Israeli police said Monday they have arrested a man suspected of poisoning nearly half the already-threatened vulture population in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
A resident of the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangariya in northern Israel was detained on Sunday and remanded in custody by a court in Tiberias, police said in a statement.  Police did not mention any apparent motive, but posted a picture of a cow carcass the suspect had allegedly dosed with poison.
Local media said such poisonings in the past had been caused by farmers putting out poisoned bait to stop predators attacking their herds.
Eight out of around 20 griffon vultures left in the Golan were found dead Friday, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority head told AFP, in what he described as "a mortal blow to the birds of prey population".
A fox and two jackals were also found dead and two sick vultures were taken to a wildlife clinic for treatment, the organisation's director Shaul Goldstein said.
The vulture population on ..

Israel police arrest suspect in poisoning of rare vultures

PTI Automatic

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar's offensive against Tripoli represents a threat to international peace, the EU warned Monday.
The bloc called for all sides in the Libyan conflict to put down their arms and to commit to UN talks, though the month-long assault on the capital shows little sign of ending.
EU foreign ministers had earlier held talks on the crisis, which deepened dramatically last month when Haftar, whose Libyan National Army (LNA) holds the east of the country, launched a bid to seize Tripoli, seat of the UN-recognised government.
"The LNA military attack on Tripoli and the subsequent escalation in and around the capital constitutes a threat to international peace and security and further threatens the stability of Libya," EU members said in a statement.
"Furthermore, it enhances the risk of increased terrorist threat across the country." The statement, issued after EU ministers met the UN-recognised prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, also voiced concern about the "impact on 

Haftar's Libya offensive threatens international peace: EU

Sudan's ousted president Omar al-Bashir has been charged over the killings of protesters during the anti-regime demonstrations that led to the end of his rule, the prosecutor general announced Monday.
"Omar al-Bashir and others have been charged for inciting and participating in the killing of demonstrators," the office of Sudan's acting prosecutor general said.

Sudan's Bashir charged over 'killing' of protesters

Manchester City jetted back to the Etihad to celebrate their stunning Premier League title triumph but across town at Manchester United the lights had long gone out.
Pep Guardiola's champions partied late into the night on Sunday in front of thousands of ecstatic fans after beating Brighton to win their second consecutive league crown, the first side to achieve the feat since United in 2009.
In that year Alex Ferguson's side celebrated a third straight title as the undisputed kings of English football while City, less than a year after their Abu Dhabi takeover, finished a lowly 10th.
It is difficult to overstate the dramatic nature of United's demise in recent years, which culminated in an embarrassing 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford at the hands of relegated Cardiff on Sunday.
United have finished outside the top four in four of the six seasons since Ferguson retired. This season the scarcely credible 32-point gap to their cross-town rivals left them as close to the relegation zone as the 

Man Utd face daunting task to recover former glories after dismal campaign

Serena Williams made a winning return from injury beating Swedish qualifier Rebecca Petersen 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Italian Open clay-court tournament on Monday.
Williams, 37, has not played since a hard-fought three-set win over Petersen in the second round at the Miami Open in March before withdrawing with a knee injury.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner -- now ranked 11th -- also withdrew from Indian Wells in March complaining through illness.
Watched by her husband Alexis Ohanian, Williams doubled faulted on her first match point but sealed victory on her second against her 58th-ranked opponent.
A four-time Rome winner Williams last won on the red clay of at the Foro Italico in 2016.
She will play either her older sister Venus, who received a wild card entry to the tournament she won in 1999, or Belgian Elise Mertens in the second round.
Should Serena and Venus meet in Rome, it will be their first meeting on European clay in nearly 17 years.
Their last meeting .

Serena eases to victory in Rome return

"If you are second you are nothing," said former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly. But rarely can a runner-up have been more proud of falling just short than Liverpool in the Premier League this season.
Shankly won three league titles on Merseyside in the pre-Premier League era and built the foundations for two decades of dominance that endured even after he departed.
Yet even he could not conceive of amassing 97 points in a league season, let alone that mark only being good enough for second place.
Liverpool's points tally was not just a club record, but the third-highest in Premier League history, behind only Manchester City's 98 this season and City's haul of 100 points in romping to the title last year.
Unfortunately for Jurgen Klopp's men, it will be Pep Guardiola's champions they have to beat again to end a 30-year wait for a league title next season.
"As long as City are around, with the quality they have, the financial power and all that stuff, it's not that any other team will .

