Bombings that included a suicide attack on tribal leaders in Baghdad hit Shiite areas of central and southern Iraq today, killing at least 37 people, officials said.
	They targeted three Baghdad neighbourhoods as well as Karbala and Basra provinces, south of the capital, the officials said.
	In the Sadr City area of northern Baghdad, at least 15 people died and 34 were hurt when a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a tent where local Shiite tribal leaders were meeting.
	A car bomb struck another northern area of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding at least 24, while a roadside bomb in the capital's east killed two people and wounded three.
	North of Karbala city, a car bomb killed four people and wounded 13, while another one hit a market west of the southern port city of Basra, leaving at least three dead and seven wounded.
	The violence came during a major offensive by Sunni jihadists that overran the entire province of Nineveh and swathes of Kirkuk to its southeast, and 

Bombings in Shiite areas of Iraq kill 37

PTI Automatic

Microsoft is challenging a US court order that would require it to hand over data from an overseas server in a test of the reach of American law enforcement.
	According to court documents released in the case, Microsoft said it was challenging an order from a US magistrate to hand over email data in a criminal investigation from its servers located in Ireland.
	A Microsoft legal brief filed Friday says the US government "takes the extraordinary position that merely by serving a warrant on any US-based email provider, it had the right to obtain the  private emails of any subscriber, no matter where in the world the data may be located, and without the knowledge and consent of the subscriber or the relevant foreign government."
	The case comes amid growing concerns about vast US surveillance programs in light of revelations in documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
	The Snowden revelations have fuelled efforts in some countries to require US tech .

Microsoft fights court order in test on overseas data

The battle for Alstom's energy assets today intensified with Germany's Siemens joining forces with Japan's Mitsubishi to draw up a bid for the French 'national jewel'.
	The announcement by the German-Japanese giants however failed to gain traction with the French group, with a source close to Alstom saying it would effectively mean the company's break-up.
	Siemens had been going head to head against GE for Alstom's energy assets.
	But today, the German giant and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced that they have "joined forces in evaluating a potential proposal for certain assets of the French multinational conglomerate Alstom in order to strengthen the future position of Alstom, MHI and Siemens."
	They added that they would make a decision on whether to submit an offer by June 16.
	According to a source close Alstom, Siemens and Mitsubishi are planning to propose to form two entities following the takeover -- one comprising of Siemens and part of the Alstom assets and the other ...

Siemens, Mitsubishi join forces to woo Alstom

He trained Afghan resistance fighters against the Soviets and helped create the Taliban, but today Pakistan's former spymaster Hamid Gul says the Islamist group's long-time foe Abdullah Abdullah has the best chance of securing peace.
	Widely viewed as a "Godfather" figure for Pakistan's strategy of using jihadist proxies to exert influence in neighbouring countries, the 77-year-old retired general is still seen by some observers as offering a window into the mindset of the country's powerful military establishment.
	As Afghanistan prepares for a run-off election on Saturday between Abdullah and his rival Ashraf Ghani, Pakistan -- which backed the Taliban regime that was ousted in 2001 and is often accused by Kabul of supporting their insurgency -- has maintained a resolutely neutral stance.
	But Gul, who headed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency between 1987 and 1989 during the late stages of the Soviet occupation, said it would take a fighter, not an academic to ...

Pak's ex-spymaster says Abdullah best hope for Afghan peace

The jury today retired to consider its verdicts in the trial of former executives of Britain's News of the World tabloid accused of plotting to hack phones to obtain stories.
	Former editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are among those charged with being part of an alleged conspiracy dating back to 2000 and spanning six years, which led to the closure of the newspaper in 2011.
	In 130 days of evidence, the jury at the Old Bailey court has heard the workings of the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper examined in intense detail.
	Sending the jurors off to begin mulling over the evidence, judge John Saunders urged them to "put out of your head anything you have heard outside court".
	Coulson, 46, who went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief, is also accused of bribing police for stories while at the News of the World.
	He faces two counts of conspiring with the paper's then royal editor, 56-year-old Clive Goodman, to commit misconduct in a public office by paying ...

