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 

Australian senator brings 'bomb' to parliament

PTI Automatic

Two teenage members of Japanese girl group AKB48 were in hospital today after being attacked by a man wielding a saw at one of the band's regular meet-the-fans events, managers said.
	Rina Kawaei, 19, and Anna Iriyama, 18, both suffered broken bones in their right hands and received cuts on their arms and heads from the 50-centimetre saw at the event in Iwate in northern Japan.
	Reports said the attack came after a mini-concert yesterday afternoon as fans were lining up to shake hands with performers inside booths.
	Kawaei and Iriyama were inside the same booth when a man in the queue suddenly produced a saw, the Yomiuri daily said.
	Fans told Japanese media they heard a shriek, apparently from one of the young women, saying "Stop it!"
	Some of the 100 or so staff and security guards at the event pounced on the attacker and held him until police arrived, reports said. A member of staff was also hurt in the melee.
	Both girls were expected to be discharged from hospital tomorrow, a ...

Saw-wielding man attacks Japan girl group AKB48

General Motors' Australian subsidiary Holden recalled more than 45,000 Commodores today over a potential seatbelt fault, following withdrawals by rivals Toyota and Hyundai due to various issues last week.
	The recall, which affects 41,933 cars in Australia and another 3,744 in New Zealand - almost all of the new model Commodores that went on sale last year - was precautionary, Holden said.
	"There have been no confirmed reports of this condition in the field. The issue was raised from an internal investigation following an isolated instance at the plant," a spokesman for the firm said in a statement.
	"There have been no reports of any accidents or injuries resultant from this condition."
	Holden said the pre-tensioner - a mechanism that tightens a seatbelt when a crash occurs - of certain MY14 VF Commodore and WN Caprice models could make contact with a bolt at the base of the seat belt buckle assembly, wearing it out.
	"In this circumstance, if the pre-tensioner wiring harness ...

Holden recalls 45,000 cars over seatbelt concerns

South Africa's platinum producers and a union are due to resume talks today in an effort to stop a four-month-long strike that has wreaked havoc in the sector.
	"Discussions will continue today," said a spokeswoman for three top producers Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin.
	Last Friday the employers said three-day talks mediated by the Labour Court had produced "no agreement" yet.
	Around 80,000 members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) downed tools on January 23 demanding more than double the entry-level wage.
	Workers want a USD 1,200 basic monthly salary before benefits, but employers are offering that as part of a total package and only from 2017.
	The Labour Court stepped in after government and independent mediators failed to break the deadlock.
	AMCU said last week it was "positive" about the new negotiations.
	Meanwhile at least five people have been killed amid intimidation of workers who returned to the job in the restive ...

SAfrica platinum strike talks resume

Murder detectives were today investigating the case of a young nurse whose corpse was sent by parcel post across Japan in a box that claimed to contain a doll.
	The body of Rika Okada was found in a storage lock-up in Tokyo. Investigators also found the 2-metre box in which it had been transported from the southern city of Osaka, reports said.
	The delivery service that ferried the package - marked with the Japanese word for 'doll' - 400 kilometres to the capital had been paid in Okada's own name. The bill for the lock-up's short term rental had been settled using her credit card.
	The body of the 29-year-old, who had been missing since late March, had more than a dozen stab wounds, local media reported, but no defensive injuries on her hands or arms.
	Police in Osaka refused to confirm details, but reports said a woman who had been at elementary school with Okada had flown out of Tokyo earlier this month using the dead woman's passport.
	The schoolmate, who was not named, is believed 

Japan woman's body sent by mail marked 'doll': reports

The main airport in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk shut down today after being raided by dozens of armed separatists who vowed to keep up their resistance a day after presidential polls.
	"At 3:00 in the morning, a group of armed men came. There was no shooting and they demanded that soldiers guarding the perimeter of the airport be withdrawn," spokesman Dmytro Kosinov told AFP.
	Kosinov said the airport halted operations at 1230 IST and now appeared to be under control of gunmen who identified themselves as "representatives of the Donetsk People's Republic" that has proclaimed independence from Kiev.
	An AFP reporter saw three trucks full of armed men in camouflage and some wearing orange-and-black St George ribbons representing an allegiance to Russia pass a police checkpoint and head toward the airport.
	They were followed by two sports utility vehicles with tinted windows.
	Separatists in the heavily-Russified eastern rust belt of the ex-Soviet nation launched an insurgency ...

