Yemen's Houthi rebels have killed three Saudi border guards in a mortar attack, the Saudi Defense Ministry said today, as a plane loaded with medical aid arrived in the rebel-held Yemeni capital.
	An unnamed military official quoted in the Defense Ministry statement said the incident took place yesterday in the Saudi border province of Najran.
	The Defense Ministry said its forces responded with gunfire, and that 500 Houthi fighters have been killed in clashes along the border since a Saudi-led air campaign against them began late last month. Earlier this month, three Saudi border guards were killed in separate clashes with the Houthis.
	A plane loaded with badly needed aid meanwhile landed in Yemen's rebel-held capital, Sanaa, today.
	Photos posted on the official Twitter account of the International Committee of the Red Cross showed aid workers unloading the supplies. The group said the shipment consists of more than 35 tons of medical aid, generators and emergency sanitation ...

Yemeni rebel mortar attack kills 3 Saudi border guards

PTI Automatic

Turkish Airlines says a Basel, Switzerland-bound flight returned to Istanbul after a note saying there was a bomb on board was found in a toilet.
	The airline said today that Flight TK1923, with 151 people on board, headed back to Istanbul to be searched. The threat turned out to be a hoax.
	The passengers are being flown to Basel on another plane.
	It was the third such incident in recent weeks. On March 30, the company diverted an Istanbul-to-Sao Paulo flight to Morocco after finding a note with the word "bomb" in the toilet. No bomb was found. A day earlier, a flight to Tokyo also returned to Istanbul before being cleared.
	Turkish Airlines says it is standard procedure to make emergency landings under such circumstances.

Turkish plane returns to Istanbul over hoax bomb threat

A 911 emergency dispatcher seemed understandably confused by the call from a baggage handler who fell asleep inside the cargo hold of an Alaska Airlines jet bound for Los Angeles and said he needed someone to stop the plane.
	"I'm inside a plane, and I feel like it's moving in the air. Flight 448. Can you please have somebody stop it?" the airport worker said in a recording of the call made on Monday. The recording was released yesterday.
	The dispatcher asked at least three times for the airport worker to clarify his location.
	"You're where?" the dispatcher asked. "Where are you in a plane?"
	After the worker repeated his request for help, the dispatcher said: "Are you at the airport?"
	The worker tried one more time to explain, then hung up. The man sounded progressively more upset in the recording that lasted less than a minute.
	The employee of Menzies Aviation, which contracts with airlines to handle baggage, also banged on the ceiling of the cargo hold and was heard by pilots ..

Dispatcher puzzled by 911 call from trapped baggage worker

The World Bank says it will give three West African countries at least USD 650 million over the next 12 to 18 months to help them recover from the devastating effects of the Ebola disease.
	The new bank pledge brings the organization's total financing for Ebola response and recovery to USD 1.62 billion. Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced the new funding at a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Guinean President Alpha Conde, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma.
	The three presidents presented their Ebola recovery plans to global development leaders at the meeting.
	The bank estimates the Ebola epidemic continues to cripple the three countries' economies with GDP losses totaling USD 240 million for Liberia, USD 535 million for Guinea and USD 1.4 billion for Sierra Leone.

World Bank to give USD 650 million to 3 African countries

The Germanwings crash last month was an "unbelievable horror" for the families of those killed, compounded by the apparent senselessness of the co-pilot's actions in bringing down the plane, German President Joachim Gauck told hundreds of victims' relatives and dignitaries at a memorial service today.
	Gauck said people across Germany, which lost 72 citizens, are still coming to grips with the March 24 crash. The second-biggest group of victims was from Spain, which lost 51 citizens.
	Prosecutors have said co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane into the French Alps on the way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, killing all 150 aboard. They are still trying to determine why.
	"We really don't know what was going through his head during those deciding seconds, in the deciding minutes," Gauck told the congregation that also included Chancellor Angela Merkel, ministers from Spain and France, and the heads of Germanwings and its parent airline, Lufthansa.
	"But we do know that ..

