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 ..

N Korea says danger of 'catastrophic' clash at truce village

PTI Automatic

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye today denounced fugitive members of the ship-owning family linked to last month's ferry disaster, calling them the "root cause" of the tragedy that claimed around 300 lives.
	The government has offered a half-million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of Yoo Byung-Eun, patriarch of the family behind Chonghaejin Marine Co.
	Chonghaejin owned and operated the 6,825-tonne Sewol ferry that capsized and sank on April 16 with hundreds of high school students on board.
	Yoo and his eldest son have become the targets of a massive manhunt after they ignored prosecutors' summons to surrender themselves for questioning.
	Initial investigations suggest that lax safety standards and negligent business practices may have been a major contributor to the disaster.
	"The Yoo Byung-Eun family, the root cause of the tragedy, is flouting the law and causing public fury at a time when it should repent in front of people and reveal the truth," Park told 

S Korea's Park says family 'root cause' of ferry tragedy

Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova shrugged off the Paris gloom to reach the French Open second round as Japanese ninth seed Kei Nishikori became the tournament's first major casualty.
     Eight-time champion Nadal, bidding to become the first man to win five Roland Garros titles in a row, beat US wildcard and world number 279 Robby Ginepri 6-0, 6-3, 6-0.
     It was Nadal's 60th win at the French Open against just one loss.
     World number one Nadal kicked off his campaign yesterday on the secondary Suzanne Lenglen court while title rivals Djokovic and Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka were handed top billing on the main Philippe Chatrier arena.
    	It was a decision blasted as "bizarre" by one fellow professional even though Nadal himself had criticised the state of the newly-laid clay on Chatrier after a weekend practice session.
	Despite the controversy, it was business as usual for Nadal who fired 27 winners past Ginepri, a semi-finalist at the 2005 US Open 

Nadal, Djokovic, Sharapova shine in Paris gloom

A judge has imposed strict privacy on proceedings involving Salvadoran ex-president Francisco Flores's alleged misappropriation of USD 15.3 million donated by Taiwan.
	Judge Levis Italmir Orellana ordered that the case proceed in private behind closed doors, and "parties to the case no longer will be able to comment publicly," a court source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
	The proceedings later can be made public again, but only if prosecutors make an appeal, and succeed, the source added.
	In power between 1999 and 2004, Flores was investigated both by Congress and the attorney general's office in the wake of allegations by President Mauricio Funes that he had received the millions in donations from Taiwan without accounting for them.
	Funes claimed Taipei donated the money to El Salvador in the waning months of Flores's presidency, between 2003 and 2004.
	Flores has said he accepted the money but did nothing inappropriate, passing it on through the proper channels.
	El Salvador 

Judge makes private Salvadoran ex-Prez's Taiwan graft case

Police clashed with protesters who burned bins and vehicles in Barcelona as anger boiled over at the eviction of activists from a well-known squat.
	Officers made several arrests as hooded youths smashed windows and hurled stones at police and journalists in the streets of the northeastern city yesterday.
	Police had earlier evicted occupants who had chained themselves down inside the "Can Vies", a building owned by the local transport authority but occupied since 1997 by activists who have used it as a community center.
	Officers evicted them earlier yesterday following a court order after negotiations between the city and the youths occupying the building broke down.
	A few hours after the eviction, hundreds of protesters marched in protest in the evening in a demonstration that degenerated into clashes with riot cops charging groups of youths.
	A police spokesman told AFP there had been arrests but could not confirm how many.
	Since being occupied by radical left-wing groups 17 ...

Protesters clash with police over Spain squat eviction

The death toll from a Colombian bus fire rose to 33 children after a girl hospitalized with severe burns succumbed to her injuries, authorities have said.
	The nine-year-old died from "severe respiratory difficulties" at the Barranquilla hospital, facility representative Guiomar Martinez told reporters yesterday.
	A five-year-old is still hospitalized in "critical but stable" condition, Martinez added.
	The May 18 incident shocked the nation after the children burned to death when an overcrowded bus burst into flames and the driver fled the scene, pursued by a mob that stoned his house.
	A total of 31 died on the spot, with the two other deaths taking place while the children were hospitalized. Colombia decreed three days of national mourning after the tragedy.
	The driver turned himself to police as families sought to hunt him down following the tragedy in which, according to a witness, the bus went up in flames as he refueled it with a jerrycan.
	The pastor and the 56-year-old ...

