The AP: President Barack Obama pressed the Senate anew Saturday to swiftly confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, expressing confidence that efforts to scuttle her nomination will fail despite intensified scrutiny. "I am certain that she is the right choice," the president said in his weekly radio and Internet address in which he scolded critics who he said were trying to distort her record and past statements. Those include her 2001 comment that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge. With the Senate returning next week from recess, Obama said he hopes it begins the confirmation process without delay and he expects his nominee to be on the bench when the Supreme Court begins its new term in October. In the interim, Obama said he expects "rigorous evaluation" of his nominee but added: "What I hope is that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this process, and Congress, in the past." He derided "some in Washington who are attempting to draw old battle lines and playing the usual political games, pulling a few comments out of context to paint a distorted picture of Judge Sotomayor's record."

Dozens of prisoners have broken out of a jail in Peru and fled into a remote jungle region, officials say. The BBC reports at least 44 inmates escaped, taking an AK-47 rifle with them, after ambushing prison guards and threatening them with knives, prison authorities confirmed. Authorities are seeking agreement with indigenous leaders to stop and search vehicles in the area, reports said. The prison at Bagua Grande, in Peru's Amazonas region, is located some 900km (560 miles) north of the capital, Lima. According to prison officials the inmates ambushed two prison guards at dawn on Saturday. They used knives to keep the guards at bay and left through the main door carrying the automatic weapon, reports said. The majority of those who fled were convicted or facing trial for violent robbery, the EFE news agency said. Peru's national penal authority said a senior official was travelling to Bagua Grande to co-ordinate operations as police began a manhunt to recapture the escapees.

Reuters: Security personnel defused a homemade bomb found on an aircraft during a domestic flight in Iran late on Saturday, Iranian media said, two days after a mosque bombing killed 25 people in the country's southeast. The device was defused after the Tehran-bound Kish Air aircraft with 131 passengers on board made an emergency landing in the southwestern city of Ahvaz, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The incident occurred less than two weeks before the Islamic Republic holds a presidential election in which the conservative incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faces a challenge from reformers. "Minutes after the ... Kish Air flight took off with 131 passengers from Ahvaz to Tehran, security personnel found a homemade bomb" on board, Fars reported. Fars gave no further details about the incident, which was also reported by state radio. The official IRNA news agency, in a report which did not mention the explosive device, said there had been a plot against the flight but that those behind it had been arrested. "The plot ... was unsuccessful due to the security forces' awareness and those behind it were arrested," IRNA said. Ahvaz is the capital of Khuzestan province, where many of Iran's oil fields are located. The province borders Iraq and is home to the mainly Shi'ite Muslim country's Arab minority.

Pakistan has said it expects its military offensive against Taliban fighters in the country's northwestern Swat valley to be complete in a matter of weeks. Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan's military spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the operation could be over in  just two weeks, in apparent contradiction to earlier comments by a government official. "The main valley is likely to be completed, let's say, in two weeks' time," Abbas said by phone from Rawalpindi. Abbas was responding to comments earlier by Syed Athar Ali, Pakistan's secretary of defence, who suggested the Taliban would be pushed out of Swat in just a few days. "Only five to 10 per cent of the job is remaining and hopefully within two to three days, the pockets of resistance will be cleared," he was quoted as saying. Ali, who made his comments at a defence conference in Singapore, is Pakistan's third highest ranking defence official.

The BBC says US forces in Iraq suffered their highest casualties last month than any month since September 2008. May saw 24 US soldiers killed, bringing the total number of US casualties since the 2003 invasion to just over 4,300. US forces are due to be off the streets of cities and main towns by the end of June, while combat operations across Iraq are due to end by September 2010. Civilian deaths from violence in Iraq fell sharply in May, according to Iraqi government figures. The defence, interior and health ministries gave a civilian toll of 124, down from 355 in April, AFP reported. US President Barack Obama has pledged to remove all US troops from Iraq, other than those involved in training, by the end of 2011. Although overall violence is sharply down on the levels of several years ago, the surge in US military deaths in May has left many here feeling uneasy about what will happen as the Americans begin their pullout, the BBC's Nicholas Witchell in Baghdad says. But Iraq's leaders are confident and say Iraqi forces are now quite capable of handling internal security without US support, he says. In September 2008, 25 US troops were killed - the highest recent toll for US forces. The figures take into account both combat and non-combat deaths.