Jury mulls verdicts in Britain's phone-hacking trial

Andy Murray made the perfect start to his bold venture with new coach Amelie Mauresmo today as the Wimbledon champion opened his Queen's Club title defence with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu.
     Murray sent shockwaves through the tennis world when he announced on Sunday that Frenchwoman Mauresmo would replace Ivan Lendl, who quit in March, as his coach for at least the grass-court season.
     The 27-year-old's decision to ignore several high-profile male coaches to hire Mauresmo, a former world number one and Wimbledon champion, has been the talk of the sport for the last three days.
     Mauresmo, the current France Fed Cup captain, has tried her hand at coaching on several occasions since retiring in 2009.
     She had a brief spell working with male player Michael Llodra in 2010, but in the testosterone fuelled world of men's tennis few leading players have female coaches and the decision is seen in some quarters as a major gamble.
     In the circumstances, a routine ..

Murray makes ideal start to Mauresmo era

Iraqi security forces battled militants at a northern entrance to the city of Samarra today, police and witnesses said, as jihadists pushed south towards Baghdad in a lightning offensive.
	The city is home to a revered Shiite shrine that was bombed in 2006, sparking a sectarian conflict between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni Arab minority that left tens of thousands dead.
	The city lies just 110 kilometres (70 miles) north of the Iraqi capital on the main highway from second city Mosul where jihadists launched their offensive late on Monday.
	Witnesses said the militants had arrived in trucks mounted with machineguns, while a policeman said his unit was battling them at the northwest entrance to Samarra.
	Jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are spearheading a spectacular offensive that began late on Monday.
	They have since overrun all of Nineveh province and its capital Mosul as well as parts of Kirkuk to its southeast and Salaheddin to its south.
	Militants ...

Security forces battle militants near Iraq's Samarra: police

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine not to reject a reduced gas price offer but Kiev rebuffed the proposal as key EU-mediated talks to resolve the dispute ended in deadlock today.
	Moscow and Kiev exchanged barbs after nearly five hours of haggling in Brussels failed to yield a deal.
	"If our offer is rejected then we will shift to a whole other level," Putin told a government meeting in Moscow.
	"That is not our choice and we do not want that."
	The Russian strongman said Russia was offering Kiev a USD 100 "discount" for a final price of USD 385 per 1,000 cubic metres and accused Kiev of driving the negotiations into a "dead end" by demanding further reductions.
	However Ukraine Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said after meeting with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak that Kiev could not accept an offer that could easily be withdrawn if Moscow changed its mind.
	Ukraine wanted a price set by the market laid down in a commercial contract, Prodan said, but "unfortunately .

Putin warns Ukraine against rejecting gas offer

London Mayor Boris Johnson offered today to be sprayed by water cannon to demonstrate that they are safe, after buying the riot control equipment for the capital despite having no permission to use it.
	Water cannon were routinely used to disperse crowds during the civil unrest in Northern Ireland but have never been used on mainland Britain, and the issue is contentious.
	After a wave of rioting in London in August 2011, police said there could be limited use of water cannon in any future unrest, but the government is still considering the issue.
	Despite the lack of official approval, Johnson has agreed the purchase of three second-hand vehicles from the German police, in a deal which he said could not wait any longer.
	Defending his decision on London's LBC radio, Johnson said he was "prepared to do anything to show that they're safe within reason".
	Pressed as to whether he would be willing to be filmed being hosed down, he said: "I'm not quite sure whether I want to stand in ...

London mayor offers to be blasted by water cannon

The daughter of a fugitive Korean tycoon accused of being responsible for a ferry disaster that killed 300 passengers will fight moves to extradite her from France, her lawyer said today.
	Yoo Som-Na, 47, was arrested late last month in her Paris residence and detained under an international arrest warrant in connection with possible charges of embezzlement, tax fraud and criminal negligence.
	She faces court hearings for an extradition procedure that could take several months.
	"We will fight her extradition right to the end and through all means possible and imaginable," her lawyer said on the sidelines of a court hearing in Paris today during which her request to be temporarily set free was rejected.
	Yoo Som-Na's father Yoo Byung-Eun and his eldest son Yoo Dae-Kyun are being hunted by Korean authorities who suspect breaches of safety standards may have led to the April 16 tragedy in which 300 people, mostly schoolchildren, lost their lives.
	Korean prosecutors also wish to speak ..