Liverpool seek 'perfection' in bid to dethrone Pep's Man City

Out-of-favour Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater has been banned from driving for 20 months after admitting to drink driving.
The 29-year-old -- capped three times by England on the back of his pivotal role in Leicester's fairytale 2016 title victory -- was two-and-a-half times over the legal limit when he crashed his Range Rover through a wall last month.
Drinkwater, who had two women passengers in the car, caused USD 65,000 damage to his car and suffered a graze to his forehead.
Aside from the ban, Drinkwater was also ordered to perform 70 hours' community service.
Drinkwater, unlike former Leicester City teammate N'golo Kante, has failed to impose himself at Chelsea after a ?35-million transfer in 2017 and last played for them in the Community Shield in August 2018 when he came on as a substitute.

Drinkwater slapped with long ban for drink driving

Clashes on the edge of a jihadist bastion in northwestern Syrian have killed 35 fighters in 24 hours, a war monitor said Monday, after weeks of regime bombardment of the region.
The northwestern region has come under increasing fire by the regime and its ally Russia in recent weeks, despite a buffer zone deal intended to shield it from any government offensive.
The region controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, includes most of the Idlib province as well as parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 16 loyalists and 19 jihadists died from Sunday to Monday in clashes in the area of Jabal al-Akrad in Latakia province, which lies on the bastion's northwestern edge.
Russian and regime aircraft bombarded the area on Monday with missiles and barrel bombs, while they also carried out strikes on southern areas of the region, said the Britain-based war monitor.
Russian air strikes hit a branch of ..

Clashes in northwest Syria kill 35 fighters: Monitor

The Sri Lankan authorities on Monday enforced a six-hour countrywide curfew as violence continued to spread in the island nation in the latest fallout from the Easter Sunday suicide bombings, which killed nearly 260 people.
"The curfew has been imposed from 9 p.m. tonight to 4 a.m. tomorrow," a police spokesperson said.
Earlier in the day, the police reimposed a curfew, few hours after it was lifted, on four towns of Kuliyapitiya, Bingiriya, Dummalasuriya and Hettipola in the north western region till 4 a.m. tomorrow following a communal clash in the area.
It was later extended to the entire North Western Province as violence continued to spread.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also appealed for calm after the unrest broke out, especially in Kurunegala district targeting Muslims, and appealed to the public not to be swayed by false information.
"I appeal to all citizens to remain calm and not be swayed by false information. Security forces are working tirelessly to apprehend ...

Lanka police imposes nationwide curfew as communal violence continue to spread

Europe on Monday urged the US not to further escalate tensions over the Iran nuclear deal, with Britain issuing a stark warning of the risk of conflict erupting "by accident" in the Gulf.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a last-minute visit to Brussels where he met his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany -- the three European signatories to the 2015 accord that curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions relief -- on the sidelines of a regular EU foreign ministers' gathering.
Iran last week announced it was suspending some of its commitments under the agreement, a year after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord and imposed swingeing sanctions on the Islamic republic -- putting the deal in peril.
Adding a military dimension to the diplomatic tensions, Washington is sending an amphibious assault ship and a Patriot missile battery to the Gulf, having already deployed an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers.
Pompeo's visit to Brussels was announced ..

Europe warns US against Iran escalation as tensions mount

Boeing is "confident" US-China trade talks will yield an agreement, a Boeing spokesman said Monday, after Beijing retaliated against higher US tariffs and the aircraft manufacturer appeared to be a potential target for additional reprisals.
As the year-long trade conflict escalated, the editor of party-owned Chinese newspaper Global Times said Monday that Beijing as might cut Boeing orders as well as purchases of US farm products.
"We're confident the US and China will continue trade discussions and come to an agreement than benefits both US and Chinese manufacturers and consumers," a Boeing spokesman told AFP in an email.

