The first defence witnesses are expected to be called in the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, as diplomatic pressure on the military junta intensifies. Mrs Suu Kyi faces five years imprisonment on what are widely seen as trumped up charges relating to the intrusion of an uninvited American man at the villa where she has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest. She denies breaching the terms of her house arrest. The trial is being held mostly in secret inside Rangoon's notorious Insein prison. For Tom Bell's Daily Telegraph full article, click here.

The BBC: North Korea has fired two more missiles, hours after the UN Security Council unanimously condemned its nuclear test, South Korean reports say. The communist state fired two short-range missiles off an east coast base, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an official. The move came as UN diplomats began work on a resolution to punish North Korea for its underground nuclear test. Diplomats said they were seeking "tough measures", including further sanctions. At least three missile tests accompanied Monday's nuclear test. Those on Tuesday involved one ground-to-ship missile and one ground-to-air missile, Yonhap said. Earlier, North Korea, in a statement carried by its official news agency KCNA, said it was clear America's "hostile policy" towards it had not changed.

The BBC: Twenty Sudanese soldiers and 43 Darfur rebels have been killed in clashes at a Sudanese army base close to the Chadian border, the army said. Rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) attacked the base in Umm Baru on Sunday, its second raid on a military camp in just over a week. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force, Unamid, earlier said the rebels had overrun the army base. But a spokesman later said the army had control of the town. "They did make a push for it, but they did not overrun the post. Put it down to the fog of war," Unamid Information Director Kemal Saiki said on Monday, without explaining the conflicting reports. He said around 350 civilians and 100 unarmed Sudanese soldiers had sought refuge in a nearby Unamid camp during the clashes.

RTE: Official figures show that South Africa's economy, the largest on the African continent, slipped into recession in the first quarter of 2009 as gross domestic product contracted by 6.4% in the first quarter compared with the last quarter of 2008. The economy had contracted by 1.8% in the last quarter of 2008. The two consecutive quarterly contractions put South Africa in its first recession in 17 years. The showing was far worse than market expectations of a 3.9% drop but was in line with the global economic downturn. The main drags on the country's economy were manufacturing, down 3.3 percentage points, and mining, down 1.7 percentage points, according to Statistics SA.

The AFP: The number of cholera cases in Zimbabwe is expected to cross the 100,000 mark in the coming days, the Red Cross said Tuesday, warning that the epidemic was Africa's worst in 15 years. "The illness has now taken a foothold in villages and communities across the countryside...," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said. "The epidemic has entrenched itself as Africa's worst outbreak in more than 15 years," they said in a report. The World Health Organisation said in March that the pace of the outbreak had slowed significantly, and that the situation was "improving." However, the Red Cross said the slowing rate of infection could be due to the shift of the outbreak from urban to less populated rural areas. With access to drinking water, basic sanitation and health facilities still severely restricted, the epidemic is far from over, said the IFRC.

At least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured when a suicide car bomber rammed into a police office building in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore this morning. The massive blast completely demolished the two story structure and damaged several other buildings - including intelligence agency offices - around it, according to senior city official Sajad Ahmed Bhutta. The attackers hurled several grenades before a suicide bomber exploded his truck. The blast was followed by intense firing. Raja Riaz, a senior minister of Punjab provincial government said at least 30 people had been killed, although the exact death toll is still unknown. He said many people were involved in the attack, which left over 100 people wounded, many of them seriously. Dozens of others are still trapped under the rubble. The administration has declared state of emergency in the city hospitals where hundreds of people gathered outside. "Seven bodies have been brought to the hospital and 126 people were wounded," said a doctor at one of the city's main hospitals, who identified herself as Dr Humaira. At least 50 policemen were inside the police building at the time of the attack, which occurred at a major commercial district on the city's Mall Road. Top government officials are located close to the venue of the attack. "The entire building came down after the blast," said an unnamed policeman who was outside the building. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the police suspect Islamic militants retaliating against the military operation against the Taleban in Swat Valley north-western Pakistan... click here for more from this Times article.

