Enda Kenny Re-Elected As Irish Prime Minister

The general election in Ireland 70 days ago was inconclusive and has led to weeks of negotiations among the parties.

Seventy days after an inconclusive general election, Enda Kenny has been re-elected as Irish Prime Minister.

His Fine Gael party won the most seats in the election, but failed to secure an overall majority.
Mr Kenny has been acting Prime Minister - or taoiseach - since the vote, while talks took place between rival parties and independents on how to form a new government.
He will now lead a minority Fine Gael government after securing the support of a diverse group of independents and striking deals with opposition party Fianna Fail.
He was re-appointed with 59 votes in favour and 49 votes against.
Mr Kenny, who is 65, has become the first PM to be re-elected to the office, but this vote was the fourth attempt to confirm him in the job, and only followed last-minute negotiations.
"The circumstances of today are, of course, very different from those of five years ago when Ireland was in deep crisis, when our country's very survival was in doubt," he said.
But Mr Kenny said he accepted very many people have not felt the economy picking up in the years since.
"If economic survival was the urgent priority of the last government then using a strong economy to improve the lives, the quality of the lives of our people, must and will be the priority of the new government and that fundamental principle will be the bedrock of our policy programme," he said.
Despite driving an economic recovery, the previous Fine Gael coalition with Labour was punished at the polls by an electorate that was weary of five years of tough austerity policies.

Turkish Journalists Jailed Over State Secrets

Can Dundar and Erdem Gul are sentenced hours after Dundar was shot at outside court by a gunman who apparently shouted "traitor".

Two Turkish journalists have been sentenced to at least five years in prison for revealing state secrets.

Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and former colleague Erdem Gul were jailed over a story claiming that Turkey was shipping weapons to militants in Syria in 2014.

Dundar was sentenced to five years and 10 months, while Gul was handed a five-year sentence. 

The pair, who were acquitted of trying to topple the government, will not go to prison immediately as they are likely to appeal. 

Speaking after the verdict, Dundar said: "We will continue to do our job as journalists, despite all these attempts to silence us. 

"We have to preserve courage in our country."

The sentencing came just hours after Dundar was shot at outside court. 

The gunman apparently shouted "traitor" before firing at least three shots.

Dundar was unharmed but a reporter covering his trial was injured by a ricocheting bullet. 

Crowds of journalists were waiting outside the court for the result of the closed-door hearing.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the men of undermining the country's reputation and vowed Dundar would "pay a heavy price".

Mr Erdogan has admitted trucks which were stopped by police en route to the Syrian border belonged to the National Intelligence Organisation.

He said they were carrying aid to Turks battling Syria's president and Islamic State.

Gul and Dundar had already spent 92 days in jail, almost half of it in solitary confinement, before the constitutional court ruled in February that pre-trial detention was unfounded because the charges stemmed from their journalism.

Their case has led to international criticism of Turkey's press freedom record.

Some 2,000 people, including many journalists, are facing charges of insulting the president.

Trump Snubbed By Jeb Bush But Backed By Cheney

The ex-Florida governor says he would vote for neither his party's presumptive nominee, nor likely rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton

By Sky News US Team

Failed Republican White House candidate Jeb Bush is the latest conservative figure to say he will not support Donald Trump.

He said in a Facebook post on Friday that his former rival "has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character (worthy of the presidency).

"He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative."

The former Florida governor said he would vote for neither his party's presumptive nominee, nor the likely rival in November's White House election, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Mr Bush was asked in recent days whether he might be Mr Trump's running mate, and his adviser's emailed reply was: "Hahahahahahahahaha."

His snub comes two days after his older brother, former US President George W Bush, and their father, former US President George H W Bush, said they would not endorse Mr Trump.

The Bushes' cold shoulder may be seen as personal since Mr Trump tormented Jeb Bush during his White House run, labelling him "low energy" and "an embarrassment to his family".

However, Mr Trump picked up support on Friday from the younger ex-President Bush's former deputy, Dick Cheney.

The list of opponents to the outsider candidate's hostile takeover of the Republican party has been growing.

Mitt Romney, who won the nomination in 2012, and Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham are also refusing to support Mr Trump.

But the real estate baron's former rival, Rick Perry - who once called him a "cancer on conservatism" - said he would be open to being his running mate.

Republican mega-donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is also backing Mr Trump, saying he has clinched the nomination “fair and square".

House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said he would meet Mr Trump next Thursday, a day after telling media he is "just not ready" to endorse Mr Trump.

Republican party chairman Reince Priebus said on Friday he will support Mr Trump, even if he disagrees with ideas like temporarily banning Muslims from entering the US.

US President Barack Obama smiled on Friday when asked during a White House briefing about the disarray among his Republican antagonists.

In his first remarks about Mr Trump's presumptive nominee status, Mr Obama had a message for the media: "This is not entertainment.

