Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is to unveil a unity government by Thursday, ending seven years of rival administrations in the West Bank and Gaza, an official said.
	"We have finished consultations on the national consensus government," Azzam al-Ahmed, an envoy from Abbas's Fatah movement, told AFP today after talks in Gaza with its Hamas rulers.
	"The announcement will come from the president in the next two days."
	The Palestine Liberation Organisation, which is dominated by Fatah, signed a surprise reconciliation deal with Hamas on April 23, giving the two sides five weeks to draw up an "independent government" of technocrats headed by Abbas.
	Agreement on a unity government would pave the way for long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.
	Hamas won a landslide victory in the last parliamentary elections in 2006.
	But the European Union and the United States have refused to have any dealings with the Islamist movement until it renounces violence and recognises ...

Palestinians to unveil unity government 'by Thursday'

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Asia's biggest wine and spirits fair opened in Hong Kong today, drawing the world's top producers from France to Chile despite China reporting the first decline in wine consumption for a decade.
	According to a survey by Vinexpo Asia Pacific, mainland China's wine consumption fell by 2.5 per cent last year, after ten years of uninterrupted growth at a rate of 25 per cent per year.
	The drop comes as Beijng reins in luxury spending and extravagant banquets, against the backdrop of a slower economy, and an anti-graft campaign backed by President Xi Jinping to root out official corruption.
	However, show organisers, who expanded the trade fair by 50 percent in floor space from its last edition in 2012, are adamant there are still strong opportunities for the wine and spirits markets in the region, because of increased demand from a growing middle class.
	Winemakers and industry executives also say that the economic slowdown will not prevent people from drinking, but the focus may now  ...

Asia's largest wine expo opens in Hong Kong

A woman was detained in China today after leaving Japan using the passport of a friend whose body was sent across the country by parcel post marked as a doll, reports said.
	The Japanese-Brazilian woman, 29, turned herself in to the Japanese consulate-general in Shanghai and was detained by local police for a suspected immigration offence, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies quoted Japanese police sources as saying.
	Japanese police are expected to seek her extradition, the reports said.
	The body of nurse Rika Okada, also 29, was found in a storage lock-up in Tokyo. Investigators also found the two-metre box in which it had been transported from Osaka, 400 kilometres to the southwest.
	The delivery service which ferried the package -- marked with the Japanese word for "doll" -- had been paid in Okada's own name, earlier media reports said. The bill for the lock-up's short term rental had been settled using her credit card.
	The reports said the Japanese-Brazilian, who had been at ...

China holds woman for leaving Japan on dead friend's passport

The next round of talks on resolving Western concerns over Iran's nuclear programme will take place in Vienna on June 16-20, the European Union announced today.
	After "very long and useful discussions" in Istanbul, the "next formal round ... Will be from 16-20 June in Vienna," a spokesman for EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said.
	The talks were "very long and useful," spokesman Michael Mann said in a brief statement.
	Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also recommended that an experts meeting "should take place soon," Mann added.
	Ashton and Zarif met in Istanbul yesterday to discuss the next steps towards a final agreement which would resolve Western concerns that Tehran wants to build a nuclear bomb.
	Iran has consistently said it is not seeking nuclear weapons but wants an independent nuclear programme to provide energy.
	Talks earlier this month in Vienna made no "tangible progress," with a July 20 deadline for a comprehensive agreement looming on .

Next Iran nuclear talks June 16-20 in Vienna: EU

Former champion Li Na, the second-seeded Chinese superstar and Australian Open winner, was sensationally dumped out of the French Open in the first round Tuesday, beaten by a tearful Kristina Mladenovic.
     Li, the 2011 champion, went down 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 to the 103rd-ranked blonde Frenchwoman, the Roland Garros junior champion in 2009, to suffer her first opening round defeat in Paris in eight visits.
     The 2hr 06min loss on a windswept and chilly Suzanne Lenglen court saw Li undone by 37 unforced errors.
     Mladenovic, who was Australian Open mixed doubles champion this year with Daniel Nestor, goes on to face Alison Riske of the United States for a place in the third round.
     "It's just incredible," said Mladenovic, who was 36 in the world last Ausgust.
     "I don't have the words to describe what just happened. To beat the world number two in the first round at Roland Garros, it's incredible. Without the crowd, I could not have done it."
     Li's shock defeat means that .

