RTE: Pope Benedict XVI has urged Christians and Muslims to put their differences behind them and build bridges to peaceful coexistence as he celebrated mass in Nazareth. His message was delivered in a homily before tens of thousands of people at an open-air mass. The pontiff also called on the faithful to follow the example of Jesus and his parents Mary and Joseph and 'come to appreciate even more fully the sacredness of the family'. 'Sadly, as the world knows, Nazareth has experienced tensions in recent years which have harmed relations between its Christian and Muslim communities,' Benedict said. 'I urge people of goodwill in both communities to repair the damage that has been done, and in fidelity to our common belief in one God, the father of the human family, to work to build bridges and find the way to a peaceful coexistence.'

The BBC: The Supreme Court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has revoked stringent restrictions imposed upon the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Varun Gandhi. Mr Gandhi, a grandson of former PM Indira Gandhi, was on bail after being detained under the National Security Act for inciting religious tension. The restrictions meant he was banned from making "provocative speeches". The government of the state of Uttar Pradesh says that it will appeal against the court's decision. Mr Gandhi is standing as a parliamentary candidate for the BJP in India's general elections. The court's decision has been welcomed by members of Mr Gandhi's family. "Varun has always maintained he had full faith in the judiciary and that has been once again vindicated today," his aunt, Ambika Shukla, said. "As you can imagine it has been a very difficult time... he spent 20 days in jail unfairly at a time when every other candidate was free to campaign.

Thousands Flee Accelerated Sri Lanka Fighting

Over 2000 people had by this afternoon fled the ongoing fighting between Sri Lanka military and the Tamil Tiger rebels after the army created an escape route via the lagoon separating them with the tigers. Military reports reaching Colombo say the army expects more thousands of people to flee over the next day putting an end to what is being termed as the "world's largest hostage rescue."

The tamil tigers have been fighting for a separate state for over 25 years in what is Asia's longest modern war. They are proscribed as a terrorist outfit in countries including the United States, Canada and the EU. The Sri Lanka government has rebuffed numerous calls for a ceasefire claiming the rebels will regroup and re-arm, a thing that has happened all too often in the past, whenever there was a window of ceasefire. They are believed to be holding over 50,000 civilians hostage as a human shield in a bid to garner international sympathy and perhaps a ceasefire in an attempt to 'save' the civilians.

Deutch Welle: Germany's economy shrank dramatically in the first quarter of 2009. According to new figures, it was the biggest contraction since 1970.Official figures show that Germany's recession worsened in the first quarter, as the economy shrank by 3.8 percent compared to the previous three-month period. This is the fourth quarter in a row of falling Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the basic measure of an economy's economic performance. Last quarter the economy shrank by 2.1 percent after two quarters of contracting 0.5 percent. The Federal Statistical Office says this is the strongest contraction Germany has seen since 1970, when it began tracking quarter-to-quarter growth. It is also the first time since reunification in 1990 that the German economy has experienced so many quarters of negative growth. "This is a dramatic plunge," Juergen Michels, an economist at banking group Citigroup said. "And a worse start to the year than we could have imagined."

The Daily Telegraph: President Barack Obama has given permission for military trials to restart at Guantanamo Bay in an announcement that effectively repudiated one of his first decisions in office. The White House attempted to forestall criticism from President Obama's liberal supporters by promising improved legal safeguards. President Obama stopped military commissions, which were trying suspects in the September 11, 2001 attacks on America by al-Qaeda as soon as he took over from George W Bush. President Obama ordered a review of the procedures, declaring the system did not work. But he was careful not to rule out the use of a modified tribunal system in future. The new legal framework, which will try the most prominent Al-Qaeda suspects now at the Guantanamo Bay war on terror camp in Cuba, would include restrictions on the use of hearsay evidence against detainees. The revisions would also reportedly ban evidence obtained through coercion, such as waterboarding and other enhanced CIA interrogation techniques.

Radio Netherlands: Humanitarian organisations are reporting claims by local sources that Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed dozens of people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the country's North Kivu province, between 60 and 90 people are said to have been killed, among them many civilians. The Hutu rebels have been causing problems in the region for 15 years. At the beginning of the year, in cooperation with the Rwandan government, the Congolese army began a successful offensive against the rebels. However, in recent weeks the Hutus have begun to reclaim much of the territory they have lost. Aid organisations have been warning for some time that the rebels might carry out revenge actions on the local population. GRN correspondent Duncan Woodside is available for 2-ways and has exclusive footage and interviews.