"This is not a reality show."

summary

Iran says several of its soldiers killed near Aleppo

DUBAI | By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin 

Several Iranian soldiers were killed near Aleppo, the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, in what appeared to be one of Iran's biggest losses in Syria since it deployed forces to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Islamist insurgents on Friday seized the strategic village of Khan Touman, some 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo. Dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the battle.
Fars news agency on Saturday quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded in the fighting.
The attack on Khan Touman was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has rejected diplomatic efforts to halt the five-year civil war.
Earlier this week, the United States and Russia brokered a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo itself. But fighting in the countryside to the south of the city, one of the major fronts where Iranian-backed forces have been deployed, has escalated in recent days.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the conflict, said that Syrian and Russian jet planes have intensified their bombing of insurgent posts.
Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates have published on social media videos and photos of what appear to be the bodies of Iranians or other Shi'ite militias who were killed in Khan Touman.
Some videos include footage of their wallets, personal documentation and Iranian currency.
There are indications that some of the casualties might be Afghans who are trained in Iran and are deployed alongside Iranian soldiers in Syria.
The Revolutionary Guards in a statement on Saturday urged people not to be affected by the Islamist rebels' "psychological war on the social media".
A top advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran's continued support of Syria's president in a meeting with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
"Iran will use all its means to fight against terrorists who are committing crimes in the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, Ayatollah Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people though, with tens of thousands unaccounted for, some say the death toll may be as high as 400,000.
(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, additional reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman, editing by Digby Lidstone) 

Chinese fishing boat, cargo ship collision leaves 17 missing: state media

Seventeen people were missing after a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Maltese cargo ship and sank in the East China Sea on Saturday, state media reported, citing the country's coastguard fleet.

The fishing boat, Lu Rong Yu 58398, had 19 people on board when the incident happened at 3.40 a.m. Beijing time (1940 GMT), the China News Service said, adding that two people had been rescued by passing fishing boats and a search and rescue operation was still underway.
China National Radio said that it had hit Maltese cargo ship Catalina, a 40,485 ton bulk carrier, which has continued sailing. They did not specify where in the East China Sea the collision happened.
The East China Sea is home to a group of uninhabited islets claimed by both China and Japan and previous incidents involving Chinese fishing boats and Japanese patrol ships have stoked diplomatic rows.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Italy rescues nearly 1,800 migrants in Mediterranean

Italian vessels have helped rescue nearly 1,800 migrants from boats trying to reach Italy from north Africa in the last 24 hours, the navy said on Friday, indicating that numbers are rising as the weather warms up.

The navy said 1,759 migrants were rescued in 10 operations involving the Italian navy, coastguard and finance police, the European Union's external borders agency Frontex and the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.
The Italian frigate Grecale was taking the migrants to the Sicilian port of Augusta, where they were expected to arrive on Saturday morning, a navy statement said. It gave no details of their nationalities.
The latest arrivals picked up in the Strait of Sicily will bring the total of migrants reaching Italy by boat so far this year to more than 30,000, slightly higher than in the same period of 2015.
Humanitarian organizations say the sea route between Libya and Italy is now the main route for asylum seekers heading for Europe, after an EU deal with Turkey dramatically slowed the flow of people reaching Greece.
Officials fear the numbers trying to make the crossing to southern Italy will increase as sailing conditions improve in warmer weather.
More than 1.2 million Arab, African and Asian migrants fleeing war and poverty have streamed into the European Union since the start of last year.
Most of those trying to reach Italy leave the coast of lawless Libya on rickety fishing boats or rubber dinghies, heading for the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is close to Tunisia, or toward Sicily.
On Wednesday, however, Italy's coastguard said it had rescued 42 migrants from a sailboat off the coast of Puglia, in the southeastern heel of mainland Italy.
(Reporting by Gavin Jones; editing by Andrew Roche)

Opponents try to head off maverick mayor in final rallies for Philippine presidency

MANILA | By Martin Petty 

Philippine election hopefuls campaigned for a final day on Saturday amid the drama of a late intervention by the country's outgoing leader to try to block maverick mayor Rodrigo Duterte from winning the presidency.President Benigno Aquino caused a stir on Friday with a call for candidates to collaborate against Duterte in a last-ditch move to stop the "Trump of the East" from converting his runaway popularity into victory in Monday's vote.
Philippine politics is no stranger to controversial characters and the firebrand Duterte is one of its most divisive, alarming opponents with his advocacy of extrajudicial killings as a deterrent against rampant crime and illegal drugs.
There were no signs on Saturday of Aquino's idea taking hold. Some experts said it could backfire on his chosen successor, Manuel Roxas.
Roxas invited rival Grace Poe for talks aimed at derailing Duterte, who has a double-digit lead in the latest opinion polls, but met a resounding "no". Vice-President Jejomar Binay's team described Aquino's call as "hollow".
Political analyst Prospero de Vera said the government had seen the writing on the wall for its candidate and it needed to change tack.

"This is all part of the administration's messaging to project that Manuel Roxas has the momentum," he said.
"They need these dramatics to prevent allies in the provinces from jumping ship," de Vera said.
The five candidates have major rallies planned later on Saturday, the final day allowed for campaigning. Duterte was a clear leader in final opinion polling with a lead of 11 points over Poe, with Roxas close behind in third.
Duterte, 71, is the alternative candidate who has lit up the race with his incendiary rhetoric and image as a loose cannon.
Experts say his recent surge, and Poe's popularity, represents public disenchantment with Aquino's administration.
That sentiment has perplexed investors and some Western governments given the robust performance of the Philippine economy under Aquino. However, criticism by opponents that it has not translated into jobs or better livelihoods for millions of poor appears to be resonating.
Poe's pro-investment, anti-poverty platform is striking a chord, however, as is Duterte's promises of a war on crime and his profanity-packed speeches during a campaign that bears the emblem of a clenched fist.
Duterte's campaign manager, Leoncio Evasco Jr, described Aquino's call for a united front against the Davao city mayor as desperate.
"It also further unmasks the true character of the Aquino regime – one that in the face of debacle will abandon ship and run like a headless chicken," Evasco said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Paul Tait)