A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed at least two Afghan soldiers today in an attack on a military bus in Kabul as the country prepares to hold a run-off presidential election.
	Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene and ambulances took victims to hospital after the blast wrecked the vehicle and left several other soldiers badly injured.
	"Today at around 3:15 pm, a suicide attacker riding a motorbike detonated himself against a ministry vehicle in the city of Kabul," the ministry of defence said in a statement.
	"As a result, two soldiers were killed, and nine others were wounded."
	The blast came as Afghanistan gears up for the June 14 second-round vote to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, and a day after US President Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to American troops in Afghanistan.
	"I heard this big bang and when I came out of my house, I saw an army bus full of people covered in blood in front of my house," said local resident Faizullah, 25, who like many ...

Suicide blast kills two Afghan soldiers in Kabul: official

PTI Automatic

North Korea and Japan kicked off three days of talks in Stockholm today, with the fate of Japanese nationals kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang set to top the agenda.
	The meeting in the Swedish capital takes 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 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 Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
	"We also .

Japan, N Korea start tree-day meet in Stockholm

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today pledged loans and other economic aid worth USD 5.9 billion to Bangladesh over the next five years.
	Abe made the promise as he held talks with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina who arrived in Tokyo yesterday, the foreign ministry said.
	Japan will provide Bangladesh with assistance worth up to USD 5.9 billion, mainly government loans, over four or five years, a statement said.
	The sum will include a loan package totalling 120 billion yen which was promised by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida during his visit to Bangladesh in March.
	The multi-year assistance is expected to cover public works such as construction of roads and power plants, local media said.
	"Bangladesh has great economic potential," Abe told reporters, according to Kyodo News.
	"In order to realise its potential and expedite further growth, Japan has come up with the concept of the Bay of Bengal industrial growth belt," he said.
	Hasina, who met Emperor Akihito ..

Japan vows to offer USD 5.9 bn in aid to Bangladesh

President Barack Obama was back in Washington today after a lightning 32-hour trip to Afghanistan to visit US troops.
	Today is Memorial Day in the United States - the day when military personnel and veterans are honored - and the president is scheduled to host a White House breakfast for veteran groups, the White House said.
	Obama landed at Andrews Air Force Base in nearby Maryland at 104) GMT and soon after arrived in the White House via helicopter.
	The president is also scheduled to lay a wreath and deliver remarks at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, the US military's principal cemetery.
	Vice President Joe Biden will be at the event along with his wife Jill and Obama's wife Michelle. The two women are known for their work helping military families.
	Obama made a covert night-time trip from the White House to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan aboard a darkened Air Force One on a Sunday visit meant to hail the sacrifices of US soldiers.
	His four-hour ..

Obama back home after surprise visit to Afghanistan

Ukraine's presidential election "largely upheld democratic commitments" and provided the new leader with the legitimacy needed to tackle the country's separatist insurgency, international observers said today.
	"The electoral and security authorities of Ukraine should be commended for their efforts -- under extraordinary circumstances -- to facilitate an election that largely upheld democratic commitments," the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) short-term mission coordinator Joao Soares said.
	Yesterday's vote "provides the new president of Ukraine with the legitimacy to establish immediately an inclusive dialogue with all citizens in the eastern regions, to restore their trust and confidence, and to decentralise state power in order to preserve the unity of the country by respecting the diversity of Ukrainian society," said Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) mission head Andreas Gross.
	Billionaire oligarch Petro Poroshenko said Monday ..

Ukraine vote 'largely democratic,' say observers

Taiwanese police arrested 19 people for threatening copycat attacks following a stabbing spree aboard a Taipei subway train, an unprecedented attack which sparked panic among commuters, officials said today.
	Cheng Chieh, a 21-year-old knife-wielding attacker, killed four people and wounded nearly two dozen others last Wednesday in the first fatal attack on the city's subway system since it began operations in 1996.
	Police arrested 19 people across the island for threatening similar attacks in comments posted online, according to the Criminal Investigation Bureau.
	Among the cases was a college student surnamed Chan, who said on Facebook: "What Cheng Chieh did on the Pannan line, I'll do the Tamshui line."
	Chan admitted to the "emotional" posting but told police that he meant no harm.
	However, police justified the "preventive" arrests. Last Wednesday's attack has cast a shadow on the hundreds of thousands of commuters, prompting security officials to beef up patrols on the busy ...