The BBC says car giant General Motors is expected to file for bankruptcy protection later on Monday, marking the biggest failure of an industrial company in US history. The stricken firm had until 1 June to present a viable revival plan in return for emergency government funding. Reports say a majority of bondholders have now agreed to a deal giving them at least a 10% stake in what is likely to emerge as a much smaller company. President Barack Obama is due to give full details at a news conference. Reuters say Asian automakers have largely protected themselves from any disruption to the imminent bankruptcy filing by General Motors Corp and should gain further market share down the road, analysts and automakers said Monday. U.S. government officials confirmed the 100-year-old automaker would file what would be the third-largest bankruptcy in the country's history Monday, with the aim of restructuring to better compete with lower-cost Asian automakers. "The immediate implication is that the companies are going to get smaller and so market share is up for grabs, which means that rivals like Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai are going to gain share," said Christopher Richter, auto analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Tokyo. With more details of a restructuring plan still left to be ironed out, Asian automakers repeated their concerns over the impact on the economy, jobs and car sales but otherwise said it would be largely business as usual. Shares in Asian automakers rose on news of the planned filing. Toyota Motor Corp's shares ended up 0.3 percent at 3,820 yen, Honda Motor Co gained 0.4 percent and Nissan Motor Co put on 2.3 percent by the close.

Click here for Wikipedia's history of General Motors.

The BBC says Cuba has agreed to resume talks with Washington on immigration by Cubans to the US, the state department says. A top US official said Cuba had sent a diplomatic note accepting a recent US invitation to restart the talks. The official said Cuba was also ready to cooperate with the US on direct mail services, as well as fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, reports said. The talks were halted in 2003 after Havana refused to give exit permits to people who had been granted US visas. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the Cuban response during a visit to El Salvador where she will attend the inauguration of Mauricio Funes as president on Monday. "At the same time we will continue to press the Cuban government to protect basic rights, release political prisoners and move toward democratic reform," Mrs Clinton said. She is due to move on to Honduras for a meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS) on Tuesday, where Cuba's possible readmission is expected to be discussed. By then, the US will be the only country in the Americas without full diplomatic relations with the Communist island. El Salvador, the only other OAS state without such ties, plans to restore them when President-elect Funes takes office.

BBC(follow link): An Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France has gone missing over the Atlantic. Paris Charles de Gaulle airport said contact was lost with the flight from Rio de Janeiro at 0600 GMT. Brazil's air force confirmed the plane was missing and said a search and rescue mission was under way near the island of Fernando de Noronha. An airport official told AFP the Airbus 330-200 had been expected to arrive in Paris at 1110 local time (0910 GMT). Another official said it was possible that the plane had a transponder problem but this was very rare. "We are very worried," he said, quoted by AFP news agency. "The plane disappeared from the screens several hours ago." Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday. It had 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, including three pilots. Airport authorities have set up a crisis centre at Charles de Gaulle. An Air France official told AFP that people awaiting the flight would be received in a special area at the airport's second terminal. Reuters say the Air France plane could have been struck by lightning, a spokesman for the carrier said. "The plane might have been struck by lightning. It's a possibility," said Francois Brousse, head of communications at Air France.

BBC (follow link): Rescuers are searching waters deep in the Atlantic Ocean for a French airliner which disappeared in a storm early on Monday. The search, involving ships and planes from many nations, was part-suspended overnight, but aircraft with monitoring equipment continued to scour the sea. Brazilian authorities are investigating reports that another passenger plane's crew saw "bright spots" in the ocean. The Air France Airbus was heading from Brazil to Paris when it disappeared. France believes there is little hope of finding survivors from among the 228 passengers and crew aboard the flight. Vessels from France, Spain, Senegal and Brazil are involved in the search, while the United States is said to be offering help with satellite reconnaissance. US President Barack Obama said Washington would provide "any help necessary" to find out what had happened to the plane. Plane crews have narrowed their search to a zone half-way between Brazil and west Africa, said Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, chief executive of Air France, late on Monday. Their work may be aided by the Airbus's Argos beacons, which will emit signals for several days, he added. Up to a dozen reports of electrical failures were sent from the plane before it vanished over the ocean. French officials believe it may have been disabled by a storm. French and US sources have ruled out terrorism as the cause of the plane's loss. Most of the missing people are Brazilian or French but they include a total of 32 nationalities. Five Britons and three Irish citizens are among them.

Nelson Mandela's "favourite" grandson denied accusations that he has sold the television rights to his grandfather's funeral for £230,000. Mr Mandela, who is revered for leading the fight against apartheid in South Africa, is by far the country’s most respected politician and his funeral will be inevitably be a major political event. Now aged 90, the former president is in failing health. Mandla Mandela, whom the Nobel laureate saw installed as traditional chief of his birth village, Mvezo in the Eastern Cape, two years ago, allegedly was alleged to have sold the rights to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for 3 million rand (£228,620). For Sebastien Berger's Daily Telegraph full article, click here.

