Joe Root's second hundred in as many Lord's Tests was the cornerstone of England's recovery on the first day of their series opener with Sri Lanka today.
     Root's 102 not out helped take England to 344 for five at stumps on the first day of the first Test after they'd been struggling at 74 for three when the 23-year-old Yorkshireman walked out to bat.
     Root, who made a Test-best 180 against Australia at Lord's last year, was well supported by Matt Prior (76 not out) in a so-far unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 135.
     However, recalled wicketkeeper Prior was fortunate not be out for a second-ball duck before completing just his second 50 in 21 Test innings.
     Moeen Ali (48), one of three debutants in a new-look England side following their 5-0 Ashes drubbing in Australia, had previously helped Root steady the ship during a fifth-wicket stand of 89.
     "It's a very slow wicket and hard to time when the ball goes softer," Root told Sky Sports.
     "It was a day when you had 

Ton-up Root turns Sri Lanka tide

PTI Automatic

Gunmen shot dead a pro-government tribal elder and his son in a restive Pakistani region near the Afghan border, officials said today.
	The incident took place in the area of Kitkoot, 32 kilometres northwest of Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal region.
	"Up to five gunmen entered a mosque after evening prayers on Wednesday and opened fire on the local pro-government tribal elder Malik Juma Gul and his son, killing them both on the spot," senior local administration official Abdul Haseeb Khan told AFP.
	He said Gul's two bodyguards sustained serious injuries in the attack.
	Another senior local official, Shah Naseem Khan, also confirmed the deaths.
	No group claimed responsibility, but Taliban militants have carried out such attacks in the past.
	The incident came hours after gunmen ambushed a car of local pro-government fighters in Kooza Bandi village in the northwestern Swat Valley, and killed three people.
	Pro-government militias rose up in reaction to the brutal reign of Taliban .

Gunmen kill pro-government elder, his son in NW Pakistan

Electric carmaker Tesla announced today it was giving up its patents to "the open source movement" to help spur electric vehicle technology.
	The unusual move comes with Tesla enjoying huge success, but against a backdrop of multiplying legal squabbles among technology firms over patents.
	"All our patents belong to you," Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said in a blog post.
	"Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology."
	Musk, an entrepreneur who made a fortune with the PayPal online payment service and also heads the space travel firm Space X, said he does not want patents to halt growth of an important environmental technology.
	"We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform," he wrote.
	He said ..

Tesla gives up patents to 'open source movement'

The top congressional Republican laid into President Barack Obama today, accusing him of taking a "nap" on Iraq, while a lawmaker called for US air strikes to repel Islamist rebels advancing on Baghdad.
	With jihadists capturing several large Iraqi cities, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to flee, and threatening Baghdad, hawkish Senator John McCain called for "drastic measures" to reverse the tide and said Obama should sack his national security team for failed policies in the Middle East.
	"Get a new national security team in place. You have been ill-served," he told Obama in a speech on the Senate floor.
	House Speaker John Boehner angrily snapped that the Obama administration has seen the pressure on Iraq's government building for over a year but did little to help authorities there counter the insurgents.
	"Now they've taken control of Mosul, they're 160 kilometers from Baghdad," Boehner told reporters.
	"And what's the president doing? Taking a nap."
	Senate Republican 

Republicans blast Obama over failed Iraq policy

More than one million pupils in state-funded schools in England -- one in six -- do not speak English as their first language, official figures out today showed.
	The number has swelled by a third in the last five years to 1.11 million children, or 16.6 per cent, according to the Department for Education statistics for January 2014.
	In London primary schools, where pupils are aged five to 11, the figure is 48.1 per cent.
	It rises to 75.8 per cent in the Tower Hamlets borough and 75.3 per cent in neighbouring Newham borough in east London, both areas with high levels of immigration.
	Outside London, English is not the first language of at least two in five primary school pupils in Birmingham (43.1 per cent), Bradford (43.4 per cent), Leicester (48.8 per cent), Luton (51.5 per cent) and Slough (58.3 per cent).
	A Department for Education spokesman stressed that by the time pupils sit their GCSE exams at 16, "pupils with English as an additional language are performing almost as well ..