Taiwan arrests 19 for copycat stabbing threats

The Jordanian government today expelled Syria's ambassador to Amman, Bahjat Suleiman, over his "repeated insults" to the kingdom and other countries, demanding he leave within 24 hours.
	"The government considers the Syrian ambassador to Jordan persona non grata and demanded he leave the country within 24 hours," state-run Petra news agency reported, quoting foreign ministry spokeswoman Sabah Rafi.
	"The decision comes after Suleiman's repeated insults to Jordan and its leadership, institutions and citizens, through his meetings, writings and social media websites," she said.
	Rafi added that the government "had repeatedly warned Suleiman not to exploit Jordanian hospitality."
	"Suleiman used Jordan as a platform to question its positions and threw false accusations and allegations against the kingdom," she said.
	"He also used Jordan to directly insult brotherly and neighbouring Arab countries and insult their leaderships."
	In June, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told ...

Jordan expels Syrian ambassador: state media

A Vietnamese court has sentenced two men to jail for taking part in deadly rioting sparked by anger over China's placement of an oil rig in contested waters, state media said today.
	The men were convicted yesterday in the southern province of Binh Duong, where much of the destruction and looting was concentrated, in public outdoor trials attended by thousands, the Thanh Nien newspaper said.
	Le Van Nghiem, 23, was sentenced to three years in prison for "causing public disorder" and property destruction during the May 13 violence.
	He had joined hundreds of rioters in pulling down a factory gate and destroying a police car, it said, adding that he confessed to the crimes and expressed remorse.
	Chau Vinh Tuong, 18, was convicted of stealing a computer during the riots and was sentenced to one year in jail.
	They are the first known convictions linked to the riots.
	The trials were held outdoors on the grounds of two separate government building. Vietnamese authorities occasionally ...

Vietnam jails two over anti-China riots

Saudi Arabia has arrested nine university professors for their alleged links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement, media reported today.
	Investigators found the professors, two Saudis and the rest from neighbouring countries, had been involved with "foreign organisations" based on "voice recordings and emails" linked to them, Okaz daily reported.
	It identified the organisation as the Muslim Brotherhood, designated by the interior ministry in March as a "terror" group.
	The investigation should be completed by mid-June, said the daily which is close to the government.
	If convicted, the group could be jailed for 10-15 years, after which the foreigners would be deported, it added.
	Saudi Arabia and its neighbour the United Arab Emirates have cracked down on Islamists accused of links to the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.
	Riyadh had hailed the Egyptian military's ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president who hails from the Brotherhood. It has also pledged billions ..

Saudi arrests professors for alleged Brotherhood ties

A bomb wrecked an army bus in the Afghan capital Kabul today and injured several soldiers, police said, as emergency vehicles rushed to the scene and ambulances took victims to hospital.
	"We don't really know the exact nature of the attack yet, but mostly likely it was a suicide attack," Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai told AFP.
	"There are casualties among the soldiers. We don't know how many.

Bomb blast strikes army bus in Kabul: police

Defending champion Rafael Nadal was at the centre of a French Open scheduling row on Monday as rain delayed the start of the second day's play.
     Nadal, who has a phenomenal record of eight titles, 59 match wins and just one loss in Paris, had his opening match against US wildcard Robby Ginepri, the world number 279, shifted out to Suzanne Lenglen court.
     However, Roland Garros's showpiece Philippe Chatrier court will stage title rival Novak Djokovic's match against Joao Sousa and Stan Wawrinka's clash against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
     The main court will also host opening women's matches featuring Maria Sharapova and home player Alize Cornet.
     Nadal claimed at the weekend that he found conditions on Chatrier to be different this year after a practice session.
     "I think they made the court new, so it's like the clay gets a little bit more fixed. It was moving around a little bit too much and some small stones make the movement a little bit more difficult," said ...