Daughter of Korean ferry disaster tycoon to fight extradition

The Bangladesh coastguard today rescued a stricken boat in the Bay of Bengal packed with 300 nationals who were trying to flee to Malaysia, an official said.
	At least four bodies were on board the Malaysia-bound boat, which was being towed to a Bangladeshi island in rough seas, the official and one of the passengers told AFP.
	Bangladeshi coastguard commander Shahidul Islam told AFP that the remaining 300 passengers were safe.
	"They told us that there are four dead bodies in the ship. We haven't searched the ship yet. We're bringing it to the Saint Martin's Island," he said.
	Islam could not confirm how the four died, but one of the passengers told AFP from aboard the boat that they were fired on as they tried to leave Bangladesh's southern coast near neighbouring Myanmar.
	Bangladesh and Mynanmar share a land border and tensions are high. Last month a Bangladeshi border guard was killed following clashes with Myanmar border police.
	"The Myanmar people fired at us," passenger Ziaur 

Bangladesh coastguard rescues 300 migrants stranded at sea

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi today met with top leaders of China's ruling Communist Party, the latest European leader to beat a path to Beijing's door hoping to attract more investment.
	Renzi, the 39-year-old former mayor of Florence, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and National People's Congress Chairman Zhang Dejiang on his first trip to China since becoming Italy's youngest-ever prime minister in February.
	"Many people think efficiency (in Italy) is not so good and China has grown very fast, so we need to study China," Renzi said after a meeting at which he and Li signed ten agreements, including a deal for Shanghai Electric to buy a 40 percent stake in Italian power engineering company Ansaldo Energia.
	"We need to work hard to attract more Chinese companies to come to Italy to invest," he added. "Today, these agreements signify the new road."
	European leaders are determined to court China's booming economy. In December British Prime Minister ...

Italian PM courts Chinese investment on Beijing visit

Hollywood director Oliver Stone has acquired movie rights to a political thriller penned by US whistle-blower Edward Snowden's Russian lawyer, the pro-Kremlin attorney said today.
	"The rights to my book have been handed over to Oliver Stone and producer Moritz Borman," Anatoly Kucherena told AFP.
	"He (Stone) met with me, he did not meet with Snowden. The book will be published later."
	Kucherena is completing a potboiler dubbed the "Time of the Octopus" which tells the story of a US whistle-blower and is loosely based on Snowden's experiences.
	One of Russia's most high-profile lawyers, Kucherena was among a select group of public figures granted a meeting with the US fugitive during his month-long stay at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport last year.
	The lawyer, seen as close to the Kremlin, helped Snowden receive temporary asylum in Russia and has since acted as his spokesman and link to the outside world.
	US filmmaker Stone, a trenchant critic of the American political ...

Snowden's lawyer sells film rights to Hollywood director

Five people were killed in Boko Haram raids on two villages near a town in northeast Nigeria where more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped nearly two months ago, residents said today.
	Gunmen dressed in military uniform stormed Tohya and Wurojene, 13 kilometres from Chibok, Borno state, late on Monday, opening fire on residents, burning homes and looting food stores.
	"The attackers are obviously Boko Haram and came around 7:00 pm (1800 GMT)," Zamani Emma, a community leader in Tohya, told AFP.
	"They opened fire on the two villages and threw petrol bombs into our homes, forcing us to flee into the bush.
	"When we returned the next morning we recovered five corpses and found scores of our homes burnt while all our food supplies were taken away."
	Wurojene resident Mansur Ahmed gave a similar account and said the attackers came from the Sambisa forest, where Boko Haram has camps and which has been the focus of the hunt for the missing girls.
	At least 20 nomadic women were at the ...

Five killed in Boko Haram village raids: residents

A Swiss guinea pig has joined a menagerie of soothsaying animals tasked with predicting World Cup scores after the 2010 success of deceased soccer oracle Paul the Octopus.
	Madame Shiva is setting her sights lower than other animal pundits, however, by focusing only on her home team's matches in Brazil.
	The 20-month-old guinea pig has already tipped Switzerland to beat Ecuador in their opening Group E game on Sunday, said the international development charity Swissaid, which put Madame Shiva's skills to the test.
	She was placed on a mini soccer pitch with the colours of Switzerland and Ecuador at either end.
	With a brief sniff of the pitch, Madame Shiva darted to the Swiss end, where in a sign of approval, she left a single dropping.
	She was watched by former Switzerland manager, Frenchman Gilbert Gress, who said she was spot on.
	"Her prediction tallies with what's going to happen on Sunday, when Switzerland beat Ecuador," Gress said.
	Madame Shiva's next job will be to forecast .

