WorldNews

Sudan denied a UN request for the emergency evacuation of a wounded Ethiopian peacekeeper who later died of his injuries in Darfur, the UN chief said Monday. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he "deeply regrets" that Khartoum turned down the request on Sunday and offered condolences to the peacekeeper's family. Ban said in a statement that he was deeply concerned about the rise in attacks on peacekeepers serving in the joint United Nations-African Union UNAMID mission in Darfur and the "limited cooperation" provided by Sudan. Continue reading...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Applied Materials has called off its $9.4 billion acquisition of Tokyo Electron Ltd. after hitting a regulatory roadblock. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20978[/attach] The former UN envoy to Yemen told the Security Council on Monday that an arms embargo targeting Shiite Huthi rebels risks impeding deliveries of desperately-needed humanitarian aid. Moroccan diplomat Jamal Benomar delivered his final report to the 15-member council during a closed-door session held as Saudi-led coalition warplanes pounded the insurgents in southern Yemen. "I warned the council that implementation of the new targeted arms embargo under the UN resolution could inadvertently restrict the flow of much-needed commercial goods and humanitarian assistance to Yemen including food, fuel and medical supplies," Benomar told reporters after the meeting. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20970[/attach] A military transport plane laden with supplies and dozens of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers is to take off from a British air base on Monday headed for their homeland. The Boeing C-17 transport plane will carry more than 1,100 shelter kits, including plastic sheeting and rope, and 1,700 solar lanterns, the Department for International Development said in a statement. The Gurkhas are soldiers from Nepal who serve in the British army and around 2,700 are currently enlisted. It is only since 2007 that they have had the same pay and conditions as British soldiers. Continue reading...

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's president said at a high-level summit with European Union officials Monday that his country will be able to meet conditions to apply for EU membership within five years. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20969[/attach] BEIRUT (AP) — Salma Hayek said on Monday that the animated feature film "The Prophet" she co-produced has been a personal passion project, one she hopes can inspire young viewers to think outside the box about ways to improve the world. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20968[/attach] A pro-government militia seized key positions in northern Mali on Monday from separatist rebels, security sources said, breaking a fragile ceasefire in the restive region. The Imghad and Allies Tuareg Self-Defence Group (GATIA) took over parts of the desert town of Menaka from fleeing rebel fighters -- also ethnic Tuareg -- a United Nations security source told AFP. "There wasn't any fighting... Currently UN peacekeepers still occupy their camp in Menaka and the Malian army is stationed in its barracks, but GATIA has taken all the positions of the fleeing (fighters)," the source said. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20967[/attach] A coalition of Arab states vowed to coordinate political and military efforts to restore order in Yemen as Saudi-led warplanes Monday launched new air strikes on Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the Abu Dhabi crown prince and armed forces chief of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said the coalition is now working on military and political fronts to reestablish the legitimate authority in Sanaa. The campaign's new phase is based on a "multilayered strategy, including military, as well as politics and development, to reestablish the legitimacy," he said on a visit to his troops in Saudi Arabia taking part in the coalition. "We have no other choice but to succeed in the test of Yemen," Sheikh Mohammed said, quoted in UAE daily Al-Ittihad. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20965[/attach] Togo's incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe appeared set for a third term Monday after a weekend election, with partial results giving him a strong lead. The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said Gnassingbe had won 62 percent of the vote, far ahead of his nearest rival Jean-Pierre Fabre, who took 32 percent with about 12 percent of ballots counted. Up to around 55 percent of the country's 3.5 million voters turned out on Saturday, according to the CENI, which has five days to announce the final outcome. "We contest the (partial) results," said Eric Dupuy, spokesman for Gnassingbe's main rival, Jean-Pierre Fabre. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20964[/attach] NEW DELHI (AP) — IOC President Thomas Bach says the Olympic body will do everything possible to help sports in Nepal recover from the devastating earthquake in the Himalayan kingdom. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20963[/attach] Authorities in Burundi arrested a leading dissident and shut down the main independent radio station Monday as they battled a second day of demonstrations against a bid by the president to cling to power for a third term. The army was also deployed around the capital Bujumbura, after the Red Cross said two people were shot dead in clashes with police in the capital Bujumbura on Sunday. The unrest erupted on Sunday after the ruling CNDD-FDD party, which has been accused of intimidating opponents, designated President Pierre Nkurunziza its candidate in the June 26 presidential election. On Monday demonstrators were back on the streets, with police using tear gas in Cibitoke, in the north of Bujumbura, to prevent around 1,000 demonstrators reaching the centre. Continue reading...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. inquiry has found that at least 44 Palestinians were killed and at least 227 injured by "Israeli actions" while sheltering at U.N. locations during last year's Gaza war. Continue reading...

