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, 

More than 300 slave fishermen now safe on Indonesian island

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Shiite rebels freed more than 300 prisoners in the southern city of Dhale, Yemeni security officials said, as the rebels fought pitched battles with supporters of the country's beleaguered President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the southern port city of Aden.
	The Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, have been trying to take control of Dhale in order to open up a corridor to Aden, a stronghold for Hadi loyalists.
	Since their advance began last year, the Houthis have overrun Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and several provinces, forcing Hadi to flee the country.
	The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, said that after the Houthi fighters took control of Dhale's central prison, they gave inmates a choice between joining their ranks or remaining incarcerated.
	A Saudi-led coalition continued to carry out intensive airstrikes overnight and early Saturday morning targeting Houthi positions in north and east Aden. The airstrikes ...

Yemen officials say rebels free hundreds of prisoners

The total eclipse of the moon lasted only a short time, but it still dazzled.
	Early risers in the western US and Canada should have been able to catch a glimpse before dawn today. The moment when the moon was completely obscured by Earth's shadow lasted only a few minutes, making it the shortest lunar eclipse of the century.
	Some skygazers complained that clouds prevented them from seeing any of the three-and-a-half-hour lunar show.
	People in eastern Australia, New Zealand and Japan viewed the eclipse at night.
	The total eclipse was unusually brief because the moon passed through the upper part of Earth's shadow. Longer eclipses occur when the moon passes through the middle of the shadow.
	The next total lunar eclipse will be in September.

Unusually short total lunar eclipse dazzles skywatchers

Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab warned today of more attacks in Kenya like the assault on Garissa University College that killed 148 people.
	"Kenyan cities will run red with blood," said al-Shabab according to the SITE intelligence monitoring group.
	The Islamic militants said the attack on Garissa college was in retaliation for killings carried out by Kenyan troops fighting the rebels in Somalia.
	"No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath," said al-Shabab.
	Following the extremists' threats, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to take harsh measures against the Islamic militants.
	In a nationally televised address, Kenyatta said his administration "shall respond in the severest ways possible" to the Garissa attack, which occurred Thursday when four gunmen entered a campus and slaughtered students. The military moved in hours later and the gunmen were killed.
	"We will fight ...

Kenya: Extremists vows more attacks; president responds

Former longtime Cuban president Fidel Castro has appeared in public for the first time in more than a year, official media reported.
	The Cubadebate website says Castro greeted a group of Venezuelans visiting the capital of Havana.
	Cubadebate yesterday published four images that show Castro sitting inside a vehicle, each with a different person stretching an arm through the window to shake his hand.
	Castro's face is largely obscured by a dark-colored baseball cap. He sports longish gray hair and a beard. The website said the encounter occurred Monday, but did not explain the delay in publishing the photos.
	Castro will turn 89 on August 13. He was last seen in public at the inauguration of an artist's studio in January 2014.
	In February and March of this year, official Cuban media published photographs of Castro taken during private meetings with a Cuban student leader, with the Cuban agents who were freed from prison in December, and with Venezuelan President Nicolas ...

Former president Fidel Castro appears in public in Cuba

The writer, a thin young man who fears the growing interweaving of religion and politics in Bangladesh, knows his turn could come next.
	What happened earlier this week, when the second secularist blogger in less than a month was hacked to death in the streets of the capital, made it clear he wasn't safe.
	"Anytime they can hit me or my like-minded friends," said Ananya Azad, a 25-year-old blogger who has written pieces that were critical of Islamic fundamentalism and politics driven by religion.
	He quit his job as a newspaper columnist and stopped writing blogs in recent months after receiving numerous threats, but still posts critical comments on Facebook.
	Ananya says he's thinking about fleeing the country and spends much of his time indoors these days.
	"They don't hesitate to kill in the name of their beliefs," he said. "I'm an easy target for the fanatics."
	Bangladesh, a majority Muslim nation long seen as insulated from the most fervent strains of militant Islam, has seen ...

Bangladesh secular writers fearful after 2nd blogger slain

A senior Iranian sports official says the country's authorities have partially lifted a ban on women attending men's sports matches.
	Deputy Sports Minister Abdolhamid Ahmadi is quoted by the official IRNA news agency today as saying that Iran's State Security Council has approved a plan by his ministry to allow women and families to attend some sports events.
	Ahmadi cautioned that not all matches or stadiums would allow women, but did not elaborate.
	The announcement comes after FIFA President Sepp Blatter urged Iran earlier this year to end the ban on women watching football in stadiums.
	Women have been banned from attending men's sports matches since the 1979 revolution that brought hard-line Islamic clerics to power. However, Iran has allowed foreign women to attend matches of their national teams.

Iran lifts ban on women attending sports matches

Kenya's president has vowed to take harsh measures against Ismalic militants after they attacked a school near the Somali border, killing 148 people.
	President Uhuru Kenyatta warned today in a nationally televised address that the planners and financiers of attacks like the one in Garissa town are "deeply embedded in our communities."
	Kenyatta said his administration "shall respond in the severest ways possible" to the Garissa attack, which occurred on Thursday when four gunmen entered a campus and slaughtered students. The military moved in hours later and the gunmen were killed.

