the Puglia region of southern Italy employs 16,000 workers and has the biggest output capacity of any plant in Europe.
	It is currently operating at roughly half of its peak production level of 11 million tonnes per year because of weak demand and chronic overcapacity in Europe.
	The plant has been under special government administration since last year after its owners, the Riva family, were accused of failing to prevent toxic emissions including carcinogenic particles from spewing out across the town, contaminating local farm land and mussel beds off the coast.
	A report published by the European Environment Agency on Tuesday named Ilva as one of the 30 worst industrial plants for pollution in Europe.
	The European Commission last month gave Italy two months to outline .

Mittal bids for 'environmental disaster' Italian steel plant

A group of 42 men who were being held for crimes including murder, kidnapping and robbery broke out of a jail outside Caracas early today, local media reported.
	The men escaped from the detention center in Los Teques around 4:00 am as they were waiting to be transported to a prison. The daily La Region newspaper said they snuck out through a gap by the back door.
	The paper also published a list of names of those who escaped. Among them were eight who were being held for car robberies, 23 for murder and four for kidnapping.
	Justice officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
	The provisional detention center had a capacity of 40 inmates but was holding more than 130.
	The non-governmental Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons has said the country's prisons were severely overcrowded and reported on a wave of violence that saw 150 prisoners murdered in the first half of 2014.

42 inmates escape from Venezuela detention center: reports

Syrian regime air strikes on Islamic State group stronghold Raqa killed at least 95 people, while a delegation from President Bashar al-Assad's government held talks with key ally Russia today.
	The bombing that took place yesterday was the deadliest by Assad's air force in Raqa since Sunni extremist IS fighters seized control of the city last year and declared it their capital.
	More than half of the dead were civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
	It was unknown how many jihadists were killed.
	Raqa was the first provincial capital to fall from regime control, and it was later overrun by IS which has used it as the capital of its self-proclaimed "caliphate" straddling Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
	The multi-sided Syrian conflict has killed more than 195,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it began three and a half years ago as an uprising against Assad's regime.
	The government has in recent months stepped up its air strikes against ...

Syria regime raids on Islamic State 'capital' kill 95

Britain today unveiled draft legislation to ban extremist preachers from universities, increase surveillance on suspected radicals and stem the flow of jihadists joining the Islamic State group.
	The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill has already come under criticism from Muslim rights campaigners and civil liberties groups who have raised concern about measures not subject to review by the courts.
	"We are in the middle of a generational struggle against a deadly terrorist ideology," Britain's interior minister, Theresa May, said.
	"In an open and free society, we can never entirely eliminate the threat from terrorism.
	"But we must do everything possible in line with our shared values to reduce the risks," she said.
	One of the most contested proposals is a ban for Britons suspected of fighting in Iraq and Syria from re-entering the country for up to two years unless they agree to be subjected to strict monitoring.
	Critics have said these "temporary exclusion orders" come close to 

Britain unveils controversial anti-terror bill

A US scientist has identified fossilised bones in a Canadian museum as belonging to a new species of dinosaur, saying researchers had only "scratched the surface" in terms of dinosaur diversity.
	Nick Longrich, a paleontologist who teaches at the University of Bath in Britain, said the bones appear to be from a previously unknown Pentaceratops, a buffalo-sized plant-eating horned dinosaur.
	He said the distinctive "frill", the crest at the back of the animal's head helped identify it.
	Previous specimens have been found in the southwestern United States but the 75-million-year-old fossils, brought to the museum 75 years ago, were found in the Canadian province of Alberta.
	In a paper in the academic journal Cretaceous Research he christened the new species "Aquilonius", a Latin word meaning "northern".
	"In 25 years we'll find twice as many dinosaurs. We're finding them faster than we ever were before," Longrich, a senior lecturer in the university's biology department, told AFP.
	"It 

Courtship 'frill' helps identify new dinosaur species

A former journalist with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid The Sun was today cleared of paying a government official for stories, following a trial triggered by the phone-hacking scandal.
	Clodagh Hartley, a 40-year-old mother of two, burst into tears and mouthed "thank you" to the jury after it found her not guilty of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
	She was accused of paying about USD 27,000 over three years to a press officer at the tax service in return for leaks of economic information, including on the 2010 budget.
	Hartley's lawyer Alexandra Healy said the journalist made no secret of arranging payments for Hall and had no idea it was illegal, defending her stories as in the public interest.
	"She was doing her job. She did it well. She did what was asked of her and everybody knew what she was doing," she said.
	Jonathan Hall, the 43-year-old press officer, has pleaded guilty to the offence and is due to be sentenced in February.
	His girlfriend ...