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A memorial service for the victims who died last month in the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 in the French Alps is being held at Barcelona's landmark Sagrada Familia basilica, with Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy attending. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20958[/attach] SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After the earthquake hit Nepal, Prem Raja Mahat spent a sleepless night at his Baltimore home, trying again and again to reach his son, who was visiting friends and family back in Mahat's home country. Continue reading...

Governments, aid agencies and celebrities on Monday intensified a push for funding to help survivors of a deadly earthquake in Nepal as the risks posed by a lack of food, water and shelter escalated hourly. More than 3,700 people were killed and at least 6,500 injured when the 7.9 magnitude quake rocked Nepal on Saturday, toppling houses and triggering avalanches in the Himalayas. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20957[/attach] By Chris Arsenault MENAKA, Mali (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Life has never been easy in Moussa Majga's corner of northern Mali, a desert region of leafless trees, mud huts and roaming gunmen. For years, violence has plagued Majga's dusty town, the scene of clashes between government forces and Tuareg-led separatists who took advantage of a 2012 coup in Mali's capital Bamako to escalate their uprising. Continue reading...

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The Qatar Olympic Committee is reconsidering its sponsorship of a major international sports convention following the blistering attack on the IOC by the head of the conference. Continue reading...

By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A shortage of specialized legal care and protection means that victims of trafficking and bonded labor in India fail to get justice and perpetrators continue to buy and sell people with impunity, a report said on Monday. The study by the Freedom Fund and Thomson Reuters Foundation said charities on the frontline of anti-trafficking efforts were unable to support victims to pursue their cases in court as they were chronically under funded and poorly trained. "Traffickers are motivated by high profits and the low risk due to weak law enforcement and low levels of prosecution. To tackle human trafficking, prosecution and punishment of offenders must be pursued as well as legal action to seize the assets and profits of traffickers," said the report. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20951[/attach] As he smooths a gold plaque on the glistening flank of Myanmar's most prestigious Buddhist pagoda, a merchant pays his ancestors the highest honour -- and contributes to a bumper year of donations to re-gild the sacred site. The Shwedagon Pagoda, which rises in a stately conical tower above downtown Yangon, has been at the heart of Buddhism in Myanmar for hundreds of years, as well as providing a luminous arena for political resistance in the former junta-run nation's more recent turbulent history. Continue reading...

A coalition of Islamist rebels said they seized a Syrian army base in northwestern Idlib province at dawn on Monday after a suicide bomber from al Qaeda's Nusra Front drove a truck packed with explosives inside and set it off. It would allow the rebels to tighten their siege on the major Mastouma army base nearby which has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks. "A truck with two tonnes of explosives penetrated one of the entrances of the camp that made it easier to take over the camp," Sheikh Husam Abu Bakr, a rebel commander from Ahrar al Sham said via Skype. Insurgents have been trying to push the army out of the few remaining government areas in the province, bringing them closer to Latakia, the ancestral home of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20950[/attach] Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev extended his quarter-century rule over the oil-rich, ex-Soviet republic with a crushing 97.7 percent of ballots in an election where opposition parties did not field a candidate, officials said Monday. Nazarbayev, who has run the huge Central Asian country since before the Soviet breakup in 1991, will start a fifth term. The Central Election Commission claimed a record turnout of 95.22 percent in Sunday's polls. Speaking in the capital Astana shortly after exit polls pointed to nearly total voter support, Nazarbayev said he had a mandate for his plans to make Kazakhstan one of the thirty most developed countries in the world. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20949[/attach] BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand seized 3 tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country's history, one week after the biggest seizure, customs officials said Monday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20948[/attach] By Jane Wardell and Randy Fabi SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Australia made a last-minute plea on Monday for a stay in the imminent execution of two Australian drug traffickers in Indonesia, saying reports that their trial had been tainted by corruption needed to be investigated. The call from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop almost immediately deepened a diplomatic row with Jakarta. Indonesia's foreign ministry hit back, saying Australia needed to show proof of alleged corruption and questioned why concerns were being raised only now instead of 10 years ago. Armanatha Nasir, spokesman for Indonesia's foreign ministry, said Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan had been given all the legal avenues to challenge their death sentences. Continue reading...

Rebels from north Mali told mediators they will initial a long-delayed U.N.-brokered peace proposal on the future of Mali's north next month, a spokesman for the lead northern separatist group said late on Sunday. The southern Bamako government and another coalition of pro-government armed groups accepted the proposal in early March, but the Tuareg coalition refused after consultations with its supporters in northern Mali. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20947[/attach] AVONDALE, La. (AP) — Whatever derailed Justin Rose's game appears long gone now. Continue reading...