Boeing says 'confident' US-China trade talks will succeed

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said Monday Germany was looking with "heightened vigilance" to the threat of Russian online meddling in the lead-up to European Parliament elections this month.
"Heightened vigilance to this issue has not only been necessary but has been practised for some time, in Germany as well as at the European level," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference in Berlin.
"Our increased attention is not without reason. We are observing carefully the online activities of different international sources -- among them are Russian ones."
Seibert was responding to renewed warnings Moscow would run disinformation and manipulation campaigns ahead of the May 23-26 election, including from European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova who called it "a central issue" in comments to German media.
The New York Times meanwhile reported that "a constellation of websites and social media accounts linked to Russia or far-right groups is spreading disinformation, ..

Germany 'vigilant' to Russia meddling threat in EU vote

Uber shares went into a fresh skid Monday -- more bad news for the global ride-hailing giant, which endured steep declines in its hotly anticipated market debut last week.
Shares in Uber were off six percent at $38.95 after 15 minutes after slipping as much as 10 percent in the second day of trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Valued at some USD 82 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the technology sector, Uber's debut Friday was a major disappointment, losing 7.6 percent.
Richard Windsor, an analyst who writes the Radio Free Mobile blog on technology, said Uber and Lyft have been pressured by their high valuations and intense competition.  Uber and Lyft "are currently engaged in a life or death struggle to become the dominant ridesharing platform in the USA," Windsor said.
"It is this reality combined with the very high valuations at which they have been listed that is putting the pressure on these companies." Lyft shares fell three percent to $49.38, ..

Uber slides at open following last week's rocky debut

South Africa on Monday said it would lodge an appeal after Olympic champion Caster Semenya lost her case challenging new rules forcing female athletes to regulate their testosterone levels.
Semenya's case has provoked a furious debate across sport worldwide about gender and "hyperandrogenic" athletes, those with "differences of sexual development" (DSD).
The decision on May 1 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, means female athletes with elevated testosterone will have to take suppressive treatment if they wish to compete as women in certain events.
"We'll file the appeal as soon as we possibly can," Vuyo Mhaga, spokesman for the South African sport and recreation ministry, told AFP.
Mhaga said the appeal, to be lodged at the Switzerland Federal Tribunal, would be based on complaints over the judges' past record on similar cases, lack of clarity over how the ruling could be implemented and how the evidence was handled.
"It is not explained how the ...

South Africa to appeal against Semenya testosterone ruling

Qatar began distributing millions of dollars in aid in the Gaza Strip on Monday in a fresh bid to restore calm after a flareup with Israel, a Qatari official said.
Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, along with an allied militant group, fired hundreds of rockets at Israel on May 4 and 5, saying they were frustrated by the slow implementation of a previous ceasefire deal.
A new agreement was brokered which reportedly includes tens of millions of Qatari aid to Gaza as part of a package to ease Israel's crippling blockade of the strip.
The Gulf state, a rare Hamas ally in the region, has been providing millions in aid to the strip monthly since November.
Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi entered Gaza early Monday, the Qatari source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"This morning, the distribution of a cash aid of 100 dollars per poor family began," he said, adding it was destined for 108,000 families.
Hundreds of Palestinians waited at post offices in Gaza City to receive the $100 cash ...

Qatar distributes Gaza funds after flareup

German police said Monday two more bodies have been found during investigations into the deaths of three people discovered in a Bavarian hotel room and killed by crossbow bolts.
The two female corpses were found near the northern city of Hanover while detectives probed the mysterious deaths of a man and two women discovered over the weekend in the Bavarian town of Passau, close to the Austrian border.
The two crime scenes are 645 kilometres (400 miles) apart at opposite ends of Germany. Police said they found the two female bodies while searching the home of one of the women found dead in Passau.
No details were given as to whether the latest two corpses in the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, had also been killed by crossbow bolts.
On Saturday, hotel staff in Passau discovered the three dead Germans in their room around noon alongside two crossbows.
A third crossbow was later found packed inside a bag, police said.
The three were a 33-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man from ...