Nadal 'snub', rain hit French Open

Mercedes team chief Niki Lauda on Monday acted to defuse the 'star wars' rivalry between his drivers and reintroduce cordiality and good manners between them before next month's Canadian Grand Prix.
     In the wake of Nico Rosberg's triumph ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, Lauda said he and Mercedes were not prepared to tolerate the sullen behaviour that was seen on the podium and in the aftermath of the race.
     Lauda, who acts as the team's non-executive chairman, said the pair had overstepped the mark by refusing to behave in a sporting manner and by not speaking.
     "I spoke to the drivers before the race and it is not finished," said Lauda. "I understand all the comments and I have to wait two or three days, but before it goes to Canada it will be solved.
     "I will speak to them like I always do. They always call me when they have problems, so I think it will sort itself out... "It is normal. I had the same with [Alain] Prost. I hated the guy, but at 

Lauda moves to defuse Mercedes 'star wars'

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have crossed a new threshold, the UN's weather agency said today, highlighting the urgency of curbing manmade, climate-altering greenhouse gases.
	In April, for the first time, the mean monthly CO2 concentration in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million (ppm) throughout the northern hemisphere, which pollutes more than the south, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.
	"This should serve as yet another wakeup call about the constantly rising levels of greenhouse gases which are driving climate change," WMO chief Michel Jarraud said in a statement.
	"If we are to preserve our planet for future generations, we need urgent action to curb new emissions of these heat-trapping gases. Time is running out," he warned.
	Spring values in the northern hemisphere had previously spiked over the 400 ppm level, but this was the first time the monthly mean concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere exceeded the threshold.
	The global annual ...

'Time running out' as CO2 levels hit new high: UN

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) was headed for a stunning victory ahead of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), according to a projection from European Parliament elections held yesterday.
	The PD won 41.4 per cent against 22.4 per cent for the M5S and 15.7 per cent for former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, according to a projection based on 20 per cent of ballots counted.
	"This would make the PD the biggest party among European socialists and democrats," Deborah Serracchiani, deputy head of the party, said at a press briefing at its headquarters in Rome.
	"This is extraordinary both for the party both on an EU level and on a government level," she said, comparing the apparent score to the strong showing by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling CDU party.
	"It means that people have understood what the government is doing with the reforms," she said.
	Stefano Menichini, editor of the leftist Europa daily, .

Italian PM Renzi's centre-left sweeps Italy polls: projection

A right-hand man to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was detained for questioning today over his role in a highly controversial state payout to disgraced former tycoon Bernard Tapie.
	Claude Gueant, a former interior minister who also served as Sarkozy's chief of staff, was placed in custody after he arrived at the headquarters of France's fraud squad to clarify his role in the USD 557-million payout to Tapie in 2008.
	The payment was connected to a dispute between the businessman and partly state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais over his 1993 sale of sportswear group Adidas.
	Tapie claimed Credit Lyonnais had defrauded him by intentionally undervaluing Adidas at the time of the sale and that the state, as the bank's principal shareholder, should compensate him.
	Tapie is suspected of receiving favourable treatment in the case as a reward for supporting Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election.
	Gueant, 69, is expected to be grilled on his relations with Tapie and to shed light on ..

Sarkozy ally grilled over controversial Tapie payout

Japan's nuclear regulator today approved a plan to freeze the soil under the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to try to slow the build-up of radioactive water, officials said.
	The Nuclear Regulation Authority examined plans by Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to construct an underground ice wall at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant starting in June, regulatory officials said.
	The wall is intended to block groundwater from nearby hillsides that has been flowing under the plant and mixing with polluted water used to cool reactors that went into meltdown after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
	Under the plan, which is funded by the government, the firm will circulate a special refrigerant through pipes in the soil to create the 1.5-kilometre frozen wall that will stem the inflow of groundwater.
	"We had some concerns, including the possibility that part of the ground could sink," one official said on condition of anonymity.
	"But there were no major objections to the project ..