UK tabloid journalist cleared of bribery charge

The US Environmental Protection Agency today said it plans to strengthen regulations for emissions of ozone, a smog-causing pollutant blamed for respiratory ailments affecting millions of Americans.
	Recent scientific studies, the EPA said, show current standards leave too much harmful smog in the air.
	Exposure at those levels, and at levels below the current maximum, "can pose serious threats to public health," including causing asthma and other lung diseases and can even be linked to death from respiratory and cardiovascular causes, the agency said.
	"Bringing ozone pollution standards in line with the latest science will clean up our air, improve access to crucial air quality information, and protect those most at-risk," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement.
	The EPA is proposing to limit ozone emissions from sources including power plants and car and truck exhaust to within a range of 65 to 70 parts per billion (ppm), down from 75 ppm currently or around a 10-per ..

US proposes stricter ozone limits

A powerful undersea earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia today, causing fresh panic in an area that has been hit by a series of strong tremors in recent days.
	No tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of casualties or damage after the quake, which the US Geological Survey said had a magnitude of 6.8 and was 41 kilometres (25 miles) under the Molucca Sea.
	But people ran out of their homes in the city of Manado, on the northern tip of nearby Sulawesi island, where the quake was strongly felt.
	"I was watching television when I felt the ground shake strongly. I screamed to my wife to get out of the house and quickly took my five-year-old son, who was asleep in the bedroom, out of the house," Hendra Pontoh, a resident of Manado, told AFP.
	The initial quake was followed by three aftershocks measuring more than magnitude 5.0, said Jerisman Purba from the Indonesian meteorological agency.
	The quake, which struck at around 10:30 pm (1430 GMT), was the latest in a recent ...

Powerful earthquake sparks panic in Indonesia

Bulgarian prosecutors today charged a controversial imam and six others with inciting jihad and accused the group of serving as a link for Westerners seeking to join Islamic State fighters.
	Ahmed Mossa Ahmed, a Bulgarian imam in a tight-knit Roma neighbourhood in southern Bulgaria, was detained yesterday along with five men and one woman in a massive operation by police and prosecutors that included a raid on a mosque.
	They have been charged with "preaching the ideas of the terrorist Islamic State (IS) group" and "inciting war" between July and November, deputy chief prosecutor Borislav Sarafov told a press conference.
	He showed journalists videos of Ahmed and the other defendants posing in white T-shirts sporting the IS symbols.
	Other videos contained preachings by Ahmed as well as IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi praising IS jihadists in Syria and urging an Islamic war.
	According to Sarafov, Ahmed had followers from Roma Muslim communities in Germany, France and the Netherlands ..

Bulgarian imam, six others charged over support for IS group

China has drafted its first national law against domestic violence, with activists hailing it as a step forward in a country where abuse has long been sidelined as a private matter.
	The new law formally defines domestic violence for the first time and streamlines the process for obtaining restraining orders -- measures that anti-domestic abuse groups have advocated for years.
	"Over the years, we've many times felt powerless ourselves to help victims," said Hou Zhiming, a veteran women's rights advocate who heads the Maple Women's Psychological Counselling Centre in Beijing.
	"If this law is actually enacted -- because the issuing of a draft means it will now enter the law-making process -- we will be very pleased," said Hou, whose centre is one of China's longest-running anti-domestic violence organisations.
	"At the very least, there's finally movement on this law," she said.
	But advocates also say the draft law, released by the Legislative Affairs Office of China's State Council .