Airport in east Ukraine's Donetsk shut after rebel raid

A review into a riot at an Australian detention centre on Papua New Guinea found today that an Iranian man was "brutally beaten" to death by a Salvation Army worker and warned of a major task to rebuild trust.
	The unrest at the Manus Island camp in February also left 69 people injured as tensions flared among inmates about their fate under Australia's hardline asylum-seeker policies.
	An independent review on behalf of the Australian government found no particular factor caused the violence at a camp that has been condemned as too harsh by the United Nations.
	"It is not possible to isolate one factor which, if handled differently, may have resulted in less injuries and damage or to apportion blame for causing the incidents directly to one or more of the parties involved," it said.
	But it added that frustration and anxiety over a lack of information about resettlement policies and dismay among inmates at hearing they had no chance of living in Australia contributed to the ...

Iranian asylum-seeker beaten to death: Australian review

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are to meet today in Istanbul to review progress on negotiations toward a nuclear deal, media reports said.
	The previously unannounced 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.
	The Istanbul meeting was announced on Iranian media, with the ISNA news agency citing a source close to the Islamic republic's nuclear negotiating team.
	Zarif left Tehran at around 10 am (0530 GMT) and will head to Algeria tomorrow when his meetings with Ashton end.
	No representatives from the P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- that is negotiating with Iran over its nuclear activities will be at the meeting, the report added.
	No further details of the discussions between Zarif and Ashton were disclosed but several issues reportedly ...

Ashton, Iran's Zarif to meet in Istanbul

Pope Francis today called for Christians, Jews and Muslims to "work together" for justice and peace on a visit to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam.
	"May we work together for justice and peace," he said at the sprawling plaza, which is also considered sacred by Jews because it was the site where their two Jewish Temples once stood.
	As he toured the compound accompanied by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, he was surrounded by a large crowd of Catholic and Muslim officials, as Vatican security guards and Israeli police looked on.
	Entering the exquisite blue-tiled Dome of the Rock with its landmark golden cupola, which is used as a place of worship for women only, the pope first removed his shoes.
	He then walked down towards the smaller, silver-domed Al-Aqsa mosque - Arabic for the "furthest mosque" - which is considered the third holiest shrine within Islam because it is the site where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to 

Pope to Muslims, Jews: Let's 'work together' for peace

France's World Cup squad will emerge from the isolation of their secluded training base to play Norway tomorrow in the first of three friendlies before departing for Brazil.
     Didier Deschamps' squad have spent the last week working at Clairefontaine, the national football centre hidden away in the woods an hour's drive south of the capital.
     Such peaceful surroundings could hardly feel further removed from what awaits them in Brazil, but when they take to the field against the Norwegians at the Stade de France they will start to feel like the World Cup is finally just around the corner.
     Les Bleus begin their Group E campaign against Honduras in Porto Alegre on Sunday, June 15, before going on to face Switzerland and Ecuador.
     To prepare, Deschamps' side have three friendlies lined up on home soil, with the Norway clash followed by encounters with Paraguay in Nice next Sunday and Jamaica in Lille on June 8.
     "It is the biggest competition that any player can ...

France not at full strength for Norway friendly

Germany head to Brazil aiming to end their 24-year wait for a fourth World Cup title with captain Philipp Lahm insisting he is sick of finishing third.
     Consecutive semi-final defeats have led to Germany taking bronze at both of the last two World Cups with Lahm in the side and it is 12 years since the Germans lost the 2002 final to Brazil in Yokohama, Japan.
     "I do not want to go out in the semi-finals again or visit Brazil just to soak up the sun," insisted Lahm after a decade in the Germany team.
     "I have a clear goal, to achieve the biggest possible success and win the World Cup."
     In order to break their duck, improved counter-attack and a tighter defence are the key areas coach Joachim Loew wants to improve.
     The squad is packed with attacking potential, but there have been rumours of discontent in the past with disgruntled stars disrupting the squad's harmony from the bench at both the 2012 European Championships and in the World Cup qualifiers.
     "We ...