Sri Lanka War Enters Last 48 Hours

The over 2 year war between the Sri Lanka armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is staring at its end. The war that began 26 years ago in a bid for a separate motherhood by the tigers draws to an end with the government reclaiming all the territory captured by the tigers over the years of a long and bloody war that has left 70,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.

Speaking in Jordan where he is attending the G11 economic summit, Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapksa said the war and the civilian liberation will be over in 48 hours. In a last bid attempt to regroup an drearm, the tigers have been holding over 50,000 civilians after a 100,000 were rescued by the military in what is considered the world's historic hostage rescue. The tigers who have been using civilians to build bunkers and barriers to the advancing forces, as well as recruiting children to boost its fighting numbers, were hoping the civilians held hostage would invoke humanitarian outcry and bring about a ceasefire. Sri Lanka government has scoffed at all calls for a ceasefire, reminding all of its sovereignty hence pushing the war forward.

Calls by US, EU as well as the United Nations for a humanitarian pause, combined with outcries and massive public rallies by the diaspora were received by deaf ears as Sri Lanka army intensified its assault on the rebels.

Meanwhile, the battlezone lifeline ICRC and the Red Cross have suspended all their activities till further notice. In a statement released to the press this morning, the ICRC cites inabilitity to deliver their services due to security situations as an impediment, which they say is unacceptable. Their staff are witnessing the great humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in a very thin stretch of land where the battle is taking place. With the ICRC's withdrawal, and intense fighting from both sides, there is no humanitarian organisation that can help them, and people have been left to their own devices, the ICRC has observed.

Over 10,000 people had fled the tigers grip by this afternoon.

Reuters: A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles at militants in a Pakistani region on the Afghan border on Saturday, killing 10 of them including two Arabs, Pakistani intelligence officials said. Civilian casualties caused by the missile-carrying drones, operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, have infuriated many Pakistanis and made it harder for the government to cooperate with the United States. Here are some facts about the U.S. missile attacks, the controversy they have caused, and a list of some of the more prominent militants killed according to Pakistani officials. Many al Qaeda members and Taliban fled to northwestern Pakistan's ungoverned ethnic Pashtun belt after U.S.-led soldiers ousted the Taliban in 2001. From the sanctuaries, the militants have orchestrated insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States and Afghanistan have pressed Pakistan to eliminate the sanctuaries. Apparently frustrated by Pakistan's inability to do so, the United States is hitting the militants itself.

In Burma’s business capital, Rangoon, a city rapidly acquiring a surprising veneer of affluence, the headquarters of the National League for Democracy remains dilapidated and frozen in time. Above the ramshackle two-storey building, three faded party flags flutter forlornly in the breeze. Taxi drivers are reluctant to stop just in front of the building, dropping passengers a safe distance away. From a tea-shop across the street of the office, plainclothes military intelligence agents snap photos of those coming and going from the party office, especially foreigners, writing notations in a large log book. Burma’s state run media regularly publish articles noting how many foreigners visit the office.

Inside a dark hall decorated with posters of Aung San Suu Kyi, earnest looking Burmese in traditional dress loitered yesterday in a small hall around long tables. Upstairs, the party’s elderly leadership anxiously tried to come to terms with the latest crisis – Ms Suu Kyi’s transfer to Insein prison to face serious charges of violating the conditions of her six-year house arrest. For Amy Kazmin's Financial Times full article, click here.

Indigenous groups protesting laws opening Peru's Amazon to oil and natural resource development said Saturday they would withdraw a call for an insurgency against the government, but vowed to press ahead with their protests. Indian leader Alberto Pizango said the government misinterpreted the use of the term insurgency in his group's declaration on Friday, and "for that reason we are withdrawing it". "But the mobilization of the Amazon people will continue within the rule of law," said the president of the Inter-ethnic Association for the Development of Peru's Jungle, which leads a movement that has blocked roads, waterways and a state oil pipeline since April. The AP says the government had warned that anyone participating in an uprising could be charged with sedition. On Saturday, it authorized the armed forces to support police in quelling protests and guaranteeing services in five Amazon provinces.

The BBC: Hardline Islamist militants have captured a strategically important town north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, eyewitnesses say. Members of al-Shabab, a group fighting government forces in Somalia, seized the town of Jowhar on Sunday morning. One resident told Reuters that there had been "serious fighting" in which at least seven people had been killed. Jowhar was in 2005 chosen as the temporary location for the country's transitional government. The Somali government has been losing ground in recent weeks and now controls little more than the centre of the capital, with the support of African Union troops. On 15 May, Somalia's president appealed to Islamist insurgents to negotiate as intermittent fighting continued in Mogadishu.

