Myanmar freed two Reuters journalists who had been jailed for their reporting on the Rohingya crisis from prison Tuesday following a presidential amnesty, according to video from the agency.
The two, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were mobbed by media as they stepped out of Yangon's notorious prison after spending more than 500 days in detention.

Myanmar frees two Reuters journalists in amnesty: video

PTI Automatic

US oil group Anadarko said Monday that Occidental Petroleum's takeover bid is "superior" to Chevron's, amid a fierce battle over the company's assets in the shale-rich Permian Basin in Texas.
After initially siding with Chevron, Anadarko reopened talks when Occidental raised its share price. Last week, Occidental also upped its cash offer to $38 billion.
Anadarko's "board of directors... has unanimously determined that the revised acquisition proposal it received from Occidental Petroleum Corporation on May 5, 2019 constitutes a 'Superior Proposal' as defined in Anadarko's previously announced merger agreement with Chevron Corporation," a statement read.
"Anadarko intends to terminate the Chevron Merger Agreement in order to enter into a definitive merger agreement with Occidental in connection with the Revised Occidental Proposal."
Under the new deal, Occidental would purchase Anadarko for $59 in cash and 0.2934 of a share of Occidental common stock per share of Anadarko common ...

Anadarko calls Occidental takeover offer 'superior' to Chevron's

Australia's election became a little more raucous on Tuesday when a protestor tried -- but failed -- to crack an egg on Prime Minister Scott Morrison's head.
The attacker's egg, thrown from close range, appeared to bounce off the politician at a Country Women's Association event in New South Wales.
The woman was wrestled away by Morrison's close protection security detail and could later be seen leaving the venue holding an egg carton.
In the fracas, an older woman was bundled over, and Morrison -- who is trailing in the polls ahead of the May 18 vote -- had to help her up.
The incident followed a highly publicised assault of far-right politician Fraser Anning, who had an egg smashed on his head during a press conference.
His teen attacker had been protesting comments he made blaming the massacre of 51 Muslim worshippers in two Christchurch mosques on immigrants to New Zealand.

Australian PM egged on campaign trail

The era of doctors prescribing patients powerful antibiotics while they wait for lab reports could soon be numbered, with a new device returning results within minutes instead of days.
It was invented by a team at Penn State university and described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.
Co-developed by Pak Kin Wong, a professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, the device uses microtechnology to trap single bacteria cells that can then be viewed under an electron microscope.
The approach allows clinicians to determine in as little as 30 minutes whether bacteria is present and its susceptibility to drug treatment -- as opposed to the three-to-five days such lab work currently takes.
"We currently prescribe antibiotics even when there is no bacteria present," Wong told AFP.
"That is over prescription. That is one of things we tried to express. Can we quickly determine the existence of bacterial infection?" The ...

Scientists develop device to detect bacteria in minutes, not days

A powerful but deep 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, officials said, cutting power and knocking items off shelves though there were no immediate reports of serious damage.
The quake struck at a depth of 127 kilometers (80 miles) about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the town of Bulolo at 2119 GMT Monday according to the US Geological Survey, and was felt in the capital Port Moresby about 250 kilometres away.
Officials said there were no immediate reports of major damage and the depth of the tremor meant there was no tsunami threat.
"We have no reports as yet" of serious damage, Inspector Leo Kaikas, Bulolo police station commander, told AFP.
"We are still assessing the situation," he said. Staff at Bulolo's Pine Lodge hotel said there was very minor damage from objects falling off tables, but nothing more serious.
Residents in Lae, more than 100 kilometres away, said the quake knocked things off shelves and worktops and cut electricity in some areas.
"I had ..

Strong 7.2 quake rocks Papua New Guinea

Turkey's top election body ordered a re-run of Istanbul's mayoral election on Monday after the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained about its shock defeat in the vote, the state news agency reported.
The winner of the election, Ekrem Imamoglu of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said it was a "treacherous decision" and vowed to fight on.
"They are trying to take back the election we won. Maybe you are upset but never lose your hope," he told thousands of supporters in central Istanbul following the ruling.
Imamoglu narrowly defeated the candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the March 31 local elections to take control of Turkey's biggest city.
It was a rare electoral defeat for Erdogan, himself a former mayor of the city, which has been in the hands of the AKP and its predecessors for 25 years.
But the AKP has refused to accept defeat, saying there were "irregularities and corruption" in the vote.
Imamoglu won by just 13,000 ...

