Police say the US Capitol is on lockdown as a precaution after shots were fired in what appears to be an attempted suicide.
	Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider says the suspected shooter was "neutralized" after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It's unclear whether the man is dead. No one else is believed to be hurt.
	Schneider also says Capitol Police are investigating a suspicious package on the lower west terrace of the building.
	No one is being allowed to enter or exit the Capitol and the visitors' center, and some streets around the complex are closed.
	The lockdown comes during Washington's annual Cherry Blossom Festival, which attracts many tourists.
	Congress has been on spring break for two weeks and lawmakers are set to return to work Monday.

US Capitol on precautionary lockdown after suspected suicide

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The gang members, dressed in fluorescent vests and hard hats, calmly carried bags and wheeled garbage bins into a high-security storage facility in London's diamond district.
	After two nights of work, they left with the contents of dozens of safe-deposit boxes, in a methodical heist that has fascinated Britain and put police on the defensive.
	The Daily Mirror newspaper today published surveillance- camera images showing the thieves in action. The footage shows several men, their faces covered with dust masks, entering and leaving the building repeatedly over the Easter weekend.
	London's Metropolitan Police said detectives had obtained the footage before the newspaper published it. Today the force released still images of what it called three "highly audacious" suspects.
	Detective chief inspector Paul Johnson said the burglars entered the building late on Thursday, April 2 and left the next morning. They returned on tonight and left Easter tomorror morning.
	They climbed down an ...

Video appears to show London diamond-district heist gang

Nine people were killed today as Nigerians voted for state governors and assemblies in which the opposition hopes to make gains following its victory unseating President Goodluck Jonathan two weeks ago.
	The killings occurred in oil-rich Rivers state, which is hotly contested.
	Opposition gubernatorial candidate Dakuku Peterside said eight of his supporters died and police said an officer was killed.
	"A lot of gunshots in the air as I speak to you, but the military is trying their best to bring the situation under control," Livingstone Membere, president of the Kalabari Youth Federation told The Associated Press from Asari Toru area.
	He said a polling station was burned down along with the house of the state commissioner for women's affairs.
	The competition is fierce because Nigerian governors are among the country's most powerful politicians and often control budgets larger than those of many African countries.
	An electoral official said eight youth corps polling agents were ...

Nigerians vote for state governors, 9 killed in south

Police in Ohio say a middle school student took USD 25,000 from his grandfather and later started handing out USD 100 bills to his classmates.
	Authorities say the 13-year-old gave out thousands of dollars this week before schools officials discovered what was happening.
	Investigators in the northeastern Ohio city of Medina (meh-DY'-nuh) have recovered about USD 7,000 so far.
	Police tell The Medina Gazette that they're still trying to figure out how the boy got the money from his 83-year-old grandfather. They say it's too early to know if charges will be filed.
	School officials heard about the cash giveaway on Wednesday. But by that time, police say some of the money already had been spent.

Police: Teen takes cash, hands out USD 100 bills to classmates

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid more than USD 93,000 in federal taxes last year on an adjusted gross income of more than USD 477,000. Their effective tax rate was 19.6 per cent.
	The Obamas lowered their 2014 tax bill by claiming nearly USD 160,000 in itemized deductions, including USD 70,712 in charitable donations to 33 different charities. Altogether, they donated nearly 15 per cent of their income, according to tax returns released yesterday by the White House.
	The largest was a USD 22,012 donation to the Fisher House Foundation, which supports military families. They also donated USD 5,000 to Sidwell Friends School, the exclusive private school where daughters Malia and Sasha are enrolled.
	The 38-page document, which includes the couple's Illinois state income tax return, shows the president made nearly USD 395,000 in wages. The couple also reported making USD 94,889 from the sale of Obama's best-selling books. That's down from more than USD 116,000 the year 

Obamas pay effective federal tax rate of nearly 20 per cent

Pope Francis has proclaimed a special year of efforts by the Catholic Church to be more merciful and less judgmental.
	At St Peter's Basilica today, he listened as a Vatican prelate read excerpts from a papal bull, or decree, in which Francis proclaimed an "Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy" Holy Year.
	The year begins on December 8 with Francis' opening the normally closed Holy Door in the back of the basilica, and ends on November 20, 2016.
	Francis says the church must talk about God "in a more accessible way" and avoid "fortress" mentalities because its credibility depends on more mercy and less severity.
	He announced that in cathedrals worldwide, a special "door of mercy" will stay open during Holy Year so churches become an "oasis of mercy.

