Critical relief supplies are finally flowing into areas of Papua New Guinea devastated by a strong earthquake, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said, as another 6.7-magnitude tremor rocked the region today.
At least 67 people were killed by the initial quake in the Pacific nation's mountainous interior on February 26, according to the Red Cross, with 500 injured and 17,000 displaced.
Aid has yet to reach isolated parts of the Southern Highlands, Western, Enga and Hela provinces, with landslides, ruined roads and dozens of aftershocks hampering efforts.
But O'Neill told reporters food, water and medicine was starting to get through, with aircraft ferrying supplies to Moro and Mendi airports in the Southern Highlands.
"We are now in the process of delivering emergency supplies," he said late yesterday.
"Over the last few days, we've been working with the Australian government, with Exxon(Mobil), with Oil Search and Ok Tedi in particular, in making sure that immediate assistance required by .

Strong aftershock as aid starts reaching quake-hit PNG

PTI Automatic

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today urged all sides to seize the opportunities of a planned summit between North and South Korea, as well as future talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons drive.
Guterres said he was encouraged by the advances made to hold the summit and discuss future talks on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
"The latest developments are further steps forward in laying the foundation for the resumption of sincere dialogue, leading to sustainable peace and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula," his office said in a statement.
Guterres "is encouraged by the advances made during the latest inter-Korean talks, particularly the agreement to hold a summit meeting soon, to further reduce military tensions, and to discuss denuclearization in future talks with all relevant parties," it added.
"He stresses the need to protect the momentum and seize the opportunities available to find a peaceful path forward."
The leaders of North and ...

UN chief says time to seize the opportunity for Korean talks

US President Donald Trump said today that he believes that North Korea's offer to hold denuclearisation talks is "sincere."
"I believe they are sincere," Trump told reporters after Pyongyang floated the idea of giving up its nuclear weapons in return for US security guarantees.
"I hope they're sincere," the president said at a joint news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. "We'll soon find out."
Trump credited "very, very strong" sanctions and the "big help" of China for North Korea's offer to enter into talks.
"I think they're sincere also because of the sanctions and what we're doing with respect to North Korea," Trump said.
"(China) can do more but I think they've done more than they've ever done for our country before," he said.

Trump says he believes North Korea is 'sincere'

Eight soldiers were killed and 61 injured, as well as 24 civilians, in last week's twin attacks in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, the authorities said today, adding that eight jihadist assailants also died.
The previous official toll from Friday's twin assault on the country's military headquarters and the French embassy had been seven soldiers and nine attackers dead, and there was no mention of any civilian casualties.
"The confusion (over the number of dead) stemmed from a body that was found on the site" of the attacks, public prosecutor Faso Maiza Sereme told a press conference.
"After further tests and checks, it proved to be one of our soldiers," she said.
The authorities had previously said around 80 were injured, but not mentioned any civilians among these casualties.
Eight people have been arrested, including two soldiers and a former soldier who had been thrown out of the armed forces, Sereme said.
"Complicity cannot be ruled out" in the attack against the military HQ, 

8 soldiers, 8 assailants dead in Burkina attack: updated toll

The Gambia today apologised to Thailand after its foreign minister said the Asian country was a haven for sex tourists, sparking a strongly worded protest from Bangkok.
Hamat Bah said on state television in January that The Gambia, a sunny beach destination favoured by Western tourists especially from Scandinavia, was losing out to the nearby archipelago nation of Cape Verde after gaining a reputation as a sex haven.
"The fact is that this country's image has been battered heavily... I was trying to find out why we are not getting Scandinavian tourists anymore, and I discovered that this country has been considered a sex destination," he had said.
"We are not a sex destination. If you want a sex destination, you go to Thailand," he added.
The Thai government last week lodged a formal protest in a strongly worded letter.
Its Culture Minister Veera Rojpojchanarat separately said sex tourism had declined due to measures taken by the government.
"Thailand has improved a lot in this issue. 