Aung San Suu Kyi denied that she violated the terms of her house arrest when a US man swam to her home as she testified for the first time in a trial which could see her sentenced to five years in prison. In a brief session that lasted less than an hour, the Burmese opposition leader said she had only offered temporary accommodation to an American after he swam uninvited to the lakeside villa where she has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest. She insisted she had not been immediately aware of John Yettaw's visit and was only informed of it later by an assistant. For Tom Bell's Daily Telegraph full article, click here.

The BBC: North Korea has warned of a military response after South Korea joined an anti-proliferation exercise which could allow it to search the North's ships. The North said it is no longer bound by the armistice which ended the Korean War in 1953. A military spokesman quoted by official media said Pyongyang could no longer guarantee the safety of shipping. Its latest threat comes after an underground nuclear test two days ago and several missile launches. The United Nations Security Council is working on a strong condemnation of what it says is North Korea's contravention of its rules. Meanwhile steam is reported to be coming from North Korea's main nuclear reprocessing plant at Yongbyon, suggesting it has made good on its threat to restart efforts to make weapons-grade plutonium.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said there must be no exceptions to President Barack Obama's demand that Israel stop its settlement activity. The BBC says it is the first time in years that US officials have been so vocal in calling for a settlement freeze in the Palestinian territories. The comments come hours before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to meet Mr Obama at the White House. Israel's PM has defied US demands, saying some settlements can expand. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with her Egyptian counterpart, Mrs Clinton said that the president was "very clear" with PM Benjamin Netanyahu at their recent meeting that there should be a stop to all settlements. "Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease," Mrs Clinton said.

The BBC: A cruise ship carrying 2,000 passengers has been ordered to stay at sea off the coast of Australia after three crew tested positive for swine flu. The P&O Pacific Dawn, currently moored off Queensland, will now return to a major port rather than continue with its planned voyage, officials said. The order came as health officials confirmed more than 100 Australians now had the A(H1N1) virus. The ship is not expected to be quarantined. The Pacific Dawn has been blamed for the recent spike in flu infections in Australia after authorities allowed 2,000 passengers to disembark in Sydney despite a suspected outbreak onboard. At least 20 passengers were later diagnosed with the virus. Their presence in the community is thought to have added to the rapid spread of the flu in Australia.

The AFP: South Korean and US troops went on higher alert after North Korea threatened an attack on the South and Washington stressed its determination to defend its ally. Seoul's defence ministry said air and ground forces were keeping a closer watch on the tense land and sea border after the communist North announced it was abandoning the armistice in force since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Tensions have risen sharply since the North Monday tested a nuclear weapon several times more powerful than the one it detonated in 2006. It followed up by test-firing five short-range missiles. "We are maintaining a tight defence posture to prevent the North's military provocations," said ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae. "The military will deal sternly with provocative acts." The United States Wednesday stressed its resolve to defend Japan and South Korea amid what it called North Korean "sabre-rattling and bluster". A Western diplomat at the United Nations said leading powers were committed to a new resolution ordering tougher sanctions against Pyongyang.

The BBC: A tsunami watch is in place for three central American countries after a 7.1 magnitude quake struck off Honduras. Guatemala, Belize and Honduras were on alert but a widespread destructive tsunami was not expected, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. The powerful quake hit 39 miles (64km) north-east of Roatan in Honduras at a relatively shallow depth of 6.2 miles (10km), the US Geological Survey said. Tremors were felt as far north as Cancun in Mexico.

The AP: A bus careered down a mountainside and plowed through a crowd of pedestrians heading to a religious festival in southeastern Bulgaria Thursday, killing at least 16 people and injuring at least 20, authorities said. Police said the driver apparently lost control of the vehicle after its brakes failed. He could not stop as the bus came down a mountain pass, hitting a crowd of people climbing to the peak on their way to attend a traditional Ascension Day feast near the city of Yambol, some 260 kilometers (160 miles) southeast of Sofia. Yambol Mayor Georgi Slavov said 16 people were killed and at least 20 were being treated in a nearby hospital. Four of the injured were listed in very serious condition.