China drafts first domestic violence law

A wild elephant stormed into a crowded pilgrimage town in Sri Lanka today and trampled two men to death near Buddhism's most sacred tree, a resident and police said.
	Wildlife authorities fired tranquiliser darts to try to subdue the rampaging animal in the town of Anuradhapura, 200 kilometres north of the capital, police said.
	The elephant ran past President Mahinda Rajapakse's official residence in Anuradhapura at dawn before crushing a cyclist and a bystander near the holy tree, the Sri Maha Bodi.
	"It is very unusual for an wild elephant to go to town like this," a local resident told AFP. "The last time we saw something like this was when a tusker came to the town in 2001 but it did not kill anyone, unlike this time."
	Police said it was unclear what sparked the rampage. They have tied the elephant's legs together and were now working with wildlife authorities to return it to  nearby jungle.
	The tree, guarded around the clock by armed men, is believed grown from a sapling of a .

Sri Lanka elephant kills two near Buddhism's holiest tree

A Bangladesh court today sentenced to death two Islamic militants for gunning down a police informant eight years ago, a prosecutor said.
	A fast-track court handed down the sentences after earlier convicting the pair, both in their 20s and members of banned militant outfit Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), said prosecutor Taslima Yesmin.
	One of the men protested against the severity of the sentence, shouting out that he was a minor at the time of the shooting in 2006.
	"They were found guilty of obstructing state duties and shooting at a police source on December 29, 2006. The source later died in a hospital," Yesmin told AFP.
	"Both were sentenced to hang," she added.
	The pair, one of whom was 14 at the time, started firing at police and the informant who tried to stop them at a traffic post in the northern district of Tangail on suspicion of smuggling explosives.
	Bangladesh banned the JMB in 2005 when it carried out a series of suicide blasts and nationwide synchronised ...

2 Bangladesh Islamic militants to hang for killing police aide

Police in Kathmandu today arrested a group of protesters demonstrating near the venue of a regional summit to demand that authorities drop a treason case against a prominent Nepalese activist.
	Authorities last month charged Chandra Kant Raut, a former scientist with a doctorate from Britain's Cambridge University, with treason over his calls for a separate homeland for Nepal's marginalised Madhesi community who live in the southern plains.
	Around 15 protesters gathered around a kilometre from the venue hosting meetings between leaders of eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations.
	Police said they defied orders to keep the area clear.
	"We arrested 15 people protesting near the SAARC venue today, because we could not allow crowds to block the area," a spokesman for the Kathmandu metropolitan police told AFP.
	"We told them to move and hold the protest somewhere else but they refused."
	Binay Panjiyar, one of those arrested, said it was a peaceful ...

Nepal arrests treason row protesters near summit venue

Sword-wielding Hindu devotees will transform a remote corner of Nepal into the world's largest abattoir this weekend when they slaughter hundreds of thousands of animals in defiance of a growing chorus of protests.
	Animal rights activists say the butchering of animals ranging from buffaloes to rats in the village of Bariyapur amounts to mass cruelty while local residents say the stench of death leaves them struggling to breathe.
	But despite intervention from India's Supreme Court, which has ordered a ban on buffalo exports, big crowds are expected at the two-day Gadhimai Festival in southern Nepal, close to the border between the two countries.
	The festival, which takes place every five years and begins Friday, sees hundreds of thousands of worshippers from both countries flock to Bariyapur's temple in the hope of appeasing the Hindu goddess of power.
	An estimated 300,000 animals, including chickens, ducks, pigeons and pigs, had their heads chopped off or throats slit during the ..

Hindu devotees defy outcry over mass animal slaughter in Nepal

The extension of international nuclear negotiations with Iran is likely to prompt a far-reaching showdown between the White House and US Republicans who seek to tighten economic screws against Tehran.
	With hawkish lawmakers eager to pass new sanctions through Congress to prod the Islamic republic into a lasting deal that prevents Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, experts warned that attempts to impose economic penalties could rip apart the delicate negotiation process.
	Iran and world powers agreed to extend terms of an interim deal - which include limited sanctions relief - for another seven months as they work toward a final accord, and President Barack Obama has largely been given a free hand by Congress to deal with Tehran over the past year.
	With the deadline now postponed a second time, some lawmakers want to hold Iranian leaders' feet to the fire, insisting that since punitive sanctions brought Tehran to the negotiating table, passing new sanctions now will be the key to 