Chinese star Li stunned at French Open

Six international chemical weapons watchdog investigators have been kidnapped with their Syrian drivers on a fact-finding mission in the central province of Hama, the foreign ministry said today.
	"Terrorist groups have kidnapped five Syrian drivers and six members of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) team investigating the use of chlorine gas," the ministry said.
	The team have been investigating allegations that Syrian government forces unleashed the industrial chemical on a rebel-held village in Hama province last month.
	There was no immediate comment on the reported abduction from the OPCW.
	The ministry said the team went missing as they were travelling in two vehicles from government-held Teebet al-Imam to rebel-held Kafr Zita, the scene of the alleged attack.
	The watchdog said late last month that it would deploy a fact-finding mission to probe the allegation that Damascus had used chlorine as a weapon in breach of its commitments under the ...

Chemical weapons watchdog team kidnapped in Syria: ministry

Armed men attacked the home of new Libyan Prime Minister Ahmed Miitig in the capital Tripoli today, an aide said.
	"There was an attack with rockets and small arms on the prime minister's house," the official said on condition of anonymity.
	Miitig and his family were in the house at the time of the 3:00 am (0100 GMT) attack, but escaped unharmed.
	The premier's guards opened fire on the attackers, wounding two of them and arresting them, the official added.
	The interim parliament passed a vote of confidence on Sunday in Miitig and his new cabinet, amid rising lawlessness in the North African nation dogged by power struggles between rival former-rebel militias.
	Libya has been awash with weapons since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
	Successive governments have struggled to control the myriad of ex-rebel militias that have carved out fiefdoms across the country.

New Libya PM's home attacked, no casualties: aide

A Saudi court sentenced to death a Shiite protester convicted of opening fire on a police patrol during unrest in the kingdom's east, local media reported today.
	The sentence is the heaviest handed to a protester in the trial of scores detained over their involvement in anti-regime protests in the oil-rich Eastern Province since February 2011.
	The court, which specialises in terrorism cases, convicted the Saudi man of "disobedience... Undermining security and causing sedition" by opening fire on a police patrol in the Shiite-populated Qatif district with the help of two accomplices, according to local media.
	The defendant was also accused of "covering up for a group of rioters."
	It was unclear when the attack took place or whether it had caused any police casualties.
	Activists identified the convict as Rida Rabih, son of Shiite cleric Jaafar Rabih, who became known for his efforts to ease tensions that were brewing in Qatif's flashpoint village of Awamiya.
	Demonstrations in ...

Saudi hands Shiite protester death sentence

Ukraine said today it had regained control of the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk after a day of punishing air strikes and fierce fighting with pro-Russian separatist gunmen left dozens of people dead.
	   The battle for the main transport hub in the rebel-held east erupted yesterday, in a sharp escalation of the conflict after president-elect Petro Poroshenko vowed to take a tough stand against the "terrorists".
	   "The airport is under our full control. The enemy suffered heavy losses. We have none," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement.
	   He said however that the military was continuing its operation at the airport, and AFP journalists reported hearing explosions and heavy gunfire during the morning.
	   Donetsk mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko told reporters that two civilians and 38 combatants had died, while rebel leaders suggested that the toll among their ranks could be higher.
	   An AFP correspondent reported seeing body parts and blood splattered near a .

Dozens dead as Ukraine claims control of Donetsk airport

The killing of two Israelis by an unknown gunman in Brussels may have been a planned assassination rather than a random act, Israel's Haaretz daily said today.
	The attack, in which a gunman opened fire at the Jewish museum in the Belgian capital on Saturday, killed three people, including an Israeli couple in their 50s who reportedly had ties to an Israeli government agency.
	Writing in Haaretz, defence analyst Amir Oren said that although Miriam and Emmanuel Riva had in the past worked for the government, they were bookkeepers rather than spies.
	"Both were accountants who were employed separately by government bodies," he said, describing their tools as "numbers and computers, not cloaks and daggers."
	"Still, it's possible that the murder in Brussels was not a hate crime or an anti-Semitic attack, but a targeted assault... A battle in a covert war, though perhaps there was a misidentification of the intended victims."
	Belgian investigators yesterday said they were considering a ..

Brussels attack possible 'targeted' hit on Israelis: report

Italian aid worker Federico Motka has been freed after over a year of captivity in Syria, the foreign ministry announced in a statement today.
	"Our compatriot Federico Motka, kidnapped in Syria and released yesterday, arrived this morning at the Roma Ciampino airport where he was welcomed by Foreign Minister Federica Mogherina," read the statement.
	Italian authorities did not release details on the conditions of Motka's release.
	The aid worker was kidnapped on March 12, 2013 by armed men from a camp of Syrian refugees in Atmeh.
	Yesterday he was driven to the Turkish border where he left for Italy.
	Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced the news on Twitter last night, saying he himself had informed "Giovanna Motka that her son Federico, held for a year, is free and will be in Italy tomorrow."
	Motka worked as a coordinator for French NGO Acted, said the ANSA news agency. Italian media also said he had worked for German humanitarian organisation Welthungerhilfe.