The BBC: Kuwait has elected its first female MPs following the oil-rich country's third general election in three years. US-educated Aseel al-Awadhi and Rola Dashti were among winners in the third district, official results declared. The 10 leading candidates from each of Kuwait's five electoral districts are elected to the 50-seat parliament. The emir dissolved the previous parliament in March because it wanted to question his nephew, the prime minister, about alleged corruption. There are no political parties in Kuwait; the prime minister appoints ministers most of whom are unelected. "It's a victory for Kuwaiti women and a victory for Kuwaiti democracy," Ms Awadhi told AFP news agency. "This is a major leap forward," she said. The right to vote and stand for election to Kuwait's parliament, the oldest in the Gulf, was extended to women in 2005.

Abu Garda, the leader of one of the rebel factions in the Sudanese civil war will be appearing at a pre-trial hearing of the ICC in The Hague tomorrow (Monday) afternoon. He stands accused of three war crimes charges, including the 2007 attack on the African Union (AU) mission in Sudan (AMIS) that killed twelve peace keepers. He is the first Sudanese suspect to appear before the court and also the first to voluntarily come to the ICC to face trial. Correspondent Deon de Lange will be attending the pre-trial session tomorrow Monday and will be available for coverage.

A Darfur rebel accused over a 2007 attack that killed 12 peacekeepers in the war-torn Sudanese province is set to appear before the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, who led a splinter faction of the anti-government Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), surrendered to the court in The Hague on Sunday. The AFP says he will be the first to appear before the ICC regarding the Darfur conflict, which the UN says has claimed 300,000 lives and displaced more than 2.2 million since 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime for a greater share of resources and power. The Sudanese government says 10,000 people have been killed. The ICC, the world's only permanent tribunal for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, announced Sunday that Abu Garda had arrived in the Netherlands and would appear before a judge at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Monday.

The AFP: Somali officials appealed for international help to establish a properly equipped coastguard, saying it was the key to eradicating rampant piracy off its coast. Deputy Prime Minister Abdirahman Aden Ibbi said in a speech to an international conference that foreign naval patrols alone would not wipe out pirates who are disrupting one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes. "Somalia needs a more effective coastguard to protect its sea, to protect our fishermen and to protect foreign ships against piracy because international naval operations are not enough," he said. "We know where they hide. We are prepared to fight. We ask the international community to help us to fight piracy," he said in a speech read by Nur Mohamed Mohamoud, deputy director of Somalia's national security agency. Ibbi said that with a "massive increase in patrol boats and well-trained crew," Somalia could rid the world of the high-seas menace. A country of seven million people, Somalia has had no effective central authority since former president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, setting off a bloody cycle of clashes between rival factions.

Radio Netherlands says Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has gone on trial in the capital Yagon on charges of violating the rules of her house arrest. Earlier this month, a United States citizen swum across a lake to her home. A lawyer says the man was not invited and that he was only allowed to stay at her home because he was suffering from exhaustion and cramps. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been under house arrest for more than five years. Her supporters say the country's military rulers are using the incident as an excuse in order to prevent her from taking part in next year's election. She could face a five-year sentence if found guilty. Two of Ms Suu Kyi's assistants and the US visitor are on trial in Yangon.

Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change has appealed to Africa's leaders to intervene in its disputes with President Robert Mugabe. As the unity government formed in February approaches 100 days in office this week, the move is evidence of the difficulties the MDC and its leader, the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, is facing in what is supposed to be a power-sharing agreement. "The national council has resolved that all oustanding issues be referred to SADC [the Southern African Development Community) and the African Union," said a statement issued by MDC leaders. For Sebastien Berger's Daily Telegraph full article, click here.

The AFP: The World Health Organisation's annual assembly opened here on Monday, with the spectre of a global flu pandemic hanging over the gathering following a sharp spike in swine flu infections in Japan. "We are all under pressure to make urgent and far reaching decisions in an atmosphere of considerable scientific uncertainty," WHO Director General Margaret Chan told the 193 member states in a special debate on the new influenza A(H1N1) virus. However, Chan, who would have the power to declare a pandemic after consulting a panel of scientists, said more information was needed on the virus that emerged in Mexico and the United States a few weeks ago. "We have lived for five long years under the threat of pandemic caused by the lethal H5N1 avian influenza virus. This has left our world very prepared but also very scared," said Chan. "We need to warn the public whenever necessary but reassure them whenever possible. This is a difficult balancing act," she explained. Since the swine flu outbreak was signalled by Mexico last month, the WHO has raised the global flu alert to level five, one step short of a pandemic. More than 8,800 people have been infected by the new virus after it spread to 39 other countries with travellers, according to the WHO.