The BBC: The UN secretary general has dismissed allegations that the UN covered up a high civilian death toll during the last phase of the Sri Lanka conflict. Ban Ki-Moon said he "categorically rejected" reports that the UN had "deliberately underestimated" the toll. French and British newspapers, citing confidential UN reports, last week said more than 20,000 civilians were killed. The Sri Lankan government has strongly denied the claims surrounding its recent onslaught against Tamil rebels. The figure was also disputed by UN human rights chief John Holmes who said an investigation would be a good idea. "I categorically reject - repeat, categorically - any suggestion that the United Nations has deliberately underestimated any figures," Mr Ban said in a speech to the General Assembly. "In regard to some reports in the media, I should emphasise that the final total is not yet known," the UN secretary general said. "Most of these figures do not emanate from the UN and most are not consistent with the information at our disposal," he said.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has designated his youngest son to be the country's next leader, according to reports in South Korean media. Two newspapers and an opposition lawmaker said South Korea's spy agency had briefed legislators on the move. North Korean officials were reportedly told to support Kim Jong-un after the North's 25 May nuclear test. There has been much speculation over who would follow Mr Kim, who is thought to have suffered a stroke last year. Analysts have said the North's recent military actions, including last week's nuclear test, may have been aimed at helping Mr Kim solidify power so that he could name a successor. For BBC full article, click here.

The Telegraph: A British woman whowas reported to Dubai police by her husband for having an affair has been jailed for two months along with her lover who was visiting from Liverpool. Sally Antia, 44, was arrested coming out of the 5-star Radisson Creek Hotel in Dubai on May 2. She is said to have been estranged for some time from her husband, Vincent, who nevertheless made the complaint to police in the emirate, where adultery is a crime.She appeared before judges at a brief hearing yesterday along with her boyfriend, Mark Hawkins, and both admitted meeting up in the hotel. The case was adjourned but later in the morning sentence was passed down in their absence by the judge. Both were ordered to be deported immediately after being freed. Mrs Antia was not represented by a lawyer and did not comment as handcuffs were placed on her wrist outside the hearing. Mr Hawkins' lawyer, Ayman Merdas, said that with time served and a normal reduction in sentence at the discretion of the central jail both might be released in a week. "It is a good result for them," he said.

Dubai has built its modern economy on accommodating western business and culture to its Arab roots, and a "blind eye" is normally turned to the marital status of foreign visitors and residents.

Times Online says two British citizens have died in agony after drinking rice wine laced with methanol in a mass poisoning on the Indonesian island of Bali. The Britons are among 21 people who have died over the past week from alcohol poisoning. Alan Colen, 59, suffered a painful, drawn-out death on Saturday after buying an adulterated bottle of local wine, known as arak. Mr Colen, who had lived on the holiday island for 13 years, bought the wine from a roadside stall hear his home in Canggu, North Kuta. Rose Johnson, 48, a successful painter who was based in Phoenix, Arizona, died early on Monday in the eastern Sanur tourist area of Bali after drinking from the same batch of poisoned arak. She was on holiday on the island. 

The Times of India: Congress candidate Meira Kumar was elected Speaker of the 15th Lok Sabha unanimously on Wednesday. As soon as the Lok Sabha session began, Sonia, according to the agenda, proposed Kumar as the Speaker of the new House. Her name was seconded by Leader of Opposition L K Advani and other political leaders. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Advani then accompanied her to the Speaker's chair completing the formality. With every side deciding to endorse her candidature, her election to the top post was a unanimous affair. Altogether 13 sets of nominations were submitted on Tuesday by Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee to Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary. Among those who backed her bid for the constitutional post were UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition L K Advani, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The AP: A debate tinged with Cold War-era rhetoric over Cuba's possible return to the Organization of American States looks set to end with no result Wednesday after the 34-nation group failed to agree on moves that could allow communist island back in. After a day of rancorous statements from the Western Hemisphere's growing roster of elected socialist and populist leaders, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the organization's annual general assembly was unable to reach consensus on Cuba. "At this moment there is no consensus and there is no agreement to take any action," she told reporters on Tuesday before leaving the meeting in Honduras to join U.S. President Barack Obama in Egypt. U.S. officials said the failure was a disappointment for the Obama administration, which had hoped that its recent overtures to the Cuban government would overcome widespread resentment of Washington's long history of isolating Havana. Clinton had hoped that a compromise could be reached by the end of the assembly on Wednesday, but U.S. officials and foreign diplomats said later those chances were slim. "We need a miracle to see something," said Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim.