Turkey election body orders Istanbul vote re-run

Clashes between Syrian government forces and jihadists Monday killed 43 fighters in the country's northwest, where the regime and its Russian ally have stepped up bombardment in the past few days, a monitor said.
Jihadists also fired rockets at a Russian air base in the region but were repelled with the attack causing no casualties or damage, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Twenty-two pro-government fighters were among those killed in fierce fighting in the northern countryside of Hama province, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Twenty-one jihadists, including members of Al-Qaeda's former Syrian branch, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and its ally the Turkistan Islamic Party, were also killed, the war monitor said.
The fighting came as regime forces advanced on two villages and a strategic hilltop in the region, it said. State news agency SANA said Syrian troops launched "intensive operations," targeting supply lines and areas where armed groups 

Fighting kills 43 in Syria's northwest: Monitor

From Amazon rainforests to the Arctic Circle, indigenous peoples are leveraging ancestral knowhow to protect habitats that have sustained them for hundreds and even thousands of years, according to a landmark UN assessment of biodiversity released Monday.
But these "guardians of nature" are under siege, warns the first major UN scientific report to fully consider indigenous knowledge and management practices.
Whether it is logging, agribusiness and cattle ranching in the tropics, or climate change warming the poles twice as fast as the global average, an unrelenting economic juggernaut fuelled by coal, oil and gas is ravaging the natural world, the grim report found.
A million of Earth's estimated eight million species are at risk of extinction, and an area of tropical forest five times the size of England has been destroyed since 2014.
"Indigenous peoples and local communities are facing growing resource extraction, commodity production, along with mining, transport and energy ...

Indigenous peoples, 'guardians of Nature', under siege

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday announced initiatives to protect biodiversity and the environment,  following the publication of landmark UN report on the state of the natural world.
"What is at stake is the very possibility of having a habitable Earth," Macron said after meeting in Paris with experts of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) which produced the report.
A million species are on the brink of extinction and relentless plundering and poisoning of Earth's bounty -- water, wildlife, air, soil and forests -- threaten societies at least as much as climate change, a team of 450 experts found.
"Biodiversity is as important a subject as climate change and we can't win this battle without  working all the levers,"  Macron, said, championing a series of green initiatives.
In the battle against food waste "we must profoundly change our models by fighting even more actively against food waste everywhere in the ...

French president announces moves to protect biodiversity

After a day of abstaining from food and drink, Sudanese protesters Monday broke their fast on the first day of Ramadan with chicken soup and vowed to press their campaign for a civilian rule.
As the call for the sunset prayer rang out, crowds gathered outside army headquarters in Khartoum for an iftar meal with many saying they were determined not to let the sweltering heat or fasting sap their energy.
"We will be able to survive Ramadan and the heat," Hassan Bushra told AFP at the sprawling sit-in site.
"What made us survive the bullets and bombs of (ousted president Omar al-) Bashir will make us survive the scorching heat. We are Sudanese. We are used to that," he said.
Temperatures soared to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) on Monday as the Sudanese like other Muslims around the world began observing Ramadan, during which the faithful fast from dawn to dusk.
As the sun began setting protesters thronged the sit-in site to perform the Maghreb (dusk) prayer, and an iftar meal ...

Over Ramadan iftar, Sudan protesters vow to get civil rule

The wreckage of a private jet that was flying from Las Vegas to Monterrey, in northern Mexico, was found Monday, an official said, after the plane disappeared with 14 people believed to be on board.
Air-traffic controllers said they lost contact with the Bombardier Challenger 601 jet on Sunday evening, after it abruptly lost altitude over the state of Coahuila, in northern Mexico.
Authorities flying over the area Monday spotted wreckage whose characteristics matched that of the missing jet.
"Everything indicates it is the plane" that went missing, said Miguel Villarreal, head of the Monclova International Airport in Coahuila.
"The flight plan reported there were 11 passengers on board, plus the crew. We are waiting for (emergency workers) to reach the site to confirm the plane's registration number," he told local TV station Multimedios.
According to Mexican media reports, authorities believe there were three crew members on the flight, and that the charter jet was flying a group of ..