Kenya's president vows harsh action against Somali rebels

Afghan officials say that at least five Afghan civilians have been killed and 17 others wounded in two separate roadside bomb explosions in the country's north.
	Jawed Basharat, spokesman for the provincial police chief in Baghlan province, said a bomb rigged to a motorcycle and detonated by remote control killed five people and wounded seven others today. Basharat added that the attack seemed to be targeting a passing Afghan army vehicle, but missed.
	Meanwhile 10 other people, nine civilians and a police officer, were wounded in another blast in the neighboring Kunduz province, said Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, the provincial police spokesman.
	No group has immediately claimed responsibility for either explosion.

5 civilians killed in roadside bombing in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's senior Shiite community leader said today the Islamic State group is responsible for kidnapping dozens of Shiite men and boys in February.
	Mohammad Mohaqiq said two former Taliban leaders, who switched allegiance to the rival Islamic State group, were responsible for the abduction of 31 members of the minority Shiite Hazara community on February 24 in southern Zabul province.
	He spoke with The Associated Press today. It is the first time an Afghan leader has confirmed Islamic State group involvement in the kidnappings.
	Mohaqiq, who is a deputy to Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, named Mullah Abdullah Kaka and his deputy Mullah Mansur Dadullah as behind the abductions.
	Muhaqiq says the two prominent Islamic militants have simply "changed their white flag" of the Taliban for the black IS flag.
	Afghan security forces had launched an operation to find the Hazaras in the week after the kidnappings, Mohaqiq said, but the effort failed.
	The men have now ...

Afghan Shiite leader: Islamic State behind Shiite kidnapping

Surveys find that men in US special operations forces do not believe women can meet the physical and mental demands of their commando jobs, and they fear the Pentagon will lower standards to integrate women into their elite units, according to new interviews and documents.
	Studies that surveyed personnel found "major misconceptions" within special operations about whether women should be brought into the male-only jobs. They also revealed concerns that department leaders would "capitulate to political pressure, allowing erosion of training standards," according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
	Some of those concerns were not limited to men, researchers found, but were found among women in special operations jobs.
	Dan Bland, force management director for US Special Operations Command, told the AP that the survey results have "already driven us to do some different things in terms of educating the force."
	About 68,800 people serve in the command, including 3,000 ...

Special ops troops doubt women can do the job

Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab today warned of more attacks in Kenya like the assault on Garissa University College in which 148 people were killed.
	"Kenyan cities will run red with blood," said al-Shabab according to the SITE intelligence monitoring group.
	The Islamic militants said the attack on Garissa college was in retaliation for killings carried out by Kenyan troops fighting the rebels in Somalia.
	"This will be a long, gruesome war of which you, the Kenyan public, are its first casualties," said the statement, issued on Shabab-affiliated websites and Twitter accounts "No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath," said the al-Shabab statement.
	Five people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Garissa attack, a Kenyan official said.
	Kenyan security agencies arrested three people trying to cross into Somalia, said Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka in a .

Somali extremists al-Shabab warn of more attacks in Kenya

A helicopter crashed outside Kuala Lumpur today, killing all six people on board, including a lawmaker who was a former Malaysian ambassador to the United States, officials said.
	Preliminary information showed that the helicopter crashed and burst into flames in Semenyih town while flying back from northern Kuantan town, Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation said.
	The bodies of all six people who were aboard the helicopter have been recovered, rescuers said.
	Lawmaker Jamaluddin Jarjis, who was Malaysia's ambassador to the US from 2009 to 2012, was among those on board, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi said.
	The Star English-language newspaper reported in its online edition that the victims also included an aide to Prime Minister Najib Razak.
	Local media said the group was returning from the wedding of Najib's daughter in Kuantan. No further details were immediately available.

Malaysia helicopter crash kills 6, including ex-envoy to US

The crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 in France has heaped intense pressure on Lufthansa's CEO Carsten Spohr, who in less than a year at the helm has had to grapple with weak earnings, labor unrest and tough competition from lower-cost carriers.
	Analysts say he has made the correct moves, notably in his swift expressions of sympathy for the 149 victims and the relatives of those who died last week. French officials say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately flew the Airbus A320 into a mountainside in the French Alps.
	They point to Lufthansa's admission that Lubitz had told them during his training that he had been treated for serious depression as an example of owning up quickly to bad news.
	"They are taking it absolutely seriously, they are not being anything other than completely cooperative with the authorities and that's a good start," said Andrew Charlton, managing director of strategic consulting and government affairs firm Aviation ...

Crash piles pressure on Lufthansa CEO Spohr

A Kenyan official says that five people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack on Garissa University College on Thursday in which 148 people were killed.
	Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said in a Twitter post that security agencies arrested three people trying to cross into Somalia. He said the three are associates of Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Dulyadin Gamadhere, a former teacher at a Kenyan Madrassa Islamic school who authorities say coordinated the Garissa attack.
	The three arrests bring the number of suspects arrested in relation to the attack to five as two suspects were arrested at the college.
	Kenyan authorities have put a USD 220,000 bounty for information leading to Gamadhere's arrest.