German police find two more bodies linked to crossbow killings

An Iranian woman employee of the British Council has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for "spying", the judiciary's news website Mizan Online reported Monday, sparking concern in London.
"An Iranian citizen in charge of the Iran desk at the... British Council was cooperating with English spying agencies," Mizan reported, quoting judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.
He did not identify the suspect but said she had been sentenced recently after she "made a straightforward confession".
Esmaili added that the suspect, who had been tasked with drawing up and managing cultural "infiltration" projects, had been arrested by Iranian intelligence and security agencies "more than a year ago". Britain's foreign ministry voiced concern over the case.
"We are very concerned by reports that an Iranian British Council employee has been sentenced to jail on charges of espionage," a spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told AFP.
"British Embassy officials in Tehran are in ...

British Council staffer sentenced to 10 years for 'spying': Iran

Armenia's jailed former president went on trial Monday over what prosecutors describe as a coup that led to bloody protests but he insists is a politically motivated case.
Robert Kocharyan led the ex-Soviet nation for a decade up to 2008 when his hand-picked ally Serzh Sarkisian was elected.
He stands accused of tipping those presidential polls in Sarkisian's favour and faces charges of "overthrowing the constitutional order".
Dozens of Kocharyan's supporters rallied Monday outside the Yerevan city court, holding placards that read "Kocharyan is a political prisoner" and "Political vendetta." Hearings started at 1000 GMT in a tiny courtroom packed with journalists.
Dressed in a grey business suit, Kocharyan looked unperturbed and smiled at supporters in the audience who shouted "Freedom".
The 64-year-old told AFP the case was brought against him because of new leadership that pushed out his successor in a popular uprising last year.
"What is happening to me is nothing less than ...

Ex-Armenia president goes on trial, rejects 'coup' charges

Sudan's army rulers and protest leaders resumed crucial talks Monday over handing power to a civilian administration after days of deadlock in negotiations, a spokesperson for the protest movement told AFP.
Protest leaders Omar al-Digeir and Satea al-Haj were among those attending the talks on behalf of the Alliance for Freedom and Change umbrella movement, the group's spokeswoman Mashar Darraj said.
The meeting was being held behind closed doors at a convention centre in central Khartoum, an AFP correspondent reported from the venue.
The latest round of talks, which have hit snags on several key issues, comes as thousands of protesters remain camped outside the army headquarters in central Khartoum.
They say they are determined to force the ruling military council to cede power -- just as they pushed the army into deposing veteran president Omar al-Bashir on April 11.
The protest alliance said Saturday the generals had invited the movement for a new round of talks.
The army generals .

Sudan army rulers, protesters resume civil rule talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday got more time to put together a new coalition government, after the initial 28 days granted him following last month's elections expired.
Israeli law says that after the first four weeks of political bargaining a further 14 days is granted by the president on request.
Netanyahu on Monday called on President Reuven Rivlin at his official Jerusalem residence and received his official blessing.
"At the end of the meeting, the president acceded to the prime minister's request and granted him a further two weeks to form a government," a statement from the presidency said in English.
Netanyahu's Likud party won 35 seats in the April 9 general election, with most parties represented in the 120-seat parliament recommending that he form the next governing coalition.
On April 17 Rivlin formally tasked him with the mission.
Such negotiations generally run close to the wire as parties seek to extract the maximum in cabinet portfolios and other ..

Netanyahu gets more time to form new Israel government

A top cardinal has said "many questions" remain despite the Vatican's diplomatic thaw with China, and that a deal paving the way to rapprochement was "only a starting point".
Cardinal Pietro Parolin's remarks -- in an interview with China's state-run Global Times, published Monday -- follow the signing in September last year of a historic bilateral agreement on the thorny issue of the appointment of bishops.
That deal came after decades of mistrust between Beijing and the Vatican.  China's estimated 10 million Catholics are split between an underground church that swears allegiance only to the pope and a state-supervised body -- the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
The September agreement allowed both sides to have a say on the appointment of bishops, and paved the way for a rapprochement between the Vatican and Beijing, which broke diplomatic ties in 1951.
Parolin -- the Vatican's number two -- called the deal "a starting point" and that there were "elements which demonstrate .

AFP

AFP

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