Hundreds of people turned out in Tel Aviv today for the funerals of two Israelis gunned down at the Jewish museum in Brussels last week.
	Relatives of Emmanuel and Miriam Riva, who are survived by their two teenage daughters, said the couple in their 50s had been celebrating their wedding anniversary in the Belgian capital.
	Israeli and Belgian officials also attended the funeral.
	"This crime is the result of a hike in anti-semitism in Europe," Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said in a speech, praising the "important contribution of the couple to the state."
	The attack, in which a gunman opened fire at the museum in Brussels on Saturday, killed three people, including the Rivas.
	The couple had in the past worked for the government, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported, but said they were bookkeepers rather than spies.
	Contacted by AFP, the Israeli defence ministry denied the couple had been in their employ, while the prime minister's office declined to comment on ...

Israel holds funeral of Brussels attack victims

PTI Automatic

A Syrian rebel commander said a team from the world's chemical weapons watchdog investigating an alleged chlorine attack against rebel-held Kafr Zita managed to visit the town today, hours after coming under attack.
	Inspectors overseeing the dismantling of Syria's weapons program had been forced to return to their base after their convoy was attacked, but all were safe, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.
	The Syrian foreign ministry accused rebels of kidnapping the team, while opposition activists said the regime planted an explosive device under one of the vehicles to try to stop investigators from investigating the alleged use of chlorine.
	Then, today afternoon, the OPCW team "arrived in Kafr Zita in the company of the Syrian Saiqa force, which is part of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army," said Colonel Mohammad al-Ali, general commander of the faction.
	Amateur video distributed by activists showed two white UN vehicles parked in what appeared to be .

OPCW team visits Syria chlorine site after attack: rebels

Spanish police today said they had smashed a ring that used a fleet of inflatable motorboats to smuggle nearly three tonnes of hashish into Spain from Morocco.
	The group, based in the town of Los Barrios in southwestern Andalusia, hid the boats inside homes bordering a coastal river that flows into the Atlantic, police said in a statement.
	"The drugs traffickers had built ramps inside the homes equipped with automatic gates similar to those in traditional garages. They would launch the boats this way, reaching in an instant the Bay of Gibraltar and then the high seas," the statement said.
	"The drugs collected by the boats was transported to different points of the Andalusian coast, where third parties would hide it and distribute it."
	Police stopped four attempts by the ring  to smuggle drugs into Spain in the last six months, seizing 2.85 tonnes of hashish.
	They detained 19 people and charged six others as part of the operation, which involved around 100 officers and tax ...

Spain police smash drug ring, seize blow-up boats

A Tunisian court delayed for the third time today the appeals trial of Islamists accused of attacking the US embassy in 2012, with numerous defendants and lawyers absent.
	The appeals court in Tunis adjourned the trial until July 1 to appoint a lawyer for two of the accused, the judge said after a brief hearing.
	The trial had already been postponed in January and March, because the prosecution failed to summon two thirds of the defendants to court.
	But despite an official summons, only seven of the accused appeared at today's hearing.
	Last year, the public prosecutor appealed the two-year suspended jail terms given to 20 suspects for their roles in the attack, after the United States and Tunisia strongly criticised the leniency of the sentences.
	Hundreds of angry Islamist protesters attacked the US mission in Tunis after an American-made film mocking their religion was published on the Internet, unleashing a wave of violence across the Muslim world.
	Tunisia's Islamist-led ...

Tunisia delays trial of suspects in US embassy attack

Russia has withdrawn "several thousand" military personnel from the Ukrainian border in the past few days but tens of thousands of soldiers remain deployed in the region, a US defense official said today.
	The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russian troops "continue their repositioning and to move off the border."
	Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the deployment of close to 40,000 troops on the Russia-Ukraine border in March, according to NATO, said on May 19 the soldiers had been recalled to their garrisons.
	Estimating the Russian drawdown in the "thousands," the US official added that "tens of thousands remained massed on the border.
	"There are still enough forces there to create all sorts of destabilisation," the official said.
	Ukraine's army said today it had regained control of the airport serving Donetsk in eastern Ukraine after fierce fighting with pro-Russian militants.
	Putin, accused of supporting the separatists, demanded that Ukrainian ...

