Pope Francis today again pressed the international community to do something about the killing of Christians in several parts of the world and not "look the other way."
	He has been increasingly vocal about the fate of Christians being targeted by Islamic extremists in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
	Addressing pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square, Francis praised those who were "sensitizing public opinion about the persecution of Christians in the world."
	While not suggesting any particular course of action, he urged "concrete participation and tangible help in defense and protection of our brothers and our sisters, who are persecuted, exiled, slain, beheaded, solely for being Christian."
	The pope was building on his Good Friday denunciation of what he then called "complicit silence" about the targeting of Christians.
	"They are our martyrs of today, and they are many. We can say that they are more numerous than in the first centuries," Francis said.
	"I hope that 

Pope to world: don't ignore killing of Christians

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A senior Israeli government minister says taking military action against Iran's nuclear program is still an option despite last week's framework deal between world powers and the Islamic Republic.
	Yuval Steinitz, Israel's minister for strategic affairs, told reporters today that the military option is still "on the table."
	Israel's government has harshly criticized last week's framework deal, which offers Iran relief from economic sanctions in exchange for scaling back its suspect nuclear program. Israeli leaders believe the deal leaves too much of Iran's nuclear infrastructure intact and would allow the country to easily gain the capability to produce a nuclear weapon.
	Steinitz said Israel favors a diplomatic solution and plans on lobbying the international community to improve the deal as its details are finalized in the coming months.

Israel official: Military action against Iran still possible

An Afghan official says at least five people have died in heavy flooding in the northern province of Baghlan.
	Jawed Basharat, spokesman for the provincial police chief, says the flooding hit three different districts today, including Puli Khamri, the provincial capital.
	He says none people were injured and around 400 houses were damaged.
	Basharat says police and residents are trying to rescue people trapped by the rising waters and that casualties are expected to rise.
	The floods mark the start of Afghanistan's annual flooding season as snow on northern mountain ranges melts. The situation worsens each year due to deforestation and environmental degradation.
	Much of the country has been hit by severe weather in recent months, with almost 200 people killed in a massive avalanche in northeastern Panjshir province.

Afghan official: Floods in north kill 5, damage 400 houses

The Israeli military has placed a female Palestinian legislator under detention for six months without trial, a lawyer for the lawmaker said today.
	Khalida Jarrar, a senior political leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a left-wing Palestinian militant group, is being held for alleged activities in a hostile organization, lawyer Mahmoud Hassan said.
	Jarrar, 52, is being held under Israeli administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold detainees for up to six months at a time without charges, the lawyer said. The detention and any extensions are approved by a judge, and evidence can be kept from defense lawyers.
	Israel says administrative detentions prevent attacks by militants. Rights groups say international humanitarian law permits administrative detention in exceptional cases, but that Israel is out of bounds with its large-scale use of the method.
	The Israeli military arrested Jarrar last week for disobeying an Israeli order barring her from the .

Israel to detain female Palestinian lawmaker for 6 months

Afghan traders shut up their shops in the country's capital today and marched through the streets to protest tax hikes. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, roadside bombing targeting police killed at least 10 people.
	The march in Kabul was a rare public protest against the policies of the new government of President Ashraf Ghani.
	Hundreds of businessmen, shop owners and traders denounced what they say are unfair tax rises imposed in recent months.
	Some said the rise in taxes has been about 600 per cent, though there are no official statistics. Finance Ministry spokesman Abdul Qadir Jalani defended the hikes and told The Associated Press that the "taxes are fair, based on the law and are applied to everyone equally."
	Economic growth in Afghanistan has plunged to around zero per cent from double digits just three years ago, something analysts say is mainly due to the pullout of most foreign troops and non-government organizations.
	Seven months after taking office, Ghani has yet to complete ..

Afghan traders protest taxes; 10 die as bombs target police

Iran's official news agency is reporting that the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard has broken up a militant group linked to a "foreign intelligence" agency and killed its members.
	The report today by IRNA did not identify the terrorist group, nor give any casualty figures. The report said the Guard confiscated a large amount of weapons and communication equipment from the militant group.
	It said the raid happened in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan near the Pakistani border. The area has been scene of occasional clashes between Iranian forces and militants groups believed to be affiliated with al-Qaida.
	Iran from time to time announces similar claims about breaking up militant groups.