Japan to create underground ice wall at crippled nuclear plant

France's far-right National Front and Britain's UKIP led a eurosceptic "earthquake" in EU parliamentary polls, sending shockwaves across Europe and beyond.
	The EU Parliament's own projections today morning showed the extent of the anti-EU breakthrough, with eurosceptic parties set to win around 140 seats in the 751-seat assembly.
	The most emphatic results from the four days of polling across the 28-nation bloc, which ended yesterday, came on both sides of the British Channel.
	In France the far-right National Front (FN) won just over 25 per cent of the vote, according to official figures, securing 24 of France's 74 seats on the EU parliament, with nearly all results in.
	The anti-EU mood also swept Britain where the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) looked set to score a historic election victory.
	UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed "the most extraordinary result in British politics for 100 years" as his party secured over 27 percent of the vote with results from 10 of the 12 ...

Eurosceptic parties cause 'earthquake' at EU polls

South Africa's murder-accused paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius today arrived at a psychiatric hospital to begin up to 30-days of tests, as ordered by a judge during his trial.
	A car ferrying the double amputee athlete whisked him inside the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital, west of Pretoria.
	Security was tight at the entrance of the drab red-brick public hospital, whose patients often come from poor backgrounds.
	In a bid to avoid media attention, the athlete ditched the grey SUV vehicle that normally drives him to court, arriving in a sedan with tinted windows.
	There was no sign of family and friends who often arrive in court with him to offer support.
	Last week, Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled that the Paralympian sprinter should report to the hospital as an outpatient every work day from morning to 1400 GMT from May 26.
	The ruling came after a defence expert witness testified that the 27-year old who is accused of killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, suffers from generalised ...

Pistorius reports to psychiatric hospital for tests

China has flown warplanes on to and from a civilian road for the first time, state media said today, a technique which could be used for "emergency landings during wartime".
	An image of a fighter jet taking off from a motorway in the central province of Henan -- with a petrol station in the background -- appeared in the state-run Global Times newspaper.
	China's airforce "test-flew warplanes using highways for take-offs and landings" to enhance "the air force's capabilities of emergency landing and coordination between military and civilian forces", the report said.
	Following the manoeuvre yesterday, news agency Xinhua said that the road can be used by cargo planes and as an "alternative airport" for civilian aircraft.
	It indirectly quoted a senior military officer as saying it "can also be used in exercises and training for military air planes as well as emergency landings during wartime".
	China -- the world's second largest military spender -- in March announced the latest of ...

China turns motorway into military airstrip: reports

Major airlines fully support global real-time tracking of their planes following the disappearance of MH370 despite the additional cost, a senior United Nations aviation official said today.
	Members of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) -- the UN's aviation agency -- had agreed earlier this month to implement regulations on tracking commercial flights but did not offer a formal timeline.
	ICAO air navigation director Nancy Graham said implementation would take "a little bit longer" once an International Air Travel Association (IATA) taskforce on in-flight tracking presents its finding in September.
	"The airlines are absolutely in solidarity. There is no price you can put on safety or for the certainty of where the aircraft are," Graham told reporters at the sidelines of a dialogue on tracking technologies in Kuala Lumpur.
	"It's already begun. Many airlines today already do track (their planes). That's the voluntary path. At the same time we are looking at ...

Costs won't deter airlines from real-time tracking: ICAO

A long-standing Australian senator today brought what he said could be a pipe bomb to the national parliament to demonstrate his view that new security regulations are unsafe.
	Senator Bill Heffernan, a member of the ruling conservative Liberal Party, held up the pipe and what appeared to be some sticks of dynamite during a committee hearing in Canberra.
	"Clearly you can do what you bloody well like," said Heffernan, an outspoken former farmer who became a member of the national parliament in 1996.
	Heffernan said until now most people working in parliament felt safe, but that new rules being trialled put this at risk by allowing some people with passes, including politicians, and their belongings to no longer be scanned on entry.
	"I don't think it any longer is (safe) and to demonstrate that, this morning I brought in what could be, I brought this through security -- a pipe bomb," he said placing the pipe on his desk, before pulling what were reportedly fake sticks of dynamite from 

AFP

AFP

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