Russia withdrawing troops from Ukraine border: US

A six-year-old British boy was fighting for his life in a French hospital today after being found unconscious in a swimming pool aboard a cruise ship off the country's Atlantic coast.
	"The child was found in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest at the bottom of the ship's pool," said Yann Bouvard, a spokesman for the maritime prefecture in the port of Brest.
	French sea rescue services were alerted just before 2:00 pm and a medical team was dispatched by helicopter to the Independence of the Seas, a cruise ship belonging to the US company Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) which sails under the flag of the Bahamas.
	Two hours later, the child was transferred to the Morvan hospital in Brest where his condition was described as "grave".
	The Independence of the Seas is a 338-metre vessel with four pools on board which is capable of carrying up to 3,600 passengers, according to the company's website.

British boy plucked from cruise ship pool fighting for life

A hacker who directed hundreds of cyber attacks on corporations and foreign governments before turning FBI informant today walked free after being handed a symbolic seven-month sentence.
	Hector Xavier Monsegur, better known by his screen name "Sabu", was first arrested in 2011 and had already served seven months in jail before being released on bail in December 2012.
	The original charges could have landed him in prison for decades but the government asked for him to be exempt from even a mandatory minimum sentence given his "extraordinary cooperation."
	Before walking out of the US federal court a free man, he told the judge that he would not see him back.
	"I came a long way I assure you... I am not the same person I was," he said, wearing a black polo shirt and gray jogging pants.
	Sabu and fellow plotters carried out hacks that cost companies tens of millions of dollars, defaced websites and stole personal information of customers or employees, court papers said.
	The New Yorker .

US hacker-FBI informant walks free

Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels today claimed responsibility for a weekend bomb attack on a Djibouti restaurant packed with Westerners.
	"As part of the ongoing Jihad against the Western-led Crusade against Islam, Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen forces have on Saturday night carried out a successful operation against the coalition of Western Crusaders based in Djibouti," the group said in a statement.
	The group said the attack "targeted a restaurant frequented predominantly by French Crusaders and their NATO allies from the US, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, resulting in 35 casualties".
	"The attack was carried out against the French Crusaders for their complicity in the massacres and persecution of our Muslim brothers in the Central African Republic and for their active role in training and equipping the apostate Djiboutian troops in Somalia and their growing intervention in the affairs of our Muslim lands," the Shebab statement said.
	Local officials said three ...

Somalia's Shebab claim Djibouti attack: statement

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today insisted he would not step down as leader of the Liberal Democrat coalition partners despite a terrible performance in the European elections.
	Pressure has been building on Clegg since the Lib Dems lost 11 of their 12 European Parliament seats, which came hot on the heels of the party losing hundreds of seats in local council elections.
	Emerging for his first public appearance since the vote debacle, Clegg said during a low-key visit to a youth club that he wanted to "finish the job" and dismissed calls to dissolve the coalition or modify his party's pro-EU approach.
	Voters appear set to inflict more pain on the centrist Lib Dems for their decision to enter a coalition with the centre-right Conservatives after the inconclusive 2010 general election.
	One new poll showed Clegg could even lose his own seat in next year's election to the centre-left main opposition Labour Party.
	Clegg received backing from Conservative Prime Minister ...

Britain's Clegg rebuffs quit calls after European debacle

A South African man has been arrested for allegedly holding captive and abusing his wife and five children for more than a decade, a media report said today.
	Afrikaans-language newspaper Beeld reported the children -- who were tortured with an electric cable and blowtorch -- never left the house and have never been to school.
	The paper claimed he allegedly kept his wife as a sex slave.
	Police confirmed they detained the 36-year-old on Friday for the suspected abuse of five children aged between two and 16 years.
	"The charges against him are attempted murder and assault," police spokesman Lungelo Dlamini told AFP.
	"He appeared in court yesterday but he's going to appear again tomorrow to apply for bail.
	"He allegedly abused five of his kids."
	Beeld quoted a neighbour as saying: "We didn't know the children existed. I didn't know that for years we've been living next to a monster.