Germany eager to end World Cup third-place curse

Malian Defence Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga has said around 50 soldiers had been killed during recent fighting with armed rebels in the northern desert town of Kidal.
	"We have about 50 killed, unfortunately, and 48 injured. We don't know the toll of the other side but we know they also suffered losses," Maiga told the public broadcaster ORTM yesterday.
	Armed groups including the Tuareg separatist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) humiliated Mali's army in a deadly offensive across the northern desert last week which saw them seize control of Kidal, 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) northeast of Bamako.
	Maiga denied that the smaller settlement of Menaka was also under rebel control, but admitted the army was "cohabiting" with armed groups in the town 660 kilometres (410 miles) from Kidal.
	"Aside from Kidal we are holding all our positions in the Kidal region, that is Tessalit, Aguelhok, and then in the Gao region in Menaka, Ansongo, Almoustarat," he said.
	The ...

'Around 50 soldiers killed in recent fighting in Mali's north'

Residents in a tiny Spanish town have voted to ditch its unfortunate, centuries-old name: Castrillo Matajudios, or Castrillo Kill Jews.
	They voted yesterday 29-19 in favour of scrapping the northern Spanish town's name, in existence since at least 1623, said the mayor, Lorenzo Rodriguez.
	Residents decided instead to take on a less offencive, older name for the town, Mota de Judios, or Hill of the Jews, he told AFP.
	The town hall will review the vote on June 3 before launching the paperwork for a new name, a process that could take from six months to a year, he said.
	"When the change is approved I think it will be a turning point," said the mayor, who led the movement to change names and had threatened to resign if residents disagreed.
	The decision should bring an end to the embarrassment of locals, who frequently found themselves trapped into giving awkward explanations to outraged outsiders.
	"When you travel elsewhere, you always have to explain, because people say, 'You kill ..

Spanish town votes to scrap 'Kill Jews' name

President Barack Obama today promised a decision on post-2014 troop numbers in Afghanistan "fairly shortly", after swooping out of the night sky on a surprise visit to soldiers fighting the last battles of America's longest war.
	Obama made a covert night time trip from the White House to Bagram Air Base aboard a darkened Air Force One on a visit meant to hail the sacrifices of US soldiers in Afghanistan ahead of the US Memorial Day weekend.
	But his visit of only a few hours provoked a new spat with outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai with whom Obama has an extremely strained relationship.
	US officials said Obama offered to see the Afghan leader at the sprawling Bagram base but decided not to go to his palace in central Kabul. They did not say how much notice they had given the Afghan leader of Obama's arrival.
	Karzai interpreted Obama's invitation as a snub, saying in a pointed statement that "the government of Afghanistan is prepared to warmly welcome the US president in the ..

Obama lands in Afghanistan on surprise visit

Eurosceptic parties gave the EU a harsh reality check today with France's far-right National Front storming European Parliament polls, sending shockwaves across the bloc and beyond.
	The National Front (FN) won around 25 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls, easily beating the centre-right UMP on 20 per cent while President Francois Hollande's Socialists were humbled with just 15 per cent.
	If confirmed, it would be the highest ever national vote garnered by the anti-immigration, anti-EU party led by Marine Le Pen who has promised to shake up the country and the EU.
	"It is a historic score. We are now the first party in France," FN vice-president Florian Philippot said as senior Socialist minister Segolene Royal acknowledged that the far-right's victory represented "a shock on a global scale."
	Meanwhile to the left, Greece's anti-austerity Syriza party took the lead, with 26-30 per cent of the vote against the centre-right's New Democracy on 23-27 per cent, exit polls ...

France's far-right FN breakthrough rocks EU camp

General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's last communist leader who died today, was an "intelligent man" who had to make difficult choices, his former adversary Lech Walesa said.
	Paying tribute to the man who once tried to crush his Solidarity movement, former union leader Walesa said the general was in an unenviable situation when Polish dockworkers rose up against communist rule in 1981.
	"He probably knew very well the Soviet mentality, and their missile arsenal. He had the right to think, like many in the world, that there was no other way," the Nobel Peace laureate and former president said.
	"His generation had to make difficult choices. Some adhered to the Communist treason, others tried to fight it from the inside."
	Jaruzelski, who was 90, died in a Warsaw hospital earlier in the day.
	Walesa said that in private, the General was a "very intelligent man, full of humour. I could listen to him for hours."
	"I lost many battles against him, but I won the war for a free Poland. I do 