The UN's highest court dismissed a Belgian bid Thursday to force Senegal to keep former Chad dictator Hissene Habre under surveillance until he is tried for torturing and killing political opponents. "The risk of irreparable prejudice to the rights claimed by Belgium is not apparent," judge Hisashi Owada of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in The Hague. The AFP says Belgium had asked the court in April to compel Senegal to keep Habre in its custody, but the court said it was satisfied with Dakar's assurances that it had no intention of letting him go. Habre had been living in Senegal since being toppled from power and fleeing his own country in 1990 after an eight-year reign during which thousands of his political opponents, their family members, and members of certain ethnic groups, were allegedly tortured and killed. An official truth commission report in 1992 accused Habre's regime of having committed some 40,000 political murders. Belgian lawyers had argued in the ICJ that Habre was likely to go into hiding if Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade carried out threats to lift his surveillance unless foreign donors cough up funds for the trial.

The AFP: Egypt's Culture Minister Faruq Hosni, a candidate to become UNESCO's director general, has gone back on a 2008 comment he made that he would burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries. "I want to solemnly say that I regret the words that I used," Hosni said in a commentary published by Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday, ahead of Saturday's closure of the UNESCO candidates' list. "I am a man of peace. I know that peace passes by understanding and respect. In the name of these values I want to go back on the words that I used in May 2008, which were taken as an appeal to burn Hebrew books. These words shocked some and I understand that," he wrote. Following a question by an opposition deputy in parliament, Hosni said on May 10 last year: "I'd burn Israeli books myself if I found any in libraries in Egypt." He said in the commentary that the statement had not been premeditated and was made to show "indignation" over the plight of Palestinian people.

Times Online: Julie Kirkbride and Margaret Moran have given up her fight to stay in parliament and will stand down at the next election. Ms Kirkbride, the Bromsgrove MP, is to stand down after criticism of her expense claims from the public intensified rather than reduced. A statement clarifying her position is expected shortly. Ms Kirkbride was on her way to face her constituents, but she is believed to have spoken to David Cameron this morning. Ms Kirkbride's husband Andrew MacKay had already announced his intention of standing down at the next election. The Conservatives said Ms Kirkbride came to her decision after talking with her family. She then told Mr Cameron. Ms Moran, MP for Luton South, one of four Labour MPs to go before Gordon Brown's expenses "star chamber", is also to stand down at the election.

The AP: U.S. coalition troops attacked a suspected foreign fighter camp in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 29 insurgents in an intense firefight, the military said, while a NATO soldier died after a roadside bomb attack in the south. At least six insurgents equipped with explosives blew themselves up during the clash in eastern Paktika province near the border with Pakistan, the coalition said in a statement. One coalition member was wounded in the assault, in which troops also called in airstrikes for support. Afghan authorities said they recovered 34 bodies, including 22 Arabs and Pakistanis, said Hamidullah Zuhak, a spokesman for Paktika's governor. They found personal documents on the bodies of those killed, he said. Following the battle, forces discovered weapons caches containing rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, suicide vests and other armaments, the military said in a statement. Insurgents use the volatile and porous border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan as a base for operations, from which U.S. military officers say they launch attacks on Western troops.