Girl's death raises Colombia bus fire toll to 33

A fierce battle erupted today for control of the main airport in rebel-held eastern Ukraine in a dramatic escalation of the conflict just hours after president-elect Petro Poroshenko vowed he would not let the country become another Somalia.
	Ukrainian fighter jets and combat helicopters struck the terminal building at Donetsk airport to try to dislodge scores of separatist gunmen who seized the complex, triggering hours of heavy firefights.
	It was the most forceful action by the Kiev government in its battle to crush a bloody pro-Moscow insurgency that has raged in the industrial east since early April, threatening to tear apart the former Soviet state.
	The fighting flared on very day that Poroshenko -- who has pledged to try to bring peace and unity after months of turmoil -- was formally declared the winner of yesterday's presidential election with 54 percent of the vote.
	The Donetsk city mayor said there had been "civilian casualties" in the battles and told local residents to .

Fierce battles in east Ukraine as new leader vows 'no Somalia'

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met behind closed doors today in Istanbul to discuss the path toward a final nuclear deal, an Iranian source said.
	The previously announced two-day meeting comes after fruitless talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna earlier this month when no "tangible progress" was made ahead of a July 20 deadline for a comprehensive agreement.
	"The meeting has begun at Istanbul's Ciragan Palace," an Iranian diplomat told AFP on condition of anonomity.
	The diplomat insisted that the future of the talks depended on the willingness of both parties. "At the moment it is not yet certain," he said.
	No representatives from the P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- which is negotiating with Iran was at the meeting, he added.
	The tete-a-tete would be followed by a dinner at the Iranian consulate, he said.
	ISNA news agency, citing a source close to the Islamic ..

EU's Ashton, Iran FM hold talks in Istanbul

French President Francois Hollande today called for the European Union to reduce its role "where it is not necessary" after Eurosceptic parties made sweeping electoral gains across the bloc.
	Reacting to the spectacular success of parties like France's own National Front and the UK Independence Party in yesterday's European elections, Hollande acknowledged that the EU had become "remote and incomprehensible" for many of its citizens.
	"This cannot continue. Europe has to be simple, clear, to be effective where it is needed and to withdraw from where it is not necessary," he said in a televised address to the nation.
	Hollande's comments will be greeted with delight by Eurosceptics who accuse Brussels of meddling in national affairs, and also by the likes of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who also advocates a scaling back of the powers currently vested in the European institutions.
	But the signal that France would consider a reversal of powers to national governments will cause 

France's Hollande calls for EU to reduce role

Egyptians today voted for a new president in an election expected to give a landslide victory to the ex-army chief who ousted the country's first democratically-elected leader and crushed his Islamist movement.
	The two-day election is the first since the frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July, a move that unleashed the bloodiest violence in Egypt's recent history.
	Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting the vote, as are revolutionary youths who fear Sisi is an autocrat in the making.
	But the 59-year-old retired field marshall is expected to trounce his sole rival, leftist Hamdeen Sabbahi, amid widespread calls for stability.
	Sisi himself voted minutes after polling opened today amid a throng of jostling reporters and supporters. About 53 million people are eligible to vote.
	"The entire world is watching us, how Egyptians are writing history and their future today and tomorrow," Sisi said.
	"Egyptians must be reassured that tomorrow will 

Egypt votes in poll seen giving Sisi landslide victory

A Muslim organisation today sued Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his spokesman for libel for linking the group to Hamas, which Canada lists as a banned terrorist organisation.
	The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), which filed the claim in Ontario Superior Court, had asked the prime minister's office in January to bar a rabbi accused of links to an American anti-Muslim "hate group" from Harper's first official trip to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.
	Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald responded by saying: "We will not take seriously criticism from an organisation with documented ties to a terrorist organisation such as Hamas."
	The comment was made to a Canadian media outlet.
	Hamas has been a banned group in Canada since 2002.
	NCCM asked for a retraction and an apology, but none were forthcoming, prompting today's lawsuit.
	"This false accusation against the NCCM is of the most serious kind imaginable and was made in an attempt to discredit the NCCM and ...