Italy says aid worker freed after year of captivity in Syria

Dutch police today arrested six Greenpeace activists after they chained a Russian oil drilling platform destined for the Arctic to a dock to prevent it from leaving a Netherlands port.
	"Police have arrested six of our activists. They are still in custody but we don't know what the charges are," protest coordinator Faiza Oulahsen told AFP.
	Police spokesman Koos Venema confirmed the arrests, saying the activists were arrested after refusing a police order to abandon the GSP Saturn platform, anchored in the Dutch port of IJmuiden, northwest of Amsterdam.
	Greenpeace divers and activists with climbing gear late yesterday night surrounded the massive platform, which has been contracted by Russian state oil giant Gazprom to drill for oil in the northern Pechora Sea.
	"The divers chained the rig to the quay to prevent it from leaving the harbour," Greenpeace said in a statement.
	"The activists wanted to prevent the Saturn... From going to the Dolginskoye field to drill for oil for ...

Dutch arrest Greenpeace activists for blocking oil rig

Russia has sent a French communications satellite into orbit from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, after the last launch in 2013 ended with the satellite plunging into the sea.
	The Zenit-3SL rocket blasted off at 2209 GMT yesterday and reached its orbit around an hour later, said the Sea Launch international consortium, 95 per cent of which is controlled by Russia.
	Boeing of the United States and Norway's Aker ASA indirectly control 5 percent of the company, created in 1995.
	Sea Launch has been using the deep-sea platform to perform commercial operations since 1999.
	The last launch on February 1, 2013 failed, with the Zenit rocket -- made from parts produced both in Ukraine and Russia -- falling into the sea without managing to put a US Intelsat satellite into orbit.
	The last planned launch of a Eutelsat 3B built by Airbus Defence and Space had been postponed from April 16 due to fresh technical problems.
	Russia in recent years has experienced a series of embarrassing ..

Russia puts satellite in orbit from sea platform

State-rescued Lloyds Banking Group announced today its intention to float about part of its TSB unit as part of plans to meet European Union competition rules.
	LBG plans next month to sell about 25 percent of ordinary shares in TSB to list on the London Stock Exchange, said a statement issued by the bank that gave no details on pricing.
	LBG will complete a full sale of the stake by the end of next year, it added.
	"The decision to proceed with an initial public offering of TSB is an important further step for the Group as we act to meet our commitments to the European Commission," LBG chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said of the EU's executive arm.
	Britain's part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group relaunched TSB as a standalone lender last September as it prepares for LBG's full return to the private sector.
	LBG remains 25 percent-owned by the British government after recent reductions to the taxpayer's stake and as the banking group slowly recovers from a massive bailout.
	It .

Britain's Lloyds bank says to float part of TSB unit

China is putting more foreign drug firms under scrutiny, state media said today, days after the conclusion of a police probe into alleged bribery by employees of Britain's GlaxoSmithKline(GSK).
	Earlier this month, Chinese authorities ended a nearly one-year probe into GSK, accusing a top British executive of ordering employees to commit bribery and handing the case over to prosecutors.
	Health authorities in the eastern city of Hangzhou were looking into the business practices of further drug companies, including US-based Eli Lilly, Britain's AstraZeneca and Novo Nordisk of Denmark, the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper reported, citing an internal document.
	Another company, Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche, said last week that Chinese officials had paid a visit to its offices in Hangzhou.
	The GSK case came to light in June last year through a local investigation, after police in the central Chinese city of Changsha announced they were examining the company's employees for ...

More foreign drug firms face scrutiny in China: report

Iraq's government is dropping barrel bombs and may also be targeting a hospital in its battle with militants in the conflict-hit city of Fallujah, Human Rights Watch alleged today.
	The Iraqi authorities denied the claims, which come with Baghdad locked in a months-long standoff with anti-government fighters in Fallujah amid a protracted surge in nationwide bloodshed, all of which is fuelling fears the country is slipping back into the all-out conflict of 2006 and 2007.
	The New York-based rights watchdog also said abuses committed by the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadist group -- among the main militant organisations in Fallujah -- likely amounted to crimes against humanity.
	Iraqi army spokesmen did not respond to AFP requests for comment, but HRW said in its report that the military denied targeting Fallujah's main hospital, and the prime minister's spokesman issued a statement on May 12 denying the use of barrel bombs.
	"In terms of what ISIL has taken ...