Republicans' next clash with Obama: Iran nuclear talks

Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene and Kusal Perera hit half-centuries to steer Sri Lanka to 317-6 in the first ODI against England in Colombo, here today.
     Dilshan top-scored with 88, Jayawardene hit a fluent 55 and Perera made 59 as the hosts took advantage of England's wayward and indisciplined attack that produced 17 wides.
     The start of the day-night match at the Premadasa stadium was delayed by an hour due to bad weather, but the umpires decided to play a full 50-overs-a-side game.
     England's decision to field first in overcast conditions did not bear fruit as Dilshan and Perera put on 120 for the first wicket by the 23rd over to give the hosts a flying start.
     Left-handed Perera was run out soon after reaching his half-century after a mix-up as Dilshan refused a second run.
     England, who till then had failed to stem the flow of runs, struck again in the next over when Moeen Ali trapped Kumar Sangakkara leg-before for two. Sangakkara reviewed the ...

Three half-centuries lift Sri Lanka to 317/6 vs England

Software giant Microsoft said today that it pays Chinese taxes "consistent" with a China-US bilateral agreement, following a cryptic media report that a foreign company with similarities to it agreed to settle a multi-million dollar bill for back taxes.
	The official Xinhua news agency, in a Chinese-language report published on Sunday, said that a well-known US-based company, long among the world's top 500 corporations and with operations in China had agreed to pay USD 136.9 million in back taxes and interest over an unspecified period.
	The report also said that the company agreed to pay additional taxes of more than 100 million yuan a year in the future. Xinhua said the tax calculation was based on current sales.
	It did not identify the company by name, simply referring to it as "M Company."
	That, as well as other identifiers such as the company having established a business in Beijing in 1995, led to foreign media speculation it was referring to Redmond, Washington-based ...

Microsoft pays Chinese taxes after cryptic media report

The head of the Asian Development Bank said today he is ready to work with China on a new infrastructure investment bank proposed by Beijing, despite fears it could undermine his institution.
	The Manila-based ADB is too large and established to be threatened by the proposed lender, Takehiko Nakao told a foreign correspondents' forum in the Philippines.
	"If the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) is established, we are very happy to have the appropriate collaboration," Nakao said, adding the banks could potentially co-finance projects.
	Last month China and 20 other Asian countries signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the AIIB, an institution whose development has been driven by China and which will be based in Beijing, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
	However the proposed lender is seen as a potential rival to existing Western- and Japanese-dominated institutions such as the World Bank and the ADB.
	The Japanese government has expressed ...

ADB ready to work with new China-led bank, says president

An Ankara court today acquitted the only suspect in a case over the alleged poisoning of former president Turgut Ozal, who died in office in 1993, a defence lawyer said.
	Retired general Levent Ersoz, 60, has been on trial since October last year accused of attempted murder.
	The court ruled there was not sufficient evidence against Ersoz and decided to acquit him, his lawyer Hulusi Coskun told AFP.
	"This trial should have never taken place. We have demanded his acquittal since the very beginning," he said.
	Ersoz had already been convicted and jailed last year in one of the conspiracy cases against an array of figures accused of trying to topple Turkey's Islamic-leaning government.
	But he was released in March after an Istanbul court decided to review the cases, a development that may open the path for retrials for hundreds of military officers jailed for coup-plotting in 2012 and 2013.
	Ozal became Turkey's eighth president in 1989. When he died in office aged 65, the cause of ...

Turkey clears ex-general over alleged murder of former prez

The parents of slain teenager Michael Brown today called the account given by the police officer who shot him unbelievable, and said the officer's comments added "insult after injury."
	Protests have flared across the United States after Monday's decision by a grand jury not to prosecute a white police officer for shooting dead the unarmed black teenager in August.
	In his first televised interview since the incident, officer Darren Wilson said he feared for his life, that Brown resembled an angry "demon" and had started the confrontation, grabbing for his gun and later rushing toward him.
	Brown's mother Lesley McSpadden, visibly emotional in an interview on NBC's "Today" show, said the officer's remarks added "insult after injury," and were "so disrespectful."
	"I don't believe a word of it. I know my son far too well to... He would never do anything like that. He would never provoke anyone to do anything to him and he wouldn't do anything to anybody. I don't believe a word of it," .

AFP

AFP

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