French air accident investigators have said they are "not optimistic" about retrieving the black boxes of the Air France jet that went missing over the Atlantic. Flight AF 447 was heading from Rio to Paris with 228 people on board on Monday when it was lost over the ocean. Brazilian and French officials confirmed said there was no doubt that debris spotted 400 miles off Brazil's coast was from the missing plane. At least three navy vessels are converging on the area. But it will be very difficult to recover the cockpit voice and flight data recorders given the depth of the ocean – more than 10,000 ft – and its mountainous floor, according to Paul-Louis Arslanian, chief of the French civil aviation ministry's bureau of investigation. For Henry Samuel's Daily Telegraph full article, click here.

The BBC (follow link): Police in China's capital, Beijing, have ringed Tiananmen Square on the 20th anniversary of the violent suppression of student-led protests.

The clampdown comes as international pressure mounts for China to issue a full account of what happened in 1989. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for China to publish the names of those killed or missing. Hundreds, possibly thousands, died in the massacre, and open debate on the topic is forbidden in mainland China. "A China that has made enormous progress economically and is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership should examine openly the darker events of its past," Mrs Clinton said in a statement released on Wednesday. She said the Beijing government need to "provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal". China expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" with Mrs Hillary's comments. "The US action makes groundless accusations against the Chinese government," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. There is very tight security in Beijing, with police stopping foreign journalists reaching the square. Uniformed and plain-clothed officials even stopped TV crews filming the daily flag-raising ceremony at dawn.Many dissidents say they have been told to leave Beijing or are confined to their homes, and plain-clothes police are at the gates of the city's universities to prevent any commemorative events. Even in Hong Kong, where freedom of expression is guaranteed, some dissidents have been denied entry. Mrs Clinton said in her statement that the anniversary was a chance for China to "reflect upon the meaning of the events that preceded that day". "China can honour the memory of that day by moving to give the rule of law, protection of internationally-recognised human rights, and democratic development the same priority as it has given to economic reform," she added. Mrs Clinton's views were echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said that while China had made "big improvements in economic and social rights" since the Tiananmen crackdown, progress on political and civil rights had been "far slower". The statement from Mrs Clinton represents a tougher line than the the Obama administration has taken so far when addressing China's human rights record...

The Telegraph: The trial of two American journalists accused of entering North Korea illegally and engaging in "hostile acts" has started in the country's highest court.Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media venture, were arrested on March 17 near the North Korean border while on a reporting trip to China. If convicted, they face 10 years in a labour camp. The trial at Pyongyang's Central Court began at 3pm (6am GMT), the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch. No further details were available. The proceedings come at a time of mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the communist regime launching a long-range rocket in April and conducting an underground nuclear test last week in defiance of international demands for restraint.Even as ambassadors to the UN Security Council discussed how to punish the nation for the bold atomic test, there were indications that the North was preparing to test-fire a long-range missile from a west coast site, one capable of striking the US, officials said. There were fears the women, jailed separately in the North Korean capital, may become pawns in political negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington. Their families pleaded for clemency and urged the governments not to let politics decide their fate. The Korean War foes do not have diplomatic relations, and analysts called North Korea's recent belligerence a bid to grab President Barack Obama's attention and to speed up any direct negotiations. "One explanation of North Korea's behaviour is that Pyongyang is trying to catch Washington's attention. It believes the Obama administration has not made North Korea a priority," said David Straub of Stanford University's Korean studies program. State-run media have not defined the exact charges against them, but South Korean legal experts said conviction for "hostility" or espionage could mean five to 10 years in one of North Korea's notoriously harsh labour camps and that a ruling by the top court would be final...

The Financial Times:North Korea began the trial of two US reporters on Thursday, raising the stakes in an increasingly tense diplomatic and military stand-off with the international community. Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s dictator, simultaneously taunted South Korean and US forces by sending a high-speed patrol boat across a disputed border in the Yellow Sea, where battles were fought in 1999 and 2002 with dozens of casualties. The official charges against the journalists were not immediately clear but the KCNA state news agency has previously said Laura Ling and Euna Lee were accused of entering the communist state illegally in March and committing undefined “hostile acts”. Relatives say the women would only have crossed the frozen river Tumen on the Chinese border by accident. They were filming for Current TV, an internet channel founded by Al Gore, a former US vice-president. Washington has demanded their release. The women have given Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s dictator, two excellent bargaining chips in his strained relations with Washington. In April he blasted a long-range rocket over Japan and tested an atomic bomb last week, incurring condemnation from the UN Security Council...