Pope: Church must be 'oasis of mercy,' not severe fortress

Firefighters have extinguished the fires that for 10 days engulfed six fuel storage tanks at a liquid bulk storage facility in the Brazilian port city of Santos.
	The Sao Paulo state government today said on its website that the fires were "completely extinguished" yesterday.
	No one died in the blazes that started April 2. The fires erupted at a facility owned by Ultracargo, one of Brazil's largest liquid bulk storage companies. Gasoline, chemicals, vegetable oils, ethanol and corrosive products are stored at the site's 175 tanks.
	Authorities say the fires may have killed thousands of fish in a river nearby because of depleted oxygen levels and high temperatures.

Brazilian firefighters extinguish fire at storage facility

Syrian rebels shelled a government-held neighbourhood in the northern city of Aleppo early today, killing at least five people and wounding dozens, Syrian state television and an activist group reported.
	The violence came as the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees planned to undertake an "urgent mission" to Damascus later today amid concerns over the situation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, most of which has been captured by the Islamic State group.
	State TV said the shelling on the predominantly Christian and Armenian neighborhood of Suleimaniyeh in Aleppo early today killed nine people, wounded another 50 and damaged several buildings.
	The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists around the country, said the shelling killed five and wounded "tens."
	Syrian rebels have shelled residential areas in government-held parts of the contested city in the past, killing hundreds of people.
	Government warplanes have dropped 

Syrian rebels shell Aleppo, killing at least 5

Rescuers say that a 7-year-old British boy fell off a rocky outcropping to his death in a skiing accident in the French Alps during a family vacation.
	Michel Ollagnon, an officer with the Bonneville mountain rescue service, said the boy fell yesterday evening at the Flaine ski resort after apparently losing his way.
	Ollagnon said the boy was skiing with his mother, brother and sister, and had asked to ski alone for his last descent of the day. He was found dead by rescuers on a helicopter off his expected course.
	The British Foreign Office said it is providing consular assistance to the family.
	Officials would not release the boy's identity or other details about the family.

7-year-old British boy killed in French Alps skiing accident

An Afghan health official says more than 100 students from the same school in the country's western Herat province have been hospitalised after falling ill.
	Rafiq Sherzai, a doctor of Herat's regional hospital, said Saturday that the students were between 7 and 12 years old and all attended the Fatiha School in the city of Herat, the provincial capital.
	Sherzai said all were in good condition. He did not offer a cause for the mass illness.
	Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a spokesman for Herat's provincial police chief, said only a dozen students were affected.
	He blamed the children's illnesses on eating "expired beans." He said police were investigating the incident.
	Food poisoning and waterborne illnesses remain prevalent in Afghanistan, which has suffered through decades of war and has limited public infrastructure.

Health official: Over 100 Afghan school students fall ill

Defying a government ban, hundreds of Iranians are protesting against Saudi Arabia over the alleged abuse of two Iranian pilgrims visiting the Sunni kingdom.
	Over 300 protesters gathered in front of the Saudi Embassy in north Tehran on Saturday to call for its closure.
	Demonstrators shouted: "Shame on you!" and "Death to House of Saud!" in reference to the ruling family.
	Earlier, Mohammad Reza Yousefi, director of Tehran's Governor Office for Political Affairs, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying any public protest would be illegal.
	The protest come after two male Iranian pilgrims alleged abuse after Saudi officers at Jeddah's international airport searched them.
	At the same time, a Saudi-led coalition is carrying out airstrikes in Yemen against Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