Football: Swiss guinea pig seeks mantle of Paul the Octopus

Militants stormed the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today and kidnapped 48 people including the head of the diplomatic mission, a Turkish government official said.
	"48 Turks including the consul, staff members, guards and three children were abducted," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	"All are doing well," the official said.
	The kidnappings came a day after the Mosul consulate said fighters from the powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized 28 Turkish truck drivers.
	In a spectacular blow to the Shiite-led government in Iraq, jihadists spearheaded by ISIL on yesterday seized Mosul, its surrounding region of Nineveh and areas of Kirkuk and Salaheddin province.
	The raid of the consulate by ISIL militants prompted the Turkish government to chair a crisis meeting.
	Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held an emergency meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay and the country's spy chief Hakan .

Iraq militants seize 48, including Turkish consul, children

Frustrated Chinese relatives of passengers onboard missing Flight MH370 today visited the offices of Malaysia Airlines in Beijing to confront officials after regular briefings by the airline were halted.
	The relatives had previously been given regular updates on the search for the plane by airline officials at a hotel in Beijing. But the briefings were cancelled last month, to the fury of many who say they no longer have any way of making their voices heard.
	Relatives organised a visit to the Beijing office of the airline to "demand answers", a message posted on their official online account said, but were turned away and refused access to airline staff.
	A heavy security presence blocked journalists from entering the building and reporters interviewing relatives outside were closely watched by police, as five marked police vans were parked nearby.
	"I came here today to get answers but I am not allowed to see anyone," said Dai Shuqin, who added her younger sister was on the ...

MH370 China relatives meet wall of silence from airline

Militants took control of the Iraqi city of Tikrit and freed hundreds of prisoners today, police said, the second provincial capital to fall in two days.
	"All of Tikrit is in the hands of the militants," a police colonel said of the Salaheddin provincial capital, which lies roughly half way between Baghdad and Iraq's second city Mosul which fell yesterday.
	A police brigadier general said that the militants attacked from the north, west and south of the city, and that they were from powerful jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
	A police major said the militants had freed some 300 inmates from a prison in the city.
	ISIL is spearheading a spectacular offensive that began late on Monday and has since overrun all of Nineveh province and its capital Mosul as well as parts of Kirkuk to its southeast and Salaheddin to its south.

Iraq's Tikrit falls to militants: police

The European Union launched a probe today to determine whether the special tax deals offered to Apple and Starbucks by authorities in Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands amount to illegal state aid.
	"In the current context of tight public budgets, it is particularly important that large multinationals pay their fair share of taxes," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
	Apple and Starbucks -- as well as a number of other multi-national companies including Amazon and Google -- have come under intense pressure from politicians and campaigners over their tax affairs.
	The tax policies ruling the financial arm of Italian automaker Fiat, based in Luxembourg, is also included in the probe.
	The multinationals are accused of enjoying sweetheart tax deals that allow them to move billions in earnings from higher-taxed countries to lower taxed ones.
	Almunia said the investigation would focus on transfer pricing payments, an accounting technique where units of a multinational .

EU takes on Apple, Starbucks tax breaks

A senior Palestinian official has called for international action against Israel over the detention without charge of more than 100 Palestinians who have been on a long-term hunger strike.
	"I am writing on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and president Mahmud Abbas to request your immediate intervention on behalf of the approximately 130 Palestinian detainees and prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli prisons," senior PLO member Saeb Erakat said in a letter obtained by AFP today.
	"We call on you to call on Israel to annul the policy of administrative detention and to condition deepening your bilateral ties with Israel pending Israel's fulfilment of all its obligations", he wrote in English.
	Administrative detention is a procedure dating back to the pre-1948 British mandate under which military courts can hold suspects without charge for periods of up to six months, which can be renewed indefinitely.
	The letter, issued yesterday, was sent to members of the ..

Palestinians seek action against Israel over detainees

Eurozone unemployment is still far higher than the average rate across advanced countries, the OECD said today just as Britain reported another fall.
	However, the outlook for young people - the "lost" generation - finding work in the 34 OECD countries is improving slowly.
	Across the 18 countries in the eurozone, the unemployment rate in April was 11.7 per cent.
	This is about half as much again as the overall rate of 7.4 per cent across the 34 countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development which published the monthly data.
	The rate across OECD countries edged down slightly by 0.1 percentage point in April from the March level, and in the eurozone also by 0.1 points.
	One improvement was a sharp fall, of 0.6 percentage points over one month, of the high levels of unemployment among young people in the OECD area, which has led policymakers to speak of a "lost" generation.
	In April, 10.7 million young people were unemployed, about a quarter of all ...

AFP

AFP

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