Kenya: 5 arrested over attack on Garissa college

Islamic State extremists at Iraq's ancient city of Hatra destroyed the archaeological site by smashing sledgehammers into its walls and shooting Kalashnikov assault rifles at priceless statues, a new militant video purportedly from the group shows.
	Militants attacked Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, last month, officials and local residents said, though the extent of the damage remains unclear as it is in territory still controlled by the Islamic State group.
	The video, released yesterday, shows a militant on a ladder using a sledgehammer to bang repeatedly on the back of one of the carved faces until it crashes to the ground and breaks into pieces.
	The video also shows a militant firing a Kalashnikov rifle at another, while men chop away the bases of some of the larger wall sculptures.
	The video corresponded with Associated Press reporting on the attack and was posted to a militant website frequently used by the group.
	One of the militants, who speaks Arabic with a distinct .

Video: Islamic State group shot, hammered away Iraq's Hatra

A survivor of the killings at Garissa University College was found today, two days after the attack by Islamic extremists killed 148 people.
	Cynthia Charotich, 19, told The Associated Press from her hospital gurney that she hid in a large cupboard and covered herself with clothes, refusing to emerge even when some of her classmates came out of hiding at the demands of the gunmen from the al-Shabab group.
	She was rescued shortly before 10 am, according to Kenyan officials.
	Charotich said she didn't believe that rescuers urging her to come out of her hiding place were there to help, suspecting at first that they were militants.
	"How do I know that you are the Kenyan police?" she said she asked them.
	"I was just praying to my God," Charotich, a Christian, said of her ordeal.
	Only when Kenyan security forces had one of her teachers appeal to her did she come out, she said.
	Charotich appeared tired and thirsty, sipping on yoghurt and a soft drink, but otherwise seemed in good ...

Kenyan survivor of school killings is found in hiding

Syrian activists say Islamic militants have taken over the majority of neighborhoods in a Palestinian refugee camp on the edge of Damascus as fighting continues for the fourth day.
	They say the militants include the Islamic State group and the Nusra Front, the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria. The two groups are rivals in Syria but appear to be cooperating in the attack on the Yarmouk camp.
	An activist in southern Damascus, Hatem al-Dimashqi, said today that rebel groups have launched a counteroffensive aimed at ousting the militants from the camp.
	Islamic State militants stormed the Yarmouk camp on Wednesday, marking the extremist group's deepest foray yet into Damascus.
	Damascus-based Palestinian official Khaled Abdul-Majid said Saturday that the Islamic State group was holding almost half of the camp.

Militants seize most of refugee camp in Syria's capital

Facebook and its founder must release documents and electronic correspondence to a defence lawyer whose client has fled from criminal charges that he falsely claimed a majority ownership in the social media giant, a federal judge said.
	US District Judge Vernon Broderick yesterday ordered Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg to relinquish documents by Monday that were requested by Paul Ceglia's lawyer, Robert Ross Fogg.
	The judge said he received a letter Thursday from lawyers for Facebook Inc. And Zuckerberg asking that an order he issued earlier in the week to promptly turn over requested documents be suspended until Ceglia is caught.
	Documents requested include all electronic communications Zuckerberg had about a Ceglia contract during an 18-month stretch beginning in 2003.
	With a May 4 trial approaching, Ceglia cut off his electronic ankle bracelet last month and fled. His wife, two children and dog also are missing from their home in Wellsville, 112 kilometres southeast of ...

Judge orders Facebook and Zuckerberg to turn over documents

A man who spent nearly 30 years on Alabama's death row walked free two days after prosecutors acknowledged that the only evidence they had against him could not prove he committed the crime.
	Ray Hinton was 29 when he was arrested for two 1985 killings. Freed yesterday at age 58, with grey hair and a beard, he was embraced by his sobbing sisters, who said "thank you Jesus," as they wrapped their arms around him outside the Jefferson County Jail.
	Hinton had won a new trial last year after the US Supreme Court ruled that his trial counsel was inadequate. Prosecutors on Wednesday moved to drop the case after new ballistics tests contradicted those done three decades ago. Experts couldn't match crime scene bullets to a gun found in Hinton's home.
	"I shouldn't have sat on death row for 30 years. All they had to do was test the gun," Hinton said.
	The state of Alabama offered no immediate apology.
	"When you think you are high and mighty and you are above the law, you don't have to answer 

US state lacks evidence, frees man after 30 years

Sarah Kemp Brady, who became an activist for gun control after her husband was shot in the head in the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, has died.
	Brady, 73, died yesterday in a retirement community in Alexandria, Virginia, after battling pneumonia, family members said in an email.
	Brady's husband, former White House Press Secretary James Brady, died Aug 4, also at the age of 73.
	The 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan by John Hinckley Jr left James Brady partially paralysed.
	Four years later, Sarah Brady became involved in gun control. She chaired Handgun Control Inc, which was renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence as a tribute to the Bradys. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was signed into law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.
	"Sarah courageously stepped up after Jim was shot to prevent others from enduring what our family has gone through, and her work has saved countless lives," the family's statement said.
	"Sarah was a voice of ...

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