Report: Iran kills fighters linked to 'foreign intelligence'

Britain's Prince Harry joked and chatted with an enthusiastic crowd today at his only scheduled public appearance during a monthlong embedment with Australia's army, declaring pride in his ginger hair and sharing advice with a self-obsessed younger generation that "selfies are bad."
	The British army captain reported for duty in Australia's capital, Canberra, today to begin a four-week attachment to the Australian army that will take him to the east, west and north coasts of the vast nation.
	But before he got down to military business, Harry ignored light rain and cool weather to shake hands and chat with hundreds of cheering well-wishers who gathered at cordons to welcome him outside the Australian War Memorial.
	Perhaps because of his own history of embarrassing candid photos, he was less generous with teenagers who wanted to photograph themselves with him. He drew laughs when he urged one teen admirer to break the habit of taking "selfies."
	"Seriously, you need to get out of it. .

Prince Harry chats and shakes hands with Australian public

Islamic extremists grab parts of Iraq and Syria. Yemen slides into civil war. Iran's nuclear program strains US relations with Israel. Ukraine fights Russian-backed separatists.
	At a time of crisis across the Middle East and beyond, the Obama administration is trying to keep its focus on a widely advertised shift to Asia.
	The administration has pursued the strategy since 2011, arguing that no region is more important to the United States' long-term interests, particularly as the rise of China brings concern in other Asian capitals.
	Defense Secretary Ash Carter will visit Japan and South Korea this week, part of a series of planned trips to the region during his first year as Pentagon chief. He will visit India and attend an international security conference in Singapore in May, and he may visit China later in the year.
	Before he became defense secretary in February, Carter was a supporter of what the Obama administration calls its "rebalance" to Asia. That term meant to rebut the .

Pentagon chief heads east as US tries to maintain Asia focus

Thousands of visitors converged on the New Mexico site where the first nuclear bomb was detonated nearly 70 years ago.
	More than 5,500 people attended the first of two tours ON Saturday being offered this year at the Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range officials said.
	Visitors came not just from all over New Mexico but the US. People are continually fascinated to see the place that literally marks a turning point in history, White Sands spokeswoman Erin Dorrance said.
	"It brought a quick end to World War II, and it ushered in the atomic age," Dorrance said. "So out here in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico changed the world 70 years ago."
	It was July 16, 1945, when Los Alamos scientists successfully exploded the first atomic bomb at the Trinity Site, located near Alamogordo.
	Pete Rosada, a Marine Corps veteran, drove with another military veteran from San Diego to make the tour. Rosada, 47, said he previously visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese targets of atomic ...

Thousands visit Trinity on anniversary of bomb explosion

The official media agency for Libya's milita-backed government says a suicide car bomb killed 6 people near the western city of Misrata.
	It says that the dead from yesterday's bombing included a mother and her two sons, and that 21 others were injured.
	A security official from Misrata, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, says that most of the wounded were militiamen guarding a gate to the city, the apparent target of the attack.
	Militias from Misrata serve as a key power base for Libya's Tripoli-based government. Misrata has recently sent its militias to battle Islamic State-affiliated militants who control the central Libyan city of Sirte.
	Libya has two rival governments claiming legitimacy as their allied militias fight across the country.

Suicide car bomb near Libya's Misrata kills 6 people

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said today he rejected Israel's offer of a partial transfer of tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians, following a three-month freeze.
	Abbas said Israel wants to keep a large part of the frozen tax funds to settle debts incurred by his Palestinian Authority, including for unpaid utility bills.
	"They (the Israelis) said they are going to send us our tax money," Abbas said today. "But when they sent it, they deducted one third ... We said 'no' and sent the money back, saying either we resort to arbitration or court."
	Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment. Under existing agreements, Israel collects taxes and customs on behalf of the Palestinians and then transfers the sums to the Palestinian Authority, Abbas' self-rule government.
	The tax transfers account for 70 per cent of the Palestinian Authority's revenue. Israel froze the tax transfers in January, after the Palestinians applied to join the International Criminal .