'God will judge' Jaruzelski, says Lech Walesa

Lithuania's incumbent "Iron Lady" Dalia Grybauskaite took the lead in a presidential runoff today, outpacing leftist rival Zigmantas Balcytis, partial results showed.
	Grybauskaite scored 55.5 per cent support against 42.6 for Balcytis with one third of the vote counted in the Baltic state, which is both an EU and NATO member and is currently dominated by security concerns over a resurgent Russia.
	Having cultivated a reputation for Thatcher-esque toughness, Grybauskaite had been tipped to win a second five-year term, with many who remember Soviet times seeing her as the best choice to steer the country through Europe's worst standoff with Moscow since the Cold War.
	A former EU budget chief, the 58-year-old won round one two weeks ago, scoring 46 percent of the vote. Balcytis, an MEP with the governing Social Democrats, took just over 13 per cent.
	Running as an independent, Grybauskaite has focussed largely on national security, while Baclytis has campaigned on bread and butter ...

Incumbent Grybauskaite leads Lithuania presidential runoff

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today called on Lebanon's political rivals to end the country's presidential stalemate.
	A spokesman for Ban said the UN chief "regrets that the Lebanese Parliament was unable to elect a new president within the timeframe set by the constitution."
	Ban urged Lebanon's leaders "to engage intensively to ensure the election of a new president without delay."
	Lebanon has been plunged into a leadership vacuum after President Michel Sleiman's mandate ended today with rival political blocs still divided over a new leader.
	Over the past two months Lebanon's parliament convened five times to try to elect a successor to Sleiman but failed each time due to a lack of quorum.
	Lebanon's political paralysis is mainly due to a deep rift between two rival camps over the conflict in Syria, the powerful neighbour that dominated Beirut for 30 years until 2005.
	Ban's spokesman said the UN leader urged "Lebanese leaders to ensure the continued effective ...

UN chief calls for Lebanon unity over president

Belgium's controversial Flemish separatists looked set to take the lead in a general election today marred by an attack against the Jewish Museum in Brussels, the first such incident in 30 years.
	First estimates gave 33 per cent of the vote in  Flanders to the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) headed by tough-talking Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever.
	With Flanders in the north accounting for 60 percent of Belgium's population of 11 million, the result, if confirmed, would see the NV-A become the biggest party in the language-divided nation.
	"Vicit vim virtus", De Wever told supporters in Latin -- meaning "Courage overcame violence".
	The French-speaking Socialists from southern Wallonia, headed by incumbent premier Elio Di Rupo, scored just over 30 per cent.
	However, De Wever's lead may prove to be too small to enable him to form a regional government in northern Flanders, while at the federal level he may find it difficult to find allies to join a coalition.
	Belgium has no national ...

Flemish separatists set for victory in key Belgium election

A Chinese blogger who called on US Secretary of State John Kerry to push for Internet freedom in China has been fired by his employer, he said today.
	Journalist Zhang Jialong was one of four bloggers who met with Kerry in February, where he urged the United States to help "tear down the great Internet firewall".
	Beijing tightly censors the Internet, banning websites including Facebook and Twitter with a system labelled the "Great Firewall of China", and ordering domestic Internet firms to delete content that government officials deem "sensitive".
	Zhang's employer Tencent dismissed him on Friday for "leaking business secrets and other confidential and sensitive information", he said, calling it a reprisal for his meeting with Kerry.
	Zhang said that authorities at Tencent, one of China's best known Internet firms, told him his dismissal was prompted by the meeting, and his posting online of censorship orders issued by China's government.
	Directives published by Zhang included an ...

China blogger 'fired' after John Kerry meeting

Pope Francis joined Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I in an historic joint prayer for the Christian unity at Christianity's holiest site in Jerusalem today.
	They met at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre inside the walled Old City after signing a landmark pledge to work together to further unity between the eastern and western branches of Christianity, estranged for a millennium.
	The meeting has been billed as the main reason for the pope's three-day trip to the Middle East, which ends tomorrow.
	It commemorates the historic rapprochement between both branches of the Christian church 50 years ago, when Pope Paul VI met and embraced Patriarch Athenagoras -- the first easing of tensions between the Churches since the Great Schism in the 11th century.
	Both leaders knelt side by side in prayer on the rough Stone of the Anointing, where the body of Jesus was laid before burial, removing their headgear as they did so.
	Both had to be helped to their feet by aides at the end of the prayer. ..

AFP

AFP

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