Iraq using barrel bombs, hitting Fallujah hospital: HRW

Australian conjoined twins Hope and Faith, who shared a body and skull but had separate brains and identical faces, have died almost three weeks after they were born in Sydney, medical officials said today.
	The girls, who were born six weeks early by emergency caesarean, were with their parents -- Renee Young and Simon Howie -- when they passed away, the Nine television network reported.
	"It is with great sadness that we share this news with you," said the broadcaster, which has had access to the parents before and after the birth.
	Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney's west, where the sisters were undergoing treatment after their birth in early May, confirmed the deaths but said Young and Howie were not releasing further information.
	The twins suffered from the rare condition diprosopus, where they shared an unusually-shaped skull with duplicated facial features and separate brains joined at the stem. They also shared their limbs and organs.
	Howie told Woman's Day magazine in .

Rare Australian conjoined twins die

A 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook a southern Iranian city today, US seismologists said, with the tremor felt as far away as Dubai but no immediate reports of casualties.
	The quake struck at around 10 am (0430 GMT) and was centred 66 kilometres south of Qeshm by the Strait of Hormuz, the US Geological Survey said.
	Iran's official IRNA news agency put the quake's magnitude slightly higher at 5.2 and said there were no initial reports of casualties or damage.
	The quake also shook the larger port city of Bandar Abbas and was felt across the Gulf in Dubai, where residential and office towers shook for around 10 seconds but were not evacuated.
	Iran stands on several seismic fault lines.
	In April last year, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Iran and neighbouring Pakistan, killing 40 people.
	A massive quake in December 2003 struck the southern city of Bam, killing 26,000 people and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.

5.1 magnitude quake hits southern Iran

The Philippines denied today it was spying on Qatar, after three Filipinos were convicted of espionage in the Gulf state.
	One man was sentenced to death and two to life in jail after a court found them guilty of leaking information that could threaten Qatar's national security, foreign department spokesman Charles Jose said.
	"We are categorically denying that we are engaged in espionage," Jose said when asked about the case.
	Jose declined to make public other details of the case, although he referred journalists to reports in the Doha media for further information.
	According to Doha News, the Filipinos were charged with leaking information about weaponry, aircrafts, maintenance and servicing records between 2009 and 2010 to intelligence officials in the Philippines.
	It said the man who received the death penalty worked at a major state-run Qatari company and spied for a "state security force" in the Philippines, while Qatar Air Force employed the other two as technicians.
	The ...

Philippines denies spying on Qatar after convictions

Pope Francis praised the "courage" of Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas after both agreed to come to the Vatican to pray with him for peace.
	Abbas and Peres "have the courage to move forward", Francis told reporters yesterday on his return flight from a three-day trip to the Middle East that was packed with powerful symbolism but with politics never far behind.
	"The meeting in the Vatican is to pray together, it's not a mediation," the Argentinian pope stressed of the "prayer summit" scheduled for June 6, after both Peres and Abbas accepted his surprise invitation issued on Sunday.
	"It is a prayer without discussions," said the pontiff, who has made interfaith dialogue a cornerstone of his 14-month-old papacy,
	He had stated the three-day trip would be "purely religious" but waded into sensitive issues, praying at the controversial West Bank separation barrier in another unscripted move which the Palestinians saw as a silent condemnation of the ...

Pope hails 'courage' of Israeli, Palestinian presidents

North Korea today warned that recent "provocative" activities by US troops at a truce village on the heavily fortified inter-Korean border could lead to a "catastrophic" military clash.
	The warning came from the head of the North Korean forces stationed in the frontier village of Panmunjom -- where the ceasefire agreement to end fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War was signed.
	Panmunjom has hosted multiple inter-Korean talks over the decades and is heavily guarded, with mostly South Korean and US troops on the southern side under the auspices of the UN Command (UNC).
	The North Korean military official, who was not named, said recent activities by US troops threatened to destabilise the sensitive area.
	In remarks carried by the North's official KCNA news agency, he particularly cited the construction of a steel watchtower, saying it was being used for "acts of spying" involving sophisticated surveillance equipment.
	Given the military sensitivity of Panmunjom, where North and South ..

AFP

AFP

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