Gambia apologises to Thailand for sex tourism slur

An Italian man of Nigerian origin, who is the chief immigration spokesman for the far-right League party, has been elected as the country's first black senator.
Tony Iwobi, whose party has been accused of stirring up xenophobia in Italy, was elected in the industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy -- a major immigration hub.
"It is with great excitement that I can tell you I have been elected senator... A new adventure is about to begin," Iwobi said on Facebook today following Sunday's elections.
Born in Gusau in northern Nigeria but living in Italy since the 1970s, Iwobi has been a supporter of the League for more than two decades and used the campaign slogan #StopInvasion -- a reference to the more than 690,000 migrants who have landed on Italian shores from North Africa since 2013.

Italy's first black senator elected for far-right party

Heavy air strikes and clashes shook the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta today, as France and Britain called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the escalating violence.
Eight hundred civilians -- including at least 177 children -- have been killed since Russia-backed regime forces launched an assault on the besieged enclave outside Damascus on February 18, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in its latest death toll.
Russia suffered its own heavy losses today as the defence ministry said a Russian transport plane crashlanded at an airbase in western Syria, killing all 32 people on board.
Bombardment and clashes in Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold near Damascus have persisted despite a month-long ceasefire demanded by the Security Council more than a week ago.
At least 19 civilians were killed today, according to the Syrian Observatory, a Britain-based monitor.
The relentless attacks prompted France and Britain to request an emergency meeting .

Strikes hit Syria's battered Ghouta as death toll hits 800

Elephants searching for food have trampled 10 Rohingya refugees to death in multiple incidents, the UN said today, announcing a new plan to foster "safe coexistence" between animals and sprawling refugee settlements.
Some 700,000 people from Myanmar's Rohingya community have fled over the border to Bangladesh since August, following an army crackdown that the UN has said amounts to an ongoing campaign of "ethnic cleansing".
Refugee camps have shot up in Bangladesh's border area of Cox's Bazar, including Kutupalong which is now the largest refugee camp in the world.
Living conditions for refugees remain extremely difficult despite a growing international response, but the United Nations refugee agency said the threat from elephants had emerged as a new concern.
"The area now occupied by the Kutupalong refugee settlement has long been an important habitat for Asian Elephants. There are about 40 elephants in the area and they move between Bangladesh and Myanmar in search of food," the ...

Elephants kill 10 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: UN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a break from his legal woes today to denounce the "radical tyranny" of Iran in a hawkish address before a pro-Israel lobby group in Washington.
Netanyahu, who faces an intensifying corruption probe at home, was among friends in the US capital, where he delivered a speech to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) a day after talks with President Donald Trump.
He thanked Trump for his vow to tear up the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if it is not strengthened to prevent Tehran from resuming its alleged quest for atomic weapons, and said Israel and its Arab neighbors would back such a move.
To bolster his case he presented an ominous map with the countries of the Middle East that he accuses Iran of seeking to dominate -- such as war-torn Syria and Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza -- colored in black.
"Darkness is descending on our region. Iran is building an aggressive empire," he declared, accusing Tehran of exploiting its ...

Netanyahu vows to defeat Iran's 'aggressive empire'

Mexico would retaliate against President Donald Trump's planned steel and aluminum tariffs by imposing tariffs of its own on the most "politically sensitive" US goods, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said today.
If Mexico is not granted its requested exemption from the US tariffs, "we would have to target our response at the things they export that are most politically sensitive and hit exactly those goods. We have the ability to respond," Guajardo told Mexican broadcaster Televisa, without going into detail on the goods in question.

Mexico vows steel tariff retaliation

The leaders of North and South Korea will hold a historic summit in the Demilitarized Zone next month after Pyongyang expressed willingness to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees, Seoul said today.
The North is open to "frank" talks with the United States on denuclearisation and would suspend missile and nuclear tests while dialogue was under way, the South's national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said after returning from a meeting in Pyongyang with leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea is subject to multiple rounds of UN Security Council sanctions over its atomic and ballistic missile programmes, and has long insisted that its "treasured sword" is not up for negotiation.
But it is willing to abandon the programmes if its national security -- and that of its leadership -- is guaranteed, Chung said.
That remains a high threshold -- Pyongyang has considered itself at risk of invasion by the United States since the Korean War ended in a ceasefire in 1953, leaving 