SAfrica man allegedly holds family captive for 'years': report

Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo has met with people close to Boko Haram in an attempt to broker the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, a source close to the talks said today.
	Reports of the talks emerged as Boko Haram was blamed for fresh attacks targeting the security forces, public buildings and a school in its northeastern stronghold.
	Cameroon also said it had begun deploying 3,000 extra troops to buttress its border with Nigeria against the threat posed by marauding militants.
	Yesterday evening, Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said the 223 girls still missing had been located but cast doubt on the prospect of any rescue by force.
	The talks last weekend at Obasanjo's farm in southern Ogun state included relatives of senior Islamist fighters, intermediaries and the former president, the source said on condition of anonymity.
	"The meeting was focused on how to free the girls through negotiation," the source told AFP, ...

Nigeria ex-president Obasanjo holds talks to free schoolgirls

US regulators today called for more transparency from data brokers, citing potential for abuse in a rapidly growing industry that buys and sells information on people's Internet and offline activities.
	A study by the US Federal Trade Commission said the industry collects vast amounts of potentially sensitive data on  ethnicity, income, religion, political leanings, age, and health conditions, with little accountability.
	"You may not know them, but data brokers know you," FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez said in a conference call with media.
	"They know where you live, what you buy, your income, your ethnicity, how old your kids are, your health conditions, and your interests and hobbies."
	The FTC urged Congress to consider legislation to allow consumers to learn of the existence and activities of data brokers and allow them to review and correct inaccurate information.
	"This is an industry that largely operates in the dark," Ramirez said.
	"Most consumers have never heard of the data .

US seeks light on shadowy online data collection

President Barack Obama called Ukraine's president-elect Petro Poroshenko today and offered him "the full support of the United States."
	Obama said the United States would assist Ukraine as Poroshenko "seeks to unify and move his country forward," the White House said.
	Poroshenko, a billionaire tycoon, won with 54 per cent of the votes cast in Sunday's elections in the strife-torn former Soviet republic.
	Obama "stressed the importance of quickly implementing the reforms necessary for Ukraine to bring the country together and to develop a sustainable economy, attractive investment climate, and transparent and accountable government that is responsive to the concerns and aspirations of all Ukrainians," the White House said.
	"The two leaders agreed to continue their conversation during the president's upcoming trip to Europe," it added.
	Obama is scheduled to travel to Europe in early June for the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.
	Russia, which 

Obama vows 'full support' to Ukraine's Poroshenko

Hillary Clinton has dismissed accusations of US decline in her forthcoming memoir, arguing in excerpts released today that America remains the world's uniquely reliable problem-solver.
	"Talk of America's decline has become commonplace, but my faith in our future has never been greater," wrote Clinton, widely seen as the Democratic frontrunner for the 2016 presidential race, in the author's note of her book "Hard Choices."
	Publisher Simon & Schuster released the note on its website ahead of the memoir's June 10 release, and what is expected to be a high-profile book tour by Clinton in which she could frame the narrative of a potential second run for the White House.
	She said she decided to chronicle her experiences as US Secretary of State to let people recognise that the United States "still has what it takes to lead."
	The author's note contains clues about how a possible president Clinton would see America's role in a rapidly changing 21st Century.
	"While there are few ...

Clinton in memoir: US still 'indispensable nation'

EU leaders wrestled today for a joint response to a dismal European vote that saw dramatic gains by radical anti-establishment parties, with Britain, Germany and France calling for EU reforms.
	The anti-EU surge shows the European Union has got "too big and too bossy", said British Prime Minister David Cameron on arriving for an informal summit due to take stock of the election disaster.
	The vote "is a clear message that we cannot just shrug off... And carry on as before," he added.
	"The EU has got too big, too bossy, too interfering and needs to concentrate on growth and jobs."
	France's President Francois Hollande, after his humiliating thrashing at the hands of the far-right National Front, also took aim at Brussels: "Europe must take heed of what happened in France," he said. The National Front topped the vote, leaving Hollande's ruling Socialists in third place with a mere 14 per cent.
	Also on the leaders' dinner menu -- and perhaps just as difficult to digest -- will be tough 

EU 'too big, too bossy', says Cameron at vote postmortem

The head of Colombia's FARC today marked the 50th anniversary of the guerrilla group's founding, expressing hope for an "effective peace" while denouncing the government of President Juan Manuel Santos.
	In a 30-minute video posted on the Internet, Timoleon Jimenez, alias "Timochenko," warned that the FARC "will do what's necessary if the oligarchy persists in blocking peace."
	The video celebrating the Marxist rebels' 50 years comes amid intensifying debate in Colombia over the peace talks with the government, which are taking place in Havana.
	Santos, who has staked his political future on the bid to end Latin America's longest insurgency, came in second over the weekend in the first round of presidential elections to a vehement opponent of the talks, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga. The vote goes to a runoff on June 15.
	Santos said he wanted to accelerate the talks, which have been under way since November 2012.
	"What I want is to finish this process as soon as possible to put an end to the ..