A million pupils in England speak another first language

The Pentagon spent USD 3 million on eight patrol boats for the Afghan border police but the vessels have been sitting in a US warehouse in Virginia for the past three years, a US government watchdog said today.
	The eight inflatable, rigid-hulled boats were purchased in October 2010 to help the Afghan National Police patrol the Amu Darya river along the country's border with Uzbekistan, according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko.
	Less than nine months later, the project was cancelled "without explanation" although the boats were almost fully built, Sopko's report said.
	"The boats currently sit unused at a Navy warehouse" in Yorktown, Virginia, it said.
	"The military has been unable to provide records that would answer the most basic questions surrounding this $3 million purchase," the SIGAR report said.
	The Pentagon has yet to make clear the justification for scrapping the project and has not provided information ...

US patrol boats for Afghan forces never delivered

Oil prices rose sharply today on rising concerns that turmoil in Iraq will disrupt Middle East supplies, analysts said.
	US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in July jumped USD 1.53 compared with yesterday's close to USD 105.93 a barrel, also following a stockpiles report indicating solid US demand.
	Brent crude for July rallied USD 2.16 to stand at USD 112.11 a barrel in London afternoon deals, "reflecting investors' concerns over escalating (Iraq) violence, with potential emerging evidence of distribution further threat to supply", said Dorian Lucas, an analyst at energy consultancy Inenco.
	Jihadists were pushing toward Baghdad today after capturing a town to the north, as the US mulled air strikes in a bid to bolster Iraq's collapsing security forces.
	With the militants closing in on the capital, forces from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region took control of disputed northern oil hub of Kirkuk to protect it from jihadist attack, officials said.
	Tang Hsin Jin, an ...

Oil prices rally on Iraq violence

Kurdish forces took control of the disputed Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk today to protect it from jihadists, after which a bomb targeted a Kurdish security minister, officials said.
	Iraqi Kurds want to incorporate Kirkuk province into their autonomous region, a move Baghdad strongly has strongly opposed in a bitter, long-running dispute with them.
	"We tightened our control of Kirkuk city and are awaiting orders to move toward the areas that are controlled by ISIL," Brigadier General Shirko Rauf of the Kurdish peshmerga security forces told AFP.
	He was referring to jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has spearheaded a major offensive this week that has overrun all of one province and parts of Kirkuk and two other provinces.
	Jaafar Mustafa, the Kurdish minister responsible for the peshmerga, was targeted in a bombing as he returned from visiting units southwest of Kirkuk city, Rauf said.
	Mustafa survived, but the roadside bomb killed a peshmerga fighter.
	Another bomb ..

Kurds take Iraq's Kirkuk, bomb targets minister

Jihadists moved nearer to Baghdad today after capturing a town just hours to the north, as President Barack Obama said Washington was exploring all options to save Iraq's security forces from collapse.
	With the militants closing in on the capital, forces from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region took control of Kirkuk, an ethnically divided northern city they have sought to rule for decades against the objections of successive governments in Baghdad.
	Iraqi Foreign Minister Hosyhar Zebari acknowledged the security forces which Washington invested billions in training and equipping before withdrawing its own troops in 2011, had simply melted away.
	Obama said Iraq was going to need "more help from the United States and from the international community."
	"Our national security team is looking at all the options... I don't rule out anything," he said.
	Russia said the lightning gains by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a movement so radical it has been disavowed even by the 

US mulls 'all options' as Iraq militants advance on Baghdad

Russia accused Ukraine's new leader today of failing to follow through on his vow to end two months of separatist bloodshed and demanded a probe into claims that his forces used banned bombs against civilians.
	Moscow's latest diplomatic offensive came a day after the two uneasy neighbours failed to make calm a furious row over gas prices that could see both Ukraine and parts of Europe cut off from Russian supplies next week.
	But it also reflects the vast challenge facing Petro Poroshenko as he tries to use the momentum of his convincing May 25 presidential election victory to overcome Ukraine's gravest crisis since its independence from Moscow in 1991.
	Poroshenko's office said he also had "substantive and extended" talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone today about ways to stop the fighting convulsing the separatist east.
	The talks are the first reported between the two leaders since German Chancellor Angela Merkel got them to shake hands on the sidelines of ...