Two Koreas to hold summit, North ready for denuclearisation talks: Seoul

Russian forces were behind a deadly strike on a crowded market in Syria late last year, UN investigators said today, warning that the attack could amount to a "war crime".
The air strikes on a market in rebel-held Atareb in northern Syria last November 13 killed at least 84 people, including five children, and injured around 150 others, the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in Syria said in its latest report.
"The commission confirmed the use of unguided blast weapons by Russian aircraft in a civilian populated area," commission chief Paulo Pinheiro told reporters in Geneva.
He pointed to a "large body of evidence", including interviews with witnesses and forensic analysis of photos, videos and images of weapons remnants, satellite images and impact analysis, to support the commission's findings.
The war crimes investigators acknowledged there was "no evidence to indicate that the ... attack deliberately targeted civilians or the Atareb market."
But they stressed that "the use .

Russian attack on Syrian market may be war crime: UN

US President Donald Trump hailed "possible progress" on the North Korea nuclear impasse today after Seoul announced Pyongyang was willing to discuss giving up its nuclear weapons for American security guarantees.
"Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea," Trump tweeted in his first response to the overture. "For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned."
"The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the US is ready to go hard in either direction!"
South Korea's national security advisor Chung Eui-yong announced the potential breakthrough in Seoul after returning from a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in which the two sides agreed to hold a summit next month in the Demilitarized Zone.

Trump hails 'possible progress' with North Korea

A Russian transport plane crashed on landing at Russia's Hmeimim airbase in Syria, killing all 32 on board today, the defence ministry said in a statement carried by RIA Novosti.
There were 26 passengers and 6 crew, the ministry said.
"The reason for the crash according to preliminary information could have been a technical fault," the ministry said, adding that the plane had not come under fire according to a report from the ground.
The transporter was around 500 metres from the runway, the statement said.
A commission will investigate the causes of the crash.
Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015, and its intervention has swung the nearly seven-year conflict firmly in favour of its ally in Damascus.
The latest accident comes after a Sukhoi military jet crashed while trying to take off from Hmeimim in October last year, killing two crew.
Russia's most recent officially acknowledged military loss in battle in Syria was last month when a pilot was killed after .

Russian plane crash at base in Syria kills 32: report

Russia's defence ministry today said its officials were discussing with international humanitarian organisations a plan to send a fresh aid convoy today to Syria's rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta.
The United Nations said a convoy delivering desperately needed aid to the town of Douma in the besieged enclave on Monday was forced to cut its mission short amid shelling.
"Following the humanitarian convoy to Douma, we discussed measures to coordinate new humanitarian convoys to Eastern Ghouta, including one planned for Thursday," Russian agencies reported General Vladimir Zolotukhin as saying.
Zolotukhin, a spokesman for Russia's Syria reconciliation centre, said agreement was reached on "a meeting at which the wishes already expressed by (humanitarian aid) organisers will be discussed in detail," RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Russia has said the first international convoy to the area delivered 247 tonnes of medical aid and food to Douma.
Yesterday evening, the Russian army called for 

Russia says coordinating fresh convoy to Syria's besieged Ghouta

Greek commuters saw journeys disrupted Monday as taxi drivers downed tools to protest at competition from ride-sharing firm Uber on a day rail workers also held a 24-hour strike.
"For three years we have been fighting against Uber's illegal and arbitrary incursion into transport," read a statement from the Athens taxi drivers' union Sata.
Sata pointed out it has been urging the Greek government to regulate the sector, invoking a European Court of Justice ruling from December which found Uber must accept regulation and licensing across EU states as a taxi operator.
A Spanish association of taxi operators which brought the case dubbed that ruling a "social victory" against a company which has long battled legal uncertainty over its status in Europe as taxi drivers and officials in several countries accuse it of flouting local regulations.
Demonstrating taxi drivers in Athens urged Greece immediately legislate to respond to Uber's "illegality and fraud" and protect the sector.
A rail ...

