Clinton warns Tel Aviv about Arab Spring

US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton told Israel yesterday to treat the Arab Spring as an opportunity as well as a source of uncertainty convulsing the Middle East.

It was Clinton's first visit to Israel since US-brokered peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis broke down in 2010 over the Jewish state's refusal to stop building settlements on land where Palestinians hope to found a state. - Reuters

Mali

Red Cross delivers food in the strife-torn north

THE Red Cross is to deliver emergency food supplies to 160000 people in northern Mali affected by drought and fighting between Islamists, rebels and government troops.

The organisation said yesterday people were no longer able to meet their basic food needs following a poor 2011 crop season and the political conflict.

After a coup ousted Mali's government in March, Tuareg rebels took control of the north but were driven out by Islamist rebels who wanted to impose sharia law.

The US released $10-million to assist the refugees.- Sapa-AP

EGYPT

Prosecutor orders Mubarak back to prison

EGYPT'S prosecutor-general yesterday ordered convicted former strongman Hosni Mubarak back to prison, nearly a month after he was moved to a military hospital following a stroke.

Abdel Meguid Mahmud "has issued an order to transfer former president Hosni Mubarak from Maadi Armed Forces Hospital in Cairo to the Tora prison hospital after an improvement in his health", the prosecutor-general's office said yesterday. -- Sapa-AFP

JAPAN

Waterfall-like rain eases, but 27 dead

MOST of the 250000 people forced to flee massive flooding in southwest Japan returned to their homes yesterday, but weather officials warned the danger was not yet over.

The rainfall left at least 27 people dead over the weekend.

Thousands of homes and hundreds of roads were damaged. Hundreds of landslides were reported as the military airlifted to affected districts.

The rain "was like a waterfall", Yoko Yoshika said in Yamaguchi state.

"It was horrible." - Sapa-AP

SUDAN

Lawyers protest against crackdown

ABOUT 300 Sudanese lawyers protested yesterday, calling for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's security forces to stop using force against peaceful protests.

The lawyers, most of them associated with opposition parties, gathered in front of Sudan's top court in central Khartoum shouting "Freedom", and saying: "Demonstrating is a constitutional right".

Activists say 2000 people have been detained since protests began four weeks ago. - Reuters

Ghana

US peace volunteers arrested over killing

POLICE in Ghana have arrested two Americans working as volunteers for the Peace Corps aid programme in connection with the killing of a local man who tried to rob them.

A police officer said the incident took place at the weekend.

The two volunteers were attacked by two robbers. One of the volunteers fought back with a knife, killing one of the assailants.

The US embassy in the Ghanian capital, Accra, confirmed police were investigating. - Reuters

ITALY

Berlusconi to rename his party 'Forza Italia'

SILVIO Berlusconi will rename his centre-right People of Freedom party with its original title, Forza Italia (Go Italy).

The former Italian premier also told Germany's Bild daily in an interview yesterday that he was planning a return to frontline politics but did not confirm he would stand as candidate for premier next year.

"I am often and insistently asked to do this," he told the newspaper. "I can only say this much, I will never let my People of Freedom party down," he said.

"Incidentally, we are soon going back to the old party name, Forza Italia," he said. - Reuters

LIBYA

Olympic chief kidnapped in Tripoli

THE president of Libya's Olympic Committee Nabil al-Alam was kidnapped by gunmen in central Tripoli and taken to a secret location, an official said yesterday.

"Nine gunmen posing as members of the Libyan army removed [him] from his car in the centre of the city and took him to an unknown location," his office chief, Arafat Juwan, said.

Representatives of the army and interior ministry were not aware of any arrests, he added. - Sapa-AFP

KENYA

Court sets trial date for Iranian suspects

A KENYAN court yesterday set a trial date of July 23 for two Iranians arrested after police seized chemicals they believed the pair wanted to use to make explosives in Mombasa, which has suffered a series of attacks by suspected Islamist militants.

The capital Nairobi and other parts of the country have also been hit by grenade attacks since Kenya sent troops into Somalia last year to crush al-Shabab insurgents it blamed for a surge in violence and kidnappings threatening tourism in east Africa's largest economy. - Reuters

US

Weather cuts short trip of balloonists

TWO men sitting in garden chairs tied to 350 helium-filled balloons failed in their bid to set a world record for the longest two-man cluster balloon flight when bad weather forced them down well short of their destination.

A crowd estimated at more than 1000 people watched as American Kent Couch and Iraqi Fareed Lafta lifted off on Saturday from the parking lot of Couch's Stop & Go Mini Mart in the Oregon town of Bend. - Reuters