German president: Germanwings crash an 'unbelievable horror'

Jaroslav Holik, an offensive forward who helped Czechoslovakia win a hockey world title and an Olympic bronze medal in 1972, has died. He was 72.
	The Czech ice hockey federation said today that Holik, the father of NHL player Bobby Holik, died after battling an unspecified, long-term illness.
	Holik scored 57 goals for Czechoslovakia in his 142 international games and led his country to the bronze medal at the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo. The Czechs also won six world championship medals, including gold in 1972.
	After retirement, he became a successful coach, leading the Czech under-20 team to two straight world junior hockey titles in 2000-01.
	His son, Bobby Holik, retired from the NHL in 2009 after playing 1,314 games.

Czech hockey great Jaroslav Holik dies at 72

A Sicilian fishing cooperative says a boat with seven crew members has been taken by armed men 40 miles (65 kilometers) off Libya, and was being brought to the Libyan port of Misurata.
	Cooperative spokesman Francesco Mezzapelle said port authorities were alerted today by another Italian fishing boat in the area, and that the cooperative president was in touch with both Libyan authorities and the Italian foreign ministry. Mezzapelle said the armed men did not appear to be from the Libyan military.
	The crew members were three Sicilians and four Tunisians. There were no reports of injuries.
	Mezzapelle says there have been a dozen such seizures since 2005 when Libya asserted that its territorial waters extended more than 70 miles off shore well beyond international agreements.

Italian fishing boat seized by armed men off Libyan coast

A senior Iraqi military official with the Salahuddin Command Center says Iraqi security forces have gained full control over a contested area south of the country's largest oil refinery.
	General Ayad al-Lahabi tells The Associated Press that the military, backed by divisions of the Popular Mobilisation Forces and coalition airstrikes, gained control today of the towns of al-Malha and al-Mazraah, located 3 kilometers south of the Beiji oil refinery, killing at least 160 militants with the Islamic State group.
	Al-Lahabi says security forces are trying to secure two corridors around the refinery itself after the Sunni militants launched a large-scale attack on the complex earlier this week.
	Iraqi security forces, also backed by the Popular Mobilization Forces and US airstrikes, recaptured the provincial capital of Tikrit on April 1.

Iraqi forces recapture 2 towns from IS near crucial refinery

Turkish Airlines' CEO says that pilots may not be as prone to destructive behavior like that of the Germanwings pilot believed to have intentionally crashed a flight last month, if only they get married.
	At an event yesterday, Temel Kotil told new Turkish Airlines pilots that the March 24 crash in the French Alps showed that pilots' lifestyles are important.
	Prosecutors believe that the co-pilot of Flight 9525 intentionally crashed the Barcelona-Duesseldorf flight March 24 and are trying to determine why.
	Kotil noted that the accident happened after the pilot Andreas Lubitz had broken up with his girlfriend.
	He added: "Therefore, I am guiding those who are single toward marriage from this podium.

After Alps crash, Turkish Airlines CEO wants pilots to wed

Top US congressional lawmakers have struck a long-sought, bipartisan agreement for the broadest trade policy pact in years, allowing President Barack Obama to negotiate trade accords for Congress' review and move forward with talks on a sweeping partnership with Pacific nations.
	Obama quickly said he will sign the bill if Congress passes it.
	"It's no secret that past trade deals haven't always lived up to their promise. And that's why I will only sign my name to an agreement that helps ordinary Americans get ahead." Obama said in a statement yesterday.
	Chief among the challenges of passing the bill are divisions within the president's own party. Liberal and pro-business Democrats are bitterly split over the deal's potential for creating or subtracting American jobs.
	Under the legislation, Congress gets an up-or-down vote on any such deals, but in exchange cannot make changes, a concern for labour, environmental and other interest groups.
	The divisions hover over 2016 presidential 