Athens taxi drivers strike in Uber protest

A "No dancing or swaying" instruction on tickets to Egyptian pop sensation Tamer Hosny's upcoming concert in Saudi Arabia has triggered an avalanche of mockery and ridicule on social media.
Thousands of fans were taken by surprise when tickets for Hosny's first-ever Saudi concert in the western city of Jeddah on March 30 came with the edict that dancing was "strictly prohibited".
"Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts," one Twitter user said.
"The corridors and seats will be equipped with sway detectors. Anyone who thinks about swaying will be kicked out."
Another tweeted: "No dancing or swaying in a concert! It's like putting ice under the sun and asking it not to melt."
The kingdom's entertainment authority did not respond to AFP's request for comment about the instruction.
With its new modernisation drive, the ultra-conservative kingdom has hosted a series of concerts in recent months by artists such as Lebanon's Hiba Tawaji and legendary Greek composer Yanni.
Men and 

'No dancing': Saudi concert edict stirs ridicule

Any post-Brexit free trade deal struck between Britain and the European Union must not include financial services, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said today before meeting his UK counterpart.
Le Maire's comments are a strong response to British Prime Minister Theresa May, who in a keynote speech on Friday said trade in services as a whole needed "to be deeper than any other free trade agreement".
Speaking Tuesday on BBC radio, ahead of a meeting with British finance minister Philip Hammond, Le Maire said: "We need a deal, we need a good deal. But once again, we have to avoid any misunderstanding between the British people and the French people, between the UK and the EU.
"Financial services cannot be in a free trade agreement, for many reasons... For reasons of stability, for the sake of supervision because there are some very specific rules for financial services," Le Maire said.
He added that the UK would have to accept the current system used by non-EU financial companies ..

Brexit free trade deal cannot include financial services: France

Sexual harassment on French streets or in public transport will be punished by a new on-the-spot fine of 90 euros, a government spokesman said today, while admitting it would be hard to catch offenders in the act.
The #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment started in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein affair has led to soul-searching in France, where persistent male advances are sometimes passed off as harmless flirtation.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux confirmed that the fines for street harassment would start at 90 euros ($110), in line with a parliamentary report recommending a penalty of 90-750 euros, depending on how fast the offender pays up.
Speaking to BFMTV network, Griveaux pointed to a 2016 survey in which 87 percent of female public transport users said they had suffered harassment such as wolf whistling, comments on their appearance, insistent stares or someone pressing up against them.
Only two percent had filed a police complaint, even though in 86 percent of ..

French catcallers face new 90-euro fine

Six Greek men, members of far-right groups, were arrested by counter-terrorism police today, accused of being involved in a recent spate of attacks against migrants and left-wing activists, a police source said.
Five men were arrested near Athens and a sixth in the northwestern city of Ioannina, and police found petrol bombs at the home of one of them near Athens, the source said.
Police have not yet confirmed that the men are members of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn but said they belonged to far-right groups.
There has been a spate of far-right violence against migrants and left-wing activists in Greece recently.
Just 10 days ago, five people were injured after eight assailants attacked an anti-fascist centre in the Greek port of Piraeus, near Athens.
Among those wounded -- two of whom were taken to hospital -- was a lawyer representing the family of Pavlos Fyssas, the anti-fascist rapper killed by Golden Dawn members in September 2013, according to police sources.
According ..

Greece makes six new arrests after far-right violence

Senior members of Italy's vanquished Democratic Party today were defying outgoing leader Matteo Renzi and eyeing a possible deal with the triumphant Five Star Movement after an election that ended in deadlock.
Anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio declared his party "the winners" after obtaining nearly 33 percent of the vote, but they need to form alliances in parliament if they are to govern.
Renzi ruled out the prospect as he announced his resignation on Monday, following disaster at the polls that saw his party's centre-left coalition slump to third place with 23 percent of the vote.
"During the campaign, we said we would not do a government with extremists. We have not changed our mind," Renzi said, adding that the Democratic Party (PD) would "not be a crutch for anti-system forces".
Political expert Giovanni Orsina said Renzi's departure meant "a convergence between the PD and the M5S is much more probable because Renzi was an obstacle to this."
But ...

AFP

AFP

Page 984 - Afp