Private jet crashes in Mexico, 14 feared dead

UN experts are investigating missile strikes near Libya's capital that were likely fired by Chinese-made drones and point to possible involvement by the United Arab Emirates, according to a confidential report seen by AFP on Monday.
The April 19-20 missile attack on the southern suburbs of Tripoli was carried out as forces loyal to commander Khalifa Haftar battled to seize the capital from the UN-recognised government.
A UN panel of experts said in the report to the Security Council that it had examined photographs of missile debris and had identified the weapon as a Blue Arrow air-to-surface missile, which has not been used in Libya before.
That missile is only in use in three countries -- China, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates -- and is paired with the Chinese-made Wing Loong drone.
"The panel is now investigating the probable use of Wing Loong UAV variants by the LNA, or by a third party in support of the LNA," -- Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), said the ...

Libya missile strikes point to possible UAE role: UN report

The US on Monday said it planned to beef up its Arctic presence to keep Russia's and China's "aggressive behaviour" in check in the resource-rich region.
"The region has become an arena of global power and competition" owing to vast reserves of oil, gas, minerals and fish stocks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned in a speech in Rovaniemi, northern Finland.
"Just because the Arctic is a place of wilderness does not mean it should become a place of lawlessness," he said.
Speaking on the eve of a meeting of the eight members of the Arctic Council, Pompeo took on Beijing and Moscow.
"China's pattern of aggressive behaviour elsewhere will inform how it treats the Arctic," he said.
He warned against scenarios whereby nations become ensnared by debt and corruption, of low-quality investments, militarisation and uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, all of which he said were potential effects of allowing rising Chinese influence.
"Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into 

Pompeo slams China, Russia for 'aggressive' Arctic behaviour

Donald Trump's one-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen entered federal prison to serve a three-year sentence Monday for a crime he said was ordered by the US president, suggesting he still has more to tell about his former boss.
Cohen, 52, was sentenced to prison in December after admitting he paid hush money during the 2016 presidential election -- in violation of electoral laws -- to two women who said they had had affairs with Trump, committed tax fraud, and lied to Congress.
"There still remains much to be told. And I look forward to the day that I can share the truth," he told reporters as he left his Manhattan residence for the federal prison in Otisville, New York.
"I hope when I rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in a place without xenophobia, injustice, and lies at the helm of our country," he said.
Hours later the onetime vice president and key problem-fixer at the Trump Organization arrived at the rural prison  north of New York City, becoming the second ..

Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen, off to prison, says still 'much to be told'

Brazilian police shot dead eight people in one of Rio de Janeiro's biggest slums on Monday, an official said, just days after figures showed a record number of killings by state officers in the first quarter.
"We confirm that eight suspects were killed in an operation in Mare," a police spokesman told AFP.
No other details about the operation in Mare -- a poor, densely populated swathe of the city in large part run by heavily-armed drug traffickers -- were immediately available.
The operation comes after the state Institute for Public Safety released figures on Friday showing 434 people were killed during "police intervention" in the first three months --  a 17.9 per cent increase as compared with the same period in 2018.
That is the highest quarterly figure since record keeping of police-related killings began in 1998.

Brazil police shoot dead eight in Rio favela: Official

Suspected Islamists have killed seven people in northern Mozambique in weekend attacks, threatening aid to victims of Cyclone Kenneth and paralysing ongoing voter registration for October elections, local sources said on Monday.
Islamist fighters have terrorised remote communities in Mozambique's gas-rich, Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado region since October 2017, killing around 200 people and forcing thousands from their homes.
Between Friday and Sunday at least four separate villages were attacked in northern Cabo Delgado, local sources said.
"Armed men invaded the district of Meluco, specifically the village of Minhanha, killed three people, and burned about 100 houses on Sunday night," a local source, who did not want to be identified fearing retaliation, told AFP.
Sunday's attack followed another on Saturday that killed a teacher riding a motorcycle and three other people who were burned to death in Macomia district.
The attacks were the first since Cyclone Kenneth smashed into the .