Russia piles pressure on new Ukraine leader

British actor Rik Mayall, who starred in the cult comedies "The Young Ones" and "Blackadder", died after suffering a sudden heart failure following a run, his widow said today.
	The 56-year-old was found dead at his home in Barnes, southwest London, on Monday.
	"We now know that our darling Rik suffered an 'acute cardiac event' at our home around midday on June 9," Barbara Mayall said in a statement.
	"He had just returned from his usual run and many people had seen him that morning."
	The comedian, who had three children, survived a near-fatal quad bike accident in 1998 but is thought to have suffered afterwards with epilepsy.
	Mayall found fame in the 1980s alternative comedy TV series "The Young Ones", where he portrayed a poetry-writing anarchist who shared a fetid student house with three other men.
	He won a legion of fans as charismatic lothario and adventurer Lord Flashheart in "Blackadder", the TV series starring Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
	And he took a pop 

Actor Rik Mayall died from sudden heart failure: widow

Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital agreed to pay a combined USD 121 million to settle a private US lawsuit alleging collusion with other firms to suppress the price of takeovers.
	Under the terms of the settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, Goldman will pay USD 67 million and Bain USD 54 million to settle the claims in the multi-party lawsuit, according to documents filed Wednesday by the two sides in the litigation.
	The case, originally filed in 2007 by a group of investors against 13 private-equity and financial heavyweights, accused them of working together to "rig bids, restrict the supply of private equity financing, fix transaction prices" and divide up the market.
	According to the original case filing, seven leveraged-buyout transactions were affected by the alleged collusion, including deals for pipeline company Kinder Morgan and high-end department store chain Neiman Marcus.
	Thomas Undlin, a co-lead counsel for plaintiffs at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & ...

Goldman Sachs, Bain settle suit on buyout collusion

Powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) today claimed attacks in Baghdad that killed dozens of people and announced a new campaign.
	ISIL militants have spearheaded a major offensive that has overrun all of one province, large areas of two more and part of a fourth since it began on Monday night.
	ISIL said it carried out attacks in Baghdad yesterday including three bombings that killed at least 30 people, in a statement posted on Twitter the following day.
	And it announced a new campaign of attacks titled "The March" without elaborating further.
	In the two deadliest attacks yesterday, a suicide bomber struck a meeting of local tribal leaders in Baghdad, killing at least 15 people, while a car bomb in the city killed 13 more people.

ISIL claims Baghdad attacks that killed dozens: statement

The International Criminal Court said today it will try Ivory Coast ex-president Laurent Gbagbo for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during a bloody 2010-2011 election standoff.
	The pre-trial chamber "confirmed by majority four charges of crimes against humanity against Laurent Gbagbo and committed him for trial," the court said in a statement of the much-anticipated decision.
	The charges include murder, rape and persecution committed during post-election violence over three years ago in the west African nation that claimed over 3,000 lives.
	Gbagbo, 69, is the first former head of state brought before the ICC, where he is accused of masterminding a campaign of violence during the presidential vote standoff in the world's largest cocoa producing country.
	He maintains that he was evicted in favour of his rival, current President Alassane Ouattara, thanks to a plot led by former colonial ruler France.
	French and UN forced backed an assault on Gbagbo's villa in Abidjan ...

ICC to try ICoast's Gbagbo for crimes against humanity

Spain's King Juan Carlos will skip the swearing-in of his son Felipe as his successor on June 19 so as not to grab attention from him, the palace said today.
	Dogged over recent years by scandals and health problems, Juan Carlos is abdicating in favour of his more popular son, after a historic four-decade reign.
	Felipe, 46, will be sworn in by parliament accompanied by his wife Letizia, their two daughters Leonor, eight, and Sofia, seven, and his mother Queen Sofia, a palace spokesman told AFP.
	"King Juan Carlos will not attend, so as to give more prominence to the new king," the spokesman said.
	He added that the king was expected to join Felipe afterwards on the balcony of the royal palace to wave to the crowds.
	Felipe's eldest sister Elena and his aunts Pilar and Margarita will attend the swearing-in at the lower house of parliament, he added.
	But the king's youngest daughter Cristina was not on the list. She has been caught up in a corruption scandal centred on her husband, ...

Spain king to skip heir Felipe's swearing-in

Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone talks today with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko on Kiev's plans for defusing the crisis in the separatist east.
	"Ukraine's president notified Vladimir Putin of his plan to settle the situation in Ukraine's southeast," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
	"On top of that, the presidents discussed issues related to the development of bilateral ties," Peskov said.
	Poroshenko's office said the two leaders held "substantial and lengthy" talks in which they discussed steps needed to "settle the situation through peaceful means".
	Putin and Poroshenko met on the sidelines of the D-Day anniversary ceremonies in Normandy last week, their first meeting since pro-Western Poroshenko was elected to the top post on May 25.
	Poroshenko's Kremlin-backed predecessor Viktor Yanukovych was ousted as a result of a popular uprising in February after he abruptly refused to sign key political and trade agreements with the EU ..