Hundreds defy ban to protest Saudi Arabia in Iran's capital

A car bomb exploded at a shopping mall on a Thai island popular with foreign tourists for its pristine beaches, injuring seven people, officials said today.
	The improvised bomb was hidden in a pickup truck and went off late Friday night in the basement of the Central Festival mall on Samui Island in Surat Thani province, after a fashion show, the island's disaster prevention and mitigation chief Poonsak Sophonpathumrak told The Associated Press.
	He said authorities believed the vehicle was stolen from one of the three southernmost Thai provinces plagued by Islamic insurgency. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the three southern provinces since 2004.
	Muslims in the area, which was an independent Islamic sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand in the early 20th century, have long complained of discrimination, and the insurgents are thought to be fighting for autonomy. The militants, however, have made no public pronouncements about their aims.
	Poonsak said the bomb ...

7 hurt in car bomb on tourist island in southern Thailand

The United Nations appealed for nearly USD 20 million for victims of Cyclone Pam which tore through the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu last month, killing 17 people and leaving about 65,000 homeless.
	UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric yesterday said the money is needed to continue basic relief efforts including providing food, safe drinking water and shelter.
	A UN appeal for about USD 30 million was launched on March 24 to cover the needs of 166,000 cyclone-affected people for three months but Dujarric said that to date donors have given only USD 10.7 million, just 36 per cent.
	The cyclone's winds of 270 kilometers per hour destroyed more than 90 per cent of the archipelago's crops, leaving a population that relies heavily on subsistence agriculture without a source of income and the possibility of long-term food insecurity.
	Osnat Lubrani, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Vanuatu, said about 110,000 people have no access to safe drinking water and in some communities all ...

UN appeals for USD 20 million for Vanuatu cyclone victims

French authorities say a soldier patrolling Paris' Orly Airport has been injured by a man wielding a knife.
	A joint statement by Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the soldier, a sergeant in France's anti-terror Vigipirate mission, was slightly injured in the attack on today afternoon inside the airport south of Paris. The attacker got away.
	The statement said a search was launched for the attacker and an investigation opened by judicial police. Police were not immediately available for comment.
	France has bolstered security at airports and other sensitive sites, patrolled by military teams.

Soldier patrolling Paris airport injured by attacker's knife

Government health advisers have serious reservations about a proposal by Swedish Match to market its smokeless tobacco pouches as less harmful than cigarettes and other tobacco products.
	The company is seeking Food and Drug Administration permission to remove or revise several warning labels on the pouches, called snus. It's the first formal request the FDA has considered publicly since it gained authority to regulate tobacco products in 2009.
	But a panel of FDA advisers said overwhelmingly today that company data do not support several key changes.
	The eight-member panel voted unanimously that the company's application does not show that snus lack the same risks of gum diseases and tooth loss as other smokeless tobacco products.
	Swedish Match has asked the FDA to drop those warnings from its US offerings, including brands such as Longhorn, Timber Wolf and General snus.
	Snus are teabag-like pouches or loose tobacco that users stick between their cheek and gum to absorb ...

FDA panel wary of dropping warnings from tobacco pouch

A news video shows California sheriff's deputies tracking down a man fleeing on horseback and then punching and kicking him dozens of times when he's on the ground.
	The San Bernardino County Sheriff's office ordered an investigation into the beating yesterday.
	"The video surrounding this arrest is disturbing," San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner John McMahon said.
	A sheriff's statement said Francis Pusok, 30, fled from deputies early in the afternoon as they tried to serve a search warrant in an identity-theft investigation. He eventually abandoned a car and stole a horse, but was tracked down by deputies.
	KNBC-TV helicopter footage shows the man dressed in bright red clothing falling from the horse as a deputy runs up and uses a stun gun on him. The sheriff's department statement said the stun gun was ineffective.
	The man falls face-down with his arms and legs outstretched and puts his hands behind his back. The video shows two deputies appearing to come up and kick him in the 