Militant attacks in Mozambique kill seven, threaten voter registration

The United Nations on Monday criticized North Korea following its latest weapons test, warning such action would only increase regional tensions.
North Korea on Saturday carried out a test of rocket launchers and unspecified tactical guided weapons -- a provocative move that appeared however to fall short of a return to the missile launches that led to international sanctions in 2017.
"We are very much aware of the recent launches" by North Korea, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
"Such an action serves only to increase tensions in the region," he added.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres encourages all sides to "continue their dialogue to advance sustainable peace and a complete and verifiable denuclearization on the Korean peninsula," said Dujarric.
Following the test, the United States said it would continue to press on with talks with Pyongyang to scrap North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
President Donald Trump has met twice with North Korean ...

UN warns of increased tensions over N. Korea weapons test

A former Goldman Sachs banker is expected to enter a plea later Monday in New York after being extradited from Malaysia to face bribery charges in the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal.
Malaysian Ng Chong Hwa, 51, a former managing director at the bank charged in both Malaysia and America over 1MDB, was extradited to the US on Friday, Malaysian attorney-general Tommy Thomas said.
Also known as Roger Ng, the defendant is scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon after 1815 GMT at a federal court in Brooklyn, a spokesman for US Attorney's office said.
An attorney for Ng told Bloomberg he would contest the US criminal charges, which include conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Huge sums of public money were stolen from Malaysian state fund 1MDB and used to mass a trove of personal riches, including yachts and artwork, in a scheme allegedly overseen by former Premier Najib Razak and his cronies.
Goldman's role is under scrutiny as the Wall Street bank ..

Ex-Goldman banker to face 1MDB charges in US court

The former chief executive of France Telecom and other ex-bosses went on trial Monday facing unprecedented charges of moral harassment that allegedly prompted 35 employees to take their own lives a decade ago.
The wave of suicides, which shocked France at the time, took place from 2008 to 2009 and raised questions about the workplace culture at the former state telecom giant.
The company is now known as Orange after being renamed in 2013.
Former chief executive Didier Lombard, who helmed the company from 2005 to 2010, several other bosses and also Orange itself are on trial for allegedly overseeing institutionalised harassment at the company.
The trial opened at the Paris criminal court nearly seven years after Lombard and France Telecom itself were charged with "moral harassment," which is defined as "frequently repeated acts whose aim or effect is the degradation of working conditions".
"For six months I was given nothing to do," Yves Minguy, a former IT specialist who joined the ...

France Telecom ex-bosses go on trial over suicide wave

The US State Department said Monday it was "gravely concerned" about human rights in North Korea, including its detention of an estimated 100,000 people in political prison camps, two days after President Donald Trump again praised leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump is seeking a potentially landmark accord with North Korea on ending its nuclear program, with human rights on the backburner during his two summits with Kim.
But in a statement to mark an annual week of advocacy in Washington over North Korea's rights record, the State Department hailed defectors and other activists who "shine a light on the dire human rights situation" in the totalitarian state.
"We remain gravely concerned and deeply troubled by these abuses," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
"We continue to work with the international community to raise awareness, highlight abuses and violations, enhance access to independent information and promote respect for human rights in North Korea," she ...

US 'gravely concerned' on North Korea human rights

Greece's government on Monday called for a parliamentary confidence vote -- the second this year -- after the opposition sought to censure one of its junior ministers.
"On behalf of the prime minister, I call on the chamber... to begin a procedure on a vote of confidence," deputy prime minister Yannis Dragasakis said in parliament.
Earlier, the main opposition New Democracy party had sought to censure deputy health minister Pavlos Polakis over comments he had made about one of its European parliament candidates, a former star student with spinal muscular atrophy.
Trailing in the polls, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wants to galvanise his leftist Syriza party ahead of European and local elections this month, and national elections scheduled in the autumn.
Polakis last month drew fire after saying it was "shameful" that the New Democracy candidate -- 34-year-old psychiatrist Stelios Kybouropoulos -- had legally used a disability quota to find a job at a state hospital.
"Anywhere else in 

AFP

AFP

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