The United Nations, according to news reports, plans to announce on Tuesday that former President Bill Clinton will become a special envoy to Haiti, which has been ravaged by a series of storms and hurricanes that left nearly 1,000 dead. Mr. According to the New York Times, Clinton visited the nation along with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a few months ago, and he appealed at a donors conference here for contributions to help with disaster aid as well as investment aid. While the former president’s actions are independent of his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, she, too, visited Haiti briefly in mid-April to call attention to the nation’s plight and to pledge rebuilding aid.

The BBC: UN chief Ban Ki-moon is to meet top pharmaceutical firms to discuss the production of a swine flu vaccine. Together with World Health Organization (WHO) head Margaret Chan, he is set to ask for commitments over the scale and cost of vaccine production. There is concern about the global distribution of a possible vaccine after wealthy states pre-ordered large stocks, correspondents say. Meanwhile, Japan has confirmed dozens more cases of the flu. The new cases brought the total number of people to have caught the virus in Japan to 173. Japanese media say the new wave in infections makes Japan the fourth-most infected country in the world, after Mexico, the US and Canada.

Carla Bruni has issued a scathing attack on Pope Benedict XVI saying that she has allowed her Catholic faith to lapse because of his approach to contraception in Africa.France's First Lady said that the Church's teachings had left her feeling "profoundly secular". She departed from her post's traditional religious neutrality to accuse the Pope of "damaging" countries like Africa with his stance on birth control. The Italian-born former supermodel risked angering believers in France and beyond by declaring that the Pontiff's proclamations showed that the Church needed to "evolve". For Henry Samuel's full article click here.

The AP: A makeshift memorial has been erected outside a New York City school for the assistant principal who was the city's first swine flu death. Mitchell Wiener (WEE'-ner) died Sunday after being hospitalized since Wednesday. He had been on a ventilator. Candles and flowers were placed outside Intermediate School 238 in Queens in his memory. Wiener's death is the country's sixth. Officials closed the school Thursday. A total of 16 schools have been closed because of the city's most recent outbreak of the virus. The first known cases of swine flu in the United States appeared at another Queens school in late April. A hospital spokesman says medical complications likely played a part in Wiener's death. But Wiener's family says the only pre-existing medical problem he had was gout.

About 1.5 million refugees have fled the Pakistani military's offensive against Taliban forces in the northwest of the country, officials say. The fighting has resulted in an exodus with a speed and size that could rival the displacement caused by Rwanda's genocide, the UN said. The humanitarian challenge comes as the military said its troops are fighting street battles against fighters in important towns in the Swat valley. Lieutenant-General Nadeem Ahmed, who leads a group dealing with the uprooted Pakistanis, said that the government had enough food for the displaced, but said it needed donations of fans and high energy biscuits. Al-Jazeera said: "The staggering figure, in details released by the UN, shows that only about 2,000 people are actually in the refugee camps." Around 20 per cent of the Pakistani displaced are in about 24 camps at the moment, John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, said.

The Moscow Times: Crucial disarmament talks kick off in Moscow on Tuesday when U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller meets with Foreign Ministry officials to discuss replacing the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I. Pressure on participants will be high, because Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agreed last month in London to have a replacement ready when the treaty regulating both countries' Cold War-era nuclear stockpiles expires in December. In addition, both sides pledged to have a road map ready as soon as July 8, when Obama is due in town for his first visit to Russia. Gottemoeller said after a preliminary meeting in Rome last month that the negotiations are important for "hitting the reset button" in U.S.-Russian relations. The negotiators' task seems formidable not just because of the extremely tight time frame and highly complex technical issues, but because Moscow wishes to tie in other arms disputes. Washington has said it would like to handle START in isolation to increase the chances of success.

The BBC says British MPs are to debate wide-ranging changes to their expenses regime, which will sweep away what Gordon Brown has called "centuries of history" for parliament. Commons Speaker Michael Martin, who has announced his resignation over the expenses row, has put forward emergency proposals aimed at stopping abuses. The measures - agreed to by party leaders - include a £1,250-a-month cap on rent and mortgage interest payments. They would also ban second homes claims for furniture, cleaning and stamp duty. Additionally, MPs will not be allowed to "flip" the designation of their second home during 2009/10.