Video shows California deputies beating man fleeing on horse

The White House pushed back today against declarations from Iran's leaders that any nuclear deal must include an immediate lifting of sanctions, indicating President Barack Obama will walk away from negotiations unless sanctions are removed over time.
	Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes portrayed the tough stance by Supreme Leader Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani as a reflection of internal pressures from Iran hardliners and said the development doesn't mean a final agreement is unattainable.
	But Rhodes pointed out the framework agreement that Iran and the six powers reached last week to curb Tehran's nuclear activities allows for sanctions to be removed over time, not at once.
	"It's very clear and understood that sanctions relief will be phased," Rhodes told reporters traveling with Obama in Panama for the Summit of the Americas. "The fact of the matter is, we have framework. The president has said if the details don't bear out, we won't have .

White House: Iran deal requires phased sanctions removal

Raul Hector Castro, Arizona's only Hispanic governor and an American ambassador to three countries, died today. He was 98.
	Family spokesman James Garcia said Castro died in his sleep in San Diego, where he was in hospice care.
	Castro was a self-made man, the embodiment of the American dream. Born in Mexico, he overcame poverty and discrimination to graduate from university and launch a successful career in politics and diplomacy.
	"America is the land of opportunity," Castro told The Associated Press in 2010. "Here, one can accomplish whatever they want to be. But you've got to work for it."
	Growing up on the US-Mexico border near Douglas, Arizona, Castro saw discrimination around him. He said he wondered why the Hispanics were laborers and none delivered the mail or worked in offices.
	It didn't seem right that the Hispanic children had to walk miles (kilometers) to school every day while the white kids would wave from a passing school bus, he said.
	He set out to beat the odds. ..

Arizona's 1st Hispanic governor, also a US ambassador, dies

Moira Gemmill, a leading British design expert charged with modernizing two of Queen Elizabeth II's residences, has been killed in a cycling accident in London.
	Gemmill helped refurbish the Victoria and Albert Museum in London before starting work early this year as director of capital programs at the Royal Collection Trust. She had been working on renovation projects at Windsor Castle near London and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.
	The 55-year-old was cycling to work at St James's Palace, another royal residence, when she was hit by a truck on yesterday morning.
	The Royal Collection Trust said today it was "saddened and shocked" by her death.
	V&A director Martin Roth paid tribute to Gemmill's "remarkable contribution in making the V&A the global leader in museum design that it is today.

Designer overseeing royal renovations dies in bike accident

Indiana health officials say more than 100 people have tested positive for HIV in an outbreak of the virus among intravenous drug users in the central state.
	The state's Joint Information Center said today that as of yesterday there had been 95 confirmed HIV cases and 11 preliminary positive cases tied to the outbreak.
	All of the HIV cases have been linked to needle-sharing among intravenous drug users.
	Scott County north of Louisville, Kentucky is the epicenter of Indiana's largest-ever HIV outbreak.
	Gov Mike Pence declared a public health emergency in the county on March 26 that allowed the creation of a limited needle-exchange program that aims to stem the spread of the virus.

US state's HIV outbreak tops 100 cases

An Argentine judge has issued an arrest warrant for Justin Bieber, saying the singer failed to respond to summons related to a 2013 incident in Buenos Aires.
	In a resolution released today, Judge Alberto Julio Banos ordered the "immediate detention" of Bieber and bodyguards Hugo Alcides Hesny and Terrence Reche Smalls.
	Bieber is accused of sending the bodyguards to attack photographer Diego Pesoa outside a Buenos Aires nightclub. Bieber never returned to Argentina to respond to questions about the incident.
	Under Argentine law, Bieber would face from one month to six years in prison if convicted on a charge of causing injuries.
	The warrant did not specify whether it extended beyond Argentina.

AP

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