Muslim group sues Canada PM for libel

A Bahraini court jailed four people for life today for blowing up a car in an attempt to disrupt an F1 Grand Prix race in 2013, the state news agency said.
	The court gave a fifth man 10-year prison sentence in the same trial, the BNA news agency reported.
	All of the men were accused of blowing up a car in November 2013 near a financial centre in the capital Manama "to disrupt a Formula 1 race," the agency said.
	They were also accused of making and possessing explosives, detonating explosives and stealing a car, all with the aim of "carrying out a terrorist act," the agency added, saying the men admitted their responsibility.
	Bahrain has held an annual three-day Grand Prix event since 2011.
	The tiny Shiite-majority but Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom remains deeply divided three years after authorities quashed the Shiite-led uprising.
	Persistent protests still spark clashes with the police and scores of Shiites jailed on "terror" charges and reconciliation talks deadlocked.
	The ...

Bahrain jails for life 4 over 'terrorist act'

North Korea and Japan wrapped up a first day of talks in Stockholm today, with the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang said to top the agenda.
	The three days of meetings in the Swedish capital take place after the two countries held their first official talks in 16 months in China in March, addressing a range of subjects including the abduction issue, recent missile launches and North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
	Prior to the discussions at a small Stockholm hotel, the two delegations -- eight on either side -- appeared briefly in front of the media, the majority Japanese reporters flown in for the occasion.
	Wearing stern expressions and making no eye contact with each other, the two delegations welcomed the opportunity to talk.
	"Over the next three days, we want to hold forward-looking talks, based on issues we raised at the government talks in Beijing," said Japanese chief delegate Junichi Ihara, the director general of the foreign ministry's ...

Japan, N Korea end first day of talks in Stockholm

The government of Niger and French nuclear energy group Areva today announced that they had signed a deal to renew a decades-old agreement for the operation of two uranium mines.
	Under the deal, negotiated for 18 months, Areva agreed that a 2006 mining law sharply increasing taxes on mineral extracted would apply to the Somair and Cominak operations in the north of the country which it partially controls.
	"We have heard the government's legitimate call for higher receipts coming from uranium," said Luc Oursel, Areva CEO, on a visit to Niamey to sign the deal.
	However, a joint statement said that the operations would be exempt from sales tax over the course of the five-year deal.
	The revenue issue had been the main sticking point in the talks since the government considered that the previous contracts, which expired at the end of last year, were unfavourable to the country, the fourth-biggest producer of uranium in the world.
	The French arm of charity Oxfam, which has been a sharp 

Niger, Areva in hard-won uranium deal

Romania's ruling left-wing alliance led by the Social Democrats won 37.6 per cent of the vote in European parliamentary elections, official results showed today.
	Prime Minister Victor Ponta's PSD won 16 seats according to official data issued after 99.99 per cent of yesterday's ballots had been counted.
	The EU's second-poorest country since joining the bloc in 2007, Romania will send 32 legislators to the European Parliament.
	The opposition National Liberal Party came second with around 15 per cent of the vote, giving them six seats.
	   The party announced today they would leave the centrist ALDE Liberals EU grouping in favour of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP).
	According to unofficial estimates, that would give EPP 15 seats in Strasbourg from Romania.
	Unlike other far-right groups in France and Greece, which made significant gains on the back of growing anti-EU sentiment, the Greater Romania Party (PRM) garnered only 2.7 per cent of votes.
	The Liberal Democrats, 

Ruling Social Democrats win Romania EU vote: official results

A German-Italian newspaper editor earned ridicule in Germany and faces a possible fine or jail term after admitting on TV that he voted twice in European Parliament election.
	Giovanni di Lorenzo, 55, who edits the Hamburg-based news weekly Die Zeit, told a TV talk show yesterday that as a dual passport holder he had cast his ballot at the Italian consulate and then voted again at a local primary school.
	Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who was also a guest on the show, immediately started shaking his head and said: "It can't be right that some people vote repeatedly for this European Parliament and others just once."
	German authorities were quick to seize on di Lorenzo's on-air admission and said they had launched an investigation into suspected voter fraud, which carries a maximum punishment of a fine or up to five years jail.
	The editor apologised, telling local media that "I wasn't aware that you're not allowed to vote in two countries in the European election. Had I known, 