According to Xinhua former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's memorial march to the cremation site was prolonged on Friday as more crowd than the authorities had expected filled the streets to bid a farewell to the late president. The slow-pace procession, which was supposed to arrive at the Seoul Station first and then at Suwon's cremation site at 15:00 (0600 GMT), was delayed more than an hour, as the streets in the center of the city were crowded with hundreds of thousands of people. ABC say thousands of South Koreans have packed the streets of Seoul to pay their last respects to former president Roh Moo-Hyun. Roh jumped to his death last week while under investigation in a corruption scandal. Mr Roh leapt from a cliff top near his home village six days ago. His supporters say he was driven to suicide by what they claim was a politically motivated corruption investigation by the conservative government. Thousands of South Koreans gathered on the streets of Seoul today to farewell the former president. About 15,000 riot police armed with shields were deployed to combat any protests. During the funeral, a roar of boos erupted from the crowd as footage appeared of current President Lee Myung-bak on giant TV screens paying his respects to his predecessor, many of whose liberal policies he has sought to undo. Mr Roh left office 15 months ago, widely seen as an ineffective leader, with the landslide win of the conservative Mr Lee interpreted as a rejection of a decade of liberal policies. But Mr Lee stumbled almost from the start, and he has struggled to push his sweeping economic reform agenda through parliament even though his ruling party has a majority. His troubles have been compounded by Monday's nuclear test by an increasingly belligerent North Korea, which has all but severed ties with Mr Lee who has reversed Roh's accommodating dealings with the communist neighbour and withheld aid until it rows back on efforts to build an atomic arsenal.

Reuters say President Barack Obama on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on Israel to freeze settlements as he sought to reassure visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of U.S. support for Palestinian statehood. Faced with an Israeli rebuff of Washington's latest appeal to halt settlement building, Obama held talks with Abbas 10 days after hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains at odds with the U.S. administration over peacemaking strategy. Seeking to revive stalled peace efforts, Obama made clear he would continue pushing Netanyahu to impose a total freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and embrace the goal of Palestinian statehood. "We can't continue the drift ... We need to get this thing back on track," Obama told reporters with Abbas, a Western-backed moderate weakened by Hamas Islamists' control of the Gaza Strip, seated at his side in the Oval Office. Obama stressed that Israel's obligations under a 2003 Middle East peace "road map" include "stopping settlements ... and making sure that there is a viable Palestinian state." He said Palestinians had to do more to strengthen their security forces and reduce anti-Israel "incitement" he said was sometimes spread in schools and mosques. Haaretz says Hoping to revive stalled peace efforts, Obama held White House talks with Abbas ten days after hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains at odds with the U.S. over settlements and Palestinian statehood. Obama made clear that he would continue to push Netanyahu, who has expressed his resistance to call for a total freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank. Asked about the Israeli position on the two-state solution, Obama said he is confident that, if Israel looks at its long-term interests, it will realize a two-state solution is in the interest of the Israelis and Palestinians alike. "I'm a strong believer in a two-state solution," he said. "I think that we don't have a moment to lose," Obama said, "but I also don't make decisions based on just the conversation that we had last week because obviously Prime Minister Netanyahu has to work through these issues in his own government, in his own coalition, just as President Abbas has a whole host of issues that he has to deal with."

The BBC says four people have been killed and an unknown number are missing after heavy rainfall caused a dam to burst in Piaui state, in north-east Brazil. State governor Wellington Dias has described the flooding around two towns which reached up to the level of three-storey buildings as a "tsunami". Brazil's TV Globo reported almost 50bn litres of water escaped in less than an hour, devastating the valley below. The search for missing people is due to resume on Friday. AP report raging torrents from a ruptured dam swamped a rural Brazilian city Thursday, forcing residents to scramble onto rooftops and climb high trees to escape the deadly floodwaters. Four people were killed and at least 120 homes destroyed in a region already devastated by more than a month of floods. Officials said floodwaters inundated Cocal, a northeastern farming city of about 25,000 in Piaui state, after a dam section gave way under the weight of a reservoir bloated by rains. The waters swept away homes, trees and electrical energy towers and left behind muddy river beds filled with splinters and large dislodged rocks. Images showed Brazilians sobbing outside their wrecked houses. The destruction was among the most dramatic in more than a month of northern Brazilian flooding that has killed nearly 60 and left hundreds of thousands homeless in a wide swath of northern Brazil stretching from the Amazon to normally arid coastal areas. "It was like a tsunami with total destruction, especially in the areas close to the dam," Gov. Wellington Dias of northeastern Piaui state told reporters after touring the devastation zone. Globo TV said the rupture sent 50 billion liters (13 billion gallons) of water pouring out of the reservoir in just one hour, causing flooding that stretched 100 kilometers (62 miles) downriver from Cocal. Eleven people were missing, 80 suffered minor injuries and nearly 3,000 were forced from their homes. Authorities began evacuating families about two hours after the dam failed, but civil defense authorities said Thursday night that search and rescue missions for the missing were suspended until Friday. Churches and other buildings were turned into shelters for the 2,953 people who were displaced. The dead included girls ages 10 and 12, a 72-year-old man and a 73-year-old woman, the state government said on its Web site.