Top US lawmakers strike deal to fast-track trade deals

Dark, smelly smoke from a fire at a deep-water port billowed over the town of Squamish, forcing officials to ask residents to stay indoors.
	Kim Stegeman of Squamish Terminals said the blaze broke out just after 6 pm yesterday at the facility at the north end of Howe Sound and about an hour's drive from Vancouver.
	"There was a ship at the dock but it did not catch fire," she said. "It is safe and away from danger. She said everyone who was working at the site was accounted for and evacuated.
	Stegeman said she doesn't know how the blaze started.
	Firefighters were on site and the District of Squamish said in a news release that a fire boat from Vancouver was on its way to the scene.
	A spokeswoman for BC Emergency Health Services said four ambulance crews, a helicopter and a critical-care team were on standby but nobody was transported.
	Mayor Patricia Heintzman said a significant amount of dark, strong, pungent and toxic smelling smoke could be seen in the sky.
	The District of ...

Fire breaks out at deep-water terminal in Canada

Australia test skipper Michael Clarke's will captain the Melbourne Stars in Australia's Big Bash League for the next two seasons after not playing Twenty20 cricket for three years.
     The announcement was made today at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where Clarke led Australia to victory over New Zealand in the World Cup final on March 29.
     It was Clarke's last one-day international match. He announced before the final that he was retiring from the 50-over format in order to prolong his test-playing career.
     Clarke, whose last Twenty20 match was with the Pune Warriors in the 2012 Indian Premier League, has been affected for much of the past year by back and hamstring injuries. He'll be available to the Stars in early January 2016 when the Australian test season ends.
     One of his Clarke's Melbourne teammates will be another 34-year-old player, Kevin Pietersen. Clarke reckons they might be playing each other ahead of the Twenty20 tournament if Pietersen gets a recall to the .

Clarke to play Twenty20 cricket in Melbourne

A shooting resulting from a suspected family dispute left five people dead in a Phoenix home, police said.
	The names and ages of the three men and two women were not immediately released, but police said they all were adults.
	A woman who was able to leave the home told officers that it was a family dispute that went wrong yesterday, police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said.
	"Our dispatcher could hear shots fired in the background while that call was coming in," Crump said. "A caller had been able to escape the home at that point, get out and start to give us information."
	Officers discovered the bodies after an hours-long barricade situation in a residential neighbourhood. Witnesses at the scene said they heard the sound of muted gunshots about an hour after a standoff began.
	A SWAT team used a robot to search the house before sending in a dog and officers, Crump said.
	It was not immediately clear how many people fired shots, but police say they were not looking for any ...

Police: 5 adults found dead inside Phoenix home

Vietnamese authorities were searching today for two pilots who went missing on a training exercise.
	The Ministry of Defense said in a statement on its website late yesterday that the pilots on two Russian-made SU-22 fighter jets lost contact around noon yesterday off the country's central coast.
	The ministry said a search aircraft spotted four floating reserve oil containers and oil traces.
	Disaster official Pham Hung Tan in the central province of Binh Thuan said the Navy, Maritime Police and the Coast Guard are taking part in the search. He said two reserve oil containers were recovered.
	The accident is the latest setback for the Vietnamese military after two helicopter crashes killed 24 military personnel in the past nine months.
	Russian remains the communist country's main supplier of military hardware.

Vietnam searches for 2 missing fighter jet pilots

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate cease-fire in Yemen to spur peace talks and get lifesaving aid into the impoverished Middle East nation.
	The UN chief yesterday addressed "the many fateful challenges" the world confronts, from 50 million refugees and displaced people the largest number since World War II to the urgent problem of climate change in a speech at the National Press Club.
	"Millions of people face hatred and persecution, billions suffer from hunger and exploitation," he said. "The United Nations has appealed for USD 16 billion to cover humanitarian relief for this yearalmost five times what we needed a decade ago."
	Ban announced he will visit the Vatican later this month to meet with Pope Francis and discuss "common concerns," including the encyclical on the environment that the pontiff plans to issue in the months ahead. He said he has invited the pope, President Barack Obama and all other world leaders to the United Nations in ...