As Obama takes to podium GRN correspondent Mark Klusener is available to discuss what is billed as a historic speech.

Sikh devotees gathered under tight security near the holy city of Amritsar for the funeral of a guru whose murder in Vienna triggered riots in India's Punjab state. Sant Rama Nand, 57, was shot dead in a temple in the Austrian capital on May 24, allegedly by members of a rival Sikh sect. His body, which had been brought back to India on a special flight, was to be cremated later Thursday in the town of Jalandhar, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) from Amritsar. "The army has been put on alert as thousands of Sant Rama Nand's followers are expected to pay their homage. We will not allow any disturbance," senior police official R.K. Jaiswal told AFP. Nand, 56, died and 16 other people were injured in the Vienna temple attack, which was reportedly over a dispute about the role of caste in the Sikh religion. A second guru, or teacher, Sant Niranjan Dass, 66, was among those wounded as Sikhs fought each other with guns and knives inside the temple.

Iraqi officials say a bomb exploded in south-west Baghdad on Wednesday evening, killing nine people and injuring many others. The device was planted inside a cafe and was detonated as customers watched a football match on television. The blast was in a mainly Shia Muslim area and is the latest of several to take place in cafes in the evening. The US plans to withdraw troops from from Iraqi cities and major towns on 30 June as overall violence has fallen. The BBC says bombings remain a regular occurrence in Iraq, but May saw the fewest Iraqi deaths from violence in one month since the US-led invasion in 2003, with 124 civilians, six soldiers and 25 policemen killed by attacks, according to official figures.

The Scotsman: A has become the first health worker to catch swine flu from a patient, it has emerged. The 26-year-old had been caring for a woman who is now critically ill. Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon revealed the news as fresh advice on how to deal with the virus was given to hospital staff. Meanwhile, a woman aged 23 was also confirmed as the latest patient to be admitted to intensive care with the virus – bringing the total number seriously ill in Scotland to four. It came as the number of confirmed cases of the virus increased by 23 to 88. It also emerged last night that four members of the Argyll shinty team hit by the virus have been quarantined and the rest vaccinated after one player was confirmed as a definite case. Across the UK, the total stood at 404, meaning Scotland has proportionally been the nation most affected, with almost a quarter of all cases.

Nursing Times: A hospital nurse in Scotland who treated a swine flu patient has been diagnosed with the virus. The 26-year-old nurse is the first healthcare professional to catch swine flu in the UK. The new case brings the number of confirmed Scottish cases to 88. The current total number of confirmed UK cases is 404, according to the Health Protection Agency. The nurse, who works at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, had treated a 38-year-old woman who is now in intensive care with the virus in Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital. The news comes as a fourth person, a 23-year-old woman from Paisley, was admitted to intensive care with the virus in Scotland. Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said in light of the new case procedures for hospital staff are being reinforced. Ms Sturgeon said: ‘As a result of developments over the past few days or so, we are now asking hospital staff to treat all patients with pneumonia or any other conditions that might be suggestive of this virus, to presume that they are positive until we know otherwise.’ Staff are being told to wear face masks when around all patients in this category until they test negative and ‘where appropriate’

The AP: A fire aboard a public bus killed 25 people and left dozens hospitalized Friday morning in southwestern China, state media reported. The cause of the blaze in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, remained under investigation, according to a report on a Web site run by the provincial government's propaganda department. Photos posted on blogs and Internet forums showed the bus consumed by flames. One badly burned woman was shown lying on the road with a man standing over her, his clothes burned off. The government report said 76 people were being treated at a pair of hospitals. More than two dozen of those injured were considered serious, it said. Other reports said the fire broke out on a city bus at about 8:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) as it passed near the city zoo. State broadcaster CCTV cited witnesses as saying the sealed, air-conditioned bus caught fire without an explosion, and then burned rapidly. Like many vehicles in Chengdu, the bus ran on natural gas rather than gasoline.

The Daily Telegraph: None of the debris found so far in the Atlantic Ocean was from the Air France Airbus that disappeared on Sunday night, Brazilian military officials have said.  "We have not recovered any parts of the aeroplane so far," Ramon Borges Cardoso, the director of the Air Space Control Department, was quoted as saying on the Terra website. An Air Force official confirmed Mr Cardoso's statement and said a detailed communique would be released later. Mr Cardoso also said the fuel slicks were not caused by jet fuel but by oil believed to have come from a passing ship. Earlier on Thursday, Mr Cardoso had told reporters that navy ships 600 miles off Brazil's shore had pulled aboard debris from the Air France plane, including a pallet from its cargo hold and two buoys. But after inspection it was determined the pallet could not have come from the plane.