Palestinians reject Israel tax transfer after debt deduction

A Yemeni Islamist Sunni political party says two of its senior leaders were among over a hundred members abducted by its rival the Shiite rebel group being targeted by a Saudi-led airstrike campaign to thwart its aggressive bid for power.
	The Islah party, the Muslim Brotherhood's branch in Yemen, said in a statement today that the rebels, known as Houthis, along with allied security forces loyal to the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, have carried out a number of overnight raids arresting leading members Mohammed Qahtan and Hassan al-Yaeri, along with more than 120 others.
	Islah, a traditional power player in Yemen and a staunch rival of the Houthis, had declared its support for the Saudi-led coalition bombing campaign against the Houthis, now in its 11th day.

Senior Yemeni Sunni leaders abducted by Shiite rebels

In an Easter peace wish, Pope Francis today praised the framework nuclear agreement with Iran as an opportunity to make the world safer, while expressing deep worry about bloodshed in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.
	Cautious hope ran through Francis' "Urbi et Orbi" Easter message, a kind of papal commentary on the state of the world's affairs, which he delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter's Square.
	He had just celebrated Mass in rain-whipped St. Peter's Square for tens of thousands of people, who huddled under umbrellas or braved the downpour in thin, plastic rain-slickers.
	Easter day is "so beautiful, and so ugly because of the rain," Francis said after Mass about Christianity's most important feast day. He expressed thanks for the flowers which bedecked the square and which were donated by the Netherlands, but the bright hues of the azaleas and other blossoms seemed muted by the gray skies.
	Francis made his first public comments about the ..

Pope, thousands brave rain for Easter in St. Peter's Square

One person was killed and three injured today as unidentified assailants shelled the city of Gao in northern Mali, the country's UN peacekeeping mission and a hospital official said.
	At least three rockets were fired at around 6 am, according to a UN statement.
	"Preliminary reports indicate that one of them hit a house, killing a woman and injuring two civilians currently being treated at Gao hospital," the statement said.
	The superintendent of the city's hospital, Ibrahim Maiga, said a total of three people were injured and "in serious condition."
	Residents said they counted about six shells.
	The UN mission "strongly condemns this terrorist attack on innocent civilians," its statement said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
	A UN team was dispatched to assist Malian authorities in their investigation and UN police stepped up their patrols in the city, the UN statement said.
	Northern Mali came under control of separatist rebels and then Islamic extremists linked to 

Mali officials: 1 killed, 3 injured in attack in north

Iraqi officials say separate attacks in the capital Baghdad have killed at least nine people and wounded others.
	Police say the deadliest attack today took place in the northern Sabi al-Bore neighbourhood, where a bomb ripped through an outdoor market, killing four civilians and wounding 10 others.
	The two police officials said three policemen were killed and two others wounded when gunmen in two speeding cars opened fire on their checkpoint in the eastern New Baghdad district.
	Two civilians were killed and 11 wounded in a bomb blast in a commercial area in the southwestern Suwaib neighbourhood. Three medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information.

Iraq: Attacks kill at least 9 in Baghdad

In an Easter peace wish, Pope Francis today praised the framework nuclear agreement with Iran as an opportunity to make the world safer, while expressing deep worry about bloodshed in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.
	Cautious hope ran through Francis' "Urbi et Orbi" Easter message, a kind of papal commentary on the state of the world's affairs, which he delivered from the central balcony of St Peter's Square.
	He had just celebrated Mass in rain-whipped St Peter's Square for tens of thousands of people, who huddled under umbrellas or braved the downpour in thin, plastic rain-slickers.
	Easter day is "so beautiful, and so ugly because of the rain," Francis said after Mass about Christianity's most important feast day. He expressed thanks for the flowers which bedecked the square and which were donated by the Netherlands, but the bright hues of the azaleas and other blossoms seemed muted by the gray skies.
	Francis made his first public comments about the ...