Putin discusses Ukraine crisis with new president: Kremlin

Facebook said today it would begin allowing users more information about the ads delivered to them, and to block marketing messages they don't want to see.
	In a blog post, Facebook said its users "tell us they want more control over the ads they see" and that the huge social network is responding to that.
	"That's why we're introducing ad preferences, a new tool accessible from every ad on Facebook that explains why you're seeing a specific ad and lets you add and remove interests that we use to show you ads," the post said.
	The option will be available in the United States in the next few weeks, "and we are working hard to expand globally in the coming months," the statement said.
	As an example, Facebook said, "if you're not interested in electronics, you can remove electronics from your ad interests."
	At the same time, Facebook noted that it would draw from users Web browsing activities and not just from Facebook in an effort to target ads for specific users.
	"Today, we learn ..

Facebook offers users control on ads viewed

More than three million children under the age of five die annually of malnutrition, the UN food agency and World Health Organisation said today, urging governments to tackle the problem.
	"Malnutrition is responsible for about half of all child deaths under five years of age, causing over three million deaths every year," the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
	Some 162 million children are left stunted by chronic malnutrition and 99 million children are underweight across the world, it added.
	Since the first international conference on nutrition in 1992, "important advances in the fight against hunger and malnutrition have been made, but this progress has been insufficient and uneven," FAO head Jose Graziano da Silva said.
	There has only been a 17 per cent reduction in undernourishment since the early 1990s, leaving over 840 million people still chronically undernourished.
	The FAO and WHO urged governments to "make stronger commitments... To ensure healthier diets for .

Malnutrition kills over 3 million toddlers a year: UN

An Egyptian court acquitted former Hosni Mubarak interior minister Habib Al-Adly of corruption today in a retrial after he had been sentenced to 12 years in 2011.
	A cassation court had ordered the retrial of Adly, who had been convicted of money-laundering and illicitly enriching himself.
	The charges were linked to the sale of land owned by Adly. He tasked police officials with finding a buyer who would pay the highest possible price.
	The disgraced ex-minister, who ran Mubarak's security services for more than a decade before a popular uprising overthrew the strongman in 2011, will remain in detention.
	In February, a court upheld a three-year jail sentence handed to Adly for taking advantage of his position and forcing police conscripts to work on his private property.
	Along with Mubarak, he had been sentenced to life in prison in 2012 over the killings of protesters in the 2011 uprising. A court overturned the verdict on technical grounds and they are now being retried along ...

Egypt acquits former Mubarak minister of corruption

The UN Security Council today held talks on the unraveling crisis in Iraq, where Kurds seized control of the contested oil city of Kirkuk and Sunni Muslim militants pushed towards Baghdad.
	The consultations behind closed doors began shortly after 11:30 am (1530 GMT) and were due to include a briefing by video link from the UN special representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov.
	Shortly before the meeting began, witnesses reported that Iraqi forces launched air strikes on militants occupying the palace compound of deposed leader Saddam Hussein in Tikrit.
	"I don't know," Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters when asked what more the Security Council could do on Iraq before laying blame at the US-led invasion in 2003.
	"It's obviously an extremely dramatic situation, clearly rooted in what happened in Iraq in 2003-2004. As far as we're concerned, we believe that the mission was not accomplished."
	Yesterday the 15-member Council condemned in "the strongest terms" the takeover 

UN Security Council begins Iraq crisis talks

The United States has voiced concerns to Myanmar on proposed restrictions on interfaith marriage amid growing worries about actions that target minority Muslims.
	The State Department said it raised concerns "at the highest levels" of Myanmar's government, which is considering a ban on marriages across religious lines amid a surge of Buddhist nationalism since the country launched democratic reforms.
	"The United States opposes any measure that would criminalise interfaith marriages. Such a step would be inconsistent with the government's efforts to promote tolerance and respect for human rights," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement late yesterday in response to reporters' questions.
	Authorities in Myanmar have proposed a variety of restrictive measures seen as targeting the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority who are not considered citizens by the government. Anti-Muslim violence has left around 250 people dead in the last two years.
	The United Nations ...

AFP

AFP

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