German-Italian editor in trouble after saying he voted twice

Russia and Ukraine have a "good chance" of striking a deal to resolve a standoff over Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine by June 1, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said today.
	"We made relatively good progress and have a good chance of reaching an agreement by June 1," said Oettinger after a Berlin meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian counterpart Yuri Prodan.
	Europe is locked in a confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, where Brussels believes the Kremlin has supported pro-Moscow separatists and worked to destabilise the Western-leading transitional government by threatening to cut off gas supplies.
	Amid the standoff, Russian energy giant Gazprom has hiked gas prices and toughened conditions for former Soviet satellite Ukraine.
	Gazprom had warned Kiev it would suspend its gas deliveries on June 3 if Ukraine does not by then settle its bill for June, worth USD 1.66 billion. Moscow has also said Ukraine had amassed a gas debt of USD ..

'Good chance' of Moscow-Kiev gas deal: EU energy chief

Secretary of State John Kerry today said the United States will back the new Ukraine leader and support its people, just as Petro Poroshenko was named winner of the weekend's presidential election.
	Ukraine's election commission chief said that the tycoon won the election in the first round by collecting more than half the votes in a poll that Washington hopes will bring stability to the eastern European country.
	"We will support their efforts to determine their own future in a more united, secure, independent, and prosperous Ukraine," Kerry said in a statement before Poroshenko's victory was announced.
	Yesterday's vote was seen as the most important in Ukraine's post-Soviet history as it fights to stay united after months of turmoil and avert economic collapse.
	The unrest has also pitted the United States against Russia after Moscow annexed Crimea, plunging Russia-Washington relations to their lowest point since the Cold war.
	"The successful conduct of these elections reaffirms ..

Kerry vows to back new president for 'united' Ukraine

Pop diva Madonna has weighed in on Malawi's chaotic election, criticising embattled President Joyce Banda, who has tried to nullify the vote amid allegations of irregularities.
	The superstar, who adopted two children from the southern African nation, has been involved in a long-running spat with Malawi's government over her charity work in the country.
	In a statement posted on the website of her charity Raising Malawi, Madonna accused the government of corruption and of failing its people.
	"I am so sad to see that because of the actions of their president Malawians will continue to suffer," the American singer said.
	"In my philanthropic work I have seen the depths of corruption in Malawi's government. I can only hope that change will come, Malawians deserve so much better."
	The remarks come after Banda attempted to declare the presidential election "null and void", prompting fierce legal wrangling over her right to do so.

Madonna criticises Malawi president amid vote chaos

Italy led European stock markets today in a robustly positive reaction to European Parliament elections which put conservatives in a leading position, but also gave anti-EU forces a huge boost in France and Britain.
	The euro and sterling steadied after an initial wobble today despite nationalist shocks in European elections, with traders saying that economic reforms will continue.
	On the crucial market where eurozone countries borrow to finance their debt, sentiment also appeared serene.
	There was strong demand from investors to buy bonds issued by southern European countries hardest hit by the state of their finances and by the hardship of reforms, but which are now recovering.
	Bond strategist Nordine Naam in Paris commented: "The (composition of) the European parliament will not change really... There was an anti-Europe message notably in France and Greece, but that is not the case across Europe and the market is taking account of the overall outcome."
	The euro, which had ...

European markets surge, confident on reforms

A fierce battle erupted today for control of the main airport in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, just hours after president-elect Petro Poroshenko vowed he would not let the country become another Somalia.
	Ukrainian fighter jets and combat helicopters struck the terminal building at Donetsk airport to try to dislodge separatist gunmen who seized the complex, triggering heavy gun battles.
	It was the most forceful action by the Kiev government in its battle to crush a bloody pro-Moscow insurgency that has raged in the industrial east since early April, threatening to tear apart the former Soviet state.
	Plumes of thick black smoke rose from the airport complex as the sound of explosions and heavy machinegun fire rang out throughout much of the day, AFP correspondents at the scene said.
	Scores of gunmen had stormed the airport in an apparent show of defiance against Poroshenko, the Ukrainian magnate who claimed a resounding victory in yesterday's presidential poll.
	Ukraine's election ...

AFP

AFP

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