Pope, thousands brave rain for Easter in St Peter's Square

The son of a Kenyan government official has been identified as one of the gunmen who attacked a Kenyan college where 148 people were killed, authorities said today.
	Abdirahim Mohammed Abdullahi, one of the Islamic extremists who attacked Garissa University College, was the son of a government chief in Mandera County, Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka told The Associated Press.
	The chief had reported his son missing last year and said he feared that he had gone to Somalia, said Njoka. All four attackers were killed by Kenyan security forces on Thursday, said police.
	Abdullahi graduated from the University of Nairobi with a law degree in 2013 and was viewed as a "brilliant upcoming lawyer," according to someone who knew him. It is not clear where he worked before he disappeared last year, Njoka said.
	To prevent an escalation of Islamic radicalisation in Kenya, it is important that parents inform authorities if their children go missing or show tendencies of following violent .

Police: 1 of gunmen in attack that killed 148 was a Kenyan

Malaysia's jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was granted a furlough today to attend his father's funeral, soon after he began a five-year prison sentence on sodomy charges that he says are politically motivated.
	Wearing a white Malay outfit, Anwar was taken to his father's house under heavy security to pay respects to the 96-year-old who died today morning. Anwar will return to prison after the burial, which takes place after Muslim prayers.
	Anwar began his sentence February 10 after losing a final appeal against a charge of sodomising a former aide in 2008.
	The court case was widely seen at home and abroad as politically motivated to eliminate any threats to Malaysia's ruling coalition, whose popularity has been eroding since 2008.
	Anwar led his alliance to unprecedented gains in 2008 elections and made further inroads in 2013 polls. Prime Minister Najib Razak's National Front coalition won with a slimmer majority but lost the popular vote to the opposition.
	Anwar ...

Malaysia's jailed Anwar granted furlough for dad's funeral

Pope Francis presided over the solemn Easter Vigil service today amid mounting Vatican concern for modern-day Christian martyrs whose deaths have dominated this Easter season.
	Francis walked in the dark down an utterly silent St. Peter's Basilica at the start of the vigil Mass, which precedes the joyous celebration on Easter Sunday commemorating Christ's resurrection after his crucifixion.
	In his homily, Francis said the Easter mystery requires the faithful to seek an answer "to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity, and our very existence." During the late-night service, 10 people from Italy, Portugal, Albania, Kenya and Cambodia were being baptised.
	On Friday, during the Via Crucis procession at Rome's Colosseum, Francis denounced the "complicit silence" of the international community before the massacres of Christians in many parts of the world by Islamic extremists.
	The latest was the Kenya university attack by al-Qaida-affiliated Somali militants that left ...

Pope presides over Easter Vigil service amid martyr concerns

The head of an Egyptian human rights organisation says he is being held in a central Cairo police station following a police raid on the group's online radio station.
	Ahmed Samih, director of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies, says police told him Saturday he is under investigation for broadcasting without a license on the web radio platform Horytna.
	"One of the main questions was around our political affiliation," he said in a phone call, adding that the radio station is not affiliated with a political party and is focused on human rights.
	An evolving crackdown on dissent has landed thousands of government critics behind bars and silenced many dissenting voices. Authorities contend they are fighting a violent wave of Islamic militancy that aims to destabilise the country.

Egypt police raid radio station, detain rights advocate

The same trawlers that had enslaved countless migrant fishermen for years carried more than 300 of them to freedom today, following a dramatic rescue from a remote Indonesian island that many men believed would likely be their final resting place.
	After 17 hours overnight at sea, the men, mostly from Myanmar, took their first steps of freedom. They filed off the boats and walked to the site of their new temporary home where they were finally safe.
	They moved in an orderly, single-file line with colored ribbons tied around their wrists to identify which of the six vessels had brought them. They were tired from the long, cramped journey, but smiled and laughed while talking about the new lives they were about to start.
	At one point, a group sang and clapped their hands. But mostly, the fear of being beaten or killed by their captors had finally lifted.
	"I'm so happy, I wanted to go home for so long," said Aung Aung, 26, who lifted his hair on the left side of his head to show a fat, 

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