FARC marks 50th year with mixed message on peace

A company controlled by a Russian businessman covered by US sanctions was today selected to build the section of Moscow's latest gas pipeline to the West through EU-member Bulgaria.
	"Stroytransgaz consortium DZZD is the winner of the public tender for construction of the Bulgarian stretch of South Stream," South Stream Bulgaria company chief executive Vladimir Inkov told journalists.
	Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, who controls 63 per cent of Stroytransgaz and is a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, was put on the US sanctions list over Ukraine in March, but has not been sanctioned by the EU.
	The South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine, is one of Russia's major projects to reduce its reliance on Ukraine as a transit country after price disputes in 2006 and 2009 led to interruptions of shipments to Europe.
	Bulgarian and Russian officials involved in the tender decision declined to comment on the selection of company owned by a businessman ...

Sanctions-hit businessman to build Russian pipeline in EU

South Africa's economy has contracted for the first time since the global crisis five years ago, raising the spectre of recession in Africa's most developed economy.
	Statistics South Africa reported today that the economy shrank by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter, a stunning reversal amid a rapid boom elsewhere in the continent.
	The South African economy has struggled to recover since the 2009 crisis and the possibility of another recession, two consecutive quarters of negative growth, is not being ruled out.
	"This makes for grim reading," said Razia Khan, Africa's regional head of research for Standard Chartered Bank.
	The first quarter contraction -- which is annualised and adjusted for seasonal variations -- was blamed largely on a slump in the mining sector and a significant drop in manufacturing.
	Khan said the figures showed an end to a crippling a platinum strike, now in its fifth month, and serious economic reforms were "even more of an imperative."
	"In their absence, ...

S Africa economy shrinks prompting recession fears

Progress to overhaul the global banking sector and prevent another financial crisis has been "too slow", International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned here today.
	"The good news is that the international community has made progress on the reform agenda," Lagarde said at a conference in central London.
	"This is especially true for banking regulation under the auspices of the Basel Committee, where we are moving forward with stronger capital and liquidity requirements. This should make the system safer, sounder, and more service oriented.
	"The bad news is that progress is still too slow, and the finish line is still too far off."
	Lagarde, addressing a London conference themed on "inclusive capitalism", blamed a variety of factors for the lack of progress.
	"Some of this arises from the sheer complexity of the task at hand. Yet, we must acknowledge that it also stems from fierce industry pushback, and from the fatigue that is bound to set in at this point in a long ...

Lagarde warns on slow pace of financial sector reform

The Archbishop of Canterbury met church leaders in Pakistan today as he began a visit that comes amid concerns about the plight of the country's beleaguered Christian minority.
	Justin Welby, the leader of the world's Anglicans, will meet Muslim leaders and senior government officials during his stay, part of a week-long tour that will also take in India and Bangladesh.
	Christians are a small minority in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the 180 million population are Muslims, and most are poor and working in menial jobs.
	They have suffered attacks and riots in recent years, most notoriously last September when a double suicide attack at a church in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed 82 people.
	Christians are also frequently on the receiving end of allegations under Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws, which can carry the death penalty.
	Welby met Bishop Samuel Azariah, Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, in the eastern town of Raiwind today, a spokesman said.
	Raheel Sharoon, ...

Anglican leader visits Pakistan amid Christian concerns

Egypt's electoral commission extended today a presidential vote for a third day, amid reports of a low turnout in the first poll after the overthrow of the Islamist leader, state media said.
	Former chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted president Mohamed Morsi last year, is the clear frontrunner in the election, which was originally scheduled to be held on just yesterday and today.
	Sisi's backers had hoped for a large turnout for a decisive show of support.
	The decision to extend the voting into Wednesday was made to "give a chance to the largest possible number of voters to cast their ballots," said a member of the electoral commission quoted by state news agency MENA.

AFP

AFP

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