UN chief calls for immediate cease-fire in Yemen

A Somalia-born man living in the US traveled to Syria and trained alongside terrorists, then returned with plans to attack a military base or a prison, according to a federal indictment has announced.
	Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, a US citizen originally from Somalia, wanted to "kill three or four American soldiers execution style," according to the indictment. Attacking the prison was part of a backup plan if that didn't work, the charges said yesterday.
	The indictment also says Mohamud's brother, Abdifatah Aden, fought with Jabhat al-Nusrah, a State Department-designated terrorist group, until he was killed in battle in Syria in June 2014.
	Mohamud, 23, was charged with supporting terrorism, supporting the same terrorist group and lying to an FBI agent by saying he was in Istanbul when authorities say he was in Syria. He also is charged with making a false statement involving international terrorism.
	The government charged Mohamud under the laws most commonly used since the September 

Ohio man accused of plot to attack US military base, prison

Thousands of students marched through the streets of Chile's capital to protest recent corruption scandals and to complain about delays in a promised education overhaul.
	Police said about 20,000 people took part, while student organizers estimated the crowd at about 150,000. Yesterday's gathering was largely peaceful, but violence broke out at the end when small bands of hooded protesters threw rocks and gasoline bombs at police. At least one officer was injured.
	Past student marches focused on pressuring President Michelle Bachelet to fulfill her campaign promise of education reform. Students now say they are fed up waiting for changes and are disgusted by a series of corruption scandals involving politicians and the business elite.
	The scandals include a controversy over a bank loan involving Bachelet's son and campaign financing involving right-wing politicians and a prominent financial company. Another tax-related election-financing scandal at Chilean SQM mining company forced .

Chile students protest corruption, demand education reform

A man indicted in America for allegedly smuggling heroin, in a court case that was the basis for the TV hit "Orange Is The New Black," has been elected a senator in Nigeria.
	Buruji Kashamu was little known before he returned home in 2003 from Britain despite a US extradition order to become a major financier of President Goodluck Jonathan's party.
	Election results posted yesterday identify Kashamu as a senator-elect in southwest Ogun state. Opponents are challenging his victory in court, saying ballots were rigged.
	Kashamu, 56, hung up the phone twice when the AP called for comment about the drug case today. Kashamu has said he is "a clean businessman" and that the 1998 indictment by a grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois for conspiracy to import and distribute heroin in the United States is a case of mistaken identity. He has said Chicago prosecutors really want the dead brother he closely resembles.
	A British court refused a US extradition request in 2003 over ...

Man indicted in US for drug deal elected senator in Nigeria

Six British servicemen have been reburied in Flanders Fields over a century after they died in the chaotic first months of World War I.
	The six unknown soldiers got a service with full military honors today.
	Their bodies were found half a dozen years ago in farmland in the surroundings of Ypres where several of the war's biggest battles were fought.
	Two were identified as coming from Lancashire Fusiliers and two from the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment.
	They are believed to have died on the battlefield in October 1914 at a time when German and British forces faced off in ferocious battles as the frontline of the 1914-1918 war was formed.

6 British soldiers reburied a century after dying in WWI

Putin said the nation's economic performance has remained strong, despite Western sanctions slapped on Russia

Putin says Russian economy remains strong

Press Trust of India

Stanislav Gross, who became the Czech Republic's youngest prime minister but was forced to resign nine months later, has died at the age of 45.
	The Social Democratic Party said Gross died today but offered no details. Public television said he had been battling illness.
	Gross became premier at the age of 34 in July 2004 and took over as chairman of the leftist Social Democrats. He resigned nine months later after weeks of political crisis sparked by a scandal over the financing of his luxury apartment.
	He denied wrongdoing but also stepped down as his party chairman and left politics to work for a law firm.
	President Milos Zeman, in whose government Gross served as interior minister in 2000-2002 offered his condolences.
	After the September 11 attacks in the United States, Gross was the first Czech official to state on record in October 2001 that hijacker Mohamed Atta met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April that year.
	That purported meeting was cited as ..

AP

AP

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