Burmese democracy advocates, and their international supporters, are awaiting the imminent verdict in the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's Nobel Prize-winning democracy advocate, writes Amy Kazmin. Ms Suu Kyi was charged this month with violating the terms of her house arrest, after a US citizen swam across Lake Inya to her home, apparently to warn her of his dreams that she would soon be assassinated. For Amy Kazmin's Financial Times full article, click here.

The BBC says the cruise liner at the centre of Australia's swine flu outbreak has docked in Brisbane after three crew members tested positive for the virus. The swine flu infections forced the Pacific Dawn to abandon a voyage to the Great Barrier Reef. The authorities in Queensland have put strict precautions into place to try to stop any possible spread of infection by passengers leaving the vessel. Australia now has more than 200 confirmed cases of swine influenza. Those leaving the Pacific Dawn in Brisbane have been met by a team of nurses and medical staff. All 2,000 passengers and several hundred crew members will be screened for swine flu and asked to isolate themselves at home for a week. Five holiday-makers who had earlier showed symptoms of the virus are awaiting the results of tests. Passengers who do not disembark in Brisbane will be kept onboard until the cruise liner departs for Sydney, its final destination, where similar precautions will be put into place.

The AP: A leading human rights group has asked the United Nations to publicize its estimate of civilian deaths in the final weeks of Sri Lanka's civil war amid escalating reports over how many died. Amnesty International said in a statement late Friday that it has received "consistent testimony" that both government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels killed thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone and called for an independent international investigation. The group did not say who had testified to the alleged abuses. The U.N. said earlier that 7,000 civilians were killed and 16,700 wounded from Jan. 20 through May 7. However, these estimates circulated among diplomats were not released publicly. Amnesty cited an investigation published on Friday in a British newspaper, The Times, which said that some 20,000 civilians were killed in the final phase of the war. The report cited unnamed U.N. sources, but the world body did not confirm that number. The rights group said the newspaper's report "underscores the need for this investigation." The government said last week it had ended the 25-year separatist war on the island with the killing of top rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his military and political leadership.

The Pakistan military says it has regained control of the largest town in the Swat valley from the Taliban. Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told the BBC that the centre of Mingora was under military control, although there were still skirmishes on the outskirts. Fighting intensified a week ago as the army strengthened its presence in the town, conducting house-to-house searches for Taliban militants. Journalists are banned from the area so it is hard to verify the army's claims. Hundreds have died and more than a million have fled the Swat valley since the operation against the Taliban was launched after a peace deal broke down earlier this month. The army's latest declaration comes days after a lethal bombing in Lahore, which was later claimed by Taliban as revenge for the Swat operations.Although the military has always had bases in Mingora, the city has in effect been under Taliban control in recent weeks. The army said seven days ago that it had re-taken key intersections, and expected a further seven to 10 days of fighting.

The BBC: US President Barack Obama has asked the Australian government to accept a group of Chinese Muslim detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The Uighurs have been cleared for release by US courts. It is the first time Australia has been approached by the Obama administration over the Uighurs. Two requests by the Bush administration were turned down. China has requested the Uighurs' return, but the US will not send them there for fear they will be persecuted. President Barack Obama has said he intends to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by January 2010 and is considering what to do with its remaining 240 detainees. The 17 Uighurs held at the prison camp are among a group captured in Afghanistan in 2001, and cleared for release in 2004. Albania took in five of the ethnic Chinese group in 2006 but has been unwilling to take more.